UC-NRLF *B bD lb? LECTURES LEWIS, ESQ,, M • • H\U > TWO LECTURES ON ahort Visit to CHARLES E. LEWIS, Esq., M.P. Printed for Private Circulation only. ILon&on : Printed by Blades, East & Blades, ir, Abchurch Lane, E.C. 1876. V / ERRATA. Page 3. — For " sea-hungry " read " hungry sea.'' Page 12. — Tvr "delerium" ra&/ "delirium." Paget'].— For " sufferage " raz part of the building, and in answer to my remark as to the irregularity and defects of the building, he at 45 once admitted that it was a pity that they made patchwork of it, and did not pull it all down. I am as certain as I can be of anything that it only requires the attention of the American people to be drawn in some striking way to the obvious defects of this great building adorning their legislative Centre, and they will be equal to any emergency, even to that of laying the first brick of an entirely new building thoroughly worthy of their great State. The interior of the Capitol contains many handsome committee rooms, circular halls, pictures of battles on sea and land connected with the history of the War of Independence, portraits of leading statesmen and presidents, historical pieces, &c. ; while the Senate Chamber and the Hall of Congress are themselves commodious and satisfactory in their arrangement, so far as I could judge. It was my misfortune not to go to Washington until a few days after both Houses had risen for their Christmas vacation. I am not able, therefore, to speak from my own observation of the habits of Senators and Congress men w r hen at their work and in public. I do not think, however, that I shall be doing violence to fact, or unduly exalting by comparison our British House of Commons, when I state that smoking in the body of the House is a common custom ; that newspapers are very freely used and read by Members during the 46 sitting, and that Congress men are in the habit of indulging themselves by sitting in the most free-and- easy manner, with their legs upon the Davenport desk which is before them. I should state that at all events America is entitled to the credit of providing a separate seat or chair for every Representative who thinks proper to be present at his duty, and in this respect differs so materially from our own House of Commons. In addition to the chair and the desk, with all proper writing materials, &c, before him, supplied to exact number, a wise and cleanly Govern- ment has provided the necessary addition of a spittoon at the foot or side of each Member's desk. In each House the Members' seats are arranged in the form of a semi-circle. There is plenty of accommodation for strangers in the galleries ; while on the floor of the House, at the back, certain sofas and seats of a luxurious character were pointed out to me as in- cluding the space where I should have been entitled to sit as a representative in this country, in common with Ministers, representatives of Foreign States, &c, and other persons of more or less distinction EXPENSES IN AMERICA. I have already referred, with regard to New York, to the enormous expense of rent and taxes ; 47 but the expenses of America far exceed those of England in many particulars ; as for instance, in the articles of male clothing, where it is even twice or thrice as much. There is not as great a difference, as I understand, in articles of ladies 1 attire ; but still, everything is very excessive. As for example : a pair of ladies' evening gloves, two dollars and a quarter ! I had, unfortunately, occasion to buy some black-edged note paper when I was in New York, and I paid, for one quire of ordinary note paper and twenty-four envelopes, the outrageous sum of one dollar, notwithstanding a protest I thought it necessary to make upon the subject. The washing at the hotels is charged for at the rate of one dollar and a half per dozen all round, large and small. The small memorandum book that I have in my hand cost 60 cents, or nearly half-a-crown. I should think it might have been bought at plenty of places in London for eightpence. For the ride in a stage coach from Cunard's Wharf to the hotel, — about four miles, — every passenger had to pay two dollars for himself and a very moderate quantity of luggage ; fifty cents (or two shillings) for having your hair cut and brushed ; while the telegraph system of the United States, being to a great extent in the posses- sion of one company having the monopoly, the rate is pretty nearly three times that -in vogue in the 4 8 United Kingdom. In point of fact, the result of the dollar system of currency is that, in many things, it answers no greater purpose than the English shilling or the French franc ; and the recklessness with which not only prices have been raised but money spent, is greatly contributed to by, as I think, the prevalence of paper currency, even in very small amounts. THE RAILWAY SYSTEM. Perhaps it is hardly necessary for me to say much with reference to the railway system of the United States. At one time it was supposed to be a specially dangerous one, and not only as respects their original mode of construction but also as to the way and conditions under which they were used, was specially liable to disaster. But I am inclined to think that there is no substantial difference either as regards care or safety between England and America in this respect now. There are many things about the American system in which they have decidedly the advantage of us. The universal prevalence of Pulman's Cars is unquestionably a vast public con- venience and a cause of comfort in their long railway 49 journeys. The mode of construction of the enormous cars affording facility for moving about instead of being cribbed and confined as we are in our railway carriages, is another great advantage. The facilities for sleeping, washing, &c., are great. The invariable practice of an engine ringing a large deep-toned bell when crossing streets or roads at a level, is itself a great improvement ; while as regards mere appear- ance, I think that their locomotives and carriages have, not only separately but combined, a far less ugly and repulsive appearance than an English rail- way train. In one respect, however, there is a marked defect ; there is no porter assistance at the various stations, and you must be content to carry- any odd items of baggage which you have with you in the car yourself, for there is no chance of getting any assistance such as is universally provided at all our English stations. Many of the trains run at a considerable speed, and, altogether, I cannot help giving a substantial preference to the railway system of America over that which exists amongst ourselves. D 5i LECTURE II Let me devote a short time to my visit to CHICAGO, the great city of the north-west, situate on Lake Michigan, which city, as you know, was all but entirely destroyed by fire in the month of October, 1 87 1, and has since indulged itself by a not incon- siderable repetition of the same luxury. I confess that, taking all things together, Chicago is the most wonderful place that I saw in the United States. I had not the time to go across the Conti- nent to San Francisco, and I am not able to enter into any comparison between these two places ; but, certainly, Chicago is a most marvellous instance, not only of the dash and daring of American citizens and the pluck with which they overcome difficulties of all sorts, but is typical of the enormous increase of trade and the yet undeveloped resources of the west and d 2 52 the north-west of the United States. I suppose I am correct in saying, that before the great fire it was a mushroom city that, in respect of the mode and matter of structure of most of its houses, was a temptation to the devouring element, which accord- ingly entered upon its mad career one morning in the month of October, 1871. Looking at it now, you find you are walking through the handsome stone-built streets of a large city, with every evidence of active trade and an intelligent and enterprising people, and of ever-extending commerce, created and promoted by natural and local advantages of the highest order. It would be saying too much to remark that Chicago reminded me very closely of Paris, but it reminded me more of some of the new streets in Paris than of any other place that I could name, though it lacked the beauty and symmetry of the Parisian Boulevards, or such streets as the Rue de Rivoli. Here and there along even some of the main thoroughfares you see in all its rugged defor- mity, the evidence of either the great fire or that which took place two years ago, in the ruins of some house or building not yet re-erected ; but, speaking generally, the former city has not only been re-built upon a grander plan and upon a more extended surface, but, as I understand, there are municipal laws of a stringent character as to the mode of 53 structure and arrangement of buildings, both public and private, commercial and otherwise, having lor their object the prevention of any wide-spread con- flagration. Amongst other things which are striking in Chicago are the great Water Works on the im- mediate shore of the lake, which are the property of the Municipal ty, (as all such public works of neces- sity should be in every country). These Water Works, entirely rebuilt since the fire, form one of the principal sights of the city. There are four engines, two large and two small. The capacity of one of the larger engines alone is the pouring out of 36 million gallons of water each 24 hours. The water is drawn from the lake by a tunnel extending two miles under the bed of the lake, and in order to meet the possibility of another destroying fire, even though it be so well provided against in the manner I have stated, there is a separate tunnel to a distant part of the City from that where the chief W r ater Works are situated, to prevent the possibility of the destruction of the water supply by any fire. The city is five miles long and four broad in some places. Miles of roads or boulevards are being made around the city, at an enormous expense, while the cattle or stock market, a few miles out of the city, is a wonder in itself. 