Free Thoughts on Many Subjects. By a Manchester Man. 2
vols. (Long- mans.)—These essays, reprinted from Fraser, have the advantage over the deluge of works of the same kind with which the present age is over- Isavhelmed, that they deal for the most part with a special subject, and are the result of special knowledge. The 'writeris well acquainted with the manufacturing districts, gives capital descriptions of the folks there, and treats the problems connected with them as fairly as can be expeoWd from a gentleman of classical education and Conservative tendencies, who has been condemned to pass his life within the limits of that rough but shrewd and kindly democracy. He is humorous and sensible, and sympathizes with a population which has the same charac- teristics, reserving his good-natured satire for demagogues and penny- a-liners. His volumes are full of amusing anecdote, as well as serious information, and will be read with pleasure and advantage even by those who are not inclined to adopt all his remedies, -or to agree with him that "the outcry about political privileges for the people in many instances is but little else than throwing dust in their eyes, that they may not see the indifference which is so frequently shown to their moral and social well-being."
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