The periodical press has been a successful agency in the dissemination
of literary Rationalism throughout the British Islands. Years before the
recent discussions sprang up, the _Westminster Review_ was the ablest
and most avowed of all the advocates of the "liberal theology" of the
Continent. It still rules without a rival. Emboldened by the late
accession of sympathizers, it opposes orthodoxy and the Church with an
arrogance equal to that of the _Universal German Library_, whose editor,
Nicolai, is reported to have said: "My object is merely to hold up to
the laughter and contempt of the public the orthodox and hypocritical
clergy of the Protestant church, and to show that they make their own
bad cause the cause of their office and of religion, or rather that of
Almighty God himself,--to show that when they make an outcry about
prevailing errors, infidelity, and blasphemy, they are only speaking of
their own ignorance, hypocrisy, and love of persecution, of the
wickedness of their own hearts concealed under the mantle of
piety.
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