Mr Ritchie has written in a graphic, nervous, and most just
spirit."--_Court Circular_.

"Written in a fluent and easy style."--_Weekly Times_.

"The personal sketches will engage attention; for the author has
evidently been a close and attentive observer."--_News of the World_.

"Mr Ritchie's pen-and-ink sketches of the popular preachers of London are
as life-like as they are brilliant and delightful. The thought of
producing them was a happy one, and has been carried out in the volume
before us with much agreeable animation. The collection of silhouettes
herein presented to our contemplation will be especially acceptable, we
conjecture, to our country cousins, as a guide among the more generally
known of the metropolitan ecclesiastics. It will be perceived at a
glance that the writer has familiarized himself with the subject, before
undertaking its treatment. Chapter after chapter brings the popular
preachers of the Capital before our mind's eye in a sort of stately
clerical procession."--_The Sun_.

"Without going so far as the late Sir Robert Peel, and saying that there
are three ways of viewing this as well as every other subject, it will be
allowed that the clerical body may be contemplated either from within one
of their special folds, and under the influence of peculiar religious
views, or in a purely lay historical manner, and, so we suppose we ought
to say, from the 'platform of humanity' at large. The latter is the idea
developed in Mr Ritchie's volume, and cleverly and amusingly it is done.
One great merit is, that his characters are not unnecessarily spun out.
We have a few rapid dashes of the pencil, and then the mind is relieved
by a change of scene and person . . . He displays considerable
discrimination of judgment, and a good deal of humour."--_The Inquirer_.

"There is considerable verisimilitude in these sketches, though they are
much too brief to be regarded as more than mere outlines. It is
possible, however, to throw character even into an outline, and this is
done with good effect in several of these smart and off-hand
compositions."--_Tait_.

"It is lively, freshly written, at times powerful, and its facts
carefully put together. It bears the stamp of an earnest spirit, eager
in its search after truth, and strongly set against affectation and
pretence of every sort."--_Globe_.

"Some of the sketches are very good."--_Literary Gazette_.

"They are penned in a just spirit, and are o