GIFT OF 
 
 SEELEY W. MIDI) 
 
 and 
 
 GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER EI.SASSKR 
 DR. JOHN R. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD 
 JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F.SARTORI 
 
 to tkt 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH 
 
 JOHN FISKE
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 1 7 t 
 AU6 * 1950 
 
 
 1 
 
 Form L-9 15m-8,' 
 
 4MG9 iftq 
 
 Southern Branch 
 of the 
 
 University of California 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 Form L 1 
 
 E 
 
 168 
 R1&
 
 
 x/J 
 
 ~? 
 
 COLUMBIA AND CANADA.
 
 WORKS BY W. FRASER RAE. 
 
 WILKES, SHERIDAN, FOX: 
 
 The Opposition under George HI. 
 
 Demy 8vo. 
 
 e,. " A very entertaining, as well as instrctive 
 
 one to politicians, and to the public generally, to give them a book so valuable 
 in all raspecU as this." Scottman. 
 
 WESTWARD BY RAIL. 
 A Journey to San Francisco and Back, and a Visit to the Mormons. 
 
 Third and cheaper Edition. Small 8vo. With Map. 
 
 " Mr Fra;r Rae unites the power of a keen and thoughtful observer with the skill and 
 tact of a graphic delineator. The evident candour and singleness of purpose with which 
 
 would weih ariht the induce- 
 
 auory on portant 
 
 Kerieic. " Mr. Fraser Bae's interesting work." Revue det Deux Mondes. 
 
 NOTES ON ENGLAND. 
 
 By H. TAINE, D.C.L. Oxon. 
 Translated, with a Biographical and Critical Introduction. 
 
 New and cheaper Edition. Crown 8vo. 
 
 " Even were France more prolific of literature than it is at the moment, no one should 
 neglect to read these letters. Timet. " It is to be wished that M. Taine's book were in 
 even- Englishman's hands. It is appreciative, without flattery ; critical, without ill- 
 nature. In it we are helped to see ourselves as others see us ; and while our pride in 
 the peculiar merits of English institutions and society is in no way diminished, a not 
 unm eded stimulus is given to the patriotic desire to overcome the acknowledged and 
 glaring faults which are the greatest obstacles to all true progress." & lobe. 
 
 ENGLISH PORTRAITS. 
 
 By C. A. SAINTE-BEUVE, of the French Academy. 
 Collected and Translated from the Catueriet de Lundi. 
 
 P. Introductory Chapter by the Translator. Sainte-Beuve's Life : His 
 Writings: General Comments. I. Mary, Queen of Scots. n. Lord Chesterfield. in. 
 Benjamin Franklin. IV. Ed ward Gibbon. V. William Cowper. VI. English Literature, 
 by EL Tainc. - V 1 1. Pope as a Poet. 
 
 ' A very pleasant and interesting book. The translation is careful and intelligent." 
 Saturday BerifK. "In his selection of the 'Portraits' the translator has shown great 
 judgment, as he has exhibited remarkable skill and elegance in his translation. It is to 
 be trusted that they will be read widely and pondered attentively as a monument of 
 what a critic may attempt and what functions criticism may discharge." World. 
 
 DALUY, ISBISTER, & Co., 56, Ludgate Hill, B.C.
 
 COLUMBIA AND CANADA: 
 
 on % drtat $UjubKt aito tjje Iteto gmnhdon. 
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO 
 
 WESTWARD BY RAIL.' 
 
 BY 
 
 W. FRASER RAE. 
 
 ILontJon : 
 DALDY, ISBISTER, & CO. 
 
 56, LUDGATE HILL. 
 1877. 
 
 [ The Right of Translation is reserved.'} 
 
 83704
 
 LONDON : 
 
 OIMJBBT AND BIVINOTON, PRINTERS, 
 ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.
 
 Debicatum. 
 
 TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 WILLIAM EDWARD FORSTER, M.P. 
 
 DEAR SIR, While dedicating this work to you with your per- 
 mission, I wish to express my conviction that few living statesmen 
 are more cordially in sympathy than yourself, alike with the great 
 colonies of the British Empire, and the great country which, un- 
 happily, has ceased to form one of its grandest members. For 
 many years I have been engaged in preparing a history of that 
 splendid off-shoot from the parent state. Partly with a view to 
 acquire special information regarding the early and local annals of 
 the country, and partly that I might be an eye-witness of a note- 
 worthy spectacle, I revisited the United States in the year when 
 the centenary of their independence was celebrated, and when the 
 event was commemorated by an International Exhibition. This 
 work is chiefly a record of what impressed me the most during 
 that visit. It also contains the conclusions at which I have 
 arrived concerning the relation of the Dominion of Canada to its 
 powerful neighbour across the St. Lawrence and the Motherland 
 across the Atlantic. I have shadowed forth in the course of it a 
 new and simple plan for effecting that closer connexion between 
 the English-speaking people of the earth which, in a memorable 
 speech to the members of the Union League Club of New York, 
 and as memorable an address to the members of the Philosophical 
 Institution of Edinburgh, you avowed to be one of the strongest 
 desires of your heart. Believe me to be, faithfully yours, 
 
 W. FEASEK EAE.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 FROM THE THAMES TO THE HUDSON .... 30 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE EMPIRE CITY ........ 44 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE ... 63 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF 1876 . .82 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EXHIBITION . . t . 107 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE OF PHILADELPHJA . . 127 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ...... 141 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE CAPITAL OF THE UNION . . 147 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CAPITAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS 162
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 SARATOGA AND WEST POINT . . . 186 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 SARATOGA SPRINGS . 1$ 5 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 A TRIP THROUGH CANADA . 204 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO . . . 218 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 TRAVELLERS AND BANKERS IN NORTH AMERICA . . 247 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 IMPRESSIONS OF TORONTO ... 252 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 TORONTO TO SOUTHAMPTON . . 260 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON .... 265 
 
 I HAVE learned since the first chapter was in type that the feat recounted 
 at page 24 of the Allan Steamer Peruvian has been surpassed by that of the 
 White Star Steamer Britannic. The latter made the trip from the Mersey 
 to the Hudson and back in 24 days and 7 hours in September, and in 24 days 
 and 3 hours in November, 1876. I ought to have stated at page 27 that Mr. G. 
 Hamilton Fletcher was joint founder and is joint manager of the Oceanic Steam 
 Navigation Company, commonly called the White Star Line. 
 
 At page 18, the British and American Steam Navigation Company and the 
 Great Western Company have been transposed ; the former were the owners of 
 the President, and the latter of the Great Britain named at page 19.
 
 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 I. 
 
 BEIDGTNG THE ATLANTIC. 
 
 IN 1776, it took ten days to go from Washington's 
 camp before the town of Boston to the Hall in the 
 city of Philadelphia where the Delegates from the 
 thirteen United Colonies held their meetings; the 
 same distance can be traversed now in as many 
 hours. Less time is now required to cross the 
 Atlantic than was expended a century ago in jour- 
 neying between the capital of Massachusetts and 
 the city of brotherly love. The shortest letter 
 which our forefathers ever sent by post was written 
 in a longer time than is now occupied in transmitting 
 a message by telegraph between the continent of 
 Europe and the continent of North America. Thus 
 a peaceful revolution has been wrought which is 
 without parallel or precedent. Had it been achieved 
 at the middle of the eighteenth century, the revo- 
 lution of 1776 might never have occurred, or might 
 have been accomplished without deplorable shedding 
 of blood. Certainly, the baleful slaughter at New 
 Orleans, in 1814, would not have been a subject of 
 unavailing regret. 
 
 On the 24th of December, 1814, a treaty of peace
 
 2 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 was signed at Ghent between the United States and 
 the United Kingdom; on the llth of February, 
 1815, the welcome tidings were communicated to 
 the United States Government. While the news 
 was crossing the Atlantic, Sir Edward Pakenham, 
 who had planned the capture of New Orleans, led his 
 force to be shot down by the skilled marksmen whom 
 General Jackson had massed behind impregnable 
 entrenchments; General Pakenham met his death 
 at the head of the attacking column ; Major-General 
 Gibbs, the second in command, fell also; Major- 
 General Keane, the third in command, was disabled ; 
 two thousand British soldiers, who had followed 
 their chief with a stubbornness and fidelity meriting 
 a better issue, were wounded or killed ; the loss on 
 the other side was six men killed and seven men 
 wounded. This butchery, which has been misnamed 
 the Battle of New Orleans, first yielded General 
 Jackson fame as a hero and afterwards secured for 
 him the reward of election as President. The lives 
 of many brave men would have been prolonged and 
 the subsequent history of the United States might 
 have taken another direction had it been possible in 
 1814 to flash a message of peace through an electric 
 cable under the sea, or to forward a despatch over 
 it in a swift Cunarder. 
 
 Before the dispute between the American Colonies 
 and the Home Government grew embittered and porten- 
 tous, and when an amicable adjustment of differences 
 seemed possible, it was proposed to allay the ferment 
 by according to the Colonists representation in the 
 Parliament of Great Britain. Such a proposal, when 
 made in 1769, was ridiculed by Edmund Burke in his 
 trenchant style. Reverting to it in his magnificent
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 3 
 
 but ineffectual speech on conciliation with America, 
 he told the House of Commons, in 1775, that 
 " the last cause of this disobedient spirit in the 
 colonies is hardly less powerful than the rest, as it is 
 not merely moral, but laid deep in the natural con- 
 stitution of things. Three thousand miles of ocean lie 
 between you and them. No contrivance can prevent 
 the effect of this distance, in weakening government. 
 Seas roll and months pass between the order and 
 the execution, and the want of a speedy explana- 
 tion of a single point is enough to defeat a whole 
 system." He said in another part of the same speech : 
 " But let us suppose all these moral difficulties 
 got over. The ocean remains. You cannot pump 
 this dry ; and as long as it continues in its present 
 bed, so long all the causes which weaken authority 
 by distance will continue." Again : " You will 
 doubtless imagine that I am on the point of pro- 
 posing to you a scheme for a representation of the 
 colonies in Parliament. Perhaps I might be inclined 
 to entertain some such thought, but a great flood 
 stops me in my course. Opposuit natura I cannot 
 remove the eternal barriers of the creation." 
 
 The ocean has not yet been drained dry; the 
 eternal barriers of the creation remain fixed and 
 intact; but the swelling deep and other obstacles 
 which appeared formidable and invincible to Burke, 
 do not affect us with like sensations of impotence 
 and dismay. Though not removed, they have been 
 overcome or counteracted. The electric cable in 
 the ocean's bed is as well fitted for binding together 
 the inhabitants of the two worlds, as was Jupiter's 
 golden chain in joining the upper and lower spheres 
 in harmonious union. While the winds still blow 
 
 B 2
 
 4 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 as they list and the billows rage as of old, the 
 steamship carries goods and passengers across the 
 ocean with such regularity that the time occupied 
 can be calculated beforehand ; doing this, too, at a 
 rate of speed far in excess of the highest at which 
 Burke ever drove between London and Beacons- 
 field. The great flood which stopped him in his 
 course can now be crossed with ease and certainty. 
 The natural force of water in vapour has been found 
 to be a match for that of water in the wave. Natura 
 invicta naturd vincitur. 
 
 Six years before Burke lamented in the House 
 of Commons that the Atlantic Ocean formed an 
 insuperable barrier to rapid intercommunication 
 between the North American Continent and the 
 British Isles, James Watt had obtained a patent for 
 an engine with a double acting cylinder, an inven- 
 tion which was the source 'of all the subsequent 
 improvements which have rendered steam as obe- 
 dient as the lamp of the magician was to Aladdin, 
 and more useful to mankind than any power yet 
 exercised by a necromancer. The discovery of 
 Watt was not perfected till it was too late for Burke 
 using it as an argument and for the statesmen of 
 his day profiting by its results. 
 
 Two citizens of the United States, James Rumsey 
 and John Fitch, were among the earliest experi- 
 menters in steam navigation. Foiled in an attempt 
 to obtain a patent for his invention from the State 
 of Pennsylvania, the former visited England, where 
 he obtained one in 1788. His scheme is not the 
 first which has succeeded better on paper than in 
 practice. M. Brissot, who saw him in England in 
 1789, says that he had designed a steamboat which
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 5 
 
 would cross the Atlantic in fifteen days ; Rumsey 
 went to his grave with his dream unfulfilled. Fitch, 
 though more fortunate for a time, was the victim 
 of as great a disappointment. In 1786, he pro- 
 pelled a vessel by means of steam power, against the 
 current of the river Potomac, at the rate of five 
 miles an hour. One of his steamboats plied for a 
 time on the Delaware, where it was seen in the 
 autumn of 1788 by M. Brissot, who doubted 
 whether it would prove practically serviceable, as 
 several men were constantly engaged in keeping the 
 machinery in order. 1 A series of paddles actuated 
 by an engine moved this boat through the water 
 much in the same way that a canoe is impelled 
 along by paddles worked by hand ; the average 
 speed was seven miles an hour. The inventor 
 succeeded in propelling a vessel by steam power, 
 but he signally failed in getting general credit 
 for his ingenuity, or support from capitalists. Dr. 
 Thornton, who aided him to the extent of his 
 means, was jeered at as a dupe. Sensible men 
 considered Fitch to be an over-sanguine projector : 
 shaking their heads when they saw or talked about 
 him, they said, " Poor fellow ; what a pity he is 
 crazy !" According to them, an indisputable proof 
 of his insanity was that he should have said in 
 writing, when requesting, the loan of 50, wherewith 
 to complete his second steamboat, " This, sir, 
 whether I bring it to perfection or not, will be the 
 mode for crossing the Atlantic in time for packets 
 and armed vessels." 2 
 
 1 " Nouveau Voyage dans les Etats-Unis," par J. P. Brissot, 
 vol. i. pp. 338, 339, 340. 
 
 2 See "History of Merchant Shipping," by W. S. Lindsay^
 
 6 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 Fitch is said to have built a yawl in 1796, which 
 he moved through the water by means of a screw 
 propeller. All his inventions brought him, however, 
 but labour and sorrow. Oppressed by penury and 
 spurned with contumely by those who might have 
 immortalized themselves if they had opened their 
 purses to him, he committed suicide in 1798. 
 
 Forty-five years after Fitch had penned his pre- 
 diction about crossing the Atlantic, Dr. Lardner 
 delivered a lecture wherein, after admitting the 
 possibility of a steamship making a trip from 
 Valentia in Ireland, to St. Johns, in Newfound- 
 land, he added, " As to the project, however, which 
 was announced in the newspapers of making the 
 voyage directly from New York to Liverpool, it 
 was, he had no hesitation in saying, perfectly chi- 
 merical, and they might as well talk of making a 
 voyage from New York or Liverpool to the moon." 
 Upwards of forty years have passed away since this 
 dictum was uttered by a man of science, yet it still 
 continues more correct to apply the term chimerical 
 to voyages to the moon than to the trips of steamers 
 between Liverpool and New York. 
 
 Priority as to the invention of the steamboat has 
 been the subject of much aimless controversy and 
 many unfounded claims, the real point at issue 
 being forgotten and left unanswered in the heat 
 of discussion. Steam-engines, or fire-engines, as 
 they were originally termed, were designed, manu- 
 factured and employed long before Watt was born. 
 
 vol. iv. p. 43. Several facts in this chapter are taken from the 
 fourth volume of Mr Lindsay's elaborate work. Those readers 
 who desire further details will be amply repaid by turning to 
 Mr. Lindsay's pregnant and pleasant pages.
 
 BEIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 7 
 
 Though the steam-engine of the present day is a 
 very different machine from the best engine which 
 left the factory of Boulton and Watt, yet the fame 
 and service of Watt are not lessened by the sub- 
 sequent advances beyond his best achievements. 
 Not the first projector, but the man who first 
 renders an invention workable, is the man who 
 ought to be thanked and praised. Now it is 
 unquestionable that Mr. Symington perfected the 
 earliest engine which transformed the steamboat 
 from a theory into a reality. Fitch had previously 
 caused vessels to be propelled by steam power, but 
 no steamer on his plan has entered the water since 
 he left the world. Symington's engine, on the 
 other hand, is the model which has been followed 
 by all succeeding designers of marine engines. In 
 November, 1788, a boat propelled by paddle wheels 
 actuated by Symington's engine moved across 
 Dalswinton Loch at the rate of five miles an hour. 
 In March, 1802, a vessel named the Charlotte 
 Dundas, fitted with engines planned by him, towed 
 two barges of seventy tons burden, the distance of 
 nineteen and a half miles on the Forth and Clyde 
 Canal, in six hours' time against a gale of wind. 
 The Duke of Bridgewater, being pleased with the 
 result, ordered eight vessels to be built and engined 
 on the same model. Dying soon after, his successor 
 rescinded the order. Deprived of this patron, 
 Symington died a pauper. 
 
 The same year that Fitch went to his last home a 
 broken-hearted and unappreciated inventor, Robert 
 Fulton, a native of Pennsylvania, succeeded in 
 moving a boat through the water by means of a 
 screw propeller, which was actuated by a steam-
 
 8 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 engine. Trained as an engineer, Fulton aspired to 
 become an artist : lie proceeded to London, where 
 he studied painting under West, living for a time by 
 the scanty product of his pencil. Reverting to his 
 original avocation, he went to France and proposed to 
 the master of the French, who had resolved to become 
 the conqueror of the English, a scheme for propelling 
 the flotilla, collected at Boulogne for the invasion of 
 England, across the channel by means of steam 
 power. Returning to England in 1802, after this 
 offer had been declined by Bonaparte, and when the 
 second Armada was dispersed owing to the aban- 
 donment of the enterprise for which it had been 
 pompously assembled, Fulton visited Scotland, saw 
 the Charlotte Dundas steamer on the Clyde, took a 
 trip in her along with Symington, her designer, and 
 was permitted to make drawings of the vessel and 
 her machinery ; thereafter, he went to Birmingham, 
 where he ordered Messrs. Boulton and Watt to make 
 a set of engines for him on the same model. Cross- 
 ing the Atlantic, he built a vessel at New York in 
 concert with Mr. Chancellor Livingstone, whose ac- 
 quaintance he had made at Paris, some years pre- 
 viously, when Mr. Livingstone was United States' 
 Minister there. This vessel, which was named the 
 Clermont, after Mr. Livingstone's country seat on 
 the Hudson, was launched in 1807, and fitted 
 with the steam machinery which bad been manufac- 
 tured at Birmingham and forwarded to the United 
 States. 
 
 To the surprise of the public of New York, the 
 Clermont moved through the waters of the Hudson 
 at the rate of five miles an hour, and did so 
 despite the resistance of an adverse wind and a
 
 BEIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 9 
 
 strong current. Thus the journey between New York 
 and the capital of the State could be performed by 
 means of this steamer with a regularity which no sail- 
 ing craft could equal. A trip, which used to occupy a 
 space of time varying from a fortnight to forty-eight 
 hours, could be made, in 1807, within the space of a 
 single complete day, and can now be made in less 
 than ten hours. The masters of the sailing packets 
 tried to get rid of a dangerous rival by running her 
 down. This extreme and hazardous form of compe- 
 tition was ended when an act of the Legislature of the 
 State of New York made it punishable with fine and 
 imprisonment. 
 
 Not believing that he had invented anything in 
 building and fitting up this steamboat, Fulton re- 
 frained from applying for a patent ; but he success- 
 fully petitioned the Legislature for an exclusive 
 privilege to navigate the rivers of the State of New 
 York with steam-vessels, during a term of years. A 
 like concession had been made to Fitch in 1786 : 
 Fulton, however, was unaware of this, and the Legis- 
 lators seem to have forgotten it. Harassing and 
 wasteful litigation was the only fruit of the privilege 
 which had been conferred on him, the result being 
 the withdrawal of the concession. He designed 
 other vessels ; he invented the torpedo, which ap- 
 pears destined to revolutionize naval warfare ; he was 
 an honour to his country, and he died in 1815 a 
 neglected, a heart-broken, and a ruined man. After 
 death, his countrymen ascribed to him the sole 
 merit of having invented the steamboat, a claim 
 which he himself never thought of preferring. He 
 performed an indisputable service of scarcely in- 
 ferior value, the introduction of the steamboat into
 
 10 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 the United States. This achievement deserved a 
 more tangible reward than the exaggerated praise 
 which excites controversy, combined with the 
 hollowest of all mockeries, posthumous fame. 
 
 Two years after the Clermont began to ply on 
 the Hudson, the Accommodation steamer ran on 
 the St. Lawrence between Montreal and Quebec. 
 The surface of three great rivers on the American 
 continent, the Delaware, the Hudson, and the St. 
 Lawrence, was furrowed by steam-vessels before 
 the tenth year of the nineteenth century. Not till 
 1812 did the Comet, built by Henry Bell, ply on the 
 Clyde. There, as on the Hudson, opposition ren- 
 dered the speculation unremunerative. Henry Bell, 
 like Symington, Fitch, and Fulton, died in poverty, 
 the fate commonly reserved for the real benefactors 
 of mankind. 
 
 After a beginning in steam navigation had been 
 made, the progress was rapid. In 1815, a steam- 
 boat appeared on the Thames; the public rejoiced 
 at the sight ; the watermen denounced the innova- 
 tion as hurtful to their interests. In 1819, the first 
 steamboat crossed the Atlantic. She was called the 
 Savannah, and started from the city of that name 
 on the 25th of May, arriving at Liverpool on the 
 20th of June. Off the Land's End she was hailed 
 by Lieutenant John Bowie, in command of a revenue 
 cutter ; wishing to board her, he was puzzled to see 
 her go along with bare poles at a greater speed than 
 his own craft under a press of canvas, and he had 
 to fire a gun in order to make her lie to. The 
 Savannah remained at Liverpool for a month, during 
 which she was visited by sight-seers from all parts 
 of the kingdom ; thence she proceeded to St. Peters-
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 11 
 
 burg, starting on her return voyage to the United 
 States on the 10th of October, and reaching Savannah 
 on the 30th of November. Soon after, she was 
 shipwrecked on Long Island during a voyage from 
 Savannah to New York. 
 
 On the 18th of August, 1833, the Royal William, 
 which had been built at Three Rivers, Canada, 
 sailed from Quebec, arriving at Gravesend on the 
 llth of September. Her voyage would have 
 occupied a shorter time, had she not been detained 
 for three days at Nova Scotia. This was the 
 second steamship which crossed the Atlantic. Both 
 had started from the North American continent, the 
 one from the State of Georgia, at the extreme south, 
 the other from the Province of Lower Canada, at 
 the extreme north. Not till 1838, nineteen years 
 after the first of these two ventures, and five years 
 after the second, did a steamer start from Great 
 Britain for the continent of North America. On the 
 4th of April in that year, the steamer Sinus left 
 London, and was followed three days afterwards by 
 the Great Western from Bristol, both being bound 
 for New York, which the former reached after a 
 passage of seventeen and the latter of fifteen days. 
 The return voyages were made in sixteen and four- 
 teen days respectively. The Sirius never crossed 
 the Atlantic again ; she afterwards plied between 
 the Thames and the Neva, her place being taken by 
 a second Royal William, the Canadian one having 
 been sold to the Portuguese Government, which 
 left Liverpool on the 6th of July, 1838, making 
 the vpyage out in nineteen and home in four- 
 teen and a half days. This Eoyal William was 
 the first of the steamships which have brought
 
 12 COLUMDTA AND CANADA. 
 
 the dwellers on the Mersey and the Hudson into 
 regular intercommunication. 
 
 The autumn of 1838 was an epoch in the history 
 of transatlantic steam navigation. Determining to 
 relinquish sending the mails across the Atlantic in 
 ten-gun brigs, and to arrange for their conveyance 
 in steamships, the Admiralty then invited tenders 
 for the performance of the work. The partners in 
 the Great Western Steam-shipping Company and 
 owners of the Great Western and Great Liverpool 
 steamers, were confident of having proved their title 
 to be employed ; however, to their surprise and 
 mortification, a lower tender than theirs was sent in 
 by Messrs. Cunard, Burns, and Maclver, and ac- 
 cepted. The latter firm undertook to carry the 
 mails between Liverpool and Halifax, twice each 
 way every month; twice in every month between 
 Halifax and Boston, when the navigation of the St. 
 Lawrence was unimpeded by ice, and also between 
 Pictou, Nova Scotia, and Quebec, in return for an 
 annual subsidy of 60,000. When this contract was 
 renewed at the end of a year, the subsidy was raised 
 to 80,000. Not till 1848 did the contractors 
 arrange to run steamers between Liverpool and 
 New York. From June, 1840, to December, 1868, 
 the Cunard Company entered into thirteen postal 
 contracts, the last, implying the payment of a sub- 
 sidy, was terminated at the end of December, 1876. 
 During the five years preceding the latter date the 
 annual subsidy was 70,000, being less than half 
 what had been paid at one period, and only 10,000 
 in excess of the first payment. Seldom, if ever, has 
 the money of the nation been expended to better 
 advantage. Mr. Samuel Cunard, who had contem-
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 13 
 
 plated such a service as far back as the year 1830, 
 was a native of Nova Scotia. To his foresight, 
 coupled with the shrewdness and business aptitude 
 of his two Scottish partners, Mr. Burns and Mr. 
 Maclver, is due the most successful and praise- 
 worthy of modern shipping enterprises. Sir Hugh 
 Allan, another colonist of Scottish birth, has ener- 
 getically followed in the steps of his great fore- 
 runner. 
 
 The four steamers, built on the Clyde to begin 
 the dinar d mail service, were superior in all 
 respects to those which the company had under- 
 taken to supply; they were named the Britannia, 
 the Acadia, the Caledonia, and the Columbia. On 
 the 4th of July, 1840, the Britannia left Liver- 
 pool for Boston, calling at Halifax. She made the 
 voyage out and home at a speed of eight-and-a- 
 half knots an hour. Being frozen up in Boston 
 harbour during the winter of 1844, the public- 
 spirited merchants of that city caused a channel, 
 seven miles long and 100 feet wide, to be cut 
 in the ice at their own expense in order that 
 the Britannia might reach the open sea. 3 Sir 
 Charles Lyell was a passenger in this vessel when 
 he crossed the Atlantic in 1845. Encountering a 
 hurricane, she weathered it in a way which excited 
 general satisfaction. Among the passengers " were 
 some experienced American sea captains, who had 
 
 3 Mr. Lindsay, in his " History of Merchant Shipping," vol. iv. 
 p. 183, is in error in stating that this incident occurred during the 
 first voyage of the Britannia. I am indebted to Mr. John 
 Burns for being able to correct this mistake, and to supply other 
 details, of general interest about the renowned company of which 
 he is the accomplished head.
 
 14 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 commanded vessels of their own round Cape Horn ; 
 and, being now for the first time in a steamer at 
 sea, were watching with professional interest the 
 Britannia's behaviour in the storm. They came 
 to the conclusion that one of those vessels, well 
 appointed, with a full crew, skilled officers, and good 
 engineers, was safer than any sailing packet." 4 
 Charles Dickens made his first and memorable 
 voyage to the United States in the Britannia. 
 
 Between this Cunarder and one of recent build 
 the contrast is marvellous. The Britannia was 
 built of wood; the Bothnia is constructed of iron. 
 The former was 1,139 tons burden; the latter is 
 4,535. The former was 207 feet in length, 34 feet 
 2 inches in breadth, and 22 feet 4 inches in depth ; 
 the latter is 445 feet in length, 42 feet 6 inches 
 in breadth, and 36 feet in depth. The former 
 carried 225 tons of cargo ; the latter carries 3,000. 
 The former had accommodation for 90 first-class 
 passengers ; the latter can accommodate 340 in the 
 saloon, and 800 in the steerage. The nominal 
 horse power of the former was 425, that of the 
 latter is 507 ; yet the Bothnia, which is propelled 
 by a screw, can steam at the rate of thirteen 
 knots an hour, whereas the Britannia which was a 
 paddle steamer, could not attain the speed of nine 
 knots. More noteworthy still is the fact that the 
 furnaces of the vessel, which is propelled through 
 the water at the higher rate of speed, require 
 less than half the quantity of fuel which was con- 
 sumed in those of the slower ship. It is even more 
 extraordinary that, from the year 1840, down to the 
 present day, not a single passenger's life has been 
 4 " Travels in North America," vol. i. p. 2.
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 15 
 
 lost, and not a single letter has gone astray on 
 board a Cunard steamer, owing to the perils of the 
 sea. By transporting upwards of 2,000,000 pas- 
 sengers in safety across the stormy and dangerous 
 Atlantic, the Cunard Company have performed the 
 most marvellous feat in the annals of steam navi- 
 gation. 
 
 The immunity from preventible accidents enjoyed 
 by this company is susceptible of easy explanation. 
 All their vessels have been built on the most approved 
 models, and of the very best materials. Not an 
 inferior sheet of iron, inefficient bolt, or imperfect 
 plank can be found in one of them from stem to 
 stern. None is ever sent to sea with a known 
 defect, even though the defect should be trivial in 
 appearance, and might not hinder the vessel making 
 the voyage in perfect safety, provided the weather 
 was moderately good. It is the inflexible rule of the 
 company to be prepared to face the worst at any 
 moment, never trusting to chance, or hoping for 
 good-luck. Thus, when the worst comes, it can be 
 met without apprehension. Discipline is enforced 
 with a stringency which is not surpassed, possibly is 
 not equalled, on board a crack frigate. That fatal 
 yet common form of false economy which consists in 
 reducing the number of the crew to the minimum 
 necessary for navigating the ship, is rightly eschewed 
 by this company. An accident costs more than the 
 wages of a few extra seamen ; the presence of the 
 extra seamen may tend to avert a serious accident. 
 The officers are all well acquainted with their duties, 
 and are expected to perform them with uniform and 
 unremitting precision. Zeal never goes unrewarded, 
 nor is neglect ever pardoned.
 
 16 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 When an accident happens, skill and discipline 
 tell. An accident which might have become a 
 catastrophe was dealt with in the following manner 
 on board the Britannia when she was under the 
 command of Captain Harrison. The account is from 
 the pen of Mr. J. T. Fields : " A happier company 
 never sailed upon an autumn sea. The story-tellers 
 are busy with their yarns to audiences of delighted 
 listeners. The ladies are lying about on couches or 
 shawls, reading or singing; children are taking 
 hands, and racing up and down the decks when 
 with a quick cry from the look-out, and a rush of 
 officers and men, we are grinding on a ledge of rocks 
 off Cape Race. One of those strong currents, always 
 mysterious, and sometimes impossible to foresee, had 
 set us into shore out of our course, and the ship was 
 blindly beating on a dreary coast of sharp and craggy 
 rocks. . . . Suddenly we heard a voice, up in the 
 fog that surrounded us, ringing like a clarion above 
 the roar of the waves, and the clashing sounds on 
 shipboard, and it had in it an assuring, not a 
 fearful sound. As the orders came distinctly and 
 deliberately through the captain's trumpet to " shift 
 the cargo," to " back her," and to " keep her steady," 
 we felt somehow that the commander up there in the 
 thick mist knew what he was about, and that through 
 his skill and courage, by the blessing of Heaven, we 
 should all be rescued. The man who saved us, so 
 far as human aid ever saved drowning mortals, was 
 one fully competent to command a ship." 
 
 Another story, which has not yet appeared in 
 print, is even more instructive ; it was told to me by 
 a gentleman who was a passenger on board the 
 steamship Atlas from Boston to Liverpool. My
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 17 
 
 informant sailed for Liverpool in the winter months. 
 The voyage was devoid of incident till the vessel 
 reached mid-ocean, when one evening the monotony of 
 the trip was unexpectedly varied. The weather was 
 tempestuous, so that the first-class passengers, prefer- 
 ring the warmth and shelter of the saloon at nightfall 
 to the discomfort of the gloomy sky and spray- washed 
 deck, were there engaged either in reading, or in play- 
 ing at cards, draughts, or chess. The captain, who had 
 entered the saloon for a few minutes only, suddenly 
 hurried on deck, after the boatswain appeared and 
 whispered a few words in his ear. A passenger, 
 whose sense of hearing was very acute, overheard 
 the ominous phrase, " The ship is on fire, sir." He 
 went on deck, being followed by others to whom he 
 had communicated what was said. There they saw 
 a thick column of dense smoke rising from the 
 forward hatch. One of them returned to the saloon 
 and told the horrible news. Anxiety was manifested 
 as to how soon the fire would be extinguished ; but 
 there was little excitement, and no sign of panic, 
 most of the players resuming their games, and the 
 readers returning to their books. Confidence was 
 evidently felt that everything which mortals could 
 do to avert a dread calamity would be performed. 
 In the steerage, on the contrary, there was ignorance 
 without self-possession; women shrieked, men 
 rushed about in aimless despair. The first-class 
 passengers, who wished to make themselves useful, 
 and offered to aid the crew, were asked to help in 
 carrying the terror-stricken men, women, and 
 children from the steerage, where they were in the 
 way, to the poop, where they would give less trouble. 
 These passengers refused to be comforted, or to be 
 
 o
 
 18 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 quiet ; their groans and lamentations alone disturbed 
 the apparent harmony of the hour. The crew and 
 the officers were as cool and reticent as if nothing 
 unusual had happened. The officer on duty walked 
 the bridge, giving his entire attention to navigating 
 the ship ; the men on the look-out were at their posts ; 
 the engineers were in their places in the engine- 
 room; the stewards were at their usual work; 
 indeed, the business of the ship went on like clock- 
 work, while a fire was raging in the hold, and all on 
 board were in jeopardy. At the end of half an hour 
 from the alarm being given, the boatswain said the 
 ladies might be informed that the danger was nearly 
 over; in truth, the fire had been thoroughly 
 mastered, and all danger was at an end. It was 
 ascertained that the cause of the fire was the ignition 
 of some combustibles which had been shipped 
 against the rules of the company, and without the 
 knowledge of the company's servants at Boston. 
 The manner in which this accident was faced and 
 foiled had the natural result of making every sensible 
 passenger feel increased confidence in the discipline 
 and direction which prevail on board a Cunarder. 
 
 For some time after the Cunard Company had 
 carried the mails between this country and the con- 
 tinent of North America, the British and American 
 Steam Navigation Company maintained a keen but 
 futile rivalry with them. A parliamentary inquiry 
 proved that no exception could justly be taken to 
 the manner in which the Cunard Company executed 
 what they had undertaken. With a view to outstrip 
 all competitors, the Great Western Company had 
 become the owners of the President, a steamer 
 which was expected to surpass every rival. Launched
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 19 
 
 on the 7th of'December, 1839, she made a few voyages 
 between Great Britain and the United States ; she 
 ought to have returned to this country in April, 
 1841, but was never heard of again. Determined 
 not to be baffled, the company resolved upon making 
 a still bolder bid for supremacy on the Atlantic by 
 arranging for the construction of a vessel which 
 should outvie any one afloat in novelty of design, 
 in size and in speed. This was the Gi'eat Britain : 
 she was constructed of iron, this was one novelty ; 
 she was propelled by a screw, this was another ; her 
 dimensions were then regarded as huge beyond 
 comparison : she was 321 feet long, 51 feet broad, 
 and 2,984 tons burden ; she was launched at Bristol 
 on the 19th of July, 1843. After arriving in the 
 Thames, she was visited by the Queen and Prince 
 Albert, and thousands of eager sight-seers. In 
 December, 1843, she started for the United States, 
 but did not get farther on her voyage than Dundrum 
 Bay, on the coast of Ireland, where she was stranded, 
 and lay at the mercy of the wind and the waves for 
 a whole winter. This unusual test, which caused 
 no irreparable damage, demonstrated the solidity of 
 her build. When floated off in the spring and re- 
 fitted, she was employed as a passenger ship between 
 this country and Australia, and continued for nearly 
 a quarter of a century to be the favourite ship in 
 that service. Her fame as a giant among vessels 
 was not eclipsed till the Great Eastern was launched 
 on the 31st of January, 1858. It was intended that 
 she should be employed as a passenger ship in the 
 Australian trade, but just as the Great Britain never 
 made a voyage to the United States, so the Great 
 Eastern never made a voyage to Australia. Though 
 
 c 2
 
 20 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 both disappointed the expectations of their designers, 
 yet the Great Britain has done good service by bring- 
 ing the continent of Australasia into closer union 
 with the motherland, while the Great Eastern, by her 
 adaptability for laying telegraph cables in the Atlan- 
 tic, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean, has made 
 for herself a proud name among ships. 
 
 The success of the English Steamship Companies 
 provoked jealousy, and consequent rivalry on the 
 part of companies in the United States. An attempt 
 at international competition was made in 1847, when 
 the merchants of New York established a line of 
 steamships to run between that city and Bremen, 
 Southampton being a port of call. The Washing- 
 ton, the first steamer of the new line, left New 
 York for Southampton the same day in June, 1847, 
 that the Britannia started for Liverpool. The 
 former was the more powerful vessel of the two. 
 The New York Herald, with its wonted and exuberant 
 patriotism, wrote to the effect that, if the Bri- 
 tannia means to beat the Washington, she "will 
 have to run by the deep mines and put in more 
 coal." Without visiting these mysterious coaling 
 stations, the Britannia won the race by two days. 
 
 This failure to out-do the Cunard line did not 
 hinder the United States Congress from encouraging 
 another attempt of the same character. Mr. E. K. 
 Collins, the owner of a swift line of sailing ships 
 between New York and Liverpool, having offered to 
 run a line of steamers between these two ports, 
 Congress granted him a subsidy of 175,750 in con- 
 sideration of four steamers being provided for the 
 service. This was more than double the sum paid 
 to the Cunard Company at the outset. The steamers
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 21 
 
 of the Collins line were well built, were comfortable 
 to the verge of luxury, and they were the fastest that 
 had ever traversed the ocean. Their speed was 
 attained at a great cost. It was necessary to ex- 
 pend upwards of 200,000 yearly, in order to 
 shorten the trips across the Atlantic by a day and a 
 half. From January, 1852, to November in that 
 year inclusive, the Collins steamers transported 
 2,420 passengers from New York to Liverpool, and 
 1,886 from Liverpool to New York, whereas the 
 Cunarders transported 1,186 the one way, and 
 1,783 the other. The citizens of the United States 
 were naturally exultant, believing that they had at 
 length succeeded, to employ the words of a Report 
 to the Senate, in hindering the " Queen of the 
 Ocean levying her imposts upon the industry and 
 intelligence of all the nations that frequent the 
 highway of the world." Commerce profited by the 
 competition. Two years after the establishment 
 of the Collins line, the rate of freight had fallen from 
 7 10s. a ton to 4 
 
 During a dense fog on the 1st of September, 
 1854, the Collins steamer Arctic came into collision 
 with the French steamer Vesta) sixty miles to 
 the south-east of Cape Eace. The Arctic had 
 on board 233 passengers, a crew numbering 135, 
 and a valuable cargo. The Vesta had on board 
 147 passengers, and a crew numbering fifty. Think- 
 ing that the Vesta was about to founder, several 
 of the passengers and crew sought safety by getting 
 on board the Arctic; a boat, containing thirteen 
 persons who tried to do so, was swamped, and all 
 in it were drowned. The Captain of the Vesta 
 succeeded 'in bringing his ship, with the persons
 
 22 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 who had remained on board, into St. Johns, New- 
 foundland. The Arctic never touched land again; 
 only fourteen passengers and thirty-one of her crew 
 reached the shore alive. The wife, a son, and a 
 daughter of Mr. Collins were among the missing. 
 
 On the 3rd of January, 1856, the Collins steamer 
 Pacific left Liverpool, with forty-one passengers 
 and a crew numbering 141 ; she had the mails on 
 board and a full cargo, valued at half a million 
 sterling. She was never afterwards heard of. 
 Though the Adriatic was built to replace one of 
 the vessels that had been lost, yet in 1858 the 
 Company gave up the struggle in despair. The 
 annual loss was greater than the shareholders could 
 sustain, and the subsidy had been withdrawn. 
 The enterprise deserved a happier fate. When the 
 line was projected, Mr. Senator Bayard said in Con- 
 gress : " We must have speed, extraordinary speed, 
 a speed with which the Collins steamers can over- 
 take any vessel which they pursue, and escape from 
 any vessel they wish to avoid ; they must be fit for 
 the purpose of a cruiser, with armaments to attack 
 your enemy if that enemy were Great Britain in 
 her most vital part, her commerce." A nobler 
 feeling than enmity to Great Britain might have 
 inspired the advocates of this undertaking. The 
 ocean is wide enough for the vessels of all nations. 
 Great Britain, which has never yet feared or suc- 
 cumbed to rivalry on that element, expressed no 
 unseemly pleasure when the failure of the Collins 
 Line left the Cunard Company without formidable 
 competitors on the Atlantic. 
 
 It was on the 17th of December, 1850, the 
 year when Mr. Senator Bayard looked forward
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 23 
 
 with patriotic selfishness and complacency to the 
 Collins steamers " sweeping the seas," that the 
 iron screw steamer the City of Glasgow left Liver- 
 pool for Philadelphia. She was the property of 
 the Liverpool, New York and Philadelphia Steam- 
 ship Company, of which Mr. William Inman was 
 managing director, a company which now enjoys 
 world-wide renown as the Inman Line. Mr. Inman 
 had the foresight to perceive, when the majority of 
 shipowners and shipbuilders held a contrary opinion, 
 that iron was the best material wherewith to fashion 
 Atlantic steamers, and that the screw was the best 
 means for propelling them. Till the year 1857, 
 the Inman steamers ran fortnightly between Liver- 
 pool and Philadelphia; in that year they ran to 
 New York also ; after the suspension of the Collins 
 Line the Inman took its place, carrying the United 
 States Mails. In 1860, this company despatched 
 a steamer weekly ; in 1863, thrice a fortnight; in 
 1866, twice weekly during the summer months. 
 These vessels have maintained the reputation which 
 they early gained for size, comfort, and speed. In 
 one of them, the City of Paris , the Duke of Con- 
 naught was carried from Cork to Halifax in six 
 days and twenty-one hours. Two of them, the 
 City of Chester and the City of Berlin, are among 
 the finest and fastest steamers afloat. The latter is 
 520 feet in length, and has accommodation for 
 1,702 passengers, in addition to a crew of upwards 
 of 100. Unlike the Cunard Company, however, the 
 Inman I^ine cannot boast of freedom from fatal 
 casualties. One of the saddest occurred in 1870, 
 when the City of Boston left Halifax for Liverpool 
 and disappeared.
 
 24 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 In 1852, about the time that the Collins Line 
 was founded in the United States and the Inman 
 Line in England, and twelve years after the first 
 Cunarder had crossed the ocean, the Government 
 of Canada arranged for the carriage of the mails 
 between Liverpool and Quebec. The contractors 
 were Messrs. M'Clean, M'Clarty, and Lament of 
 Liverpool. They were succeeded by Messrs. Allan, 
 who began in 1856 a steam service between Canada 
 and Great Britain which deserves to be cited 
 among striking illustrations of perseverance and 
 pluck. 
 
 At the outset, the Allan Line met with many 
 mishaps. The North Atlantic is as trying to the 
 navigator as the Baltic at its worst. Dangers due 
 to fog and ice are encountered during most months 
 of the year; while perils from sunken rocks and 
 treacherous currents have to be faced at all seasons. 
 Yet the steamers of the Allan Line, which in size, 
 speed and luxury are equal to the best, run with 
 regularity across the ocean between the ports of 
 Quebec and Halifax in Canada, Portland and Balti- 
 more in the United States, and those of Liverpool 
 and Glasgow in the United Kingdom. One of these 
 steamers is famed for having made the shortest 
 recorded voyage out and home. On the 16th of 
 December, 1864, the Peruvian left Moville for 
 Portland at 6.24 P.M.; after having discharged her 
 cargo and taken fresh cargo on board, she arrived 
 at Moville on her return voyage at 9.15 A.M., on 
 the 10th of January, 1865 ; the time occupied in the 
 double voyage being only twenty-four days, fifteen 
 hours. 
 
 When Dr. Lardner pronounced the scheme of
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 25 
 
 running steamers directly between Liverpool and 
 New York to be perfectly chimerical, he said that it 
 was quite feasible to run steamers between Valentia 
 in Ireland, and St. Johns in Newfoundland. His 
 plan comprised a journey by rail from London to 
 Liverpool, by water from Liverpool to Dublin, by 
 rail from Dublin to Valentia, and by sea from 
 Valentia to St. Johns, thence by sea to Halifax and 
 finally to New York. The absence of a railway 
 between Dublin and Valentia rendered this scheme 
 as chimerical as that which had been condemned. 
 Nearly a quarter of a century later, Dr. Lardner's 
 proposition was revived, with the difference that the 
 port of Galway was to be the place of departure in 
 Ireland, and New York or Boston the port of arrival 
 on the North American Continent. A company 
 was formed to carry out the undertaking ; it was 
 styled the Royal Atlantic Steam Navigation Com- 
 pany, and was generally known as the Galway Line. 
 In Ireland it was hailed as a national enterprise, 
 one fraught with promise and pride to the country, 
 and certain to prove a source of vast pecuniary 
 profit. A subsidy of 3,000 for each voyage out 
 and home was accorded by the Government. 
 
 This service began on the 27th of June, 1860, and 
 ended in May, 1861. Its story, which needs not 
 be told in detail, was one of miscarriage and 
 disaster. One vessel, the Connaught, was lost ; 
 a second, the Hibernia, was so much damaged 
 during her preliminary trip as to be unfitted for 
 employment ; a third, the Columbia, was so 
 greatly injured by coming in contact with ice off 
 Newfoundland, as to take upwards of twenty days 
 in reaching Boston. The company had contracted
 
 26 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 to carry the mails from shore to shore in six days ; 
 but failed in doing so till they purchased the Collins 
 Steamer Adriatic, which made the passage from 
 Ireland to Newfoundland in six days, returning in 
 five days, nineteen hours, and forty-five minutes ; 
 being the fastest trip which, till then, had been made 
 from shore to shore. The failures of the Collins and 
 the Galway Lines cannot be chronicled without regret 
 that so much capital and so much laudable energy 
 and skill should have been expended in vain. 
 
 In 1863, the National Steam Navigation Company 
 was formed in Liverpool. Its promoters purposed 
 trading with the southern ports of the United 
 States, as soon as the civil war came to an end. 
 The war lasting longer than was expected, they 
 resolved to run their steamers between Liverpool 
 and New York. No larger vessels than those of 
 the National line had then crossed the Atlantic; 
 the size ranged from 3,000 to 3,500 tons burden. 
 In 1864, three more of still larger tonnage were 
 built for the company, other three in the succeeding 
 two years, the result being that the National line 
 possesses a fleet of steamers as fine as any which 
 traverse the sea. A vessel starts weekly between 
 Liverpool and New York, and fortnightly between 
 London and New York. This company has been 
 managed with marked ability; not a single pas- 
 senger has lost his life through accident to one of 
 their steamers. The excellent plan has been adopted 
 of giving the captains and the chief officers of a 
 National steamer a handsome sum by way of bonus 
 every six months, in the event of the vessels under 
 their care going from port to port free from preven- 
 tible injury. The company's orders are to carry the
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 27 
 
 vessels and all on board in safety, and to aim at 
 safety rather than speed. Other companies have 
 the like desire and give the same injunctions ; but 
 none of them, the Cunard always excepted, is more 
 rigid in insisting on their observance than the 
 National Company. 
 
 Messrs. Handyside and Henderson began to run 
 steamers, in 1865, every fortnight between Glasgow 
 and New York ; their steamers now run weekly 
 from Glasgow and fortnightly from London. This 
 is known as the Anchor line. The Anchor vessels 
 enjoy a reputation in Scotland which is thoroughly 
 merited. In 1866 the Liverpool and Great Western 
 Steamship Company began business in Liverpool; 
 this is the well-known Guion Line. Neither the 
 Anchor nor the Guion Line can take credit for 
 having escaped serious accidents. 
 
 The most notable event in the recent history of 
 Atlantic navigation is the establishment of the 
 White Star line of steamers in the year 1870. 
 Messrs. Ismay, Imrie, and Co., the principal pro- 
 prietors of this line, then made a step in advance of 
 all competitors. They employed Messrs. Harland 
 and Wolff of Belfast to build steamers for them, 
 and such steamers had never been launched before. 
 Their speed is very great. To style them floating 
 palaces is to use the language of sober truth, and 
 not to indulge in hyperbole. Indeed, the ship- 
 builders of Belfast have taught some useful lessons 
 to their brethren on the Thames and the Tyne, the 
 Mersey and the Clyde. 
 
 A sketch of the establishment and progress of 
 Atlantic steam- shipping companies would be in- 
 complete without a mention of the endeavours made
 
 28 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 by citizens of the United States to succeed in the 
 attempt wherein Mr. Collins failed. Mr. Vanderbilt 
 vainly expended a considerable sum of money in 
 such a venture. A Boston company made a similar 
 and an equally fruitless effort ; two handsome screw 
 steamers, the Erie and the Ontario, belonging to 
 them, made several trips between their city and 
 Liverpool ; the outlay being far in excess of the 
 receipts, the enterprise had to be abandoned. The 
 capitalists of New York and Boston having proved 
 unable to command success, those of Philadelphia 
 determined to see whether they could not do better. 
 The latter established what they style the American 
 Line, in concert with the wealthy and powerful 
 Pennsylvania Railway. If this line of passenger 
 steamships, which crosses the ocean under the flag 
 of the United States, can maintain a successful com- 
 petition with its German, French and English rivals, 
 the travelling public will be the gainer. 
 
 The other lines of steamships which help to bridge 
 the Atlantic are the State, which starts from 
 Glasgow ; the Dominion and the Beaver, the Warren 
 and the Leyland, which start from Liverpool; the 
 Wilson, which starts from Hull, the Great Western 
 from Bristol, and the Temperley from London ; the 
 Transatlantic and the Hamburg, which touch at 
 Plymouth; and the North German Lloyd, which 
 touches at Southampton. 
 
 The record of Atlantic steam navigation, from 
 the year 1840 down to the present day, has been 
 one of extraordinary and unceasing progress. It 
 was thought to be a great feat, at one time, for 
 a steamer to start every week from either side 
 of the ocean; several now start, as a matter of
 
 BRIDGING THE ATLANTIC. 29 
 
 course, from both sides weekly. Before the era of 
 steam, it was a subject of congratulation when the 
 voyage was completed in a month ; ten days is now 
 the average length of the voyage by one of the fast 
 lines, so that, as has been already remarked, it takes 
 no longer time to go from the British Isles to the 
 North American continent than was consumed in 
 1776 during the journey between the town of Boston 
 and the city of Philadelphia. The trade with the 
 United States from Liverpool alone is greater at the 
 present day than the trade of Liverpool with all the 
 world before the advent of the steamship. Seneca's 
 prediction in his Medea has been fulfilled : the ultima 
 Thule of the ancient Romans has ceased to be the 
 farthest point of the habitable globe ; the Atlantic 
 ocean, instead of being a wide barrier to intercom- 
 munication, has become a convenient highway for 
 commercial intercourse. It was the wish of Silas 
 Deane, in which Jefferson concurred, that there* 
 should be an ocean of fire between the Old World 
 and the New. No sane man, now living, would 
 cherish or countenance so diabolical a desire.
 
 30 
 
 n. 
 
 FROM THE THAMES TO THE HUDSON. 
 
 THE port of London, which was a favourite place of 
 arrival and departure for transatlantic travellers, in 
 the days when sailing packets had no competitors, is 
 now comparatively neglected by them ; the Thames 
 having become less attractive in this respect than 
 the Mersey and the Clyde. Recently, however, 
 vigorous efforts have been made to regain for the 
 capital of England some of its lost credit, as a port 
 for Atlantic traffic. Two companies well known in 
 Liverpool and Glasgow, have started lines of steamers 
 between the Victoria Docks and the wharfs on the 
 North River, thereby bringing London into direct 
 steam communication with New York. One is the 
 National, the other the Anchor Company. 
 
 Having already had personal experience of the 
 steamers of the Cunard and North German Lloyd 
 Companies, and desiring to sail from the Thames, I 
 took a passage for the United States in the Canada, 
 belonging to the National line. The boats which 
 this company despatch from London every fortnight 
 are not quite so large as those which start from 
 Liverpool, yet the Canada is of 4,275 tons burden, 
 being three times larger than the famous Bri- 
 tannia, the pioneer steamer of the Cunard line.
 
 FEOM THE THAMES TO THE HUDSON. 31 
 
 There is an inconvenience connected with embarking 
 at the Victoria Docks, and at some other docks also, 
 which could easily be remedied. This is the demand 
 made for dock dues upon passengers' luggage. Such 
 a toll, like the steward's fee, is perfectly justifiable, 
 but it would save annoyance, at a time when passen- 
 gers are in no humour to be troubled unnecessarily, 
 if the payment for these dues, like that for the 
 steward's fee, were included in the passage-money. 
 The minor worries of life are due to a multiplicity of 
 small payments. These docks are well fitted for pro- 
 longing the excitement of parting from friends ; the 
 steamer leaves the landing-place very slowly ; about 
 an hour elapses before she is in the river and fairly 
 under way, and, by coming from the landing-place 
 to the dock gates, relatives and friends have another 
 chance to repeat their good wishes to the voyagers. 
 Judging from observation, I should say that both 
 parties weary of making these affectionate demon- 
 strations long before the opportunity for doing so 
 has passed. Whilst the vessel is in the quiet 
 waters of the river the passengers, who are doubtful 
 about the steadiness of their legs and the strength 
 of their stomachs when sailing over the salt waves, 
 can settle down in their berths with greater comfort 
 than if they were at once called upon to prove their 
 sea-going qualities, and they can attend the first 
 dinner on board ship with reasonable confidence 
 that they will enjoy it. By the time tea is over we 
 have entered the English Channel, where a fresh 
 breeze is blowing, and the surface is more undu- 
 lating than that of the River Thames. Passengers 
 who suffer in the short chopping seas of the English 
 Channel are wont to think that, if the steamers
 
 32 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 which ply between Dover and Ostend or Calais, 
 were as large as those which cross the Atlantic, the 
 brief voyage would be much more pleasant. Now, I 
 have seen vessels of the largest tonnage pitch and 
 roll in a rough channel sea, to a greater extent than 
 when the same steamers are on the open Atlantic 
 during a gale. Certainly, many passengers in the 
 Canada were soon in as miserable a state as if 
 they had been crossing the channel in the smallest 
 steamer that plies there. 
 
 The first-class cabin passengers numbered up- 
 wards of seventy. Conspicuous among them was a 
 middle-aged lady, whose apparently hysterical con- 
 dition upon coming on board drew forth general 
 sympathy. She was on the way to a city in the 
 State of Tennessee, where her son and brother 
 lived, her husband having his abode in Australia. 
 Neither grief at parting from acquaintances in Eng- 
 land, nor terror at the prospect of a sea voyage had 
 produced the hysterics under which she laboured ; 
 inordinate fondness for bottled stout, or any other 
 beverage of an alcoholic kind when her favourite 
 one could not be procured, made her a fitting subject 
 for a temperance lecture and the doctor's anxious 
 care. Her husband could not be blamed for living: 
 
 o 
 
 at some distance from her, and the brother whom she 
 was going to visit was not to be envied. A young 
 gentleman from Glasgow, who was on his way to 
 join a brother in the State of New Jersey, and who 
 had a firm belief in making a rapid fortune in the 
 United States, showed almost as great partiality for 
 bottled stout as did this unfortunate woman ; but he 
 kept within reasonable bounds on the whole, and 
 was not uniformly offensive to his fellow-passen-
 
 FROM THE THAMES TO THE HUDSON. 33 
 
 gers. He was careful to explain with much empha- 
 sis that water was the beverage which he preferred, 
 before leaving home, and that he had resolved to 
 drink nothing else after landing. When I last saw 
 him, before leaving the steamer, he was earnestly 
 engaged in trying whether certain transatlantic 
 decoctions, in which gin, or brandy, whisky, or rum, 
 was present in considerable proportions, were to 
 his taste. If he kept to his determination to drink 
 nothing but water, I have little doubt about his suc- 
 cess in the United States. An instance of his astute- 
 ness occurred on board. Having agreed with some 
 others, on whom time hung heavily, to play at pitch 
 and toss, he found that the pennies had a trick of 
 rolling about the deck. Thereupon he sought the 
 aid of the engineer, who roughened the edges of a 
 penny with a file, and thus made it lie flat on the 
 spot where it fell. This reminded me of the man 
 who wrote from Dunkeld to the Mint for what he 
 called tossing pennies that is, coins with two heads 
 on the one and two tails on the other, and led me to 
 think that even the sharpest Yankee would meet with 
 his match in this shrewd youth from Glasgow. 
 
 Several of the passengers were young English- 
 men, who were going to be farmers in the United 
 States. Those persons who had practical knowledge 
 of farming looked upon them as predestined to gain 
 experience at the cost of their purses. There were 
 three pairs who had each chosen a different part of 
 the American continent as best adapted for a venture. 
 Two of these men were on their way to California, two 
 were bound for an Eden in the State of Iowa, and 
 two had resolved upon trying to breed cattle in the 
 State of Texas. The gentlemen who had heard 
 
 D
 
 34 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 that California was a splendid land for growing 
 grain and making money, were unacquainted with 
 agriculture. They looked forward to enjoying shoot- 
 ing and fishing, and one of them had a hammock, in 
 which he meant to take his ease when the weather 
 was too hot to work, or when he was exhausted 
 with the toil of sporting. They had no notion of 
 the hardships of farming, even in such a highly- 
 favoured land as California ; indeed, had they been 
 aware of the difficulties in their path they would 
 never have gone on the expedition. At home, a 
 gentleman farmer is not generally successful. In 
 the United States, a gentleman farmer is almost 
 certain to lose his capital, and to find, when it is too 
 late, that he has mistaken his vocation. Of course, 
 if a gentleman who goes to farm land in the United 
 States has some practical knowledge, as well as 
 sufficient capital, and if he work much harder than 
 the hardest- worked labourer does at home, he may 
 expend his energies and turn his investment to pro- 
 fitable account. The two who imagined the State 
 of Iowa to be the paradise they were in quest of 
 had some capital, a belief that farming could be done 
 by proxy, and that a fortune could be gained by 
 breeding and selling setters, two pups of an excellent 
 breed being among their personal effects. They 
 had made arrangements for obtaining copies of the 
 English sporting papers, so as to be enabled to learn 
 what was going on in the racing world, and to vary 
 their other occupations with betting on some of the 
 principal races. No long time would elapse before 
 they would be more immediately concerned about 
 how to get a dinner than about the future winner 
 of the Derby. The pair whose destination was
 
 FROM THE THAMES TO THE HUDSON. 35 
 
 Texas had many chances in their favour, having 
 learned in Monte Video what cattle-rearing meant, 
 and having also learned how to bear the ills of an 
 emigrant's career. They had no apprehension about 
 finding the roughest life in Texas worse than that 
 which they had experienced in Monte Video, and 
 they would probably find that the change from the 
 turbulent South American State to the more tranquil 
 State of Texas was one for the better. 
 
 A young Frenchman was another passenger elate 
 with the expectation of meeting with something 
 profitable in the New World. He had been engaged 
 in the production of beetroot sugar in France, and 
 he fancied that he would either gain useful informa- 
 tion, or perhaps discover a new field for his industry, 
 by visiting the Southern States. He spoke English 
 very well, and, unlike many of his countrymen and 
 a few of mine, he was an excellent sailor. I was 
 surprised that he did not take a passage in one of the 
 French Transatlantic steamers, which sail weekly 
 from Havre, till he told me the reason why he pre- 
 ferred an English vessel. He had served as a 
 volunteer in the late war, and was still liable to be 
 called upon to serve in what is called the Territorial 
 Army. Before he could take a passage in the 
 French steamer, he would have to get written per- 
 mission from the authorities, and to pay a consider- 
 able fee for the necessary documents. Moreover, on 
 landing at New York he would have to go to the 
 French Consul, inform him of his address, and keep 
 him informed of his addresses during his journey 
 throughout the country. Provided this were done 
 to the Consul's satisfaction, a permit would be given 
 him when he desired to return home, and for this he 
 
 D 2
 
 36 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 would also have to pay a fee. The fees would 
 amount to several pounds, and the formalities would 
 occupy much time. All that had to be done to avoid 
 the payment and the trouble was to take a ticket for 
 London, and either embark there, or at any other 
 port in a steamer sailing under the British flag. 
 These regulations, though not so designed, have the 
 practical effect of hindering many Frenchmen from 
 proceeding to the United States in a French steamer. 
 Among the other passengers was a retired publican, 
 who had made enough money to live upon, and who 
 was now carrying out a long-cherished wish by 
 visiting the United States with his wife and son. 
 He was a quiet, sensible, well-conducted man : his 
 conversation was in good taste, and his manners 
 were unobjectionable. His son, who had probably 
 been reared in the public-house, was a living speci- 
 men of Mr. Punch's " 'Arry." 
 
