most marvellous and amusing account
for the benefit of generations present and to come? Notwithstanding,
however, his missionary avocations and Munchausenish tendencies, we have
a sneaking kindness for friend Borrow, having collected from his
writings that he is a fellow of considerable pluck and energy, of
adventurous spirit, with a sharp eye for a good horse, and who would, no
doubt, have made an excellent dragoon, had it pleased God to call him to
that way of life. But we must say, that his manner of spreading the
Scriptures in Spain, puts us considerably in mind of those peripatetic
advertisers, whose handbills, thrust _nolens volens_ into the fist of
the passer-by, are for the most part cast unread into the gutter. It
would be curious to calculate the proportion borne by those Testaments
that Mr Borrow succeeded in getting really circulated and read in Spain,
to the very large number which he acknowledges to have been confiscated,
burnt, stolen on the road, or otherwise lost. The expense of the mission
must have been very considerable, and the same funds might have been
employed in this country with tenfold advantage both to humanity and the
Christian religion.

There is a certain class of writers, some of whom ought to know better,
who have lately taken up the cudgels upon the pseudo-philanthropic side
of the question, and have expended a vast deal of uncalled-for
indignation and maudlin sympathy upon the rich and poor of this
country--the former of whom they would make out to be the most selfish
and hard-hearted of created beings, and the latter the most amiable and
ill-treated. According to these writers, it would appear as if no man,
with less than seven children to provide for, and more than ten
shillings a-week to do it with, could be possessed of any one of the
Christian virtues. Charity and kindness of heart exist, they would have
us to believe, in an inverse ratio to income, and the _warmest_ men, in
city parlance, are invariably those of the coldest feelings. The sickly
cant of this style of writing in a country where charity, both public
and private, is so extensive and practical; and its probable ill effects
in rendering the poorer classes discontented, are too evident for it to
be necessary to dwell upon them. It would be far better if the writers
who go to such large expense of sympathetic ink, would change the
direction of their virtuous indignation, and try if they have sufficient
influence to put