so much waste paper. Crowds gathered speedily, and the city was in open insurrection. Bishop Sydserf of Galloway, was hastening to the Tolbooth to be examined as a witness in a civil case, when he was intercepted by the insurgents, roughly handled, and rescued by the forcible intervention of some noblemen and their attendants. But these, in their turn, were overpowered; the Lord Treasurer Traquair was trampled under foot; the Lord Provost chased to his house; and the mob gained complete possession of the city. They compelled the civic authorities to promise to petition with them against the Prayer Book, and that the suspended ministers should be restored. A curious incident shows the cowardice, both of these functionaries and their masters, the mob. While the latter were engaged in the pleasant occupation of breaking the Provost's windows, to his great terror, a servant fired a musket, loaded only with powder, and they forthwith dispersed. It is a great pity that they could not have been treated to a few wellaimed volleys of a well disciplined brigade, for much future disorder and carnage might have been avoided.

Encouraged by success, the malcontents now presented petitions against the Bishops as "underminers of religion", and prayed for their punishment! Alarmed at this, Spottiswoode and his brethren withdrew from the city, and no longer attended the meetings of the Privy Council. Another grand meeting was held in November, to present a "Supplication." Among the signers of this compound of folly and sedition, we lament to find the name of the Earl of Montrose; but he was then only twenty-five years of age and afterwards nobly atoned for this error. The Supplicants appointed a permanent committee consisting of the nobles present, two gentlemen from each county, one burgess from each town, and one minister from each Presbytery. These were subdivided into four lesser committees called Tables, because they sat at four different tables in as many separate rooms. The "Table of last resort" had a sort of appellate jurisdiction, and soon was controlled by Rothes, Loudon, Balmerino, and the ministers Henderson and Dickson. Favoured by the knaves and traitors in the Privy Council and other high stations, they could plot and contrive at their pleasurc. "They in the end usurped the authority of the whole

kingdom, and issued orders which were even obeyed with more promptitude than those of the most despotic of sovereigns." These instruments of mischief were hard at work during the whole Winter; and they at length demanded of the King through the Privy Council, the abolition of the Liturgy, the discharge of the High Court of Commission, and even dared to assail the legality of the Episcopal order. They were aided by scurrilous pamphlets from the English Puritans, and by the machinations of cunning Jesuits employed by Cardinal Richelicu.

Traquair was sent for by the King in December, and gave an account of the state of things in Scotland, which astonished the King, and at the same time excited his indignation to the highest pitch. Copies also of the "Supplication" and other kindred documents were placed in his hands. He replied by another proclamation, issued about the middle of February, approving the Liturgy and enjoining its use. This produced a grand explosion, the details of which must be deferred to another paper.

CITIES.

There is

A TENDENCY to crowds is one of the characteristics of this age. It is one for which it is not difficult to account. a close connection between it and some of the peculiar notions about economy which now prevail. Formerly it was held to be sound economy to purchase good articles at a high price. The purchaser expected to be indemnified for his greater outlay, by the durability of the article purchased. Now, however, nothing is so much considered as the smallness of the sum invested in the purchase. It is conceded that the article will not last so long as one of greater cost, but that fact is disregarded. It is not necessary to go into an inquiry as to the causes of this change; but it may be remarked, that one of them is, probably, the frequent improvements in machinery and the processes of manufacture. The effect of these is a continual reduction in the price of many things.

Whatever be the cause of the phenomenon, it exists, and has its bearing upon the present subject. Men are all anxious to have their wants supplied at as small an outlay as possible. Now, the discovery has lecn made that combination is one great source of cheapness. Consequently the wants of a large number of persons can be supplied at a smaller cost to each person than those of a smaller number; provided they will agree to have their wants supplied by the same persons and at the same time. This was always true, but it is now true in a higher degree, as well as more obvious to an observer. For the great improvements in labour-saving machinery can only be worked to advantage upon a large scale. This cannot be.done unless there be a large demand for the products; and it requires a large number of persons to be employed. The effects of combination in this state of things are very great. They have been experienced by every one, who has travelled for several miles through the streets of New York, in a railroad car, at the expense of half a dime, or has crossed the North or East river in a steamboat for a cent. If New York were a small village the same accommodations could not be afforded for many times the price; because the same expenses must be defrayed by a much smaller number of persons. Cheap postage is another illustration of the same principle. A letter may be sent from New Orleans to Boston for three cents. If there were but one to go, it would cost many hundred times as much.