 The citizens of the United States had plenty of 
 representatives on board. A cattle-breeder of 
 Pennsylvania and his wife were types of what are 
 known as Pennsylvanian Dutch. They had a varied 
 assortment of prize animals in the hold, from pigs 
 down to collie dogs. They were the first specimens 
 of Pennsylvanian Dutch I had met, and the impres- 
 sion they made on me was singularly favourable to 
 their prize animals. In striking contrast was a 
 family from the State of Massachusetts. The 
 parents had spent three years in Germany and Bel- 
 gium in order that their children might learn German 
 and French. They were all marked by that good 
 breeding and refinement which is the distinctive 
 characteristic of the educated classes in Massachu- 
 setts, and which is never more conspicuous than
 
 FROM THE THAMES TO THE HUDSON. 37 
 
 when contrasted with the manners and tastes of 
 those who inhabit some other parts of the Union. 
 A family from New York supplied this contrast in a 
 lesser degree than the Pennsylvanian couple. They 
 boasted of their possessions, and were confident that 
 nowhere but in New York could all the elegancies 
 of life be seen and enjoyed. After having spoken of 
 the luxury in which they lived at home, they would 
 recount how cheaply they had contrived to live in 
 some French towns ; an uncharitable person might 
 have entertained a suspicion whether the home 
 luxury was not a figment of their imaginations. 
 Another New Yorker, who had left London after 
 many years' residence there as a stockbroker, was 
 returning to try his fortune in his native city. He 
 was a very pious man, at least in conversation, and 
 he spent much time in giving good advice to the 
 steerage passengers, and bewailing the wickedness 
 of the human race. He had three children, one of 
 whom, a boy of about eight, was the most mis- 
 chievous child I ever saw ; he had not profited by 
 parental training. A theological student from New 
 York, who had finished his studies in Germany, was 
 well primed with comments on men and things : but 
 frequent attacks of sea-sickness hindered him from 
 giving his fellow-passengers the full benefit of his 
 acquirements. Two gentlemen were very com- 
 municative about each other and very mysterious 
 about their own affairs. They had met before in an 
 ocean steamer, and on that occasion one of them 
 went by another name. One volunteered the in- 
 formation that the other was a private detective. 
 It is not unusual for an Atlantic steamer to carry a 
 passenger or two who journeys under compulsion 
 
 83704
 
 38 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 rather than for pleasure, and these passengers may 
 be classed in that category. An ex-lieutenant in the 
 navy was another puzzling passenger. He had seen 
 a good deal of service in the Pacific, and had a fund 
 of interesting pieces of information. Why he left 
 the navy at an early age, when his prospect of 
 further promotion was very favourable, he could not 
 clearly explain. The severe attacks of rheumatism 
 from which he had suffered did not account for his 
 resignation so completely as he seemed to think. 
 Rheumatism is an insidious and debilitating malady, 
 but its symptoms are not, so far as I am aware, 
 similar to those which may be caused by an extreme 
 liking for alcohol. Several ladies were going to join 
 their husbands, taking their children with them. 
 One was bound for the far distant city of Winnipeg, 
 the capital of the new Canadian Province of Mani- 
 toba. Another was going to St. Louis. A Southern 
 lady, who had the distinction of being a poet of note 
 in her own land, was returning home with the plan 
 of a new poem in her head. A Boston lady looked 
 upon the poet with no friendly eye, while the poet 
 was painfully candid in expressing her opinion of 
 the Northerners who had beggared her in the war. 
 
 A Dutch Protestant clergyman supplied another 
 element of novelty, while four French Canadians, 
 one of whom was a Roman Catholic priest, con- 
 tributed still further to diversify the gathering. 
 These Canadians had been absent from home for ten 
 months. They had visited England, France, Italy, 
 and the Holy Land, and seen much that was new 
 and strange ; they were all the more impressed with 
 the spectacle because it was the first time they 
 had left their native country. A bitter disappoint-
 
 FROM THE THAMES TO THE HUDSON. 39 
 
 ment awaited them in France. They had looked 
 forward to feeling themselves perfectly at home 
 there, and they found that they were much more at 
 home in England. Though French was their native 
 language, yet they had little in common with French- 
 men. They were struck with the backwardness of 
 the French peasantry as cultivators of the soil, and 
 pitied the way in which the latter lived. They told 
 me that the cattle of a Quebec farmer were better 
 housed than many peasant proprietors in France. 
 With farming in England, and more particularly in 
 Scotland, they were much impressed. Probably 
 they returned home feeling far more satisfied to live 
 under the British flag than they were when Europe 
 was unknown to them by personal observation. 
 
 When Martin Chuzzlewit and Mark Tapley 
 crossed the Atlantic in the steerage of the Screw, 
 they were as thoroughly separated from the cabin 
 passengers as they would have been at the bottom 
 of the sea. Indeed, nowhere is the distinction be- 
 tween classes more clearly marked and more 
 rigorously maintained than on board an ocean-going 
 vessel. Were this not the rule, the horrors depicted 
 in Mr. Maguire's " Irish in America " would em- 
 bitter the life of many a poor and forlorn female 
 emigrant. It is with good reason, then, that com- 
 munication between male cabin passengers, the crew, 
 and female steerage passengers is the subject of 
 strict regulation. Desiring to inspect the steerage 
 accommodation on board the Canada, and receiving 
 the requisite permission, I went over that part of 
 the steamer along with one of the officers. As 
 many as 600 passengers could be housed there. 
 They receive treatment of which they could not well
 
 40 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 complain in return for the small sum paid as passage 
 money. The food is abundant and well cooked ; in- 
 deed, the cooking galley is a pattern of cleanliness, 
 being as carefully adapted for its purpose as that in 
 which the meals of the cabin passengers are pre- 
 pared. Many a steerage passenger fares better on 
 board such a steamer than he ever did on shore. A 
 hospital is provided for the ailing of either sex ; in 
 the female hospital special provision is made for the 
 arrival of sea-born passengers. Unmarried women 
 are under the care of a stewardess, and are carefully 
 separated from the men. Married couples have a 
 place set apart for them; a great improvement 
 might easily be made in their case. Eight couples 
 occupy as many berths; there is not even such a 
 conventional separation between these couples as 
 was effected, after a formal treaty, between Sterne 
 and the lady traveller with whom he had to occupy 
 the same room during his " Sentimental Journey " 
 through Savoy. 
 
 To effect a separation would cost any Steamship 
 Company little, while it would contribute largely 
 towards the comfort of the poorer married pas- 
 sengers. Another change, easily effected, would 
 benefit married and single alike. They have as 
 much fresh water served out to them as they can 
 desire, either for drinking or washing purposes ; but 
 they cannot wash either themselves or their clothes, 
 except in the tin pannikins in which they obtain the 
 water. An enclosed place, furnished with a basin 
 and a supply of water, might be provided in which 
 they could perform their ablutions or cleanse their 
 clothes in comparative comfort. Though the. lot 
 of a steerage passenger on board such a steamer
 
 FROM TEE THAMES TO THE HUDSON. 41 
 
 as the Canada is more enviable than that of a 
 cabin passenger on board the sailing ships in which 
 all passengers used to cross the ocean, yet the 
 changes I have indicated would be decided im- 
 provements. 
 
 After three-fourths of the distance which sepa- 
 rates the Old World from the New have been 
 traversed, the passengers are requested to fill up a 
 paper, for the information of the United States' 
 Government, with particulars of their names, ages, 
 places of birth, places of abode, their objects in 
 visiting the Republic, and with declarations whether 
 they have been there before. I have already noted 
 and commented on this requirement. 1 It is one 
 which still seems to me extraordinary. In Russia, 
 a foreigner is not surprised to be called upon to 
 inform the police whence he comes, whither he is 
 directing his steps, for what purpose he is journey- 
 ing to and fro, how long he has lived in the world, 
 in what place he first saw the light, in what county 
 he has a home, what is the colour of his hair and 
 eyes, how his nose is shaped and his mouth is 
 formed, and what is the exact distance between the 
 crown of his head and the soles of his feet. The 
 visitor to the United States may be pardoned for 
 thinking that he ought to be permitted to land there 
 without being treated as if he entered R/ussia. The 
 absurdity of the demand is paralleled by the in- 
 adequacy of the information supplied. Ladies 
 generally delegate to the Purser the duty of filling 
 up the papers which concern them ; the Purser is 
 guided in his task by the flattering fiction that the 
 
 1 " Westward by Rail : a Journey to San Francisco and Back." 
 Third Edition, pp. 42, 43.
 
 42 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 maximum age of a lady passenger is twenty-five. 
 Till recently the owners or masters of vessels were 
 required to pay two dollars for every passenger 
 whom they landed for the first time within the terri- 
 tory of the State of New York, and to give bonds 
 that they would not land any one who, being poor, 
 as well as friendless and homeless, might seek an 
 asylum there, and become a charge upon the public. 
 The Supreme Court of the United States has decided 
 that it is unconstitutional for any State to exact the 
 payment for passengers who set their feet on American 
 soil for the first time, and to enforce a rule against the 
 conveyance of destitute persons. The decision is a 
 creditable one. I am unable to reconcile it, however, 
 with one delivered by the same august Tribunal in 
 1845 when, after an argument from Webster in sup- 
 port of the practice, it decided that the City of New 
 York had a right to impose a tax upon immigrants. 2 
 In the absence of an explanation it must be held that 
 the Supreme Court has given contradictory decisions 
 on the same point of constitutional law. 
 
 The incidents of the voyage were of the usual 
 kind. Imaginative passengers saw spouting whales 
 where other people could discover nothing but the 
 crests of waves. It blew a gale for a couple of days, 
 and nervous passengers were apprehensive lest the 
 vessel should go to the bottom at any moment. One 
 passenger made the discovery that the screw, having 
 got loose, was kept affixed to the shaft by a rope, 
 and that, as the Canada had no bulwarks and 
 was lightly laden, the risk of destruction was very 
 great. The only screw really loose was in this 
 
 1 Sir Charles Lyell's "Travels in North America." Second 
 Series, vol. i. p. 263.
 
 FROM THE THAMES TO THE HUDSON. 43 
 
 passenger's head. Worse than strong contrary 
 winds, which merely delayed our progress, were the 
 days of dense fog and of rain. But at last the 
 pilot comes on board; the holder of the number 
 considered unlucky being the winner of the sweep- 
 stake based on the number of the pilot's boat; old 
 newspapers are received and read with eagerness by 
 passengers who have been several days at sea, and 
 who, for lack of the morning and evening newspapers, 
 have little to talk about. Sandy Hook is passed, and 
 the steamer drops her anchor off Staten Island. The 
 green trees and pleasant-looking villas on shore are 
 most attractive to spectators who are tired of the sight 
 of the waste of waters, and who know nothing of 
 the ague which is the scourge of this pretty island. 
 The health officer next appears, and finds every- 
 thing in good order. A steward who cut his hand 
 when drawing a cork out of a bottle, and a sailor 
 who injured his face by falling down the hold, are 
 the only invalids on board, even the lady who suf- 
 fered from bottled stout having been pronounced 
 convalescent by the doctor. Then the wharf on the 
 Hudson River is reached ; acquaintanceships are 
 broken, never, perhaps, to be renewed ; hearty fare- 
 wells are said to Captain Sumner and the other 
 excellent officers of a splendid and comfortable ship; 
 warm thanks are specially given to Mr. Bell, the 
 Purser, for much courtesy and attention, and the 
 passengers nerve themselves for an interview with 
 the Custom-House officers of New York.
 
 44 
 
 III. 
 
 THE EMPIEE CITY. 
 
 IN the land of freedom, upwards of two thousand 
 articles are liable to custom's duty. Before landing, 
 the traveller has to make out a list of the contents 
 of his luggage. After landing, he is taken before a 
 magistrate in order to affirm upon oath that the 
 declaration which he made in writing is trustworthy. 
 Having sworn to the truth of the statement, an 
 officer is then deputed to search the traveller's 
 luggage for smuggled goods. Either the declaration 
 or the search is unnecessary. The visitor to the 
 Republic, as well as any citizen who returns to it, is 
 treated as a probable perjurer. 
 
 Twice have I passed unscathed through the ordeal 
 of the New York Custom House ; on neither occasion 
 could I have suffered harm, for nothing in my 
 possession could be declared contraband. This time, 
 the officer asked me to unlock a box containing my 
 wife's wearing apparel ; before searching it, he asked 
 me whether I was an American Citizen ; I replied 
 that I had no claim to so honourable a title, that 
 I was a harmless traveller bent upon journeying 
 through the United States and Canada, and that I 
 looked forward with pleasure to seeing at Philadelphia 
 the finest International Exhibition which had ever
 
 THE EMPIRE CITY. 45 
 
 been formed ; thereupon he quietly remarked, " Guess 
 that will do," closed the box, declining to search any 
 other articles of luggage. The luggage belonging 
 to fellow-passengers, who had the distinction of being 
 citizens of the United States, was subjected to a 
 more troublesome examination. One of them had 
 to part with all his spare cash in order to pay duty 
 upon a present which he had brought to his mother. 
 Another, who had declared on board the Canada 
 that he considered the tariff of his country iniquitous 
 and smuggling a legitimate protest, had his luggage 
 ransacked most conscientiously, whilst his wife and 
 children stood by and groaned as payment of duty 
 was demanded for one article after another. To be 
 permitted to leave the Custom House with one's 
 luggage intact is a triumph ; to drive to a hotel with- 
 out being overcharged is an impossibility. This is 
 no new experience. Writing in the year 1828, Mr. 
 James Stuart says, " The hackney coaches are only 
 constructed for four persons, very nice-looking with- 
 out and within, generally driven by Irishmen, or men 
 of colour, who are, we found, as apt to overcharge 
 strangers as in other places." l A curious fiction 
 prevails to the effect that the fares are calculated 
 according to a fixed and authorized tariff. The New 
 York " hackmen " treat this with ridicule. The only 
 tariff which I have been able to discover existed in 
 their fertile imaginations, and baffled those persons 
 who were accustomed to old* world rules of computa- 
 tion. Once I tried to make a bargain before starting, 
 and pointed out to an intelligent citizen that the sum 
 he asked was four times greater than that to which 
 
 1 " Three Years in North America," vol. i. p. 24.
 
 46 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 he was legally entitled; bis response was, "Guess 
 you can leave it then." On the present occasion, I 
 had to pay four dollars for being driven from the 
 wharf of the National line to the Sturtevant House 
 in Broadway. One-fourth of the sum would be con- 
 sidered dear in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, or London, 
 and not more than one-fourth would be asked by 
 the well-regulated " hackmen " of the capital of 
 Massachusetts. Many sympathizing citizens were 
 good enough to "guess" that I had been shame- 
 fully overcharged, but they were unable to suggest 
 what I ought to have done in order to pay less. 
 Indeed, it appears to be the custom in New York 
 to denounce the extortionate demands of "hackmen," 
 and to submit to them. No one takes a "hack" 
 unless compelled to do so. It is easy to get from 
 one part of the city to another for a trifle in a street 
 car or an omnibus. But the stranger who steps on 
 shore encumbered with luggage is unable to dispense 
 with the " hackman's " costly help, and, as strangers 
 are the chief sufferers, New Yorkers can bear the 
 infliction with tolerable equanimity. 
 
 Since I saw New York in 1869, a good many things 
 have happened there, as well as in other places. 
 Most important among them, in the opinion of the 
 citizens, is the dislodgment of Mr. Tweed and his 
 friends from public offices of trust and responsibility. 
 This is regarded as a civic revolution brought 
 about, at the instigation of the New York Times, by 
 the united efforts of honest men. It was confidently 
 anticipated that the era of lavish expenditure and 
 of knavish appropriation of the public funds, of a 
 system of government maintained by plundering the 
 rich and corrupting the poor, had definitely closed, and
 
 THE EMPIRE CITY. 47 
 
 that an era of efficient, economical and laudable 
 administration was about to begin. A lesson had 
 been taught to the wrong-doers. Mr. Tweed having 
 been convicted of malversation, was ordered to re- 
 fund the enormous sum of $6,000,000. He managed 
 to escape from prison, but has been recaptured, and 
 will have to make restitution in order to regain his 
 liberty. A stranger does not see much improvement 
 in the external condition of the city. The streets are 
 as badly paved now as they were in the days when 
 much of the money charged for doing public work 
 remained in the pockets of the contractors. 
 
 How profitable it must once have been, and may yet 
 be to undertake to pave the streets of New York is 
 shown by the disclosures made during a suit in the 
 Supreme Court against the Nicholson Pavement 
 Company. A particular piece of work was executed 
 by the Company for the sum of $1,500,000; the 
 nett profit amounted to $775,000. When the return 
 is so large, it is not wonderful that the pavement 
 should be rather uneven, and in constant need of 
 repair. The Court House, upon which $12,000,000 
 were nominally expended, while Mr. Tweed was in 
 power, is still unfinished. 
 
 The New York ratepayer has not profited by the 
 substitution of a city government, which was to be 
 a pattern of purity, for one which was infamous for 
 roguery. In 1870, the debt was nearly $55,000,000 ; 
 now, including the floating debt, it is upwards of 
 $161,000,000. No other city in the world, except 
 Paris, has so large a debt ; that of London is but a 
 trifle in comparison. It is clear that men who were 
 to be model administrators have been able to spend 
 money as lavishly as their peculating predecessors ;
 
 48 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 it is doubtful whether the difference between the two 
 sets of administrators is obvious to those who pay 
 rates ; certainly, it cannot be detected by the stranger 
 who paces the badly paved streets. 
 
 The Central Park, which is not under the direct 
 control of the Municipality, is a striking contrast to 
 the other objects of public interest which are main- 
 tained out of the public purse. In the extent of 
 wood and water, smooth turf and flower-beds, and 
 in the roads kept in excellent repair, this Park has 
 few equals. It is none the less attractive though the 
 statue of Mr. T weed,which some enthusiastic admirers 
 desired to set up either there or in the city at the 
 cost of the ratepayers, is still absent. Instead of 
 this statue, the public are provided with a Menagerie 
 gratis. The collection of wild beasts comprises a 
 bison, a goat, a couple of parrots, several monkeys, a 
 lion, tiger, and leopard, and many ordinary beasts and 
 birds of prey. The lion, tiger, and leopard appear 
 exceedingly unhappy. They are shown, not in dens 
 where they may retire from public gaze, and take 
 refuge from affectionate demonstrations conveyed by 
 the points of umbrellas and sticks, but in cages 
 barred all round, and placed so that they can be 
 approached on all sides. 
 
 In the last half-yearly report of Mr. Conkling, the 
 Director of the Menagerie, there are some interesting 
 statistics about the cost of maintaining the animals. 
 An Elephant is the most expensive, its keep causing 
 an outlay of $250 a year. The grizzly Bear and the 
 Camel come next ; one of them can be kept for $150. 
 A very fine Lion, with the special qualification of 
 being a good roarer, can be kept for the small outlay 
 of $125. A Jaguar costs $104, a Zebra $75 for
 
 THE EMPIRE CITY. 49 
 
 yearly keep, while the trifling sum of $63 is sufficient 
 to maintain a Hyena, Leopard, or Puma. The 
 number of animals at the end of 1875 was 626; at 
 the end of 1873, when I believe the Menagerie to 
 have been established, the number was 455 ; thus the 
 increase in the course of three years was 171. 
 
 The newspaper in which I read these statistics 
 contained a letter penned by Macaulay, and predict- 
 ing future woe for the Republic when the population 
 grew dense, and thousands, who were unable to get 
 dinners, were face to face in angry mood with fellow- 
 citizens who were unable to digest the sumptuous 
 dinners prepared for them. Then the institutions of 
 the Republic would be subjected to a strain which 
 might prove fatal to them. Allowing for the pro- 
 gressive increase of living things in this growing 
 country, the wild animals in the Central Park 
 Menagerie will number about half a million at the 
 time when there are two hundred persons to the 
 square mile, and it is difficult to procure food. 
 This prospect is more appalling than any which has 
 alarmed those persons who fear what the future will 
 bring forth in a country governed by the democracy. 
 Yet, though many have been led by the vaticinations 
 of Macaulay to indulge in forebodings about what 
 may occur, no one has paid heed to the more terrible 
 state of things which would ensue if half a million 
 of wild beasts were famishing. The danger in the 
 one case is as real as in the other. Starving 
 democrats may try and eat the wild beasts, or the 
 ravening beasts may feast upon the poor democrats. 
 I leave the result to those persons who possess a vivid 
 imagination, and who are prepared to foretell what 
 will happen a hundred or a thousand years hence : 
 
 E
 
 50 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 as I do not know what will occur then, I shall avoid* 
 being mistaken by declining to prophecy. 
 
 Complaints about the scarcity of work are common 
 among artificers, yet there is no lack of new buildings, 
 and of new churches in particular. In walking 
 along Fifth Avenue I began to count the number of 
 church spires, and found that they were too many to 
 be kept in remembrance. Some of the new Presby- 
 terian Churches are imposing structures ; they are 
 surpassed, however, by the Roman Catholic Cathedral 
 of St. Patrick, a marble edifice of vast proportions 
 and an effective architectural design. The material 
 used is white marble. The cost must be enormous. 
 The money required is readily forthcoming, much of 
 it being contributed by Irish servant-girls, who 
 freely part with a portion of their wages for the 
 honour of their faith. Internally, some of these 
 churches are as remarkable as they are in external 
 appearance. The Rev. Dr. McGibbon, who came 
 from Australia to the United States, returned home 
 amazed at what he had seen in New York. The 
 following is the judgment which he passed upon Dr. 
 Hall's Church there, a judgment which, if rather 
 severe, cannot be said to be charged with the narrow 
 prejudices that might predominate in the mind of a 
 clergyman whose home and sphere of clerical duty 
 had lain in the Mother Country : "I submit that 
 the magnificence of the temple in which Dr. Hall 
 ministers, its gorgeous exterior, its massive steeple, 
 its elaborate windows, its luxurious pews, its richly- 
 carpeted and upholstered stairs and seats, its skylight, 
 its polished wood, and its unique everything, costing 
 82, 000,000, ought to be condemned as a sinful waste, 
 and a practical notice to the poor that 'here the
 
 THE EMPIRE CITY. 51 
 
 Gospel and the ordinances of Christ are intended for 
 the rich." : While churches have risen for the pro- 
 pagation of established creeds, a new religion has been 
 offered for the consideration of New Yorkers. In 
 Paris and London, the believers in Comte have long 
 held services such as he enjoined, and practised the 
 religion which he devised. Only now has New 
 York been favoured in the same way, for not till 
 this year has the religion of Humanity been formally 
 incorporated and classed among creeds recognized 
 by law. In the articles of incorporation its objects 
 are said to be " to develope and extend a knowledge 
 of the synthetic and religious nature of science and 
 humanity; second, to preserve them, instead of 
 theology, as the basis and substance of religion ; and 
 third, to practise and promote such religion as the 
 foundation of religious and social duties of human 
 welfare and progress." 
 
 Till I heard of the death of Baron de Palm, and 
 learned the nature of the funeral service performed 
 over his remains before burning them at a more 
 convenient season, I was unaware that a Theosophical 
 Society existed in New York, and that its design 
 was to revive some of the rites of the Pagan 
 Egyptians. The High Priest is Colonel Olcott. The 
 service was held on Sunday in the Grand Lodge 
 Room of the Masonic Temple. At the head of the 
 coffin was a bronze cross with a serpent twined 
 round it; a censer containing incense was at the 
 foot ; seven coloured candles were burning upon it ; 
 the incense and the candles being supposed to 
 symbolize the ancient Sun-worship. When the 
 service began, seven men dressed in black robes, and 
 with palms in their hands, ranged themselves behind 
 
 E 2
 
 52 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 the coffin ; an Orphic hymn was then sung, one verse 
 will suffice for a specimen of the whole : 
 
 " Oh Thou that givest light from high, 
 Eternal Ether, Father's mind 
 Fire-sea that feed'st majestic suns, 
 Let him immortal be." 
 
 The Theosophic Litany, bearing a resemblance to 
 compositions of the kind which have been framed by 
 the founders of new creeds, was then repeated by 
 Colonel Olcott, who afterwards delivered an address. 
 The following passage will convey a fair understand- 
 ing of the views of this strange body : " This Society 
 is neither religious, nor charitable, nor scientific. Its 
 objects are to inquire, not to teach, and its mem- 
 bers consist of men of various creeds and beliefs. 
 Theology means the revealed knowledge of God, 
 and Theosophy the direct knowledge of God. The 
 one asks us to believe what some one else had seen 
 and heard, and the other tells us to see and hear 
 what we can for ourselves. Theosophy teaches that 
 by cultivation of his powers a man may be inwardly 
 illumined, and get thereby a knowledge of his own 
 God-like qualities. It believes in no death-bed 
 repentance. It considers the ruffian who stands 
 under the gallows a ruffian still, though twenty 
 prayers may have been uttered over him." 
 
 Overlooking the Central Park is a plain but 
 imposing structure just completed, and known as 
 the Lenox Library. It is designed to contain the 
 manuscripts, works of art, and books collected by its 
 founder, and now made accessible to the public in 
 this building. Mr. Lenox is a merchant who has 
 devoted much of his fortune to collecting rare and
 
 THE EMPIRE CITY. 53 
 
 useful works in art and literature, and who has 
 
 decided to render what has been the amusement of ?)< 
 
 his life a valuable possession for his fellow-citizens. 
 
 He certainly has done better than the late Mr. r 
 
 Stewart, whose only memorial is a large store and a 
 
 white marble palace in ^Broadway. Many years were 0v^ 
 
 spent in accumulating his wealth and building the 
 
 palace in which he died ; the memory of both will soon 
 
 pass away and his own name be forgotten, because 
 
 he failed to devote a share of his colossal fortune 
 
 to some object of public interest. The bitterest 
 
 disappointment which the New Yorkers have had for 
 
 many a day was to learn that the Mr. Stewart of 
 
 whom they were proud, and whom they were 
 
 accustomed to cite as a product of their unrivalled 
 
 institutions, should have omitted to assign any part 
 
 of his fortune for the adornment or benefit of the 
 
 city. 
 
 The office of the New York Herald, a, conspicuous 
 marble edifice, was one of the sights when I was 
 last here. The office of the New York Tribune is 
 now a counter-attraction. A splendid view can be 
 had from the upper windows of the lofty tower 
 which crowns the Tribune building. Seldom have I 
 seen a more skilfully-planned and carefully-finished 
 structure than this. The lower floors are let out as 
 business offices ; the upper ones are devoted to the 
 editorial and printing departments of the newspaper. 
 The persons who grudge the time and breath con- 
 sumed in ascending the long flight of stairs can go 
 in a twinkling from bottom to top in a steam lift, 
 which is constantly ascending and descending. 
 
 The Tribune has undergone great changes during 
 late years. The death of Mr. Horace Greeley, its
 
 54 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 founder and editor, was not followed by the deteriora- 
 tion in the character of the paper which was generally 
 but erroneously expected. Its loss has been a gain. 
 The crochets and personalities in which Mr. Greeley 
 delighted have ceased to characterize it. Public 
 topics are now discussed in its columns on purely 
 public grounds. Mr. Whitelaw Reid, a representative 
 journalist of the modern school, who is the present 
 editor, has extended the influence of the newspaper 
 by his splendid supervising and critical faculty, and 
 largely increased its weight as an organ of cultivated 
 opinion. The letters of its well-known London Cor- 
 respondent, Mr. G. "W. Smalley, have contributed in 
 a marked degree to elevate the power of the Tribune. 
 During the Franco-German War no other journal 
 in the United States was better supplied with in- 
 telligence; I have heard Mr. Smalley's services 
 in this respect pronounced exceptional by a mag- 
 nate of the London daily press, and Mr. Smalley 
 himself hailed as " The Napoleon of journalism." 
 The effectiveness of the letters of the London cor- 
 respondent of the Tribune is enhanced by the fact 
 that the minutest shortcomings of English public 
 men, and the slightest failings in English social life, 
 are unsparingly detailed and condemned by his 
 pungent and lively pen. 
 
 The journals of New York are many in number 
 and varied in excellence. I have already men- 
 tioned the Tribune, which is one of the most notable, 
 I may name a few others which are equally 
 conspicuous; to enumerate and discuss them all 
 will require the compass of a volume. The Herald, 
 which pants after a reputation for omnipresence, is 
 foremost in circulation and popular favour; the
 
 THE EMPIRE CITY. 55 
 
 organ of no party, its support is accounted a great 
 gain ; when, with some hesitation, it finally declared 
 for the maintenance of the Union, President Lincoln 
 declared that his hands were strengthened, and that 
 the good cause had acquired an ally which was 
 worth an army. The World, which represents the 
 Democratic party, is written with great vigour ; the 
 late Charles Sumner, who detested its politics, told 
 me that he admired the literary finish which fre- 
 quently characterized its leading articles. The 
 Times has recently been the uncompromising advo- 
 cate of the extreme section of the Republican party ; 
 it distinguished itself by unearthing the misdeeds of 
 Mr. Tweed and his accomplices, and acquired an 
 amount of credit which is gradually diminishing ; in 
 the opinion of bitter patriots it did not deserve all 
 the praise which it once received, seeing that it was 
 then under the editorship of an Englishman. The Sun 
 prints what people in general hesitate to utter; it is the 
 terror of those persons who shun notoriety, and the 
 delight of scandal-mongers. Quite as noteworthy as 
 any of these daily journals and more influential over 
 cultured opinion than all of them combined, is the 
 weekly Nation, which combines the best qualities of 
 the Saturday Review and the Spectator, which treats 
 political, social, and economic topics with a freshness 
 of tone which is most gratifying, and an acerbity 
 which does not always give pleasure; though in- 
 discreet admirers may unreasonably contend that it 
 is both infallible and omniscient, yet no judicious 
 person can deny that it is exceptionally well in- 
 formed and that, on momentous questions of public 
 policy, it is generally in the right. 
 
 In the press of the United States less attention is
 
 56 
 
 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 paid to how a thing is said, than to the consideration 
 whether the statement be worth printing. Pic- 
 turesqueness of phrase is preferred to purity of style. 
 Newspaper English in the Republic is often a com- 
 pound of newly-coined words, which seems very fine 
 to young writers, and which is not always intelligible 
 to ordinary readers. One journal is distinguished 
 among its contemporaries for striving to preserve 
 the use of idiomatic and irreproachable English. 
 This is the New York Evening Post, over which Mr. 
 Bryant, one of the most notable among modern 
 poets, exercised editorial authority for many years. 
 He endeavoured to train his contributors to write 
 well, and his example has been as salutary as his 
 precept. I have obtained a copy of the list of 
 words which he forbids his contributors to employ ; 
 as I think it more instructive than a chapter of 
 dissertation, I reprint it in full. Some of the faults 
 of expression which Mr. Bryant censures are com- 
 mitted by other journalists than those of the United 
 States. 
 
 The objectionable word or phrase is printed in 
 italics : 
 
 MR. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT'S "INDEX EXPURGATORIUS." 
 
 Above and over, for more than. 
 
 Bagging, for capturing. 
 
 Action, proceeding. 
 
 Balance, remainder. 
 
 Afterwards, afterward. 
 
 Banquet, dinner, or supper. 
 
 Aggregate, altogether, or 
 
 Base, as a verb. 
 
 total. 
 
 Beat, for defeat. 
 
 Artiste, artist. 
 
 Bogus. 
 
 Assembly man, member of As- 
 
 Brother Jonathan, for United States. 
 
 sembly. 
 
 Call attention, for direct attention. 
 
 Aspirant. 
 
 Casket, coffin. 
 
 Auditorium, ,, auditory. 
 
 Claimed, asserted. 
 
 Authoress. 
 
 Collided. 
 
 Average, ordinary. 
 
 Collateral, collateral security. 
 
 Advocation, vocation. 
 
 Commence begin.
 
 THE EMPIRE CITY. 
 
 57 
 
 Conclusion, for close, or end. 
 Congressman, member of Con- 
 
 Cortege, ,, procession. 
 
 Cotemporary, contemporary. 
 
 Couple, two. 
 
 Decade, ten years. 
 
 Depot, station. 
 
 Darkey, ,, negro. 
 
 Day before yesterday, for the day be- 
 fore yesterday. 
 
 Debut. 
 
 Decease, as a verb. 
 
 Democracy, applied to a political 
 party. 
 
 Develope, for expose. 
 
 Devouring element, for fire. 
 
 Donate. 
 
 Employe 1 . 
 
 Endorse, for approve. 
 
 En route. 
 
 " Esq." 
 
 Fall, for antmnn. 
 
 Freshet, ,, flood. 
 
 Gents, ,, gentlemen. 
 
 Graduates, is graduated. 
 
 Greenbacks, Treasury notes. 
 
 Hardly, scarcely. 
 
 "Hon." 
 
 House, for House of Eepresentatives. 
 
 Humbug. 
 
 Inaugurate, for begin. 
 
 Indebtedness, debt. 
 
 In our midst. 
 
 Interment, burial. 
 
 Interred, buried. 
 
 Is being done, and all passives of this 
 form. 
 
 Issue, for question or subject. 
 
 Item, for particle, extract, or para- 
 graph. 
 
 Jeopardize. 
 
 John Bull, for Great Britain. 
 
 Jubilant, ,, rejoicing. 
 
 Juvenile, ,, boy. 
 
 Lady, wife. 
 
 Last, ,, * latest. 
 
 Lengthy, long. 
 
 Leniency, lenity. 
 
 Loafer. 
 
 Loan or loaned, lend or lent. 
 
 Located. 
 
 Majority, relating to places or cir- 
 cumstances, for most. 
 
 Materially, for largely or greatly. 
 
 Mrs. President, Mrs. Governor, Mrs. 
 General, and all similar titles. 
 
 Mutual, for common. 
 
 Nominee, ,, candidate. 
 
 Notice, observe, or mention. 
 
 Numerous, as applied to any noun, 
 save a noun of multitude. 
 
 Official, for officer. 
 
 On yesterday. 
 
 Our first page, for first page of the 
 Evening Post. 
 
 Oration. 
 
 Over his signature. 
 
 Pants, for pantaloons. 
 
 Parties, persons. 
 
 Partially, partly. 
 
 Pa-si two weeks, for last two weeks, 
 and all similar expressions 
 relating to a definite time. 
 
 Poetess. 
 
 Portion, for part. 
 
 Posted, informed. 
 
 Primaries, primary meetings. 
 
 Prior to, before. 
 
 Progress, advance, or 
 
 growth. 
 
 Proximity, nearness. 
 
 Quite, prefixed to good, large, &c. 
 
 Residence, for house. 
 
 Raid, attack. 
 
 Realized, obtained. 
 
 Record, character, or re- 
 
 putation. 
 
 Reliable, trustworthy. 
 
 Repudiate, reject, or disown. 
 
 Resident, inhabitant. 
 
 Retire, as an active verb. 
 
 Rev., for the Kev. 
 
 Role, the part. 
 
 Roughs. 
 
 Rowdies. 
 
 Seaboard, sea-coast. 
 
 Secesh. 
 
 Section, district, or region. 
 
 Sensation, noteworthy event. 
 
 Spending, passing. 
 
 Standpoint, point of view.
 
 58 
 
 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 Start, 
 
 State, 
 Stopping, 
 
 for begin, or estab- 
 lish. 
 
 say. 
 
 staying, or so- 
 journing. 
 
 afterward. 
 
 act, or do. 
 talents, or ability. 
 
 Subsequently, 
 
 Taboo. 
 
 Take action, 
 
 Talent, 
 
 Talented. 
 
 Tapis. 
 
 Tariff, for rates of fare, or schedule 
 
 of rates. 
 
 Telegrams, ,, despatches. 
 
 The deceased. 
 The United States, as a singular noun. 
 
 Those wanting, for those who want. 
 
 Those who, those persons who. 
 
 Transpire, occur. 
 
 Try an experiment, for make an ex- 
 periment. 
 
 Via, for by the way of. 
 
 Vicinity, neighbourhood. . 
 
 Wall Street slang generally : " bulls, 
 bears, long, short, flat, cor- 
 ner, tight, moribund, coma- 
 tose, &c. 
 
 We are mistaken in, for we mistake. 
 
 Wharves, for wharfs. 
 
 Which, with a noun, as "which man." 
 
 Would seem, for seems. 
 
 I turn from the grave topic of newspaper 
 writing and editing to the more popular one of amuse- 
 ments. If the reader had been present at one of Gil- 
 more' s concerts, he or she would have enjoyed a great 
 treat. When I was formerly in New York I went 
 to one of Thomas's excellent concerts held close to 
 the Central Park. The situation of the building in 
 which they were held is out of the way; the hall 
 in which Gilmore's concerts took place is very ac- 
 cessible, being close to Madison Square, in the heart 
 of the city. Here it was that M. Offenbach gave 
 the entertainments of which he chronicles the 
 success, and which are understood to have afforded 
 great pleasure to every one except the gentleman 
 who was responsible for the necessary payments. 
 This concert-room was formerly the terminus of the 
 Harlem Railway. It had the look of Cremorne 
 Gardens or the Jardin Mabille under a glass roof. 
 Rows of coloured lights illumined the interior ; 
 fountains of water delighted the eye and cooled the 
 air, while shrubs of all climes and kinds diversified 
 the ground. Provision was made for visitors who
 
 THE EMPIRE CITY. 59 
 
 desired to eat or drink. Half a dollar was charged 
 
 o 
 
 for admission, the company being as select as the 
 most fastidious could desire. A programme of the 
 performance, handed to each person on entering, 
 informed him or her not only what pieces were to be 
 played, but also contained advertisements telling 
 how to make money without trouble. I learned 
 from them that the cost of a fortune in the Kentucky 
 Lottery is only twelve dollars ; on payment of this 
 sum I shall receive $100,000 provided I draw the 
 first prize. Should I consider the promises of 
 Spain more seductive and trustworthy than those of 
 the State of Kentucky, I have but to pay twenty 
 dollars in order to receive the same sum, provided I 
 were to win the first prize in the lottery at Havanna. 
 If the reader's faith in lotteries be cold and un- 
 sympathetic, he will find other things to entertain 
 him in this sheet. An account is given of Mr. Gil- 
 more, who originated these concerts. With the 
 modesty of genius, Mr. Gilmore frankly avows that 
 nothing can equal the enthusiasm which he feels for 
 his art, that he became a musician at the early age 
 of eight, and that he " not only handles with skill, 
 many of the instruments in his organization, but is 
 also a master on the cornet." Be it noted that in 
 quoting the last sentence, I confess my inability to 
 understand it. Mr. Gilmore recently told Mr. R. M. 
 Davey, " the brilliant and accomplished editor of the 
 Spirit of the Times" that his " heart is ever and 
 entirely in his work ; in his mission, as he likes to 
 look upon it, and that he is determined to do his 
 duty to his ideal and his country." In fulfilling 
 this task, neither his ideal nor his country has been 
 properly grateful ; an intimation to this effect is
 
 60 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 given in a becoming and resigned spirit : " Let 
 the world say what it may about me, my pockets 
 are light, but my heart is full of gratitude to 
 Providence and to the people for the assistance 
 T have received, and am constantly receiving in 
 forwarding the object of my life the propagation 
 of good music in America." Certainly the concert 
 which I attended was excellent in every respect, 
 the selections being well chosen, and the execution 
 being finished and effective. The singing of the 
 " Young Apollo Club " deservedly aroused the en- 
 thusiasm of the audience ; the youths who composed 
 it had been carefully trained, and they rendered the 
 several pieces with taste and accuracy. On the whole, 
 Mr. Gilmore's concerts are worthy of high praise. 
 
 I had the pleasure of visiting the exhibition of 
 paintings by native artists at the National Academy 
 of Design and, at a later day, of seeing the Loan 
 Collection of paintings shown in the same building. 
 Both exhibitions were fraught with instruction, the 
 lesson taught by the former being the less flattering 
 of the two. Many of the paintings were worthy 
 of praise; they displayed technical skill, much 
 mental resource and elaborated cleverness. But 
 the best had no national impress; all the artists 
 appeared to have studied, or to have imitated the 
 processes and peculiarities prevailing at Diisseldorf 
 or Munich, Rome or Paris. From the highest point 
 of view this is not a drawback, but a distinct merit ; 
 it is as meritorious to be a cosmopolitan artist as a 
 cosmopolitan author. Yet, it is considered a demerit 
 in a United States' citizen to show that no pent-up 
 Utica contracts his powers, and that he is a citizen 
 of the world. Hence, to pronounce the productions
 
 THE EMPIRE CITY. 61 
 
 of United States artists deficient in national pecu- 
 liarities is to pass what their countrymen regard as a 
 fatal censure. Not by way of blame, but rather as a 
 subject of congratulation, must I express the opinion 
 that artists of the Republic have shown how they can 
 adapt their powers to circumstances, and produce 
 good pictures which are free from the stamp and 
 mannerism of a single form of training, and the 
 traditions of a single school. 
 
 The Loan Collection was formed out of the 
 choicest works in the possession of private persons 
 in New York. The works of 221 artists were ex- 
 hibited. Of these, 110 were Frenchmen, 41 were 
 citizens of the United States, 31 were Germans, 17 
 were Romans, 12 were Belgians, 5 were Englishmen, 
 2 were Austrians, 2 were Scotsmen, and 1 was a Rus- 
 sian. These figures prove that Modern French art 
 is most to the taste of New York connoisseurs. 
 The exhibition, which was a very good one, would 
 doubtless serve to educate the public taste. 
 
 The question of getting rapidly and cheaply from 
 one part of this city to another has long been the 
 subject of desire and suggestion. The omnibuses 
 and street cars do not suffice for the conveyance of 
 impatient passengers. It has been proposed to con- 
 struct an Underground Railway, as in London, but 
 the opposition to this scheme has proved insur- 
 mountable. Other schemes have been advocated 
 in the newspapers. What is styled an Elevated 
 Railway seems to enjoy the greatest amount of 
 support and approval. The rails are affixed to 
 brackets extending laterally, at the height of about 
 ten feet above the ground, from the sides of pillars 
 placed, at short distances apart, along the outer
 
 02 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 edge of the foot pavement. The engines and 
 carriages overhang the rails, so that running off 
 them is impossible. Excepting the noise made by a 
 passing train, the plan has no obvious drawback. 
 Yet such railways have many opponents, and it may 
 be some time before they are generally introduced. 
 
 The more conspicuous changes in New York since 
 my last visit are that Mr. Tweed has been deposed 
 and imprisoned, and Mr. James Fisk, Jr., shot; that 
 other notorious citizens have carried their ill-gotten 
 wealth to Europe, where they can live in splendour 
 and display what they consider patriotism by scorning 
 the effete and antiquated institutions of the country 
 in which they have found an asylum ; that the city 
 debt has been trebled while the city remains a speci- 
 men of mal-administration ; that two new religions 
 have been provided for the citizens whose piety had 
 waxed cold, or who craved for novelty on Sundays ; 
 that a handsome and commodious post office, many 
 beautiful churches, a central railway station, several 
 new hotels, a public library and a newspaper office, 
 both of which may be styled monumental, have been 
 built ; that wild beasts have been collected for ex- 
 hibition in the Central Park ; that an aquarium has 
 been erected in Broadway, and that a railway carries 
 passengers above the streets, instead of, as in 
 London, underneath them.
 
 IV. 
 
 THE CITY OP BROTHERLY LOVE. 
 
 IP a stranger wished to increase the number of per- 
 sons who considered him alike presumptuous and 
 incompetent, he would undertake to assign the 
 foremost place to a particular city of the United 
 States. Rigid impartiality, or unanswerable reasons 
 would avail him nothing against the accusation of 
 prejudice and folly, nor would they shield him from 
 the perfect hatred of the citizens of every other city 
 than the one named, while the citizens of the chosen 
 city would exhibit no special gratitude, for they 
 would contend that their dwelling-place had only 
 received its just due. I was not surprised, then, to 
 find that the pre-eminence accorded to Philadelphia 
 in the year of national jubilee had not been meekly 
 acquiesced in throughout the Union. I read in 
 many newspapers that other places considered their 
 historic titles to be equal to those of Philadelphia, 
 and, if this were disputed, that their arrangements 
 for accommodating and entertaining visitors, were 
 much more complete and extensive than those of the 
 city of Brotherly Love; I also read articles in Phila- 
 delphian newspapers deprecating the comments in 
 their contemporaries, more particularly those of 
 New York, and rebutting the unfair charge that the
 
 64 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 visitors to Philadelphia would be the prey of extor- 
 tionate hotel-keepers, whilst figuring as pilgrims at 
 the shrine of Independence. Possibly some cities in 
 the land of Islam envy the fame of Mecca, and think 
 that they could most appropriately guard so precious 
 a relic as the Caaba; and it may be that some 
 Indian cities are convinced of their claims to be pro- 
 nounced as holy and attractive to devotees as 
 Benares. It is certain, however, than any visitor to 
 the United States who desires to keep on good 
 terms with his friends and acquaintances in New 
 York, Boston, and every other place of note or 
 notoriety, ought to be measured in his eulogies of 
 Philadelphia. If anxious to make friends, or to 
 retain friendship with the citizens of Philadelphia, he 
 should not hesitate about praising their city. An 
 American loyalist, writing in 1776, says that "in 
 one point, not contented with being not agreeable, 
 the Philadelphians are almost disagreeable ; the 
 almost universal topic of conversation among them 
 is the superiority of Philadelphia over every other 
 spot of the globe." 1 
 
 A visit to the United States is not indispensable 
 for discovering manifestations of the like spirit of 
 municipal pride and jealousy. If the praises of 
 Edinburgh were loudly sounded in Glasgow, or the 
 pretensions of Glasgow vigorously urged in Edin- 
 burgh ; if Belfast were lauded in Dublin, or Dublin 
 held up in Belfast as a model ; if Liverpool, Man- 
 chester, Leeds, Sheffield, and Birmingham should 
 be told that they were but rush-lights in comparison 
 with London, or if a Londoner should be informed 
 that other cities in the United Kingdom were more 
 1 Notes and Queries, 5th aeries, vol 6, p. 81.
 
 THE .CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE. 65 
 
 attractive and praiseworthy, in some respects, than 
 the cyclopean and fuliginous capital of England ; in 
 each of these cases the opinions expressed would 
 prove unpalatable, and no thanks would be returned 
 to those who uttered them. In France alone a strik- 
 ing exception can be found to a rule applying to the 
 rest of the world. The claims of Paris to national 
 pre-eminence are acknowledged by all the other 
 cities in the land. Many inhabitants of these cities 
 even seem to think that they owe an apology for 
 having been born and for living in them ; they look 
 upon Paris as an earthly paradise ; the French pea- 
 santry, on the contrary, regard the capital as a sort 
 of witch's cauldron wherein revolutions are brewed. 
 Whether Philadelphia be or be not as greatly in 
 advance of every rival as its citizens imagine, it 
 certainly stands very high among the famous cities 
 of the United States, having had a most interesting 
 past, and been the theatre of some of the greatest 
 events in the history of the country. Not so truly 
 cosmopolitan as New York, it is much more compo- 
 site than Boston. Long before William Penn formed 
 an English settlement in Pennsylvania, the people 
 of three nationalities Finns, Swedes, and Hollanders 
 had made their homes there. For many years 
 each nationality preserved its identity ; the language 
 of each was taught in the schools ; books and news- 
 papers were provided for each race in the mother 
 tongue. Religious creeds exceeded in number the 
 languages spoken, and were quite as diverse. In the 
 " Account of the European Settlements in America," 
 published in 1761, and attributed to Burke, it is 
 said: "Here you see Quakers, Churchmen, Cal- 
 vinists, Methodists, Menists, Moravians, Indepen- 
 
 F
 
 66 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 dents, Anabaptists, and Dumplers, a sort of German 
 sect that live in something like a religious society, 
 wear long beards, and habit resembling that of friars. 
 In short, the diversity of people, religions, nations, 
 and languages here is prodigious." Till the year 
 1854, the city itself covered but a small area, being 
 encompassed with districts, boroughs, and town- 
 ships, numbering as many as twenty-eight municipal 
 corporations. Now, the whole is under one govern- 
 ment ; the population numbers 700,000. 
 
 Philadelphia covers nearly 130 square miles, is 
 twenty-two miles long from north to south, and 
 from five to eight miles in breadth ; there are up- 
 wards of 350 miles of paved streets within this area. 
 Streets bearing the names of trees, such as cherry, 
 chestnut, walnut, spruce, and others ran east and 
 west, being crossed at right angles by streets bear- 
 ing numbers. Nothing is easier, then, than to find 
 a given street ; but the regularity has the drawback 
 of monotony. Brick has been largely used both in 
 building the houses and forming the foot-pavement ; 
 the white marble houses which adorn several of the 
 streets are the more conspicuous and pleasing to the 
 eye on account of the contrast they present to the 
 red hue of the adjacent dwellings. Trees are much 
 less common than in the avenues and streets of New 
 York; the absence of green foliage is a decided 
 defect. The main thoroughfares are clean and well 
 kept; but the presence of the scavenger and the 
 drain-maker is sadly wanted in the smaller streets. 
 There are several squares in which the green turf and 
 the branching trees produce a delicious impression 
 upon those persons who have been wearied by pacing 
 along the burning pavement on a hot summer's day.
 
 THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE. 67 
 
 In Washington Square, which the fastidious Mrs. 
 Trollope called " the nearest approach to a London 
 Square that is to be found in Philadelphia," 2 are to 
 be seen specimens of all the trees which will grow in 
 this climate. Seats, provided in the pathways, at 
 intervals of three or four yards, are of the form of a 
 flat cheese supported by a rod, being large enough 
 to accommodate one person only. The advantage 
 of seating people in this isolated and uncomfortable 
 way is not obvious. In order to increase the dis- 
 comfort of the occupants of the solitary seats, 
 smoking is forbidden in this square under a penalty 
 of five dollars. 
 
 Though the streets of Philadelphia are filled with 
 fine dwellings, spacious and handsome shops, and 
 contain many modern public buildings of an impos- 
 ing appearance, yet the relics of the past, in which 
 the city is very rich, possess the chief attraction for 
 an intelligent sight-seer. Even the laws by which 
 the State is governed are notable for an antiquity 
 almost exceptional throughout this continent. Laws 
 made in 1704 are still in force. This proves the colo- 
 nial legislators under the Monarchy to have been quite 
 as capable as their successors under the Republic, 
 and may be said to give fresh point to the well- 
 known couplet in which Pope puts good administra- 
 tion as the criterion of the best form of government. 
 I am indebted to an admirable address, which was 
 delivered in 1872 by Mr. J. W. Wallace, president of 
 the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, for some 
 striking notices of certain things in which the Phila- 
 delphians take a just pride. 
 
 1 " Domestic Manners of the Americans," vol. ii. p. 81. 
 F 2
 
 68 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 This Historical Society is an important institution. 
 Its members number 600 ; it has a library of 1 2,000 
 volumes, a collection of 80,000 pamphlets, a small 
 gallery of portraits and historical pictures, and 
 numerous manuscripts of great value. Chief among 
 the latter are the letters of William Penn and his 
 descendants, which were recently acquired for a 
 comparatively small sum, less than a thousand 
 pounds, from their English owners, and which the 
 members of this Society are about to include in 
 their series of publications. From the examination 
 which I was permitted to make of the contents of 
 the manuscript volumes, I satisfied myself that 
 they abounded in curious details of the olden time. 
 A manuscript volume of the unpublished letters of 
 John Adams, the second President of the United 
 States, is equally noteworthy. These letters, which 
 were addressed to a Dutch correspondent, Van der 
 Kemp, contain many revelations of Adams' true feel- 
 ings, and throw a new light upon his character. 
 Writing six years after the death of Washington, 
 he tells his Dutch friend that Washington and 
 Franklin had been greatly overrated, that they did 
 not merit the title of Fathers of their country, and 
 he makes it plain that he considered himself more 
 distinguished than either. Other curiosities than 
 old manuscripts have a place in this collection. 
 There is, for instance, the dress sword worn by 
 Franklin and the sword presented by Lewis the 
 Sixteenth to the Scotsman, Paul Jones, whom his 
 countrymen regard as a pirate and the citizens of 
 the United States as a hero. But none of these 
 things possesses the interest attaching to a piece of 
 wampum, on which is rudely depicted a stalwart
 
 THE CITY OP BROTHERLY LOVE. 69 
 
 man, with a broad-brimmed hat, standing beside a 
 smaller man with uncovered head, being the original 
 piece of wampum given to Penn by the Indians 
 when he concluded his treaty with them, a treaty 
 which they never violated and the Quakers never 
 disregarded. I also saw Penn's instructions, in his 
 own handwriting, as to the manner in which inter- 
 course with the Indians was to be conducted. It 
 was characteristic of the writer, and a proof of his 
 observation, that he warned those persons who dealt 
 with the Indians to demean themselves gravely, and 
 to refrain from laughing, because this was a thing 
 which they did not relish. 
 
 Turning to the address by Mr. Wallace, mentioned 
 above, I find a passage quoted from the work at- 
 tributed to Burke on the " European Settlements in 
 America," in which the commerce of Philadelphia 
 in 1761 is thus described: "There are in this 
 city a great number of very wealthy merchants, 
 which is noways surprising when one considers the 
 great trade which it carries on with the English, 
 French, Spanish, and Dutch colonies in America; 
 with the A.zores, the Canaries, and the Madeira 
 Islands; with Great Britain and Ireland; with 
 Spain, Portugal, and Holland, and the great profits 
 which are made in many branches of this com- 
 merce." Mr. "Wallace congratulates his hearers on 
 the circumstances that " from this region the light 
 of letters first shone forth to all the Middle Colonies 
 in the establishment of the printing-press; that 
 from Philadelphia first, on this wide continent, came 
 the proposition to print in English the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and to accompany them by the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer; that here the rights of the Press
 
 70 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 against an arbitrary Government, and the right of 
 a jury to judge both law and fact in cases of libel, 
 were first successfully asserted." Provision for 
 education in the higher branches of learning was 
 among the earliest cares of the founders of 
 Pennsylvania. As far back as the year 1688, appli- 
 cation was made for a charter, with the view to set 
 up a " bank for money." Christ Church, one of the 
 most beautiful ecclesiastical edifices in the city, 
 dates from 1744 ; in concert with St. Peter's, it has 
 maintained Christ Church Hospital, since 1722, as 
 an asylum for destitute women. The library, origi- 
 nated by Franklin in 1731, and chartered in 1742, 
 is still one of the most useful institutions in the 
 city; it contains 100,000 volumes, and though de- 
 signed for the special use of subscribers, contains 
 the excellent by-law amongst its original rules that 
 " any civil gentleman " may be allowed to read and 
 study there. This library is rich in works which 
 are now very rare. I owe hearty thanks to Mr. Lloyd 
 Smith, its learned librarian, whose features bear a 
 resemblance, of which he may well be proud, to those 
 of the best authenticated likeness of Shakespeare, 
 for great courtesy and much useful information. Mr. 
 Wallace, in enumerating the glories of his city, 
 includes among these the University of Pennsylvania, 
 a splendid edifice in point of architecture, which was 
 founded as an academy in 1749, chartered as a 
 college in 1755, and created a university in 1779. 
 He is able to note with particular satisfaction that 
 " The Philadelphia Contributionship for Insurance 
 of Houses from Loss by Fire," which dates from the 
 year 1752, was the first fire insurance established on 
 this Continent, that it has never disputed a claim,
 
 THE CITY OP BROTHEELY LOVE. 71 
 
 and has remained solvent during vicissitudes which 
 proved the ruin of many other insurance companies. 
 Moreover, " The Corporation for the relief of poor 
 and distressed Presbyterian Ministers, and of the 
 poor and distressed widows and children of Presby- 
 terian Ministers," was the first life assurance on the 
 Continent, being chartered in 1759, and still en- 
 joying a vigorous existence which, according to 
 Mr. Wallace, it owes in common with the fire in- 
 surance just named, to " the idea of the Colonial 
 times, that such institutions should rest on the 
 ' mutual ' principle." 
 
 The "American Philosophical Society," chartered 
 by the Penns in 1769, made the name of Phila- 
 delphia known throughout Europe at a time when 
 the very names of other cities in America were 
 known to a few only. In the same year, the Legis- 
 lature of the Province made a grant of 200 to 
 observe the transit of Yenus, thus proving that it 
 was far in advance of similar bodies in that day, 
 and possibly in our own. 
 
 Not less notable than any of these institutions is 
 the Pennsylvania Hospital, a building so vast and 
 well-arranged that for nearly a century after its 
 foundation no other one was required in the city. 
 When Mr. Weld visited Philadelphia in 1795, he was 
 struck with this hospital, which, he says, " for its 
 airiness, for its convenient accommodation for the 
 sick and infirm, and for the neatness exhibited 
 throughout every part of it, cannot be surpassed by 
 any institution of the kind in the world .... From 
 the year 1756, in which it was built, to the year 1793 
 inclusive, nearly 9000 patients were admitted into 
 this hospital, upwards of 6000 of whom were re-
 
 72 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 lieved or cured." 8 The date and design are thus 
 recorded on its corner-stone : " In the year of 
 Christ, 1755, George the Second happily reigning 
 (for he sought the happiness of his people), Phila- 
 delphia flourishing (for its inhabitants were public- 
 spirited), this building, by the bounty of the Govern- 
 ment and of many private persons, was piously 
 founded for the relief of the sick and miserable. 
 May the God of Mercies bless the undertaking." 
 Indeed, Mr. Wallace can find little that is " humane, 
 good, great, or illustrious in Provincial times " with 
 which the name of his city or State is not con- 
 nected. In Pennsylvania was erected the first 
 paper-mill in the province; in Philadelphia the 
 first monthly magazine was printed ; there "West 
 displayed his first picture in 1745 ; there Bartram 
 established the Botanical Gardens which procured 
 for him the title of American Botanist to George 
 the Third ; there lessons in anatomy were first given 
 in America ; there were founded some of the best 
 medical schools in the country ; there, it must be 
 added, have flourished some of the greatest quack 
 doctors, and there did George Keith, in 1693, issue 
 his remonstrance against slaveholding, while other 
 enemies of slavery continued the protest after him, 
 and laboured for the education as well as the 
 emancipation of the blacks. In short, the story of 
 Philadelphia and the Province of Pennsylvania 
 during the old Colonial times is a highly gratify- 
 ing one ; it cannot be read in the most cursory 
 form now without leaving an impression that the 
 days during which Pennsylvania was subject to 
 
 9 Isaac Weld's "Travels in North America," vol. i. pp. 11, 12.
 
 THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE. 73 
 
 monarchical rule were not days to be altogether 
 regretted. 
 
 The Protective system to which Great Britain 
 was in bondage a century ago, retarding her 
 development for many centuries, and the main cause 
 in bringing about the separation of the Colonies from 
 the Mother country, a system of which Benjamin 
 Franklin, almost contemporaneously with Adam 
 Smith, showed the folly and mischief with incom- 
 parable effect, now finds its warmest supporters and 
 loudest eulogists in the State of Pennsylvania. A 
 line of steamers, which is the only line crossing the 
 Atlantic under the flag of the United States, runs 
 between Philadelphia and Liverpool. Mr. Lindsay, 
 in his " History of Merchant Shipping," states that 
 these steamers cost 20,000 each in excess of what 
 they would have cost had they been built on the 
 Clyde instead of on the Delaware. Such is the price 
 which, in one case only, the Philadelphians cheer- 
 fully pay for a policy of protection to native indus- 
 try. Pennsylvania cherishes the Protection system 
 as her chief blessing ; Navigation Laws, modelled 
 upon those which England passed during a paroxysm 
 of folly laws prohibiting a citizen of the United 
 States from purchasing a vessel in the cheapest 
 market and sailing it under his country's flag, are 
 considered by Pennsylvania as the inestimable gifts 
 of a beneficent Congress. The trammels with which 
 Protection environed trade and the obstacles to the 
 spread of commerce which were artificially created 
 by the Navigation Acts in the United Kingdom have 
 been happily swept away by an enlightened Parlia- 
 ment; British manufacturers and merchants are 
 now free to compete with the world, while the
 
 74 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 people at large reap the benefit of an emancipation 
 from a pernicious system of international jealousy 
 and selfishness. Unfortunately, the awakening came 
 too late to produce all the good which might have 
 accrued from the reversal of a policy which was 
 founded upon delusions originating in the Middle 
 Ages, and upon corresponding delusions which the 
 Parliaments of Cromwell and Charles the Second 
 regarded as the quintessence of wisdom. Not only 
 was this policy fraught with domestic loss and mis- 
 chief, but the operation of the Protective system and 
 the enforcement of the Navigation Acts necessarily 
 led the American colonists to consider themselves 
 grossly aggrieved and intolerably oppressed ; and it 
 is to the fatal predominance of the fallacious idea 
 that trade can ever be beneficially protected or com- 
 merce usefully fostered by mere legislative enact- 
 ments, rather than to the personal blunders and 
 arbitrary notions of George the Third, that the 
 disruption of the British Empire is attributable, 
 when the Thirteen Colonies were transformed into 
 the independent United States. 
 
