Book excerpt: Walter Bagehot was one of the most famous 19th-century British journalists and essayists, whose major works refer to government, economics, and literature. This is the second out of nine volumes with his most important writings, this one containing historical and financial essays: William Cowper The First Edinburgh Reviewers Thomas Babington Macaulay Edward Gibbon The Character Of Sir Robert Peel Percy Bysshe Shelley The Crédit Mobilier In France Lord Brougham The Monetary Crisis Of 1857