54 In 1845 the population of Chicago, was 12,000. It is now 475,000, or an increase of nearly forty-fold in thirty years. The valuation of real and personal property for the purpose of taxation (estimated, of course, greatly below the real value to the owner to use or sell) has increased during the same period from ,£600,000 sterling to ^60,000,000 sterling or one hundred-fold. An immense trade in hogs is carried on at Chicago. The number imported into Chicago in the year 1874 was 4,472,667, the animals weighing on an average about 20olbs. Of these about one-half were shipped alive and the rest were killed and cured. The ship- ments of flour and grain from Chicago in 1874 were equal to 84,000,000 of bushels of grain. The esti- mated value of the shipments from Chicago of the products of the farm in the year 1874 (given in detail in the annual report of the Board of Trade or Chamber of Commerce of Chicago) was ^35,000,000 sterling. These statements remind me that the body I have just mentioned is a real representive of the trading community of Chicago which has no copy in any of our great commercial cities. It has 1,651 members belonging to various trades, businesses and profes- sions, it exercises a practical and powerful influence on matters relating to the public weal, and the interests 55 of trade ; such as railway communication, the rates of freight, and so on, while it claims and enforces over its wide-spread membership an active discipline in the interest of commercial integrity. Its annual reports form most interesting records of the progress of trade, not only in Chicago, but in the States generally— of the statistics of the railways connected with the city ; the prices during the year of all the great articles of consumption, and minute particulars of the import and export trade of the city. The chief causes of this wonderful increase in the population and trade of the City of Chicago, are its peculiar position and local advantages. It is a large railway centre, no less than twelve considerable lines of railway entering it from different points. It is the great depot for agricultural produce of the west and for the hog-producing districts of the north and west. I am almost afraid to narrate upon hear- say, the operation daily going on with the Porcine tribe at Chicago. Described under the influence of a little American exaggeration, it may be shortly stated thus : — That by a curious and efficient machine, or system of machinery, you put a live porker into the machine at one end, and within an hour, cured hams come out at the other. Many of the roads and streets of Chicago extend 56 miles in a straight line. That called Michigan Avenue, which is a great residential road on the border of the lake, I was told was eleven-and-a-half miles long ; it is perfectly straight, and lit all the way. The house rents and general style of expen- diture in Chicago are very little less, if anything, than those at New York, while two or three of the hotels are quite on as grand a scale as the very best in the United States. The Palmer House, at which I stopped during my three day's visit, is a very hand- some building fitted up in the most elaborate and comfortable manner, and cost ,£500,000 in building and ^70,000 more in furnishing. It contains many handsome public and private apartments, having 650 visitors-rooms in all, and was quite a sight in itself with its magnificently furnished saloons. At this house I had an illustration of the different plans adopted in the several hotels in the States, in the selection of white or coloured servants. At this house all the male servants were coloured, and you ,nust recollect that they never mix the races in the male servants in a great establishment. A variety of reasons or difficulties which can be readily under- stood, compel the absolute selection of one class or the other. In the case of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, all the servants are whites. The negro face and form are certainly a most remarkable study, 57 they differ as much from one another in many peculiarities as the white does from the black. We had in this Palmer House of Chicago with 150 coloured servants, every shade of colour, from the almost pale white and the delicate olive, up to the black ebony of the African descendants of those who first peopled the land of Ham. Every form of face and physiognomy from that indicating an almost brutal condition and the smallest intellectual capacity, up to a cast of countenance not less interest- ing than intelligent, and pointing pretty clearly to an admixture of the white with the black races in one or two generations antecedent to that of the in- dividual in question. I was particularly interested on entering into conversation with one or two of the servants at this hotel, whom I assuredly should have taken for whites, had it not been for seeing them in service amongst their deeply coloured compeers. The face was so white ; the hair so straight ; the eyes and nose so far removed from the peculiar characteristics of the pure-bred negro, that 1 was in- duced to ask one or two not only whether they admitted themselves to be coloured men, but further whether it would not be possible for them to pass them- selves off as whites, having regard to their almost entire freedom from the usual distinctions of the coloured men. The answers that I received were as decided 58 as they were mournful, giving emphatic evidence of the existence of that still broad line of demarcation which stands (so far as I can learn everywhere, even in the North), as an impassable barrier to the full emanci- pation of the coloured man. True it is that the old rules prohibiting even in the North the coloured man from taking his seat in any public conveyance are annihilated, but great and harsh distinctions yet prevail, and the position of the negro throughout the United States has perhaps hardly been improved (even if it has not been seriously retarded), by the conduct of the victorious North in passing the Act conferring the elective franchise upon the negroes under the circumstances, and in a manner which seem to indi- cate that it was a measure of revenge upon the conquered South, rather than the extension of an act of justice to the emancipated negro, I shall attempt to pass no judgment upon the prudence or stateman- like character, and still less upon the justice of this step. This question is situated in the prohibited domain of politics, and we shall certainly find in this assembly representatives of the different modes of though': and shades of opinion which range themselves around the question, whether the franchise is of itself the right of every man with or without limita- tions, or whether it is a trust to be given to an unfranchised section on behalf of the unenfranchised 59 as well as themselves. Suffice it to say that this measure of conferring the voting power upon the coloured population, has not only been the cause of serious difficulties during the last few years, but as I understand has been openly denounced and regretted by many who supported it in a period of heat and excitement, immediately after the termi- nation of the Civil War. NIAGARA FALLS. Of course I did not dare to come home without paying a visit to the Falls. I am very much inclined to think that this was the chief cause of my visit there. I am at best a very bad sight-seer, and have a tendency to give myself up to a sort of hopeless physical inactivity when alone. However, I should as soon have thought of cutting off my right hand as coming from the United States without visiting the Falls. Yet, I must insist that I paid such visit, not in any respect for my own advantage, to gratify my curiosity, or to confer any pleasure upon myself, but simply and entirely out of homage and deference to that huge mass of public and private opinion which would have denounced me as a perfidious traveller, 6o and as an unworthy Englishman, if I had not gone. Thus, it was, that I found my way to the great cataract of the world. I approach the attempt to describe this great sight with fear and trembling. I know that I cannot do justice to it. Language and imagery alike, fail me in any effort to convey to you a correct impression of its awful majesty. Nature seem here to bid defiance to one's descriptive powers, and to impress upon one's mind the conviction, that tho' man may be, and no doubt is, " the noblest work of God," the mighty fiat of the great Creator has evolved works of exquiste skill as well as appalling grandeur, which bring to nought the powers of the acutest observers, the greatest minds, and the most eloquent tongues and pens, when attempting to put into language, an answer to the question asked by many an adoring soul on viewing some magnificient wonder of creation : " what hath God wrought ? " Who can paint like Nature ? can imagination boast Amid its gay creation, hues like her's ? Or can it mix them with that matchless skill, And lose them in each other as appears In every bud that blows ? *' I arrived at Niagara under circumstances which were highly favourable.; it was a brilliant night ; the moon was at its full. The whole surface of the earth 6r was carpeted with snow, and the naked trees were glittering in the moonlight through their hanging icicles. After landing at the town of Niagara on the American side, I made my way, a solitary passenger in a large omnibus, across the new suspension bridge to the small Hotel called the " Prospect House" on the Canada side, having successfully endured the jeers and criticism of the driver of a hostile omnibus, who tried to impress upon me that the proper side to stay and view the Falls from was the American side. Let it be noted that this is unquestionably a mistake, and that you Britishers will do the best thing by going to the Canadian side, and if you can, stopping at the Hotel I have just mentioned, which is immediately adjacent to the great Horse Shoe Fall. About a third or a quarter of a mile below this is the new sus- pension bridge, and long before one passed over it I heard its roar ; but my impression is that it cannot be heard, except