 Independence Hall, whence issued the famous 
 Declaration, is prized by the Philadelphians above 
 all their other glories. In Carpenter's Hall, not 
 very far distant, the Congress of the United Colonies 
 first met and deliberated ; but it was here that the 
 Congress sat which created, as well as represented 
 the United States of America. The high-backed 
 Elizabethan chair in which John Hancock presided 
 is still in its place; in front is the identical table 
 upon which the Declaration of Independence was 
 laid, and where the President signed it " by order 
 and in behalf of Congress." Many of the chairs
 
 THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE. 75 
 
 occupied by the members are ranged in a semi-circle 
 on each side. On the walls hang the portraits of 
 the signers of the Declaration; the original docu- 
 ment was brought from Washington, in 1876, and 
 placed in a fire-proof safe at one side of the chamber. 
 I saw the document. The ink has faded so much- 
 that it is not easy to read the writing or decipher 
 the signatures. When the safe was shut, it was 
 easy enough to read the name of its maker, which, 
 by way of advertisement, had been conspicuously 
 painted on the door. Thus, in the Centenary of the 
 Independence of the United States, the name of a 
 manufacturer of iron safes was a more prominent 
 object in Independence Hall than the original signa- 
 tures of Hancock, Franklin, Jefferson, and their 
 colleagues ! 
 
 I have before me a fac- simile of the number of 
 Dunlap's Pennsylvania Packet or the General Adver- 
 tiser, for Monday, 8th July, 1776, the newspaper in 
 which the Declaration of Independence was first 
 published. Many persons who most heartily admit 
 that the American colonists had many grievances 
 and applaud the vigour with which they asserted 
 their rights and combated for them, when the 
 atrocious blunder had been committed of meeting 
 their temperate remonstrances with the sword in- 
 stead of with timely and reasonable concessions, 
 cannot peruse their memorable Declaration without 
 taking exception to much which is contained therein. 
 It is not so obvious to the impartial and critical 
 reader as it is to the ordinary citizen of the United 
 States, who has been trained from childhood to 
 regard the document as an immortal record of irre- 
 fragable truths, that "the history of the present
 
 76 COLOMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries 
 and usurpations, all having in direct object the 
 establishment of an absolute tyranny over these 
 States." Though George the Third entertained 
 many foolish notions, yet, to make himself an abso- 
 lute tyrant anywhere was not one of them. Nor 
 does the charge of arbitrary treatment of Canada, 
 cited in proof of this allegation, appear other than a 
 strange one to be repeated on yearly anniversaries 
 by citizens of the United States, when the actual 
 course of Canadian history is remembered, and the 
 prosperity and happiness of Canada are apparent. 
 The subject is a tempting one for a critic. The 
 errors of omission in the Declaration are quite as 
 obvious and flagrant as those of commission. Its 
 literary style is as open to comment as its contents 
 are open to discussion. The rhetoric with which it 
 is saturated not only pleased Jefferson's contempo- 
 raries, but is still admired by some citizens of the 
 United States. Minute criticism is the last thing 
 which such a document is likely to undergo at the 
 hands of those persons who have been taught to 
 venerate it as the paragon of human utterance ; the 
 stranger, who should venture to treat it as unin- 
 spired and fallible, would be denounced by indignant 
 citizens, with singular unanimity, as a malignant foe 
 of their Republic, and even more culpable than a 
 blasphemer of Holy Writ. 
 
 Other interesting things in this old newspaper 
 enable the reader to understand, better than any 
 formal history, the state of feeling at the period 
 when the United Colonies declared themselves inde- 
 pendent. A notification, printed in the largest type, 
 shows when the Declaration was officially made
 
 THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE. ' 77 
 
 public : " This day (8th July, 1776), at 12 o'clock, 
 the Declaration of Independence will be proclaimed at 
 the State House." In a volume published after the 
 celebration of the Centenary of the Republic, there 
 is the following account by an eye-witness of the pro- 
 ceedings on the day the Republic was established : 
 " Warm sunshine, morning. At eleven, went and met 
 the Committee of Inspection at the Philosophical Hall; 
 went from there in a body to the Lodge ; joined the 
 Committee of Safety (as called) ; went in a body to 
 the State House Yard, where, in the presence of a 
 great concourse of people, the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence was read by John Nixon. The company 
 declared their approbation by three repeated huzzas. 
 The King's arms were taken down in the Court 
 Room, State House, at the same time. . . . Fine 
 starlight, pleasant evening. There were bonfires, 
 ringing bells, with other great demonstrations of joy 
 upon the unanimity and agreement of the Declara- 
 tion." 4 On the day that Congress assented to the 
 document, two other resolutions were passed; the 
 one empowering the Board of "War to employ per- 
 sons to manufacture gun-flints, to make application 
 throughout the States for the names and addresses of 
 those persons who were skilled in manufacturing them, 
 and to find the places where the best flint stones were 
 to be obtained ; the other forming the delegates of 
 New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, into a 
 committee to confer with other committees as to the 
 "best means of defending the Colonies of New 
 Jersey and Pennsylvania," and empowering them 
 
 4 " Extracts from the Diary of Christopher Marshall, kept in 
 Philadelphia and Lancaster during the American devolution," 
 p. 83.
 
 78 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 " to send expresses where necessary." Among the 
 contents is the copy of an Act, passed three months 
 previously by the Assembly of South Carolina, en- 
 titled, " To prevent sedition and punish insurgents 
 and disturbers of the public peace," the opening 
 sentence of which will suffice to show alike the lan- 
 guage used, and the feelings common in those days : 
 " Whereas a horrid and unnatural war is now 
 carried on by the Ministry and Parliament of Great 
 Britain, against the United Colonies of North 
 America in general, and this colony in particular, 
 with a cruel and oppressive design of robbing the 
 colonies and good people of this colony of their 
 dearest and most valuable rights as freemen, and 
 reducing them to a state of the most abject slavery 
 and oppression." This strong language is matched 
 by the tenour of a piece of news from New York, 
 dated the 4th of July : " Last Saturday arrived at 
 the Hook (like the swarm of locusts escaped from 
 the bottomless pit) a fleet said to be 130 sail of ships 
 and vessels from Halifax, having on board General 
 Howe, &c., sent out by the tyrants of Great Britain, 
 after destroying the English constitution there, on 
 the pious design of enslaving the British Colonies 
 and plundering their property at pleasure, or mur- 
 dering them at once, and taking possession of all, as 
 Ahab did of Naboth's vineyard." 
 
 I shall extract but two more sentences from the 
 news with which the readers of the Philadelphia 
 Packet were gratified in 1776. The incident here- 
 after related is not given in equal detail in the 
 histories of the American Revolution. The tidings 
 are sent from Wilh'amsburg, in Virginia, under the 
 date of July 4th. " This morning Captain James
 
 THE CITY OP BROTHERLY LOVE. 79 
 
 Barron came to town from Jamestown, with the 
 agreeable news that he and his brother, in two small 
 armed vessels, were safe arrived there, with the 
 Oxford transport from Glasgow, having on board 
 217 Scotch Highlanders, with a number of women 
 and children, which they took last Wednesday even- 
 ing, on her way to Gwyn's Island to join Lord 
 Dunmore. The people on board inform that they 
 are part of a body of 3000 troops which sailed from 
 Glasgow for Boston, but upon hearing that place 
 was in our possession, they steered their course for 
 Halifax ; that they had been taken by the Andrew 
 .Dorm, one of the Continental fleet, who, after dis- 
 arming them and taking out all the principal officers, 
 with such of the transport's crew as were acquainted 
 with navigation, put eight of their own hands on 
 board to bring her into port, but that the carpenter 
 of the transport formed a party and rescued the 
 vessel from them, and was conducting her into 
 Hampton Road, when the two Captains Barrons 
 very fortunately came across them, and moored them 
 safe at Jamestown, where they are now disembark- 
 ing, and are expected in town this day." It is to 
 be hoped that the story of this capture, revolt, and 
 recapture, had a happier ending for the prisoners 
 than that of the capture of the transport which 
 sailed into Massachusetts Bay after the town of 
 Boston had been evacuated by the British troops. 
 Colonel Campbell, who was in command of the 
 Highland soldiers in the latter vessel, was thrown 
 into the most loathsome dungeon of the common 
 prison, and subjected to a maltreatment which ex- 
 cited the indignation of Washington, and caused 
 him to remonstrate so emphatically that the unfortu-
 
 SO COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 nate prisoner of war was afterwards treated with 
 greater humanity. 
 
 Before laying the Philadelphia Packet aside, I may 
 note that it contains an advertisement of Dr. Price's 
 " Observations on the nature of Civil Liberty, the 
 principles of Government, and the Justice and 
 Policy of the "War with America," to which the 
 following remarks are appended : " This learned, 
 judicious, and liberal author had the thanks of the 
 Common Council and the freedom of the City of 
 London presented to him in a gold box for his much- 
 admired and most excellent pamphlet on Civil 
 Liberty, and for which he also deserves the united 
 thanks of America." Two advertisements, which 
 would now be headed in an English newspaper " To 
 be sold by auction," and in a newspaper of the 
 United States " To be sold at auction," are headed 
 respectively, "To be sold by public vendue," and 
 " To be sold by public sale." Two others bear the 
 respective headings " Six dollars reward " and 
 " Five pounds reward," showing that a twofold mode 
 of reckoning money was then in vogue. Readers of 
 local newspapers in the United States are familiar 
 with appeals to subscribers to pay their debts. That 
 Mr. John Dunlap, proprietor and printer of the 
 Philadelphia Packet, was not free from the cares 
 which vex the hearts of some of his successors 
 is evinced by the following intimation which is 
 printed on the same page as the immortal Declara- 
 tion and in still larger type : " The uncommon 
 expense attending the publication of this newspaper 
 at this day, obliges the printer to inform those 
 gentlemen indebted for this paper longer than 
 twelve months, that, without pay, it cannot be con-
 
 THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE. 81 
 
 tinued to them more than four weeks from this 
 date." 
 
 I have more to tell about Philadelphia as it ap- 
 peared in the year when the anniversary of the 
 Centenary of the Republic absorbed the thoughts of 
 its citizens. But additional notes and comments 
 may be postponed till I have characterized the Inter- 
 national Exhibition, wherein all the countries of the 
 globe were represented in friendly rivalry upon the 
 soil of the United States of America.
 
 82 
 
 V. 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 
 
 < EVERY citizen of the United States with whom I 
 talked about the International Exhibition at Phila- 
 delphia said to me : " Well, sir, how does it com- 
 pare with those of Europe ?" I have always replied 
 with perfect sincerity, that I considered it equal to the 
 best of them. Having seen every Great Exhibition, 
 save one, since the first was held in Hyde Park, I have 
 had sufficient opportunities for forming an opinion 
 based upon experience and comparison. Had my 
 sphere of observation been more limited, it is possi- 
 ble that this International Exhibition would have 
 produced the same impression upon me as it did 
 upon those to whom such a spectacle was entirely 
 novel. When dissatisfied readers of Punch or the 
 Saturday Review say in their haste that these 
 journals have greatly fallen off, that the former is 
 not so lively and pointed as of old, that the latter is 
 far heavier than it used to be, they omit to take into 
 account the effect upon themselves of a long succes- 
 sion of bright jokes, clever sketches, and slashing 
 articles, and never dream that the dryness and pon- 
 derosity of which they complain may be mere fig- 
 ments of their own minds instead of being attributes 
 of the journals. Having been surfeited with good
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 83 
 
 things, they have grown querulous and over-exacting. 
 If the dullest number over which they profess to 
 yawn were the opening one, in place of being the 
 continuation of an admirable series, they would 
 welcome it with the delight of persons avid for the 
 enjoyment of something fresh and sparkling. In 
 like manner, if sight-seers had not been cloyed with 
 Exhibitions, if this were 1851 instead of 1876, if the 
 Exhibition at Philadelphia were the first in date, 
 all visitors to it might have been puzzled to find 
 words wherewith to express their wonder and grati- 
 fication. 
 
 This Exhibition in Fairmount Park, though on a 
 larger scale and more ambitious in design than that 
 which was held in Hyde Park a quarter of a century 
 ago, did not eclipse the memory of its predecessor. 
 The very edifice in which the first World's Fair was 
 held recalled a vision of Fairyland, presenting to 
 the eye in visible form the wondrous structures 
 which, till then, had no existence out of the pages of 
 the " Arabian Nights," and the " Faerie Queene." It 
 is even doubtful whether any palace imagined and 
 described by Sheherazade or Spenser was more 
 marvellous in plan and appearance than the Crystal 
 Palace, designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, constructed 
 by Sir Charles Fox, decorated by Owen Jones, and 
 filled with the treasures of all nations. In no other 
 building erected for a like purpose has the view of 
 the central transept .been equalled, with the fine old 
 trees, where birds hopped and twittered, and with 
 the crystal fountain playing between them. In no 
 other exhibition has such a gem been shown as the 
 great Koh-i-noor diamond, which sparkled within an 
 iron cage in the nave. Nor has any piece of sculp- 
 
 G 2
 
 84 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 ture attracted greater crowds of admirers in a sub- 
 sequent Exhibition than the statue of the Greek 
 Slave by Hiram Powers. The work of art excited 
 the greater interest because it was from the chisel of 
 a citizen of the United States. To other citizens of 
 that country the British public owed thanks for 
 some amusement and much instruction. Agricul- 
 turists were told that a machine had been brought 
 across the Atlantic which enabled the farmer to 
 harvest his crops of grain or grass at far greater 
 speed and less cost than by the reaping-hook or the 
 scythe. Mr. M'Cormick's reaping-machine was 
 pronounced one of the most original products of an 
 inventive nation till it was shown, to the gratification 
 of many persons and the astonishment of the general 
 public, that the model upon which the wonderful 
 machine had been framed was still in existence; 
 that, during twenty years, it had been annually used 
 in reaping the harvest on the glebe of the Rev. Mr. 
 Bell in the Carse of Gowrie, and that the merit of 
 originality actually belonged to an obscure Scottish 
 minister. Moreover, when the first reaper was 
 pitted against the later and improved one it success- 
 fully held its own. Another citizen of the Republic 
 made for himself a lasting name as a picker of locks. 
 For years, a lock had hung in the window of Messrs. 
 Bramah with a notice offering a reward of 100 to 
 the person who should open the lock with any other 
 than the right key. Mr. Hobbs came forward, 
 opened the lock and claimed the reward, greatly to 
 the astonishment and mortification of its makers, 
 while he exhibited a lock of his own which he boldly 
 challenged any one to open in like manner. Among 
 the surprises of that memorable year was the advent
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 85 
 
 of the yacht America. Its performances outvied 
 those of any English yacht, just as the locks of Mr. 
 Hobbs surpassed in security those of Messrs. Bramah 
 and Messrs. Chubb. The owner capped his achieve- 
 ments by carrying the Queen's Cup across the 
 Atlantic, where it has remained ever since, notwith- 
 standing the attempt of Mr. Ashbury to regain pos- 
 session of it on behalf of English yachtsmen, and the 
 recent attempt of the owner of the Countess of 
 Dufferin, a Canadian yachtsman, which was far more 
 brilliant than that of the Englishman, and differed 
 from it in this, that though the Canadian failed to 
 win the race he did not lose his temper. 
 
 The Exhibition of 1851 was a great national 
 undertaking and a great financial success. It was 
 opened with all the pomp of royal state ; when its 
 doors were closed and all expenses paid, a very large 
 surplus remained in hand. The Exhibition at Phila- 
 delphia has achieved a success only second to that 
 of the first in London. But the lower the anticipa- 
 tions of future blessings the greater the chance of a 
 prophetic triumph. The lofty expectations formed 
 and expressed in 1851 have not been completely 
 justified by events ; it would be historically inaccu- 
 rate to date the Millennium from the year in which 
 the peaceful representatives of the nations of the 
 world first met in amicable intercourse and competi- 
 tion under the same roof. 
 
 The Crimean Campaign began three years after that 
 meeting of the nations in Hyde Park, where they were 
 supposed to have entered into an eternal friendship ; 
 the Italian Campaign began four years after a like 
 gathering in the Champs Elysees; the Franco-German 
 War began three years after another and grander
 
 86 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 gathering in the Champs de Mars ; bloody and de- 
 plorable hostilities between the Indians of Dakota 
 and the troops of the United States were in progress 
 while the exhibition in Fairmount Park was open ; 
 and a deadly struggle between the Russian and the 
 Turk began six months after it was closed. Super- 
 stitious observers of bygone days would have regarded 
 these coincidences as natural sequences, and they 
 would have argued that a great Exhibition is neces- 
 sarily succeeded by a great war. The modern 
 blunder has been to infer that nations have made 
 as great a progress in civilization as they profess 
 to have done, to fancy that rivals in art and 
 industry are no longer animated by the foulest pas- 
 sions which degrade human nature, and to conclude 
 that a World's Fair mysteriously exorcises the 
 demon which prompts to rivalry on the field of bat- 
 tle. Civilization is still in a much less advanced 
 stage than most people like to admit, while the 
 confraternity of nations is as yet little more than a 
 fascinating phrase. 
 
 The buildings composing the International Exhi- 
 bition in Fairmount Park covered seventy-five acres 
 of ground, some of them were half a mile apart. 
 There were 170 separate structures, yet the grounds 
 did not seem crowded. The main building, though 
 a very large one, being 1,880 feet long by 464 feet 
 wide, had no look of vastness. This was owing to the 
 roof being comparatively low. The Machinery Hall, 
 500 feet west of the main building, was not remark- 
 able in appearance ; the Memorial Hall, a permanent 
 stone edifice, was the most ambitious structure from 
 an architectural point of view. I learned that it is 
 modern renaissance style ; if this be a good speci-
 
 . 
 
 THE INTEENATIONAL EXHIBITION. 87 
 
 men, the less frequently that style is reproduced the 
 better. A colossal dome surmounts the edifice ; on 
 the top of the ball, at the summit of the dome, there 
 stands a figure which is understood to represent 
 Columbia. At each of the four corners of the four 
 pavilions at the base of the building, are other repre- 
 sentatives of Columbia in the form of huge cast-iron 
 eagles with outstretched wings, the wings being 
 kept securely in their places by means of conspicuous 
 metal rods. I should be guilty of gross flattery to 
 the architect if I said that the general effect is 
 pleasing ; still, the impression made by the outside is 
 most gratifying compared with that produced on me 
 when I first entered the vestibule and looked at the 
 glass chandelier, ludicrously out of keeping with the 
 general design, and caught a glimpse of a plaster 
 libel upon Washington contributed by an enthu- 
 siastic Italian artist. The Horticultural Hall, which 
 is also to remain permanently in its place, resembles 
 other buildings of its class. Not so the Agricultural 
 Hall, however, nearly half a mile distant from the 
 main building. This was unique of its kind. Never 
 before did it enter into man's head to plan a building 
 for the display of agricultural machinery which 
 should resemble a Gothic cathedral. 
 
 Among the first things seen after entering the 
 main building were several human skulls, exhibited 
 by a defaulting South American State. A more ex- 
 traordinary article of produce was never shown 
 in an international exhibition. Possibly, they were 
 meant to warn the despoiled bondholder that, 
 despite grumbling because his coupons are unpaid 
 and his principal is gone, to this complexion he, too, 
 must come at last. Egypt next attracted attention
 
 88 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 with the following inscription over an archway : 
 " The oldest people of the world send their morning 
 greeting to the youngest nation." A stuffed croco- 
 dile was one of the principal Egyptian exhibits. 
 The morning greeting was a happy sentiment ; the 
 stuffed crocodile might have been intended as a sort 
 of hieroglyphic for the benefit of the more cultured 
 Egyptian bondholders. Yet neither the sentiment 
 nor the dead reptile seemed sufficient to attract 
 the crowd of ladies which assembled day after day 
 in the Egyptian Court. One lady after another, who 
 seemed bent upon whispering a few words to the 
 attendant, turned away, after receiving a curt reply, 
 in a state of evident dissatisfaction. A friendly jour- 
 nalist elucidated the mystery. It seems that an 
 enterprising reporter, having little to say about the 
 Egyptian exhibit, thought the readers of his paper 
 would be gratified to be informed that the most 
 curious article there was a lady's night-dress, of 
 surpassing beauty, which had been bought by Miss 
 Ordway of Reading, a rich young lady who was 
 about to become a bride. These ladies desired to 
 see this marvel of Egyptian handiwork ; but the 
 attendant could not gratify the curiosity which they 
 displayed. He did not understand what they meant, 
 and they did not believe his profession of ignorance. 
 The night-dress of Miss Ordway was a myth. Close 
 at hand was the Spanish Court, making a great ex- 
 ternal show, and containing little that repaid exami- 
 nation. Some Spanish soldiers and officers, in full- 
 dress uniform, attracted as much notice as any of 
 the things exhibited. If the number of orders upon 
 the breasts of these young officers were a true cri- 
 terion cl' their services, they must have performed
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 89 
 
 as many deeds of valour as Don Quixote. Russia 
 exhibited those malachite ornaments which always 
 excite admiration, notwithstanding that visitors to 
 great exhibitions have become familiar with them ; 
 but she did not show here anything equal to the 
 large malachite doors, the most costly ever made, 
 which were among the wonders of the Exhibition 
 of 1851. The work for which Vienna is famous 
 all over the world was well represented in the Aus- 
 trian Court, while the porcelain from Berlin in the 
 German Court was as noteworthy and admirable. 
 The lace from Belgium, the carved wood- work and 
 mosaics from Italy, watches and musical boxes from 
 Switzerland, filigree jewellery from Norway, iron- 
 work from Sweden, porcelain from China, and lac- 
 quer ware from Japan ; bronzes, silks, tapestries, 
 enamels, porcelain, perfumery, and a multitude of 
 fancy articles from France ; pottery, glass, silver- 
 ware, carpets, clocks, watches, and furniture from 
 Great Britain and Ireland ; these are things of 
 which the remembrance remains most vividly after 
 a careful inspection of the foreign departments in 
 the main building. 
 
 In the part of the building containing the display 
 of the United States, the effect of novelty was far 
 greater : never before had I seen that country ade- 
 quately represented ; hitherto it was impossible to 
 form a just opinion of the diversity and completeness 
 of its manufacturing industry. 
 
 Fruitless attempts were made to induce the citi- 
 zens of the United States to contribute on a large 
 scale to the display in the Great Exhibition of 1851. 
 Writing to Sir Charles Lyell on the subject, Mr. 
 Ticknor said : " There is no use in trying to stir up
 
 90 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 our people to make a decent show of themselves at 
 the Crystal Palace ; they won't do it." The reason as- 
 signed for the refusal was th#t "the French, the Rus- 
 sians, and the Germans send their goods to England 
 as means of advertising them all over the world ; we 
 look for no sale out of our own country. Why then 
 should we take the trouble and expense to advertise 
 abroad ? " ! At the International Exhibition of 1862 
 the United States again failed to do justice to them- 
 selves. At the Exhibitions in Paris and Vienna they 
 were far better represented than at those held in Lon- 
 don. Yet none of these exhibitions afforded anything 
 like an adequate notion of what could be done by the 
 Republic when she chose to put forth her strength. 
 Those persons only who have devoted themselves to 
 giving a minute account of the several things exhi- 
 bited can convey to the reader a proper notion of the 
 extraordinary richness of this department. In my 
 opinion, though very far behind some nations in 
 particular things, the United States occupied the 
 front rank when their performance was regarded as 
 a whole. 
 
 After giving cordial praise to the United States, 
 the impartial chronicler must emphatically state that 
 the display made by the Mother-land and her at- 
 tached Colonies and Dependencies was equally re- 
 markable. Nothing like it had been seen in any 
 Exhibition which I had visited. For the first time, 
 the great British Colonies showed what they could 
 do when put upon their mettle. Chief among 
 the Dependencies is India, while Canada is chief 
 among the Colonies. Both justified their station by 
 
 1 Memoirs of George Ticknor, vol. ii. p. 271.
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 91 
 
 the display which they made. The curiously carved 
 furniture, the exquisite tissues, the beautiful shawls, 
 the peculiar jewellery of India, ranked high among 
 the attractions of this building. As for the Domi- 
 nion of Canada, the effect of the display made by her 
 proved extraordinary. Australians, who had been 
 accustomed to import certain articles from the 
 United States, have now learned that similar articles 
 can be procured on more advantageous terms from 
 their fellow-colonists in North America, and they have 
 decided to give Canada the preference in the future. 
 Ignorance of what the Dominion can produce is the 
 rule in the United States ; when citizens of that 
 country saw what had actually been contributed by 
 Canada their surprise was unbounded. The most 
 depreciatory remark on the subject which I heard 
 or read was that Canadian manufactures, though 
 varied and excellent in their way, closely resembled 
 those of the United States. 
 
 The mineral products of the Dominion were well 
 set forth and suitably classified in a section apart. 
 The plan of displaying samples of the mineral wealth 
 of the whole country in a separate collection was a 
 very good one, for it enabled the observer to form 
 something like a fair idea alike of the great extent 
 of the Dominion and of the multiplicity, as well as 
 value of its resources. Specimens were given of 
 the coal, not inferior to the best found elsewhere, 
 which is won alike on the Atlantic and Pacific side of 
 the Continent. The Nova Scotian granite could com- 
 pare in hardness and capability of polish with that 
 which is quarried at Aberdeen and Peterhead. Slate 
 was shown equal to the best that comes from Wales. 
 Specimens of ironstone, of lead, silver, and copper
 
 92 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 ores proved the abundance of the useful metals in the 
 Dominion. A pyramid represented the quantity of 
 gold found in the Province of British Columbia. 
 Much has been written about the gold which comes 
 from Australia and California, but the public are not 
 familiar with the returns from this Province. I have 
 before me some statistics compiled by Mr. Good, 
 the Deputy-Minister of Mines there, from which I 
 make the following extracts. From 1858, the year 
 in which gold was first found, down to the year 
 which is past, the total returns are estimated at 
 upwards of $38,000,000. The average earnings per 
 year of each miner during that period were $658. 
 The largest return in any one year was made in 
 1864; the number of miners then employed was 
 4,400, and their average yearly earnings were $848 
 per man. In 1875, the yield was but $400,000 
 under that of 1864, while the number of miners had 
 fallen to less than one-half, so that the average 
 earnings per man were much higher, being $1,22^. 
 Seeing that in the most favourable circumstances a 
 miner's income averages about 300 a year, it 
 cannot be said that this form of gold-getting is the 
 quickest way in which to grow rich. The Australian 
 Colonies exhibited pyramids, like that of British 
 Columbia, which they styled gold trophies, and 
 which were conspicuous monuments of vast auriferous 
 wealth. They also showed specimens of their coal, 
 copper, iron, tin, antimony, nickel, lead, and other 
 metals ; of their grain, wool, silk, tobacco, fruits, 
 and wines, and of the trees which are peculiar to 
 their land. Most notable for the arrangement of 
 its exhibit was the Colony of Queensland. A series 
 of large coloured photographs, hung along the walls,
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 93 
 
 enabled the spectator to understand the appearance 
 of the country, while the products were classified 
 and arranged in order underneath. Not a Colony 
 had forgotten to send something. The Cape of 
 Good Hope displayed some of its ostrich feathers 
 and wines, its- minerals and coal, its fruits and 
 diamonds. There were samples of the sugar and 
 rum of British Guiana; the Island of Jamaica had 
 a fine assortment of woods, spirits, and spices ; some 
 curious ornaments and vegetable products had come 
 from the little known Seychelles Islands, beautiful 
 artificial flowers, formed of delicate shells, from the 
 Bahamas, and filigree work, as fine as any made in 
 Genoa, had come from the Gold Coast. In short, a 
 walk through the courts occupied by the British 
 Empire gave a better notion of the vastness and 
 wealth of that Empire than pages of statistics. 
 
 The Machinery Hall, as might have been expected, 
 contained plenty of things to interest the simple 
 spectator and to instruct the practical mechanician. 
 Many machines, which were considered extraordinary 
 novelties at the Great Exhibition of 1851, are now 
 antiquated or commonplace. Then people gazed 
 with wonder upon Applegarth's cylindrical printing 
 press turning out printed sheets of the Illustrated 
 London News in uninterrupted succession, upon the 
 columns of water raised in continuous streams by 
 Appleton's and Gwynne's rotary pumps, upon the 
 conversion of sheets of paper into finished envelopes 
 in Mr. De la Rue's ingenious machine. Far more 
 wonderful printing presses, far more powerful pumps, 
 and still more perfect envelope-making machinery 
 were to be seen in operation in the international 
 exhibition of 1876. It was considered a great feat,
 
 94 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 in 1851, to produce a sheet of paper a mile long; 
 now, rolls of paper, each four miles in length, are 
 daily consumed by the score in newspaper offices 
 where Walter, Hoe, or Bullock printing presses are 
 employed. The Walter press was one of the sights 
 of the Machinery Hall. Comparisons were made 
 between this triumph of English ingenuity and 
 journalistic enterprise and the competing presses of 
 Hoe and Bullock, which demonstrated what had 
 been done in the United States. Perhaps if the 
 whole truth had been known, the impression made 
 on the public mind would have been even greater. 
 The Walter press used in printing the Times is, so 
 to speak, the direct product of the Times as a news- 
 paper. The design of its founder was not only to 
 produce a newspaper second to none, but also to 
 print it in the best possible way. After Mr. Emer- 
 son's visit to England in 1847, he wrote as follows 
 concerning that great journal : "It has shown those 
 qualities which are dear to Englishmen, unflinching 
 adherence to its objects, prodigal intellectual ability, 
 and a towering assurance, backed by the perfect 
 organization in its printing-house, and its world- 
 wide net-work of correspondence and reports." The 
 Walter press is the last, but not the only illustration 
 of the judicious and far-seeing policy with which the 
 Times has been conducted. One of these presses 
 was at work every day printing the New York Times ; 
 a large crowd was always present watching with 
 simple curiosity or keenly critical eye the press 
 which many practical men maintained to be superior 
 as a whole to any of those which enjoyed a great 
 reputation in the United States. I will not say that 
 it is unrivalled. If I were to do so I should be
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 95 
 
 called prejudiced. But I may record that a United 
 States engineer who had never seen the Walter 
 press before, who was prepared to find that it had 
 been greatly overrated, and who carefully compared 
 it with its rivals, expressed to me his surprise at 
 the excellence of its design, of its workmanship 
 and of its performance. 
 
 No lesson could have been more impressive than 
 that learned by simply turning from these presses 
 pouring forth perfectly printed newspapers at the 
 rate of fifteen thousand copies an hour, to the rude 
 press at which Benjamin Franklin once worked. 
 Marvellous as are the strides made by the art 
 of printing in the course of a century, progress in 
 the future may be yet more astounding. A com- 
 bined type-founding and composing machine shown 
 in this hall proves that greater feats are contem- 
 plated than have yet been achieved. By simply 
 striking a set of keys, in succession, the operator 
 makes type from molten metal and arranges the 
 type in words. After the impression has been 
 worked off, the types are returned to the melting 
 pot, and are again ready for the magical transforma- 
 tion from a molten state into a solid form, by means 
 of which a printed page can be produced. 
 
 A novelty not so great as this, but still worthy of 
 mention, is a machine called a type-writer. The 
 purpose of this machine is to produce a fairly good 
 resemblance to a printed page, as rapidly as the 
 same number of letters can be written with a pen. 
 The machine is said to be so simple that a little 
 child can work it. This is the stereotyped recom- 
 mendation of a sewing machine. Indeed, inventors 
 seem to think that they have succeeded in their
 
 96 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 objects when they are able to boast that children 
 can actuate their new machinery. A very little 
 child can turn the handle or move the treadle of a 
 sewing machine, or make a noise by striking the 
 keys of a piano, yet the same child may fail to 
 stitch a shirt even with the help of a sewing machine, 
 or to play a tune upon a piano. Nothing can be 
 easier than to form a word by striking the keys of 
 the type-writer, yet as much practice is required to 
 be able to use it effectively as is required to learn 
 to play well upon a musical instrument. Mr. 
 Alissoff sent a type-writer from St. Petersburg to 
 compete with that made in the United States by 
 Messrs. Remington. The Russian machine, though 
 lacking in speed, had some very good points about 
 it. A type- writer of Norwegian origin was exhibited 
 in London several years ago ; it was very expensive, 
 an objection which applies to this one from Russia. 
 The American machine costs twenty guineas in Lon- 
 don, a price at which the profit must be ample, if 
 it be true that the cost of production is less than 
 half that sum. 
 
 Among the innumerable things worthy of notice 
 in this hall, I am disposed to pronounce the 
 Brayton Hydro-Carbon engine as best rewarding 
 investigation. I think that the inventor of this 
 engine has conclusively solved the problem how to 
 employ petroleum to the best advantage for the 
 purpose of producing motive power. Instead of 
 using the petroleum to heat a steam-boiler, he uses 
 it to produce a motive power directly, as in gas- 
 engines. Thus, he dispenses with furnaces and 
 boilers altogether, while he can work his engine on 
 a large scale, which cannot be done in the case either
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 97 
 
 of a caloric or a gas engine. I saw one of fifteen 
 horse power which worked well ; one of double that 
 power had been tested and found to work as satis- 
 factorily as those of a smaller power. If antici- 
 pations, which appear to me to be justified by the 
 results already obtained, are fully realized after 
 longer experience, this hydro-carbon engine will be 
 a real addition to mechanical powers. 
 
 The display of weighing machinery was very 
 extensive, arguing an enormous demand in the 
 United States for such machines. The exhibitors 
 were ready to let visitors test their machines by 
 being weighed upon or in them ; some of these were 
 adapted to the metric as well as the old scale. I 
 had the pleasure of learning not only what was my 
 " Centennial weight " in pounds avoirdupois, but 
 also that this represented, according to the metric 
 scale, seventy-seven kilograms and seven hectograms. 
 An exhibitor of lithographic presses offered visitors 
 a memorial of their visit in exchange for fifty cents. 
 This consisted of a highly ornamented sheet, certi- 
 fying that the person whose name was inserted in the 
 blank space had been present at the International 
 Exhibition of 1876, this memorable fact being at- 
 tested by the fac-simile signatures of General Grant, 
 President of the United States; Mr. Hartranft, 
 Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, and Mr. 
 Stokley, Mayor of Philadelphia. The certificate, I 
 was assured, would not only be an ornament to a 
 room when framed and hung up therein, but would 
 be an heir-loom greatly prized by my descendants. 
 I refrained from obtaining this precious heir-loom at 
 the small cost of fifty cents; but citizens of the 
 United States thought the notion a good one, and 
 
 H
 
 98 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 were as ready to buy these certificates as Parisians 
 were to buy certificates that they had heroically 
 remained in Paris during the siege. 
 
 Another form of personal commemoration was 
 provided in a corridor of the Memorial Hall. A large 
 fireproof iron safe shown there was intended to pre- 
 serve two huge volumes during a century, one volume 
 containing the photographs, the other the signatures 
 of citizens of the United States. Thus a future 
 generation of Republicans will learn in 1976, from 
 signatures in faded ink and from pictures in faded 
 outline, how their deceased progenitors wrote and 
 looked. The collection of pictures in this Hall 
 was very fine and instructive. Never before had so 
 many works of the best modern English artists been 
 brought together. The Royal Academy contributed 
 the diploma pictures of its members ; these pic- 
 tures being then shown in public for the first time. 
 Among them were the diploma pictures of West, 
 Constable, Turner, Wilkie, and other artists whose 
 names are household words. Mr. Frith' s picture of 
 the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales, 
 contributed by the Queen, attracted the most notice. 
 It was one of the few which the ordinary sight-seer 
 could thoroughly appreciate, its artistic short- 
 comings being no demerits in his eyes. The " Rail- 
 way Station," by the same artist, was included in 
 this collection ; but its interest for American specta- 
 tors was very slight. Pointing it out to some 
 friends, I remarked that the sum of 20,000 had 
 been realized by the sale and exhibition of the 
 picture; some bystanders overheard the remark, and 
 one of them said to me, " Is that really so, Sir ? " 
 Replying that I believed the fact to be as I had
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 99 
 
 stated, he communicated the information to others, 
 the result being that, in a few minutes, the picture 
 attracted a dense crowd of gazers, lost in admi- 
 ration at its value in pounds sterling. Two portraits 
 in the British collection were fraught with soul- 
 stirring memories and painful reflections; those of 
 Washington and Wellington. That of the great 
 Duke represented him as he was in old age, and, as 
 I can testify from personal remembrance, did so with 
 perfect fidelity; that of the great commoner de- 
 picted him as he appeared at a time when he had 
 achieved immortal fame by his unsurpassed patriot- 
 ism and statesmanship, and when his earthly course 
 had been nearly run. Both are excellent pictures, 
 that of Washington being the best portrait of him 
 which is extant; it is known as the Lansdowne 
 portrait, was painted by Gilbert Stuart, and is now 
 the property of Mr. J. Delaware Lewis. Some 
 objections were raised to the portrait being shown 
 in a conspicuous place among the works of art con- 
 tributed by the Motherland, and an attempt was 
 made to have it transferred to the United States 
 department. The attempt failed. The persons who 
 made it must have forgotten or been unaware that, 
 with the exception of Cromwell, no British worthy 
 receives more unstinted honour than Washington, 
 and must never have heard that, in the National 
 Portrait Gallery at South Kensington, where are 
 hung the portraits of the great men in whom the 
 United Kingdom glories, the portrait of Washing- 
 ton has an honoured place. Among the thousands 
 who looked upon the portrait of Wellington there 
 were very few who did so with intelligent interest. 
 To the citizens of the United States he is a mere 
 
 H 2
 
 100 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 name and nothing more. Some acquaintances from 
 New England, whose knowledge of European history 
 was far more extensive than that of the ordinary 
 sight-seer, candidly told me that their knowledge of 
 what the Duke had accomplished was but shadowy, 
 and that their interest in him was of the slightest 
 possible kind. The admission has been made so 
 often and unreservedly in the journals of the United 
 States, that the British collection excelled the others 
 in completeness and attraction, that I shall not be 
 chargeable with prejudice in calling the others 
 commonplace and meagre. The New York Tribune, 
 writing about the show of pictures in the United 
 States department, used the phrase " acres of 
 mediocrity," to characterize the collection as a 
 whole. There were, indeed, some excellent pictures ; 
 but too many, like Rothermel's " Battle of Gettys- 
 burg," excited wonder as to why they should have 
 obtained a prominent place in the collection. 
 
 An inspection of the United States show of pic- 
 tures confirmed me in the opinion expressed in the 
 third chapter, that their artists, though not lacking 
 in imaginative powers or in technical skill, have 
 not yet succeeded in forming themselves into a 
 national school. British painters may be chargeable 
 with many deficiencies or insular peculiarities ; but 
 they cannot be accused of imitating the manner of 
 any foreign school. The finest works in art and 
 literature are produced for the gratification of the 
 world and not of a single nation only ; they delight 
 mankind because they appeal to a universal senti- 
 ment. United States artists may well forego the 
 fame of founding a national school, if they succeed 
 in making themselves at home everywhere.
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. J.OL 
 
 The number of paintings by the best foreign 
 artists was very small. A Spanish and a French 
 artist had produced works designed to gratify those 
 persons who attended such a gathering as that at 
 Philadelphia. The one represented the " Landing 
 of the Pilgrim Fathers ; " the pilgrims being depicted 
 kneeling in prayer, with their hands folded across 
 their chests, just as worshippers do in Spanish 
 Roman Catholic Churches, and as no Puritan ever 
 did either in Old or New England. The French 
 artist depicted the " Signing of the Declaration of 
 Independence." The delegates were shown in atti- 
 tudes familiar to those persons who have seen the 
 French Assembly at Versailles when in a state of 
 excitement, some raising their hands in token of 
 assent, others eagerly pressing forward to append 
 their names to the Declaration. This was as 
 historically inaccurate as the notion of the Pil- 
 grims formed by the Spanish artist. The Decla- 
 ration was signed by John Hancock, the President 
 of Congress, and countersigned by Charles Thomp- 
 son, the Secretary. Three months elapsed before 
 all the signatures had been attached to it. Spec- 
 tators, ignorant of this fact, thought the picture a 
 very fine representation of a historical scene. 
 
 The display of implements and produce in the 
 Agricultural Hall was very extensive and striking. 
 Canadian implement-makers distinguished them- 
 selves here; their ploughs were highly praised by 
 experienced and practical farmers, who pronounced 
 them to be superior in model to that which is gene- 
 rally preferred in the United States. The English 
 agricultural implement-makers refused to contribute, 
 basing their objection on the impossibility of being
 
 102 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 able to sell their articles in the United States through 
 the operation of the protective system. A traction 
 engine which had been used in the British Depart- 
 ment for hauling purposes, was among the very few 
 things of the kind in the Exhibition. Such an 
 engine is almost indispensable for conducting agri- 
 cultural operations on a large scale. The farmer 
 who could use it in the prairies of the Middle States 
 or the plains of California would gain enormously. 
 The makers of this one had sold no less than 2000 
 of them elsewhere ; they cannot find a market for 
 them in the United States. The price in England is 
 615 ; delivered in New York it is upwards of 
 1000. These were the figures on a placard affixed 
 to the engine ; the difference between the two sums 
 representing what is meant in the United States by 
 a prohibitive tariff. One of the exhibits in the 
 Agricultural Hall was a live American eagle; his 
 keeper was in the uniform of a sergeant in the 
 United States army. The bird's name is " Old 
 Abe ;" he had been attached to the 8th Wisconsin 
 regiment, and had been present at thirty-five 
 battles. The desire to possess this feathered hero 
 was keen; Colonel Wood of Philadelphia offered 
 $10,000 for him; Barnum twice that large sum. 
 But the State of Wisconsin would not part with 
 him. He is maintained by the State ; eats once a 
 day, and will not touch anything except fresh fish, 
 fowl, or veal. Photographs of this dainty and bel- 
 ligerent eagle were on sale for the benefit of a 
 charitable fund. Despite his personal merits and 
 services, this bird seemed to me out of place in an 
 International Exhibition. The only explanation of 
 his appearance which I have met with is that he
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 103 
 
 served to let visitors see " What a real live bird of 
 freedom was like." 2 Unless Franklin had changed 
 his mind, he, for one, would have taken no pleasure 
 in the sight. He protested against the eagle being 
 the symbol of his native land, on the ground that 
 " he is a bird of bad moral character ; he does not 
 get his living honestly." 
 
 Though the ingenuity of the citizens of the United 
 States in advertising is indisputable, yet it was not 
 specially displayed within the International Exhibi- 
 tion. The most conspicuous advertisers were the 
 persons who provided pills for every malady and 
 coffins for the victims of the pills. Next in perti- 
 nacity were the proprietors of the Gettysburg Kata- 
 lysine water. I tasted this fluid, which resembled 
 ordinary water so closely that I should not have 
 thought it was one of Nature's most wonderful pro- 
 ducts. A pamphlet informed me that the Gettysburg 
 water, though "in no way distinguishable from that 
 found in our domestic springs and wells, except by 
 its effects on the diseased human system," possesses 
 miraculous properties. It is said to be " pre-emi- 
 nently the medicine for childhood and old age;" 
 " the evidence on this subject would go far toward 
 verifying one of the oldest traditions connected with 
 this Continent, which is that there existed upon it a 
 youth-restoring spring." Thus I had unconsciously 
 taken a draught at the Fountain of Youth, for which 
 Ponce de Leon and his followers vainly sought in 
 the glades of Florida ; unfortunately, I felt neither 
 younger nor stronger after swallowing the precious 
 beverage than I did before I had even read its name. 
 
 a Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 9th September, 1876.
 
 104 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 The circulars given away by foreign exhibitors 
 were not such extraordinary specimens of the Eng- 
 lish language as I have received in other Exhibitions. 
 I reprint as a foot-note the most curious one that 
 I met with. 8 
 
 A form of advertising, very common in other 
 Exhibitions, was less frequently practised here. 
 This was the gratis distribution of samples. One 
 enthusiast gave away specimens of honey which had 
 the advantage, in his opinion, of having been pro- 
 duced without the intervention or aid of an insect ; 
 those persons who tasted it preferred the natural 
 product of the busy bee. A firm had a small oven 
 in the Agricultural Hall wherein they baked small 
 cakes to show the excellence of their baking powder 
 and flour; the demand for these cakes taxed the 
 utmost energies of the makers. Another firm in the 
 
 * " Vegetable, animal, ydrofuga paper. Air water and grease 
 light, transparent, strong and flexible, invented and manifactured 
 by Professor N. Vallini, Chemist in the Royal University of 
 Bologna (Italy), invention of the past year 1875. This paper for 
 its worth, can doubtless be useful to many and different applications 
 in industry and trade. For its strength, flexibility, and imper- 
 meability it supplies all common packing-cloth. For involving 
 salted meats and victuals for land and sea troops, and all what is 
 necessary in maratime transports. In medicine and surgery, pro- 
 tecting sores and wounds from the contact of air, such as anti- 
 reumatic, and for maladies of the skin, &c. Its transparent 
 qualities serve for transcribing drawings of every kind, and sur- 
 rogating glass when it is necessary, against the direct action of the 
 solar light. Also its impermeability from grease, can be used for 
 parfumery in packing cosmetics, pommatum, covering vases of 
 essences, &c. Finally, in the hat business for lining, either for 
 hats or for bonnets, price 75f. 500 sheets, of centimeter 50 by 
 75." This paper may be really as remarkable as the circular 
 which furnishes such a lucid description of it ; yet it bears a close 
 resemblance to the oiled paper which is no novelty in this country.
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION. 105 
 
 same Hall gave away miniature pails made of tinned 
 iron. These pails were as useless as the toy pots 
 and pans which amuse very little children, yet a 
 crowd besieged the place where they were distri- 
 buted, each person struggling violently to procure 
 one, and wearing it as a trophy. Grown-up children 
 of the Eepublic delight in getting something without 
 paying for it, as much as less enlightened people. 
 
 Visitors to Great Exhibitions have always appeared 
 as intent upon dining sumptuously and drinking 
 copiously as upon improving their minds, and the 
 visitors to the International Exhibition in Fairmount 
 Park were not exceptions to this rule. The arrange- 
 ments for supplying the hungry and thirsty were on 
 a very large scale, and in this respect the Exhibition 
 was quite on a par with those held in London, Paris, 
 and Vienna. There was a French restaurant, where 
 the visitor could fancy himself in Paris, not only when 
 eating his cutlets and drinking his claret, but also 
 when paying the bill. A German restaurant sup- 
 plied the delicacies of the Fatherland. An American 
 restaurant provided every comestible for which there 
 was a demand. Those persons who liked the homely 
 pork and beans of New England could dine upon 
 them in a New England kitchen ; a Frenchman who, 
 being determined to try everything, made the ex- 
 periment of tasting this national dish, assured me 
 that he had never suffered so much since the time 
 when he tasted haggis in Scotland. A Vienna 
 bakery supplied the delicious rolls for which Vienna 
 is famous, and coffee not less delightful, far better 
 indeed than that which could be obtained in a 
 Tunisian cafe not far off. The list of all the places 
 at which people could quench their thirst and
 
 106 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 appease their hunger would occupy too much space ; 
 I shall name but one more, which was generally called 
 the " Dairy," but of which the official name was The 
 Dairy Association Building. It was a building in a 
 rustic style, wherein milk, cream, butter-milk, fruit, 
 cakes, bread, and butter were sold and consumed. 
 On the bill of fare there was a new article of diet said 
 to possess extraordinary merits. Its use by the 
 ailing would cure them more certainly than the most 
 successful medicine ; its use by the robust would in- 
 sure them against sickness ; in short, when I read the 
 recommendations of this new eatable I fancied that 
 an incalculable boon had been conferred upon the 
 human race. The name of this precious novelty is 
 avena. For some years the food itself has been used 
 in Scotland under the name of oatmeal. Whether 
 those persons who are unable to appreciate porridge 
 will eat avena pudding with pleasure I cannot tell, 
 but if they shall do so then it will be clear that there 
 is something in a name. Perhaps Dr. Johnson 
 would have treated oats with less contempt had he 
 known them by their Latin designation only. The 
 lovers of statistics may be pleased to learn that, 
 during the six months the Exhibition was open, five 
 of the restaurants sold upwards of 400 tons of 
 bread, 400 tons of beef, ham, and poultry ; 20 tons 
 of fresh fish, and upwards of 400,000 gallons of 
 beer. If complete tables were compiled of the work 
 of the refreshment department, it would appear that 
 the International Exhibition at Philadelphia had 
 been an unrivalled theatre for the exercise of one 
 form of human industry.
 
 107 
 
 VI. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EXHIBITION. 
 
 ONE evening, whilst seated in the smoking-room of 
 the Colonnade Hotel, I heard the strains of martial 
 music. This was so common a pleasure that it did 
 not excite in me any curiosity about the cause, the 
 city of Brotherly Love having been the daily scene 
 of semi-military processions headed by at least one 
 brass band. On the present occasion, however, 
 the procession marched into the Colonnade Hotel 
 instead of passing along Chesnut Street ; the band 
 which preceded it came to a halt, without ceasing to 
 play, in the entrance hall. For upwards of an hour 
 this band made the whole bail ding resound with 
 melodies, which appeared to give extreme delight to 
 the coloured waiters. Having exhausted their pro- 
 gramme or their strength, the musicians marched 
 off in single file through the bar-room to the street, 
 pausing on their way to swallow the drinks which 
 were freely offered to them. Before a quarter of an 
 hour had elapsed another band arrived; after having 
 made as much discord as its predecessor, it departed 
 in the same dignified and measured style through the 
 bar-room. A third band next appeared and kept the 
 occupants of the hotel thoroughly excited till the 
 night was far spent.
 
 108 COLUMBIA. AND CANADA. 
 
 The members of the procession then strove, with 
 perfect success, to render the remainder of the night 
 hideous by yelling and shouting; they, too, paid 
 frequent visits to the bar-room ; but, unhappily, they 
 returned into the hotel instead of disappearing, like 
 the bands, into the street. Before their arrival, the 
 400 beds in the hotel had been occupied, yet make- 
 shift accommodation for an additional 300 persons 
 was provided by the proprietors, who were radiant 
 with satisfaction at this influx of distinguished 
 visitors. For three days and nights did the new- 
 comers crowd the hotel; during that time, the 
 peaceful occupants were regaled with military music 
 till it was time to go to bed, and then kept awake, 
 till an early hour in the morning, by sounds of 
 revelry in the corridors. Other hotels were favoured 
 in the same way. Nor was it easy to escape from 
 the din by going into the open air. At least one 
 procession and three bands imparted animation to 
 the principal thoroughfares by day and night. The 
 energy expended by all concerned must have been 
 enormous. None seemed to care about taking rest 
 or even taking food; whisky, music, and march- 
 ing sufficed for their wants. Now and then, 
 however, the human frame could not bear this 
 strain upon it ; those persons who had been over- 
 powered by the whisky, the music, or the march- 
 ing, were tenderly carried to their rooms by their 
 comrades, and laid upon their beds. These visitors 
 were members of Encampments of the United States 
 Order of Knights Templar, and they had chosen 
 Philadelphia as the place for their annual gathering 
 in 1876. They numbered 8500. 
 
 The spectacle was alike novel and sensational ; I
 
 PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EXHIBITION. 109 
 
 had never before seen a Knight Templar, clothed and 
 in his right mind, walking along a public street, nor 
 had I ever before wittingly slept, or tried to sleep 
 under the same roof with one. There are several 
 Encampments in the United Kingdom, upwards of 
 a hundred being registered under the Grand 
 Conclave of the United Religious and Military 
 Orders of the Temple, and of St. John of Jerusalem, 
 Palestine, Rhodes, and Malta. The Prince of 
 Wales is Grand Master of this body. It gives 
 pleasure to many loyal and rational subjects of Queen 
 Victoria to meet at stated times in private rooms, 
 arrogate to themselves the titles of Knights, and 
 clothe themselves in garments which they would be 
 ashamed to wear, in the presence of their non-masonic 
 friends, on any more serious occasion than a fancy 
 dress ball. But they are careful to do these things 
 in a corner ; they would as soon think of holding an 
 Encampment in a balloon as of amusing themselves 
 by perambulating the streets in the full dress of their 
 Order. Indeed, Freemasons in the United Kingdom 
 eschew all superfluous display ; their brethren in the 
 United States appear to think it the most natural 
 thing in the world that members of secret societies 
 should parade in the light of day. As a Past-Master 
 of one of the oldest lodges in the world, I ought to 
 have some acquaintance with Freemasonry, and I 
 certainly have a greater respect for its tenets and 
 principles than is manifested by His Holiness the 
 Pope, yet I cannot regard these public appearances 
 as in accordance with the objects of the Craft. 
 Many Masons, with whom I conversed in Philadelphia, 
 were so irreverent as to characterize the Knight 
 Templar degree as a piece of tomfoolery, designed
 
 110 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 to gratify those brethren who are weak enough to set 
 store upon forms without meaning, and titles with- 
 out sense. These are harsh sayings with which, of 
 course, I have no sympathy. The innocent pastimes 
 of men who are supposed to have attained the age of 
 discretion ought to be respected, and a man might do 
 worse than try to play the mediaeval part of a Knight 
 Templar. He might become a Carlist, a Communist, 
 or a Fenian, and thereby prove a greater terror to 
 law-respecting citizens than the most enthusiastic 
 Sir Knight. 
 
 Though the Knights Templar who thronged the 
 streets and hotels of Philadelphia had swords at 
 their sides, as well as cocked hats on their heads, 
 yet they had the reverse of a bellicose aspect, and 
 they seemed much more addicted to the worship of 
 Bacchus than disposed for the service of Mars. No 
 one whose knowledge of the Order is gathered from 
 the Talisman would suspect any of these hilarious 
 Knights Templar of deserving the denunciation 
 levelled against those who went to the Holy Land, 
 " Their peace is war, and their faith is falsehood," 
 nor is it probable that their Grand Master could 
 even in imagination perpetrate the villainy for which 
 Saladin cut off the head of Grand Master Sir Giles 
 Amaury Yet it was difficult to believe that they 
 were simple citizens of the Republic, so grand was 
 their appearance, and so proud did they seem of their 
 fine clothes. As a rule, there is no more soberly 
 dressed person than a citizen of the United States. 
 A paternal Congress has forbidden a civilian to in- 
 dulge in the vanity known in Europe as court costume, 
 and has enjoined that, when he attends a foreign 
 Court, he shall wear ordinary evening dress. No
 
 PHILADELPHIA DUFJNG THE EXHIBITION. Ill 
 
 restriction, however, is put upon the citizen donning 
 any kind of military uniform he pleases, and this is 
 said to be one of the reasons why the order of 
 Knights Templar is attractive and popular in the 
 United States. Its members have the further 
 gratification of reading their names, with handles to 
 them, in the newspapers ; and when plain Brown, 
 Jones, and Robinson see themselves in print as Sir 
 John Brown, Sir Thomas Jones, Sir Joseph Robinson, 
 they may experience the satisfaction of men who have 
 made their mark. 
 
 Till I beheld these Knights Templar, I had never 
 realized the effect produced by entire regiments clad 
 in the uniforms of general officers of the Grand 
 Duchy of Gerolstein. With cocked hats adorned 
 with feathers upon their heads, embroidered trousers 
 on their legs, tunics round their bodies, their breasts 
 being as thickly covered with ribbons and medals 
 as the breasts of officers in the service of the 
 Prince of Monaco, and with swords in their hands 
 resembling the toy swords of children, these Sir 
 Knights appeared to the simple-minded a splendid 
 spectacle, and to the critic a set of guys. Many of 
 them had wives, and their wives wore ribbons and 
 medals also. The citizens of Philadelphia derived 
 much enjoyment from the pageant ; not a complaint 
 was made when traffic was suspended for several 
 hours on the day of the grand procession. The 
 proceedings at the meeting for the despatch of busi- 
 ness were reported in the newspapers, the speeches 
 being as full of self-laudation as space and time 
 would permit. The Knights Templar appeared to 
 be thoroughly pleased with themselves and the 
 world at large ; many of them assured me that they
 
 112 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 had experienced " a real good time." I saw them 
 leave the city, without deeply regretting that their 
 stay had been so short. In the bar-room of the 
 Colonnade Hotel business was very dull after their 
 departure, but peace reigned in the hall and corri- 
 dors at night, and sweet sleep returned to many a 
 pillow. 
 
 An invitation to attend the seventh annual re- 
 union of the Society of the Army of the Potomac 
 came to me shortly after the Knights Templar had 
 evacuated Philadelphia. The place of meeting was 
 the Academy of Music, or, we should call it, the 
 Opera House. In the pit were the ordinary mem- 
 bers of the society; on the stage were general 
 officers, while spectators occupied the other parts 
 of the house. The space in front of the galleries 
 was decorated with flags and artificial flowers; 
 a scene representing the headquarters of the army 
 was presented on the stage ; two tents appeared in 
 the background ; two field-pieces were conspicuous 
 in the foreground, where arms were stacked and 
 drums piled in the form of a pyramid. The head- 
 quarters' flag of this army, having a lilac ground 
 and a golden eagle encircled with a laurel wreath in 
 the centre, hung in front of the tents. Nothing was 
 wanting to recall the memories of the camp and the 
 battle-field. General Hancock presided. He was 
 in undress uniform ; with three exceptions the other 
 general officers, as well as the officers of lower rank, 
 were in plain clothes. Two Russian officers who 
 were among the invited guests appeared in full uni- 
 form, as did a Lieutenant-General in the Japanese 
 army. Indeed, the whole gathering was much less 
 martial, from the tailor's point of view, than the
 
 PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EXHIBITION. 113 
 
 gathering of Knights Templar. But this was an 
 assemblage of veterans, and old soldiers do not 
 require to appear in uniform in order to produce an 
 impression. 
 
