The Laws Relating to Religious Liberty and Public Worship. By
John Larkin, Esq. (Hodder and Stoughton.)—It is a pity that the author of this book should have obscured good intentions and real knowledge by the exaggerated rhetoric which he has thought fit to employ. Much of it reads like a debating-society speech, delivered by a very young aspirant to fame. Is it conceivable that a sensible man should have deliberately penned, and, what is more, published,. such a sentence as this P—" The arrow shot from the bow, failing in its mark, by a sort of reaction recoils upon the archer, and wounds the band that impelled its flight." Mr. Larkin must know that arrows do nothing of the kind. A boomerang might do it, if it were gifted with a fine moral sense. Yet Mr. Larkin has studied hid subject carefully, and is familiar with its history. The book is a curiosity. Wo speculate in vain as to the character of the audience— for the first chapter, on "Tho Rise and Progress of Religious Liberty in England " must surely have been spoken—to whom this " bunkum" was acceptable, and also as to the causes whial: made it possible fora lawyer not unacquainted with his profession to utter it.
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