as a confused dull monotonous sound at any very great distance. This new suspension bridge is a remarkable structure. It is only 4 years old, and consists of one span in the style or model of the Clifton Suspension Bridge at Bristol, but very much longer, being 1268 feet long and 180 feet high. I have no sort of sympathy with the oft repeated declaration of visitors to the Falls who say, that they are disappointed with them, or at all events that they 62 are disappointed at first sight. I do not know what they expect to see. I suspect that the feeling arises from the absurdly inaccurate and exaggerated pictures of them so freely circulated. For my part while I quite admit that the grandeur of their appearance, and the wonder excited in one's mind increases every hour, there was nothing akin to the feeling of dis- appointment in connection with these magnificent representatives of the great power of nature. I slept well at no greater distance than from here to the end of the street, the monotony of the sound taking away or diminishing probably the effect of its volume or power. The next morning I hired a sledge and went about visiting the chief points of sight, the whirlpool and the rapids in the river below, as well as the banks and the rapids above the Falls, Goat Island, and other places of interest. Nearly all the pictures that I have ever seen of Niagara are misleading. The impression which has been conveyed to my mind, and which I believe has generally been intended to be conveyed, is, that the Horseshoe Fall is at one side of,, and the American Fall on the other side of, Goat Island, which itself is made to appear the obstructive centre of the great volume of water forming the two sets of Falls ; in other words, that Goat Island is at the middle of the Falls. 63 The reality of the case is that the Horseshoe Fall occupies the entire middle of the stream. Goat Island immediately adjoins it on the American shore of the river, while the American Fall is completely at the side of the river just below Goat Island. The American Falls, which are the smallest as regards the volume of water going over them, are caused by the divergence of the water coming down the rapids above, owing to the obstruction made by Goat Island standing out into the stream, and the water has forced its way through the back of Goat Island, and discharges itself on the side, forming what are called the American Falls. In consequence of their edge being sharper and more sheer than the Horseshoe Falls, they look much higher (though they are, in fact, as I understand, only six feet higher) than the latter, over which an immense volume of water is continually rolling, contributed by the unceasing rapids above, by which the surplus water of Lake ,Erie is perpetually being discharged. Looking at this great cataract, one's mind is almost paralysed by the recollection that, for centuries untold, it has been rumbling, rushing, and rolling on, in unceasing force and undiminished volume, pushing its waters through narrow gorge, wide lake, and mighty rivers, until at last they reach the immeasurable space of the broad Atlantic, in which they find, as it were, a congenial 6 4 home. And on and on are they destined still to flow, till time shall be no longer, and the glorious re-construction of the new heavens and the new earth shall be the outcome of the grand announcement of the mighty Governor of the World, " Behold I make all things new ! " The rapids above are dan- gerous—nay, certain to produce destruction even at a distance of two miles above the Falls themselves, and any boat or being becoming involved in the vortex is, humanly speaking, devoid of hope and certain of destruction. Walking along the side of the rapids, or going upon the bridge, which extends from the town of Niagara to Goat Island, or the small wooden bridge built out from Goat Island almost to the very edge of the precipice of the Horse Shoe Fall, one cannot help feeling a seductive sort of influence from the apparently gentle and in the main, untroubled aspect of the water which is in reality pursuing its mad career over the great Fall immediately adjoining. Only last year (whether it was a suicide or not does not seem to be well ascertained) an American gentle- man who was out with his wife and daughter, walked m up to his knees from what is called Prospect Park, adjoining the American Falls, into the bed of the river. He was immediately lapped up as by a flame of water and carried over the sheer precipice which 65 adjoined and in that case, as in almost every other, no trace of the body was ever discovered. Only two years ago that terrible accident occurred which was related in the newspapers and which many of you will probably recollect, of an unhappy man who passed two days and a night upon a small rock or piece of stone, which was pointed out to me, situate about twenty or thirty yards from the preci- pice of the American Falls, close beside the wooden bridge which passes over to Goat Island. The water there is shallow and though turbulent enough around him, he was safe so long as he kept to his rocky seat, Every sort of device and contrivance to get him on shore was suggested by human ingenuity without avail, and at last the simple remedy of floating a strongly constructed raft down to him was tried with such success as that this poor man got himself upon the raft and was being drawn in shore, but when he was within a very few feet of it the raft came into collision with some sunken pieces of stone or rock, threw off its all-but-saved occupant, who went over immediately into the deep below. He was one of three men who were out in a pleasure boat, some two or three miles above, and having enjoyed themselves too much, or being in a daring frame of mind, got themselves involved in the rapids, two of them being at once and without any hope of being saved, taken E 66 over the Falls, while this poor man had his agony prolonged in the way that I have mentioned. About a mile and a half below, there is the old suspension bridge, which is 820 feet long, and which has two roads, one above the other — one for the rail- way traffic above, and the other for the ordinary traffic below. Between the Falls and this old bridge there is little commotion, little or no tide, and but few eddies, even within one or two hundred yards of the great Fall, the under-current being supposed to be, however, intensely strong. Bye and bye the channel of the river narrows, and a new set of rapids a r e formed called the "whirlpool rapids." Lower down still we have a great basin which is said to have a surface of 60 acres •- the whirlpool— where we see the effect of the water regaining the surface after its compressed course in the great under-current, or tide, of the last mile or mile and a half. Below this whirlpool again, running thro' a narrow gut (believed to be 300 feet deep), we have those remarkable rapids where the middle of the water forms itself into a turbid ridge some 6 or 8 feet higher than the water on either side, the middle forming a kind of backbone or hog's back. * I am conscious of having given you but a very faint description of the Falls. It is really impossible to describe them with proper effect, but I give my 6 7 sufferage to the opinion that it is worth all the time, labour, and expense of the journey, merely to see the Falls of Niagara. CLEVELAND. There is only one other city I visited I will refer to, in which owing to business calls I spent more of my time, after New York, than at any other place, and that is Cleveland in the State of Ohio, situate on Lake Erie. This is a very thriving busy port and city containing 150,000 inhabitants and is a sort of small Wolverhampton and Birmingham combined. It is a very active business place having several large manufactories and iron works, and is the port at which large quantities of iron ore are brought from Lake Superior to be taken to the blast furnaces and rolling mills which are now being erected in large numbers in the States of Ohio and Pennsylvania where large deposits of Coal are to be found, some of a very superior quality. I am afraid that our iron trade has much to learn in connection with the great extension of the American iron works and rolling- mills, and must face in the end almost an entire loss of the export iron trade to America. E 2 68 PLACES OF WORSHIP. I will now proceed to make a few remarks on the places of worship which I attended when in America, though I shall only be able to mention two or three, lest I should detain you too long. In the first place, I would state that in this, as in almost everything else, we stand face to face in America with a system, the great element of which is grandeur, unstinted expense, and a considerable display of elegance and comfort. When I think on the one hand of what I saw in America as evidence of the expenditure of Christian Congregations on their places of Worship in the annual outlay of their Congregations, and recollect, on the other hand, what an immense amount of parsimony — -not to say meaness— is displayed by many Christian Congregations in England belonging to all denominations, I only wish that I had a much larger audience, and that I could impress upon the minds not only of every one now here, but of all members of Christian Congregations and Churches, that in respect of the erection and maintenance of their Church fabrics ; in respect of their liberality to Congregational funds ; and I may say also, to a certain extent, in the stipends which they pay to their 6 9 ministers, the Americans set a worthy example to the grievous delinquents in these respects who are to be found in such numbers in the Mother Country. I do not mean by these observations to convey any approbation of the excess of church adornment, of the great sacrifice which is made in nearly all the churches in America to the performance of music, or in certain other indications of a luxurious mannerism which seemed to me to be real practical snares and dangers in America, but I do cordially recognise a wide and fervid spirit of liberality amongst American Christians generally with reference to all