 Tall, portly, and soldier-like in every respect, 
 General Hancock seemed well fitted for presiding 
 over such a meeting ; his military claims to respect 
 perfectly tally with those which are but accidents of 
 nature. The few words with which he opened the 
 proceedings were in excellent taste, and they were 
 uttered in a most effective manner. By reproducing 
 them, I shall be spared adding anything in explana- 
 tion of the Society's object: " We are assembled here 
 to-day, on the occasion of the annual re-union of our 
 Society, to renew and cement friendships formed on 
 the field of battle, to inquire as to the welfare of 
 absent comrades, to determine the gaps made in our 
 ranks by time, and to inaugurate such measures as 
 may be possible or necessary to aid worthy comrades 
 in distress, or the widows and orphans of deceased 
 comrades, who may require our assistance. We 
 have no other purpose in meeting here. Here poli- 
 tics enter not, either to distract or disturb. We 
 meet simply as brothers, who are linked together in 
 affection through memories of the past, by common 
 dangers incurred, glories gained, privations suffered, 
 and hardships endured ; and I am thankful that I am 
 permitted to be present with you, and that the privi- 
 lege of calling to order this meeting of my old com- 
 rades devolves upon me. But before proceeding 
 with the exercises of this occasion it is proper that 
 we should return thanks to Almighty God for His 
 goodness for permitting us to be here and in health 
 to-day." Thereupon General Hancock requested
 
 114 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 the Rev. William M'Vicker, chaplain of the cavalry 
 corps, to offer up prayer. It would be unseemly to 
 criticize the prayer which followed, yet I may be 
 pardoned for saying that in my opinion it was far 
 too long, far too rhetorical, and sounded too much 
 like a speech. One of the audience, to whom I made 
 a remark to this effect, seemed surprised at my sim- 
 plicity, informing me that, as this was the only 
 opportunity the reverend gentleman would have of 
 speaking, he did quite right in taking full advantage 
 of it. I was answered, but not convinced. The 
 Mayor of Philadelphia, the Hon. W. S. Stokley, 
 being introduced to the audience by the Chairman, 
 his Honour pulled out a piece of paper from his 
 pocket, put a double-eyeglass on his nose, and began 
 to read a speech. I had thought it impossible that any 
 citizen could attain so exalted a position without being 
 able to speak with perfect fluency, on any subject, at 
 a moment's notice. An ex-Governor of the State of 
 Illinois once told me that nothing had struck him 
 more during a visit to England than the bad speak- 
 ing of her public men ; and he modestly hinted that, 
 had he not been a better speaker than any of them, 
 Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Disraeli, Mr. Bright not excepted, 
 he would never have achieved success among his 
 fellow-citizens. But the example of Mr. Stokley, 
 to say nothing of that set by General Grant, tells 
 against the universal application of the rule that a 
 ready tongue is indispensable to all ambitious citizens 
 of the United States. As a specimen of municipal 
 oratory in a Republican country, I shall add the 
 speech. If rather too florid in diction, it had the 
 merit of brevity, and on that account, probably, was 
 very well received : " Soldiers of the Army of the
 
 PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EXHIBITION. 115 
 
 Potomac ; as the Executive of the city of Philadel- 
 phia, it affords me pleasure to welcome you to our 
 city, and extend to you its hospitalities upon the 
 occasion of the seventh annual re-union of your 
 society. When our land was devastated by war and 
 the soldiers of the Republic were marching to the 
 front, they were always kindly received by the citi- 
 zens of Philadelphia, and their wants cared for while 
 passing through the city ; when sick and wounded 
 and in our hospitals they were nursed with a 
 mother's tenderness by our wives, sisters, and 
 daughters. Now that all strife is ended, and the 
 bright wings of peace are spread over the land, we 
 extend to you, the survivors of those who fought so 
 nobly and bravely to maintain the honour of their 
 country, a right cordial welcome, and trust that 
 your stay among us may be made pleasant. For 
 those of your brave comrades who fill a hero's grave 
 there is a spot in our memory which will ever 
 remain fresh, and over their last resting-place we 
 will pay the homage of a grateful country due to 
 those who gave their lives in its defence." Here- 
 upon the band struck up " Hold the Fort," an air 
 which seems to have taken its place with " Yankee 
 Doodle" and " Hail, Columbia" among the national 
 airs of the country. 
 
 The event of the day was now at hand ; the delivery 
 of an oration by General Dix, who has a civic as 
 well as a military reputation, having filled the posts, 
 among others, of Governor of New York and Minister 
 to France. In one of the two sentences with which he 
 introduced General Dix, the Chairman remarked, 
 " Alike distinguished for his eminent civil services, his 
 scholarly attainments, and for his record as a soldier, 
 
 i 2
 
 116 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 he has a tongue to woo you, even if it be in Latin or 
 Greek, and if you should prove recreant as listeners he 
 has the nerve to shoot you on the spot." It is for- 
 tunate, perhaps, that General Dix did not attempt to 
 enforce a Latin or Greek oration upon unwilling ears in 
 the manner suggested, as he would possibly have had 
 more shooting to do than he could well perform. 
 Though advanced in years, having reached, if not 
 passed four score, he yet spoke with the vigour 
 of a comparatively young man. He began by say- 
 ing that the pleasures of the day " would have been 
 greatly enhanced by the presence of the heroic com- 
 mander by whom you were led, and whose distin- 
 guished military services have been crowned by the 
 highest civic honours of the Republic." Every one 
 seemed to share in the regret thus expressed ; the 
 presence of General Grant on such an occasion 
 appeared almost a matter of course ; but no explana- 
 tion was given of his absence. General Dix went on 
 to say that he had undertaken, at very short notice, to 
 deliver an address; that, though time had been 
 wanting "to go forth into the field of oratory and 
 gather its flowers to give colour and fragrance to 
 the occasion, yet he hoped a familiar address would 
 prove acceptable instead of the formal oration which 
 the audience had a right to expect." Certainly the 
 address, which occupied three-quarters of an hour in 
 delivery, and which was spoken by him with scarcely 
 a reference to his notes, was a proof that age had not 
 impaired either the voice or memory of General Dix. 
 He reviewed the century during which the nation 
 had existed, characterizing the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence .and the Emancipation Proclamation as 'the 
 chief and most pregnant achievements of the period.
 
 PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EXHIBITION. 117 
 
 Ho was most emphatic in his admiration of President 
 Lincoln's proclamation on the ground that " the 
 emancipation of four millions of slaves, and their 
 elevation to the rank of freemen, by a single act of 
 Executive authority, stands alone in the annals of 
 our race." I am glad that the act does stand alone, 
 the worst part of it was its being as despotic in 
 character as if it had been a Russian ukase or a 
 decree signed with the vermilion pencil by the 
 Emperor of China. It would have been more in 
 keeping with the annals of the race, had emancipa- 
 tion been the result of legislation. Though General 
 Dix held, and rightly held, that the proclamation 
 was justified by the necessity of the moment, yet 
 this ought to be a subject for regret rather than 
 congratulation. In his copious references to the 
 achievement of Independence he never said a word 
 about the part played and the assistance rendered 
 by France, though such a statement would not only 
 have been in good taste but would have been his- 
 torically appropriate. Few things are more certain 
 in past history than the fact that France was the 
 joint founder of the United States. To the evident 
 delight of his hearers, he repeated a list of the 
 improvements which had been effected during the 
 first century of the Republic, ending the recital 
 by saying : " A hundred years ago it was the 
 work of months to convey intelligence from ocean to 
 ocean. Now a message by telegraph leaving here 
 at the rising of the sun will outrun him in his 
 course, and reach the Pacific before his rays have 
 lighted up the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. At 
 the beginning of the century we were a feeble com- 
 munity struggling for existence, and scarcely known
 
 118 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 to the Great Powers of the Eastern Hemisphere. 
 We now stand before the world as their equal : and 
 all the nations of the earth come as contributors to 
 the innumerable products of industry, science, art, 
 taste, and genius which have their exposition here. 
 This is the priceless inheritance which as soldiers 
 you helped to maintain against the open shock of 
 war. It devolves on you now, by a conscientious 
 and enlightened discharge of your duty as good 
 citizens, to resist the insidious dangers of peace 
 the inroads of extravagance, faithlessness, and cor- 
 ruption in private and public life." 
 
 Having expressed his warm hopes alike for their 
 future welfare and for the continued prosperity of 
 the Union which they had helped to save, he sat 
 down amidst that form of applause, peculiar to the 
 United States, which is described as " three cheers 
 and a tiger," and which may be rendered more intel- 
 ligible to the reader, though not more agreeable to 
 the listener, if called " three cheers and a growl." 
 
 General Dix sat on the right of the Chairman ; 
 the seat on the left was filled by a gentleman about 
 whom there was much speculation among the audi- 
 ence in my neighbourhood. It was rumoured that 
 he was a Southern General, and some said that he 
 was General Beauregard. He appeared uneasy and 
 out of place, and this tended to confirm the im- 
 pression that he was a Southerner. When the 
 Chairman rose and introduced him as Mr. Winter, 
 it was clear that he was not General Beauregard. 
 When he took a roll of manuscript from his pocket, 
 it was evident that he was about to read something, 
 and, before he began to read, the audience learned 
 that he was a poet, the Claud Halcro of the day.
 
 PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EXHIBITION. 119 
 
 To have been requested to write a poem for that 
 occasion was, he said, the greatest honour ever con- 
 ferred upon him. The poem he had composed was 
 entitled " The Voice of the Silence ;" it set forth 
 the contrast between the quiet scenery of what had 
 been the theatre of war and the thoughts which re- 
 turn to a soldier's mind of the part he had played in 
 the tented field. The poem contains reminiscences 
 of other poems as well as of battlefields. Some of the 
 stanzas are well turned, yet too many are but versified 
 rhetoric, and this wearies the reader as it did a few 
 of the hearers, even though the versification is not 
 devoid of harmony or the rhetoric of point. Having 
 procured a copy of the poem, I shall give it entire ; it is 
 a favourable sample of the poems which are provided 
 for the gratification of a United States audience on 
 such an occasion as the present. The frequency and 
 heartiness of the applause proved that the officers of 
 the Army of the Potomac admired it : 
 
 i. in. 
 
 " Bright on the sparkling sward, this Yet in your vision evermore, 
 
 day, Beneath affrighted skies, 
 
 The youthful summer gleams ; With crash of sound, with reek of gore, 
 
 The roses in the south wind play, The martial pageants rise. 
 
 The slumberous woodland dreams. Audacious banners rend the air, 
 
 In golden light, 'neath clouds of Dark steeds of battle neigh, 
 
 fleece, And frantic through the sulphurous 
 
 Mid bird-songs wild and free, glare, 
 
 The blue Potomac flows, in peace, Eaves on the crimson fray. 
 
 Down to the peaceful sea. 
 
 TI - Not time nor chance nor change can 
 
 " No echo from the stormy past drown 
 
 Alarms the placid vale, Your memories proud and high, 
 
 No cannon roar, nor trumpet blast, Nor pluck your star of greatness down 
 
 Nor shatter'd soldier's wail. From glory's deathless sky. 
 
 There's nothing left to mark the For evermore your fame shall bide 
 
 strife, Your valour tried and true ! 
 
 The triumph or the pain, And that which makes your country's 
 
 Where Nature to her general life pride 
 
 Takes back our lives again." May well be pride to you !
 
 120 
 
 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 v. 
 For ever through the soldier's thought 
 
 The soldier's life returns 
 Or where the trampled fields are 
 
 fought, 
 
 Or where the camp-fire burns. 
 For him the pomp of morning brings 
 
 A thrill none else can know, 
 For him Night waves her sable wings 
 O'er many a nameless woe. 
 
 Forget ! the arm may lose its might, 
 
 The tired heart beat low, 
 The sun from heaven blot out his 
 light, 
 
 The west wind cease to blow, 
 But while one spark of life is warm 
 
 Within this mould of clay, 
 His soul shall revel in the storm 
 
 Of that tremendous day ! 
 
 How often face to face with death 
 In stern suspense he stood, 
 While bird and insect held their 
 breath 
 
 Within the ambush'd wood ! 
 Again he sees the silent hills 
 
 With danger's menace grim ; 
 And darkly all the shuddering rills 
 
 Bun red with blood for him. 
 
 XI. 
 
 On mountain slope, in lonely glen, 
 
 By Fate's supreme command, 
 The blood of those devoted men 
 
 Has sanctified this land. 
 The funeral moss but not in grief 
 
 Waves o'er their hallow'd rest, 
 And not in grief the laurel leaf 
 
 Drops on the hero's breast. 
 
 For him the cruel sun of noon 
 
 Glares on a bristling plain j 
 For him the cold, disdainful moon 
 
 Lights meadows rough with slain. 
 There's death in every sight he sees, 
 
 In every sound he hears ; 
 And sunset hush and evening breeze 
 
 Are sad with prison'd tears. 
 
 Again worn out in midnight march 
 
 He sinks beside the track ; 
 Again beneath the pitying arch 
 
 His dreams of home come back ; 
 In morning wind the roses shake 
 
 Around his cottage door, 
 And little feet of children make 
 
 Their music on the floor. 
 
 The tones that never more on earth 
 
 Can bid his pulses leap 
 Ring out again in careless mirth 
 
 Across the vales of sleep ; 
 And where in horrent splendour roll 
 
 The waves of vict'ry's tide, 
 The oherish'd comrades of his soul 
 
 Are glorious at his side ! 
 
 Tearsforthe living, when God's gift 
 
 The friend of man to be 
 Wastes, like the shatter'd spars that 
 drift 
 
 Upon the unknown sea ! 
 Tears for the wreck who sinks at last, 
 
 No deed of valour done ; 
 But no tears for the soul that past 
 
 When honour's fight was won. 
 
 He takes the hand of Heavenly Fate 
 Who lives and dies for truth ! 
 
 For him the holy angels wait 
 In realms of endless youth ! 
 
 The grass upon his grave is green 
 With everlasting bloom ; 
 
 And love and blessings make the 
 sheen 
 
 Of glory round his tomb. 
 
 Mourn not for them, the loved and 
 gone ! 
 
 The cause they died to save 
 Plants an eternal corner-stone 
 
 Upon the martyr's grave :
 
 PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EXHIBITION. 
 
 121 
 
 And, safe from all the ills we pass, 
 Their sleep is sweet and low, 
 
 'Neath requiems of the murmuring 
 
 grass 
 And dirges of the snow. 
 
 That sunset wafts its holiest kiss 
 Through evening's gathering 
 
 That beauty breaks the heart with 
 
 bliss 
 
 The hour before it fades, 
 That music seems to merge with 
 
 heaven 
 
 Just when its echo dies, 
 Is nature's sacred promise given 
 Of life beyond the skies. 
 
 Mourn not ! In life and death they 
 teach 
 
 This thought, this truth, sublime : 
 There's no man free except he reach 
 
 Beyond the verge of time ! 
 So, beckoning up the starry slope, 
 
 They bid our souls to live ; 
 And, flooding all the world with 
 hope, 
 
 Have taught us to forgive. 
 
 No soldier spurns a fallen foe ! 
 
 No hate of human kind 
 Can darken down the generous glow 
 
 That fires the patriot mind ! 
 
 But love shall make the vanquish'd 
 
 strong, 
 
 And mercy lift their ban, 
 Where right no more can bend to 
 
 wrong, 
 Nor man be slave to man. 
 
 XVIII. 
 So from their quiet graves chey speak 
 
 So speaks that quiet scene 
 Where now the violets blossom, meek, 
 
 And all the fields are green. 
 There wood and stream and flower 
 
 and bud 
 
 A pure content declare, 
 And where the voice of war was 
 
 heard, 
 Is heard the voice of prayer. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 Once more in perfect love, O Lord, 
 
 Our alien'd hearts unite ! 
 And clasp across the broken sword 
 
 The hands that used to smite ! 
 And since beside Potomac's wave 
 
 There's nothing left but peace, 
 Be fill'd at last the open grave, 
 
 And let the sorrow cease ! 
 
 Sweet from the pitying northern pines 
 
 Their loving whisper flows, 
 And sweetly where the orange shines 
 
 The palm-tree woos the rose ! 
 Ah ! let that tender music run 
 
 O'er all the years to be, 
 And Thy great blessing make us one 
 
 And make us one with Thee. 
 
 Mr. Winter, who is the dramatic critic of the New 
 York Tribune) fully understands the value of his- 
 trionic display when reciting a number of verses ; 
 the clearness of his enunciation and the propriety 
 of his gestures caused his composition to produce 
 its full effect. He was congratulated by the Chair- 
 man and others on returning to his seat ; he had 
 the gratification of hearing General Sherman refer
 
 122 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 more than once to his beautiful " pome," while on 
 the following day, he might have been pleased still 
 more by reading in a leading article of the Phila- 
 delphia Press, " The flowers of the meeting were 
 furnished by Mr. William Winter, whose poem was 
 as tender and soul-stirring as the memories that 
 bind the veterans together. Yesterday's effort ad- 
 vances him high in the ranks of American poets." 
 
 The formal proceedings of the day were over, but 
 the officers in the pit had determined to have more 
 speeches from the Generals on the stage ; in response 
 to their demands General Sherman reluctantly rose 
 and advanced to the foot-lights. Upwards of six 
 feet in height and spare of frame, he bears a con- 
 siderable resemblance to Field Marshal von Moltke. 
 The latter, however, is more prim in his attire, and, 
 though a much older man, has a more youthful bear- 
 ing. Thanking the audience for the compliment 
 they had paid him, General Sherman said that he 
 had no speech to make ; then he went on to give 
 some practical hints and to make a statement which 
 was historically inaccurate. I will dispose of the latter 
 before summarizing the former. Referring to what 
 General Dix had said in his oration, to the effect 
 that Great Britain was primarily responsible for 
 slavery in the Southern States, he added that this 
 was specially true of Georgia, where the Court of 
 Great Britain introduced slavery, contrary to the 
 declared wishes of the Colonists. If General Sher- 
 man had read the first volume of Mr. Force's Tracts, 
 he would have learned that the Colonists in Georgia 
 had two grievances, the first being that regulations 
 had been made rendering it difficult for them to 
 procure ardent spirits, the second being that they
 
 PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EXHIBITION. 123 
 
 found it impossible to obtain the services of negro 
 slaves. The truth is, General Oglethorpe, the 
 founder of Georgia, had resolved that slavery 
 should not exist there with his consent. When he left 
 the Colony, the inhabitants, in concert with the 
 planters of South Carolina, determined that slavery 
 should be introduced, and they succeeded in their ill- 
 omened project. Great Britain had neither part nor 
 lot in introducing slavery into Georgia. 1 The practi- 
 cal hints were in substance that it was a mere 
 chance which made his hearers and himself officers 
 in the Union army, and that, had they been born in 
 the South, they would have worn the grey instead of 
 the blue. For his own part, he had much sympathy 
 with Georgia, having been largely repaid for what 
 he had done in that State. He hoped that bygones 
 would be forgotten, and a friendly feeling cultivated 
 towards those who had once been enemies, provided 
 that their former enemies would demean themselves 
 so as to merit kindly treatment. Not a sentence 
 uttered by General Sherman betrayed the practised 
 speaker, yet at this point he produced an effect such 
 as Burke aimed at when he threw a dagger on the 
 floor of the House of Commons, and Brougham ex- 
 pected to achieve when he fell on his knees in the 
 
 1 Generals Dix and Sherman ought to have been familiar with 
 the writings, wherein many of the first emigrants from Georgia, 
 setting forth their grievances, tell how they had left a land, which 
 was uninhabitable, for South Carolina, which they designate " a 
 land of liberty," because white men were permitted to keep slaves 
 there, and wherein they say the grievance of the settlers in 
 Georgia against the authorities in England, " is the denying the 
 use of negroes, and persisting in such denial after, by repeated 
 applications, we had humbly demonstrated the impossibility of 
 making improvement to any advantage with white servants."
 
 124 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 House of Lords, and implored the Peers not to 
 reject the Eeform Bill. Referring to the possibility 
 of brotherly love not being manifested by the 
 Southerners in return for the forgiveness of the 
 Northerners, he said, should they prove not only 
 recalcitrant but rebellious, then " that's the thing," 
 pausing for a moment, and pointing with his left 
 hand to two field-pieces at the side of the stage. 
 The words and the gesture were .eloquent above 
 anything I have ever witnesssed ; the audience 
 cheered for several minutes. Had General Sherman 
 been the first of living orators, he could not have 
 produced a greater oratorical hit. I was surprised 
 not to find any mention of this incident in the 
 newspaper reports ; but I was quite prepared to 
 learn it had been currently reported that General 
 Sherman had made a very belligerent speech. 
 
 General Sheridan, who was next called for, said 
 a few words. If General Sherman reminded me of 
 Field Marshal von Moltke,General Sheridan reminded 
 me still more strongly of ex-Marshal Bazaine. Had 
 his hair been grey instead of black, and had he been 
 rather more corpulent, he would have been the 
 living image of the Frenchman. Wearing his 
 uniform with a jauntiness which contrasted with 
 the slovenliness of General Sherman, he seemed 
 every inch a soldier. General Sheridan told the 
 audience that, though a charitable man, he did not 
 care to be precipitate in holding out the right hand 
 of fellowship to his foes, preferring that they should 
 make the first advance, and should be much more 
 humble-minded than the Southerners appeared to 
 be. It was easy to gather from his manner, as well 
 as his words, that he was not only ready, but
 
 PHILADELPHIA DURING THE EXHIBITION. 125 
 
 desirous, To take the field again with the Army of 
 the Potomac. 
 
 Several other Generals had to come to the front 
 in response to calls. Most of them made an apology 
 for having nothing to say, and then said something 
 which proved that they had spoken honestly. One 
 who leisurely contented himself with making a bow, 
 was applauded as warmly as if he had spoken a few 
 commonplaces. The most coy was General Har- 
 tranft, the Governor of Pennsylvania. He was 
 then one of the candidates for the Presidency, 
 while General Hancock, the Chairman, was among 
 those persons who might be nominated, the former 
 being favoured by the Republican, the latter by the 
 Democratic party. There were slight indications 
 showing that this was not forgotten by the meeting. 
 The calls for " Hartranft " continuing, and that 
 General remaining seated, the Chairman rose, and, 
 offering his arm conducted him to the foot-lights. 
 General Hartranft said that once he had command of 
 the front line of battle in the Army of the Potomac, 
 under General Meade, and finding that the line was 
 suffering from an enfilading fire, he informed his com- 
 mander of this. General Meade replied, " The best 
 way to get out of an enfilading fire is to go ahead." 
 Applying this anecdote, which may not have occurred 
 to him on the spur of the moment, to his present 
 case, he proceeded to pour forth compliments to his 
 old comrades, and gave them the satisfaction which 
 they probably desired. This was the end of the 
 proceedings, so far as they possessed general in- 
 terest. Two things struck me in connexion with 
 them. The one was, that, despite references of 
 General Dix to the events of a century ago, the
 
 126 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 memories of the War of Independence seemed to 
 have bee a altogether eclipsed by those of the war 
 for the maintenance of the Union ; the other was, 
 that such a gathering seemed fitted to make the 
 soldier regret that he had become a simple citizen, 
 and to foster a desire to resume a career of military 
 excitement.
 
 127 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE OP PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 THE Daily Advertiser, the first daily newspaper pub- 
 lished in the United States, appeared in Philadelphia 
 in 1784. In the year of the founding of the Republic 
 four newspapers were published in the State of New 
 York, seven in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
 and nine in the State of Pennsylvania. All but one 
 of the thirty-seven which then instructed the citizens 
 of the United States appeared once a week, the ex- 
 ception being the Pennsylvania Evening Post, which 
 appeared thrice. In the year of the Centenary of 
 the Republic the number published in New York 
 was 1,088, in Massachusetts 346, and in Penn- 
 sylvania 738. At present, the principal Phila- 
 delphian newspapers are the Times, the Press, the 
 Public Ledger, the North American, the Star, the 
 Evening Telegraph, the Sunday Mercury. Only one of 
 them merits special notice ; this is the Public Ledger, 
 which was founded on the 25th of March, 1836. 
 
 The Public Ledger was the third daily newspaper 
 which had been sold in Philadelphia for one cent, 
 that is a halfpenny. The first, entitled TJie Cent, 
 which was founded in 1830, did not live long. The 
 second, the Daily Transcript, was founded in Sep- 
 tember, 1835. The Public Ledger not only dis-
 
 128 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 tanced its competitors which cost six cents, but 
 proved more than a match for most of its low-priced 
 rivals. On the 26th of September, it contained the 
 following exultant outpouring over the fate of less 
 fortunate contemporaries, such as " The Times, that 
 had no time to breathe, for it died almost as soon as 
 born ; the Morning Post, that posted to its grave as 
 rapidly as if it were an express post ; the Transcript, 
 that did nothing but transcribe, for it could not 
 teach originality, and transcribed nothing worth 
 reading ; the Eagle, that seemed more like a screech 
 owl, and never got fledged enough to fly ; the Com- 
 mercial Pilot, that actually ran upon the rocks and 
 got shipwrecked in putting to sea ; . . . the Plain 
 Truth, that told nothing but lies, as the Commercial 
 Herald can testify; the North American, that did 
 not live long enough to tell anything." 1 
 
 The first number of the Public Ledger, which was 
 more vigorously written than any other Philadelphian 
 newspaper, attracted an amount of attention which 
 betokened future success. Mr. Russell Jarvis, the 
 editor, had that power of pleasing readers and 
 making enemies which insures a crop of remunera- 
 tive libel suits and a large circulation. In an ad- 
 dress to the public he gave Great Britain the credit 
 of having an engine of instruction in a Cheap Press 
 which other countries might envy ; unless he meant 
 by this, such publications as the Penny Magazine, it 
 is difficult to understand what he could have re- 
 ferred to. He too, however, had determined to 
 diffuse useful knowledge, to aim at promoting the 
 common good, to endeavour after " the moral and 
 
 1 Historical Sketch of the Public Ledger in " Proof Sheet " for 
 July, 1870.
 
 THE PEESS AND THE PEOPLE OF PHILADELPHIA. 129 
 
 intellectual improvement of the labouring classes, the 
 great sinew of civilized societies," intimating that, 
 as a preliminary to attaining these laudable objects, 
 he had " secured the services of a Police reporter 
 and a Collector of news." Two columns of the 
 first number were filled with the material supplied 
 by the police reporter, who strove to combine the 
 comic writer and the philosopher, to make his 
 readers laugh at the ludicrous aspects of vice, and 
 to improve their morals by suitable lessons and 
 reflections. So earnest and exemplary was the 
 "Police reporter" in his vocation that, before the 
 newspaper was a week old, the office was attacked 
 by persons who broke windows and did other damage 
 by way of protest against his pointed remarks. Be- 
 fore the Public Ledger was a year old, it had acquired 
 the appellation of a "little virulent sheet" from its 
 high-priced contemporaries. An action for libel 
 soon followed, which emboldened the editor to 
 insert spirit-stirring articles in defence of the Liberty 
 of the Press, and enabled a sympathetic jury to give 
 the paper a good advertisement. Not long after- 
 ward, a well-timed denunciation of the intolerable 
 behaviour of many medical students, raised the out- 
 spoken organ of public opinion high in the estima- 
 tion of peaceful citizens. In 1838, the Public 
 Ledger spoke out for the right of liberty of thought 
 and speech with a boldness which did it honour 
 and merited the applause of all true friends of 
 freedom. A pro-slavery mob had burned down a 
 hall in which an anti-slavery meeting was to have 
 been held. An article headed, " Scandalous outrage 
 against law as well as against decency," condemned 
 this outburst of mob violence in fitting terms, say- 
 
 K
 
 130 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 ing it would be better that thousands of ruffians 
 should perish, than " that the great principle of 
 freedom of speech and the Press should be sur- 
 rendered," and justly maintaining that " if the 
 right of discussion upon any subject, a right made 
 common to all by our constitution and laws, both 
 State and Federal, may be invaded with impunity, 
 all freedom among us is abolished, and we are the 
 slaves of the very worst of tyrants, the mob." This 
 tyrant, not relishing the course of a paper which 
 added the virtue of impartiality to its other offences, 
 proclaiming the right of both parties to a patient 
 and an undisturbed hearing, tried to silence the 
 paper by physical force. Preparations made in the 
 office to resist the only arguments which a mob can 
 use proved effectual ; when this tyrant knows that 
 violence will be encountered with armed resistance 
 its courage oozes away ; hence the Public Ledger 
 office survived the demonstrations made with a view 
 to its demolition. 
 
 Six years afterward, the Public Ledger had again 
 to face an angry populace, and had to suffer for its 
 independence in the most painful of all ways to the 
 proprietors of a newspaper, a diminished circula- 
 tion. In the year 1844, native-born citizens of the 
 United States met in Philadelphia to demonstrate 
 what they considered their claim to precedence, over 
 those of foreign birth, in governing the country. 
 Riots ensued in which blood was shed. Both 
 parties were subjected to stinging and deserved 
 censure, and neither party thought that justice had 
 been done to it. Steering an even course in an en- 
 venomed quarrel, condemning mob rule as the worst 
 of evils, the conductors of the Public Ledger suffered
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE OF PHILADELPHIA. 131 
 
 the penalty usually reserved for persons who keep 
 cool heads during the tempest of popular passion, 
 losing subscribers as well as, what is a still heavier 
 misfortune to the proprietors of a newspaper, the 
 favour of advertisers. After a time, however, the 
 dissatisfied subscribers and advertisers found it more 
 unpleasant to dispense with the paper, which con- 
 tinued to nourish, than it did to subsist without 
 their aid. 
 
 In 1844, the Public Ledger was printed on one of 
 Hoe's rotary presses, being the first paper so printed. 
 Mr. Swain, the founder and proprietor, having been 
 struck with Mr. Hoe's scheme for placing type on 
 a cylinder, ordered a press before the invention 
 had been tested by experience, and thus evinced 
 his foresight at a time when printing in this manner 
 was scouted by practical printers as an utter ab- 
 surdity. Among the advertisements in the first 
 number of the Public Ledger was one from Messrs. 
 R. Hoe and Co., of New York, offering to supply "any 
 article in the line of the printing business of the best 
 quality, and upon the most reasonable terms." 
 
 Several changes, which took place in the pro- 
 prietary and management in the course of succeeding 
 years, need not be recorded in detail. During the 
 civil war, it was found that to sell the paper at one 
 cent a copy involved a sacrifice ; owing to the great 
 increase in the price of paper and labour, the annual 
 loss amounted to upwards of $100,000. In a 
 moment of morbid depression, the proprietor deter- 
 mined to part with the journal ; on the 3rd of 
 December, 1864, it passed into the hands of Mr. G. 
 W. Childs. 
 
 Since Benjamin Franklin entered Philadelphia 
 
 K 2
 
 132 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 poor, friendless, and hungry, no youth more remark- 
 able than Mr. Childs has risen to fortune and an 
 enviable position there. Born at Baltimore in 1830, 
 he entered the United States navy at the age of 
 thirteen, thus gratifying the same desire of going 
 to sea which Franklin entertained, but which his 
 father would not countenance, and which would have 
 made a sailor of Washington, had not the opposi- 
 tion of his widowed mother prevailed. Fifteen 
 months' experience of seafaring life determined 
 young Childs to embrace a career on land ; going 
 to Philadelphia, he obtained employment as shop- 
 boy in a bookstore. Before five years passed away 
 he had amassed a few hundred dollars, and begun 
 business as a publisher ; soon after he took a 
 partner, the style of his firm being Childs and 
 Peterson. This firm of publishers achieved a repu- 
 tation for producing books of a high class, which 
 were not only very popular, but which were most 
 profitable to their authors. One of them was Dr. 
 Kane's " Arctic Expedition," for which the author 
 received $75,000. Another work was Mr. Allibone's 
 " Dictionary of Authors," which the compiler dedi- 
 cated to Mr. Childs in token of the substantial 
 encouragement received from him. 
 
 By becoming proprietor of the Public Ledger, Mr. 
 Childs acquired a property which was erroneously sup- 
 posed to be in a critical state. It is far more difficult 
 to resuscitate the fallen fortunes of an established 
 newspaper than to found a new one, and render it 
 remunerative. If the price be reduced with a view to 
 attract new subscribers, the result commonly is to 
 make a present to the old ones ; if the price be raised 
 the old ones fall off, and their places are not easily
 
 THE PBESS AND THE PEOPLE OF PHILADELPHIA. 133 
 
 filled. As it was impossible to make a profit on the 
 selling price of six cents weekly, Mr. Childs advanced 
 the price of the Public Ledger to ten cents, and he also 
 charged more for advertisements than his predecessor 
 had done. In addition to making advertisers pay 
 higher rates, he subjected their advertisements to 
 strict supervision. Before his time the custom had 
 been to insert every advertisement which had been 
 paid for, provided it was neither clearly libellous nor 
 grossly indecent. There are many announcements 
 which, though not indecent in words, cannot be 
 made public without detriment to public morality, 
 and these Mr. Childs refused to print on any terms. 
 This self-denying ordinance diminished the annual 
 receipts of the Public Ledger, for a time, to the 
 extent of $15,000. He also resolved to deal with 
 public questions in a temperate tone and serious 
 spirit. Though partisanship had not been the failing 
 of the paper, yet exaggeration had been one of its 
 attractions. This change had a complete, but not an 
 immediate success. At first the circulation of the 
 .paper fell far below what it was before he became its 
 proprietor; gradually, however, his well-considered 
 and praiseworthy policy won for it a popularity greater 
 than it had ever known. The size had to be enlarged 
 in order that space might be found for the advertise- 
 ments, which continued to come in like a flood. Not 
 many years after the new proprietor had given effect 
 to his enlightened views, the quantity of printed mat- 
 ter, in each number, covered 1,573 square inches ; the 
 quantity in the first number covered 525. Since then 
 the size and price have been still farther increased. 
 
 The building, one of the most imposing in Chesnut 
 Street, in which the Public Ledger is now written
 
 134 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 and edited, printed and published, was finished on 
 the 20th of June, 1867. Including the ground, the 
 cost was half a million dollars. 
 
 Before I visited the office of the Public Ledger 
 I was told that nothing like it could be seen in any 
 part of the world. I am familiar with the interiors 
 of newspaper offices in the United States, Canada, 
 the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, so that 
 I am able to form a comparison which is founded 
 on a large experience. Such offices as those of the 
 New York Tribune, the New York Herald, the Chicago 
 Tribune, are admitted to be among the most notable 
 in the United States, while that of the Toronto 
 Globe is the finest in Canada. That of the Public 
 Ledger is held to outstrip them all, and those in 
 other countries besides. There is a little exaggera- 
 tion in this. If any one must be selected for pre- 
 eminence, that of the leading journal of the British 
 Empire must be chosen. The elephant is con- 
 sidered a type of skill and sagacity, combined with 
 gigantic strength, being able with its trunk to pick 
 up a pin or rend an oak, to tend an infant or kill, 
 a tiger. What this huge and clever beast is among 
 animals, the office of the Times is among the offices 
 of newspapers. Except ink and paper, everything 
 employed in the production of a newspaper is made 
 there, from the printing-press down to the type. 
 Not only are the mechanical details complete in every 
 part, many of them being far in advance of those 
 in common use elsewhere, but the comfort of the 
 writers is considered as well as that of the com- 
 positors. The rule is to treat the producers of 
 " copy" as persons who can do their work surrounded 
 with every discomfort, and to reserve all the con-
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE OF PHILADELPHIA. 135 
 
 veniences for the men who convert the manuscript 
 into the printed page ; as in this respect, however, 
 the completeness which characterizes the other de- 
 partments of the Times office does not fail, I do not 
 for a moment fear intelligent contradiction in assign- 
 ing to it the first place among establishments of 
 the kind. 
 
 Having made the foregoing reservation, I am 
 ready to admit that the office of the Public Ledger is 
 worthy of the highest praise. Those persons who 
 are employed in it think themselves fortunate. They 
 number upwards of three hundred. In an address 
 presented to Mr. Childs on the 4th of July, 1867, 
 they thanked him with patriotic exuberance " for 
 having built a palace for them to work in ; a print- 
 ing-house which is unparalleled in the world ; a 
 printing-office which, in all its departments, is the 
 most healthy, comfortable, and spacious on the 
 American Continent." With a consideration unique, 
 I believe, among employers of labour, Mr. Childs 
 insures the lives of his workers, in order that, 
 when they die, their families may not be left desti- 
 tute ; he has thought of the dead while providing for 
 the living, for a Printers' Cemetery has been pre- 
 sented by him to the Philadelphia Typographical 
 Society. It would be tedious to recount all the good 
 deeds with which he is credited. Suffice it to say 
 that he ranks among newspaper proprietors as at 
 once a millionaire and a philanthropist, and that 
 when he employs his wealth for the commemoration 
 of a personal liking, he displays as much good taste 
 as when he lavishes money in works of benevolence. 
 An admirer of the exquisite poets George Herbert 
 and William Cowper, he gracefully manifested his
 
 136 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 appreciation by presenting a stained glass window to 
 Westminster Abbey as a homage to their memories. 
 
 The average daily circulation of the Public Ledger 
 exceeds 90,000 copies. These copies are distributed 
 throughout Philadelphia in a manner alike ingenious 
 and novel. More than half of the sale is effected by 
 carriers, an arrangement made by the founders of the 
 paper. The city is portioned into divisions, called 
 " routes,'* and carriers have the start in disposing of 
 the Public Ledger within their respective boundaries. 
 The carriers, who number 100, are supplied an hour 
 in advance of the newsboys ; some sell as many as 
 1,600 copies daily, others not more than sixty. The 
 profit of the aggregate sales may be imagined 
 when it is added that the cash value of their right 
 to dispose of the paper is valued at $300,000. The 
 newsboys dispose of about 4,000 copies ; not more 
 than 600 are sold at the office, between 4,000 and 
 5,000 copies are sent by post to subscribers through- 
 out the Union and in foreign parts. 
 
 The independence which characterized the Public 
 Ledger when it first became a candidate for public 
 favour, has been preserved under the management 
 of Mr. Childs. Party questions receive judicial 
 treatment in its columns; the New York Nation 
 excepted, no journal in the United States is more 
 truly a national organ, benefiting mankind with what 
 might have been wasted upon party. Yet it is not 
 quite perfect; the fastidious reader who has been 
 pampered with the large clear type in which the 
 best European newspapers are printed, does not find 
 this paper much more pleasant to the eye than the 
 majority of its contemporaries in the Republic. 
 Such a reader might wish that Mr. Childs shared
 
 THE PKESS AND THE PEOPLE OF PHILADELPHIA. 137 
 
 some of the views of Mr. W. C. Bryant, and set as 
 much store upon good writing as he does upon an 
 independent and measured tone in the treatment of 
 all subjects. If half the energy which is expended 
 throughout the United States in filling journals 
 with the latest news, were expended in maintaining 
 the standard of style and diction, the Press of the 
 United States would be the marvel of the world. 
 
 Philadelphians have undergone great, though 
 insensible changes, since they were first judged by 
 visitors to their city. Before the present century 
 began, they had the character of being " extremely 
 deficient in hospitality and politeness towards 
 strangers." Such is the opinion which, according 
 to Mr. Weld, prevailed not among foreigners only, 
 but among the inhabitants of other parts of the 
 Union also. He adds that " amongst the uppermost 
 circles in Philadelphia, pride, haughtiness, and 
 ostentation are conspicuous; and it seems as if 
 nothing could make them happier than that an order 
 of nobility should be established, by which they might 
 be exalted above their fellow-citizens, as much as 
 they are in their own conceit. In the manners of 
 the people in general there is a coldness and reserve, 
 as if they were suspicious of some design against 
 them, which chills to the heart those who come to 
 visit them." 2 
 
 Whatever may have been the case formerly, it is 
 no longer true that Philadelphians fall behind their 
 fellow-countrymen in entertaining strangers. Even 
 Mrs. Trollope and Captain Marryat could not 
 
 J Isaac Weld's " Travels in North America," vol. i. pp. 21, 22.
 
 138 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 complain of them on that score. The former, how- 
 ever, objected to their Puritanism, saying that " the 
 religious sanctity of Philadelphian manners is in 
 nothing more conspicuous than in the number of 
 chains thrown across the streets on Sunday to 
 prevent horses and carriages from passing." These 
 chains no longer impede the traffic, nor indeed, 
 though church-going is as much in favour here as in 
 Boston, is religion made to wear a sterner aspect 
 in the city of the Quakers than in the city of the 
 Puritans. Captain Marryat was struck with the 
 stillness of the streets, and the cleanliness of the 
 inhabitants. According to him, " the first idea that 
 strikes you when you arrive at Philadelphia, is that 
 it is Sunday : everything is so quiet, and there are 
 so few people stirring; but by the time you have 
 paraded half a dozen streets, you come to a conclusion 
 that it must be Saturday, as that is, generally speak- 
 ing, a washing-day." Here, again, the change is 
 marked. Those persons who arrived at Philadelphia 
 in the summer or autumn of 1876, would have 
 supposed that they had reached Pandemonium ; nor 
 can I believe that, at a less exciting time, a Sabbath 
 stillness uniformly pervades the streets. 
 
 Before visiting Philadelphia, I was told that I 
 should not enjoy the climate. Certainly, I have 
 seldom suffered more from heat than I did whilst 
 there. What tries the unacclimatized stranger most 
 of all is the sudden variation in the temperature, the 
 change within the space of twenty-four hours being 
 sometimes from the tropical heat of a hot-house to 
 the arctic cold of an ice-house. Dr. Benjamin Rush, a 
 physician whose memory is deservedly cherished by 
 Philadelphians, gave M. Brissot, in 1788, the fol-
 
 THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE OF PHILADELPHIA. 139 
 
 lowing account of the climate there : " We have the 
 humidity of Great Britain in spring, the heat of Africa 
 in summer, the temperature of Italy in June, the sky 
 of -Egypt in autumn, the cold and snow of Norway 
 and the ice of Holland during winter, the hurricanes 
 of the West Indies, to a certain extent, in each 
 season, and the changeable winds of Great Britain in 
 each month of the year." Notwithstanding this 
 extraordinary variety, the Doctor maintained that 
 " the climate of Philadelphia is one of the most 
 salubrious in the world." 3 I am more surprised at 
 the candour of the statement than at the optimism 
 of the conclusion. Though medical men are not in 
 the habit of advising persons to shun the localities 
 in which they practise, yet the unprofessional persons 
 who read Dr. Rush's account of the Philadelphian 
 climate, may fancy they would live more comfortably 
 in other places. 
 
 I do not mean to pronounce a dogmatic opinion 
 concerning anything in Philadelphia. My own expe- 
 rience was so favourable that I may be biassed in 
 my judgment. In common with many other visitors 
 during the period of the Exhibition, I was the reci- 
 pient of much kindness at the hands of Mr. Rosen- 
 garten, one of the leading members of the Bar. His 
 house was a centre where all the most notable person- 
 ages in the place met together. He introduced me to 
 the Reform Club, which deserves a word of praise. In 
 all parts of the civilized globe, Club-houses resemble 
 each other so closely as to offer nothing which can 
 be singled out for description. The Reform Club in 
 Philadelphia is an exception. I have seen other 
 
 3 " Nouvcau Voyage dans les Etats-Unis," vol. ii. p. 119.
 
 140 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 buildings of the kind which exceed it in size and in 
 luxury of accommodation, but I am unacquainted 
 with any Club which is equally attractive, not only 
 to members, but to their families. There is a large 
 space in the rear where flowers grow and a fountain 
 plays, and where, twice a week in the summer 
 months, an excellent band performs choice pieces 
 of music. The members sit here at small tables 
 enjoying the sweet smells, the cool air, and cooling 
 beverages. Nor do they sit alone, for on these 
 evenings they are allowed to bring with them their 
 wives, sisters, and daughters. I never met a Phila- 
 delphia lady who objected to her husband belonging 
 to this Club, nor did I meet any stranger, to whom 
 its doors had been thrown open, who failed to 
 characterize it as one of the pleasantest places of the 
 kind which he had ever entered. The highest praise 
 which a sojourner in a strange city can accord to it 
 is the expression of his desire to return thither. I 
 would gladly revisit Philadelphia.
 
 141 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 
 
 THE District of Columbia, wherein the city of Wash- 
 ington is situated, covers an area of 60 square miles, 
 and originally belonged to the State of Maryland. 
 Georgetown is the only other city in the district. 
 The census of 1870 showed the population to be 
 131,700; the number in 1860 was 60,000. The 
 area of the United States, as is well known, is divided 
 into 38 States and 10 Territories. Each State sends 
 two Senators to Congress, and Eepresentatives in 
 proportion to the number of its inhabitants ; one 
 Representative was apportioned to every 127,381 
 after the census of 1860. In making this calcula- 
 tion, the Indians are excluded on the ground that 
 they are not taxed. The inhabitants of the District 
 of Columbia, however, are taxed, but not represented ; 
 they are governed by Congress. It is true that the 
 District is small when compared with the areas of 
 the several States and Territories, yet there are 
 States which send Senators and Representatives, 
 and there are Territories which send Delegates to 
 Congress, in which the population is much smaller. 
 Take the State of Delaware. This was one of th0 
 Thirteen Colonies which contended for the principle 
 that no man should be taxed by an Assembly in
 
 142 COLUMBIA AXD CANADA. 
 
 which he was not directly represented. The Con- 
 stitution of the United States empowered Delaware 
 to send two Senators and one Representative to 
 Congress when the population of the State was much 
 smaller than at present, and yet it now contains 
 6,685 fewer inhabitants than the District of Columbia. 
 In three of the younger States, Nebraska, Nevada, 
 and Colorado, the discrepancy is still more remark- 
 able ; the first has 8,707, the second 89,209, and the 
 last 91,836 fewer inhabitants than the district over 
 which Congress exercises supreme authority. Each 
 of these States has three votes in the Electoral Col- 
 lege which chooses the President : the District of 
 Columbia has none. If the Territories are considered, 
 the case is more remarkable still. The representa- 
 tive system does not exist in a complete form in 
 them, yet there is at least a semblance of representa- 
 tion. There are Governors nominated by the Pre- 
 sident, and Legislative Assemblies elected by the 
 people, while Delegates watch over their interests in 
 Congress without, however, having votes on divi- 
 sions. Out of nine Territories, Alaska not deserving 
 to be considered as one for the purpose of compari- 
 son or the sake of argument, the total population in 
 six of them amounts to 92,506, being 39,194 in the 
 whole six Territories less than that of the single Dis- 
 trict of Columbia ; yet this District has not even the 
 rudiments of independent government possessed by 
 the Territory of Wyoming, with its 9,118 inhabi- 
 tants, which has been held up as a model, since 
 female suffrage has been introduced there. Surely 
 if representation and taxation should co-exist, then 
 the inhabitants of the District of Columbia are 
 either shorn of a right, or afflicted with unjustifiable
 
 THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 143 
 
 imposts ! Their grievances are as great in principle 
 as those of the inhabitants of the Thirteen Colonies 
 when they embarked in the struggle for indepen- 
 dence. It may be that they prefer the paternal rule 
 of Congress to the enjoyment of self-government. 
 So long, however, as they are unrepresented in the 
 Council of the nation, they occupy an anomalous 
 place in a system which is said to ba unrivalled alike 
 for harmonious working and symmetrical plan. The 
 absence of any complaint may be a proof that the 
 inhabitants do not consider themselves aggrieved. 
 Though they are without representation in Congress, 
 they may deem taxation to be no tyranny. But the 
 more contented they are with their state, the stronger 
 is the argument in favour of Congress exercising a 
 jurisdiction over citizens who are deprived of those 
 safeguards against arbitrary power which are deemed 
 an essential element in the Constitution of the 
 North American Republic. When United States 
 critics ridicule anomalies in the representative system 
 of the United Kingdom, they may fairly be asked to 
 look at the District of Columbia as an example of an 
 anomaly in their own favoured land, which does not 
 seem to be productive of injury in practice although 
 it is indefensible in theory. 
 
 It was not till after much heartburning and con- 
 troversy that the present site of the national capital 
 was fixed upon. The Northern members were ap- 
 prehensive lest the seat of Government should be 
 placed so far south as to be subjected to southern 
 influences, whilst the Southern members were strongly 
 opposed to the capital being too remote from the 
 place of their residence and power. The selection 
 of the site was the result of a compromise in which
 
 144 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 Washington played an important part. He took 
 special interest in laying out the city which he 
 thought should be called the " Federal City," but 
 which the people held ought to bear his name. The 
 compliment was well meant, but its value is doubtful. 
 There is a possibility of confusion in speaking of 
 "Washington. It might be said that Washington 
 was pure and that Washington was corrupt without 
 a contradiction in fact, though the contradiction 
 would be complete if the explanation were not given 
 that the one statement had reference to the patriot, 
 the other to the city. Perhaps it is fortunate for 
 the memory of the great Protector that no important 
 city has been named Cromwell, and it may be equally 
 a matter for satisfaction that the names of the 
 principal cities of the civilized world are impersonal. 
 The Fathers of the Eepublic would have displayed 
 greater wisdom had they determined upon making 
 Philadelphia, New York, or Boston the capital of 
 the Union. No great capital has been the product 
 of legislation. Edinburgh, Dublin, London, Paris, 
 Vienna, Berlin, Rome, have become the capitals of 
 Scotland, Ireland, England, France, Austria, Ger- 
 many, Italy, by a process resembling that natural 
 selection which Dr. Darwin, Mr. Herbert Spencer, 
 and Professor Huxley hold to be a natural law. A 
 legislator might have thought that he could easily 
 make a more suitable choice in each case, just as a 
 rash dogmatist would aver that, had the creation 
 of the world been left to him, the result would have 
 given general satisfaction. He means by this that 
 the arrangement would have pleased him much better, 
 and it would doubtless have been in more complete 
 accord with his personal notions and requirements.
 
 THE DISTRICT OP COLUMBIA. 145 
 
 The legislators of the United States have acted on 
 the supposition that a central site must always be 
 the best one for a capital; the result has been 
 curious rather than commendable. Beyond all ques- 
 tion the chief city of the State of New York bears 
 the name of the State, yet the far less notable city 
 of Albany is the capital. Philadelphia has a much 
 stronger historic claim to be the capital of Penn- 
 sylvania than Harrisburg. Everybody knows that 
 Charleston is the principal city in South Carolina; 
 the actual capital is Columbia ; a minor Charles- 
 town, unknown to fame, is the capital of West 
 Virginia. In Ohio, there is no larger and more 
 important city than Cincinnati ; in Illinois, there is 
 none that can compare with Chicago ; in Missouri, 
 the pre-eminence of St. Louis is undoubted; in 
 California, the city of San Francisco has no rival; 
 in Maryland, no place can match Baltimore ; in 
 Maine, there is no equal to Portland ; yet Columbus 
 is the capital of Ohio, Springfield of Illinois, Jeffer- 
 son City of Missouri, Sacramento of California, 
 Annapolis of Maryland, Augusta of Maine. Rhode 
 Island, which has the smallest area of any state in 
 the Union, has two capitals, Newport and Provi- 
 dence. Owing to its situation and importance New 
 Orleans ought always to have been the capital of 
 Louisiana ; till the civil war that distinction was 
 enjoyed by Baton Rouge. Richmond, the capital of 
 Virginia, and Boston, the capital of the great com- 
 monwealth of Massachusetts Bay, have been allowed 
 to retain their natural pre-eminence. The chances, 
 however, are against the city of importance being per- 
 mitted to occupy the rank of a capital, and it is a 
 subject of wonder why New Orleans, Richmond, and
 
 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 Boston have not shared the fate of San Francisco, New 
 York, and Philadelphia. If, by chance, a rising city 
 should happen to be the capital of a new State it will 
 soon cease to hold that place of honour. The State 
 of Nebraska is among the later additions to the Union. 
 Its principal town is Omaha, which at one time 
 ranked as the capital. The citizens determined, 
 however, upon a change which deprived Omaha of 
 its titular importance without lessening its power 
 of growth, and they made Lincoln, a much smaller 
 and less notable town, the State capital.
 
 147 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE CAPITAL OF THE UNION. 
 
 IN 1815, Mr. Ticknor, the historian of Spanish 
 literature, visited the capital of his country for the 
 first time. Not long before this date, the public 
 buildings had been burned to the ground by order 
 of General Ross, in command of a British force, an 
 act for which the pretext was no justification, and 
 one which it is impossible to excuse by urging 
 that this barbarous warfare had been previously 
 Avaged in Canada, by the forces of the Union, 
 in obedience to direct and deliberate instructions 
 from the United States Government. As the 
 carriage in which Mr. Ticknor made the journey 
 from Baltimore approached the city of Washington, 
 his heart swelled with patriotic enthusiasm, and he 
 eagerly prepared himself to enjoy the prospect. 
 Having reached the midst of a desolate-looking 
 plain, over which vehicles were passing in all 
 directions, he said to the driver of his carriage, 
 " Where are we now?" The reply was " ' In the 
 Maryland Avenue, Sir.' He had hardly spoken 
 when the hill of the Capitol rose before us. I had 
 been told that it was an imperfect, unfinished 
 work, and that it was somewhat unwieldy in its best 
 estate. I knew that it was now a ruin, but I had 
 
 L 2
 
 148 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 formed no conception of what I was to see the 
 desolate and forsaken greatness in which it stood, 
 without a building near it, except a pile of bricks 
 on its left more gloomy than itself, and the ruins 
 of the house from which General Ross was fired at ; 
 no, not even a hill to soften the distant horizon 
 behind it, or a fence or a smoke to give it 
 the cheerful appearance of a human habitation." ! 
 Fifteen years before Mr. Ticknor's visit, Tom Moore 
 had been at Washington, and had written the lines 
 in an epistle to Dr. Hume which gave great offence 
 in the United States : 
 
 " This famed metropolis where fancy sees 
 Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees ; 
 Which travelling fools and gazetteers adorn 
 With shrines unbuilt and heroes yet unborn." 
 
 Mr. Weld, describing this city in 1796, says 
 that, " excepting the streets and avenues, and a 
 small part of the ground adjoining the public build- 
 ings, the whole place is covered with trees. To be 
 under the necessity of going through a deep wood 
 for one or two miles, perhaps, in order to see a 
 next-door neighbour and in the same city, is a 
 curious, and I believe, a novel circumstance." 2 Forty 
 years later, Captain Hamilton describing his journey 
 from Baltimore to Washington, says : " I was look- 
 ing from the windows of the coach, in a sort of 
 brown study, at fields covered with snow, when 
 one of my fellow-passengers inquired how I liked 
 Washington. ' I will tell you when I see it,' was 
 my reply. * Why you have been in Washington for 
 
 1 " Memoirs of George Ticknor," vol. i p. 24. 
 1 Isaac Weld's " Travels," vol. i. p. 86.
 
 THE CAPITAL OP THE UNION. 149 
 
 the last quarter of an hour,' rejoined my fellow- 
 traveller. And so it was ; yet nothing could I 
 discern but a miserable cottage or two occasionally 
 skirting the road at wide intervals." 3 Miss Mar- 
 tineau, who was there in 1835, depicts it in terms 
 scarcely more attractive than those used by any pre- 
 ceding visitor. According to her, " the city itself is 
 unlike any other that ever was seen straggling out 
 hither and thither, with a small house or two, a quarter 
 of a mile from any other ; so that in making calls * in 
 the city,' we had to cross ditches and stiles, and 
 walk alternately on grass and pavements, and strike 
 across a field to reach a street." 4 Among the 
 changes wrought during a few years in the United 
 States none has been more striking than that which 
 concerns the exterior aspect of the city of Washing- 
 ton. Whoever reads what was written about it by 
 the travellers whose remarks I have quoted, and 
 looks on the city as it now exists, will have great 
 difficulty in believing that the place before his eyes, 
 and that about which he has read, are the same. 
 
 The foundation of the city of Washington dates 
 from the year 1791; in the year 1793, the foun- 
 dation-stone of the Capitol was. laid by the first 
 and greatest President of the Republic. The 
 building of the city went on slowly for a time. 
 In 1792, fruitless endeavours were made to induce 
 workmen to come from Scotland. The Presi- 
 dent suggested that an application should be made 
 to Holland and France ; he thought that the 
 intestine commotion in the latter country would 
 induce many persons to desire to better their 
 
 3 " Men and Manners in America," vol. ii. p. 23. 
 
 4 " Retrospect of Western Travel," vol. i. p. 237.
 
 150 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 condition by crossing the Atlantic, and labour in 
 erecting the capital ; he was anxious that there should 
 be no delay in prosecuting the necessary operations, 
 in order that the declared enemies of the scheme 
 might be checkmated. 
 
 In 1793, Washington wrote to the great English 
 agriculturist, Arthur Young, telling him, among 
 other things, that " The Federal City in the year 
 1800 will become the seat of the General Government 
 of the United States. It is fast increasing in build- 
 ings and rising in consequence, and will, I have no 
 doubt, from the advantages given to it by nature, 
 and its proximity to a rich interior country and the 
 Western territory, become the emporium of the 
 United States." Three years afterwards, he used 
 almost identical terms about the Federal City in a 
 letter to Sir John Sinclair, who then seems to have 
 contemplated emigrating to the United States, and 
 who applied to Washington for particulars about the 
 land in the neighbourhood of his property. Jefferson 
 proposed in 1795 that a University should be 
 established here, in which the teaching staff should 
 consistof the professors who had been obliged to leave 
 Geneva owing to the revolution; but Washington 
 did not favour the settlement of so many foreigners 
 in a national institution. The last noteworthy 
 mention of a city, which was often in his thoughts, 
 and for which he did more than any other man, 
 occurs in -a letter written in 1798, eighteen months 
 before his death. It was addressed to Mrs. Fairfax, 
 who had formerly been one of his neighbours at Mount 
 Vernon, but who was then living in England. After 
 telling her of various changes which had occurred, 
 he says- "A century hence, if this country keeps
 
 THE CAPITAL OF THE UNION. 151 
 
 united (and it is surely its policy and interest to do 
 it), will produce a city, though not as large as 
 London, yet of a magnitude inferior to few others 
 in Europe, on the banks of the Potomac, where one 
 is now establishing for the permanent seat of 
 the Government of the United States, between 
 Alexandria and Georgetown, on the Maryland side of 
 the river ; a situation not excelled for commanding 
 prospect, good water, salubrious air, safe harbours, 
 by any in the world, and where elegant buildings are 
 erecting and in forwardness for the reception of 
 Congress in the year 1800." He died a fortnight 
 before the beginning of the year in which his favourite 
 city became the actual capital of his country. 
 
 By the time that the city of Washington shall be a 
 century old, the dream of its founder may be as far 
 from realization as it is at present. Two-thirds of 
 the period have passed away ; yet the city is still 
 surpassed by many capitals in Europe, not in 
 magnitude only, but also in all those attractions which 
 make cities famous. The population chiefly consists 
 of foreign Ministers and their suites, and of office- 
 holders, office-seekers, and lobbyists. The harbour 
 is safe enough, but there is no commerce; the 
 situation is excellent, but there are few manufactures. 
 If life and manners in New York are not typical of 
 what prevails throughout the United States, still 
 less typical are life and manners in Washington. It 
 is the capital of the country ; but in no sense is it a 
 representative city. In Paris, Brussels, Berlin, 
 Vienna, Rome, and London, even when the 
 Legislatures are not sitting, there is plenty to 
 interest and instruct a stranger. In "Washington, 
 when Congress has adjourned, there is the stagnation
 
 152 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 of a watering-place when the summer visitors have 
 departed and gloomy winter has arrived. A visitor 
 to the United States could spend many months most 
 profitably in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, 
 in the older cities of the South, or the younger cities 
 of the West ; but he could learn little if he were to 
 pass the same time in Washington. After he had 
 visited the Capitol, the public offices, the Corcoran 
 Gallery of Art, the Smithsonian Institution, he would 
 have beheld nearly everything worth seeing. As for 
 society, no one maintains that those who are 
 fastidious or cultured ought to choose Washington 
 as their place of abode. People who go thither do 
 so for business only; no one, from the Chief 
 Justice to the humblest Government clerk, has ever 
 professed to reside there for pleasure. A friend of 
 mine, who is a citizen of the United States, once 
 spent a winter in Washington for the purpose of 
 studying in one of the libraries. His companions at 
 the hotel displayed curiosity as to his doings, and 
 they asked him how his Bill was getting on. They 
 thought that he must be interested either in pro- 
 moting or opposing a Bill in Congress. On being 
 told that he had nothing to do with legislation, they 
 first treated this as a transparent joke; on being 
 assured again that they were mistaken, they treated 
 him as a harmless lunatic. 
 
