the social comforts of all classes of the British community are rendered almost boundless by the progress of invention, the ingenuity of mechanical skill, and the unceasing activity of all industrial pursuits; the unrighteous laws that prohibited the importation of corn have been abolished; free trade in bread has been established with all the nations of the earth; ancient grinding monopolies have been destroyed; national imposts reduced; the just demands of the people speedily granted; harsh feudal laws, carrying with them inhuman punishments, have been blotted out of the Statute-book; “man’s inhumanity to man,” under the sanction of Acts of Parliament, has been softened if not wholly subdued; the just principle of national brotherhood, inculcated by divine precept, has gained vital force; religion has become less sectarian, and more thoroughly Christian in profession and practice; the helping hand of man to his brother man, in the hour of necessity, is seen now more actively at work than ever; the people at large are united as one man, in all great designs of philanthropy and benevolence, and in all puissant combinations against injustice and oppression; our QUEEN and her enlightened and virtuous CONSORT are ever watchful for the country’s weal. The reign of VICTORIA is thus far the brightest page of regal history, because it has been pre-eminently the best. We may sum up in the eloquent language of Dr. Southwood Smith:—“We live in a glorious age. The rapidity of the progress of liberal opinion, and I will add, of liberal feeling, within these few years has been unexampled in the history of our race. Sometimes indeed the tide of improvement like the tide of the ocean may appear to have receded; but soon, as if deriving strength from its momentary retreat, slow, majestic, irresistible, it has rolled beyond its former limit; but, unlike its type, it has not returned, _and it will not return_, to the boundary it has passed.” Topographical History.