religious objects. Before I ask you to accompany me to two or three places of Worship, I would just like to give you a very few facts illustrative of the division of the popu- lation amongst the several religious communities, and should take as an example New York. There are 489 places of Worship of all sorts affording accommo- dation for 375,000 persons. Of these 396 are Pro- testants, and the subdivisions of this number are peculiarity interesting. The Episcopalians stand a little a head with 84. The Presbyterians next with 82. The Methodists of all sorts (chiefly Episcopalians), 68. The Roman Catholics with 52. The Baptists with 45. Lutherans 23, and Congregationalists 8 only. The rest I omit as im- material. JO I shall ask you to go with me, as specimens to two Independent or Congregational, one Presbyterian and one Episcopalian place of worship which I attended during my American visit ; and as the first, we will go to the Church of Dr. W. M. Taylor, now a Con- gregationalism formerly the United Presbyterian Minister at Liverpool, who preaches at the Tabernacle in the Broadway. The church is situated in the neighbourhood of some of the best residential streets in that city, and it is a fine new building- one of the most perfect specimens of elegance, comfort, and brightness, which I have ever seen, either in England or America in connection with any religious denomination. All the details in the fittings and furniture of the Church are carried out with the utmost care and nicety. It is a very lofty gothic building with lancet windows, having a gallery round 3 sides of the Church and a fine large organ filling up the entire height of the building behind the pulpit, which itself is a handsome enclosure with a broad and luxurious sofa for the Minister to sit upon. The service which I attended was that of the evening, and the congregation, con- sisting of persons evidently in a very good position in life, was very largely composed of males ; and it was obvious that very many of the congregation were strangers. I should think that the church and organ and furniture must have cost at least ,£40,000 sterling. The service was commenced by an Anthem by the choir alone, consisting of about 10 or 12 persons standing at the side and in the face of the organ en- closure. This lasted for about 10 minutes, the Con- gregation sitting all the time, and the performance of an Anthem was repeated in the middle of the service. The devotional and preaching part of the service was as good as could be desired, the latter being one of a series of lectures on the life of St. Peter, consisting of his conduct at the washing of the disciples by the Saviour, and the voice and manner of the Minister reminded me to some extent of our celebrated Dr. Cairns. I am afraid that one must pass by this service with the remark that, as I have already in- dicated, the prominent feature displayed in the religious services of all the denominations in America is the music, which is in my humble judgment, very much calculated, in its particular outcome, to draw away the minds of the Congregation from real devotion and worship. Let us enter now to the " Second Presbyterian Church " at Chicago, as it is called, situate in Michi- gan Avenue, holding about 1,300 or 1,400 people, which is a modern building, erected at a cost of 225,000 dollars, or over ,£40,000 sterling. The cost of the organ was £"2,000 sterling. This is the church 7 2 that not very long ago endeavoured to call the Rev. Mr. Fleming Stevenson, of Dublin, the well-known author of the work called " Praying and Working." The present minister, Mr. Gibson, is a Scotchman, who went through the service in a plain dress without any canonicals. This Church, as regards internal decoration, is remarkable for a somewhat gorgeous style of coloring, approaching in a slight degree to some of those courts in the Crystal Palace, though of course not so elaborately or completely decorated. In this church there was not only an anthem by the choir alone, as in the case of the Broadway Taber- nacle, before the commencement of real worship, but this anthem was preceded by a voluntary on the organ. The choir, consisting of two male and two female voices, (seated high up in front of the organ in such a position as to remind one very much of the practice in this respect of the Roman Catholic Cathe- drals on the Continent,) received between them a recompense amounting to 4,000 dollars, or ^800 sterling, per annum, the ministers salary being only 50 per cent, more, or 6,000 dollars, having to provide, be it remembered, his own house, which is a very considerable burden. The proprietor of the pew in which I sat — arranged for five persons- -told me that he paid 250 dollars, or ^50, a-year as pew-rent, and that the highest rented n pew in the Church was no less than 400 dollars, or ^80, a-year. I may remark, as an interesting; cir- cumstance, that the gentleman who sat third off me in this church was the eldest son of the late President Lincoln, who is now a practising lawyer. The sermon was half-an-hour long — from the 6th verse of the 34th chapter of Exodus, as to the announce- ment to Moses on Mount Sinai of the awful Name of Jehovah, and was a most able discourse, the heads of which I cannot detain you by recounting, but the sermon altogether struck me as most admi- rable and likely to be very useful for any Infidel to hear. The St. John's Episcopal Church, at Washington, which I attended upon Christmas day, is the next to which I shall refer. It is a small, plain building, with a low heavy gallery hanging over one-third of the entire surface of the church, and it may be truly stated that the all absorbing element of the whole service was music from beginning to end. I have before me the advertisement which appeared in a Washington paper of that Christmas morning's service at this church, and it will perhaps suffice to give you an idea of the musical part of the service if I tell you that here they were not content with a fine organ, or with a band of one description of musical instruments, for they had as well stringed and brass 74 instruments. The announcement of the service stated that the choir would consist of first tenor, second tenor, first bass, second bass, first violin, second violin, viola, flute, first cornet, second cornet, cellc bass and clarionet. Well, I suppose worship and good are to be found in all this ; but as they by no no means consort with my prejudices or opinions, the best thing that I can do is to recount them and pass on without any further remark or censure. Will you now accompany me for a few minutes to Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, which is situate across the ferry, over the East River, from New York, on Long Island, the minister being the celebrated Henry Ward Beecher. The building which has the inscription in front, " Plymouth Church, 1849," is quite an old-fashioned, square and red-bricked one, flat-roofed, with a large gallery round the three sides of the church and continued in the front of the organ on the fourth side. There is an extra gallery facing the minister, high up, which is said to hold 300, reserved entirely for men. The preaching platform, which is quite open and carpeted, is furnished with an open stand on which the Bible rests and at which the minister conducts the service, and there is a minister's chair behind with a table alongside of it on his right for his books and papers, on which is a stand containing flowers and plants, well selected. 75 On the ministers left is another stand devoted entirely to flowers and plants of a choice order, and to complete the furniture of the platform a green porcelain spittoon, close by the minister's chair. All the articles of furniture on the platform (except of course the spittoon) are apparently made cf cedar wood, and are marked " Mount of Olives, 1868." The church is seated for about 2,700, and I under- stand that Mr. Beecher shews his good sense in re- fusing to have a larger church built for him. There is a Lecture Hall behind the church which can ac- commodate some 1,500, and there are various church offices and rooms besides. Service is announced to commence at half-past ten, and I got there three quarters of an hour before that time. People were then beginning to assemble and the very few unappro- priated seats at the back of the lower gallery were nearly full. The seats of seatholders are only re- served up to ten minutes before the service com- mences, and by half-past ten the place is filled ; half the congregation being men. The preacher comes in dressed in ordinary walking attire, puts his •' wide- awake " on the preaching platform floor, takes off his great-coat before the audience, and sits down in his chair. You will not be surprised to hear that he did not wear a gown and scorned even a white necktie. Mr. Beecher I should suppose to be about 55 years 7 6 of age. He is a clean-shaven man, with no hair on his face, rather stout, and about my own height, wears his hair long behind his ears, has good, regular features, clean, sharp, well-cut lips, and a good classi- cal nose, a full eye and heavy eyelids. His counten- ance is bright and cheerful, having a sort of half suppressed twinkle in his eye, and a smile on his lips. Behind the preaching platform there is a fine organ, a choir consisting of about 90 or 100 persons, the majority being females, seated at the junction of each side of the gallery and in front of the organ. There are a few paid voices, the leader being a tall man with grey, Brutus-like hair — looking exery inch what he is — a German musical professor. He beats time quietly with his hand. Before the minister came in a voluntary was played on the organ, and then the choir consumed nearly ten minutes in singing an anthem, not even given out by the minister, the con- gregation remaining sitting, and there being solo parts. After the anthem we had a short introductory prayer and reading of the New Testament only. Then another hymn followed by a prayer, and again the singing of a hymn. After this we had the sermon, lecture or essay, or whatever you like to call it. The