 Human interest centres here in two buildings, 
 both of which are in Pennsylvania Avenue, and which 
 are upwards of a mile distant from each other, the 
 Capitol and the White House ; the seat of Congress 
 and the Supreme Court, and the abode of the 
 President. The dome of the Capitol is as con- 
 spicuous an object from the surrounding country as
 
 THE CAPITAL OF THE UNION. 158 
 
 the dome of St. Peter's is from the Campagna. It 
 has long ceased to be the unsightly ruin which 
 produced so painful an impression upon Mr. Ticknor. 
 Regarded as a mere architectural pile it is 
 grandiose ; but it wants that symmetry of form and 
 magic of design which make St. Peter's a thing of 
 beauty. No architect will ever gaze upon it in order 
 to gain inspiration and qualify himself to become a 
 master of his profession. There is as little originality 
 in its form as there is in that of the two Houses of 
 Parliament upon the bank of the Thames. The sum 
 expended upon it was not far short of four millions 
 sterling. The result is a huge dome crowning a 
 structure which might have been planned by an 
 intelligent bricklayer. It would be strange, indeed, 
 if the building possessed unity of design, seeing that 
 its present appearance is very different from that of 
 the original plan. Two wings were added in 1851 
 to the edifice of which Washington laid the founda- 
 tion-stone in 1793. If any architect in our day 
 were to design two wings for St. Peter's or St. Paul's, 
 for Notre Dame or Westminster Abbey, he would 
 probably fail in adding to the artistic effect of any 
 of them. But the citizens of the United States are 
 pleased with their Capitol, they say that it is one of 
 the most magnificent public buildings in the world ; 
 other persons have not, perhaps, any right to com- 
 plain. In -'the interior, there is more to excite 
 surprise than admiration. The Rotunda is decorated 
 with pictures, and provided with gigantic spittoons. 
 Judging from the condition of the floor, I should 
 infer that the latter are supposed to be intended for 
 ornament rather than use. The pictures are large 
 in size and brilliant in colour. They are eight in
 
 154 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 number, and represent " The Discovery of the 
 Mississippi," " The Baptism of Pocohontas," " The 
 Declaration 'of Independence," " The Surrender of 
 General Burgoyne," " The Surrender of Lord Corn- 
 wallis," " General Washington resigning his Com- 
 mission," " The Embarkation of the Pilgrims." No 
 more difficult task can be undertaken by a painter 
 than the production of a historical picture in which 
 the requirements of patriotism are reconciled to the 
 exigencies of art. These works are the production 
 of native artists who were doubtless excellent patriots. 
 I shall refrain from criticism; any unfavourable 
 observations by a stranger would assuredly be 
 regarded as splenetic. The effect produced on me 
 by these pictures was probably the reverse of that 
 contemplated by their painters. The story of De 
 Soto's discovering the Mississippi is one which ought 
 to inspire an artist. That adventurer started off, at 
 the head of a finely-equipped force, to conquer and 
 colonize Florida, and discover gold-mines there. He 
 succeeded in slaying Indians by the score, but never 
 found the gold which he sought. His quest was 
 prolonged for two years. Before that time had 
 elapsed, he lost many of his comrades by disease and 
 in battle. On one occasion, they were nearly over- 
 powered by the Indians, who attacked them during 
 the night, and they escaped with their lives only. 
 They had to fashion garments to cover their naked- 
 ness, and rude weapons wherewith to fight. Several 
 months afterwards, they discovered the Mississippi. 
 They cannot have presented a holiday spectacle 
 when they reached the bank of the Father of Waters, 
 yet, in the picture here, their arms are as bright, and 
 their attire is as spotless as if they had decked
 
 THE CAPITAL OF THE UNION. 155 
 
 themselves out for a tournament, and were about to 
 enter the lists under the eyes of the Queen of 
 Beauty. 
 
 The Chamber in which the Representatives meet 
 is arranged in a different way from that of our 
 House of Commons. Each member has his own 
 desk as well as his seat, and these are ranged in rows 
 in a semicircle in front of the Speaker's chair. The 
 seats are appropriated by lot, so that members of 
 opposite parties may sit side by side, while members 
 of the same party may be separated by the whole 
 width of the chamber, round which there is a gallery 
 that accommodates 1,200 spectators. The decorations 
 are gaudy. The dimensions of the chamber are 139 
 feet in length, 93 feet in width, and 30 feet in height. 
 The Senate Chamber, which is arranged in the same 
 way, is rather smaller. It is decorated in a more 
 subdued style, and in better taste. The other rooms 
 are well arranged, and seem far more comfortable 
 than those which correspond to them in our Houses 
 of Parliament. The sittings of the Supreme Court 
 are held in a room under this roof. The Justices 
 wear gowns, a distinction which does not prevail 
 in other Courts; the members of the Bar and 
 Bench are undistinguishable from the audience in 
 the ordinary Courts of the United States. I would 
 not maintain that Justice cannot be administered by 
 men in plain clothes as well as by men in official 
 robes, any more than I would maintain that soldiers 
 could not fight unless they were attired in uni- 
 form. Consequently, the absence of wigs and gowns 
 in a United States Court of Justice did not seem to 
 me of much importance ; yet, just as I see no harm, 
 but some advantage in a soldier wearing a uniform,
 
 156 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 so do I think that a distinctive costume for the 
 Bench and the Bar is in keeping with the legal 
 profession. The exception of the Justices of the 
 Supreme Court in the United States wearing gowns, 
 while the Judges in other Courts wear none, is 
 the reverse of the rule which prevails at home. The 
 two highest Courts in the United Kingdom are the 
 House of Lords and the Privy Council. The former 
 hears appeals from the principal Courts in the land, 
 the latter from those in the Empire, yet the Judges 
 in both wear their ordinary clothes, without the addi- 
 tion of the wigs and gowns, which are held to be in- 
 dispensable in all other Courts, with the exception of 
 those over which Police Magistrates preside. Thus 
 extremes meet, and the Law Lords, or the members 
 of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, deter- 
 mine moot points of the highest moment in the 
 simple attire of Police Magistrates. There is as 
 little novelty, then, in the judges of all Courts but 
 the Supreme Court of the United States dispensing 
 justice without robes of office, as there is in those of 
 the latter Court in wearing them. 
 
 The visitor to the Capitol soon tires of the interior, 
 nor does a sight of the large Congressional library 
 dispel his fatigue. The interest in seeing rows of 
 shelves filled with books is not greater than that of 
 seeing rows of shelves filled with bottles. Though 
 the books may be priceless, and the wine in the bottles 
 of the rarest vintage, yet this gives no solace to the 
 mere spectator. During one of Southey's visits to 
 London, he visited the British Museum Library and 
 was astounded at its size. He expressed his thank- 
 fulness, however, that bis abode was at Keswick
 
 THE CAPITAL OF THE UNION. 157 
 
 instead of being in or near Great Russell Street, 
 Bloomsbury, because he felt that he should go mad 
 to think that so many books were within his reach 
 and that he could not possibly read them all. I do 
 not know whether Members of Congress are ever 
 afflicted with a like misgiving ; certainly, they have 
 access to a library which would daunt or satiate the 
 most inveterate bookworm. Members of Congress 
 are chargeable, not with reading, but with speaking to 
 excess; their speeches seldom display a profound 
 acquaintance with what other people have devoted 
 their lives to writing. 
 
 The part of the Capitol which pleased me the best 
 was the gallery outside the dome. The dome is of 
 iron, and there is an inner and an outer shell, be- 
 tween which a spiral stair leads to the top. On the 
 way up the visitor gets a good view of the frescoes, 
 by Constantine Brumidi, which are under the canopy, 
 which cover 6,000 square feet, and were executed 
 within ten months. Having taken a long look at the 
 frescoes, and failed to perceive anything which could 
 be spoken of in tones flattering to the artist and his 
 admirers, I continued my ascent. The view from 
 the outside is very different from any picture which 
 the dome covers. The city itself, with its broad 
 avenues, massy piles of building, its gardens and 
 ornamental grounds, is a sight of which the eye does 
 not weary. In the background are the wooded 
 heights of Arlington, at the bottom of which the 
 slow, broad waters of the Potomac flow along. 
 The long bridge, a mile in length, spans the river, 
 which in its course to the sea passes the old town of 
 Alexandria, once a busy place of commerce when 
 ships plied between it and Bristol, bringing goods
 
 158 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 for the Virginian planters, and carrying back their 
 tobacco in exchange. The whole prospect is the 
 more pleasing because the country has a more culti- 
 vated aspect than is common in this vast territory. 
 The remembrance of another view recurred to my 
 mind as I stood here. From the tower of the State 
 House of Salt Lake City I had looked upon a 
 scene like this one. There, too, were clusters of 
 buildings along wide streets; the buildings were 
 surrounded with gardens, and the streets were lined 
 with trees. The scene, however, was grander than 
 that I now gazed upon. The Jordan and the Salt 
 Lake took the place of the Potomac, while the Wah- 
 satch mountains rose skyward with bolder outlines 
 than the wooded hills of Virginia. Alike in the 
 capital of the Territory of Utah and the capital of the 
 United States the greatest enjoyment is afforded by 
 the view from the loftiest buildings. Both are plea- 
 santer to look at than to live in. 
 
 The White House, which is said to have been de- 
 signed by Mr. James Hoban after the mansion of the 
 Duke of Leinster, attracts as many visitors as the 
 Capitol ; but, were it not the residence of the Presi- 
 dent, few would bestow a second glance upon it . The 
 reception-rooms are spacious, yet they seem petty to 
 those persons who have visited Buckingham Palace 
 and Windsor Castle, the Palace of Versailles, the 
 Palaces of Berlin, Potsdam, or Babelsberg. Even 
 old Holyrood House, though not on the scale of 
 many royal dwellings, has far finer rooms than the 
 Executive Mansion ; while the Prince of Monaco, 
 who rules over 2,000 persons, is housed in a palace 
 compared with which the official residence of the 
 President of the United States sinks into insignifi-
 
 THE CAPITAL OP THE UNION. 159 
 
 cance. The private rooms in the White House 
 are few in number ; indeed, a President with a 
 large family would be sadly stinted for accommo- 
 dation. Nevertheless the White House has a fasci- 
 nation which the most splendid mansion in the 
 United States does not exercise ; a tenant is never 
 eager to leave it for another place of abode. No 
 stranger has any difficulty in obtaining the satis- 
 faction of shaking hands with the President, a plea- 
 sure hardly more substantial than that of being pre- 
 sented, and making a bow to a crowned head. Those 
 persons who had any claim to more than a formal 
 reception found it easy to obtain an interview with 
 President Grant, and they were certain to be received 
 by him with a courtesy which few crowned heads 
 would display. Photographs do injustice to his 
 appearance. A quiet smile, which frequently occurs 
 in conversation, softens the features which seem 
 stern in repose. His voice is soft, he speaks slowly, 
 and, when interested in any topic, he is the reverse 
 of taciturn. I can well believe that those with whom 
 he is intimate consider him a genial companion. 
 
 If the Capitol and the White House are the two 
 principal places in Washington, the Patent Office is 
 the most remarkable, and, in many respects, the most 
 attractive spot in this city of Public Offices. Here 
 may be seen what is alike typical of the United 
 States and highly creditable to them. The building 
 is largely composed of white marble. The rooms 
 are vast, one being a quarter of a mile in length, 
 and they are well planned for the purpose which they 
 subserve. This spacious edifice cannot be contrasted 
 with the Patent Office in London without a feeling of 
 humiliation.
 
 160 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 There are many other buildings of note in Wash- 
 ington ; those which I have described alone possess 
 general interest. There are several monuments ; 
 among others there is one which has become a ruin 
 before completion ; it was designed to surpass any 
 monument in the world, and to commemorate the 
 great deeds of George Washington. Congress re- 
 cently passed an Act providing for its completion, 
 but he must be a sanguine man who expects to live 
 till it is finished. 
 
 The anticipations of the founders of this city have 
 not yet been fulfilled ; there is no likelihood that they 
 will ever become realities. Washington was not sin- 
 gular in predicting a grand future for the capital 
 which bears his name. Mr. Weld, who visited the 
 United States in 17l)5, writes: " There is good found- 
 ation for thinking that the Federal City, as soon as 
 the navigation is perfected, will increase most rapidly, 
 and that at a future day, if the affairs of the United 
 States go on as prosperously as they have done, it will 
 become the Grand Emporium of the West, and rival 
 in magnitude and splendour the cities of the old 
 world." 5 Miss Martineau, who was at Washington 
 in 1835, when time had been afforded for some indi- 
 cation of the result which had been foretold and 
 hoped for, saw no token of it ; hence her conclusion : 
 " The city is a grand mistake. Its only attraction is 
 its being the seat of Government ; and it is thought 
 that it will not long continue to be so. The Far 
 Western States begin to demand a more central seat 
 for Congress ; and the Cincinnati people are already 
 speculating upon which of their new hills or table- 
 
 5 Isaac Weld's " Travels," vol. i. p. 80.
 
 THE DISTRICT OP COLUMBIA. 161 
 
 lands is to be the site of the new Capital." 6 Though 
 Washington stands where it did, and the hopes of 
 the people of Cincinnati have been so long deferred 
 as to appear vain as well as unsatisfying, yet the 
 feeling in favour of removing the Capital has not 
 died out. St. Louis thinks its title superior to that 
 of Cincinnati, and Omaha urges that its situation has 
 the undeniable merit of being the most central of 
 all the places suggested. Happily, I have not to 
 arbitrate between contending claims, or to point out 
 the spot which seems best adapted for the purpose. 
 These are matters about which there will be a pro- 
 longed and an envenomed controversy. It is quite 
 possible, however, that before a second century 
 shall have been added to the age of the Republic, the 
 city of Washington will have ceased to be the Capital 
 of the Union. 
 
 6 " Eetrospect of Western Travel," voL i. p. 266. 
 
 M
 
 102 
 
 X. 
 
 THE CAPITAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 THE Oriental potentate who fancied that Germany 
 was near Leipzig would not have given serious 
 offence to the inhabitants of Boston had he also 
 arrived at the conclusion that the United States of 
 America are somewhere in the neighbourhood of 
 their city. The fellow-countrymen of the good 
 folks of Massachusetts are wont to ridicule them 
 for thinking that the universe revolves round the 
 capital of their State. Bostonians certainly have a 
 high opinion of themselves and take pride in their 
 city, and they have sufficient reason for so thinking 
 and feeling. No other capital in the United States 
 dates from the year 1630. It is true that other 
 cities are still older. St. Augustine, in Florida, was 
 founded by the Spaniards nearly half a century 
 before the first English settlement was established 
 in Virginia and the city of Jamestown was built. 
 The old capital of Virginia is now a shapeless ruin.- 
 Sixteen years before Governor Winthr op built the first 
 house on the peninsula whereon Boston stands, the 
 Dutch had founded New Amsterdam on the island 
 of Manhattan, a city which is now better known as 
 New York. The Pilgrim Fathers founded Plymouth 
 ten years before the Puritans sailed for Massachu-
 
 CAPITAL OK THE COMMONWEALTH OP MASSACHUSETTS. 163 
 
 setts, yet, though this place like Charlestown is older 
 than Boston, both failed to make the same progress 
 or to attain the commanding position which she did, 
 for Plymouth, along with the settlement of New 
 Plymouth whereof she was the capital, has been in- 
 corporated with Massachusetts, while Charlestown 
 has become an integral part of the city of Boston. 
 Thus the latter city can boast alike of an antiquity- 
 exceeding two centuries and a quarter, and of a 
 never-ceasing growth in opulence and power. 
 
 If the project of celebrating the Centenary of the 
 Republic by an International Exhibition had not 
 originated in Philadelphia, many reasons might have 
 been urged why a space in Boston should be the site 
 of the Exhibition. While the former city contains 
 the Hall where the Independence of the Colonies 
 was declared, the latter contains the Hall where 
 the cradle of Liberty was rocked. The whole 
 history of Massachusetts is a declaration of inde- 
 pendence. The original settlers were ready to 
 acknowledge the duty of the Motherland to protect 
 them, and they were confident as to their right to 
 do what seemed best in their own eyes. It is quite 
 possible, however, that their descendants might have 
 been so humoured as to have acquiesced in remain- 
 ing partners in the British Empire. Had they been 
 permitted to trade with foreign powers and to carry 
 on home manufactures as freely as those persons who 
 are now proud of belonging to that Empire, it is not 
 improbable that they would have set less store upon 
 absolute separation, and would have turned deaf 
 ears alike to the inflammatory sermons of the Rev. 
 Jonathan Mayhew and the envenomed speeches of 
 Mr. Samuel Adams. But the desire to be inde- 
 
 M 2
 
 1G4 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 pendent which led the early settlers to treat the 
 land as their freehold, and to expel from it all who 
 threatened to interfere with their claim to absolute 
 possession and control, whether this took the form 
 of protests from Roger Williams, of prophecies by 
 Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, of witness borne by irre- 
 pressible Quakers, never ceased to be potential, even 
 when it appeared to be merely a tradition, and was 
 revived rather than created when the imposition of 
 the Stamp Act gave an excuse for its manifestation 
 in riots, when the demand to obey Writs of Assist- 
 ance and to pay a duty on tea gave a warrant for 
 Otis protesting in impassioned language against 
 domestic interference, and the Mohawks an oppor- 
 tunity to exhibit the popular determination by 
 casting the cargoes of the tea-ships into the water, 
 and when it finally nerved the inhabitants to resist 
 the Royal forces with the sword till they were forced 
 to evacuate the city in dismay. No other city in 
 the United States incarnates the principle of inde- 
 pendent authority more completely than Boston. 
 Few other cities in the world have shown more con- 
 clusively how to deal with traitors than she has 
 done. When the struggle for the independence of 
 the Thirteen Colonies had been crowned with the 
 desired success, men whom we should now style 
 Communists banded themselves together under 
 Daniel Shays, fighting for an idea as others did in 
 the capital of France under Dombrowski. But the 
 citizens of Massachusetts made quick work with the 
 enemies of all order, risking their lives to suppress 
 a dangerous insurrection, and acting with a vigour 
 which would have been followed by a similar and 
 speedy triumph had the friends of order, who formed
 
 CAPITAL OP THE COMMONWEALTH OP MASSACHUSETTS. 165 
 
 the majority in the ranks of the Parisian National 
 Guard, been equally alert and brave. During the 
 great civil war, which imperilled the unity of the 
 country, an attempt was made to raise the standard 
 of revolt in Boston ; but a few whiffs of cannon- 
 shot swept away alike the ringleaders and their 
 cause. So long as the people of this city retain the 
 virtues of their forefathers, it will be easy for the 
 least-informed person to point to one place where 
 the people can both govern themselves admirably, 
 and serve as a model to those persons who are 
 anxious to discover the maximum of liberty united 
 with the maximum of good government. 
 
 A year before the Republic celebrated the cente- 
 nary of its existence, the city of Boston celebrated 
 the battle which, though a British victory, yet con- 
 tributed in no small degree to convert colonial 
 independence from a theory into a fact. That fight, 
 to which the name of Bunker Hill is commonly but 
 inaccurately given, was regarded on its hundredth 
 anniversary less as a national struggle against a 
 common foe than as a happy opportunity for testify- 
 ing that the memories of a later and bloodier fratri- 
 cidal contest had been purged of ill-will, and that 
 the time had come for Northerners and Southerners 
 again to join hands as brethren. 
 
 On the 17th of March, 1876, nearly two months 
 before the opening of the Exhibition at Philadelphia, 
 the forced evacuation of the city by the troops of 
 Great Britain and Ireland a hundred years pre- 
 viously was celebrated in a hearty, yet most credit- 
 able manner. The historic spots were decorated 
 with flags by day and lit up with lamps by night. 
 A large gathering of the citizens assembled in the
 
 166 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 Music Hall to hear the story of the siege and evacua- 
 tion told by the Rev. Dr. Ellis. The Governor and 
 the Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, the 
 members of the Legislature and the City Council, 
 the Mayor and the Justices of the Supreme Judicial 
 Court were among the audience. The Rev. Dr. 
 Manning, who opened the proceedings with prayer, 
 after thanking God for the great deliverance they 
 had met to celebrate, added, " We thank Thee that 
 the Mother country, that Old England whose op- 
 pressions provoked our fathers to take up arms 
 against her, is to-day our firm friend and ally among 
 the nations of the earth ; and that the mother and 
 daughter are united in efforts to maintain a spirit 
 of peace and goodwill between themselves, and to 
 extend the blessings of a Christian civilization 
 throughout the world." The Mayor, who followed 
 with a speech, after recalling how the Bunker Hill 
 celebration had tended to cement amity, went on to 
 say, " In a like spirit we will celebrate this anni- 
 versary of the evacuation, hoping, amid the grateful 
 and patriotic memories that cluster about the occa- 
 sion, to strengthen still further the bonds of concord 
 between the lately hostile sections of the country, 
 and also the relations of cordial amity between the 
 revolted colonies and the Mother country foes a 
 hundred years ago, but friends to-day by every 
 motive of mutual interest and every sentiment of 
 inship, and every generous hope for the world's 
 peace and the progress of humanity." 
 
 In the oration delivered by the Rev. Dr. Ellis, the 
 story of the siege was told with great effect. When 
 he came to narrate some of the succeeding events, 
 such as the proclamation of the Declaration of Inde-
 
 CAPITAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 167 
 
 pendence, Dr. Ellis described how, on the following 
 day, the emblems of royalty were removed from the 
 public places. One of these, the oaken tablet on 
 which the royal arms were carved, and which was 
 affixed to the Province House, the official residence 
 of His Majesty's Governor, had been preserved, and 
 it was shown to the audience by Dr. Ellis, who 
 remarked, " I have not brought this royal memorial 
 tablet here and put it to this use to-day with any 
 intent to do it slight or dishonour, but as a valued 
 relic, suggestive of days and relations long past. I 
 do not forget, but rather tenderly remember, that 
 the Queenly Lady who now bears that proud 
 escutcheon, with her lamented Prince Consort, 
 restrained her royal power from any other exercise 
 than that of a noble and generous sympathy during 
 the distractions of our sad civil conflict. I saw the 
 crown placed upon her head on her coronation day 
 in Westminster Abbey, and have loved ever since to 
 trace her serene course of dignity and fidelity as a 
 wife, mother, and Queen of her magnificent empire. 
 And if our story to-day has dealt harshly with one 
 who filled the throne before her, let us not close it 
 without the expression of our profoundest homage 
 and respect to Queen Victoria, not our Sovereign 
 except that, as the highest lady in the world, she 
 should be such to all men but as our ally and our 
 friend." The foregoing passages prove that on a 
 great historical occasion the people of Massachusetts 
 can display an attitude which demonstrates their 
 own worthiness. Alike in the revolutionary and in 
 the civil conflict they exhibited their heroism on the 
 battle-field ; they have shown themselves to be as 
 capable and praiseworthy in peace as in war. When
 
 168 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 Southern fire-eaters determined in 1812 to enter 
 into hostilities with the United Kingdom for an 
 object which, when the treaty of peace was signed 
 at Ghent in 1814, was not even mentioned in the 
 articles, and which really meant the subjugation and 
 annexation of Canada by force of arms, the chief 
 States in New England declined the summons to 
 call out their militia, and, while the shipping in the 
 harbour of Baltimore was gay with flags upon war 
 being declared, the shipping in the harbour of 
 Boston hoisted its colours half-mast high in token 
 of mourning. It is sufficient to read the solemn 
 protest which the General Court of Massachusetts 
 addressed to Congress, to understand the iniquitous 
 character of that war. 
 
 In New England, it is not the rule to manifest 
 rancour and malice towards this country. Many 
 reasons might be given for this, yet the fundamental 
 cause could not be set forth more succinctly than 
 was done by Mr. Ticknor when writing to Miss 
 Edgeworth in 1844. His views, which were the 
 result of ample knowledge, were those of an ardent 
 patriot. After having seen nearly every person and 
 place of note in Europe, he still thought that there 
 was no spot in the world like Boston, and no people 
 superior to his countrymen. He thus wrote in the 
 letter referred to : " We are still children of Old 
 England; and if we were not, we should still be 
 doing substantially the same things, for we are all 
 of us children of one family ; connected by original 
 qualities which will never permit us to get very far 
 apart, even if we try." This substantial identity of 
 race does not, however, exclude great diversity of 
 action and thought. All water is composed of
 
 CAPITAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 169 
 
 oxygen and hydrogen, yet the strata through which 
 a spring rises, or the contents of the atmosphere 
 through which rain falls, may render water as 
 different in certain localities as if it were an entirely 
 distinct elementary product. The conditions under 
 which the English stock has subsisted in New 
 England have been such as to alter it materially. 
 In no other part of the Continent has it become 
 more distinctively American. The ideas which have 
 heretofore moulded the national life of the country 
 have gone forth from New England, and the per- 
 ceptible changes now in progress in the Western 
 and Pacific States are due to this influence having 
 ceased to be supreme. 
 
 The divergence between the two Englands is 
 most marked on the fundamental principles of poli- 
 tical economy. Not even in Pennsylvania are more 
 unbending protectionists to be found than in Mas- 
 sachusetts. The doctrine of encouraging native 
 industry is there an article of faith which it would 
 be a crime to challenge, and treason not to defend 
 to the death. The best educated men, and the 
 most ably conducted newspapers regard Free trade 
 with the loathing and dread which their forefathers 
 exhibited towards Quakers and witches, and with 
 which English statesmen, a century ago, regarded 
 the free-trade notions of Pennsylvania and New 
 England. Any one who discusses the question with 
 them is certain to be told that Great Britain main- 
 tained Protection till she had built up her industries, 
 and substituted Free trade for it when the latter 
 was found to pay better, and that the United States 
 will attain a like prosperity by following an iden- 
 tical course. Unhappily the subject is never con-
 
 170 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 sidered by those reasoners in its larger aspect ; the 
 welfare of mankind being then placed above the 
 selfish interest of a nation. When thus viewed, it 
 is clear beyond all possibility of doubt that neither 
 the action of Great Britain, nor any benefit which 
 may have accrued to her, is of the slightest conse- 
 quence in its bearing upon the question at issue. 
 Free trade is neither a mere crotchet of speculative 
 writers nor a conspiracy entered into by British 
 traders and statesmen for their own enrichment at 
 the expense of the people of other countries ; but, to 
 employ the definition of M. Chevalier, " it is the 
 free exercise of human power and faculties in all 
 commercial and professional life ; it is the liberty of 
 labour in its grandest proportions." I need not 
 pursue the matter in detail. I have referred to it 
 because it is an important factor in New England 
 politics; and I think that a change is not to be 
 looked for so soon as some persons expect. 
 
 At present, when comparisons between the 
 younger and older days of the Republic seem per- 
 fectly natural, it may not be uninteresting to show 
 what were the opinions prevailing immediately after 
 the close of the Revolutionary War. At a meeting 
 of merchants, mechanics, and traders, held in 
 Faneuil Hall towards the end of 1784, it was re- 
 solved that none of the Boston merchants or traders 
 should have any dealings with British merchants or 
 their agents, those present at the meeting pledging 
 themselves : " that we will not let, or sell, any ware- 
 house, shop, house, or any other place for the sale of 
 British goods, nor will we employ any persons who 
 will assist British merchants, factors, or agents, by 
 trucks, carts, barrows, or labour (except in the re-
 
 CAPITAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 171 
 
 shipment of their merchandize), but will discounte- 
 nance all such persons, who shall in any way advise, 
 or in the least degree help or support such merchants, 
 factors, or agents, in the prosecution of their busi- 
 ness ; as we conceive all such British importations 
 are calculated to drain us of our currency, and have 
 a direct tendency to impoverish this country." These 
 notions were the reverse of what a great Bostonian 
 entertained and expressed. In the same year, Dr. 
 Franklin supplied what he called " Information to 
 those who would remove to America," and said, 
 among other things, " The buying up quantities of 
 wool and flax, with the design to employ spinners, 
 weavers, &c., and form large establishments, pro- 
 ducing quantities of linen and woollen goods for 
 sale, has been several times attempted in different 
 provinces ; but those projects have generally failed, 
 goods of equal value being imported cheaper. And 
 when the Governments [of the several States] have 
 been solicited to support such schemes by encourage- 
 ments in money, or by imposing duties on importa- 
 tion of such goods, it has been generally refused, on 
 this principle, that if the country is ripe for the 
 manufacture it may be carried on by private persons 
 to advantage, and if not, it is folly to think of 
 forcing nature. . . . The manufacture of silk, they 
 say, is natural in France, as that of cloth in England, 
 because each country produces in plenty the first 
 material ; but if England will have a manufacture 
 of silk as that of cloth, and France one of cloth as 
 well as that of silk, these unnatural operations must 
 be supported by mutual prohibitions, or higher 
 duties on the importation of each other's goods, by 
 which means the workmen are enabled to tax the
 
 172 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 home consumer by greater prices, while the higher 
 wages they receive make them neither happier nor 
 richer, since they will only drink more and work 
 less. Therefore the Governments in America do 
 nothing to encourage such projects. The people by 
 this means are not imposed on either by the mer- 
 chant or mechanic ; if the merchant demands too 
 much profit on imported shoes, they buy of the 
 shoemaker, and if he asks too high a price, they 
 take them of the merchant. Thus the two profes- 
 sions are checks on each other." l If these utterances 
 are words of wisdom, then the prevailing policy in 
 the United States is foolishness, being in direct 
 opposition to the policy of which Franklin was the 
 able framer and the warm advocate. The citizens of 
 Boston have erected a statue to him in front of the 
 City Hall ; they glory in him as a fellow-countryman 
 whose patriotism is without reproach and whose 
 fame fills the world ; but they refrain from yielding 
 that highest honour to his memory which consists 
 in paying due homage to his teaching. A small 
 remnant rejects the dominant views in political 
 economy. Professor Dunbar, at Harvard Univer- 
 sity, teaches those Free trade doctrines which it is 
 easier to reject than to confute. In New York a 
 larger body, of which Mr. W. C. Bryant is one of 
 the ornaments, labours to promulgate those doc- 
 trines. So confident is Mr. Bryant of the result, 
 that he emphatically says, in the preface he has 
 written to the " History of the United States," 
 which bears his name, " The manufacturers are 
 not likely to give up without a struggle what they 
 
 1 Franklin's Works, vol. v. p. 140.
 
 CAPITAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 173 
 
 believe so essential to their prosperity, and the friends 
 of Free trade, proverbially tenacious of their purpose, 
 are not likely to be satisfied while there is left in the 
 texture of our revenue laws a single thread of Pro- 
 tection which their ingenuity can detect, or their 
 skill can draw out." 
 
 The changes in the outward appearance of Bos- 
 ton, since my last visit, are very great. Part of 
 these are due to the fire which swept away eight 
 hundred buildings in the business quarter, the loss 
 being estimated at about 20,000,000, and part to 
 the erection of new dwelling-houses and churches 
 on the land reclaimed from the Charles River. In 
 rebuilding the warehouses and merchants' offices 
 which had been destroyed, architectural effect has 
 been studied. Some of the new structures are too 
 fine and too costly. The rents are very high. 
 
 The dwelling-houses erected on the land reclaimed 
 from the river are comfortable in their internal 
 arrangements and attractive externally. Indeed, 
 Commonwealth Avenue, which is now the principal 
 thoroughfare, has eclipsed Beacon Street, which 
 used to be the abode of all the oldest, most exclusive 
 and opulent families in Boston. The plan after 
 which the new streets are named is very convenient, 
 and is, I think, novel. All those which bisect 
 Commonwealth Avenue, such as Arlington Street, 
 Berkeley Street, Clarendon Street, begin with a letter 
 in alphabetical succession. The houses are in keep- 
 ing throughout, the promise of the exterior being 
 amply fulfilled by the luxuries of the interior. One 
 of them, which impressed me greatly, is a note- 
 worthy reproduction of an Old English house. It
 
 174 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 belongs to Dr. J. R. Chadwick, a young medical 
 man, who is rising to eminence in that important 
 branch of his profession wherein the late Sir James 
 Simpson excelled. If the earliest and greatest Go- 
 vernors of Massachusetts, Winthrop, Dudley, and 
 Endecott, were to enter this house, they would feel 
 themselves more at home in Dr. Chad wick's dining- 
 room than in any other place in the city. They 
 would tread a polished wooden floor, and see bay- 
 windows filled with lozenge-shaped panes of glass, 
 such as were familiar to them in the comfortable 
 homes of Old and New England. The spacious fire- 
 place, in which wooden logs are laid across andirons, 
 would recall to their memories many happy or 
 thoughtful hours spent in youth or manhood beside 
 the blazing hearth. The swords, shields, and hel- 
 mets affixed to the wall above the fireplace would 
 remind them of the weapons and armour which they 
 had worthily wielded and worn, and would seem far 
 more suitable in their eyes than the simple garb of 
 the unarmed citizens whom they saw in the streets. 
 They might think that the armchair, in which the 
 rigid form of medieval outline was tempered by soft 
 cushions to suit the tired frames of the present gene- 
 tion, a cunning temptation to sloth ; but they would 
 be able to sit, as they were wont to do, on high- 
 backed Elizabethan chairs around the octagonal oak 
 dining-table. There, sumptuous dishes such as they 
 never tasted before, and wines from the best vintages 
 of Bordeaux and Champagne, might appear in strik- 
 ing contrast to the rough fare which they were glad 
 to procure, and the ale which they used to consider 
 a great treat. In the snug study, they would ob- 
 serve other things to remind them of their olden
 
 CAPITAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 175 
 
 homes ; the spectacle would make Governor Dudley 
 feel that the colony which he helped to plant, had 
 marvellously changed since the day in March, 1631, 
 when, in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln, he 
 made excuse for imperfections by setting forth his 
 miserable condition, " having yet no table, nor other 
 room to write in, than by the fireside upon my knee, 
 in this sharp winter ; to which my family must have 
 leave to resort, though they break good manners, 
 and make me many times forget what I would say, 
 and say what I would not." I fear that the luxu- 
 rious decorations and furniture of the drawing-room 
 and bedrooms, though fashioned on Old English 
 models, would seem to them far in excess of what 
 sinful mortals ought to enjoy, and they might leave 
 their excellent host and his charming wife with the 
 conviction that it would be necessary to send the 
 Rev. John Cotton to " deal " with them. 1 fear also, 
 if the Rev. John Cotton or any other zealous minister 
 of Puritan days were to revisit Boston, he would have 
 to " deal" with so many persons that he would be 
 glad enough to return whence he came. The Rev. 
 Cotton Mather, however, would pardon many tokens 
 of a rational desire to make this world as comfort- 
 able as possible, when he learned that spiritual 
 manifestations were now common in the city which 
 once showed a wholesome scepticism about his own 
 belief in demons going about and working mischief ; 
 he would flatter himself with the thought that his 
 " Wonders of the Invisible World " had borne 
 fruit. 
 
 Perhaps it is as well that the founders of the Com- 
 monwealth of Massachusetts Bay cannot revisit the 
 scene of their labours. Though Boston is still a
 
 176 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 God-fearing and exemplary city, yet its ways are not 
 those which the original settlers deemed essential to 
 human happiness. The early rulers and divines who 
 carried their theories into effect with unswerving 
 precision would find, if they were to return, that 
 better results have been obtained by the acceptance 
 and practice of opposite theories. People are now- 
 allowed to go to heaven in their own way, instead of 
 being threatened with a terrible doom unless they 
 walk in the narrow path marked out for them, and, 
 in the event of proving obstinate, being subjected to 
 exile or imprisonment, whipping or hanging. They 
 may spend a pleasant evening in a theatre without 
 being shunned by strait-laced neighbours, and as- 
 sured, by the bestowers of good advice, that they are 
 on the high road to 'perdition. Formerly, the con- 
 gregational form of divine service was alone per- 
 mitted here. Now, the Episcopalian, the Roman 
 Catholic, the Baptist, the Quaker, may worship God 
 in his own way, without any man making him afraid. 
 Disputes about religion are now confined to words ; 
 the logical figure of a sorites, which old-world per- 
 secutors loved to employ in the form of a pile of 
 faggots, as well as the geometrical figure of a tri- 
 angle with a rope dangling from one corner, which 
 was sometimes called into requisition in New Eng- 
 land in order to exterminate heresy, are happily 
 among the traditions of evil days which have long 
 ago departed. Since Abner Kneeland underwent 
 imprisonment for blasphemy in 1839, the civil 
 rights of those persons who are avowedly of little 
 faith have received impartial protection. Zeal has 
 not abated ; on the contrary, other- worldliness has 
 gained in influence what it has lost in privilege. It
 
 CAPITAL OP THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 177 
 
 is now necessary to appeal to the reason in order to 
 gain converts, and, if godliness is to be reckoned by 
 church-building and church-going, then Boston has 
 lost none of its old reputation. The rivalry between 
 the sects is not less keen because they are all equal 
 in the eye of the law; Though the members of one 
 congregation cannot invoke the Magistrate's aid to 
 punish the members of another, yet they can please 
 themselves with contemplating what they believe 
 will be their fate hereafter. On this head, as on 
 many other matters, the words of Franklin may be 
 repeated : " With regard to future bliss, I cannot 
 help imagining that multitudes of the zealously or- 
 thodox of different sects, who at the last day may 
 flock together in hopes of seeing each other damned 
 will be disappointed, and obliged to rest content with 
 their own salvation." 
 
 While the errors of the early Puritans in matters 
 of church government and discipline have been ad- 
 mitted and amended, other errors into which they 
 fell have been accepted as models for modern legis- 
 lation. One of the first acts of the General Court of 
 Massachusetts was to order the destruction of Richard 
 dough's " strong water," on the ground that its use 
 had occasioned drunkenness and disorder. It was 
 natural for the Puritan fathers not only to dictate 
 what should .be done in questions of ecclesiastical 
 polity, but also to decree what men should eat, 
 drink, and how they should be clothed. In the bad. 
 old times, sumptuary laws and religious persecution 
 were matters of course. Yet enlightened men of 
 our day, who would shudder at a proposal to take a 
 man to task for his religious opinions, think that they 
 are performing their duty to the community by for-
 
 178 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 bidding a man to drink anything containing alcohol. 
 They have promulgated this new social command- 
 ment on their own authority " Thou shalt not drink 
 anything more potent than lemonade." 
 
 When I last visited Boston, nothing stronger than 
 lemonade could be obtained in a bar-room. In the 
 one attached to the Parker House, the principal hotel 
 in the city, a notice to that effect was posted up. 
 Yet any one who entered the restaurant, sat down at 
 a table and ordered a bottle of wine, beer, or spirits, 
 was served by the waiter. Moreover, it was allow- 
 able to buy a bottle of any of them at a grocer's or 
 wine merchant's. Hence, the man who wished for a 
 glass of these beverages, and could not afford to pay 
 for a bottle, had to be a teetotaler under com- 
 pulsion, while the man who had a well-lined purse 
 could drink as often as he pleased. If this be not 
 legislation in favour of the rich to the disadvantage 
 of the poor, I do not know what such legislation 
 means. 
 
 Were it possible for eloquence to supplant sound 
 argument, I should have become a convert to the 
 policy of rendering all men sober by hindering any 
 man from getting strong drink ; for I have heard a 
 speech by Mr. Wendell Philipps on the subject, and 
 he is one of the first of living orators. He depicted 
 in graphic terms the sad state of the habitual tippler 
 who could not pass a " grog-shop " without entering 
 it, and he upheld the paramount importance of 
 shutting up all " grog-shops " in order that the weak 
 might not succumb to temptation. This is the 
 course which has been adopted towards the North 
 American Indians. They are regarded as children 
 and treated accordingly, being kept from strong
 
 CAPITAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 179 
 
 drink because they cannot take it in moderation. 
 Other men pride themselves upon having reached a 
 higher stage of intellectual development than these 
 poor Indians, yet it has been seriously proposed to 
 treat the white man, who has been taught to practise 
 self-denial, as if he were no better than the savage 
 who is unable to bridle his appetites. During Mr. 
 Wendell Philipps' speech, I could not help recalling 
 words as eloquent as his, and I think that John Milton 
 inculcated a far nobler principle, and aimed at a much 
 higher ideal, when he wrote : " I cannot praise a 
 fugitive and cloistered virtue unexercised and 
 unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her 
 adversary, but slinks out of the race where that 
 immortal garment is to be run for, not without dust 
 and heat." It may still be asked in the words of 
 the same great poet, " if any action" which is good 
 or evil in man at ripe years were to be under pittance, 
 prescription, and compulsion, what were virtue but 
 a name, what praise could then be due to well- 
 doing, what, gramercy, to be sober, just, and 
 continent?" I hold the legislation which aims at 
 making all men sober by preventing any man from 
 practising the virtue of temperance, as an evil hardly 
 less to be deplored than that of drunkenness. This 
 lesson appears to have been learned in Boston. The 
 repressive system has had a fair trial, and has been 
 found productive of mischief. All legislative enact- 
 ments or police regulations which run counter to the 
 moral sense of a free community, serve only to make 
 legislation a farce and bring the law into contempt. 
 The bar-rooms have been reopened under licences ; 
 regulations of a sensible kind have been imposed and 
 are obeyed. The party which believes in prohibition 
 
 N 2
 
 180 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 is dissatisfied; but reasonable men do not complain. 
 Indeed, the failure of the repressive system is 
 ascribed by its advocates to the fact that it was not 
 sufficiently stringent. I have read the programme 
 of the uncompromising opponents of what is here 
 called the " liquor traffic," and I must admit that it 
 is thoroughly consistent and logical. The gist of it 
 is that every brewery and distillery shall be closed, 
 that every vineyard in the land shall be rooted up, 
 that the importation of all alcoholic beverages shall 
 be prohibited, so that it will be impossible for any- 
 body to procure a single drop of spirits, wine, or 
 beer. This is simple, straightforward, and thorough. 
 It provides for every contingency and possibility, 
 save those which common sense and human nature 
 might have in reserve. 
 
 I have described what I saw and heard when the 
 Society of the Army of the Potomac met in Philadel- 
 phia. In Boston I was honoured with an invitation 
 to a gathering of a very different kind, the annual 
 dinner of the Massachusetts Medical Society. The 
 contrast was striking between the meeting of the 
 men of the sword and that of the men of the lancet, 
 between those whose glory is in slaughter and those 
 whose delight is in prolonging life, between the heroes 
 of the battle-field and the saviours of the hospital. A 
 member of a profession not less honourable than 
 either, I am ready to do full justice to both ; yet, if 
 called upon to give precedence to any of them I 
 could not hesitate to accord the first place to that 
 which strives to diminish human suffering and 
 lengthen existence, which finds patients among those 
 of every age and every condition, compelling even
 
 CAPITAL OP THE COMMONWEALTH OP MASSACHUSETTS. 181 
 
 the victorious general and incomparable lawyer to 
 acknowledge its superiority by invoking its aid. This 
 Society numbers 1400 members ; its meetings are 
 held yearly in the capital of the State, and last for 
 two days, the proceedings being concluded with a 
 dinner. It is not within my sphere to notice the 
 professional business which was transacted, yet I may 
 quote what Dr. Crosby said on a matter of general in- 
 terest. He was a visitor from Concord in New Hamp- 
 shire, and he told his brethren of Massachusetts how 
 his State had dealt with those pests whom he called 
 " medical tramps," or whom we should call " itinerant 
 quack doctors." Such persons are not unknown in 
 this country ; in the United States they swarm. The 
 Legislature of New Hampshire having resolved to 
 rid their State of these Sangrados, passed an Act 
 imposing a penalty of 100 dollars a-day upon every 
 person practising there without a licence. Dr. Crosby 
 told his brethren the result had been that, since the 
 Act was in operation, "not a single medical tramp 
 had remained throughout a whole day " in his own 
 city of Concord, and that the city of Manchester had 
 saved 10,000 dollars during the last year. 
 
 About a thousand members of the society were 
 present at the dinner, which took place in the 
 Music Hall. I never before saw so many doctors 
 enjoying a holiday, nor had I ever seen the like 
 number of persons in the United States present such 
 distinct tokens of good health. Indeed, looking 
 down from the platform, where I had been favoured 
 with a seat, upon the occupants of the tables below, 
 the sight of so many men with massive heads, large 
 frames, and jovial faces engaged in eating with what 
 appeared to be enviable appetites, convinced me it is
 
 182 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 not among the members of the Massachusetts Medi- 
 cal Society that the so-called degeneration of the 
 Anglo-Saxon type in New England is to be sought 
 for. Here, as in a part of the world nearer home, 
 there are people who class tobacco-smoking with 
 wine-bibbing, and pronounce both to be ruinous to 
 the constitution. The Massachusetts doctors, who 
 were pictures of sound health, though the majority 
 were past middle age, one who was as hale and 
 vigorous in appearance as his colleagues, being 
 upwards of 90, did not seem to dread the evil effects 
 of tobacco. When dinner was over, and before the 
 speeches began, boxes of cigars were put upon the 
 tables, and smoking was indulged in with a vigour 
 which testified to a regular habit and thorough 
 enjoyment. The speeches were generally brief and 
 to the point. Dr. J. H. Mackie, the chairman, pre- 
 faced each toast with a few sentences couched in 
 well-chosen language. The retiring President of 
 the Society, replying to the toast of his health, made 
 an effective hit by producing a bill for medical atten- 
 dance upon the wounded at Lexington in 1775, 
 which had never been paid. The items were curious ; 
 the fact of non-payment, however, did not appear 
 surprising to men who are ready to render their ser- 
 vices, but are not certain to receive due recompense 
 for their labours. His Excellency A. H. Rice, the 
 Governor of the State, responded in a very telling 
 way for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. With 
 this exception, the non-medical speakers were 
 eclipsed by the physicians. Judge Bennett, who 
 responded for the legal profession, was sadly prosy, 
 and the Rev. A. H. Quint, who responded for the 
 clergy, afforded the depressing spectacle of a good
 
 CAPITAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS. 183 
 
 man striving to be humorous. I confess to an 
 agreeable surprise when the chairman rose and told 
 the company that, while rejoicing in the State and 
 land of which they were citizens, they ought not to 
 be unmindful of the loins from which their country 
 sprang, and then proposed, with hearty expressions 
 of kindly feeling and goodwill, the Mother country. 
 If applause be a sign of approval, the heartiness of 
 the applause which followed demonstrated the cor- 
 diality with which the doctors of Massachusetts 
 re-echoed these sentiments. The guest who was 
 called upon to respond, though he simply recipro- 
 cated the compliments which had been handsomely 
 paid to the land which he represented, and expressed 
 his gratification that the Mother country should 
 have been remembered and honoured by so distin- 
 guished an assembly, was yet as warmly cheered as 
 if he had touched a patriotic fibre. No sooner had 
 he sat down than the chairman gave a signal to the 
 band, which had played at intervals during dinner, 
 and the familiar strains of " God save the Queen " 
 resounded through the hall. The Governor of 
 Massachusetts rose to his feet ; the whole assembly 
 followed his example, remaining standing while the 
 national air of the Motherland was played. If a 
 citizen of Boston had foretold at the time of the 
 separation of the Thirteen Colonies that, on the 
 hundredth anniversary of the independence of his 
 country, the British National Anthem would be 
 played at a dinner of the medical men of Massa- 
 chusetts, at which the Governor of the State was 
 present as a guest, and would be received with all the 
 marks of respect which are shown when it is heard 
 in any city throughout the British Empire, he would
 
 184 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 have incurred the reproach of being a traitor, and he 
 would have sneeringly been told to go to Halifax, 
 that is, to follow the United Empire Loyalists who 
 had cast in their lot with the Government of 
 Great Britain. Happily, the citizens of the Com- 
 monwealth of Massachusetts now feel that they 
 can perform an act of international courtesy without 
 fearing that it will be unappreciated or misunder- 
 stood. 
 
 Bostonians welcome a stranger with geniality, and 
 they treat him with a hospitality which makes him 
 consider that he is at home. This is not the rule in 
 the United States. A traveller there will commonly 
 receive much good advice from those to whom he 
 presents letters of introduction, and, if he be excep- 
 tionally fortunate, he will be offered as many fresh 
 letters of introduction as he chooses to carry away 
 with him, these letters being usually of the value of 
 waste paper. An introduction to the president of a 
 great railway company will probably insure the dis- 
 play of what I may term railway hospitality. A 
 directors' car will be put at the traveller's disposal, 
 and he will be allowed to journey over the line as 
 much as he pleases ; it may even happen that, when 
 he halts, his hotel bills will be paid by the company. 
 The expense of all this falls upon the shareholders, 
 many of whom maybe the traveller's fellow-country- 
 men, who vainly puzzle themselves as to why the 
 working expenses of the railway are so heavy, and 
 who are doomed to receive empty promises instead of 
 dividends. It is not in this vicarious fashion that 
 Bostonians both welcome and entertain strangers ; 
 hence the latter leave the city with an indelible 
 impression of having been the recipients of an
 
 CAPITAL OF THE COMMONWEALTH OP MASSACHUSETTS. 185 
 
 amount of personal kindness for which it would be 
 difficult to make an adequate return. 
 
 The best men have their hobbies or failings, and 
 Bostonians are not exempt from the weaknesses of 
 human nature. Justly proud of their city, they are 
 rather too sensitive on the subject of climate. They 
 know that the climate of Boston falls short of per- 
 fection ; but they do not relish complaints about it 
 from strangers. Having succeeded in so many 
 things, it must be mortifying for them to feel that 
 their ingenuity and perseverance cannot avail to 
 abolish or temper the East Wind. This draw- 
 back to existence in the American Athens, the 
 capital of Massachusetts, is also a drawback to 
 existence in the Modern Athens, the capital of Scot- 
 land. Sydney Smith gave the following advice to 
 an English friend who was about to visit Edinburgh : 
 " When you arrive there it may rain, snow, or blow 
 for many days, and the people will assure you that 
 they never knew such a season before. If you would 
 be popular, declare you think it the most delightful 
 climate in the world." The visitor to Boston who 
 turns this suggestion to account will rise in the 
 estimation of its worthy citizens.
 
 186 
 
 XI. 
 
 SARATOGA AND WEST POINT. 
 
 BOSTON, Saratoga, and Yorktown are the names of 
 three places inseparably associated with the inex- 
 cusable mistakes of British Ministers and Generals 
 during the American revolution. It was fitting that 
 a war, which was in itself a gigantic blunder, should 
 have been conducted by incomparable blunderers. 
 Thackeray makes Sir George Warrington say with 
 great truth in the Virginians " In reading over our 
 American campaigns from their unhappy commence- 
 ment to their inglorious end, now that we are able 
 to see the enemy's movements and condition as well 
 as our own, I fancy we can see how an advance a 
 march might have put enemies into our power who 
 had no means to withstand it, and changed the 
 entire issue of the struggle." This is specially ap- 
 plicable to the ill-fated expedition which ended in 
 the capitulation at Saratoga. Had Burgoyne suc- 
 ceeded, the character of the struggle would have 
 been changed. His signal failure led to the inter- 
 vention of France. The final independence of the 
 Thirteen United Colonies was mainly owing to the 
 French alliance, to French treasure, French soldiers, 
 and a French fleet. 
 
 The importance of the result at Saratoga led Sir
 
 SARATOGA AND WEST POINT. 187 
 
 Edward Creasy to include the fighting there among 
 the decisive battles of the world. Few military 
 expeditions, however, have been the subject of 
 greater misconception than that which Burgoyne 
 commanded. To set forth the facts in due order 
 would imply rewriting the story of the campaign ; 
 at present, I shall content myself with pointing out 
 a few egregious errors. The Ministry designed that 
 a combined movement should be undertaken by 
 General Howe and General Burgoyne; the former 
 advancing up the Hudson from New York ; the 
 latter advancing upon the Hudson from Quebec, a 
 junction being effected at Albany. By the time that 
 Burgoyne had reached the Hudson, General Howe 
 was approaching Philadelphia. The reason of this 
 extraordinary misunderstanding was not known till 
 the publication of the " Life of Lord Shelburne." 
 Burgoyne carried out the imperative instructions 
 which he had received from Lord George Germain ; 
 the latter drafted instructions to General Howe, 
 but these were not forwarded till the time had 
 passed for them to have any effect; hence the 
 combined movement never took place, and thus 
 the capitulation at Saratoga was the necessary con- 
 sequence of Lord George Germain's unpardonable 
 neglect. 1 General Burgoyne, though unfortunate, 
 was not disgraced, and he must not be classed 
 among such incompetent commanders as Gage and 
 Howe, Clinton and Cornwallis. 
 
 If any one, really anxious to ascertain the truth, 
 should try to learn how many men capitulated at 
 Saratoga, he will have some difficulty in arriving at 
 
 1 " Life of the Earl of Shelburne," by Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice, 
 vol. i. pp. 358, 359.
 
 188 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 a definite conclusion. Having examined seven short 
 histories of the United States, by different authors, 
 which are used in teaching school children the 
 annals of their country, I find that the number of 
 Burgoyne's array, at the date of capitulation, is 
 given as 5,752 in one, 5,791 in another, more than 
 5,000 in a third, 6,000 in a fourth, as the remainder 
 of 6,000 in a fifth, over 6,000 in a sixth, while no 
 figures are stated in a seventh. All agree, however, 
 in estimating the number, when the army started from 
 Canada, at 10,000. Mr. Bancroft, in the last edition 
 of his " History of the United States," an edition 
 which has been carefully revised, or, as he puts it 
 in a prefatory note, to the revision of which " a solid 
 year of close and undivided application has been 
 devoted," says that the number who capitulated, 
 " including officers, was 5,791. Besides these, there 
 were 1,856 prisoners of war, including the sick and 
 wounded, who had been abandoned. Of deserters 
 there were 300, so that including the killed, 
 prisoners, and disabled at Hubbardtown, Fort Ann, 
 Bennington, Orisca, the outposts of Tyconderoga, 
 and round Saratoga the total loss of the British in 
 this northern campaign was not far from 10,000, 
 counting officers as well as rank and file." Dr. 
 Noah "Webster, who served in the militia under 
 General Stark and was present at the capitulation, 
 referred to it in an essay written ten years after and 
 said that Burgoyne's force amounted " according to 
 some to 10,000, and according to others, to 5,752." 2 
 These discrepancies are typical of the current ver- 
 sions of events in American annals. The truth is that 
 
 * " Essays and Fugitive Writings by Noah Webster," p. 174.
 
 SARATOGA AND WEST POINT. 189 
 
 the expeditionary force numbered 7,902, when it 
 started from Canada. Nearly 1000 men were left to 
 garrison Tyconderoga. All the Indians left it before 
 the capitulation ; many of the other auxiliaries de- 
 serted; the losse*s in killed and wounded were very 
 heavy. General Burgoyne stated in his official report 
 that the number who capitulated was 3,500, and there 
 can be no doubt as to his accuracy. Sir Edward 
 Creasy, who rightly estimated the significance of the 
 issue, is as untrustworthy in his figures as the greatest 
 blunderer could be. He states that the number who 
 capitulated was 5,790, that the killed and wounded 
 numbered 4,689. If these figures are added to- 
 gether, it will be found that they exceed by 2,577 
 the total of the force which started from Quebec ! 
 None of the United States writers whose works I 
 have consulted, think fit to mention that the vic- 
 torious force under General Gates numbered 17,000. 
 That the affair was a humiliating one for the British 
 arms cannot be denied, but the degree and measure 
 of humiliation may admit of qualification when the 
 truth is fully set forth, and the figures are fairly 
 estimated. 
 
 An expedition to Saratoga is now a very easy 
 matter, whether the starting-point be Quebec or New 
 York. The thick woods which were hindrances to 
 the operations of Burgoyne, and the bad roads which 
 rendered his march slow and difficult, no longer give 
 annoyance to the peaceful traveller. The trees have 
 been felled ; railways have been made ; the fastest 
 steamboats in the world ply on the Hudson, and 
 Saratoga Springs can be reached, within six hours 
 by rail, from New York, and in twice that time by 
 taking the steamer to Albany. A more enjoyable
 
 190 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 sail than one on the Hudson, during a fine day 
 in summer, cannot be conceived. No steamers, in 
 any part of the world are superior in speed and 
 luxury of accommodation to the C. Vilbard, Daniel 
 Drew, or Mary Powell, and they are only surpassed 
 here by the Bristol and Providence, which ply between 
 New York and Fall River. When walking round 
 the galleries, which run along the inside above the 
 saloon, it is hard to believe that one is on board a 
 vessel ; the smoothness with which the engines work 
 renders it as hard to understand that one is being 
 propelled through the water at the rate of twenty- 
 five miles an hour. The change from the time, when 
 Robert Fulton made his Clermont move at the rate 
 of seven miles an hour, is quite as remarkable as 
 .that which was wrought when his steamboat dis- 
 placed sailing packets. Yet, in one respect, no 
 change has occurred, even if we go back to the year 
 1609, when Henry Hudson sailed up this river in 
 the Half Moon ; the scenery is as beautiful now as 
 it was when a European eye gazed upon it for the 
 first time, and more beautiful scenery cannot be 
 desired. 
 
 It is common for United States travellers in 
 Europe to institute comparisons between the Hud- 
 son and the Rhine, or the Danube, and to give the 
 preference to their own river. Those among them 
 who come from California are as fond of saying that 
 the beauties of the Lake of Geneva, or any Swiss 
 lake, fall far short of those of Donner Lake or Lake 
 Tahoe. Nothing can be more futile than endeavours 
 to compare two things which are essentially different, 
 and nothing can be more foolish than to refuse ad- 
 miration for something seen abroad, because it is
 
 SARATOGA AND WEST POINT. 191 
 
 not the same as something at home. A citizen of 
 Glasgow may well believe that a sail in the lona 
 from the Broomielaw to Ardrishaig is the pleasantest 
 thing in the world ; a Londoner has as good reason 
 for maintaining that the view of the valley of the 
 Thames from Richmond Park, or a sail between 
 Twyford and Great Marlow, cannot be surpassed in 
 picturesqueness; while a German's enthusiasm about 
 the charms of the Rhine between Coblentz and 
 Bingen is perfectly natural. Not one of these, or 
 other famous places of interest which might be 
 named, has any similarity, each being marked with 
 a special attraction, and invested with a beauty of 
 its own. This is strikingly true of the river Hud- 
 son, and to refuse to admire it because one prefers 
 the Rhine, the Clyde, or the Thames, is as absurd 
 as to refuse to admire the Rhine, the Clyde, and the 
 Thames, because they do not resemble the Hudson. 
 For twenty miles, after leaving the wharf, the 
 steamer passes along that part of the river which is 
 called the Palisades. I was never more impressed 
 with any other natural appearances, unless it were 
 the canyons of the Rocky Mountains or the " Gates 
 of the Alps," as represented by Mr. Ruskin, and as 
 they are to be seen between Botzen and Verona. 
 The rocks rise to the height of 500 feet, and present 
 an unbroken surface as far as the eye can reach, while 
 the sparse vegetation on the sides, and the serrated 
 outline at the top, deprive the prospect of monotony. 
 Then comes the Tappan Zee, where the river ex- 
 pands so as to resemble a lake, being here three 
 miles wide. Next we enter the part which is called 
 the Highlands, where all the charms of mountain, 
 water, and wood are combined in exquisite proper-
 
 192 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 tions. It is difficult to say what spot is the most 
 lovely and what effect is the most remarkable. If 
 we land at West Point, which is rather less than 
 half-way between New York and Albany, the feeling 
 will be one of disinclination to go either forwards or 
 backwards. This spot is almost unrivalled in 
 natural beauty. The river winds round three sides 
 of it, and the wooded heights on both banks make a 
 lovely background to the landscape. If the officers 
 in the United States army are devoid of enthusiasm 
 about natural scenery, it is not for want of experience 
 of the beautiful in nature. 
 
 As a training-school, the Military Academy at 
 West Point has a reputation which is thoroughly 
 merited. The cadets are drilled and taught with a 
 care and completeness which cannot be surpassed at 
 Sandhurst, St. Cyr, or Berlin. I saw them at their 
 drill, and I was impressed with the resemblance be- 
 tween the cavalry drill here and that which is taught 
 in France. The demon strati ven ess, which is notable 
 in the French service, is not only permitted, but 
 inculcated in that of the United States. When the 
 charge is sounded, the men gallop forward waving 
 their sabres and shouting at the top of their voices. 
 In the German army, as well as in our own, this 
 would be condemned as unsoldierlike. I was pleased 
 to see that the Mexican stirrup was used ; this is a 
 small matter of detail which is worth adopting in our 
 service. The infantry drill was remarkable for its 
 antiquated character. The young lads were made to 
 keep their hands in the stiff and unnatural attitudes 
 which were doubtless introduced by Baron von Steu- 
 ben into the United States army, which were cer- 
 tainly enforced by the drill sergeants of Frederick
 
 SARATOGA AND WEST POINT. 193 
 
 the Great, which are still enforced in the German 
 army, but which have happily been abandoned in our 
 own. The cadets went through their drill with great 
 precision; indeed, they were treated as rigidly as 
 any German recruits whom I have ever seen in the 
 painful stage of conversion from slouching peasants 
 into smart soldiers. If Colonel Martinet were alive, 
 the soldiers of the United States regular army 
 would please him better than any upon earth, with 
 the sole exception of Russian soldiers. Yet, while 
 an officer and private in the United States service 
 are trained to act with the accuracy of a machine, 
 they are not mere machines in the field, and they 
 can meet an emergency with a readiness of resource 
 which excites admiration. 
 
 Though the Military Academy at West Point is the 
 chief object of interest, yet the natural beauties of 
 the place form the real attraction. At every turn a 
 new view meets the eye. From one place I sud- 
 denly caught a glimpse of a distant prospect, which 
 recalled Turner's " Italy," and made me forget that 
 the land of dreams was far away. Those persons 
 who associate the name of West Point with the 
 treachery of Arnold and the fate of Andre will be 
 disappointed to find that the place has undergone an 
 entire transformation since the days when it was the 
 Ehrenbreitstein of the Hudson. Fort Putman, a 
 little way up the river, alone remains in its ruined 
 state to show the position and character of the old 
 fortifications. I could not even learn where the 
 chain was stretched from bank to bank to hinder the 
 upward passage of the Vulture man-of-war. The rea- 
 son why the forts which once lined the Hudson have 
 been allowed to fall into decay, or to disappear alto-
 
 194 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 gether, is that no occasion for their protection is 
 likely to recur. A hostile fleet sailing up the river 
 is a contingency which needs never to be provided 
 against. It would be as absurd to fortify Hampton 
 Court as to fortify West Point. For some distance 
 higl.or up the scenery is as striking as at this place, 
 but a good way before Albany is reached the view 
 from the river is as -tame as that from the Rhine 
 between Mainz and Mannheim.
 
