gaged in battling with evils so prodigious, has nevertheless gone on developing in population, and wealth, and commerce and manufactures, in religion and philanthropy, at a rate, taking all these things together, hardly surpassed by any other nation. Striking indeed would be the history, had I time to review it, of the social changes wrought in England, of its material development, of the improved condition of its artisans, of the magnificence of its charities. Still I have shown you how much there remains for the reformer to do; what dangers evil laws, bad statesmanship, centuries of wrong, class privilege, wicked wars, and vices permitted to grow into the body politic, have left us. I pray you be careful, as men who hold in your hands the destinies of the future, that you leave not to your posterity the dreadful legacy of such problems as these. There are ever sprouting in the body politic the beginnings of parasitical growths that may, like tropical vines, embrace and kill the tree on which they climb. Reform in England is slow and steady. XXXIX. REFORM IN ENGLAND IS SLOW AND STEADY. Fortunately for England, her people are slow and steady in their methods of reform. In other nations the evils long endured among us would have been swept away by torrents of blood. With us they have disappeared in more dignified and benignant courses. The deeply imprinted love of order, of constitution, of law, is the real safety of England amidst dangers that blanch the cheek of a thinking man. Reforms with us win their successes not only over the wills but over the wits of the people. And the truest, healthiest reforms must ever work thus. I love ever to hear the voice of reform coming not in the mighty rushing wind but in the still small voice that penetrates to and moves the minds and the hearts of the people. It comes best not as the hurricane, or the deluge, or the earthquake, but as the majestic swelling of the mighty tide, rising with slow but omnipotent force, kissing its way from pebble to pebble, moving so gently that the frailest shallop floats unharmed upon its smiling bosom; and by and by it reaches some ancient rock of privilege, some hardened relic of vested wrong, and circling around it with heightening waters at length overtops and hides it from view; and now and then it reaches some bark of reform, stranded or never launched, and with gradual but resistless power raises it inch by inch and foot by foot, until at length, as it floats free upon the smiling surface, the mariners within can hoist their sails and bear away, freighted with blessings for all mankind. A CLASSIFIED CATALOGUE OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND OTHER MEMORIALS MRS. GILBERT, FORMERLY ANN TAYLOR. By Josiah Gilbert. In 2 vols. Post 8vo. With Steel Portraits and several Wood |