text given out was not, however, the text of his address so far as I could discern. The text given out was from Romans, 8th chapter 16th verse, 77 " The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God." The address lasted for 70 minutes, of which only the last ten could be said in any sense to have been devoted to the text. The minister had some notes on a sheet of letter paper before him. He seldom referred to them, but now and then appeared to read one or two sentences entirely from them. The first hour of the address was consumed on the (1) power and functions of the imagination, (2) praise of religious enthusiasm and asceticism, (3) the power of appreciation, (4) the power of religious exaltation. The first head was a very eloquent piece of declamation, well worked up, which might have been delivered in any Atheist Hall just as well as in any place of divine worship. The other heads, which were for the most part quite beyond my poor mental powers to comprehend even, were, so far as I could judge, marred by illogical and extravagant passages frequently delivered with great vehemence, in a voice powerful but not melodious. Two or three times the audience was excited to general and audible titters. Referring to pertinacious prayer, in the case of the unjust judge, he said, " This poor widow (serve the judge right) made him feel the length of her tongue," and so on. He went through, in a sort of dramatic way, the different modes in which persons would treat a beautiful opal ring if 78 handed them to look at, and ultimately sat on one arm of the chair, indulging in the most ridiculous description of the exalted feelings and heavenly as- pirations which were supposed to have been caused in the mind of the one observer who really appre- ciated the beauty of the ring. This illustration was supposed to be connected with the power of apprecia- tion. There were many other oddities in this dis- course to which I will not refer, but I would remark that he talked about Christ's "gentlemanliness;" He said that spiritual pride " rises as easily as toad-stools out of a dunghill," and I wish that some of Mr. Beecher s great admirers in England could hear and would note what I am now about to say. In the most — what shall I say — vindictive manner, he talked about the barbarous theory of the imputation of the sin of Adam on the human race, remarking in a loud voice (so as to cause an open laugh) " We do not stand in need of it. Every man can set himself up in sin without going back for it to his ancestors." The service was over a little after half-past twelve, an organ voluntary playing out the congregation, and the prevailing impression which was left on my mind was that I had been to a public meeting. This was somewhat enhanced by the fact that at the very instant the blessing was pronounced the congregation rose and the clatter of lifting up the chair seats fixed 79 at the sides of the pews in the isles was simply terrible, while the congregation chattered and laughed away unrestrained. GENERAL REMARKS. I have now occupied as much time as I can ask you to concede to me with reference to things I saw and places I visited, and will proceed to some general remarks with reference to the people, their habits, and institutions. There was one peculiar feature which struck me very remarkably in several parts of the States, viz., the extraordinary jealousies which exists between different States and competing Cities. For instance, the jealousy which exists between the old and new Englanders, and notably between the inhabitants of Boston and the New York people, is very remarkable. People in New England, and especially the people of Boston are in the habit of setting themselves up as quite a superior section of the United States, and they undoubtedly have produced many of the most leading and eminent Americans of every class. The New Yorkers and Philadelphians again are remarkable for the spirit of personal jealousy which exists between the inhabitants of each city, 8o while if we go further west, the exhibition of this feeling amongst the people of the two great neigh- bouring cities of St. Louis and Chicago assumes a most ludicrous aspect. The former is according to all accounts a very large, thriving, substantial, but somewhat old-fashioned place in the great Mississippi Valley, with a good deal of the French element still left in it. The French formerly had large possessions in the Mississippi Valley, which they ultimately surrendered, partly by treaty and partly for a money consideration. In the newspapers published in these two cities, you will find the most insulting and personal sort of articles, imputing want of public spirit, decay of trade, insolvency and ruin to the rival city, and boasting of the great advances of their own city. Talk of the jealousies and " wars which women have," why the articles I saw in some of the Chicago papers as regards St. Louis, were as bad a specimen of folly and childish little-mindedness on the part of men, and upon a public matter recollect, as could be noted in the personal controverseys of any two empty-headed school girls who were jealous of each other s personal attractions. There is a saying current which represents the sort of pride and peculiarities of three of the principal American cities. It is said that at New York the question which is asked with reference to any man is, Hoiv much money has he got ? in Philadelphia, Who was his father? in Boston, What does he knoiv? The suggestions in these three questions being, that in New York money is the idol ; in Philadelphia (which you will recollect is the city connected with the Declaration of Indepen- dence), it is ancestry ; and in Boston and the State of Massachusetts, where are many of their important seats of learning, it is education or knowledge. CORRUPTION AMONGST OFFICIALS AND PUBLIC MEN. I now approach a subject upon which it is impos- sible for anyone who has spent even a few weeks in America to be silent. One is of necessity painfully oppressed with evidence of the existence of a great and sore public evil which is preying upon the very vitals of the country, and degrading it not only in the sight of the world, but reducing its credit and destroying its character in the eyes of its best citizens, who mourn over the condition of things without being able effectively to attack the evil. I mean the corruption of many of its public men — or rather (I F 82 would say in the first instance, at all events) of its public officials. At the present moment every news- paper is literally reeking with accounts of Government prosecutions of officials in all parts of the States. A wide-spread system or net-work of fraud on the part of Government officials, in collusion with others out- side the official circle, seems to have existed in many parts of the United States, which has had its deve- lopement, amongst other ways, in the plots and frauds of what are known as " whiskey rings," the simple object being to cheat the Government in the matter of Excise duties, It is impossible, as I have said, to take up an American newspaper without coming across numerous accounts of prosecutions of Govern- ment servants for the grossest breaches of ordinary duty and honesty. Even at the present moment, General Babcock, who is the private secretary of President Grant, is under prosecution for complicity in the Whiskey Ring at St. Louis, a prosecution which was undertaken not willingly by the President, but under the pressure of public opinion, in conse- quence of the incidental publication in a Government trial of certain letters and telegrams to implicated parties admitted by General Babcock to be in his handwriting, which were of the most compromising character. We hear, in addition, of pension frauds ; of frauds by officials in the Treasury Department of 83 Washington, with reference to the payment of Cotton claims in the appropriation of the English "Alabama" compensation, and also as to municipal matters, all based and worked upon t K e fundamental crime of a Government or public servant or servants having deliberately gone in to plunder his employers and grossly betray his trust. I have already referred to the fearful amount of robbery perpetuated on the citizens of New York by such men as "Boss Tweed" ; and, unfortunately, wherever one goes accounts keep ringing - ' m one's ears as to the combinations or " rings " which either are now at work or had been at work in plundering the citizens, in the misappropria- tion of public monies, or in promoting frauds on the revenue. It is indeed most startling and painful to meet on all sides with evidence of the existence of a fearfully wide-spread state of corruption. There are many causes to which this serious evil can be attributed. In the first place, I have no hesitation in saying that what seems to me to be the great want in America is that which we possess, happily, in such a large degree in the United Kingdom, viz., that high form of public spirit and love of public life for its own sake, which induces many hundreds, not to say thousands, of Englishmen in the various walks of public life to devote their time and abilities to the F 2 8 4 public service, without looking for any emolument, direct or indirect. I am not here to say that there are not many faults to be found amongst our public men of all grades ; we cannot say that we are alto- gether free from jobbery, or that many of us are not actuated by low or indirect motives in our attempting to enter into the various paths of public life in England. But what I rejoice in is, that I believe there are hundreds and thousands of men in the various boards, corporations, commissions, and minor public assemblies, as well as in the House of Com- mons, who are in the main actuated by an honorable desire to achieve distinction in the service of their fellow citizens without, at all events seeking, any direct pecuniary advantage or consideration for their services. In America, unfortunately, whether we have to deal with the Senator, the Congress man, the Mayor, or the Sheriff, every one of them is paid for his services. The principle, therefore, upon