 195 
 
 XII. , 
 
 SAEATOGA SPRINGS. 
 
 AT Albany, the capital of the State of New 
 York, the river ceases to be navigable for vessels 
 drawing much water. Here it was that Henry 
 Hudson found his dream of having discovered a 
 passage to the South Sea disperse into empty air, 
 the splendid stream which he had discovered proving 
 to be a river and nothing more. Here, too, the 
 passengers bound for Saratoga continue their jour- 
 ney by rail if they have commenced it by water. 
 At Troy, six miles distant from Albany, they 
 enter a train on the Saratoga and Rensselaer Rail- 
 way. The very name of this place clashes with the 
 oldest and most cherished recollections of the 
 readers of ancient history. This Troy has nothing 
 classical about it save the name ; its reputation is 
 based on the manufacture of Bessemer steel and of 
 iron stoves. The poet who should be inspired by 
 the United States Troy would be capable of writing 
 an epic about Birmingham. 
 
 Seven miles before reaching Saratoga, the train 
 stops at Ballston Spa, a place which was once in great 
 repute for its mineral waters, but which is chiefly 
 famous now for the production of paper collars. At 
 Saratoga Springs, the stranger who has journeyed 
 
 o 2
 
 196 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 through the United States is at once struck with the 
 hotel omnibuses which cluster around the station, 
 a sight reminding him of the watering-places of 
 Europe. As I had determined to go to the Claren- 
 don Hotel, I had simply to mention the fact in order 
 to receive all possible attention from the dark- 
 visaged and smartly-dressed conductor of the om- 
 nibus belonging to it. That place of entertainment, 
 according to the advertisements, was " patronized by 
 the aristocracy of Europe and America." It had, 
 moreover, the attraction of a spring of mineral water 
 in the garden attached to it ; if its frequenters 
 belonged to the aristocracy of a Monarchy or a 
 Republic, they certainly bore a striking resemblance 
 to others who make no aristocratic pretensions. 
 
 I have visited several places frequented by invalids 
 who either drink mineral waters, bathe in them, or 
 do both ; this is one of the few which does not boast 
 of having been discovered and favoured by the 
 Romans. Judging from tradition, the Romans 
 would appear to have been as much bent upon 
 drinking mineral water as upon universal conquest, 
 or they may have been moved to conquer the world 
 in order to have at their command natural tonics to 
 strengthen them, or natural aperients to relieve them 
 from dyspepsia. The springs of Saratoga, which 
 had long been known to the Indians, did not become 
 fashionable till some time after the nineteenth cen- 
 tury had begun. They are now so greatly frequented 
 that the ordinary population of the village, which 
 numbers 8,000, has 18,000 persons added to it in 
 the season. Homburg and Baden cannot show 
 greater signs of popularity. Like them in former 
 days, Saratoga has a gaming-house, which appears
 
 SARATOGA SPRINGS. 197 
 
 o bo quite as attractive to many visitors as the 
 mineral springs. 
 
 There is a curious and interesting letter about 
 Saratoga, among those which were sent to Washing- 
 ton by his friends and acquaintances. Nowadays, 
 the inquirer can easily learn what makes the waters 
 sparkle, and what their virtues are supposed to be ; a 
 century ago, leading chemists knew less about car- 
 bonic acid gas than a modern school-girl does. Mr. 
 Otho H. Williams, writing from Baltimore on the 
 12th of July, 1784, says that his visit to Saratoga 
 Springs was paid because Washington had once 
 recommended them as a cure for rheumatism. In 
 the following account, he probably referred to the 
 High Rock Spring, discovered by Sir William John- 
 son, in 1767, which still retains the appearance he 
 describes : " The springs are now much frequented 
 by the uncivilized people of the back-country but 
 very few others resort to them, as there is but one 
 small hut within several miles of the place. Colonel 
 Armstrong and myself spent one week there, which 
 was equal to a little campaign, for the accommoda- 
 tion was very wretched, and provisions exceedingly 
 scarce. The country about the springs being uncul- 
 tivated, we were forced to send to the borders of the 
 Hudson for what was necessary for our subsistence. 
 During our stay we made a few little experiments on 
 the waters. Bark of a restringent quality turned 
 them to a purple colour very suddenly, and we 
 thought that iron was discoverable even to the taste. 
 They have certainly a very great quantity of salts. 
 . . . But that which distinguishes these waters in a 
 very conspicuous degree from all others is the great 
 quantity of fixed air which they contain. They are
 
 198 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 exceedingly pungent to the taste, and, after being 
 drunk a short time, will often affect the nose like 
 brisk bottled ale. The water will raise flour sooner 
 than any other thing, and cannot be confined so that 
 the air will not somehow or other escape. Several 
 persons told us that they had corked it tight in bot- 
 tles and that the bottles broke. "We tried it with 
 the only bottle we had, which did not break, but the 
 air found its way through a wooden stopper and the 
 wax with which it was sealed. A trout died in the 
 water in less than a minute, or seemed dead, but 
 recovered in common water. This experiment was 
 repeated with the same effect. We observed in dig- 
 ging that the rocks which are about the springs, and 
 which in one or two places project themselves above 
 the earth in a conic form, go not deep into the 
 ground, but are formed by the waters which (the 
 man who lives at the place informed us) overflow 
 once per month, when not disturbed, and the earthy 
 parts, being exposed to the air and sun, petrify and 
 increase. This opinion is strengthened by the shells 
 and bodies of insects which we found in broken 
 parts of the rock. I have given you my observa- 
 tions, because I think you told me what you knew 
 of these extraordinary springs was from infor- 
 mation." 
 
 To this picture of Saratoga in 1784, which was 
 provided for the information of Washington, I may 
 append another representing it in 1797, drawn by 
 Professor Benjamin Silliman, of Yale College, who 
 may be styled the father of chemistry in the United 
 States: "Mr. Elliott, Mr. Winn, and myself 
 mounted our horses one day (at Ballston) and 
 rode seven or eight miles through the pine forest,
 
 SARATOGA SPETNGS. 199 
 
 with its delightful fragrance, and arrived at the place 
 where they said there were some mineral springs. 
 There was not even a village, but only two or three 
 log-houses standing among the pine-trees. The 
 people were civil, and provided hay for our horses, 
 and for ourselves bacon and eggs. They then 
 piloted us into a morass where nature was unsub- 
 dued, and, stepping cautiously from bog to bog, we 
 soon arrived at a spring which they called the Con- 
 gress Spring, and we drank the water, which tasted 
 as it does now." Returning thither after twenty- 
 six years, he adds : '* "What a change ! A beau- 
 tiful city had arisen where there were only a morass 
 and a pine barren. Beautiful lawns, adorned with 
 statuary, now meet the eyes, and the fashionable 
 world in the summer months, throng this favourite 
 resort." 
 
 The active constituent of these mineral waters is 
 chloride of sodium ; they are largely charged with 
 carbonic acid gas, are pleasant to the palate, and 
 they resemble, alike in their constituents and their 
 action, the waters of Homburg. Congress Spring, 
 situated in a park of the same name, is most com- 
 monly preferred by the water-drinkers. The park is 
 tastefully laid out and well kept. With a view to 
 render the company more exclusive, a covered pro- 
 menade has been formed, to which the charge for 
 admission is ten cents. I was told that this arrange- 
 ment had the advantage of separating the coloured 
 and poorer from the white and wealthier citizens. 
 The poorer members of the community can drink 
 water gratis, underneath the structure frequented 
 by the fashionable visitors. 
 
 A mile and a half to the south of the village is the
 
 200 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 Geyser Spring, which was discovered in 1870, and is 
 one of the curiosities of the place. It was found by 
 boring a hole 5 inches in diameter to the depth of 
 132 feet in the limestone rock ; the water rises to 
 the height of thirty-two feet above the surface of the 
 ground. The proprietor of this spring styles it " a 
 pure mineral aperient and tonic compounded by 
 nature," containing nearly 100 cubic inches of carbonic 
 gas to the gallon in excess of any other spring, and 
 " a delightful beverage." To the taste, it differs in 
 no appreciable degree from other springs here ; but 
 this does not disprove all that the proprietor says in 
 its praise. Moreover, it would be presumptuous to 
 place a personal opinion in opposition to the fact 
 that, 100,000 persons having visited the Geyser 
 Spring in 1875, " the universal testimony is that the 
 waters are the best and the spring the most wonderful 
 in the world." The logical sequence and force of this 
 are not beyond criticism. 
 
 Scarcely any person thinks of walking to the 
 Geyser Spring. When I intimated that I preferred 
 to walk thither, I was told lay the man whose duty at 
 the hotel consisted in providing carriages for visi- 
 tors, that it was pleasanter to drive. He expressed 
 his surprise when my wife and myself achieved the 
 feat of going and returning on foot, and hardly sup- 
 pressed his contempt for this disregard of social cus- 
 tom. When Mr. Stuart was here in 1828, he found 
 the disinclination to take walking exercise as great as 
 I did; he says: "Invalids seem to confine themselves 
 to a five or ten minutes' walk in the morning, when 
 they go to the fountain, and to drive in an open 
 carriage for an hour, or an hour and a half. When 
 they meet us walking several miles for exercise, and
 
 SARATOGA SPRINGS. 201 
 
 the pleasure of being in the open air, they, whether 
 acquainted with us or not, frequently stop their 
 vehicles, and very civilly offer us a ride with them, 
 and can hardly believe us serious when we, in 
 declining to avail ourselves of their kindly-meant 
 offer, tell them that we prefer walking. There are 
 few more striking points of difference between this 
 country and Britain, than the numbers of people who 
 ride and walk on the public roads. It absolutely 
 seems disgraceful to be seen walking." ] When the 
 Duke of Manchester visited the American continent, 
 he spent several days at Niagara Falls. He went 
 on foot to the various places of interest, combining 
 sight-seeing with healthful exercise. As an English 
 Duke, he was the subject of much curiosity, but he 
 fell far below the standard of a shoddy millionaire 
 in the estimation of the censorious citizens who were 
 attentive to his doings, their verdict being thus 
 formulated : " He could not be much of a Duke, for 
 he always walked." 
 
 Every visitor to Saratoga is expected to visit first 
 the Geyser Spring, and next the Lake. The latter 
 is four miles distant. The road thither is more 
 pleasing than the prospect of the lake itself, the 
 ground about it being very marshy and the view 
 devoid of character. To walk so far is accounted a 
 still greater transgression, in the opinion of the 
 carriage-keepers, than to walk to the Geyser Spring. 
 An Indian camp is classed among the attractions of 
 Saratoga Springs. Those persons who have money 
 to expend on rubbish, and who can resist the evi- 
 dence which leads to the conclusion that some of 
 
 1 " Three Years in North America," by Jarnes Stuart, vol. i. 
 p. 193.
 
 202 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 these children of nature must have been born in 
 Ireland, will gladly empty their purses in exchange 
 for trash, and feel gratification in studying the 
 simple manners and artless speech of the Red man 
 and his family. 
 
 To drink mineral water before breakfast and hear 
 the band play, to look with eagerness for the arrival 
 of the New York newspapers in the forenoon, to 
 take a drive after dinner, to dance or watch others 
 wearying themselves by dancing in the evening, and 
 to vary this dissipated life by visiting the gaming- 
 hell of the Honourable John Morrissey, where 
 refreshments may be had gratis and money may be 
 lost as easily as on the Stock Exchange, such is the 
 daily routine of life here. Not very dissimilar is the 
 life at watering-places all over the world. Of Sara- 
 toga I may say, as Horace Walpole said of Bath in 
 its palmy days, that people go thither well and return 
 home cured. Those persons who are the least exact- 
 ing will be the most gratified. The truth on this 
 head has been pointedly expressed by M. Taine in his 
 " Journey to the Pyrenees :" " If life at a watering- 
 place be a romance, it is so in books only. In order 
 to see great men there, it is necessary to carry them 
 in one's portmanteau bound in calf. It is likewise 
 held that conversation at a watering-place is very 
 clever, that one meets nobody there but artists, men 
 of eminence, men moving in the best society ; that 
 ideas, grace, and elegance abound, and that the 
 flower of every pleasure and of all thought blossoms 
 there. The fact is that one wears out one's hats 
 and eats many peaches at a watering-place, that one 
 talks a great deal, and that, as regards men and 
 ideas, it is much the same there as anywhere else."
 
 SARATOGA SPRINGS. 203 
 
 The Grand Union Hotel, one of the largest in Sara- 
 toga, was a pet project of the late Mr. Stewart. The 
 garden is one of the finest attached to any hotel. 
 At the western end of the ball-room is a gigantic 
 painting by M. Yvon, representing " The Genius of 
 America." What is thought of the picture cannot 
 better be expressed than in the words of an admiring 
 citizen of the United States : " The picture and 
 frame weigh 3000 Ibs. The latter is a marvel of 
 workmanship, and was made in Paris under the 
 immediate direction of the great historical artist." 
 The artist might not be flattered if he learned that 
 his picture is chiefly valued on account of its weight 
 and the beauty of its frame. Mr. Stewart's inten- 
 tion was to adorn his gallery in New York with this 
 work of art. But he found, as Dr. Primrose did, that 
 space failed him ; yet, instead of being nonplussed, 
 like the ingenuous Vicar of Wakefield, he sent it to 
 excite the astonishment of the visitors to his hotel 
 at Saratoga Springs.
 
 204 
 
 XIII. 
 
 A T1UP THROUGH CANADA. 
 
 THE first time that I entered the Dominion of 
 Canada, I travelled over the Grand Trunk Railway 
 from Portland, the principal city in the State of 
 Maine, to Montreal, the commercial capital of the 
 Province of Quebec. The situation of both cities is 
 very picturesque. Few sights are finer than the 
 Bay of Casco, on which Portland is built. The bay 
 is of large area and studded with wooded islands. 
 The harbour is one of the safest and deepest on the 
 coast of New England; it is sheltered from dangerous 
 winds; it is never obstructed by ice; the Great 
 Eastern steamed up to the wharf, and was moored 
 alongside it. As Portland is situated on an undu- 
 lating slope, the streets are not monotonously level ; 
 the buildings erected since the great fire are sub- 
 stantial structures ; the public offices, such as the 
 City Hall, the Custom House, and the Post Office, 
 are imposing edifices. Trees are thickly planted in 
 front of the houses in the principal streets ; this pro- 
 duces a pleasant effect. It is said that there are as 
 many as 3,000 of these trees ; and as the population 
 does not much exceed 30,000, there is ample pro- 
 vision made for shade from the sun, and there is a 
 plausible reason for styling this the " Forest City."
 
 A TRIP THROUGH CANADA. 205 
 
 While the inhabitants are thus protected from the 
 blazing summer sun, they are supposed to be kept 
 sober all the year round by restrictive legislation 
 against drunkenness. If the water they drink be as 
 unpalatable as that which was served to me at a 
 hotel, they have no cause to thank the legislators 
 who try to hinder them from drinking anything else. 
 I was assured that intoxication was not an extinct 
 vice, and I was shown how to get as much strong 
 drink as I chose to pay for. If the Laird of Dum- 
 biedykes had visited this place, he would have been 
 strengthened in his belief about the omnipotence of 
 " siller." 
 
 It has been found necessary to reader the Act 
 far more stringent than it was originally. The 
 manufacture of all intoxicants is now prohibited in 
 this State ; the offender is liable to two months' im- 
 prisonment and a fine of $1,000; negligence in any 
 magistrate or attorney in enforcing the law being 
 punished with a penalty of $100. I failed in obtain- 
 ing evidence that this State was pre-eminent above 
 others for the absence of crimes of violence. The 
 last annual report of the Attorney- General does not 
 favour the conclusion that the legislation against 
 drinking alcoholic beverages has converted the State 
 of Maine into a terrestrial paradise. Lawyers have 
 no reason to complain ; they are kept fully occupied 
 in prosecuting those who infringe " the liquor law." 
 
 A sentence written by Dr. Noah Webster might 
 be pondered with advantage by his fellow-country- 
 men in the State of Maine ; " Laws can only check 
 the public effects of vicious principles ; but can never 
 reach the principles themselves." Nature has done 
 more to make Portland an agreeable place of abode
 
 206 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 than the most fantastic legislation can counter- 
 balance. Even were it otherwise, the name of this 
 city is certain of being held in kindly remembrance ; 
 Mr. Longfellow was born here. 
 
 The scenery along the railway, after leaving Port- 
 land is pretty, without being remarkable. To the 
 left there is a mountain range which gratifies the 
 eye. After ninety miles have been traversed, the 
 passengers who purpose making a tour in the White 
 Mountains leave the train at Gosham. One of these, 
 Mount Washington, to which the Indians gave the 
 simple name of " Agiocochook," has always seemed 
 to me the most wonderful mountain in the world, 
 provided the* account I read of it in a local news- 
 paper be literally accurate ; it was there said to be 
 " crowned with perpetual snow for nine months out 
 of the twelve." At Island Pond station, about 150 
 miles distant from Portland, a halt is made for the 
 double purpose of taking refreshment and having 
 the luggage examined by the custom-houae officers. 
 Soon after this station has been left behind, a little 
 stream is pointed out as forming the boundary-line 
 between the two countries. This portion of Cana- 
 dian soil, which is designated the Eastern Town- 
 ships, has a rich and well-tilled aspect. Nothing, 
 however, is specially noteworthy till the Victoria 
 Bridge is reached ; this is quite as wonderful as 
 a work of man as the great river which it spans 
 is as a work of nature. The bridge is one mile and 
 a half long. Nearly a million and a half sterling 
 was expended upon it. Its solidity is as notable as 
 its length. Men shook their heads and confidently 
 predicted that the piers would be swept away by 
 the enormous pressure of the ice when the river
 
 A TRIP THROUGH CANADA. 207 
 
 became a series of miniature and swiftly moving 
 icebergs in the spring time ; but the rapid current 
 has borne along masses of ice year after year with- 
 out the stability of the bridge having been en- 
 dangered for a moment. 
 
 Montreal is one of the most remarkable cities of 
 North America. Though 600 miles distant from 
 the ocean, it may be termed a sea-port. Vessels 
 exceeding 3,000 tons burden can lie alongside its 
 solid stone quays. Not so quaint as Quebec, nor so 
 new as Toronto, less French than the former, and 
 less English than the latter, it represents an epitome 
 of Canadian history. The two European races which 
 people Canada meet here on neutral yet congenial 
 ground. Working in unison, they have built up a 
 splendid city and established commercial relations 
 with the civilized globe. The pleasures of life can 
 be enjoyed here while the business of money-making 
 is being actively pursued ; the successful merchant 
 who has a house on Mount Royal is a man to be 
 envied. From Montreal, I went by the Grand 
 Trunk to Prescott Junction, whence I proceeded by 
 a branch line to Ottawa, the capital of the Dominion. 
 In my opinion, the capital of a country ought to be 
 the principal city in it. A long time must elapse 
 before Ottawa becomes entitled to the appellation 
 of the principal city of Canada. It is as artificial a 
 capital as Washington. It was selected because the 
 conflicting claims of Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto 
 being irreconcilable, the choice was left to the Queen, 
 who ended the rivalry by bestowing the palm upon 
 Ottawa. Its foundation dates from the year 1827. 
 The population is still under 30,000, yet the city is 
 gradually increasing alike in inhabitants and influ-
 
 208 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 ence ; and, when it becomes a station on the Cana- 
 dian Pacific Railway, its progress may be equal to 
 its ambition. The Houses of Parliament and Govern- 
 ment Offices are the most conspicuous objects in 
 Ottawa. They are built in the Gothic style of 
 architecture, and are at once impressive in appear- 
 ance, and admirably adapted for the purposes they 
 are intended to subserve. Situated on an eminence 
 resembling the rocky heights on which the castles 
 of Edinburgh and Stirling stand, they dominate the 
 scene. The Ottawa river winds at the base of this 
 eminence; the view from the path on the side 
 facing the river is as romantic as can be imagined. 
 Rideau Hall, the residence of the Governor-General, 
 is in the suburb of New Edinburgh, which lies 
 below the capital. The gardens of this official 
 abode are nicely laid out ; they had been planned 
 and, when I saw them, were kept in order by a 
 Scottish gardener. The house itself, when I 
 first visited it, was neither commodious nor attrac- 
 tive ; but it has been lately rebuilt and greatly 
 improved. Across the river is the town of Hull in 
 the Province of Quebec. I was startled with the 
 change on entering it. It seemed as if I had 
 crossed the Channel from Southampton to Havre 
 and entered Normandy. A signboard on the first 
 house I saw intimated that " tabac " was sold there ; 
 the first woman I passed in the main street had the 
 look of a Norman peasant. Contrasts like these 
 strikingly remind the stranger that Canada is a 
 far more varied country than the United States. 
 There are many other objects of interest in Ottawa ; 
 however, I cannot describe them in detail at present, 
 having to take the train back to Prescott Junction
 
 A TRIP THROUGH CANADA. 209 
 
 on my way over the Grand Trunk to Toronto, which 
 is reached in about ten hours' time. The traveller 
 who has to wait for the train at Prescott Junction 
 will not regret taking luncheon or dinner there. A 
 better managed refreshment-room, when I visited it, 
 could with difficulty be found, even on the line from 
 Paris to Marseilles. 
 
 Having formerly journeyed to the capital of 
 Ontario in the manner described, I purposed going 
 thither on the present occasion by way of Niagara 
 Falls, revisiting the Province of Quebec by descend- 
 ing the St. Lawrence and continuing my route over 
 the Intercolonial Railway as far as Halifax. Cir- 
 cumstances which have no interest for the reader 
 obliged me to leave out the most novel and interest- 
 ing part of this programme. To traverse the mari- 
 time Provinces of Canada, as well as the Province of 
 British Columbia and the prairie Province of Mani- 
 toba, is still one of my unsatisfied desires. Some 
 day or other, I hope to journey through this 
 magnificent Dominion, from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific, so as to be enabled to compare it, as a whole, 
 with the territory of the United States, over which 
 I have travelled from ocean to ocean. I do not 
 regret, however, that I was permitted to devote 
 more time than I might otherwise have done to a 
 second and more prolonged study of the Province of 
 Ontario. 
 
 Stopping at Niagara Falls on my way to Toronto, 
 I gazed with renewed wonder on the grand sight of 
 the green waters which flow out of Lake Erie taking 
 a majestic leap on their headlong course towards the 
 deep blue waters of Lake Ontario, whence issues the 
 noble river St. Lawrence. I crossed the Lake in the
 
 210 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 City of Toronto steamer, which plies between Lewis- 
 ton and the capital of Ontario. A conspicuous 
 object from the United States side of the Lake is the 
 monument to General Brock. No. other man did 
 more than Sir Isaac Brock to secure the indepen- 
 dence of Upper Canada. He filled the office of 
 President there when an armed force, numbering 
 2,500, came from the United States in order to 
 subjugate the people and annex their coveted terri- 
 tory. To oppose the invader, he had 300 regulars, 
 400 militia, and 600 Indians, under his command. 
 Resistance having been deemed hopeless, he had been 
 instructed to fall back upon Montreal. He deter- 
 mined, if possible, to strike a blow before retiring. 
 But it was doubtful whether the militia would 
 engage in the hazardous enterprise. Parading them 
 before the Court-house in York, he addressed them 
 from the steps, stating what his own desire was, and 
 adding that those men who were ready to volunteer 
 in so desperate a service would take one pace to the 
 front. The four companies simultaneously advanced 
 one pace, and gave three cheers for their Chief. 
 How well he commanded them, and how admirably 
 they followed him, is a story which is familiar to all 
 readers of Canadian history. When he fell mortally 
 wounded, his last words were, " Push on, brave York 
 volunteers." His death was nearly as serviceable 
 as his life in inspiring men, fighting in defence of 
 their liberties and their homes, to resist the enemy 
 with a resolution which had its reward. The battle 
 of Queenstown Heights, in which Brock lost his life, 
 like others which preceded and followed it, was as 
 great a political blunder as the attack of the British 
 troops upon Lexington and Concord, or the contest
 
 A TRIP THEODGH CANADA. 211 
 
 at Bunker Hill. Every schoolboy in Ontario is 
 taught how his forefathers boldly and successfully 
 withstood the onslaught of the forces of the United 
 States upon a "free, a loyal, and a contented people." 
 If the Government of the United States had deter- 
 mined upon a method to render the annexation of 
 Canada almost impossible, they could not have suc- 
 ceeded in accomplishing their object more effectually 
 than by trying to conquer Canada in 1776 and 1812, 
 and by failing to prevent the infamous Fenian raids 
 in our day. 
 
 A political blunder, still less defensible, was the 
 emphatic refusal of the United States Government to 
 reimburse Canada for the damages sustained during 
 the Fenian raids, at the very time that the same 
 Government demanded an apology for and a reference 
 to arbitration of the Alabama claims. I do not 
 wonder that the Canadians should consider them- 
 selves the victims of high-handed dealing. The 
 Treaty of Washington was a gross injustice in their 
 eyes. Their grievances, though dormant, are not 
 dead; the bad spirit which has been created bodes 
 ill for the future. They reasonably argued that the 
 injury which they had sustained was obvious and un- 
 questionable. They remembered how readily their 
 Government paid the losses incurred when St. Al- 
 ban's was plundered. It would have cost the Govern- 
 ment of the United States very little to conci- 
 liate the Canadians, and it was an error in tactics, 
 not only to refuse them the material compensation 
 to which they had a just claim, but even to refrain 
 from expressing those words of good fellowship 
 which not only salve over many sins of omission, 
 but also help to convert foes into allies. 
 
 p 2
 
 212 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 After having endured broiling heat in a railway 
 carriage from Niagara Falls, it was a welcome change 
 to sail under an awning in a steamer through the 
 cool breeze upon Lake Ontario. A stoppage is 
 made at Niagara, a pleasant place of summer resort 
 for Canadians. This was originally the capital of 
 Upper Canada. When Mr. Weld saw it in 1796, it 
 contained seventy dwellings, a gaol, a Court-house, 
 and a Legislative Assembly. It was then called 
 Newark; it had previously borne the names of 
 Lenox and Nassau. Upon Toronto becoming the 
 capital, this place was again known by the name 
 which was first given to it, a name which it has 
 preserved ever since. Before we had traversed half 
 the distance across the Lake, the air became so cool 
 that an overcoat was a comfort. There was nothing 
 to vary the prospect, excepting here and there the 
 white sails of a schooner and the smoking funnel of 
 a steam-boat. Indeed, it was difficult to believe that 
 this vast sheet of water was but a Lake. Compared 
 with the Lakes of Constance and Geneva it is a sea ; 
 the area of the Sea of Marmora is smaller by 800 
 square miles ; yet Lake Ontario is of but limited 
 extent, its area being 6,000 square miles, when com- 
 pared with such inland seas as Lake Michigan and 
 Lake Superior, the area of the former being 12,600, 
 and of the latter 22,400 square miles. When the 
 wind blows and the angry waves are crested with 
 foam, it is scarcely possible for the best-skilled sailor 
 to distinguish, either by appearance or sensation, 
 between such a piece of water as this and the open 
 and apparently limitless deep. Reflections of this 
 class are abruptly terminated when the Custom- 
 House officer comes to examine the luggage.
 
 A TRIP THROUGH CANADA. 213 
 
 I am not a smuggler by profession. However 
 congenial such a pursuit may have been to Dirk 
 Hatteraick, it has never had any charms for me. 
 Moreover, I am unable to draw the line between 
 stealing and smuggling, or to regard a smuggler as 
 any better than a vulgar thief. I fear, however, that 
 I am an exception. Travellers on the continents of 
 Europe and America are treated as suspected smug- 
 glers. I told the Canadian Custom-House officer 
 that I had no more intention of introducing any- 
 thing into Canada surreptitiously than of marrying 
 my grandmother, and that, even if I entertained so 
 wicked a thought, I should be unaware what to 
 select. Of course he did not believe me. He ran- 
 sacked my luggage with greater thoroughness, 
 thinking, no doubt, that my protestation of inno- 
 cence was only a mask to deceive him. Nor can he 
 be blamed. His official belief is that a traveller's 
 chief end is to smuggle, and that his business is to 
 thwart this knavery. Certainly he performed his 
 duty with unswerving vigilance. The rule at home 
 is much more sensible, the officers at. our seaports 
 being ordered to examine the luggage of those 
 persons only who excite their suspicion, or to con- 
 tent themselves with choosing one article out of a 
 passenger's luggage for inspection. It is on the 
 same rational principle that a coast-guardsman does 
 not board every passing vessel in quest of contra- 
 band goods, and that a policeman does not take 
 every person in the street into custody when he is 
 on the look-out for a criminal. In Canada, however, 
 it is thought necessary to follow the course I have 
 indicated, and certainly I can bear testimony to the 
 minuteness with which the officer on board the City
 
 214 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 of Toronto examined the luggage, and to the de- 
 termination he evinced to subject both himself and 
 the passengers to much unnecessary trouble. An 
 unanswerable reason against over-strictness on the 
 part of the Customs authorities, is the fact that 
 nearly every article of commerce is dearer in the 
 Republic than in the Dominion. I did not see any 
 discoveries made by the energetic officer on board, 
 and I was almost sorry to think that his toil had 
 been fruitless. It is but fair to add that he per- 
 formed his thankless task with a courtesy which did 
 him credit. 
 
 Lake Ontario is 65 miles wide, at the broadest 
 part, and 180 miles long. In mid-lake, the breeze 
 was chilling ; but, as we neared the Canadian shore, 
 the heat resembled the blast of a furnace. The 
 lofty spire of St. James's Cathedral is the first object 
 which is remarked by a spectator. Quite as con- 
 spicuous is the cloud of smoke which overhangs the 
 houses. This is due to the chimnej^s of several 
 manufactories. No law prohibits a manufacturer 
 from polluting the air with volumes of dense smoke, 
 an omission which, in the interest of health even 
 more than for the sake of appearance, ought to be 
 repaired. When Lord Palmerston was Home 
 Secretary, he distinguished himself by persuading 
 Parliament to pass an Act forbidding the unnecessary 
 formation of smoke ; the result in London has been 
 remarkable. Formerly, the manufactories on the 
 south side of the Thames used to resemble small 
 volcanoes in their smokiest stage ; now, the emission 
 of smoke from a chimney-stalk is an exception which 
 meets with prompt punishment. In consequence of 
 the absence of smoke some flowers thrive and bloom
 
 A TRIP THROUGH CANADA. 215 
 
 in the Temple Gardens nearly as well as they do in 
 Devonshire, whereas, before this beneficent Act was in 
 operation, no flower could flourish there. Moreover, 
 the manufacturer is the gainer, as his furnaces con- 
 sume less fuel. The legislators of Ontario would do 
 well to profit by this lesson. A spacious bay affords 
 shelter to the shipping at Toronto. An island, on 
 which a few trees grow, and on which there are a few 
 houses, as well as a lighthouse and the waterworks, 
 lies on the outer side of this bay. Seen from a 
 distance, this island resembles one in the Pacific 
 fringed with palm-trees. On nearer approach, the 
 aspect is less attractive. 
 
 Toronto was founded in the spring of 1794 by 
 General Simcoe, and was named York, a name which 
 was changed in 1834 to that which it now bears, 
 being one given to the spot by the Indians, and 
 signifying in their tongue " the place of meeting." 
 Its progress was not very rapid at first. During 
 the war which the United States waged between 
 1812 and 1815 it was occupied by the troops of that 
 country, and its public buildings were burnt to the 
 ground. This was done by the express orders of 
 the United States Government, the declared purpose 
 being that the innocent inhabitants of Upper Canada 
 might be made to suffer as severely as possible. 
 Of late, Toronto has grown very fast, and has risen 
 very high in wealth and importance. Not long 
 before the beginning of the present century, the site 
 of this city was the abode of two Indian families ; in 
 1817, the population numbered 1,200; in 1850, it 
 numbered 25,000; it is now nearly 70,000. As a 
 commercial emporium, Toronto has become a for- 
 midable rival to Montreal. It is the starting-place
 
 216 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 for three trunk-lines of rail ; the Grand Trunk, the 
 Great Western, and the Northern of Canada. During 
 the summer months, there is daily communication 
 with Montreal by steamer, while a considerable 
 amount of traffic is carried on with the Lake towns 
 by sailing vessels. Indeed, Toronto is to the 
 Dominion, what Chicago is to the United States. 
 The farmers of the West send their produce for ship- 
 ment, and they come here to make their purchases. 
 Toronto is the seat of the Courts of Law, of two Uni- 
 versities, and of the Provincial Legislature. The lead- 
 ing newspaper in the Dominion appears here. The 
 publishers who do the largest business in the country 
 have their offices in this city. As a mart for com- 
 merce, a place of business, a hive of manufactures, a 
 city where the arts which soften and adorn life are 
 cultivated and held in honour, a centre whence 
 radiate political and social ideas which influence the 
 entire Canadian division of America, Toronto not 
 only justifies its position as the capital of the 
 Province of Ontario, but is beyond all question one 
 of the most truly representative cities in the great 
 Dominion of Canada. 
 
 I was surprised to see how many changes had 
 occurred in this city during the few years which 
 have elapsed since my last visit. The rows of new 
 warehouses and merchants' offices in the street front- 
 ing the bay are equal in structural effect and 
 magnitude to any which are to be found in North 
 America. In the suburbs, large numbers of villas 
 have been built for the accommodation of merchants 
 who have enriched themselves. When Captain 
 Marryat was here in 183 7, he declared that "the houses 
 and stores were not to be compared with those of
 
 A TRIP THROUGH CANADA. 217 
 
 the American towns opposite." By way of explana- 
 tion, lie added that " the Englishman had built 
 according to his means, the American according to 
 his expectations." Now that the private and public 
 buildings are quite as fine as those of any city in the 
 United States it is clear, if Captain Marryat's explana- 
 tion hold good, that the means of the citizens of 
 Toronto are as vast as the expectations of their neigh- 
 bours. Not only was I struck with the new ware- 
 houses and villas and with the imposing new Post 
 Office, but I was also impressed with the progress in 
 luxury shown by the two handsome Club houses which 
 have recently been erected, and which, alike in 
 external effect and internal arrangement, would do 
 credit to Pall Mall or St. James's Street.
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO. 
 
 FENIMOKE COOPER, the Walter Scott of the United 
 States, who threw a halo of romantic interest over 
 the Red Indian of North America at the time when 
 his power was departing along with the primeval 
 forest which had been his home, wrote another book 
 which once attracted as much notice as any of his 
 novels. It was entitled " Notions of the Ame- 
 ricans picked up by a travelling Bachelor," was 
 professedly from the pen of an English traveller 
 in the United States, and was published at Phila- 
 delphia in 1828. Cooper there asked : " Why- 
 is not the fertile Province of Upper Canada as 
 much distinguished for its advancement in all 
 the useful arts of life as the States of the neigh- 
 bouring Republic ? and why, under so many phy- 
 sical disadvantages, are the comparatively sterile 
 and rocky States of New England remarkable for 
 those very qualities amid their own flourishing and 
 healthful sisters?" The answer given to this query 
 is that the inhabitants of the States which excited 
 Cooper's admiration are notable for an " intelligence " 
 which, according to him, is lacking in the British 
 Province. How far this may have been true fifty 
 years ago, I cannot tell ; but I am certain that the
 
 THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO. 219 
 
 Province now called Ontario has not been hindered, 
 by an actual deficiency of intelligence in the inhabi- 
 tants, from making as rapid progress, in all the use- 
 ful arts of life, as any State in New England. Un- 
 fortunately, it is customary in the United States to 
 sneer at everything Canadian, and to treat the great 
 Dominion, which comprises half the North American 
 continent, as a subject of pity or contempt. If, 
 however, the Dominion were really contemptible, less 
 notice would be taken of its doings. Unless I 
 entirely misinterpret and misrepresent public senti- 
 ment in the United States, there is a latent fear lest 
 the progress of Canada should falsify a good many 
 unfavourable prophecies and disappoint a good many 
 unneighbourly expectations. 
 
 "With the dogmatic and depreciatory statement 
 which Cooper made public in 1828, 1 think it instruc- 
 tive to contrast the verdict which a great and unpre- 
 judiced New Englander passed in 1859 upon the 
 capital of this maligned Province. In a letter written 
 to the Honourable Edward Everett, in that year, 
 Mr. Ticknor says : " Toronto is much more of a 
 place, and there are more cultivated people there 
 than I had any notion of. They have a good college 
 there for certain purposes, but .the province has 
 another, on a larger and more liberal scale. They 
 are just completing for it a very large stone building 
 three sides of a quadrangle which is a finer build- 
 ing and better adapted to its purposes than any 
 similar one in the United States ; I suspect a finer 
 building than we have for any purpose whatever, 
 except the Capitol at Washington. It is in the 
 Norman style of architecture." This is not very 
 enthusiastic praise; most of it being expended upon
 
 220 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 a building. Yet it is significant for two reasons. 
 The first is that Mr. Ticknor was unprepared to find 
 any cultivated people in Toronto, and the second 
 is that he was astonished to learn that those per- 
 sons whom he had heard others depreciate, had 
 advanced so far in " the useful arts of life," as to 
 make splendid provision for the highest branch of 
 education. With every desire to be impartial, I have 
 signally failed in perceiving a distinct want of 
 " intelligence " in my Canadian brethren as compared 
 with what prevails among the citizens of the States 
 of New England. If this were ever true, the trans- 
 formation has been complete. Let it be admitted 
 that there was a time in the annals of what used to 
 be called Upper Canada, when the chief care of every 
 inhabitant was to provide food for himself and his 
 family : the explanation of this, however, disposes of 
 the sneer of Cooper, and does no credit to his country- 
 men. 
 
 Some of the best blood of the settlers in the Pro- 
 vince of Ontario flowed in the veins of the United 
 Empire Loyalists, and still flows in those of their 
 successors. Having been expelled from their an- 
 cestral possessions in the United States, they found 
 a new and undisturbed home in the Province over 
 which the flag of Great Britain waved. The country 
 was then a wilderness, and existence was a toil. The 
 settlers were inspired with an idea which ennobled 
 and nerved them amidst their sufferings and labours. 
 They had been forced to leave their native homes 
 because they would not help or sanction the disrup- 
 tion of an Empire which glorified and widened the 
 dominion of their race, even though it were indis- 
 putable that its temporary rulers had failed in
 
 THE PROVINCE OP ONTARIO. 221 
 
 understanding and fulfilling their duties. It is now 
 admitted, when too late, that these loyalists were 
 men of high principle and lofty aspirations, and 
 none regrets their punishment more sincerely than 
 the descendants of those persons who thought them- 
 selves the friends of their country in inflicting it. 
 Few things are more certain than the fact that, if 
 the United Empire Loyalists had been suffered to 
 remain in the United States, the foundation of 
 Upper Canada would never have been laid, and that 
 the annexation of this portion of the continent to 
 the United States would have been effected soon 
 after the consolidation of the Republic. I can easily 
 imagine that, when this century began, the Canadian 
 people would seem backward in the eyes of the critic 
 who made no allowance for their difficulties. At 
 that period a Royal Mendicant, on entering one of 
 their towns, might have been subjected to the dis- 
 comfiture of the one of whom it is told, in Mr. Lane's 
 version of the " Arabian Nights," that, having arrived 
 air a town poor and friendless, he was kindly enter- 
 tained by a compassionate tailor. After the latter 
 had fed and lodged him for three days, he said, 
 " Dost thou not know any trade by which to make 
 gain?" The Mendicant, who was a king's son, 
 answered, " I am acquainted with the law, a student 
 of science, a writer, and an arithmetician." The 
 tailor told him that these things yielded no profit in 
 that country, and advised the Mendicant " to take 
 an axe and a rope and cut firewood in the desert, 
 and so obtain his subsistence." Even now, although 
 plenty of men who are learned in the law, who are 
 students of science, who are writers, and excellent 
 arithmeticians, find profitable occupation in Ontario,
 
 222 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 yet the surest way to earn a livelihood there is the 
 old and simple one of wielding an axe or guiding a 
 plough. 
 
 When the recognition of the independence of the 
 United States of America, and the conclusion of 
 peace between the parent State and its great off- 
 shoot were the subject of negotiation at Paris in 
 1782, Franklin included the cession of Canada and 
 the Bermudas among the things which Great Britain 
 ought to perform, and which the Government he 
 represented had 'a right to demand. Though he 
 struggled vigorously to obtain a diplomatic victory, 
 yet he was foiled by the determination of the British 
 Ministry to refuse even a hearing to claims which 
 they regarded as alike inadmissible and preposterous. 
 The invasion of Canada was the first important act 
 of aggression performed by the Congress of the 
 Thirteen United Colonies ; another attempt to sub- 
 jugate her was the motive, though not the pretext, 
 for the Congress of the United States declaring 
 war against Great Britain. While the freedom of 
 Canada to guide her own destiny is still guaranteed 
 by connexion with the Motherland, Canadians gene- 
 rally believe that the hope of adding this magnifi- 
 cent piece of territory to the Republic continues to 
 animate the citizens of the United States. The 
 avowal is not made so often or in the same tone as 
 in former days. 
 
 If a speaker were now to address Congress on 
 this topic, he would probably be more measured 
 than Mr. Clay, who declared in that august Assembly 
 " We have the Canadas as much under our com- 
 mand as Great Britain has the ocean. I would take 
 the whole Continent from them, and ask them no
 
 THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO. 223 
 
 favours. God has given us the power and the 
 means." At a later date another patriot, whose 
 reputation as an orator is not quite equal to that 
 of Mr. Clay, but whom some persons regard as a 
 representative man, undertook in the Senate of the 
 United States to compel Canada to enter the Union, 
 and to perform this task with the aid of a regiment 
 of Michigan militia. Mr. Senator Chandler's power 
 to execute such a feat was questioned by many of 
 his countrymen, while his admirers maintained that 
 he was not the man to allow doubts or modesty to 
 hinder him from indulging in speculations or pro- 
 mises. His fanfaronade subserved one useful pur- 
 pose. Till he made this offer, no exact parallel 
 could have been found to General Grant, the fervent 
 and indiscreet supporter of Lord North, who boasted 
 in the House of Commons that he could easily march 
 through the rebellious Colonies of America at the 
 head of a small force and settle all grievances by 
 overawing the aggrieved. The fate of Burgoyne 
 and Cornwallis enables us to understand how General 
 Grant would have fared had his foolish vaunting 
 been put to the test. Mr. Chandler has mercifully 
 been preserved from failure by the absence of an 
 opportunity to act the entire part of Captain 
 Bobadil. 
 
 Charles Sumner, a statesman of a very different 
 stamp from Mr. Chandler, though not always his 
 superior in temperate utterance, told the convention 
 of the Massachusetts Republican party, held at 
 Worcester in 1869, that the transfer of Canada was 
 neither so simple nor easy as had been supposed. 
 He wished it to happen, but he did not expect the 
 immediate fulfilment of his wish. He thought, how-
 
 221 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 ever, that, at a day not very far distant, the invita- 
 tion made by Franklin, as Commissioner for the 
 Continental Congress, and seconded by the troops 
 of Arnold and Montgomery, would gladly be ac- 
 cepted. Mr. Sumner added, " Long ago the Con- 
 tinental Congress passed away, living only in its 
 deeds. Long ago the great Commissioner rested 
 from his labours to become a star in our firmament. 
 But the invitation survives not only in the archives 
 of our history, but in all American hearts, constant 
 and continuing as when first issued, believing as we 
 do that such a union, in the fulness of time, with 
 the goodwill of the Mother Country and the accord 
 of both parties, must be the harbinger of infinite 
 good. Nor do I doubt that this will be accom- 
 plished." He knew that the Reciprocity Treaty, 
 which the United States had abrogated, was an 
 arrangement which the Canadians desired to renew ; 
 he predicted that it would " be transfigured in union, 
 while our plural unit is strengthened and extended." 
 I need not discuss this forecast of the future ; 
 suffice it to state that there are no visible tokens of 
 the Canadians being inclined to hasten or help the 
 fulfilment of Charles Sumner's aspirations and pro- 
 phecy. They are the best judges of what would 
 prove for their advantage. Even if they thought fit 
 to treat with indifference the passionate and bel- 
 ligerent utterances of Clay and Mr. Chandler, and to 
 regard the calmer views of Charles Sumner as the 
 expressions of an amiable enthusiast, they might cite 
 the opinions of other citizens of the United States 
 in testimony of the difficulty of dwelling in poli- 
 tical amity with a people who stigmatize them as 
 unworthy members of human society. Men who are
 
 THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO. 225 
 
 neither accepted statesmen nor professional poli- 
 ticians have passed a condemnation upon the inha- 
 bitants of Canada which it is hard to forget or ex- 
 plain away. Mr. Thoreau may be numbered among 
 them. He was a man of fine nature, an Emerson 
 of the open-air. In 1850, he paid a short visit to 
 Canada, and, in rendering an account of his impres- 
 sions, he remarked that, in Montreal, " On every 
 prominent ledge you could see England's hands 
 holding the Canadas, and I judged by the redness of 
 her knuckles that she would soon have to let go." 
 This transcendental utterance either meant that 
 England retained hold of Canada by main force, or 
 else that she maintained her place there till it pleased 
 the United States to dispossess her. The one sup- 
 position is utterly incorrect, and the other is open 
 to serious argument. At Quebec, he moralized in a 
 strain which I leave it to the Canadians to appre- 
 ciate : " A private man was not worth so much in 
 Canada as in the United States ; and if your wealth 
 in any measure consists in manliness, in originality, 
 
 and independence, you had better stay here 
 
 I suspect that a poor man who is not servile is a 
 much rarer phenomenon there and in England than 
 in the Northern United States!" 1 From Cooper to 
 Thoreau and from Clay to Sumner the language 
 used by notable citizens of the United States con- 
 cerning Canada, is not more complimentary than 
 that which they apply to Mexico. 
 
 Considering that there is an unfriendliness on the 
 part of the United States towards her northern 
 neighbour as censurable as that which was made a 
 
 1 "A Yankee in Canada," by H. D. Thoreau, pp. 17, 76, 77.
 
 226 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 charge against Great Britain in the official state- 
 ment of the case of the Republic respecting the 
 Alabama claims, I cannot understand how the peace- 
 ful and harmonious incorporation of the Dominion 
 can be seriously entertained, as an early con- 
 tingency, by any clear-headed member of the Con- 
 gress of the Republic. During my present visit, I 
 was informed that jealousy of the United States was 
 an increasing quantity throughout Canada, while 
 confidence in the capacity and future greatness of 
 the Dominion was extending in a remarkable degree. 
 Formerly, a few men were pointed out to me who 
 believed that annexation to the neighbouring Re- 
 public was only a question of time. But a few 
 years have elapsed since then, and most of these 
 men have either recanted their opinions, or else 
 found it politic to conceal them. The scheme of 
 confederation is knitting Canada together as closely 
 as confederation has bound the thirteen States of 
 America into a nation. To be a member of the 
 Parliament at Ottawa is an ambition as satisfying as 
 to be a member of the Congress which once met at 
 Philadelphia and now meets at Washington. The 
 Dominion Parliament legislates for a territory much 
 vaster than that over which the earlier American 
 Congresses exercised jurisdiction. Canadian legis- 
 lators have problems to consider and solve as im- 
 portant as any which occupy and perplex the legis- 
 lators of the United States. When the centenary 
 of the confederation of Canada is celebrated, the 
 population and power of the Dominion may not be 
 inferior to those of the United States when the 
 great anniversary of the Republic was the subject of 
 general congratulation and rejoicing. Certainly,
 
 THE PEOVINCE OF ONTAEIO. 227 
 
 in natural resources, the Canadian section of America 
 lacks nothing which the United States section pos- 
 sesses, and I have not seen it proved that political 
 aptitude and national opportunity are less on the 
 one side of the border than on the other. 
 
 Each Province of the Dominion has its local Legis- 
 lature. In the Canadian Articles of Confederation, 
 the rule which governs the Constitution of the 
 United States is reversed. The latter reserves to 
 Congress the power to control those matters only 
 which are specifically set forth, all the questions not 
 so reserved falling within the jurisdiction of the 
 several States. In Canada, on the other hand, 
 everything which is not specifically reserved to the 
 several Provinces falls within the jurisdiction of 
 Parliament. Thus the Canadian Parliament is com- 
 paratively a more powerful body than the United 
 States Congress ; it can exercise an all-pervading 
 authority without dread of finding an insurmount- 
 able obstacle in the rights of a local Assembly. An 
 Act of Congress could not have abolished slavery 
 unless special power to pass one had first been 
 granted by an amendment to the Constitution, made 
 with the consent of three fourths of the States. In 
 a similar case, an Act of the Dominion Parliament 
 would effect the desired object, provided that the 
 Crown did not exercise the right of veto. Subject 
 to this limitation, which in practice is found to be 
 no check upon beneficent legislation, the Canadian 
 Parliament yields to but one legislative body in the 
 extent and comprehensiveness of its jurisdiction. 
 The manner in which this Parliament is constituted 
 and performs its duty, affords an attractive study 
 for every student of political science. Even the 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 citizens of the United States might learn something 
 by observing the working of this free constitution 
 of their neighbours. Yet, unless Cooper has dis- 
 paraged them, they are unlikely to profit by the 
 opportunity : " He knew no people that trouble 
 themselves less about the political concerns of other 
 nations than his countrymen. It may be vanity, 
 but they think they have little to learn in this 
 particular, except of themselves." 
 
 When the Province of Ontario formed its Legis- 
 lature, it was determined with equal boldness and 
 wisdom to constitute a House of Assembly, com- 
 posed of a single Chamber. In the Province of 
 Quebec, on the contrary, the Legislature consists of 
 a Council and an Assembly, just as, in each State 
 and Territory of the American Union, there is a 
 Senate and a House of Representatives. The Par- 
 liament of Great Britain is the model which has 
 been generally copied, alike in the Old and the New 
 World, although the reason which prevailed when 
 that Parliament obtained its present form has ceased 
 to operate on either side of the Atlantic. Franklin 
 was too astute and clear-headed not to perceive this, 
 and he endeavoured to persuade the framers of the 
 Constitution of his country to provide a single 
 Chamber for legislative purposes. The State of 
 Pennsylvania adopted this plan, and abandoned it 
 chiefly because the State did not like to appear 
 singular. The States of Vermont and New Hamp- 
 shire followed the example of Pennsylvania. In 
 former days, it might have been difficult to induce 
 the Three Estates of E norland to meet together 
 
 o o 
 
 under one roof and deliberate in common, and 
 custom has consecrated the existing practice in the
 
 THE PROVINCE OP ONTARIO. 229 
 
 eyes of the nation. But in the United States or 
 Canada it was easy to try another and a simpler 
 arrangement, and the Province of Ontario merits 
 praise not only for having made the experiment, but 
 for having given it a fair trial. Ten years will soon 
 have elapsed since the Ontario House of Assembly 
 held its first sitting. Proposals have been made to 
 add an Upper House, so as . to give employment to 
 an extra number of representatives ; but the in- 
 habitants of the Province, by refusing to entertain 
 these suggestions, have shown their good sense. 
 In truth, the single Chamber has succeeded as well 
 as its advocates could have desired. The Honour- 
 able Rupert Wells, the present Speaker, told me 
 that the members exhibit by their conduct how 
 conscious they are of the responsibility which de- 
 volves upon them. No undue haste is manifested 
 in passing a measure which has been the subject of 
 grave doubt or discussion. Of course, the majority 
 have a greater power in such an Assembly than they 
 would have in one where their decisions are open to 
 revision or reversal; but, because the vote of the 
 majority cannot be reviewed in this way, the deci- 
 sion is arrived at under a due sense of responsibility 
 and after greater consideration than it might other- 
 wise receive. Measures which it would be rash to 
 approve or condemn, without careful deliberation, 
 are generally postponed from one session to another. 
 Indeed, this experiment ought to be watched with 
 the greater interest because it may be fraught with 
 important issues. There is no reason why such 
 a legislative body should not prove equally ad- 
 vantageous elsewhere. In such bodies as the Con- 
 gress of the United States, the Parliament of the
 
 230 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 United Kingdom and the Parliament of Canada, one 
 Chamber is the practical depositary of power. At 
 Washington, the Senate is the ruling influence ; at 
 Westminster or Ottawa, the House of Commons 
 is the place which an ambitious man desires to 
 enter, and in which a great Minister can attain his 
 objects. France, not being satisfied with a National 
 Assembly, must needs create a Chamber of Deputies 
 and a Senate, in order that the one might balance 
 the other; so that a measure voted by the one 
 should be rejected by the other, and that the public 
 should be provided with unhealthy excitement by 
 beholding a constant antagonism between the two 
 Chambers, and an occasional collision between them. 
 Nothing of the kind can happen in Toronto, while 
 the quality of legislation there is not inferior to 
 that at Versailles, or even to that in the adjoining 
 Province of Quebec. 
 
 It has been estimated that there are more politics 
 to the square mile in Canada than in any other por- 
 tion of the habitable globe. Contending parties 
 struggle here with an energy which causes the cool- 
 headed bystander to marvel exceedingly. What 
 puzzles him is to ascertain and understand the fun- 
 damental principles of the opposing parties. He 
 hears one man denounced as a Conservative and 
 another as a Reformer or a Grit : should he ask what 
 mischief is averted by the one and what change is 
 contemplated by the other, he asks in vain, unless 
 he be more fortunate than- myself. 1 do not refer 
 to purely local topics. An intelligent Vestry or 
 Town Council can easily be thrown into a fever by 
 the consideratibn of the best way in which to pave a 
 street or feed a pauper. It is fortunate that such a
 
 THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO. 231 
 
 topic as either should afford a vent to the superfluous 
 energy of my esteemed fellow-citizens when they act 
 in a public capacity. But the truly national politics 
 of Canada are neither trivial nor restricted in scope. 
 They concern the welfare of a continent vaster than 
 Europe, and the well-being of a people with every 
 aptitude for progress and distinction. How best to 
 develope the resources of that continent, and advance 
 the happiness of its inhabitants, is a problem that 
 men oi all shades of opinion should unite in solving ; 
 it is one which might fairly tax the greatest minds 
 of the age. Yet, as a matter of fact, the chief 
 object of the politicians with whom I have conversed 
 seems to be the exaltation of the Right Honourable 
 Sir Join Macdonald and the discomfiture of the 
 Honourable George Brown, or the debasement of the 
 former and the advancement of the latter. Sir John 
 Macdonald is the head of the Conservatives, and the 
 Honourable George Brown, though not the head of 
 the Ministry, is undoubtedly the mainstay of the 
 Reformers. To the persistent and able efforts of 
 the latter a measure of real reform is attributable, 
 the representation of the Provinces in proportion to 
 their population. Both are entitled to praise for the 
 accomplishment of the greatest step in the annals 
 and progress of Canada, the formation of the Domi- 
 nion. A bloody war with Great Britain was the 
 prelude to a similar triumph in the United States 
 section of America ; in Canada, the grand result was 
 brought about by many excellent newspaper articles, 
 by several convincing speeches, and by an Act of the 
 Imperial Parliament. Now that Confederation has 
 been attained, every patriotic Canadian ought to be 
 at once a genuine Conservative and a thorough-
 
 282 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 going Reformer, ought to be determined to conserve 
 what he enjoys and glories in, and reform whatever 
 interferes with the permanence and value of his heri- 
 tage. Chief among indispensable reforms is the 
 removal of the natural and surmountable impedi- 
 ments to the development of this huge territory, 
 with a view to render the vast and fertile prairies of 
 the north-west easily accessible to the emigrant, and 
 to knit together with links of steel the Provinces 
 which are traversed by the St. Lawrence, and washed 
 by the Atlantic, with the Provinces which are tra- 
 versed by the Saskatchewan, and washed by the 
 Pacific. On such a question as this politicians ought 
 to be of one mind, and ought to speak with an accor- 
 dant voice. Yet, whether a Pacific Railway should 
 be constructed, or how the work should be exe- 
 cuted, is a question which has caused the fa.l of one 
 Ministry, and has exposed its successor to merciless 
 criticism and cavil. 
 
 On another matter, which should not occasion 
 marked diversity of opinion among people so en- 
 lightened as the Canadians, there is a discord which 
 finds expression in the Press, on the platform, and 
 in Parliament. It is still held to be an open and 
 debatable question whether the unrestricted inter- 
 change of commodities be a blessing or a curse, 
 whether Free Trade be an absolute benefit or an 
 utter delusion. In the United States it has been de- 
 cided to make the consumers pay dearly for certain 
 articles of necessity or luxury, in order that national 
 industries might be established and subsidized, and 
 that some manufacturers should become rich men. 
 Many Canadians envy the United States manu-
 
 THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO. 233 
 
 facturers, and think that they, too, would be envied 
 in turn, if a policy of Protection were adopted and 
 pursued. The Conservatives have staked their 
 hopes of returning to office upon the advocacy of 
 protection to every product of native industry, from 
 the flour with which they bake their bread, to the 
 sewing-machine with which they stitch their clothes. 
 The Keformers used to trumpet forth, with com- 
 mendable precision and unanimity, the advantages of 
 a liberal tariff and unfettered trade; but their 
 trumpet now gives an uncertain sound. Some of 
 them think that much would be gained owing to the 
 imposition of what they style incidental, but what I 
 should term differential, protective duties, and mem- 
 bers of both parties have declared that the farmers 
 of Ontario would be richer were a duty levied on 
 the flour imported into Canada proportioned to that 
 levied on the flour exported to the United States 
 from Canada. That some farmers in Canada would 
 be temporary gainers by this is probable ; but it is 
 unlikely that the people at large would be the better 
 in the long-run, while it is certain that the inhabi- 
 tants of the maritime Provinces would treat the 
 proposed impost as a distinct injury to them. 
 
 An article in the Toronto Globe, on this question, 
 contained an extract from a speech delivered at 
 Washington by Mr. Marshall, a representative from 
 the State of Illinois, supplying a noteworthy picture 
 of the difficulties with which a western farmer has 
 to contend in the Union. Some exceptions were 
 taken to a few details by the Mail, the lively and un- 
 compromising rival of the Globe, but the relevancy 
 of the statement, as a whole, cannot be challenged. 
 Mr. Marshall told the House of Eepresentatives that
 
 234 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 " The farmer starting to his work has a shoe put 
 on his horse with nails taxed at 67 per cent., driven 
 by a hammer taxed at 54 per cent. ; cuts a stick 
 with a knife taxed 50 per cent. ; hitches his horse to 
 a plough taxed 50 per cent., with chains taxed 67 
 per cent. He returns to his home at night, and lays 
 his wearied limbs on a sheet taxed 58 per cent., and 
 covers himself with a blanket that has paid 250 per 
 cent. He rises in the morning, puts on his humble 
 flannel shirt, taxed 80 per cent. ; his coat, taxed 50 
 per cent. ; shoes taxed 35 per cent., and hat taxed 
 70 per cent. ; opens family worship with a Bible 
 taxed 25 per cent., and kneels to his God on a hum- 
 ble carpet taxed 150 per cent. He sits down to his 
 humble meal from a plate taxed 40 per cent., with 
 knife and fork taxed 35 per cent. ; drinks his cup of 
 coffee taxed 47 per cent., or tea 78 per cent.; seasons 
 his food with salt taxed 100 per cent. ; pepper, 297 
 per cent. ; or spice, 379 per cent. He looks around 
 upon his wife and children all taxed in the same way, 
 takes a chew of tobacco taxed at 100 per cent., or 
 lights a cigar taxed 120 per cent., and then thanks 
 his stars that he lives in the freest and best Govern- 
 ment under heaven." Can any Canadian farmer, 
 after reading this, really envy the privileges of his 
 brother in the United States ? The former would 
 soon be in the position of the latter, if the system of 
 imposing protective duties on his produce were once 
 begun. The United States would not be easily 
 checkmated. In playing this game of brag, or 
 rather of beggar my neighbour, the older Govern- 
 ment would prove more than a match for the 
 younger. 
 
