y.

At the same time, we would by no means scoff at the counsel of our
Ahitophels. A glance at the newspapers of last month, and their
interminable advertising columns, is quite enough to convince us that
the thing may be overdone. True, not one out of five--nay, perhaps,
not one out of fifteen--of these swarming schemes, has the chance of
obtaining the sanction of Parliament for years to come; still, it is
not only a pity, but a great waste and national grievance, that so
large a sum as the deposits which are paid on these railways should be
withdrawn--it matters not how long--from practical use, and locked up
to await the explosion of each particular bubble. We do think,
therefore, that it is high time for the legislature to interfere, not
for any purpose of opposing the progress of railways, but either by
establishing a peremptory board of supervision, or portioning out the
different localities with respect to time, on some new and compendious
method.

Last session the committees, though they performed their duties with
much zeal and assiduity, were hardly able to overtake the amount of
business before them. It was not without much flattery and coaxing
that the adroit Premier, of all men best formed for a general leader
of the House of Commons, could persuade the unfortunate members that
an unfaltering attendance of some six hours a-day in a sweltering and
ill-ventilated room, where their ears were regaled with a constant
repetition of the jargon connected with curves, gradients, and
traffic-tables, was their great and primary duty to the commonwealth.
Most marvellous to say, he succeeded in overcoming their stubborn
will. Every morning, by times, the knight of the shire, albeit
exhausted from the endurance of the over-night's debate, rose up from
his neglected breakfast, and posted down to his daily cell in the
Cloisters. Prometheus under the beak of the vulture could not have
shown more patience than most of those unhappy gentlemen under the
infliction of the lawyer's tongue; and their stoicism was the more
praiseworthy, because in many instances there seemed no prospect,
however remote, of the advent of a Hercules to deliver them. The only
men who behaved unhandsomely on the occasion were some of the Irish
members, advocates of Repeal, who, with more than national brass,
grounded their declinature on the galling yoke of the Saxon, and
retreated to Connemara, doubtless exulting that in this instance at
least the