which he is dealt with by the State is that his services need and deserve payment, while the inconsistency is com- mitted by the State (after having admitted this as the principle) of seeking to retain the services of persons filling such offices upon a manifestly in- adequate allowance. We consequently have this state of things that, in the case of the Congress man, who has a thousand a year sterling, we frequently find a person who gets into that position simply to secure the emolument, having failed in trade, while others who make sacrifices in the way of business on taking such a position feel that they have a right to complain of the inadequacy of the payment, and both alike, therefore, hold that they may make up in an Indirect zvay for the deficiency in the State allowance. Therefore it is that we hear right and left from Americans themselves imputations of bribery against Members of the Legislature, especially in the States Legislatures, which, as you are doubtless aware, are local Legislatures upon the principal of Home Rule, distinct from the United States Congress and Senate. These State legislators are paid a small daily fee while the House is in Session, and it is openly stated that the support of Members for particular bills is obtained by direct money bribes, or other valuable consideration. Let me, in order that you may see what is said even by Americans themselves, read you a short extract from the sermon of a well-known American preacher, delivered in New York while I was there. It was part of a sermon on " Public Iniquities," from the text " When He beheld the city, He wept over " it." " But look around you, and there are other 86 44 temptations. See the pressure in our cities of " political life. How many are going down under 41 this pressure ! There is not one man out of a "thousand that can stand political life in our cities. " Once in a while a man comes and says, 4t Now I " ' love my city and my country, and, in the strength 44 ' of God, I am going in as a sort of missionary to " 4 reform politics.' The Lord is on his side. He 44 comes out as pure as when he went in, and with 44 such an idea I believe he will be sustained ; but he ' 4 is the exception. When such an upright, pure 44 man does step into politics, the first thing the news- 44 papers take the job of blackening him all over, and 4i they review all his past life, and they distort every- u thing that he has done, until, from thinking himself " a highly respectable citizen, he begins to contemplate " what a mercy it is that he has been so long out of " Sing Sing. Oh, what a bewitching thing is political " life for many of our young men ! They go in at 44 the grog-shop caucus ; they come out at the ballot 44 box. To get nominations they must sidle up along " the rum-soaked population. They must 4 treat ; ' " they must go into the low saloon, which is marked 44 by a mug of beer on the sign ; they must cross palms " with the wretches ; they must chuckle over their 44 low jokes ; yea, they must go down to the level of " their constituency, What is the matter with that «7 " man who once moved in polite circles, and often in " Christian circles ? What is the matter with his 44 eye ? It is not so clear. What is the matter with " his cheek ? It has an unnatural flush. What is " the matter of his hat ? It is a rowdy's hat. Why " has his entire nature gone down seventy-five per "cent, in moral tone? He has gone into politics. " The most hopeless, God-forsaken people in our " cities are those who, not in a missionary spirit, but " with the idea of sordid gain, have gone into " political life. .... For the last twenty-five " years in our great cities the political history has " been a history of fraud, of gouging, and of " swindling, until our sister city has a debt of 44 $120,000,000. Park swindlers, water board " swindlers, penitentiary swindlers, city armoury " swindlers ; swindlers black and white ; swindlers " of all sizes. Fraudulent men applying for fraudulent 44 contracts to fraudulent officers, who wrote out the " contracts on stolen paper, and then went home over " a pavement, every stone of which was laid in dis- " honour, in a carriage, every spoke and rivet of " which were witnesses of their crime. Fraudulent " election inspectors seated around fraudulent ballot 44 boxes, taking fraudulent votes, giving in fraudulent 44 returns, and sending to the State Legislature men 44 more fit for the idiot asylum or the penitentiary." ss Grievous as are the imputations frequently cast even upon members of the different Legislatures, and in some cases perhaps unjustly, there is abundant evidence that the whole of the Civil Service system of the United States with its many thousands of officials needs to be entirely reconstituted before they can get rid of the prevailing system of disgrace- ful corruption. To my mind it appears that another cause or root of this evil is as plain as can possibly be. The President is elected for a term of four years, and although there have been not unfrequent instances of his being re-elected for a second term, it is the exception and not the rule, while the spirit of the constitution as well as the inclinations of the people are the other way. On the President coming into office every Goverment Official, from the highest to the lowest, is either entirely changed, or if re- appointed must be re-appointed by the act of the President himself. The patronage of the whole of the Civil Service is in his hands, and even every little post-master in the United States is liable to, and as a rule is displaced. A Civil servant, therefore entering upon his employment, finds himself with an inadequate salary, face to face with the probability, if not the certainty, that his period of government employment will end at the expiry of the four years. He thinks that the State not only pays him badly, but 89 indirectly intimates that he must supplement his bad pay by underhand proceedings and emolument, and accordingly in the large majority of cases (as we must believe), he sets to work by such indirect means to obtain what he considers is a fair and satisfactory return for his four years' work. What can you expect from such a state of things as this ? When the present President Grant presented himself for re-election, after the expiry of his first years' term, every Civil servant of the State was expected to subscribe one weeks' stipend towards the re-election expenses of the President. In such a state of things is it possible to keep up anything like a spirit of honesty and integrity on the part of the Government Officials ? And is it to be wondered at, that under a system in which such a proceeding was capable of being enacted, the whole of the civil service of the country is pratically corrupt and degraded ? I am not at all prepared to endorse, so far as any information upon which I could justifiably rely, the statements which have frequently been made in England as to the existence of judical corruption in the United States. It is a charge of such a grave and serious nature, that it should not be handled or recognised by anyone except in the possession of the clearest evidence. But it cannot be denied, that 90 the system of popular election of the Judges for a limited period of time is one which must of necessity be attended with the most serious evils. The Judges of the Superior Courts of the United States are appointed by the President, and for life, and there is nothing to prevent the very best men from taking such offices, except the comparatively inadequate salaries they receive ; at all events, there is nothing in the nature of their original appointment, or its tenure which renders them directly amenable to popular prejudice or which should prompt corrup- tion. But with regard to the States or local Judges, most unquestionably the position of matters is very unsatisfactory, when it is found that among the questions raised at the popular election of a Judge is such an one as this, whether the candidate would or would not — in the event of his being elected— be prepared to decide in favour of or against the validity of a particular class of security under which towns or cities forming part of his very constituency were sought to be made liable, and yet upon the clearest and most unqualified statement this was the evidence which I obtained as to the working of the electoral system in connection with the local Judgeships in the United States. One of the consequential evils of the corrupt system in vogue amongst public men in America is, 9 1 that not only is the actual existence of such corrup- tion freely canvassed and bandied about ; but in the heat of party strife, and in the exercise of that un- checked power of vituperation possessed by the American Press, no sooner does a man, connected with any party, appear upon the scene as a candidate for any public political office, than he is set upon by all sorts of imputations of personal misconduct, corruption, private misdeeds, and otherwise such as to make the life of any sensitive-minded man miser- able. This is one of the causes of the desertion of public life by multitudes of the very best men in the United States, who will not submit to have their characters and conduct assailed in the most odious manner, and their lives made unhappy, simply because they appear before the public as candidates in connection with some political movement. I have dealt thus, plainly, and I will admit severely, with this matter of public corruption in America, not in any unfriendly spirit, nor with the desire unduly to compare and elevate ourselves. We have — heaven knows enormous delinquencies, com- mercial and social — great public sores — to acknow- ledge and lament over, and considering the superior advantages in some respects of England, I do not maintain that we are, relatively speaking, one whit in advance of America; but in this, and in other matters, 9 2 I hold thatwe are inerested in the welfare and character of that country, and every true-hearted unprejudiced intelligent Englishman must desire to see America free, prosperous, and happy ; the character of its public