 The one which was prepared to make the greater
 
 THE PROVINCE OP ONTARIO. 235 
 
 sacrifice would gain the day, and though victory 
 would be defeat in disguise, yet this would matter little 
 to those persons who held that they had achieved a 
 nominal triumph. In the end, the Canadian farmer 
 would be poorer than at the outset, because he would 
 have to give proportionately more for what he bought 
 than he had obtained for what he sold. But such 
 predictions have no terror for men who believe 
 in Protection as the panacea for all the ills of 
 industry. Tell them that it is a quack medicine, 
 and they will reply, as is done by many people, 
 whom their charitable neighbours give credit for 
 the possession of common sense, when they hear a 
 quack medicine scoffed at, " That may be perfectly 
 true, but after all there must be something in it, for 
 it has effected many cures." They will cite the 
 case of the Mother country as a conclusive answer 
 t.o abstract reasoning, and say that Protection 
 enriched her, and prepared the way for that system 
 of Free-trade which is enriching her more than ever. 
 Both in the United States and Canada, I have heard 
 this repeated as if it were conclusive, and barred all 
 further argument. Thus it is that one blunder 
 engenders another, and that the evil which States 
 have done is pregnant with mischief after they have 
 learned to do well. Nothing can be more certain 
 than that Protection was an incubus which depressed 
 the energies of Great Britain for many a year, and 
 that, had she shaken off the monster at an earlier 
 day, she would have been still wealthier and more 
 powerful now. It is erroneously supposed that the 
 continuance of a protective system elsewhere is a 
 serious loss to her, and the belief is common in the 
 United States section of America, and is also enter-
 
 230 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 tained by a good many persons in the Canadian one, 
 that a selfish desire to promote the enrichment of 
 Great Britain inspires all those of her sons who 
 advocate the unrestricted interchange of produce and 
 manufactures. When a suspicion of this kind is 
 once entertained, it cannot be removed by argument. 
 The case is analogous to that of the father who warns 
 his son against indulging in excesses which may 
 shorten his life, which will certainly embitter it, or 
 will cause him to feel regret, when too late, that he 
 had not been more prudent in his youth. The son 
 fancies that this is either an exaggeration, or else 
 that his father is too selfish to allow him to enjoy 
 himself. He sees, moreover, that his father has 
 lived to a good old age, is highly respected, is very 
 rich, and seems none the worse for any indiscretions 
 committed in early life. He may even persuade him- 
 self that indulgence in youthful follies has been of 
 some advantage to his father. He determines, then, 
 to follow the bent of his inclination as a prelude to 
 living soberly and reputably when his wild oats have 
 been harvested. It is obvious that, if the son could 
 begin the world with the father's experience, or if he 
 would really profit by the advice which is alike per- 
 fectly sound and perfectly disinterested, he might be 
 spared many disappointments, and become a useful 
 member of society. What is true of individuals is 
 equally true of nations; nations, however, resent 
 good advice even more angrily than individuals, for 
 they fancy that it must be designed to lower their 
 status in the world, and lessen their power of out- 
 stripping competitors. 
 
 Indeed, the main reason why new countries and 
 colonies are attached to the Protective system is that
 
 THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO. 237 
 
 they regard it as an indispensable condition for 
 enabling them to command respect. When it is said in 
 the United States, " Let us protect native industry," 
 the meaning is, let us uphold our nationality, make 
 ourselves self-sufficing, and strive to render the na- 
 tions of Europe dependent upon us. A policy of ex- 
 clusion was carried out with a rigour in Japan which 
 can never be surpassed elsewhere ; since the Japanese 
 have reversed it, they have lost nothing either in 
 power or in the world's esteem. In Canada, the cry 
 of Protection for native industry means " Let us build 
 up a nationality and become something different from 
 our neighbours across the frontier and our brethren 
 across the ocean." Here is a problem which is not 
 to be solved by reasoning. A Free Trader, in the 
 fullest and truest sense, desires the happiness of the 
 greatest number; his sympathies are co-extensive 
 with mankind. A Protectionist is satisfied if he can 
 promote the material well-being of those among 
 whom he was born; his sympathies are bounded by 
 his country. Until the sentiment of the brotherhood 
 of mankind shall prevail among a given people, and 
 the ideal at which they aim be the general good of 
 the world, it is hopeless to expect that they will 
 exchange Protection for Free Trade, provided they 
 believe that any personal and local gain is obtainable 
 by discouraging the industry of all the rest of the 
 human race. The sum of many conversations on 
 this subject both in the United States and Canada is 
 that Great Britain incurs as much censure and ex- 
 cites as much envy for preaching Free Trade now as 
 she did for practising Protection a century ago, and 
 the circumstance that she adds example to precept 
 is considered an aggravation of her present offence.
 
 238 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 Sufficient attention has not been given to a desire 
 which has been expressed for the formal recognition 
 of Canadian nationality. Much has been written 
 about Canadian loyalty, which is certainly very 
 exuberant and thoroughly sincere. I believe that if 
 the Queen were to visit Canada, the popular demon- 
 stration there would be astounding in its fervour. 
 Yet to confound this loyalty, with blind admiration 
 for the Motherland, is to commit a great and 
 common mistake. Everything done in the parent 
 State is followed in Canada with an interest 
 which is neither felt nor professed in the United 
 States; but, let any attempt be made to affect 
 Canada in a way deemed unfair and prejudicial, 
 and there will be no hesitation about objecting with 
 remarkable emphasis. In truth, the loyalty of 
 Canadians closely resembles that of those among 
 their forefathers who suffered for being United 
 Empire Loyalists. They are justly proud of the 
 political system of which they form a part. In their 
 eyes, that system is identified with stable government 
 and general prosperity; it guarantees to them an 
 amount of personal freedom, combined with personal 
 security, such as no other system can give in greater 
 measure. Their loyalty is intensified by the convic- 
 tion that their own wishes, duly expressed, are the 
 only limits to any demands they might prefer to 
 the parent State for a change in their relation to it. 
 
 Many of the younger men are more anxious than 
 their seniors to take a step which, without rendering 
 Canada wholly independent, would lead to her being 
 regarded as a nation. They have a notion that 
 their happiness would be increased were the land 
 they live in represented at foreign Courts. Among
 
 THE PROVINCE OF ONTAEIO. 239 
 
 the efforts they have made to make " Canada First" 
 at once a cry and a policy, the foundation of a 
 weekly journal called the Nation had a place, which 
 was shared by an excellent periodical, the Canadian 
 Monthly. The magazine has lived for several years, 
 and will, I hope, survive many more ; but the journal 
 succumbed, after a brilliant career of about three 
 years. A thesis which both have upheld with great 
 power of argument and variety of illustration is that, 
 in the present condition of the Dominion, the ordi- 
 nary party divisions are unmeaning and the prevail- 
 ing aims are illogical ; that, since Confederation 
 was effected, the former party objects have ceased 
 to have any weight ; that statesmen ought now to 
 strive, not for the mere possession of office, but for 
 the advancement of the country as a whole, and for 
 its consolidation as a political unit. In other words, 
 the purpose is to promote a feeling of nationality at 
 the expense of provincialism, to make men who are 
 of French descent, and who speak the language of 
 France, or who are the descendants of parents of 
 English, Irish, or Scottish birth, think less of the 
 land and nation from which their fathers came than 
 of the country in which their fathers have found a 
 happy home, and where they have seen the light of 
 day, Canada being the chief object of their love, and 
 her interests having the first place in their endea- 
 vours. The design is not unworthy of encourage- 
 ment and countenance from all well-wishers of this 
 magnificent division of America, even though the 
 ultimate object of those persons who urge its adop- 
 tion might be open to criticism. The leading jour- 
 nal of Canada has energetically combated the 
 notions of men who assuredly merit a considerate
 
 240 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 and attentive hearing. My own desire is that the 
 two systems of government in North America 
 should produce their best results. They differ in 
 form rather than in substance ; yet, as the world is 
 influenced by forms nearly as much as by abstract 
 propositions, the difference is not unimportant. 
 Some citizens of the United States were almost 
 struck dumb with amazement when the Earl of 
 Dufferin, the deservedly popular Governor-General 
 of Canada, told them at Chicago that the Canadians 
 were essentially a Democratic people. They had 
 thought that no one living under what they style 
 Monarchical institutions, or rather none who do not 
 yield allegiance to the Constitution of the United 
 States, can be actually free to exercise the maximum 
 of self-government. They little know how slightly 
 the Monarchical system of Great Britain corresponds 
 with monarchy in its worst and most common mani- 
 festation, and how little real difference there is 
 between the Government of which they are proud 
 and that which constitutes the essence of the British 
 monarchy. They talk of the sovereignty of the 
 people as the corner-stone of their institutions, and 
 they seem unaware that the sovereignty of the peo- 
 ple has been the ruling maxim and guiding star of 
 leading British statesmen from the earliest days down 
 to those in which we live. Not even in the United 
 States do the people play the part of sovereigns 
 more thoroughly than in the United Kingdom. It 
 is true that the popular election of the head of the 
 State is not observed in the same manner now as in 
 the early days of English history, and that the elec- 
 tion of a dynasty by Act of Parliament has super- 
 seded the custom of ancient times. It is true, also,
 
 THE PROVINCE OP ONTARIO. 241 
 
 that the British Constitution as it now exists, or 
 rather as it is now interpreted, is very different from 
 what it was supposed to be when a Henry or a 
 Charles, a James or a George invoked its sanction 
 in order to enforce his own designs against the 
 wishes of the people. What has survived and tri- 
 umphed is the principle which is its essence and the 
 maxim which it inculcates, the principle that free- 
 dom is the birthright of the people, the maxim that 
 self-government is their duty. All that is best in 
 the Constitution of the United States forms a part 
 of the Constitution of Great Britain. 
 
 The Canadians are conscious of these things, and 
 they know that they have good reason to admire 
 and glory in the form of government under which 
 they enjoy freedom. They know also, that if all the 
 colonists of America had been dealt with according 
 to the true theory of the British Constitution, Patrick 
 Henry and Samuel Adams might have declaimed in 
 vain, and the contest for the independence of the 
 United States would never have been provoked. 
 Yet I fear that some young Canadians are inclined 
 to indulge in ideas which have the drawback of being 
 opposed alike to sound reason and the spirit of the 
 age. If their desires were fulfilled, they would take 
 a step backward in the science of government. What 
 would they gain by having a Minister at Washing- 
 ton and at each of the capitals of Europe ? This 
 might give them the dignity of a nation, and it 
 would also increase their taxes. In these days of 
 intercommunication by steam and telegraph, Minis- 
 ters Plenipotentiary and Ambassadors are ana- 
 chronisms, and all nations would save much and 
 lose nothing by abolishing legations and embassies.
 
 242 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 A Consul can do whatever is requisite ; a Minister or 
 Ambassador is but a costly ornament, and a new 
 country ought to have the shrewdness to prefer 
 what is useful to that which is purely ornamental. 
 This may be accounted a matter of detail. Let it be 
 granted that the new nation would dispense with 
 representatives at foreign Courts. What else would 
 it gain ? A flag ? The Canadians have got one. A 
 distinctive name ? They enjoy that also. A Gover- 
 nor or President elected by themselves ? It would 
 not be impossible to obtain that without battling for 
 independence. An army ? They have got as well- 
 organized a defensive force as Switzerland, and a 
 military academy for the training of officers on as 
 good a model as that at Sandhurst. A fleet ? Their 
 mercantile marine is now larger than that of many 
 European Powers, and Great Britain maintains a 
 navy for their defence; if they were independent, 
 they would certainly have the privilege of paying 
 for their own men-of-war. Protection for native 
 industry ? They are free to protect native industry 
 to their heart's content, to copy the economical 
 blunders of the Mother country when she was young 
 and ignorant of the true principles of commerce, 
 when her ambition was in excess of her wisdom and 
 when she would not believe what Sir Dudley North 
 enunciated as far back as 1691, that "the whole 
 world as to trade is but as one nation." 
 
 Though I think that the natural aspirations of the 
 young and patriotic Canadians have taken a wrong 
 turn, yet I hold that they have a solid foundation. 
 They spring from the conviction that the day must 
 come, if it have not already arrived, when their 
 native land should hold a higher rank than that of
 
 THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO. 243 
 
 a British colony. Indeed, to regard the Dominion, 
 with its Parliament and separate government, as 
 a mere Colony is to do violence to facts. To define 
 exactly what it is, and to characterize its position in 
 a phrase, constitute a difficulty not easily sur- 
 mounted. Unfortunately, also, the world at large 
 has a vague and absurd notion of the country and 
 its capabilities. The Province of Quebec has repre- 
 sented Canada for upwards of two centuries ; that 
 Province does not possess a very rich soil nor a mild 
 climate, and it has been supposed that what is 
 true of it applies to the whole Dominion. When 
 the French army, under the chivalrous and heroic 
 Montcalm, made a determined stand in this Pro- 
 vince against the attempt to deprive France of her 
 grand domain in the New World, all that Voltaire, 
 the best-informed man of his day, thought fit to 
 remark was that he could not understand why 
 people should try to cut each other's throats in 
 order to become the proprietors of a few acres of 
 ice. Since the time of Voltaire there has not been 
 much progress in knowledge of the condition and 
 resources of the land which he ignorantly depre- 
 ciated. The Province of Ontario, formerly known 
 as Upper Canada, was once covered with wood ; the 
 early settlers had to clear the ground of trees before 
 they could plough their fields and sow their seed. 
 Life there came to be regarded as life in the bush, 
 an existence of much hardship and yielding a scanty 
 recompense. At present, the drawback is that 
 there are too few trees ; the preservation of the 
 forests being now as important a problem as that 
 which vexed the first settlers when wood was super- 
 abundant. Yet many educated persons in Europe 
 
 R 2
 
 244 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 do not doubt for a moment that Canada is a land 
 resembling, in its main features, the Sea of Ancient 
 Ice at the North Pole and the Black Forest as 
 described by Cassar. Of the Prairie Province of 
 Manitoba, where the entire population of Great 
 Britain might easily find a pleasant home, and of 
 the Province of British Columbia, a large part of 
 which is as rich in mineral treasures and enjoys as 
 balmy a climate as the State of California, hardly 
 anything is known in Europe. Yet these Provinces, 
 including the not less important Maritime Provinces, 
 make up the Dominion, which in area is equal to 
 the United States, and in variety of soil, tem- 
 perature, natural productions, and resources is on a 
 par with them. The prospects of such a country 
 ought to be more correctly estimated. It is 
 natural for its inhabitants to think that they are 
 something more than a colony, if something less 
 than a nation. 
 
 I see no reason why the existing relation between 
 Canada and the Motherland should be materially 
 altered. A future change ought to tighten the bond 
 of union rather than relax or sever it. The un- 
 doubted tendency of the age is to bring into closer 
 association the people who have sprung from the 
 same race. To this is attributable a united Italy 
 and a united Germany, and the gist of the Eastern 
 Question is the desire of the Slavonic race to be- 
 come partners in government and a unit in natio- 
 nality. Why should the destiny or determination of 
 the Anglo-Saxon race be otherwise ? If brethren 
 ought to dwell together in unity, surely the members 
 of this race are well able to set a good example 
 to the human family ! The exact place which the
 
 THE PROVINCE OF ONTAEIO. 245 
 
 Confederation of Canada and the future federations 
 of Australasia and South Africa should fill in the 
 British Empire is a subject for discussion and 
 arrangement, yet it is one which all true patriots, 
 alike in the parent State and her Colonies, ought to 
 be prepared to treat with a view to harmonious 
 decision. Meantime, there is much to be done as 
 regards Canada which has been overlooked or 
 neglected. The leading men of the Dominion hap- 
 pily place full value upon Imperial recognition of their 
 titles to approbation ; but their claims to such dis- 
 tinction seldom receive due attention. A few years 
 back it was pompously announced that the scope of 
 the Order of St. Michael and St. George had been 
 enlarged so as to permit distinguished colonists to 
 become members of it. They naturally look with 
 disfavour upon hereditary honours. Indeed this 
 feeling is gaining ground in England, and the day 
 may not be distant when all titular distinctions there 
 shall be the rewards of personal merit and enjoyed 
 by those only who have duly earned them. Lord 
 Dufferin was recently raised to the highest rank in the 
 Order of St. Michael and St. George, because he had 
 proved himself to be a most efficient Governor-General 
 of Canada ; but not a single native-born Canadian has 
 yet been made a Knight Commander of the Order. 
 As the omission is not attributable to any lack of 
 deserving candidates, it must be ascribed to simple 
 indifference or sheer neglect. This may seem a 
 trivial matter, as trivial as the privilege in the 
 French Republic of certain men to wear a scrap of 
 red ribbon in their button-holes ; but, if the 
 Canadians were properly considered in the distri- 
 bution of well-earned titular distinctions, they
 
 246 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 would feel for the hand which conferred them quite 
 as much enthusiasm as Frenchmen feel for the 
 authority which makes them members of the Legion 
 of Honour. Again, there are many cases in which 
 Canadian statesmen might be fitly entrusted with 
 the discharge of Imperial functions ; every such 
 appointment would make their fellow-citizens under- 
 stand that they formed part of the same Imperial 
 organization. But it does not enter into the calcu- 
 lations of the Home Government to make any 
 appointment of the kind. 
 
 I have said enough to express my own impression 
 of the light in which Canadians view the land to 
 which they are attached, and of the manner in 
 which they ought to be regarded and treated in 
 turn. Many points of detail I have passed over. 
 One of these, which I shall merely cite by way of 
 example, is the absurdity of such a grand portion of 
 the British Empire being denied the right to accord 
 naturalization to any foreigner who desires to cast 
 in his lot with that Empire. A foreigner can be 
 naturalized in Canada, but he cannot claim the 
 privileges of a British subject when he leaves 
 Canadian territory. This matter, among others, 
 ought to be the subject of appropriate legislation, 
 and the British statesman who deals with such 
 topics in a right spirit will deserve the congratu- 
 lations and gratitude of his countrymen.
 
 247 
 
 XV. 
 
 TRAVELLERS AND BANKERS IN NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 BRITISH gold is a commodity which, according to 
 Horace Greeley and other United States journalists, 
 has wrought much mischief in their country. My 
 experience is that few things are more useless there. 
 Several times I have suffered all the privations of 
 poverty because, my supply of the national currency 
 being exhausted, I had nothing left in my purse but 
 English sovereigns. In France, Italy, Germany, or 
 any other European country, the traveller who 
 possesses these coins can always get what he wants 
 in a shop or a hotel. But in the United States they 
 are objects of suspicion. Once a good Samaritan 
 let me have what I wanted in exchange for one, and 
 only charged about twenty-five per cent, for his 
 kindness. He was a coloured gentleman. His 
 civility was overpowering, and had its reward. I do 
 not blame the citizen of the United States for de- 
 clining to cash the gold coin of England. If one of 
 them were to tender a gold eagle to an English 
 shopkeeper, he might find that it was not valued at 
 its proper rate. 
 
 What surprised me most of all was to learn that 
 in Canada the gold and silver coins of Great Britain 
 are not readily negotiable. The Canadian prefers
 
 248 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 his dollars, whether in silver or bank notes, to the 
 specie of the Motherland. In Australia or South 
 Africa, the English traveller never learns from the 
 currency that he is not at home. In the great 
 dependency of India, he finds an unaccustomed 
 mode of reckoning in vogue, and he sees coins which 
 are new to him. In the small possession of Heligo- 
 land he may be startled, as I once was, at being 
 asked to pay thirteen shillings for the performance 
 of a trifling service, though, when he learns that the 
 " schilling " is a Hamburg coin which is less in value 
 than a penny, he will pay the debt with entire 
 equanimity. I was struck with the remarks of some 
 fellow-passengers by the Pacific Railway when they 
 learned, upon entering the States of Nevada and 
 California, that gold and silver coins were alone 
 current, and that greenbacks were treated as foreign 
 money. They felt that this circumstance tended to 
 disprove the unity of their country. With not dis- 
 similar feelings, the English visitor to the Dominion 
 of Canada learns that the money which is a legal 
 tender in the United Kingdom differs from that 
 generally current there, and that he has to reckon in 
 dollars and cents instead of pounds, shillings, and 
 pence. The title of Mr. Warren's novel, " Ten Thou- 
 sand a- Year," must be altered to " Fifty Thousand a- 
 Year," in order to produce on the mind of a Canadian 
 the effect produced upon that of an Englishman. 
 
 Most persons who travel in America provide them- 
 selves, before starting, with a letter of credit. A 
 drawback to this consists in the necessity of deter- 
 mining upon the places which are to be visited, so 
 that the signature of the holder may be forwarded 
 to the correspondents of the bank which issues the
 
 TRAVELLERS AND BANKERS. 249 
 
 letter. Another drawback is that a commission is 
 charged upon the amount drawn by the holder. 
 Those persons who take circular Jnotes avoid both of 
 these inconveniences. I once cashed circular notes 
 in New York to the same amount as the sum which 
 a friend had drawn against his letter of credit ; he 
 had to pay three dollars by way of commission, 
 whereas I could not be called upon to pay anything. 
 Indeed, the utility^ of these circular notes is too well 
 known to need confirmation. Yet even they might 
 be rendered still more serviceable. Those which I 
 carry are issued by the London and Westminster 
 Bank. There is hardly a place of importance in 
 Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, 
 the East Indies, the West Indies, and Australasia, 
 which is not named in the letter of advice supplied 
 along with them. The only important omission is the 
 city of Boston ; why this great bank should not have a 
 correspondent there is a puzzle with which I should 
 have preferred not to be troubled. These notes and 
 the letter of advice are printed in the French tongue. 
 This may have been necessary several years ago, but 
 has now become an absurdity. Not a banker on the 
 Continent of Europe is unable to decipher the 
 English words on a note of the Bank of England, of 
 Ireland, of any Scottish bank, or on a United States 
 or Canadian greenback, while there are not a few 
 bank managers and clerks in the United States and 
 Canada to whom the French language is as unin- 
 telligible as Sanskrit. At Chicago, I was once 
 politely asked^to translate the contents of the note 
 and letter of advice, the clerk informing me that he 
 was slightly in doubt as to the import of certain 
 words, and that his fellow-clerks had not been able
 
 250 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 to clear up the mystery. On other occasions, I have 
 been satisfied that those persons who professed to be 
 able to read the foreign words had an opinion of 
 their import the reverse of my own. 
 
 No one who has used one of these notes needs to 
 be told that they have to be endorsed by the person 
 in whose name they are drawn, and that the signa- 
 ture must correspond with that written in the letter 
 of advice. At Toronto, I had the novel experience 
 of being suspected by a bank clerk of having com- 
 mitted a new, or rather an impossible kind of 
 forgery, that of forging my own name. After care- 
 ful consideration, a long conference with the 
 manager, and frequent surveys of my person, the 
 clerk told me that the signatures did not tally. The 
 one had been written with a very fine-pointed pen, 
 the other with a broad-pointed one, and this con- 
 stituted a difference which was held to be serious. 
 Being asked whether I had any more notes than the 
 single one which I desired to have cashed, I was 
 pleased to be able to state and prove that I possessed 
 several. At length, it was decided that I might be 
 the legal owner of these notes, and might have a 
 right to demand cash in exchange for them, and, 
 when I called again on a like errand, it was not 
 hinted to me that I must be somebody else. While 
 kept waiting, I had ample opportunities for seeing 
 how business was done in this bank, a branch of the 
 Bank of British North America. I learned that no 
 one could get a cheque cashed without being " identi- 
 fied." A respectable-looking man, who brought a 
 cheque for a few dollars, was subjected to a process 
 of examination and cross-examination resembling 
 that which goes on when an important but doubtful
 
 TRAVELLERS AND BANKERS. 251 
 
 witness is giving evidence in a court of justice. He 
 stated where he lived and mentioned persons whom 
 he knew, but was unable to give any other than a 
 negative answer to the reiterated question, " But is 
 there no one to identify you?" Fortunately some 
 one entered who was personally known to the clerks 
 and the man whom they were treating as a rogue, 
 and then the few dollars were handed over to him. 
 When the money was presented, it was done with 
 the air of the magistrate who, being in a lenient 
 mood, tells the accused to go free, but not to offend 
 again. If every banker had refused to cash my 
 circular notes I should have been little the worse. 
 The only unpleasant consequence would have been 
 the necessity of making an application to personal 
 friends or acquaintances, who, I am sure, would be 
 more eager to comply with my request than I should 
 be in preferring it. Other persons might be less 
 fortunate, and in their behalf I should be glad if 
 bankers in the United States and Canada did not 
 think it their duty to treat every stranger as a 
 swindler. If bankers in the United Kingdom were 
 to insist upon the " identification " of every person 
 who presents a cheque for payment, the business of 
 banking would be less profitable than it is, because 
 the time which ought to be occupied in transacting 
 it would be wasted by the clerks in discharging the 
 unremunerative duties of amateur detectives. I fear 
 that the formalities which are enforced in the United 
 States and Canadian banks, reminding me of what 
 prevails in the petty bank of a third-rate German 
 town, are symptomatic of actual business being far 
 from brisk, and of time not being on a par with 
 money.
 
 252 
 
 XVI. 
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF TORONTO. 
 
 IT was with unfeigned reluctance that I said fare- 
 well to the genial and enterprising inhabitants of 
 Toronto. In addition to much private hospitality, I 
 had enjoyed that of three clubs, the Toronto, the 
 National, and the United Empire. The first is an 
 old and select establishment; the other two are 
 young and vigorous rivals. In all of them, good 
 eating and drinking can be had at a charge which 
 seemed to me very moderate, and with a refinement 
 which cannot be surpassed. I had been long 
 enough here to take an interest in the local busi- 
 ness of the place. Three important electoral con- 
 tests occurred during my stay. It was supposed 
 that the result would have an appreciable effect 
 upon the policy and stability of Mr. Mackenzie's 
 Administration. That of South Ontario was the 
 most important, for it was accepted as in some mea- 
 sure a trial of strength between the Government and 
 the Opposition. The leading members of both 
 parties joined in the canvass, nor did the Premier 
 think it undignified to come forward as a speaker in 
 support of Mr. Edgar, the candidate of his party. 
 A better candidate or a more admirable specimen of 
 a native-born Canadian, it would be difficult to find.
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF TORONTO. 253 
 
 He had already been in Parliament and distinguished 
 himself there. Not only was he beaten, but a seat 
 was lost to his party. Though the majority was only 
 forty-one, yet the defeat had the greater significance 
 in a political point of view, because Mr. Gibbs, 
 the successful candidate, based his claims for support 
 on the advocacy of uncompromising Protection, 
 as well as on general opposition to the Ministry. 
 
 I had the satisfaction of seeing a specimen of one 
 arm of the defensive force upon which the Dominion 
 relies, the Toronto Field-Battery. Even after a 
 careful scrutiny it was difficult to distinguish it 
 from a battery of the Eoyal Artillery. I was not 
 surprised when Colonel Strange, the Dominion 
 Inspector of Artillery, said that he had never ex- 
 pected " after a quarter of a century in the service, 
 to see a Volunteer battery so thoroughly efficient in 
 every respect." If the entire defensive force be of 
 equal quality, Canada has no cause for being trou- 
 bled with a panic, while belligerent Fenians will act 
 wisely in keeping out of harm's way. 
 
 During my stay in Toronto, Dominion Day was 
 celebrated. It was the ninth anniversary of the 
 confederation of the Provinces and of the beginning 
 of a career as full of promise for the happiness of 
 the people and for the good of mankind as was 
 ever vouchsafed to a nation. The anniversary was 
 observed as a public holiday. The streets were gay 
 with flags and crowded with pleasure-seekers, and 
 the absence of those persons who desecrate such 
 occasions by intoxication was most gratifying to me. 
 A Lacrosse match was the spectacle which attracted 
 the largest number of sight-seers. A young and 
 ambitious set of players had challenged an older and
 
 254 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 famous one. To the evident surprise of the former, 
 a few goals or runs were scored by it. At this un- 
 expected success some of the youths manifested 
 their delight with such an energy of demonstration 
 that I almost expected them to verify the exagge- 
 rated saying about men jumping out of their skins for 
 joy. The game is one in which many hard knocks 
 are given and received, and in which speed of foot, 
 quickness of hand, and sharpness of eye have to be 
 displayed. In one match, a set of Indians con- 
 tended with a set of palefaces ; the Indians were 
 beaten alike on their own grounds and at their here- 
 ditary game. A brilliant display of fireworks in the 
 Horticultural Gardens concluded the rejoicings of 
 Dominion Day in Toronto. No public holiday could 
 have been better kept, nor could a great historical 
 anniversary be celebrated with more heartiness or 
 propriety. 
 
 On the 12th of July, I saw the procession which 
 Orangemen consider appropriate in a part of the 
 world where Orangeism is an anachronism. Yet, if 
 some Irishmen or their descendants and sympa- 
 thizers deem it essential to their happiness to parade 
 in yellow scarves and sashes on one day in the year, 
 and others consider themselves faithless to their 
 creed and country if they omit to make a like public 
 display, adorned with green scarves and sashes, on 
 another, it would be intolerant to hinder, and it 
 would be bad taste to blame them. So long as 
 they keep the peace, they do no harm to others, 
 even if they fail to benefit themselves. Happily, 
 these processions seldom lead to ill consequences in 
 Ontario, while they are regarded as splendid spectacles 
 by the children.
 
 IMPEESSIONS OF TORONTO. 255 
 
 There are three theatres in Toronto where excel- 
 lent performances are given. During my visit, an 
 English opera troupe appeared at the summer theatre 
 in the Horticultural Gardens. The principal members 
 of it, the Misses Holman, are two Canadian young 
 ladies, the elder of whom sings and acts very well. I 
 saw them perform in Lecocq's " Girofle, Girofla." 
 The operetta was well put on the stage, and the com- 
 pany acted with considerable finish. Miss Holman, 
 who played the leading female part, did so with much 
 effect, and justified the praise which admiring Cana- 
 dians lavish upon her. If she could only get rid of a 
 spasmodic action of the shoulders, which mars the 
 effect of her acting, she would satisfy the most fasti- 
 dious critic. These are but a few of the sights and 
 pleasures which made my stay in the capital of On- 
 tario one to be remembered with satisfaction. I was 
 unfortunately unable to attend any of the political 
 picnics, which are a favourite form of party demon- 
 stration. Speechifying is the staple of the enter- 
 tainment, though refreshments in a solid and liquid 
 shape are not omitted from the programme. Having 
 read the reports of many speeches delivered on 
 these occasions, I found that they all bore a similar 
 character ; the speakers trumpeting forth the merits 
 and services of themselves and their own party, and 
 bewailing the sins and shortcomings of the party to 
 which their opponents belonged. I regretted most 
 of all that other engagements prevented me from 
 accepting the invitation of the Honourable George 
 Brown to visit his estate of Bow Park. As the 
 founder and proprietor of the Toronto Globe, as an 
 ex-Premier of Canada prior to confederation, as a 
 Senator of the Dominion, he is one of the most
 
 25G COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 notable men in the country; like enegetic and eminent 
 men in all countries, he is the target for criticism, 
 seldom friendly and not unfrequently unjust. He 
 has long wielded a powerful pen, and he has attained 
 a position of authority which renders him an object 
 of envy and animadversion. If public men could be 
 fairly judged during their lifetime, I fancy the persons 
 who speak most bitterly about this truly representa- 
 tive Canadian would modify their language and make 
 allowance for much which they dislike. It is certain 
 that Mr. Brown's place in Canada is a conspicuous 
 one ; the future historian will probably say far more 
 in his praise than some of his contemporaries would 
 dream of doing. The Globe is now edited by his 
 brother, Mr. Gordon Brown, a man of great sagacity, 
 force of character, and journalistic talent, the Honour- 
 able George Brown devoting the greater part of 
 his time to the rearing of thoroughbred farm stock. 
 Like Charles James Fox and Lord Althorp, he finds 
 a pleasure in his farm much more satisfying than 
 that afforded by the turmoil of public life. Cer- 
 tainly, his success in improving the breed of cattle 
 in the Dominion is not the least among his useful 
 achievements. From an article in the Canada 
 Farmer for the 15th January, 1876, 1 learn that Bow 
 Park estate covers 900 acres, of which 780 are under 
 cultivation, the remainder being covered with roads, 
 farm buildings, orchards, and belts of timber, and 
 supplying pieces of wild land where the cattle take 
 their daily recreation. The bulls, which are of the 
 purest breeds, have been imported from England. 
 The good health of the cattle is remarkable, the 
 death-rate being under one per cent, yearly. ISTo 
 better notion of what has been accomplished can be
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF TORONTO. 257 
 
 given than by quoting the following passage : 
 " The popularity of the herd keeps pace with its 
 improvement. Buyers come from all quarters. A 
 drove of remarkably fine heifers went across the 
 Continent two years ago, and was shipped at San 
 Francisco by steamer for the Emperor of Japan. 
 The Provincial Government of New Brunswick were 
 purchasers last Fall of thirty head of young stock ; 
 and Bow Park bred shorthorns have already found 
 their way into many States of the adjoining Repub- 
 lic, and into a large proportion of the townships of 
 Ontario." I repeat my regret that I can speak of 
 this remarkable place from hearsay only, and I add 
 my hope that I may yet be able to do so after a 
 personal visit. Of this I entertain no doubt : the 
 place must be in every respect noteworthy, because 
 Canadians who say uncomplimentary things of the 
 Honourable George Brown as a journalist and a 
 legislator readily express their admiration for Bow 
 Park. 
 
 I cannot single out for separate mention all the per- 
 sons in Toronto from whom I received much kindness 
 and attention. Rivals in politics, they were at one in 
 doing what lay in their power to give me informa- 
 tion and to render my stay agreeable. Belonging, 
 as they did, to opposite camps, I learned more from 
 them than if they had been members of the same 
 party and treated public questions with the one- 
 sidedness of those persons who represent a single 
 aspect in politics or government. I am convinced 
 that Canadian politics, however provincial they may 
 seem, and however arid and unattractive they may 
 be to the superficial observer, are in reality worthy 
 of close study by all students of political science. 
 
 s
 
 258 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 ftideed, Canada is a theatre on which a great 
 legislative drama is now in progress. All the races 
 which inhabit the United Kingdom are there work- 
 ing out a common destiny in concert with the race 
 which inhabits France. We know how difficult it is 
 for Englishmen, Scotsmen, and Irishmen to dwell 
 together in concord, promoting their own hap- 
 piness by a right acceptance of the soothing 
 principle of compromise, and by submitting to the 
 rule of expediency instead of stiffly contending for 
 the uniform application of logical but unpractical 
 conclusions. Our Canadian brethren have the 
 further difficulty of persuading those among them 
 who are of French origin, to unite in a general 
 design, and to place the interest of a common 
 country above the prejudices of race and the 
 promptings of tradition. Hitherto the result has 
 been far more satisfactory than any mere reasoner 
 could have foreseen. All things are working for 
 good. Frenchmen in speech and descent here 
 manifest as strong an attachment to self-govern- 
 ment and to parliamentary institutions as the most 
 patriotic Briton could display, and they belie the 
 idle talk about the representative system of the 
 United Kingdom being unsuited for the excitable 
 members of the Celtic family. There was true 
 wisdom as well as Gallic wit in the reply of the late 
 Sir George Cartier to the inquiry of the Queen, 
 "What, Sir George, is a French Canadian?" 
 ' ' Your Majesty, he is an Englishman who speaks 
 French." The French Canadians speak English 
 also, and many combine in a remarkable degree the 
 best qualities of both nationalities. Moreover, they 
 are among the most patriotic subjects of the Crown,
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF TORONTO. . 259 
 
 and the saying of Sir Etienne Tache, that the last 
 shot fired on the North American Continent in 
 support of British supremacy would be fired by a 
 French Canadian from the citadel of Quebec, 
 forcibly expresses what would happen in an almost 
 impossible event. 
 
 s 2
 
 200 
 
 XVII. 
 
 TORONTO TO SOUTHAMPTON. 
 
 I JOURNEYED to the Suspension Bridge which cro 
 the river Niagara over the Great Western Railway, 
 thence to Buffalo and New York over tho Krie 
 I tail way. The latter is a line with which British 
 investors are painfully familiar. They have receive. d 
 from its directors abundant and reiterated promises 
 of future dividends, accompanied with requests for 
 the disbursement of more capital. In a work pub- 
 lished in 18GO, and written by Mr. F. C. Grattan, 
 who had been British Consul at Boston for twenty 
 years, it is said, " Should any one be tempted to 
 trust his money in American ventures, let him 
 inquire the history of the New York and Erie Rail- 
 road Company." Yet, despite warning and ex- 
 perience, credulous investors continued to furnisli the 
 directors of this company with the additional capital 
 which the shrewder citizens of the United Slates 
 refused to supply. So long as money is sent from 
 this side of tho Atlantic, the directors of tho Eric 
 Railway are always pleased to receive and prepared 
 to spend it on the other. If the British capitalist, 
 had never become a holder of Erie shares or bonds, 
 or if he had judiciously refrained from responding 
 to the demands for more capital, it is proliaUc that
 
 TORONTO TO SO IT II, \MPTON. 
 
 the lino would have boon hotter managed, and it is 
 certain that its condition could not liavo boon more 
 hopeless than at present. The line is well mado ; 
 it runs through a rich and beautiful country; it is a 
 trunk line connecting the markets of the West with 
 the mart of New York. But it has competitors, 
 equally favoured in all these respects, which, being 
 narrow-guage linos, can be worked at less cost than 
 it can bo, seeing that it is a broad-guage one. The 
 rates charged must be the same as those which are 
 charged by directors of other companies, though 
 the work has to be done at greater outlay. This 
 railway may pay a dividend on the ordinary stock 
 about the same time that a dividend is paid by the 
 Emma Mine. The position of a bondholder may be 
 considered more favourable by those investors who 
 are exceedingly sanguine. I should rank Erie 
 bonds with those of Greece or Mexico, Honduras 
 or Turkey, as a safe and permanent investment. 
 
 For the third time during this visit to the United 
 States, I arrived at New York aiul spent a few days 
 there. On one of these occasions the heat was 
 overpowering, being more intense, I was told, than 
 hail boon experienced for many a year. Indeed, 
 the hundredth anniversary of the Republic was 
 remarkable as the year in which the hottest summer 
 on record had occurred. For weeks together, I 
 did not see the thermometer indicate less than 
 S'J'' in the shade; while it often indicated 10(>\ 
 In Admiral Anson's "Voyage round the World," 
 ii is said thai the highest point of the thermometer 
 in the (Y///Vn<>, during three years and nine 
 months, was 76. The Rev. Richard Walter, who 
 wrote the story of the voyage, remarks that, once in
 
 2C2 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 1746, the thermometer in London marked 78, and 
 that he had heard of the temperature having been 
 98 at St. Petersburg in 1743, this, he says, being a 
 " degree of heat, that, were it not authorized by the 
 regularity and circumspection with which the ob- 
 servations seem to have been made, would appear 
 altogether incredible." Till I had spent the summer 
 months in the United States and Canada, I was 
 quite as sceptical as the chaplain to Admiral Anson 
 about the degree of heat which the human frame 
 could sustain. I now readily admit, however, that 
 the hottest spot which the imagination can picture 
 may be found on this side of the grave, and that 
 the best men may suffer as severely as the worst. 
 
 As it suited my convenience to land at South- 
 ampton, I resolved to embark at New York in a 
 steamer of the Wilson line which touched there on 
 the way to Hull. I had heard the steamers of this 
 company both disparaged and praised. Whether they 
 are well adapted for encountering the terrific storms 
 which sometimes sweep over the Atlantic, I shall 
 leave to the decision of professional mariners. I 
 can say that the state-room occupied by my wife 
 and myself was the best-arranged and most spacious 
 I have ever seen. On the other hand, there was a 
 great and unfavourable contrast between the meagre 
 fare provided for the first-class passengers, and the 
 frequent and sumptuous repasts served on board 
 the steamer of the National line which I have 
 described in the second chapter. 
 
 The first-class passengers were few in number, 
 without being select. All the officers were ex- 
 perienced navigators, and pleasant men. Captain 
 Laver, who had been for fifteen years in the
 
 TORONTO TO SOUTHAMPTON. 263 
 
 service of the Inman line, and had but recently 
 entered the service of the Wilson line, had 
 a perfect familiarity with the Atlantic in all its 
 moods and phases. Mr. Guthrie, the chief officer, 
 had been in command of several steamships ; but, 
 having spent three years on shore, he accepted this 
 subordinate post till he should again obtain an 
 independent command. The second and third 
 officers had been frequently backwards and forwards 
 between England and the United States. The less 
 I say about the crew the better. Such a motley 
 set of sailors I never saw before. The best seaman 
 among them was a Greek, and the next best was a 
 negro. Sometimes, when the officer of the watch 
 gave an order, he had to explain to the sailors 
 what he meant, and show them how to execute it. 
 When sailors do not always know one rope from 
 another, they fail to inspire a landsman with con- 
 fidence. Had Mr. Plimsoll been a passenger, he 
 might have been more impressed with the sea- 
 worthiness of the vessel than with that of the crew. 
 At Southampton I had an easy task in con- 
 vincing the Customs authorities that no spirits, 
 cigars, or silver-plate were concealed in my luggage. 
 Perhaps a large profit can be got by importing 
 spirits from the United States or Canada, but this is 
 a business about which 1 am ignorant. I know 
 that I can buy cigars one-third cheaper in London 
 than in New York, so the temptation to bring them 
 from the latter to the former place is not one to 
 which I am likely to succumb. I have no objection 
 to silver-plate when it is given to me ; but, when 
 furnishing a house at my own expense, I prefer 
 electro-plate, firstly, because it costs less ; secondly,
 
 264 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 because it is quite as serviceable, and thirdly, 
 because it has slight attraction for pilferers. I had 
 simply to unlock one or two articles of luggage as a 
 matter of form. The absence of superfluous fussi- 
 ness on the part of the Custom House officers made 
 the landing here and the prospect of a speedy 
 arrival at home all the more agreeable. 
 
 The steamer from which I had landed continued 
 her voyage to Hull, her destined port. Her name 
 is one which is now shrouded in the painful mystery 
 which surrounds the ill-fated President, the Pacific, 
 the City of Boston, and other craft which have disap- 
 peared and left no sign. Sailing from Hull for New 
 York in the regular course, she never reached her 
 destination. It is improbable that any tidings 
 will ever be obtained of the last voyage and the 
 end of the steamship Colombo.
 
 XVIII. 
 
 A EETROSPECT AND A COMPAEISON. 
 
 IF some of the Fathers of the Republic, such as 
 Franklin and Jefferson, John Adams and Washington, 
 had risen from their graves and been present at its 
 'centenary, they would have been as strangers among 
 a people whom they had moulded into a nation, 
 having as much to unlearn as the most prejudiced 
 foreigner, and as much to learn as the most intelli- 
 gent Japanese. They would have had to take 
 lessons in the geography of their country in order 
 to ascertain the boundaries and designations of many 
 States, the names and situations of many cities ; 
 they would have had to acquire information about 
 the ways of party managers and the mode in which 
 the chief magistrate is now elected ; they might have 
 been puzzled to recognize any material likeness 
 between the system of government which they found 
 in operation and the carefully balanced Republic 
 which they called into existence. 
 
 Jefferson would assuredly contemplate with 
 delight the pure democracy which has fulfilled his 
 wishes, given effect to his teaching, and supplanted 
 the original Republic. Franklin, John Adams, and 
 Washington might prefer the form of government 
 which they had elaborated with a single-minded
 
 266 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 desire to render the welfare of their country indepen- 
 dent of the triumph of a party, to protect the people 
 from becoming the tools or dupes of professional 
 politicians, and to insure the effective representation 
 of the deliberate and undoubted opinion of the 
 nation. While finding matter for discussion or 
 criticism, they would also find much wherein to 
 glory. The widened area and increased population 
 of their country; the grand array of States and 
 Territories; the vastness and opulence of cities 
 which in their day were but petty towns, covering 
 what was once a dense wood or noisome swamp ; 
 the net-work of railways, over which goods and 
 passengers are carried with a rapidity and con- 
 venience far in excess of what was possible on the 
 canals which they considered a perfect means of 
 transport ; the newspapers as far superior to the 
 gazettes of their time as a modern school manual 
 is to a mediaeval horn-book ; the steamboats which 
 crowd the rivers ; the electric telegraphs which have 
 made lightning the servant of thought ; the innumer- 
 able appliances which have lengthened and ameliorated 
 existence since they left the world, and the absence 
 from their country of the curse of slavery which they 
 deplored, but could not extirpate: all these things 
 would excite their admiration and thankfulness, and 
 justify them in rejoicing over the results of their 
 handiwork. 
 
 " What are the great United States for, if not for 
 the regeneration of man ?" General Choke defiantly 
 put this question when he was persuading Martin 
 Chuzzlewit to become a permanent settler in Eden. 
 The phrase is a condensed reflex of the optimism
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 267 
 
 which prevailed when the Republic was young. 
 The rhodomontade in which Britons so delighted in 
 the eighteenth century, that the impostor Jenkins 
 was enabled to originate war with Spain by telling 
 a committee of the House of Commons, when 
 interrogated as to what he thought after the Spanish 
 captain had cut off his ear, " I commended my soul 
 to God, and my cause to my country," soon became 
 the fashion among the citizens of the Republic in 
 North America. They fancied themselves to be a 
 peculiar people, who had been entrusted with the 
 sacred mission of diffusing a vague abstraction called 
 the " Great American Idea," and considered, when 
 they uttered the immoral phrase, " our country right 
 or wrong," that they were giving vent to a maxim of 
 the truest patriotism. Taught to repeat that the 
 natural equality of all men is a self-evident truth, 
 they have always been disinclined to inquire how far 
 this assertion will stand the test of critical examina- 
 tion. A patriotic phrase can seldom bear analysis, 
 and those persons who utter it, being instinctively 
 conscious of that fact, shrink from substantiating the 
 literal accuracy of what they glibly repeat. 
 
 It is self-evident that all men are not created 
 equal. If all men enter the world with equal 
 possibilities, they do not enjoy equal opportunities, 
 and opportunity is fortune or fate. Natural equality 
 and mutual dependence is the rule of the human race. 
 An infant left to itself will starve : those persons who 
 leave an infant to itself commit murder. The idlest 
 talk in which people can indulge is that which treats 
 of human rights without taking human duties into 
 account. It is infinitely more to the advantage of 
 the community that duties, which are coextensive
 
 268 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 with rights, should be ascertained and discharged 
 than that rights should be asserted and lauded. The 
 tendency of some unreflecting United States citizens 
 has been to follow the lead of Jefferson, and hold 
 that they have done enough when they have pro- 
 claimed and upheld their collective independence. 
 Believing that this is all that can be required of them, 
 they are prone to speak with contempt of nations 
 wherein human nature and society are treated as 
 complex problems and wherein no vain attempt is 
 made to enforce or parade a purely chimerical 
 uniformity. The only true and really practical 
 equality is equality before the law, and of this the 
 United States do not possess a monopoly. It is a 
 rule, to which the exceptions are not more frequent 
 there than in other lands, that those persons who 
 boast the loudest about the country to which they 
 belong by the accident of birth, seldom' give that 
 country any reason to be proud of them, while those 
 persons who copy their example, after having been 
 naturalized, seldom give the country which they have 
 left any cause to regret their departure. 
 
 While the phrases of Jefferson have exercised an 
 important influence over his fellow-countrymen, 
 other causes have contributed to establish a feel- 
 ing of superiority in their minds. United States 
 nationality was based upon the vigorous resistance 
 of the Empire from which it was an off-shoot. The 
 triumph of the seceding and victorious Colonists was 
 twofold; they had become independent, and they 
 had conquered their independence in the teeth of 
 formidable odds. After their power to have their 
 own way was demonstrated in the field, they had to 
 face sneers and prejudices more cutting and painful
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 269 
 
 than the arms of the foe. They were assured that 
 their independence was an illusion, that they must 
 inevitably become the sport of anarchy, the vassals 
 of a dictator, or the prey of a foreign conqueror. 
 Though the elements of strength and greatness in 
 the infant Republic were recognized by a few states- 
 men of genius, among whom Charles James Fox was 
 most conspicuous, yet the majority of those persons 
 who gave any heed to its affairs gleefully pointed 
 out how far the government fell short of perfection 
 and confidently predicted that the republican bubble 
 would soon burst. Undue boasting and exaggerated 
 expectations, on the one side, were coincident with, 
 if they did not encourage unfair depreciation on the 
 other. 
 
 It was unfortunate that some of the earliest 
 travellers in the United States were foolish enthu- 
 siasts, who wrote nonsense about a state of nature 
 and the rights of man. The Marquis of Lafayette 
 exhibited a childish exultation at playing the part of 
 a good republican. If it be difficult for a rich man 
 to enter the kingdom of Heaven, it is easy for such 
 an one to get unmerited credit on earth by professing 
 to be no better than the humblest of mankind, and 
 to attain an exalted place by judiciously stooping. 
 Being a marquis and a man of large fortune, 
 Lafayette found in the profession of theoretical 
 republicanism, the enjoyment of a new sensation 
 and a passport to a popularity which he might not 
 otherwise have obtained. 
 
 His countryman, M. Brissot, who was guillotined 
 by his republican brethren in Paris on account of 
 his undoubted attachment to liberty, visited the 
 United States in 1788. He expected to find a
 
 270 COLUMBIA AND .CANADA. 
 
 terrestrial paradise there. Before landing he ex- 
 perienced vivid pleasure from a commonplace inci- 
 dent. The master of the vessel in which he was a 
 passenger, having spoken with a fishing-boat off the 
 banks of Newfoundland, received a few cod-fish, for 
 which he gave some salt beef and pork in exchange. 
 This reminded M. Brissot of " primitive times, the 
 thought of which is always associated with greater 
 purity and happiness." l On stepping ashore at 
 Boston, he was " spared the annoyances, which are 
 even more humiliating than wearisome, of a visit 
 from custom-house officers, as is the rule in Euro- 
 pean countries." He was charmed with the aspect 
 of the people in the streets of this town. These 
 sturdy Republicans had neither the pleasure-seeking 
 look of Parisians nor the haughty carriage of the 
 English; "their air was simple and honest, yet 
 fraught with the dignity of men conscious of their 
 freedom, and who regard their fellow-men as their 
 brethren and equals." Once he saw the driver of a 
 stage-coach, who was the butt of bitter remarks 
 from the passengers, keep his temper and hold his 
 tongue. M. Brissot thought that in Europe a 
 bloody quarrel would have been the result of a 
 similar provocation ; here, however, the result con- 
 vinced him that " in a free country reason extends 
 her empire over every class." He noted some 
 drawbacks in this modern Arcadia. There were too 
 many prosperous lawyers in Boston and too many 
 bachelors in New York ; both being dangerous ele- 
 ments in a Republic. It pleased him to learn that 
 the bachelors in Pennsylvania paid a heavier poll- 
 
 1 " Nouveau Voyage dans les Etats-Unis," par J. P. Brissot, 
 vol. i. p. 105.
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 271 
 
 tax than married men. He saw with disgust the 
 sad and novel spectacle of Republicans smoking 
 cigars. He states that " this custom is loathsome 
 to a Frenchman. It must be offensive to women 
 bacause it affects the purity of the breath ; it must 
 be censured by a philosopher because it causes 
 superfluous expense." In his opinion, as great an 
 evil as tobacco-smoking is for women in a Re- 
 public to follow the fashions. Being present at a 
 dinner-party in New York, he saw two ladies in low- 
 necked gowns and he " was scandalized at this 
 indecency in female Republicans." His fellow- 
 countryman, the Marquis de Chastellux, who visited 
 the United States a few years before him, comments 
 in a like strain on the necessity for the women of a 
 Republic being models of simplicity in dress ; he 
 thinks it incompatible with the political system of 
 the country that gold, silver, or diamonds should be 
 worn. 2 The translator of the marquis's book, who 
 was an uncompromising partisan of the United 
 States, and travelled there during the Revolution, 
 records that " the rage for dress among the women 
 in America, in the very height of the miseries of 
 war, was beyond all bounds." 3 M. Brissot does not 
 exempt even the Quakers from backsliding in this 
 matter : he holds that their principles began to 
 decay when they took to wearing fine linen. In 
 addition to the superabundance of lawyers, bachelors, 
 and fashionable garments, M. Brissot observed with 
 regret, that some persons, whom he styles well-bred, 
 ostentatiously dispensed with pocket handkerchiefs. 
 Among the hints for their improvement, with 
 
 1 " Travels in North America in 1780-81-82," vol. ii. p. 360. 
 8 Vol. ii. p. 115.
 
 272 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 which he favoured the citizens of the United States, 
 was one to the effect that they should abolish public 
 gaols. They cost much to build and they arc 
 unpleasant places of abode. Far better, he thinks, 
 would it be if criminals were condemned to serve 
 their terms of imprisonment in their own houses, 
 with policemen on duty at the doors. Another 
 piece of advice, equally judicious and practical, was 
 that a mercantile marine should neither be en- 
 couraged nor maintained. In his opinion a sea- 
 faring life is unnatural. Men who navigate the 
 ocean may become sea-sick and must dispense with 
 the society of their wives ; the one being a great 
 affliction and the other a great deprivation. His 
 conclusion is that Republicans ought to avoid being 
 sea-sick and should maintain domestic habits by 
 engaging in the coasting-trade and always keeping 
 within sight and reach of land. 4 Had he tried the 
 experiment, he might have found that the malady 
 which he dreaded does not always spare the fair- 
 weather sailor who coasts along the shore. 
 
 On the whole, however, M. Brissot was enchanted 
 with the United States. Wherever he went, " he 
 met with the hospitable reception which is accorded 
 to a brother and a friend, travelling for the good of 
 the human race." Being struck wi^h the purity of 
 the manners, he explains this by saying that nine- 
 tenths of the people are dispersed throughout the 
 country. If the purity be as great now as it was 
 then, the explanation does not hold good. In 1800, 
 one twenty-fifth part of the population was congre- 
 gated in towns having 8,000 inhabitants and up- 
 wards ; in 1870, the proportion was one-fifth." 5 
 
 4 Vol. i. p. 100. 5 " Walker's Statistical Atlas." 1 870.
 
 A 14ETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 273 
 
 Though pronouncing France, which he had quitted 
 in disgust, to be " the richest, the most powerful, 
 and most enlightened country in the world," M. 
 Brissot adjures those who " doubt the prodigious 
 effects of liberty upon man and his industry, to go to 
 the United States. What miracles will they not see 
 there ! " 8 
 
 In the year 3 of the French Republic and the 
 year 1795 of the civilized world, Volney embarked 
 at Havre for the United States. He had travelled 
 much and written some striking works ; he was an 
 actor in the Revolution, siding with the Girondists, 
 and had passed ten months in prison on account of 
 his advocacy of freedom. Grieving for the past, 
 disquieted about the future, he crossed the Atlantic 
 in quest of a peaceful asylum wherein to dwell for 
 the remainder of his life. He travelled over the 
 United States, " studying the climate, laws, inhabi- 
 tants, and their manners, chiefly with regard to 
 social life and domestic happiness." After an ex- 
 perience of three years, he resolved to end his days 
 there, but the animosity against the French was so 
 great, in 1798, that he recrossed the ocean in the 
 hope of finding a quiet resting-place in Europe. 
 
 Volney planned a work on the United States, of 
 which the only part given to the world was an out- 
 line of the physical characteristics of the country, 
 entitled a "View of the Climate and Soil of the 
 United States of America." In an introduction he 
 sketches the plan of the entire work, which would 
 have been in direct contrast, in many respects, to 
 the idyllic picture by his countryman, M. Brissot. 
 
 Vol. ii. p. 327.
 
 274 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 He expressed regret at not having found " in the 
 Americans those fraternal and benevolent disposi- 
 tions with which some writers have flattered us ;" 
 he thought that they retain a strong tinge of the 
 national prejudices of their Mother Country against 
 the French. He was impressed with the differences 
 "between the two nations ; differences which wholly 
 escaped M. Brissot's observation. Volney says, " The 
 Americans charge the French with levity, indiscre- 
 tion and talkativeness, and the French reproach 
 them with a dryness of manner, a stiffness, and a 
 taciturnity, that carry the appearance of pride and 
 haughtiness, and such a negligence of those atten- 
 tions, those civilities, on which they set a value, 
 that they continually imagine they see in them a 
 design to affront, or rudeness of character." In his 
 opinion, the latter charges are not devoid of founda- 
 tion, though he doubts whether the national in- 
 civility be wholly due to systematic design. He 
 thinks the people particularly deserve to be called, 
 what they often call themselves, a " young people," 
 on account of " the inexperience and eagerness, with 
 which they give themselves up to the enjoyments of 
 fortune and the seductions of flattery." He thinks, 
 too, that the United States have been more indebted 
 to their isolated situation and the natural riches of 
 the country " than to the essential goodness of their 
 laws, or the wisdom of their administration, for their 
 public prosperity, and civil and individual wealth." 
 In reviewing the conduct of the people and the 
 Government from 1783 to 1798, he believes that he 
 can prove by incontestable facts, " that neither more 
 economy in the finances, more good faith in public 
 transactions, more decency in public morals, more
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 275 
 
 moderation of party spirit, nor more care in educa- 
 tion and instruction, prevailed in the United States, 
 in proportion to their population, the mass of affairs, 
 and the multiplicity of interests, than in most of the 
 old States of Europe : that whatever has been done 
 there of good and useful, and whatever of civil 
 liberty, and security of person and property, exists 
 among them, is owing rather to popular and personal 
 habits, the necessity of labour, and the high price of 
 all kinds of work, than any able measures or sage 
 policy of government." 7 The foregoing extracts 
 prove how very dissimilar were the conclusions of 
 Volney and Brissot ; exaggeration on the one side 
 was paralleled by exaggeration on the other. 
 
 Mr. Isaac Weld was the earliest traveller from the 
 European side of the Atlantic who gave a really valu- 
 able account of what was to be seen in the United 
 States and Canada. His object in going thither was 
 to learn whether he could advise his countrymen to 
 emigrate from Ireland. He paid his visit seven 
 years after M. Brissot; unlike him, he was not 
 treated as a friend and brother. According to 
 Mr. Weld, if it were found out " that a stranger is 
 from Great Britain or Ireland, the people imme- 
 diately begin to boast of their constitution and free- 
 dom, and give him to understand that they think 
 every Englishman a slave because he submits to be 
 called a subject." 8 He was unfavourably impressed 
 with the poorer class of the people : " They return 
 rude and impertinent answers to questions couched 
 in the most civil terms, and will insult a person that 
 
 7 Preface to " View of the Climate and Soil of the United States 
 of America," by C. F. Volney, p. xv. 
 
 8 Isaac Weld's " Travels through North America and Canada 
 in 1795-6-7," vol. i. p. 125. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 COLUMBIA 'AND CANADA. 
 
 bears the appearance of a gentleman, on purpose to 
 show how much they consider themselves upon an 
 equality with him. Civility cannot be purchased 
 from them on any terms ; they seem to think that it 
 is incompatible with freedom, and that there is no 
 other way of convincing a stranger that he is really 
 in a land of liberty, but by being sulky and ill- 
 mannered in his presence." 
 
 The bad manners that shocked Mr. Weld were 
 due to a natural cause which can be easily under- 
 stood by recalling what took place in France when 
 the circumstances were similar. Nothing could 
 surpass the ceremoniousness and high breeding of 
 the old French nobles, who delighted in exhibit- 
 ing their proficiency in paying compliments and 
 displaying, on all occasions, an exquisite politeness. 
 Their dress was as elaborate as their phrases. After 
 the Revolution, it was considered the duty of good 
 French citizens to be rough in manner, rude in 
 speech and careless in dress, the object being to 
 show that they were not aristocrats. For a like 
 reason, Jefferson sedulously avoided doing anything, 
 as President, which George the Third would do as 
 King. The King of Great Britain went to open 
 Parliament in a carriage and delivered a speech ; 
 President Jefferson sent a message to Congress, 
 and, when he visited the capitol, he rode on horse- 
 back. If the King had ridden on horseback, the 
 President would have driven in a carriage. Wash- 
 ington and John Adams held levees modelled upon 
 those of monarchical rulers; Jefferson openly dis- 
 carded the etiquette which savoured of Old World 
 
 Vol. i. p. 29.
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 277 
 
 customs. Many of his contemporaries were aware 
 that this was a mixture of hypocrisy and affectation. 
 One of them, Mr. Samuel Breck, who was well 
 acquainted with several Presidents, thus refers to 
 him in his " Recollections :" " That levelling phi- 
 losopher, Jefferson, was the first President who 
 broke down all decorum and put himself when 
 abroad upon a footing with the plainest farmer of 
 Virginia. I say ' when abroad,' because in his 
 family he lived luxuriously and was fastidious in the 
 choice of his company. But when he wanted to 
 catch the applause of the vulgar with whom, how- 
 ever, he was too proud to associate he would ride 
 out without a servant, and hitch his pacing nag to 
 the railing of the Presidential palace." The people 
 were pleased to see the simple manners which the 
 great man assumed to flatter them, and they re- 
 turned his flattery with interest by copying and 
 exaggerating his example, considering a studied 
 unpoliteness of demeanour an unmistakeable token 
 of their unbending patriotism. This was as childish 
 as the conduct of the rabid French Republicans, 
 who demonstrated that they were very different 
 persons from the wicked and well-dressed nobles 
 whose heads they had cut off, by flaunting dirty 
 shirts and bespattered boots when they condescended 
 to enter a drawing-room. 
 