The consequence of all this is, that men travel in crowds, labour in crowds, scek amusement in crowds, and even live in crowds. Giving up the institution of the household, and almost that of the family, they congregate together in hotels and enormous boarding houses. The same principle is applied to public worship and the pastoral relation. Large churches and overworked pastors are preferred; because they cost less money to each individual of the numerous congregation. Nay, it is beginning to be applied in that pursuit from which it seems most alien. One reads of monster farms in the West; which extend over many thousand acres, and are worked by large bodies of labourers, with the aid of labour-saving machines, to an extent not practicable even on those Southern farms, which were once

thought enormous. All these wonders cannot be wrought with out large investments of capital. To work them out, the money and the labourers must both be brought together in large masses. This, notwithstanding the strange phenomenon of the Western farms, can be best done in cities. The effect, then, of combination has been to gather human beings into cities; where they are collected together in numbers, which cannot be considered without astonishment.

This aggregation has produced two effects, which would seem likely to operate in an opposite direction, and so neutralize, in some degree, their cause. But they are both counter acted by other facts. While, therefore, they do operate, to some extent, as checks upon the evil to which they owe their origin, they do so far less than a superficial observer would expect.

One of the effects of the collection of a large population into a small compass, which were alluded to in the last paragraph, is a great increase in the price of those necessaries of life, which are the produce of the country. The high price of food goes near to counterbalance the cheapness of other things, which grows out of the facilities of combination. But, on the other hand, the wonderful cheapness and rapidity of communication equalize the price of food in the country, with that which it commands in the cities.

The other is the increased value of land for building in the cities. Land fitted for that purpose is limited within a comparatively narrow area, and so becomes an object of speculation and monopoly. The price of shelter is thus rendered very high. So high that it does affect the growth of population. This would be much more evident. were it not that the facility of communication again steps in to the relief of the citizens. Those whose means are not very ample avail themselves of it to live out of the city, in which they transact their business. The rich do the same thing to some extent. The poor are unable to do so, and finding comfortable accommodation beyond their reach, learn to be content with that which is not so, and yearly crowd closer together. Those in better circumstances imitate them, by herding together in hotels and boarding houses, where space is gained, as in the fortified towns of the

middle ages, by piling one family upon another. The requisite room is thus obtained by substituting the heighth of the build ing for the too expensive breadth of its ground plan. These things, except the facility of travel and its consequences, do not add either to the physical or the moral well-being of the dwellers in cities. But they operate to lessen the expense of living there, and so diminish the check upon their population.

The growth of cities still goes on. For this there are many reasons. The rich man finds in them the most profitable occupation for his capital; the poor man the most certain and constant demand for his labor. Those who do not belong to either class, but desire to live as well as they can upon moderate means, to which they are prevented from adding by an unfitness for labour or business, find that their small funds can be better invested and husbanded in cities, than in small country towns or in the absolute country. Families with children find opportunities of educating them more cheaply at a day school, when they can be boarded at the houses of their parents. The very numerous young women, who look to marriage as a provision, discover that their views will be most easily reduced to practice, among the young men whom the business of a city has attracted. Lastly, those who expect to live by depredations on the property of others, find the most lucrative field of action and the greatest facilities for escape amidst the wealth, crowds, and bustle of a city.

From these and other causes, the number and size of the cities of the civilized world are rapidly increasing. Many moral, social, and political problems are thus either originated or made more complicated. The subject then becomes an important one, and worthy of much consideration. A thoughtful article in the New York Church Journal has lately been devoted to it. The writer thus speaks:

Cities are the seats and centres of corruption, moral, social, and political. Yet they grow with marvellous rapidity, and they grow, not simply in proportion to the progress of the country, but by a law of their own, showing that they have a power of attracting and absorbing population in a ratio steadily preponderating over the increase of the country. Nay, they even grow, and grow rapidly, while the rural population is actually decreasing.

The proportions already attained by many of our large cities are fearful, and yet they are rushing onwards with a continually accelerated speed. Within the mighty bosom of London alone one-ninth of the whole population of Eng