men untarnished ; and long also to find that honesty is the rule rather than the exception in its Cival service, and therefore it is, that I have spoken with no uncertain sound on this sad subject. Let me say, I am sure that one of the best, and first results of- the visit of an impartial Englishman to America, is to intensify the recollection that after all we have no right to treat Americans as strictly aliens or foreigners; that we are closely akin to them ; that our history is interwoven with theirs, and that we at least can well afford to forget the conflicts, antagonisms, victories, and disasters of the past ; and, as I hold, should cherish the warmest hopes and expectations that this great Continent will still further grow and prosper, continuing, as it is now, the largest English- speaking nation of the world. The population of the United States of America is now 43 millions ; having far outstripped its aged, though still prosperous and glorious mother ; but I hope, and verily believe, that as this stalwart infant grows in years, the recollection of conflicts and differences with the parent will die away yet more (as they are even now fast disappearing), and that the great fund of mutual 93 respect, forbearance, and sympathy, will ever be increasing and deepening, not in any mere sordid commercial spirit arising from considerations of trade or commerce, but flowing from the belief that it behoves all English-speaking communities, ever to recognise their common origin ; and in the matter of public honesty as well as of peace and war, to set an example to the rest of the civilized world. Americans cannot, and, I believe, would not, deny that the grand principles upon which they base all their love and thirst of freedom, and all their broad claims of popular right, are really an inheritance handed down by an English ancestry. They can be traced up, in lines more or less distinct, to glorious pages of English history. They had their original outcome in the burning utterances of English orators and the patriotic deeds of English statesmen, in the sweet cadences of our national songs, and the flowing numbers and heroic stanzas of our English poets. They are to be noted (sometimes, it is true, but feebly) in our laws ; but no one can deny that they have been sealed and honored by the shed blood or the burning body of many an English martyr. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. I cannot omit to notice the inspiriting effect pro- duced upon me, when travelling in the States, by the 94 fact that wherever one went the English language was predominant. This, to me, was the great healer or corrective of solitude., and seemed of itself to reduce immensely the physical distance which sepa- rated one from Fatherland and Home. Go where you will in the States, amongst the highest and the lowest, in the city and the village — far away in the West, as well as in the great Babel city of New York — in every store, and at every desk,- -the Englishman could take heart of grace, and pride himself that, at all events, there is one all but uni- versal homage paid to the Mother Country, in the prevalence of the Anglo-Saxon tongue, among not only the natural-born citizens, but the denizen inhabitants of America. Yes, the tide of German emigrants has been flowing with more or less force for very many years past, almost taking entire possession of some Western States ; our sister country, Ireland, found relief for its famine-stricken inhabitants by sending forth thou- sands of families to encamp upon the virgin soil of American wastes ; the sable descendants of Ham, in teeming thousands, are now spread over the whole country, north and south, and east and west ; while the red man keeps up many of his Aboriginal preju- dices and habits, and even much Aboriginal separation and seclusion, in districts specially set apart for him by his invaders ; lout on the bosom of every one of 95 these great streams of population, as well as amongst the somewhat proud inhabitants of the first Thirteen States, we find high aloft, in unchallenged supremacy, our mother tongue, as an influence to which all alike at last have to succumb, and as the only coin that will really pass current amongst them all. THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION AND UNITY. I shall not venture to trespass upon the great questions arising out of the late Civil War, the ex- tent of State Rights, or the probabilities of ultimate division of the now United States of America. They are too vast, too heating, too intricate, too difficult, and in some respects, too problematical to permit of satisfactory treatment here. Suffice it to say that while it is too plain that there are elements and forces at work which, when aided hereafter (as they as- suredly will be) by the existence in the far West of several large and powerful States, may in all human probability lead to renewed efforts for a separation, 96 not into two Sovereign States, but into three, one cannot wonder at the intense and earnest struggle made by the North a few years ago to preserve the unity and integrity of the United States. In endless ways which I need not go into, it struck me when there, and having the opportunity of considering the matter on American soil, and from an American point of view, that the influence, prosperity and power of the States as well as their general growth and pro- gress would have been sadly diminished by the success of the Southern Confederacy ; while I take occasion here to repudiate with earnestness and sincerity that selfish notion which I know took pos- session of some of us in England during the political struggle in America that our interests lay in the direction of American disintegration. I know the prejudices many, aye, most Englishmen have -against a Republic, and we are too apt to think that because that very delicate and complicated piece of machinery called a Constitutionol or Limited Monarchy, suits us Englishmen admirably, under the shadow of which we can with some satisfaction (despite the evils yet unredressed, and the needful reforms yet uneffected) sit under our own vine and fig-tree none making us afraid ; therefore it would suit every other country. Why, how senseless the thought ! It has taken us some hundreds of years to get to where we are. 97 We have only got what, we have after much civil commotion, after going through some national perils and up-heavings. We may further lay claim to a wonderful amount of stability of character, a natural love of order, some power of self-denial, respect of authority, regards for what is old (provided it is not too rickety), and a vast fund of common sense, which go to form that solid rock of public opinion and regard upon which the Throne of England now stands so firmly. The idea of a Monarchy being- fitted or fittable to such a country as America, is about the wildest dream that was ever entertained by mortal visionary. Where is their Royal line ? Do Monarchs grow ? Can you give me an instance, in times that could with any degree of truth be called modern ( I will not say of a purely elective Monarchy for there are none such but) of even a new dynasty engrafted in an Historical Monarchy, that has been really a permanent success. What say you to Greece, to Spain or to France ? But would any sane Statesman set his hand to the wild Utopian scheme of erecting a Monarchy in a country so saturated in its history and traditions with Demo- cratic and Republican principles as the United States ? Listen to these words in the original Declaration of Independence signed on the 4th July, 1776 — ~ 9 8 whether you agree with them or not is beside the question : — " We hold these truths to be self-evident. That " all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by " their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that ''among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of " happiness ; that to secure these rights, governments " are instituted among men, deriving their just powers ''from the consent of the governed" and interpret this by a study of the leading lines upon which the written Constitution of the United States of America is constructed, and you will see how utterly and irreconcileably opposed to an Hereditary Monarchy are the principles underlying not only all the Institutions but the modes of thought and life of that great people. As well, moreover, might you attempt to transplant an oak, centuries old, on to the pavement of the London streets, and expect it to grow, or to stand up against the tempest blast, as to foist an Hereditary Monarchy on a Country like America without an Hereditary Peerage as its necessary buttress. AMERICAN LOVE OE TITLES. Connected with the fundamental American prin- ciple just referred to as contained in the Declaration 99 of Independence that " all men are born equal," I must notice a little national inconsistency or failing which is continually manifested by Americans — viz., a love of titles towards which they have a strong tendency. It is true that they have not got far at present ; they have not erected a long table of pre- cedence ; but they have a hankering after one. Witness the enormous love on the slenderest of grounds for military titles. I was personally approach- ing by steps to positions and honors of some dis- tinction when in America. If they had only been a little quicker and more copious in conferring titles upon me, I am not su»*e what the result might have been on my personal vaniiy or as regards my taking up my abode fixedly there. As it was, I got on pretty well. Most of the letters adressed to me usually came with the title " Hon." prefixed, while one gentleman, an utter stranger, who had not even the excuse of inspecting my somewhat martial appear- ance was good enough to dub me " Colonel " right off. I have no intention now of detaining you longer than by a few words in conclusion as to the progress made by America during the last century and its present material position in the world. This is necessary in order to leave on your minds a fair and just impression of its real power and majesty, as well IOO as to