 Mr. Weld was surprised to find so many men in 
 the United States with military titles and he was 
 still more surprised to see " such numbers of them 
 employed in capacities apparently so inconsistent 
 with their rank ; for it is nothing uncommon to see 
 a captain in the shape of a waggoner, a colonel the 
 driver of a stage coach, or a general dealing out
 
 278 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 ' 
 
 penny ribbon behind his counter." l Twenty years 
 previously, the Marquis de Chastellux remarked 
 that, "nothing is more common in America than 
 to see an innkeeper a colonel;" the translator of his 
 book adds that he had stayed three days in Virginia 
 at an inn where the host was a colonel, a justice of 
 the peace, and the parish clerk. The liking for a 
 title of some sort has not quite died out in the 
 United States. Though a native of that home of 
 democracy is taught from early youth to regard a 
 title of nobility with aversion, yet he shows no 
 repugnance to acquiring or adopting the rank and 
 style of colonel or general, and, if a plausible excuse 
 for taking either be wanting, then he contents him- 
 self with that of Judge. The number of citizens who 
 prefix " Honourable " to their names is larger than 
 in any country with which I am acquainted. 
 Hundreds adorn their waistcoats with badges, show- 
 ing that they are freemasons or firemen. Vanity 
 of this kind is perfectly harmless ; it merely denotes 
 that human nature is the same in the great Re- 
 public as elsewhere. It is, however, equally harm- 
 less for any of the inhabitants of countries which 
 United States citizens are accustomed to designate 
 benighted, to wear a scrap of ribbon in a button- 
 hole, and to bear the title of baron or marquis, duke 
 or prince. 
 
 "While, on the one hand, the patriotic citizen of the 
 Republic is wont to fancy and declare that no good 
 thing can come out of a country in which the chief 
 magistrate is called a Sovereign, on the other, the 
 unreflecting subject of -a monarch is equally ready 
 
 1 Vol. i. p. 236.
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 279 
 
 to deny that any good thing can be found in a 
 country where the chief magistrate is called a Presi- 
 dent. A book by Mrs. Trollope which was welcomed 
 by the Quarterly Review as that which all right- 
 minded persons desired to see, caused a manifestation 
 of pleasure on the one side of the Atlantic and of ill- 
 humour on the other which it is now hard to under- 
 stand or account for. Mrs. Trollopo was firmly con- 
 vinced that everything must bo out of joint in a land 
 without a hereditary dynasty and an established 
 cl lurch and where the people elected their civil and 
 spiritual rulers. She avowed that her chief object 
 in giving publicity to her conclusions was " to 
 encourage her countrymen to hold fast by a Con- 
 stitution that insures all the blessings which flow 
 from established habits and solid principles. If 
 they forego these, they will incur the fearful risk of 
 breaking up their repose by introducing the jarring 
 tumult and universal degradation which invariably 
 follow the wild scheme of placing all the power of the 
 state in the hands of the populace." 2 When Mrs. 
 Trollope went to the United States, there was an agi- 
 tation in her native land about a reform of parlia- 
 ment; she evidently thought that she could do England 
 a service by depicting the horrid consequences which 
 had been the result elsewhere of extending the 
 suffrage and of taking the people at large into the 
 entire confidence of their governors. Whatever 
 she did not like throughout the Union, from tobacco- 
 chewing to rudeness in a hotel or stage coach, she 
 attributed to the political constitution. What ap- 
 peared to her at once remarkable and discreditable 
 
 * " Domestic Manners of the Americans." Preface.
 
 230 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 was the exquisite sensitiveness and soreness of the 
 people respecting everything said or written con- 
 cerning them. She took care to furnish occasion 
 and scope for the display of a trait which met with 
 her disapproval. Her condemnation of the entire 
 people was as sweeping as it was preposterous : 
 " I do not like them, I do not like their principles, 
 I do not like their manners, I do not like their 
 opinions." 3 Mrs. Trollope could not like them 
 because she was incapable of understanding them, 
 being wholly destitute of the philosophic tolerance 
 and insight which enables a person to perceive 
 something worthy of respect in that for which pre- 
 conceived notions have engendered a distaste. She 
 may have been the writer of whom a critic once 
 said to Sir Charles Lyell : " I wonder the author 
 went so far to see disagreeable people when there 
 are so many of them at home." 4 
 
 About the time that Mrs. Trollope, after having 
 failed in a business speculation at Cincinnati, made 
 much ado about trifles of etiquette and proclaimed 
 the system of government in the Republic a political 
 and social failure, a distinguished United States 
 man of letters undertook a vindication of his 
 country and countrymen. It is difficult to decide 
 whether the attack of Mrs. Trollope, or the defence 
 of Mr. Fenimore Cooper merits the prize for folly 
 and unreason. In one respect, Cooper was entitled 
 to make a boast which no country but his own 
 could prefer at the time that he wrote. He said 
 that his countrymen, "profiting by their nearly 
 unshackled commerce, import everything they 
 
 3 Vol. ii. p. 295. 
 
 1 " Travels in North America," vol. i. p. 123.
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON.. 281 
 
 choose, and adopt, or reject its use as fancy dic- 
 tates. Almost every article of foreign industry can 
 be purchased here at a very small advance on the 
 original cost, and in many cases even cheaper." 5 
 In those days, the United States could teach the 
 backward nations of Europe a lesson as to the 
 advantages of the free interchange of commodities. 
 
 Mrs. Trollope's most foolish prejudices against 
 the United States are outdone by Cooper's blind 
 antipathy to Great Britain ; not even Mr. George 
 Bancroft has distanced him in the display of malice 
 and uncharitableness. He did not hesitate to allege 
 that the British Government had perpetrated the 
 incredible and superfluous absurdity of employing 
 " mercenary pens to vituperate, in periodical 
 journals of the most pretending character, a people 
 they affected to despise, and of seeking itinerant 
 circulators of calumny, who journeyed, or pretended 
 to journey, through our States, in order to discover 
 and expose the nakedness of the land." 6 In thus 
 writing, Cooper proved his utter incapacity for 
 understanding the conduct of the British Govern- 
 ment at any time and on any subject, and placed 
 himself on a par, as a critic, with the French re- 
 publicans who attributed all the blame of their 
 failures to the " gold of Pitt." Cooper misunder- 
 stood the British people also, saying that "a 
 deep, settled, ignorant, and, I think an increasing 
 hostility, to the people, the inhabitants, and, I fear, 
 to the hopes of the United States, exists in the 
 minds of the vast majority of the middling classes " 
 in Great Britain. 7 If he had written that the vast 
 
 5 " Notions of the Americans, by a Travelling Bachelor," vol. i. 
 p. 150. Vol. i. p. 313. 7 Vol. i. p. 328.
 
 282 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 majority of the middle class betrayed perfect in- 
 difference to the condition and future of his country, 
 he would have stated a fact on which he might ' 
 have based a rational complaint. Ignorance of the 
 North American Continent has been the bane of the 
 British public from the reign of Queen Elizabeth 
 down to that of Queen Victoria. But ignorance is 
 not synonymous with malice, nor is it necessarily a 
 crime. If companionship in misfortune be a seda- 
 tive or an excuse, then the ignorance of the citizens 
 of the Republic about Great Britain and Ireland 
 matches, only too closely, the imperfect knowledge 
 and the erroneous conclusions of many inhabitants 
 of the United Kingdom with regard to the United 
 States. 
 
 Cooper had an overweening opinion of his country 
 and countrymen. He had never seen a nation " so 
 much alike as the people of the United States, what 
 is more, they are not only like each other, but they 
 are remarkably like what common sense tells them 
 they ought to resemble." While thus thinking, he 
 deprecates criticism and he affirms, with something 
 resembling a contradiction, that " no American of 
 any character, or knowledge of his own country, can 
 feel anything but commiseration for the man who 
 has attempted to throw ridicule on a nation like 
 this." The man who ridicules what is praiseworthy 
 condemns himself. But the best-intentioned native 
 of Europe is in a frame of mind which, according to 
 Cooper, incapacitates him for comprehending the 
 citizens of the North American Republic ; he avers 
 that " an European can scarcely spare sufficient time 
 to acquire the simplicity of habits, may I also say 
 simplicity of thought, necessary to estimate our
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 283 
 
 country." The notion that citizens of the Union 
 are differently constituted from the rest of the 
 human species may now be ranked among exploded 
 superstitions. 
 
 Within a period embracing two years before the 
 appearance of Mrs. Trollope's book, and ten years 
 afterwards, five noteworthy books of travel on 
 the North American Continent were published in 
 England. The soberest and best was Mr. James 
 Stuart's " Three Years in North America." He 
 had no theories to uphold or upset ; he had few 
 marvels to tell ; his narrative was plain and 
 straightforward, inspiring confidence by its sim- 
 plicity and candour. The most brilliant were two 
 from the pen of Miss Martineau, " Society in 
 America," and "A Retrospect of Western Travel." 
 Her weakness, if weakness can be attributed to so 
 masculine a writer, was to be as much too emphatic 
 on the one side as Mrs. Trollope was on the other. 
 Miss Martineau set great store on the mere forms of 
 Republicanism, just as Mrs. Trollope had overvalued 
 the symbols and trappings of Monarchy. The dog- 
 matic statement of the former that " Freemasonry is 
 purely mischievous in a Republic," 9 is an example of 
 this. Another is her objection to the Military Aca- 
 demy at West Point, 1 on the apparent ground that, 
 in a Republic, army officers are born ready trained, 
 a belief which was very common during the civil 
 war ; another is her denunciation of the appointment 
 of judges of the Supreme Court for life, as being a 
 " departure from the absolute Republican principle." 2 
 
 * Vol i. p. 333. " Society in America," vol. i. p. 36. 
 
 1 "Retrospect of Western Travel," vol. i. p. 61. 
 4 " Society," vol. i. p. 55.
 
 284 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 When she visited the Orphan House at Charles- 
 ton, she was " surprised to see the children badged, 
 an anti-Republican practice which had better be 
 abolished." The first of these opinions is typical 
 and serves to gauge the value of the others. Miss 
 Martineau knew nothing about Freemasonry, yet 
 she did not hesitate to pass judgment upon it. She 
 viewed with peculiar and singular satisfaction, the 
 system of "rotation in office," and she would cherish 
 as the corner-stone of the Republic what in reality 
 has been the stumbling-block in the path of its 
 statesmen. 
 
 Miss Martineau, though sometimes foolishly un- 
 compromising and dogmatic, had carefully studied 
 her subject. Besides, she was far too sensible to 
 pass a sweeping condemnation on a country merely 
 because she saw in it some trivial blemish or acci- 
 dental peculiarity. Not so was it in the case of 
 Captain Basil Hall, who preceded her, or of Captain 
 Hamilton and Captain Marryat, who visited the 
 same country after her. The first of them has made 
 a name as a writer of interesting books of travel ; 
 the two others have produced excellent works of 
 fiction. Captain Hamilton said some shrewd things 
 in his " Men and Manners in America ; " he also 
 intimated he had arrived at the conclusion that 
 " the insuperable prejudice against the claims of 
 primogeniture [in the United States] is unfavourable 
 to national advancement." 3 A statement like this 
 shows an absolute incapacity to estimate the social 
 condition of that country. 
 
 Both Captain Basil Hall and Captain Marryat 
 
 * " Men and Manners in America," vol. i. p. 362.
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON". 285 
 
 were notable specimens of a school of naval officers 
 which is now extinct. They had received a liberal 
 education, had seen much service and many lands, 
 had kept their eyes open when afloat and on shore, 
 and had the gift of using their pens deftly. Both of 
 them went to the United States inspired by curiosity 
 about the Republic of which they had heard contra- 
 dictory accounts, and desirous of communicating the 
 true facts of the case to their countrymen. Captain 
 Hall avers that seldom did a traveller visit " a 
 foreign land in a more kindly spirit " than that which 
 animated him when he disembarked at New York. 
 Bat a spirit of bitterness quickly succeeded one of 
 good feeling. He saw many things 'that displeased, 
 and heard much that annoyed him : he grew tired of 
 having to return daily answers to the question 
 " What do you think of us upon the whole ? " while 
 he was mortified at witnessing the dissatisfaction 
 which was shown when his reply was not one of 
 unqualified praise. Entering a court of law, he was 
 astounded to see a chief justice seated on the bench 
 without a gown enveloping his person and a wig 
 covering his head. This was the first thing he saw 
 which made him " distrust the wisdom with which 
 the Americans had stripped away so much of what 
 had been held sacred so long." Just as Martinus 
 Scriblerus could not think of the Lord Mayor other- 
 wise than clad in his fur gown and decked with his 
 gold chain, so this experienced but simple-minded 
 sailor was unable to imagine that justice could be 
 administered, or the law expounded by a judge in 
 plain clothes. 
 
 When Captain Hall sailed up the Hudson, he 
 gazed on the country seats of the old patroons upon its
 
 286 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 bank, and mourned over the fact that there the ancient 
 aristocracy is withering away, as everywhere else in 
 the country, " to the great exultation of the people, 
 before the blighting tempest of Democracy." 4 What 
 vexed him above all was to hear the people con- 
 stantly "praise themselves, their institutions, and 
 their country, either in downright terms, or by some 
 would-be indirect allusions, which were still more 
 tormenting." Equally unbearable was " a solemn 
 sort of enigmatical assumption," on their part, " of 
 the intricacy and transcendent grandeur of the whole 
 system not to be comprehended by weak European 
 minds." He tried hard, indeed, to see things 
 through other people's spectacles, but he failed 
 utterly. " In spite of my own best wishes, encou- 
 raged by the ardent persuasion of the Americans, I 
 found all parts of the country very much alike. I 
 could never in any place discover for myself, or hear 
 upon good authority, anything of that peculiar 
 intelligence, of that peculiar high-mindedness, so 
 much insisted on by American writers, and rung 
 into my ears by almost every person I met with 
 from end to end of the continent." 5 Even the 
 country did not find favour in his fastidious eyes : 
 " A more unpicturesque country is not to be found 
 elsewhere," is his sweeping and damnatory verdict. 
 He was shocked at the prevalence of dram drinking, 
 which he considers to be the concomitant of demd- 
 cracy, and, in his opinion, " is probably 'not less 
 hurtful to health of body, than that system of 
 Government appears to be to the intellectual powers 
 of the mind." 6 If he had travelled in Russia, he 
 
 4 " Travels in North America," vol. i. p. 47. 
 Vol. ii. p. 72. 6 Vol. ii. p. 84.
 
 A EETEOSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 287 
 
 would have found abundance of dram drinking and 
 despotism, and might then have learned that demo- 
 cracy is not singular in being associated with ardent 
 spirits. These are a few of his objections and sam- 
 ples of his criticism. He was no more successful as 
 a prophet than as a critic, for he pronounced a pro- 
 jected railway between Boston and Albany to be " a 
 visionary project." If I had been in doubt as to his 
 qualification for deciding upon the merits of the 
 United States Constitution, I should have doubted 
 no longer after reading that, in his opinion, the 
 House of Commons, as constituted before the first 
 Reform Bill became law, " could not possibly be 
 made better." 7 
 
 Captain Marryat aimed at a still higher flight 
 than Captain Hall. He states in the introduction 
 to the six volumes of his " Diary," that his 
 " remarks will be based on an analysis of human 
 nature ; " that his object has been " to examine and 
 ascertain what were the effects of a Democratic 
 form of government, and climate, upon a people 
 which, with all its foreign admixture, may be con- 
 sidered as English." Upon one point, he had made 
 up his mind : " Democracy is the form of govern- 
 ment best suited to the present condition of 
 America." Instead of the analysis promised in the 
 introduction, many petty details, not worth re- 
 tailing, are supplied in the text ; such as how two 
 girls bartered their bonnets, how a tailor of Cin- 
 cinnati refused to come and take his measure for a 
 coat, alleging that it was anti-republican to wait on 
 a customer, while there is a surfeit of the super- 
 
 7 Vol. iii. p. 412.
 
 288 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 fluous matter to be found in the least philosophical 
 books about the United States, to the effect that 
 the citizens eat too quickly and drink too often. 
 Assertions abound in which no analytical character 
 can be detected ; such as : " There never was, nor 
 ever will be, anything like liberality under a 
 Democratic form of government ; " " Slander and 
 defamation flourish under a Democracy." 
 
 One of the greatest evils, according to Captain 
 Marryat, is the absence of an Established Church, 
 the effects of an Established Church being, "to 
 cement the mass, cement society and communities, 
 and increase the force of those natural ties by which 
 families and relations are bound together." He 
 bewails the lamentable fact that the people choose 
 their rulers and their clergymen, thus controlling 
 the Government and fettering religion : " Add to 
 this the demoralizing effects of a Democracy which 
 turns the thoughts of all men to mammon, and 
 it will be acknowledged that this rapid fall is not so 
 very surprising." 8 Mammon, like Bacchus, has 
 plenty of worshippers in countries where the people 
 are powerless alike over the State and the Church. 
 However, Captain Marryat does not blame Demo- 
 cracy for all that he dislikes and denounces in the 
 United States ; he says that the climate is partly in 
 fault ; if the climate be to blame, then some re- 
 sponsibility is taken off the citizens of the Republic. 
 His views about the people, which are neither philo- 
 sophical nor complimentary, he sums up as follows : 
 " The character of the Americans is that of a rest- 
 less, uneasy people they cannot sit still, they can- 
 
 * " A Diary in America," vol. iii. pp. 15, 92, 157.
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 289 
 
 not listen attentively, unless the theme be politics 
 or dollars they must do something, and, like 
 children, if they cannot do anything else, they will 
 do mischief their curiosity is unbounded, and they 
 are very capricious. Acting upon impulse, they are 
 very generous at one moment, and without a spark 
 of charity the next. They are good-tempered, and 
 possess great energy, ingenuity, bravery, and pre- 
 sence of mind. Such is the estimate I have formed 
 of their general character, independent of the 
 demoralizing effects of their institutions, which 
 renders it so anomalous." 9 More extraordinary 
 than all his censure is some of his praise. He 
 attributes, the " fair distribution of good looks 
 among the women," to the political and social 
 condition of the country. The Constitution of the 
 United States has been often eulogized : Captain 
 Marryat is the only person who has given it the 
 credit of rendering women beautiful, and upholding 
 the supremacy of the better sex. He says that the 
 men ought to be proud of the women, " for they are 
 really good wives much too good for them." Yet 
 these women are not quite perfect : " They do not 
 modulate their voices." Here Captain Marryat is at 
 variance with Fenimore Cooper, who says : " The 
 voices of the American females are particularly soft 
 and silvery ; and I think the language, a harsh one 
 at best, is made softer by our women, especially of 
 the middle and southern states, than you often hear 
 it in Europe." 1 Other drawbacks were detected by 
 Captain Marryat, who arrived at the conclusion that 
 these women " have a remarkable apathy as to the 
 
 Vol. ii. p. 120. 
 
 1 " Notions of a Travelling Bachelor," vol. ii. p. 133. 
 
 U
 
 290 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 sufferings of others, an indifference to loss of life, a 
 fondness for politics, all of which are unfeminine; 
 and lastly, a passion for dress carried to too great 
 an extent." On the other hand, and by way of set- 
 off, " they have a virtue which the men have not, 
 which is moral courage, and one also which is not 
 common with the sex, physical courage." 2 
 
 Captain Marryat saw little to applaud, and much 
 to deplore. The wonder is that he should say any- 
 thing complimentary, seeing that, in his opinion : 
 " The standard of morality in America is lower than 
 in any other portion of the civilized globe." This 
 is a hard saying, but not harder, or more reckless, 
 than the following : " There is no character so 
 devoid of principle as the British soldier and 
 sailor." Utterances of this emphatic and random 
 kind do not inspire confidence in the writer's judg- 
 ment, nor do they prepare the reader to look with 
 favour on the writer's panacea for the ills which he 
 records, a panacea which I give without comment : 
 " The greatest security for the duration of the 
 present institutions of the United States is the 
 establishment of an aristocracy." Captain Marryat 
 begins his Diary by stating that his remarks are 
 to be based on an analysis of human nature ; he 
 ends it with the avowal that his object has been to 
 "point out the effects of a Democracy upon the 
 morals, the happiness, and the due apportionment 
 of liberty to all classes." His concluding words 
 are : " If I have any way assisted the cause of Con- 
 servatism, I am content." This cause has been 
 greatly injured by the ill-timed help of such a 
 
 * Vol. ii. Second Series, p. 17.
 
 A EETEOSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 291 
 
 misjudging supporter as Captain Marryat. The 
 indisputable achievement of Captain Basil Hall and 
 himself was to deepen the worst prejudices of the 
 citizens of the United States towards Englishmen, 
 to increase international misconceptions, and to 
 throw obstacles in the path of the good and un- 
 biassed men and women on both sides of the 
 Atlantic who were striving to substitute amity for 
 undiscerning rancour, and kindliness for distrust 
 and jealousy. 
 
 While Captain Hamilton and Mrs. Trollope, Captain 
 Hall and Captain Marryat were actively employed 
 in demonstrating to all intelligent readers their 
 utter incompetence to pass judgment on the North 
 American Republic, De Tocqueville was engaged in 
 preparing the book which entitled him to be ranked 
 with Montesquieu. Democracy in America, like the 
 Spirit of Laws, has many faults ; the generalizations 
 frequently betray an imperfect apprehension of 
 facts ; the appreciation of the social forces which 
 have caused the results under discussion is either 
 defective, or wanting altogether ; the predictions of 
 what the future will bring forth have been signally 
 falsified by events, and they now seem to the most 
 sympathetic reader to be ludicrously absurd. What 
 has given De Tocqueville a deserved and undying 
 fame is not so much the views which he has 
 enunciated, or even the exquisite style in which he 
 has set forth his thoughts and facts, as the 
 admirable and thoroughly philosophic spirit in 
 which his pen has done its work. He did not visit 
 the United States, like some of his countrymen, to 
 find the realization of a beautiful dream, nor like 
 many of mine to find clap-trap arguments in con- 
 
 u 2
 
 292 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 damnation of free 'government, but in order to 
 ascertain the quality of the fruit yielded by fair 
 freedom's tree, and to give a faithful report of his 
 investigation. He states his case and distributes 
 praise or blame with the laudable impartiality of 
 a righteous judge, who has listened with patience 
 and digested with care the arguments on both sides 
 of a given question. The decision which he pro- 
 nounces is unalloyed either by mocking temper or 
 despicable bias. The un discerning partisan of 
 Democracy, who fancies that the multitude are 
 gifted with supreme wisdom, can turn to the pages 
 of De Tocqueville for a corroboration of his faith in 
 the divinity of numbers ; Sir Robert Peel recom- 
 mended the masterpiece of the great Frenchman to 
 the electors of Tamworth as the authority from 
 which irrefragable facts could be drawn about the 
 intolerable tyranny of the majority where the people 
 exercise unlimited sway. Charged with being a 
 revolutionist by the upholders of the divine right 
 of bad rulers, and with being an aristocrat of the 
 worst type by unappeasable demagogues, De Tocque- 
 ville really belonged to the select band of philo- 
 sophic politicians which is repelled by the dogmatic 
 assumptions of the prejudiced, and the idle shibbo- 
 leths of the ignorant, which dreads nothing so 
 much as a political cataclysm and loves nothing 
 more ardently than orderly political improvement. 
 
 The work of De Tocqueville on the United States 
 forms an era in the literature of travel in that 
 country. Before he wrote, men and women thought 
 it no shame to indite meaningless diatribes against 
 what displeased them there, and to give the name of 
 books of travel to mere party pamphlets. Many
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 293 
 
 silly books were written by persons who thought 
 they had a mission to make fun of the Yankees, and 
 who had been sent into the world by an over-ruling 
 Providence to compete with equally silly persons 
 who came from the United States in order to give 
 fantastic accounts about the British Isles. While as 
 regards breadth of view, keenness of insight, ad- 
 miration of what is praiseworthy, appreciation of 
 all that is noteworthy and noble in the constitution, 
 the customs and the character of the British people, 
 Mr. Emerson showed himself as philosophic in 
 judging one side of the Atlantic, as De Toqueville 
 the other; and while Hawthorne, the exquisite 
 novelist, followed in Mr. Emerson's steps without 
 rivalling his performance, other writers showed that 
 malevolence and stupidity are not the growths of 
 British soil exclusively. A single sample of this will 
 suffice. Not even Mrs. Trollope at her worst ever said 
 anything more ridiculous than the following in Mr. 
 Ward's English Items, or Microscopic Views of Eng- 
 land and Englishmen. Discussing the unpleasant 
 topic of expectoration, he says : "I contend that it 
 is superlatively disgusting to the English merely be- 
 cause it is an American habit. Hating us with an 
 intensity that helpless rage can only know, it is 
 their highest delight to cavil at us, and finding 
 nothing more serious to object to, our earliest 
 traducers seized upon this, and each hireling caterer 
 to the morbid feeling against America in England 
 attempts a facetious improvement on the stereo- 
 typed jokes of his predecessors." 
 
 Passing over the books which are simply non- 
 sensical, the number of those which repaid perusal 
 when they appeared and which still instruct the
 
 294 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 student of history, is very large. Among them 
 may be cited Dr. Charles Mackay's Life and 
 Liberty in America, a genial narrative of interest- 
 ing experiences : if the author had not revisited the 
 country at a critical time, and misinterpreted the 
 problem which was then in process of solution, his 
 reputation as a judicious observer would have been 
 greater than it is. Mr. Sala, a brilliant and 
 kindly writer, would have rendered his Diary in the 
 Midst of War still more notable by a sympathy 
 with the cause which was certain to prevail. In his 
 Civilized America, Mr. Grattan gave much useful 
 information, the result of twenty years' sojourn in 
 Boston as British Consul ; unfortunately, however, 
 he judged the social arrangements too frequently by 
 a standard taken from his previous residence on the 
 continent of Europe. Mr. Chester, in his Trans- 
 atlantic Sketches, gave expression to the remark- 
 able discovery that a good choral service for the 
 cadets at West Point would go far to remedy what 
 he considered amiss in the Republic. Mr. Rose, a 
 writer of talent, led the readers of his Great 
 Country to suppose that the Roman Catholic 
 churches and congregations there chiefly deserved 
 commendation. Mr. Hilary Skinner, whose After 
 the Storm is a lively and intelligent picture of the 
 United States at the close of the Great Civil War, 
 merits a place of honour among the travellers who 
 have crossed the Atlantic. Sir Charles Dilke, in his 
 Greater Britain, passed judgment on the United 
 States with an acuteness of perception and a 
 sympathy with what ought to be held in respect, 
 which are rare in those persons who have criticized 
 and commented on the North American Republic.
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 295 
 
 I have reserved for separate mention the books 
 of travel by two novelists, one of whom is fore- 
 most among the greatest of modern times. The 
 American Notes, of Dickens, displeased many 
 persons in the United States. In this case the 
 fault was in the reader. The book was unpre- 
 tentious ; not a word in it had been set down in 
 unkindness, though several passages were the 
 reverse of flattering. It contained a good deal of 
 exaggeration verging on caricature; but this was 
 the manner in which Dickens dealt with home as 
 well as foreign topics. Any one who calmly peruses 
 it now in a proper spirit will wonder that it was 
 ever the subject of bitter animadversion. The truth 
 is that another kind of book was expected from the 
 pen of the great novelist. Far more unpalatable 
 things set forth in Martin Chuzzlewit, gave less 
 annoyance, or rather caused less disappointment. 
 His real triumph is to have secured more admirers 
 in the United States than in any other English- 
 speaking land, a triumph which is equally creditable 
 to both parties. 
 
 Mr. Anthony Trollope is a popular living novelist. 
 He has successfully competed with his mother as a 
 writer of fiction and of books of travel. One of the 
 latter, entitled North America, cannot be classed 
 among his best productions. Writing in 1862, Mr. 
 Trollope failed to forecast the issue of the deadly 
 struggle between freedom and autocracy, between 
 the partisans of the equality of all men before the 
 law and the upholders of the inequality of negroes. 
 He disbelieved in a result which was inevitable, and 
 dreaded a conclusion which no sensible on-looker 
 could regret. As a critic, Mr. Trollope was far less
 
 290 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 biassed than his mother; he had no pecuniary failure 
 to ascribe to the people of the Republic ; he had sur- 
 vived the Eeform Bill and learned that anarchy is not 
 the sure consequence of extending the suffrage in the 
 United Kingdom. Yet the aversions to which he gives 
 frank utterance resemble those of his mother : "I 
 dislike universal suffrage ; I dislike vote by ballot ; 
 I dislike above all things the tyranny of demo- 
 cracy." 3 Since he wrote these words, he has seen 
 the suffrage made nearly universal at home ; he has 
 seen the ballot become the law of the land, and he 
 has not perceived any diminution of the happiness 
 of the people or failure to appreciate his excellent 
 novels. It is undeniable that he had a reason to 
 complain of the tone which prevailed among some 
 of the people with whom he associated. They told 
 him certain things which were at once extraordinary 
 and distasteful, such as : " That Wellington was 
 beaten at Waterloo ; that Lord Palmerston was so 
 unpopular that he could not walk alone in the 
 streets; that the House of Commons was an acknow- 
 ledged failure ; that starvation was the normal con- 
 dition of the British people, and that the Queen was 
 a bloodthirsty tyrant." 4 However, these tokens of 
 perverse ignorance ought not to have been presented 
 as proofs of ill-feeling. Mr. Trollope is rather 
 exacting. He passes summary and unqualified con- 
 demnation on the hotels of the United States ; he is 
 as ruthless in judging the newspaper press, saying : 
 " In the whole length and breadth of the United 
 States there is not published a single newspaper 
 which seems to me to be worthy of praise. . . They 
 
 3 " North America," vol. ii. p. 109. * Vol. ii. p. 174.
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 297 
 
 are ill-written, ill-printed, ill-arranged, and, in fact, 
 are not readable." 5 While difficult to please abroad, 
 he is not more easily satisfied at home ; for, in his 
 opinion, " a really good newspaper. ... is still to 
 be desired in Great Britain." 6 He affirms that he 
 has " ever admired the United States as a nation." 
 That nation might reasonably pray to be spared the 
 irritation of his candid friendship. 
 
 Sir Charles Lyell, whose travels on the Continent 
 of North America belong to a cla^s apart, remarks 
 that : "As politicians, no people are so prone to give 
 way to groundless fears and despondency respecting 
 the prospect of affairs in America as the English, 
 partly because they know little of the conditions of 
 society there, and partly from their own well- 
 founded conviction, that a near approach to uni- 
 versal suffrage at home would lead to anarchy and 
 insecurity of property." 7 A corresponding mis- 
 placed commiseration was 1 manifested in the United 
 States towards England at an earlier day. Writing 
 in 1788, Dr. Noah Webster observes, " I am sensible 
 that the Americans are much concerned for the 
 liberties of the British nation; and the Act for 
 making Parliaments Septennial is often mentioned 
 as an arbitrary, oppressive Act, destructive of Eng- 
 lish liberty. . . I wish my countrymen would believe 
 that other nations understand and can guard 
 their privileges, without any lamentable outcries 
 from this side of the Atlantic." 8 The people on 
 both sides of the Atlantic have upheld their liberties 
 despite all the gloomy forebodings and sinister pre- 
 
 5 Vol. ii. pp. 423, 427 Vol. ii. pp. 424, 425. 
 
 1 " Travels in North America," First Series, vol. i. p. 227. 
 * " Essays and Fugitive Writings," p. 60.
 
 298 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 dictions of distracted and feeble-minded critics. Sir 
 Charles Lyell had the acuteness to perceive certain 
 mistakes of his countrymen, but he was not able to 
 avoid all their errors. Twenty years have elapsed 
 since his words were penned ; during that period the 
 suffrage has been extended to a degree which he 
 thought perilous, still there are no signs of the 
 anarchy which he foresaw or of the general spolia- 
 tion which he considered inevitable. It is true, 
 however, that some persons are still prone to fancy 
 the North American Republic to be in imminent 
 peril from a bugbear of their imaginations. At one 
 moment, they say that the decisive hour has arrived 
 because a civil war has broken out; at another, they 
 see a crisis pregnant with woe and destruction, 
 because the result of a presidential election is in dis- 
 pute. Yet the Constitutions of the United Kingdom 
 and the United States survive the jeers of detractors 
 and the faint-hearted support of timorous friends, 
 being fraught with the strength which can with- 
 stand a shock and the vitality which survives a 
 disaster. 
 
 Republican institutions are commonly supposed 
 to be inefficient, unstable, and short-lived. Such is 
 the conclusion at which many persons have arrived 
 after reading about the Republics of ancient Greece 
 and Rome, and of Italy during the Middle Ages. It 
 was generally supposed, at the establishment of the 
 Republic, in North America, that the blunders and 
 shortcomings of the Republics of antiquity would be 
 repeated, that liberty would soon be succeeded by 
 licence, and that licence would be crushed along 
 with liberty, under the heel of a tyrant. This
 
 A RETEOSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 299 
 
 expectation was strengthened by what occurred in 
 Europe a few years later ; then it was confidently 
 predicted that the Revolution in France was an 
 ensample of the drama which would speedily be 
 played on the American Continent, and the natural 
 prelude to it. 
 
 The cause of free and beneficent government in 
 Europe has sustained greater detriment from the so- 
 called Republican Administrations in France than 
 from any other events in modern history, Each has 
 been a screaming farce in the opinion of the cynic, 
 and a mournful tragedy in the opinion of the philo- 
 sopher. The first was the most tragic and inde- 
 fensible; it was a carnival of slaughter, an orgy, 
 headed in turn by the demon of unreason and the 
 lord of misrule. It furnished reasons to justify 
 the sarcasm of Mr. Herbert Spencer, that modern 
 democracy is old despotism differently spelt. After 
 the autocratic rule of the king had been successfully 
 transformed into a constitutional monarchy; after 
 the constitutional monarchy had been abolished 
 simply for the sake of change, Lewis XVI. beheaded, 
 because he was a king by hereditary descent, and in 
 order that monarchs, whom a like accident had 
 placed upon a throne, might take warning by his 
 fate, and Mary Antoinette beheaded also because she 
 was a king's wife; after nobles, who had voluntarily 
 surrendered their hereditary privileges, had been 
 executed by the hundred because they had inherited 
 and enjoyed them; after the established religion had 
 been abolished as a malignant relic of monarchy, and 
 its priests compelled to renounce the exercise of their 
 sacerdotal functions under the penalty of exile or 
 death, so that they might clearly perceive how com-
 
 300 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 pletely the vile days of superstition and religious 
 intolerance had vanished ; after the unoffending 
 seasons and days of the week had received new 
 names, and were reckoned after a new fashion ; 
 after a republican clock, with the hours divided into 
 tenths, had been set up over the Tuileries, in order 
 that the emancipated citizens whom the Republican 
 guillotine had spared might have a visible recurring 
 proof of the comprehensiveness of the alterations 
 which had been made ; after the trammels of old 
 civility had been discarded, and men were compelled 
 to use the term " citizen " when addressing their 
 neighbours, and when the happy time finally arrived 
 at which nothing was wanting to a scene of unpre- 
 cedented confusion and distrust, its delighted authors 
 resolved to confer upon all the nations of the earth 
 the blessings of which their fellow-countrymen had 
 a monopoly. Some countries showed an unaccount- 
 able aversion to the attempts which were made to 
 civilize them, and even resisted by force of arms : 
 the Republican philanthropists of regenerated France 
 were not the men to be thwarted when on an errand 
 of fraternity. In the name of holy liberty and 
 blessed peace, they carried the sword and the torch 
 throughout Europe ; when tired but not sated of 
 slaughter, they incorporated into the Republic the 
 ravaged lands of the vanquished. While earnestly 
 engaged in their apostolic mission they were inter- 
 rupted by Bonaparte assuming the title of Emperor 
 and the habits of a tyrant, amid the acclamations of 
 Republicans who had blustered about the rights of 
 man, and had trodden liberty under foot whenever 
 they could do so with impunity. 
 
 The second French Republic, like the first, sue-
 
 A EETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 301 
 
 ceeded a constitutional monarchy. The creation of 
 a few speeches, it was maintained by oratory till the 
 time came for it to be betrayed by its president, just 
 as the first had been strangled by a consul. Before 
 the second Republic had paved the way for a second 
 empire, it had managed to annihilate the infant Re- 
 public of Rome. 
 
 The third Republic came into the world, at the 
 bidding of a delirious Parisian mob, on the morrow 
 of a great national disaster. Under this free 
 Government, any citizen may summon a public 
 meeting if the police give him permission ; he may 
 print whatever he pleases in a newspaper, provided 
 he publish nothing offensive to those in authority. 
 The duration of this nominal Republic depends 
 upon the desire of the people of France to live under 
 it. If they really understand that the want of their 
 country is not a saviour but self-government, then 
 they will uphold the third Republic, and convert it 
 into a government worthy in all its parts of a free 
 people. 
 
 Between the Republic in North America and 
 other modern Republics, that of Switzerland alone 
 excepted, there is not and there never has been any 
 similarity in essence, constitution, and aim. Like 
 the British Constitution, it is " broad -based upon the 
 people's will." It is as natural a growth of the soil 
 as the forests which once overspread the land. Its 
 definite form has been the result of a natural process 
 of evolution. Long before the Constitution of the 
 United States was framed the people exercised self- 
 government, and were trained to the practice of self- 
 help in the colonies, which were republics in all but 
 the name. The chief product of the Revolution was
 
 302 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 a new flag and a ruler who, with the title of Presi- 
 dent, fulfilled the functions of King. The most 
 revolutionary proposals of any citizens of the United 
 States were firstly, that Hebrew should be sub- 
 stituted for English ; and secondly, if English were 
 retained, that the letters should be turned upside 
 down. The most foolish thing done with a patriotic 
 intent, was the compilation of a dictionary in which 
 the words were spelled so as to have an un-English 
 look. Planting trees of liberty, cutting off the heads 
 of those persons who were disliked by the occupants 
 of official posts, a general subversion of society and 
 social customs, never occurred to Washington and 
 Franklin as indispensable preliminaries to the esta- 
 blishment of a form of administration in which the 
 multitude was to be the recognized Sovereign. In 
 truth, the United States Republic has nothing in 
 common with those fungus Governments which wax 
 great in a single night, and wither in a day. It is a 
 goodly tree of slow growth and mature development 
 which dates from the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and 
 was planted by Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 When a Republic is in question, there is much or 
 little in a name. Some Frenchmen are not only 
 satisfied but overjoyed when they live under a 
 government to which the name of a Republic is given 
 in official documents. Such a government may be 
 as tyrannical in maintaining what is called law and 
 order as any so-called saviour of society; the 
 country may be ruled from Paris, through the 
 arbitrary intervention of prefects, with as much con- 
 tempt for personal independence as if a Bourbon 
 or a Bonaparte were on the throne. These men 
 are pleased, however, so long as crimes against
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 303 
 
 liberty are perpetrated in the name of a Re- 
 public. 
 
 As to the genuineness of the Republic in North 
 America, there never has been any doubt ; yet, so 
 long as its asgis was thrown over the crime of 
 slavery, it was impossible for its well-wishers in this 
 country to refrain from adverse and uncompli- 
 mentary criticism. Some of the bitterest things 
 said by travellers on the American continent were 
 inspired by their laudable detestation of slavery, and 
 their observation of its vicious effects. These ex- 
 pressions of opinion gave dire offence to thousands 
 in the United States, who heartily sympathized with 
 the poor slaves, but who could not brook fault- 
 finding from a British pen. Others in this country, 
 who regarded any Republic as a sort of political 
 volcano, lived in constant dread of the mischief 
 which might be wrought by that in North America, 
 notwithstanding the distance which separated it 
 from the British Isles, and they apprehended that, 
 at any moment, and in an insidious manner, British 
 institutions might be what they called " Ameri- 
 canized." The latter dread is now extinct. If our 
 constitution were to be " Americanized " it would 
 be rendered far less democratic than it is; the 
 monarch would regain the personal power which 
 George III. usurped, but which no Sovereign will 
 exercise again. The British Constitution is now re- 
 stored to its pristine purity, and promises to remain 
 the charter and the glory of a free people when half 
 the capitals of Europe are as Nineveh and Palmyra. 
 
 While the Republic in North America has been 
 regarded with suspicion or imperfect appreciation 
 for the reasons assigned, it has also suffered from
 
 304 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 over-laudation. To proclaim to all the world 
 that a particular form of government is absolutely 
 perfect is an invitation to the sensible portion 
 of mankind to inquire what are its undoubted 
 defects. Well-meaning but foolish persons used 
 to think that they discharged a patriotic duty 
 in repeating that the British Constitution was the 
 quintessence of human wisdom, and the envy of 
 those persons who did not live under it. Happily, 
 the day is gone by when irrational boasting of this 
 sort can be heard with patience. Sensible persons 
 who are conscious of the excellencies of that Con- 
 stitution readily admit that it is capable of amend- 
 ment ; they rejoice to think that, without detriment 
 to its spirit, it can be easily and rapidly moulded 
 to suit the wants of the revolving ages. Its 
 unrivalled merit consists in an elasticity which 
 cannot be matched, and an adaptability which can- 
 not be surpassed. If it be true that the Consti- 
 tution of the United States is beyond improvement, 
 and ought to be admired without reserve, it is clear 
 that its difference from that of Great Britain is 
 fundamental. Such is the character given to it by 
 Mr. Edward Everett, one of the orators whom the 
 citizens of Massachusetts considered incomparable, 
 and a statesman upon whom they conferred the 
 highest honours in their gift. In one of his care- 
 fully-prepared addresses he says : " We are author- 
 ized to assert that the era of our independence 
 dates the establishment of the only perfect organi- 
 zation of Government." . . . . " Our Government 
 is in its theory perfect, and in its operation it is 
 perfect also. Thus we have solved the great 
 problem in human affairs." . . . . " A frame of
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 305 
 
 government perfect in its principles, has been 
 brought down from the airy region of Utopia, and 
 has found a local habitation and a name in our 
 country." These passages were composed and 
 spoken when slavery was a cherished institution of 
 the United States. Nor was Mr. Everett alone in 
 holding the opinion that everything had been 
 ordered for the best in the Republic, which was 
 perfect in theory and perfect in operation. 
 
 In the introduction to his History of the United 
 States, written in 1834 and recently reprinted, Mr. 
 George Bancroft recounts the peculiar glories of his 
 great country. He proudly says that nothing is 
 wanting in the land over which a favouring Pro- 
 vidence has uniformly watched : " There is no 
 national debt ; the community is opulent ; the Go- 
 vernment economical ; and the public treasury full." 
 Forgetting the fact of slavery at the time he penned 
 the following words, he contends that the United 
 States " have the precedence in the practice and 
 defence of the equal rights of man." Contrasting 
 his own nation with the nations of Europe, he says 
 that while they " aspire after change, our Consti- 
 tution engages the fond admiration of the people, 
 by which it was established. . . . Other Govern- 
 ments are convulsed by the innovations and reforms 
 of neighbouring states ; our Constitution, fixed in 
 the affections of the people, from whose choice it 
 has sprung, neutralizes the influences of foreign 
 principles, and fearlessly opens an asylum to the 
 virtuous, the unfortunate, and the oppressed of 
 every nation." 9 Since Mr. Bancroft wrote this in- 
 
 9 Introduction to the Centenary Edition of the " History of the 
 United States." By George Banerol't 
 
 X
 
 306 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 troduction, the immutable Constitution has been 
 transformed : the fourteenth and fifteenth amend- 
 ments have rendered it the great charter of a united 
 nation; when he penned his eulogium, it was but 
 the charter of men who boasted of having no stain 
 of black blood in their veins or on their skin. 
 Instead of sneering at the nations of Europe on 
 account of the innovations and reforms which they 
 have accepted or devised in their systems of govern- 
 ment, Mr. Bancroft would have exhibited more 
 philosophy, and greater appreciation of what is 
 praiseworthy, had he pointed out how changes in 
 national constitutions are concomitants of a coun- 
 try's growth and development, resembling the 
 changes in the human frame from infancy to 
 maturity. 
 
 The real drawback in the existing system of 
 government in the United States is that a power 
 has obtained an influence which thwarts the inde- 
 pendent action of the Constitution. Many a United 
 States patriot who thinks of the interests of his 
 country and has no personal end in view, whose 
 hands are spotless and whose aims are laudable, is 
 as helpless as if he were a citizen of the moon. 
 These true lovers of their country are numbered by 
 the thousand ; all of them are inspired with a noble 
 ambition to counteract the designs and doings of 
 professional and knavish politicians, and to secure 
 a pure and praiseworthy administration of public 
 affairs. Yet such men cannot work together with 
 the unanimity of rascals whose object is to dip their 
 foul hands into the public purse and who are in- 
 different to the fame of their country so long as 
 they are enriched. For nearly a century, the Union
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 307 
 
 pined under the incubus of slavery : at present, its 
 aspirations towards a happier state are counteracted 
 by the malign effects of party tactics and discipline. 
 The people, though nominally supreme, appear to 
 be impotent. Like Gulliver in the toils of the Lilli- 
 putians, they are encompassed with a network of 
 rules and ' arrangements which hinders them from 
 moving as their fancy dictates. The election of a 
 particular man to a particular office is primarily due 
 to those men who nominate him ; some electors are 
 the mere puppets of party managers. If the best 
 men are not uniformly elected, that does not prove 
 Democracy to be a farce or a failure, it merely 
 indicates that Democracy has been hoodwinked or 
 outwitted. For years the people compromised with 
 the upholders of slavery rather than give logical 
 effect to their convictions. Party misgovernment 
 may be tolerated in like manner for a long time, yet 
 it will share the fate of slavery when the people 
 think fit to pronounce its doom. 
 
 The Fathers of the Republic, if they had beheld 
 it in the grandeur and pride of its centenary, would 
 have been still more surprised after comparing their 
 native land with the other countries of the civilized 
 globe. Most of them died in the belief that time's 
 latest birth was the most extraordinary and eventful, 
 that the star of empire had undoubtedly moved 
 westward, that the old nations of Europe were 
 hastening to swift decay. The first century of the 
 existence of the Republic, during which its area has 
 been widened and its power consolidated, has seen 
 a degree of progress in Europe equally marked and 
 marvellous ; nations which Franklin considered in a 
 
 x 2
 
 308 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 state of irremediable decrepitude having renewed 
 their youth, and moved with a steady and untiring 
 pace, alongside of their sanguine and lusty competitor, 
 in the march of improvement. The Europe of a 
 hundred years ago has been transformed as completely 
 as the constitution of the United States and the face 
 of the North American continent. 
 
 France, which avenged the overthrow of Montcalm 
 at Quebec by securing the capitulation of Cornwallis 
 at Yorktown, has undergone many vicissitudes since 
 then, has soared high in the elation of great triumphs 
 and been humiliated in the dust by crushing reverses, 
 has been the victor before whom proud nations have 
 trembled and the vanquished tyrant to whom these 
 nations have prescribed humiliating terms, has 
 conquered when men predicted that her strength 
 was illusory, and been overthrown when the belief 
 in her strength was universal, has astounded the 
 world by unexampled fortitude in the dark hour of 
 bitter trial and unexpected mishap, maintaining her 
 prestige after disasters under which less favoured 
 nations would have succumbed. Italy has been con- 
 verted from a name in ancient history and in modern 
 geography into one of the Great Powers of Europe. 
 Germany, which in former days was but a congeries 
 of petty principalities without cohesion and without 
 a head, has become an empire hardly less powerful 
 and compact than the defunct empire of Rome. By 
 the abolition of serfdom, Russia has acquired a title 
 to something more admirable than that of an empire 
 in which real barbarism was concealed under a little 
 French polish. Holland still confines herself, as in 
 the days when she was the banker of the struggling 
 Republic in America, to making money in place of
 
 A EETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 309 
 
 aiming at conquests ; she has seen the kingdom of 
 Belgium carved out of her territory almost without 
 a sigh. The Fathers of the Republic might regard 
 with interest the success which has attended the 
 adaptation of -the British constitution to the latter 
 kingdom. They would see with satisfaction that 
 Greece was no longer in subjection to the Turk, 
 though they might regret that this historic kingdom 
 enjoyed independence at the expense of its creditors. 
 They would find Spain stripped of her vast 
 possessions in South America and expending her 
 energies, not in attempts at universal conquest, but 
 in periodical revolutions. Turning to the old 
 Spanish Colonies which are now petty Republics, 
 they would seriously doubt whether the anarchy 
 prevailing among them is an actual improvement on 
 the despotism of earlier days. They would observe 
 with natural surprise that an empire in South 
 America had set an example to all these Republics in 
 financial honesty and in good government, and 
 prospered equally whether its head be at home or 
 travelling in distant lands. If they inquired about 
 the Republic of Liberia they would learn, with 
 mingled feelings, that negroes had established it 
 and had imitated one of the worst blunders of white 
 men by ordaining that none but a negro should hold 
 office. In their survey of the world they would 
 behold the British Empire at every turn. Franklin 
 likened that empire to a beautiful china vase which, 
 when once broken was rendered unattractive and 
 valueless. In his eyes, the secession of the Thirteen 
 Colonies had given a shock to it from which recovery 
 was impossible ; before he died he thought that it 
 had become a splendid fragment of a magnificent
 
 310 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 whole. Since then it has absorbed the empire of the 
 Moguls and found in Australasia and South Africa, 
 in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, and the Pacific 
 such an accession of territory and renown as would 
 have astounded the sedate philosopher of Philadelphia. 
 Yet the present vastness of that empire would be 
 less opposed to the preconceived notions of the 
 Fathers of the Republic than the manner in which it 
 is now governed. They would find a colonial policy 
 in operation of which the leading principle is to 
 permit the colonists to have their own way in their 
 own concerns, and of which the result has been to 
 make the subjects of Queen Victoria on the continents 
 of North America, Australasia, South Africa, and in 
 the islands of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian 
 Oceans, the most enthusiastic and energetic upholders 
 of the fabric of the empire over which she rules. 
 The changes in the Parliament of the United 
 Kingdom would appear to them almost incredible ; 
 they would be inclined to doubt the testimony of 
 their senses. Writing to Dr. Price in 1780, 
 Franklin pronounced the Parliamentary abuses to be 
 beyond the reach of ordinary remedies, a revolution 
 being the only cure, and this he considered the people 
 too craven to achieve. In default of such a heroic 
 remedy being employed, he predicted that the nation 
 would continue " to be plundered and obliged to pay, 
 by taxes, the plunderers for plundering and ruining." 
 Without any more serious revolution than that which 
 can be effected by a few Acts of Parliament, what 
 Franklin deemed alike indispensable and impossible 
 has been accomplished. These twin sisters of 
 iniquity, parliamentary corruption and government 
 patronage, are now among the traditions of an age
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 311 
 
 about which the rising generation in this country 
 reads with a mixture of astonishment and incredulity. 
 A legislature more free than that of Britain from the 
 taint or even the suspicion of corruption does not 
 exist. The representation of the people is not yet 
 theoretically perfect ; it would be difficult, however, 
 to name any other nation wherein the popular control 
 over its rulers is more direct and complete than in 
 the United Kingdom. Nowhere can personal merit 
 succeed with greater ease and certainty in obtaining 
 an office of honour and emolument in the military 
 or civil service of the country ; it is sufficient to pass 
 the requisite examination to obtain a commission in 
 the army or a place under government. If George 
 the Third were to unite with the Fathers of the 
 Eepublic in comparing the present condition of his 
 country and theirs, he would unquestionably arrive 
 at the conclusion that the power which he loved to 
 exercise and the patronage which he liked to 
 dispense, could alone be enjoyed in full measure at 
 Washington, and that if he wished to act as a 
 Sovereign after his own heart, he must become 
 President of the United States. Having made them- 
 selves thoroughly acquainted with the existing condi- 
 tion of the civilized world, the Fathers of the Re- 
 public might ask themselves whether they ought not 
 to modify some old opinions and disavow certain pre- 
 judices which they once cherished as incontrovertible 
 truths. That the North American Republic was a 
 light shining in the darkness, that its constitution 
 first proclaimed and secured the rights of man, that 
 the rest of the world had been mired in a slough of 
 ignorance and misery from which extrication was well- 
 nigh impossible, was the dismal creed of the founders
 
 312 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 of the United States, and of their immediate 
 successors. They were convinced that the keys of 
 the future had been given by a favouring Providence 
 into their hands, that they had been predestined 
 to teach the nations how to live. The United 
 States occupy a conspicuous place in the grand pro- 
 cession of the nations ; but they have not led the 
 van. 
 
 In the performances which constitute the merit 
 and glory of a people, the progenitor of the United 
 States can still afford to challenge rivalry. She was 
 foremost in abolishing slavery. In relieving trade 
 and commerce from the shackles of a selfish and 
 immoral policy, which generally assumes the seduc- 
 tive disguise of true patriotism, she took a step in 
 advance which no nation has yet had the boldness to 
 follow. Franklin advocated the freedom of industry ; 
 Washington fought, and fought successfully for it. 
 When the suggestion is now made by British writers 
 that the original policy of the great Republic should 
 prevail, many of its citizens denounce the proposal as 
 insidious, and sneer at Free trade fanatics, to whom 
 purity of motive is denied, just as it was to the 
 abolitionists of New England who were formerly 
 persecuted to the death, chiefly because their argu- 
 ments were borrowed from Great Britain. Those 
 persons who believe that the world is ruled by 
 moral forces, who hold that the truth must prevail 
 against the protected manufacturer as it has done 
 against the protected slaveholder, who condemn 
 the slavery of the pocket as well as that of the 
 person, who sympathize with the consumer suffer- 
 ing from the blight of protection just as they did 
 with the poor dark-skinned producer who groaned
 
 A RETROSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 313 
 
 under the yoke of slavery, can afford to "wait in 
 patience the inevitable end, being certain that justice 
 is omnipotent. 
 
 Fiscal policy apart, with which patriotic citizens 
 of the United States are fully competent to deal, the 
 desires and ideals of the two great sections of what 
 is called the Anglo-Saxon race are one in essence 
 and aim. If the brotherhood of man be not a mere 
 phrase, and if the natural affinity of kindred races 
 be the paramount factor in civilization that philoso- 
 phers allege, then that race should agree to work in 
 concert for a common end. A wish to do so is the 
 first requisite. About the readiness of the United 
 Kingdom to co-operate in the benign work, there can 
 be no question. Indeed, this has been demonstrated 
 by speeches from statesmen of the highest class, 
 such as Earl Granville, Mr. John Bright, and Mr. 
 "W. E. Forster; by addresses and writings of men of 
 letters and science, such as Lord Houghton, Mr. 
 R. H. Hutton, Mr. Thomas Hughes, Mr. Edward 
 Dicey, Sir Charles Dilke, Professor Huxley, and 
 Professor Tyndall ; of divines like Dean Stanley, 
 Principal Tulloch, and Dr. Martineau ; of great 
 philosophers, such as Mr. Herbert Spencer and the 
 late John Stuart Mill. Nor can one political 
 party now lay claim to a monopoly of right 
 feeling in this matter. No more friendly or more 
 judicious speeches have ever been uttered in our day 
 about the United States than those which the Earl of 
 Beaconsfield, Lord Derby, Lord Carnarvon, and Sir 
 Stafford Northcote have delivered. Most significant 
 of all, not as a mere harbinger, but as a confirmation 
 of change, was an admirable article in the Quarterly 
 Revieiv for July, 1876. In that venerable organ of 
 
 Y
 
 314 COLUMBIA AND CANADA. 
 
 English Conservatism, the career of the Republic in 
 North America was sketched in an appreciative 
 spirit and the wish was enunciated that a cordial 
 and close association between the two English-speak- 
 ing powers of the earth should be substituted for 
 the mutual misunderstanding and jealousy which 
 marred their relations in bygone days. 
 
 These expressions of amity are heartily recipro- 
 cated by the most cultured citizens of the United 
 States. They know, as the noble poet, Whittier, 
 has finely phrased it, that 
 
 " Thicker than water, in one rill, 
 
 Through centuries of story, 
 Our Saxon blood has flow'd, and still 
 We share with you the good and ill, 
 The shadow and the glory." 
 
 One thing, however, is lacking. The people of 
 the United States are wont to pride themselves on 
 their dissimilarity from their fellows in the land 
 of their forefathers ; they exaggerate the trivial 
 points of difference and overlook the substan- 
 tial facts of resemblance between the Governments 
 under which both have nourished, being apparently 
 unaware how much rational monarchy is sanctioned 
 by the Constitution of the United States and how 
 much rational Republicanism is contained in the 
 British Constitution. Till the school books, from 
 which children born in the great Republic are taught 
 the annals of their country, shall be recast in a 
 spirit the reverse of that which has hitherto animated 
 their compilers, many incidents which ought to be 
 allowed to sink into oblivion will continue to foster 
 mischievous errors and almost ineradicable prejudices 
 in youthful minds.
 
 A EETEOSPECT AND A COMPARISON. 315 
 
 I disbelieve in the specific virtue of a treaty. An 
 ambitious nation can dispense with a declaration of 
 good intentions when resolved to maintain harmony 
 with its equal in power and spirit. Never has a 
 nation, bent upon waging war and confident of vie - 
 tory, been frustrated by diplomatic protests against 
 a breach of solemn stipulations. Irrational and 
 sanguinary wars have originated in an alleged disre- 
 gard of some article in the treaty which not only 
 restored peace to countries lamenting treasure 
 squandered, resources impaired and hearths made 
 desolate, but which was also designed to serve as 
 a covenant of perpetual friendship. What the de- 
 spoiled and perplexed Seminole Chief said of treaties 
 between a nation of white men and a tribe of Indians 
 applies to treaties in general : l( The white man's 
 for ever does not last long enough." 
 
 If a closer tie is to bind together the two English- 
 speaking nations, something more durable than a 
 treaty ought to form the nexus between them. A 
 great scheme of Confederation has been proposed ; 
 but no agreement as to its terms has yet been 
 arrived at. Better than any treaty, far simpler than 
 such a scheme, and a prelude to the adoption of one 
 hereafter, would be an Act of the Parliament of the 
 United Kingdom and an Amendment to the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, giving to citizens of the 
 Republic, and subjects of Queen Victoria common 
 citizenship in the Anglo-American Empire. In- 
 cluding subsidiary yet indispensable details, such a 
 change would be significant rather than great. 
 After, as before it, the two countries would preserve 
 their identity and independence ; but their inhabi- 
 tants could then cherish the assurance that they
 
 316 COLUMBIA AXD CANADA. 
 
 stood in closer fellowship to each other than to the 
 rest of the human race, and that, though repre- 
 senting two nations, they were in reality but one 
 people. Continuing to be rivals everywhere, they 
 would cease to be aliens throughout that vast area 
 of the globe where the Star-spangled banner and 
 the Union Jack bear witness that it is consecrated 
 to freedom. 
 
 The land of Abraxa, under the wise administration 
 of TJtopus, was transformed into the happy Re- 
 public, and has since then borne his name. That 
 community, though far from perfect, is constantly 
 cited as the type of what good men desire, and what 
 no man can accomplish. It is needless to aim at 
 repeating the imaginary achievement of Utopus in 
 order to increase the sum of human well-being. If 
 the people of the North American Republic and 
 of the British Empire were uniformly to act in con- 
 formity and concord, on all questions of international 
 relationship, they would not only advance their own 
 interests, pursue their noblest aspirations and set 
 an inestimable example, but they would also mate- 
 rially contribute to justify the hopes of ardent and 
 sanguine philanthropists that, in a happier and 
 more enlightened future, mankind will rejoice over 
 the peaceable establishment of the United States 
 of the AVorld. When all nations agree to dwell 
 together in unity, Paradise will be regained. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 GILBEBT AND KITINGTON, PBINTEBS, ST. JOHN'S SQT7ABE, LONDON.