ong have been rendered imperative by the growing
necessities and altered circumstances of the country. The leading
feature of our age is the institution of joint-stock societies. We
have taken up very lately the views which AEsop hinted at some
thousands of years ago, in his quaint parabolic manner, and which
Defoe, who lived a century and a half before his time, most clearly
enunciated and described. We have found the way, at last, to make
small capitals effect the most gigantic results, by encircling them
with the magic ties of combination. No matter when it was discovered;
the principle has never yet been thoroughly acted upon until now, and
we know not how far it may be carried. Our fathers, for want of this
principle, ruined themselves by isolated attempts--we are in no such
danger, if we do not yield ourselves to the madness of extravagant
daring. Put railways aside altogether, and the number of private bills
which are now brought before Parliament is perfectly astounding.
Twenty years ago, such an influx would have daunted the heart of the
stoutest legislator; and yet, with all this remarkable increase, we
have clung pertinaciously to the same machinery, and expect it to work
as well as when it had not one tithe of the labour to perform.

We have always been, and we shall always continue to be, the strenuous
advocates of LOCAL BOARDS, as by far the soundest, cheapest, and most
natural method of administering local affairs. We can recognise no
principle in the system by which a Scottish bill is entrusted to the
judgment of a committee consisting of strangers, who are utterly
ignorant of locality, vested interest, popular feeling, and every
other point which ought to influence the consideration of such a
matter. One would think, by the care which is invariably taken to
exclude from the committee every man whose local knowledge can qualify
him to form an opinion, that in ignorance alone is there safety from
venality and prejudice--a supposition which, to say the least, conveys
no compliment to the character or understanding of the British
statesman. And yet this is the system which has hitherto been most
rigidly adopted. We have judges in our law courts whose impartiality
is beyond all suspicion. They are placed on a high, conspicuous
pinnacle in the sight of the nation, to do justice between man and
man; they are fenced and fortified by the high dignity, almost
sanctity, of their calling, against clamour, idle rumo