give you a basis upon which you may meditate and speculate— if so minded -upon what this giant will yet become. A CENTURY OF PROGRESS. The completion of the first Century of American Independence has naturally attracted the attention of public men and writers in America, and drawn them into a retrospect of the progress which has been made by that great country during these past hundred years. A short summary of some of the results upon which they naturally pride themselves will be interesting and instructive. The Thirteen States which were parties to the original Declaration of Independence have now in- creased to 3J , while there are eleven territories as they are called, which are placed under State Governors, but have no constitution as yet conceded K<) them, and are not therefore in the union as regards Legislative power and rights. The site of the original Republic was confined to a narrow strip of territory along the Atlantic sea- board, while it now in- cludes all the vast basin of the Mississippi and extends ■IOI itself to the shores of the Pacific. The area of the United States on the formation of the Federal Union in 1 789 was about 800,000 square miles. It is now more than 3,600,000. The population of the States in 1776 was about three millions. It is now 43 millions, a growth which may in part be. attributed to natural increase ; but much more largely as I apprehended to the result of emigration from Europe. You will be able to estimate the enormous increase of the United States accruing from emigration, when I tell you that during the 20 years— 1854 t0 1 %7A~ the total immigration at the port of New York was 3,329,790. Of the constituent elements of this i migration, Germany stands far at the head ; next comes Ireland, and substantially behind these we have England. The relative rate of contri- bution of emigrants by these three countries into the port of New York may be understood from a comparision of the returns for the eight years 1867 to 1874, both inclusive which stood as follows: — Germany, 748,641 ; Ireland, 486,612; England, 264,889; to which I will add Scotland 66,811, and Wales 8,000, making up the contribution of the United Kingdom to 826,312. It is perhaps a little singular to notice, that while France during the same period contributed, out of a population of 36,000,000 only 30,740 emigrants, the 102 little country of Sweden sent out of a population of only 4 millions, no less than 90,013. You can judge of the strange medley or character of the population of many cities in the States, when I tell you, that of the million inhabitants of New York City, over 400,000 were born in foreign countries. Ireland being far away at the head with over 200,000, and Germany following next with 80,000. I am inclined to think that some of the inventions which American writers ascribe to America as producing the originals, would be disputed by some of us in England, but I would remark that they lay claim to having produced the first steam-boat that was ever applied to practical purposes, in the case of the " Clermont," built by Robert Fulton, and placed for passage on the Hudson River in September 1807. They allege themselves to be the leaders in railroad construction with, as I believe, very doubtful pro- priety; for, while it is said that in 1827 a railroad was opened in Quincey, in the state of Massachusets, it is admitted that it was a mere tramroad to carry granite and that the first locomotive engine used on any, American road, was on the Baltimore and Ohio line was as late as 1831. There are now 65,000 miles of railroad in the United States, including that wonderful work, the continuous line from New York to San Francisco, which takes a passenger from the Atlantic to the Pacific — a distance of 3600 miles in 6 days. They claim in the person of Professor Morse, to be the inventor of the Electro- Magnetic Telegraphic — while somewhat selfishly and exclusively on the same principle that the French are in the habit of claiming all the victories in the Crimea (leaving us out in the cold altogether), they claim exclusive title to that wonderful work — the Atlantic Cable. There are, however, unquestionably, in the wide field of invention, many machines and instruments domestic, agricultural, manufacturing, and otherwise, to the invention of which our American cousins can un- doubtedly exhibit a just claim, such as the sewing- machine, the reaper, the steam plough, and others that might be mentioned. I had not an opportunity of visiting the patent office at Washington, which contains a collection of hundreds of thousands of models of American ingenuity and skill ; but on every hand I was informed of the wonderful character of this sight and the great instruction communicated by an Inspector of this great depot of the inventions of America. With reference to the progress in the pro- ductions of America it is to be remembered that the United States are now practically divided into three great distinctive divisions ; in the centre the vast agricultural country of the Mississippi, in which is produced the major part of all the cereals, wool, io4 cotton, sugar, tobacco, hay, pork and beef of the United States ; the Eastern district which is the land of the loom, the foundry, the mill and the workshop, and where also are to be found great coal fields, which contribute the power to carry on all the manu- facturing industries of the country ; while the region of the west of the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Coast is what President Grant calls the " strong- box," or the store house of the precious metals of the country. America now claims to furnish the greater part of all the gold and silver of the world. The yearly agricultural products of the United States are estimated to be now ^500,000,000, and the gold mines are alleged to be capable of producing ^12,000,000 a year. There are nearly 1,000 cotton factories in America. Turning to the progress which has been made during the century in question in the way of com- merce, the disastrous results of the Cival War upon the commercial prosperity of the mercantile marine of America has prevented them making the same boast in this respect as in many others. Before the War the amount of tonnage of American ships was close upon six millions. In 1873 it had sunk to 3,612,000, while the value of exports and imports carried in American bottoms in the year i860 was over $500,000,000, or ^100,000,000 sterling. It is o5 now much less. There is, it is true, another side to this picture. The National Debt of America, which in i860 was under 14 millions sterling-, is now 450 millions ; this is 1 20 millions less than the highest point it reached in 1866. The ordinary expenses of the Government were in i860 13 millions sterling ; they are now 37 millions sterling exclusive of the interest on the debt. With regard to intellectual progress and the advance of literature, it should be noted that there are 500 daily papers, 4,300 weeklies, and 625 monthly periodicals published in the States ; that they have long had a well-established system of national education, very much akin to the German, with a roll of over seven million children attending the public schools, and that the)' further have 400 colleges and universities. There is much in all this retrospect to cause a justifiable feeling of satisfaction, not to say pride, in the breast of American citizens, and they may well look forward with high expectation to the future of their country. But it behoves them to learn the lessons inculcated by the past in their own history, as well as in that of many a strong nation now reduced or annihilated. How temporary and Meeting is the prosperity of even nations, kings, and peoples ! The sceptre which is wielded by an earthly monarch is H io6 handed to him for but a brief space, by the King of Heaven. The powers exercised by the govern- ments and legislatures of the world over all, both within and without the pale of civilization, to bring them under the domain of law and order, is an emanation from the Throne of the Eternal, and represents a delegated authority which The Great I AM gives and withdraws at His sovereign will and pleasure ; and all the prosperity and advantages enjoyed by nations, in respect of soil, climate, popu- lation, the arts, sciences, inventions, discoveries, and Avealth of every sort, are so many stewardships and trusts committed to a people not merely for their national good, but, in some degree, for the benefit of the whole Human Race. Let us, and all, cherish such considerations as these ; for they are calculated to foster within us right principles, to lead us on to grand designs, to invest us with high and noble purposes, to destroy our insular selfishness, to act with true patriotic spirit, to promote the best interests of mankind, and, above and beyond all, to implant within us on a firm foundation the profound convic- tion, that for everything we have and enjoy, personal, social, political, and national, we are not only indebted, but shall all alike be responsible, to Him who has proclaimed Himself, on His Creative and His Judg- ment Throne, to be King of kings, and Lord of lords! Note. — It is not usual to put a Preface at the end of a Book, though I have generally maintained, that to understand, or at least, to appreciate, a Preface, you must first read the Book. The converse, is not always the truth ; that to understand the Book, you should first read the Preface. I really feel it necessary, however, to apologize for so superficial a production, being put into print at all. The kindly feelings and unmerited approbation, of many friends, have however prevailed over my own opinion. I trust that if this should fall into the hands of any stranger or critic, he will be good enough to recollect, that this /node of communicating the knowledge and impressions I derived from my American visit, has been adopted simply out of deference to the desire of many kind personal friends whom I do not like to disoblige. 28, Hamilton Terrace, N.W. 1st March, 1876. f r>#£- , v^ *^" ^°v'fr 498t I? UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY