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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1865-8.txt b/1865-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f03484d --- /dev/null +++ b/1865-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13149 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, North America, Volume I (of 2), by Anthony +Trollope + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: North America, Volume I (of 2) + + +Author: Anthony Trollope + + + +Release Date: August, 1999 [eBook #1865] +Release Date of this revision: February 18, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORTH AMERICA, VOLUME I (OF 2)*** + + +E-text prepared by Donald Lainson +and revised by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D. + + + +Editorial note: + + Anthony Trollope travelled through the United States from + August, 1861, to May, 1862, visiting all the states that + did not secede except California. This book is partly a + journal of his travels and partly his description of American + customs and culture including industry, education, government, + military affairs, religion, transportation, and even + hotels. To an American of today it provides a revealing and + fascinating picture of life at the time. + + The book was first published in two volumes by Chapman & Hall + in 1862. + + Project Gutenberg has the other volume of this work. + Volume II: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1866 + + + + + +NORTH AMERICA + +by + +ANTHONY TROLLOPE + +In Two Volumes + +VOL. I + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. INTRODUCTION. + II. NEWPORT--RHODE ISLAND. + III. MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. + IV. LOWER CANADA. + V. UPPER CANADA. + VI. THE CONNEXION OF THE CANADAS WITH GREAT BRITAIN. + VII. NIAGARA. + VIII. NORTH AND WEST. + IX. FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. + X. THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. + XI. CERES AMERICANA. + XII. BUFFALO TO NEW YORK. + XIII. AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR. + XIV. NEW YORK. + XV. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. + XVI. BOSTON. + XVII. CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL. + XVIII. THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN. + XIX. EDUCATION AND RELIGION. + XX. FROM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTION. + + +It has been the ambition of my literary life to write a book about +the United States, and I had made up my mind to visit the country +with this object before the intestine troubles of the United States +Government had commenced. I have not allowed the division among +the States and the breaking out of civil war to interfere with my +intention; but I should not purposely have chosen this period either +for my book or for my visit. I say so much, in order that it may not +be supposed that it is my special purpose to write an account of the +struggle as far as it has yet been carried. My wish is to describe as +well as I can the present social and political state of the country. +This I should have attempted, with more personal satisfaction in the +work, had there been no disruption between the North and South; but I +have not allowed that disruption to deter me from an object which, if +it were delayed, might probably never be carried out. I am therefore +forced to take the subject in its present condition, and being so +forced I must write of the war, of the causes which have led to it, +and of its probable termination. But I wish it to be understood that +it was not my selected task to do so, and is not now my primary +object. + +Thirty years ago my mother wrote a book about the Americans, to which +I believe I may allude as a well known and successful work without +being guilty of any undue family conceit. That was essentially a +woman's book. She saw with a woman's keen eye, and described with a +woman's light but graphic pen, the social defects and absurdities +which our near relatives had adopted into their domestic life. +All that she told was worth the telling, and the telling, if done +successfully, was sure to produce a good result. I am satisfied that +it did so. But she did not regard it as a part of her work to dilate +on the nature and operation of those political arrangements which had +produced the social absurdities which she saw, or to explain that +though such absurdities were the natural result of those arrangements +in their newness, the defects would certainly pass away, while the +political arrangements, if good, would remain. Such a work is fitter +for a man than for a woman. I am very far from thinking that it is +a task which I can perform with satisfaction either to myself or to +others. It is a work which some man will do who has earned a right +by education, study, and success to rank himself among the political +sages of his age. But I may perhaps be able to add something to the +familiarity of Englishmen with Americans. The writings which have +been most popular in England on the subject of the United States have +hitherto dealt chiefly with social details; and though in most cases +true and useful, have created laughter on one side of the Atlantic, +and soreness on the other. If I could do anything to mitigate the +soreness, if I could in any small degree add to the good feeling +which should exist between two nations which ought to love each other +so well, and which do hang upon each other so constantly, I should +think that I had cause to be proud of my work. + +But it is very hard to write about any country a book that does +not represent the country described in a more or less ridiculous +point of view. It is hard at least to do so in such a book +as I must write. A De Tocqueville may do it. It may be done +by any philosophico-political or politico-statistical, or +statistico-scientific writer; but it can hardly be done by a man who +professes to use a light pen, and to manufacture his article for the +use of general readers. Such a writer may tell all that he sees of +the beautiful; but he must also tell, if not all that he sees of the +ludicrous, at any rate the most piquant part of it. How to do this +without being offensive is the problem which a man with such a task +before him has to solve. His first duty is owed to his readers, and +consists mainly in this: that he shall tell the truth, and shall +so tell that truth that what he has written may be readable. But +a second duty is due to those of whom he writes; and he does not +perform that duty well if he gives offence to those, as to whom, on +the summing up of the whole evidence for and against them in his own +mind, he intends to give a favourable verdict. There are of course +those against whom a writer does not intend to give a favourable +verdict;--people and places whom he desires to describe, on the peril +of his own judgment, as bad, ill-educated, ugly, and odious. In such +cases his course is straightforward enough. His judgment may be +in great peril, but his volume or chapter will be easily written. +Ridicule and censure run glibly from the pen, and form themselves +into sharp paragraphs which are pleasant to the reader. Whereas +eulogy is commonly dull, and too frequently sounds as though it were +false. There is much difficulty in expressing a verdict which is +intended to be favourable; but which, though favourable, shall not be +falsely eulogistic; and though true, not offensive. + +Who has ever travelled in foreign countries without meeting excellent +stories against the citizens of such countries? And how few can +travel without hearing such stories against themselves? It is +impossible for me to avoid telling of a very excellent gentleman whom +I met before I had been in the United States a week, and who asked me +whether lords in England ever spoke to men who were not lords. Nor +can I omit the opening address of another gentleman to my wife. "You +like our institutions, ma'am?" "Yes, indeed," said my wife,--not with +all that eagerness of assent which the occasion perhaps required. +"Ah," said he, "I never yet met the down-trodden subject of a despot +who did not hug his chains." The first gentleman was certainly +somewhat ignorant of our customs, and the second was rather abrupt in +his condemnation of the political principles of a person whom he only +first saw at that moment. It comes to me in the way of my trade to +repeat such incidents; but I can tell stories which are quite as good +against Englishmen. As for instance, when I was tapped on the back in +one of the galleries of Florence by a countryman of mine, and asked +to show him where stood the medical Venus. Nor is anything that one +can say of the inconveniences attendant upon travel in the United +States to be beaten by what foreigners might truly say of us. I shall +never forget the look of a Frenchman whom I found on a wet afternoon +in the best inn of a provincial town in the west of England. He was +seated on a horsehair-covered chair in the middle of a small dingy +ill-furnished private sitting-room. No eloquence of mine could make +intelligible to a Frenchman or an American the utter desolation of +such an apartment. The world as then seen by that Frenchman offered +him solace of no description. The air without was heavy, dull, and +thick. The street beyond the window was dark and narrow. The room +contained mahogany chairs covered with horsehair, a mahogany table +ricketty in its legs, and a mahogany sideboard ornamented with +inverted glasses and old cruet-stands. The Frenchman had come +to the house for shelter and food, and had been asked whether +he was commercial. Whereupon he shook his head. "Did he want a +sitting-room?" Yes, he did. "He was a leetle tired and vanted to +seet." Whereupon he was presumed to have ordered a private room, +and was shown up to the Eden I have described. I found him there at +death's door. Nothing that I can say with reference to the social +habits of the Americans can tell more against them than the story of +that Frenchman's fate tells against those of our country. + +From which remarks I would wish to be understood as deprecating +offence from my American friends, if in the course of my book should +be found aught which may seem to argue against the excellence of +their institutions, and the grace of their social life. Of this at +any rate I can assure them in sober earnestness that I admire what +they have done in the world and for the world with a true and hearty +admiration; and that whether or no all their institutions be at +present excellent, and their social life all graceful, my wishes are +that they should be so, and my convictions are that that improvement +will come for which there may perhaps even yet be some little room. + +And now touching this war which had broken out between the North and +South before I left England. I would wish to explain what my feelings +were; or rather what I believe the general feelings of England to +have been, before I found myself among the people by whom it was +being waged. It is very difficult for the people of any one nation to +realize the political relations of another, and to chew the cud and +digest the bearings of those external politics. But it is unjust in +the one to decide upon the political aspirations and doings of that +other without such understanding. Constantly as the name of France +is in our mouth, comparatively few Englishmen understand the way +in which France is governed;--that is, how far absolute despotism +prevails, and how far the power of the one ruler is tempered, or, as +it may be, hampered by the voices and influence of others. And as +regards England, how seldom is it that in common society a foreigner +is met who comprehends the nature of her political arrangements! To +a Frenchman,--I do not of course include great men who have made the +subject a study,--but to the ordinary intelligent Frenchman the thing +is altogether incomprehensible. Language, it may be said, has much +to do with that. But an American speaks English; and how often is an +American met, who has combined in his mind the idea of a monarch, so +called, with that of a republic, properly so named;--a combination of +ideas which I take to be necessary to the understanding of English +politics? The gentleman who scorned my wife for hugging her chains +had certainly not done so, and yet he conceived that he had studied +the subject. The matter is one most difficult of comprehension. +How many Englishmen have failed to understand accurately their own +constitution, or the true bearing of their own politics! But when +this knowledge has been attained, it has generally been filtered into +the mind slowly, and has come from the unconscious study of many +years. An Englishman handles a newspaper for a quarter of an hour +daily, and daily exchanges some few words in politics with those +around him, till drop by drop the pleasant springs of his liberty +creep into his mind and water his heart; and thus, earlier or later +in life according to the nature of his intelligence, he understands +why it is that he is at all points a free man. But if this be so of +our own politics; if it be so rare a thing to find a foreigner who +understands them in all their niceties, why is it that we are so +confident in our remarks on all the niceties of those of other +nations? + +I hope that I may not be misunderstood as saying that we should not +discuss foreign politics in our press, our parliament, our public +meetings, or our private houses. No man could be mad enough to preach +such a doctrine. As regards our Parliament, that is probably the best +British school of foreign politics, seeing that the subject is not +there often taken up by men who are absolutely ignorant, and that +mistakes when made are subject to a correction which is both rough +and ready. The press, though very liable to error, labours hard at +its vocation in teaching foreign politics, and spares no expense +in letting in daylight. If the light let in be sometimes moonshine, +excuse may easily be made. Where so much is attempted, there must +necessarily be some failure. But even the moonshine does good, if it +be not offensive moonshine. What I would deprecate is, that aptness +at reproach which we assume;--the readiness with scorn, the quiet +words of insult, the instant judgment and condemnation with which we +are so inclined to visit, not the great outward acts, but the smaller +inward politics of our neighbours. + +And do others spare us, will be the instant reply of all who may read +this. In my counter reply I make bold to place myself and my country +on very high ground, and to say that we, the older and therefore +more experienced people as regards the United States, and the better +governed as regards France, and the stronger as regards all the world +beyond, should not throw mud again even though mud be thrown at us. +I yield the path to a small chimney-sweeper as readily as to a lady; +and forbear from an interchange of courtesies with a Billingsgate +heroine, even though at heart I may have a proud consciousness that +I should not altogether go to the wall in such an encounter. + +I left England in August last--August 1861. At that time, and for +some months previous, I think that the general English feeling on +the American question was as follows. "This wide-spread nationality +of the United States, with its enormous territorial possessions and +increasing population, has fallen asunder, torn to pieces by the +weight of its own discordant parts,--as a congregation when its +size has become unwieldy will separate, and reform itself into two +wholesome wholes. It is well that this should be so, for the people +are not homogeneous, as a people should be who are called to live +together as one nation. They have attempted to combine free-soil +sentiments with the practice of slavery, and to make these two +antagonists live together in peace and unity under the same roof; +but, as we have long expected, they have failed. Now has come the +period for separation; and if the people would only see this, and +act in accordance with the circumstances which Providence and the +inevitable hand of the world's ruler has prepared for them, all +would be well. But they will not do this. They will go to war with +each other. The South will make her demands for secession with an +arrogance and instant pressure which exasperates the North; and the +North, forgetting that an equable temper in such matters is the most +powerful of all weapons, will not recognize the strength of its own +position. It allows itself to be exasperated, and goes to war for +that which if regained would only be injurious to it. Thus millions +on millions sterling will be spent. A heavy debt will be incurred; +and the North, which divided from the South might take its place +among the greatest of nations, will throw itself back for half a +century, and perhaps injure the splendour of its ultimate prospects. +If only they would be wise, throw down their arms, and agree to part! +But they will not." + +This was, I think, the general opinion when I left England. It would +not, however, be necessary to go back many months to reach the time +when Englishmen were saying how impossible it was that so great a +national power should ignore its own greatness, and destroy its own +power by an internecine separation. But in August last all that had +gone by, and we in England had realized the probability of actual +secession. + +To these feelings on the subject may be added another, which was +natural enough though perhaps not noble. "These western cocks have +crowed loudly," we said; "too loudly for the comfort of those who +live after all at no such great distance from them. It is well that +their combs should be clipped. Cocks who crow so very loudly are a +nuisance. It might have gone so far that the clipping would become a +work necessarily to be done from without. But it is ten times better +for all parties that it should be done from within; and as the cocks +are now clipping their own combs, in God's name let them do it +and the whole world will be the quieter." That, I say, was not a +very noble idea; but it was natural enough, and certainly has done +somewhat in mitigating that grief which the horrors of civil war and +the want of cotton have caused to us in England. + +Such certainly had been my belief as to the country. I speak here of +my opinion as to the ultimate success of secession and the folly of +the war,--repudiating any concurrence of my own in the ignoble but +natural sentiment alluded to in the last paragraph. I certainly did +think that the Northern States, if wise, would have let the Southern +States go. I had blamed Buchanan as a traitor for allowing the germ +of secession to make any growth;--and as I thought him a traitor +then, so do I think him a traitor now. But I had also blamed Lincoln, +or rather the government of which Mr. Lincoln in this matter is +no more than the exponent, for his efforts to avoid that which is +inevitable. In this I think that I--or as I believe I may say we, we +Englishmen--were wrong. I do not see how the North, treated as it was +and had been, could have submitted to secession without resistance. +We all remember what Shakespere says of the great armies which were +led out to fight for a piece of ground not large enough to cover +the bodies of those who would be slain in the battle; but I do not +remember that Shakespere says that the battle was on this account +necessarily unreasonable. It is the old point of honour, which, till +it had been made absurd by certain changes of circumstances, was +always grand and usually beneficent. These changes of circumstances +have altered the manner in which appeal may be made, but have not +altered the point of honour. Had the Southern States sought to obtain +secession by constitutional means, they might or might not have been +successful; but if successful there would have been no war. I do not +mean to brand all the Southern States with treason, nor do I intend +to say that having secession at heart they could have obtained it +by constitutional means. But I do intend to say that acting as they +did, demanding secession not constitutionally but in opposition to +the constitution, taking upon themselves the right of breaking up a +nationality of which they formed only a part, and doing that without +consent of the other part, opposition from the North and war was an +inevitable consequence. + +It is, I think, only necessary to look back to the revolution by +which the United States separated themselves from England to see +this. There is hardly to be met, here and there, an Englishman who +now regrets the loss of the revolted American colonies;--who now +thinks that civilization was retarded and the world injured by that +revolt; who now conceives that England should have expended more +treasure and more lives in the hope of retaining those colonies. It +is agreed that the revolt was a good thing; that those who were then +rebels became patriots by success, and that they deserved well of all +coming ages of mankind. But not the less absolutely necessary was it +that England should endeavour to hold her own. She was as the mother +bird when the young bird will fly alone. She suffered those pangs +which Nature calls upon mothers to endure. + +As was the necessity of British opposition to American independence, +so was the necessity of Northern opposition to Southern secession. +I do not say that in other respects the two cases were parallel. +The States separated from us because they would not endure taxation +without representation--in other words because they were old enough +and big enough to go alone. The South is seceding from the North +because the two are not homogeneous. They have different instincts, +different appetites, different morals, and a different culture. It is +well for one man to say that slavery has caused the separation; and +for another to say that slavery has not caused it. Each in so saying +speaks the truth. Slavery has caused it, seeing that slavery is the +great point on which the two have agreed to differ. But slavery has +not caused it, seeing that other points of difference are to be found +in every circumstance and feature of the two people. The North and +the South must ever be dissimilar. In the North labour will always +be honourable, and because honourable successful. In the South +labour has ever been servile,--at least in some sense, and therefore +dishonourable; and because dishonourable has not, to itself, been +successful. In the South, I say, labour ever has been dishonourable; +and I am driven to confess that I have not hitherto seen a sign of +any change in the Creator's fiat on this matter. That labour will be +honourable all the world over, as years advance and the millennium +draws nigh, I for one never doubt. + +So much for English opinion about America in August last. And now I +will venture to say a word or two as to American feeling respecting +this English opinion at that period. It will of course be remembered +by all my readers that at the beginning of the war Lord Russell, who +was then in the lower house, declared as Foreign Secretary of State +that England would regard the North and South as belligerents, and +would remain neutral as to both of them. This declaration gave +violent offence to the North, and has been taken as indicating +British sympathy with the cause of the seceders. I am not going +to explain--indeed it would be necessary that I should first +understand--the laws of nations with regard to blockaded ports, +privateering, ships and men and goods contraband of war, and all +those semi-nautical semi-military rules and axioms which it is +necessary that all Attorneys-General and such like should at the +present moment have at their fingers' end. But it must be evident +to the most ignorant in those matters, among which large crowd I +certainly include myself, that it was essentially necessary that Lord +John Russell should at that time declare openly what England intended +to do. It was essential that our seamen should know where they would +be protected and where not, and that the course to be taken by +England should be defined. Reticence in the matter was not within the +power of the British Government. It behoved the Foreign Secretary of +State to declare openly that England intended to side either with one +party or with the other, or else to remain neutral between them. + +I had heard this matter discussed by Americans before I left England, +and I have of course heard it discussed very frequently in America. +There can be no doubt that the front of the offence given by England +to the Northern States was this declaration of Lord John Russell's. +But it has been always made evident to me that the sin did not +consist in the fact of England's neutrality,--in the fact of +her regarding the two parties as belligerents,--but in the open +declaration made to the world by a Secretary of State that she did +intend so to regard them. If another proof were wanting, this would +afford another proof of the immense weight attached in America to all +the proceedings and to all the feelings of England on this matter. +The very anger of the North is a compliment paid by the North to +England. But not the less is that anger unreasonable. To those in +America who understand our constitution, it must be evident that our +Government cannot take official measures without a public avowal of +such measures. France can do so. Russia can do so. The Government +of the United States can do so, and could do so even before this +rupture. But the Government of England cannot do so. All men +connected with the Government in England have felt themselves from +time to time more or less hampered by the necessity of publicity. +Our statesmen have been forced to fight their battles with the plan +of their tactics open before their adversaries. But we, in England, +are inclined to believe, that the general result is good, and that +battles so fought and so won will be fought with the honestest blows, +and won with the surest results. Reticence in this matter was not +possible, and Lord John Russell in making the open avowal which gave +such offence to the Northern States only did that which, as a servant +of England, England required him to do. + +"What would you in England have thought," a gentleman of much weight +in Boston said to me, "if when you were in trouble in India, we had +openly declared that we regarded your opponents there as belligerents +on equal terms with yourselves?" I was forced to say that, as far as +I could see, there was no analogy between the two cases. In India an +army had mutinied, and that an army composed of a subdued, if not a +servile race. The analogy would have been fairer had it referred to +any sympathy shown by us to insurgent negroes. But, nevertheless, +had the army which mutinied in India been in possession of ports and +sea-board; had they held in their hands vast commercial cities and +great agricultural districts; had they owned ships and been masters +of a wide-spread trade, America could have done nothing better +towards us than have remained neutral in such a conflict, and have +regarded the parties as belligerents. The only question is whether +she would have done so well by us. "But," said my friend in answer +to all this, "we should not have proclaimed to the world that we +regarded you and them as standing on an equal footing." There again +appeared the true gist of the offence. A word from England such as +that spoken by Lord John Russell was of such weight to the South, +that the North could not endure to have it spoken. I did not say to +that gentleman,--but here I may say, that had such circumstances +arisen as those conjectured, and had America spoken such a word, +England would not have felt herself called upon to resent it. + +But the fairer analogy lies between Ireland and the Southern States. +The monster meetings and O'Connell's triumphs are not so long gone by +but that many of us can remember the first demand for secession made +by Ireland, and the line which was then taken by American sympathies. +It is not too much to say that America then believed that Ireland +would secure secession, and that the great trust of the Irish +repealers was in the moral aid which she did and would receive from +America. "But our Government proclaimed no sympathy with Ireland," +said my friend. No. The American Government is not called on to make +such proclamations; nor had Ireland ever taken upon herself the +nature and labours of a belligerent. + +That this anger on the part of the North is unreasonable I cannot +doubt. That it is unfortunate, grievous, and very bitter I am quite +sure. But I do not think that it is in any degree surprising. I am +inclined to think that did I belong to Boston as I do belong to +London, I should share in the feeling, and rave as loudly as all men +there have raved against the coldness of England. When men have on +hand such a job of work as the North has now undertaken they are +always guided by their feelings rather than their reason. What two +men ever had a quarrel in which each did not think that all the +world, if just, would espouse his own side of the dispute? The North +feels that it has been more than loyal to the South, and that the +South has taken advantage of that over-loyalty to betray the North. +"We have worked for them, and fought for them, and paid for them," +says the North. "By our labour we have raised their indolence to a +par with our energy. While we have worked like men, we have allowed +them to talk and bluster. We have warmed them in our bosom, and now +they turn against us and sting us. The world sees that this is so. +England, above all, must see it, and seeing it should speak out her +true opinion." The North is hot with such thoughts as these, and +one cannot wonder that she should be angry with her friend, when +her friend, with an expression of certain easy good wishes, bids +her fight out her own battles. The North has been unreasonable with +England;--but I believe that every reader of this page would have +been as unreasonable had that reader been born in Massachusetts. + +Mr. and Mrs. Jones are the dearly beloved friends of my family. My +wife and I have lived with Mrs. Jones on terms of intimacy which have +been quite endearing. Jones has had the run of my house with perfect +freedom, and in Mrs. Jones' drawing-room I have always had my own +arm-chair, and have been regaled with large breakfast-cups of tea, +quite as though I were at home. But of a sudden Jones and his wife +have fallen out, and there is for a while in Jones' Hall a cat and +dog life that may end--in one hardly dare to surmise what calamity. +Mrs. Jones begs that I will interfere with her husband, and Jones +entreats the good offices of my wife in moderating the hot temper of +his own. But we know better than that. If we interfere, the chances +are that my dear friends will make it up and turn upon us. I grieve +beyond measure in a general way at the temporary break up of the +Jones' Hall happiness. I express general wishes that it may be +temporary. But as for saying which is right or which is wrong,--as +to expressing special sympathy on either side in such a quarrel,--it +is out of the question. "My dear Jones, you must excuse me. Any news +in the City to-day? Sugars have fell; how are teas?" Of course Jones +thinks that I'm a brute; but what can I do? + +I have been somewhat surprised to find the trouble that has been +taken by American orators, statesmen, and logicians to prove that +this secession on the part of the South has been revolutionary;--that +is to say, that it has been undertaken and carried on not in +compliance with the constitution of the United States, but in +defiance of it. This has been done over and over again by some of +the greatest men of the North, and has been done most successfully. +But what then? Of course the movement has been revolutionary and +anti-constitutional. Nobody, no single Southerner, can really believe +that the Constitution of the United States as framed in 1787, or +altered since, intended to give to the separate States the power of +seceding as they pleased. It is surely useless going through long +arguments to prove this, seeing that it is absolutely proved by the +absence of any clause giving such licence to the separate States. +Such licence would have been destructive to the very idea of a great +nationality. Where would New England have been as a part of the +United States, if New York, which stretches from the Atlantic to the +borders of Canada, had been endowed with the power of cutting off the +six Northern States from the rest of the Union? No one will for a +moment doubt that the movement was revolutionary, and yet infinite +pains are taken to prove a fact that is patent to every one. + +It is revolutionary, but what then? Have the Northern States of +the American Union taken upon themselves in 1861 to proclaim their +opinion that revolution is a sin? Are they going back to the divine +right of any sovereignty? Are they going to tell the world that +a nation or a people is bound to remain in any political status, +because that status is the recognized form of government under which +such a people have lived? Is this to be the doctrine of United +States' citizens,--of all people? And is this the doctrine preached +now, of all times, when the King of Naples and the Italian dukes +have just been dismissed from their thrones with such enchanting +nonchalance, because their people have not chosen to keep them? Of +course the movement is revolutionary; and why not? It is agreed now +among all men and all nations that any people may change its form of +government to any other, if it wills to do so,--and if it can do so. + +There are two other points on which these Northern statesmen and +logicians also insist, and these two other points are at any rate +better worth an argument than that which touches the question of +revolution. It being settled that secession on the part of the +Southerners is revolution, it is argued, firstly, that no occasion +for revolution had been given by the North to the South; and, +secondly, that the South has been dishonest in its revolutionary +tactics. Men certainly should not raise a revolution for nothing; and +it may certainly be declared that whatever men do, they should do +honestly. + +But in that matter of the cause and ground for revolution, it +is so very easy for either party to put in a plea that shall be +satisfactory to itself! Mr. and Mrs. Jones each had a separate story. +Mr. Jones was sure that the right lay with him: but Mrs. Jones was +no less sure. No doubt the North had done much for the South;--had +earned money for it; had fed it;--and had moreover in a great measure +fostered all its bad habits. It had not only been generous to the +South, but over-indulgent. But also it had continually irritated the +South by meddling with that which the Southerners believed to be a +question absolutely private to themselves. The matter was illustrated +to me by a New Hampshire man who was conversant with black bears. At +the hotels in the New Hampshire mountains it is customary to find +black bears chained to poles. These bears are caught among the hills, +and are thus imprisoned for the amusement of the hotel guests. "Them +Southerners," said my friend, "are jist as one as that 'ere bear. We +feeds him and gives him a house and his belly is ollers full. But +then, jist becase he's a black bear, we're ollers a poking him with +sticks, and a' course the beast is kinder riled. He wants to be back +to the mountains. He wouldn't have his belly filled, but he'd have +his own way. It's jist so with them Southerners." + +It is of no use proving to any man or to any nation that they have +got all they should want, if they have not got all that they do want. +If a servant desires to go, it is of no avail to show him that he +has all he can desire in his present place. The Northerners say that +they have given no offence to the Southerners, and that therefore the +South is wrong to raise a revolution. The very fact that the North is +the North, is an offence to the South. As long as Mr. and Mrs. Jones +were one in heart and one in feeling, having the same hopes and the +same joys, it was well that they should remain together. But when it +is proved that they cannot so live without tearing out each other's +eyes, Sir Cresswell Cresswell, the revolutionary institution of +domestic life, interferes and separates them. This is the age of such +separations. I do not wonder that the North should use its logic to +show that it has received cause of offence but given none. But I +do think that such logic is thrown away. The matter is not one for +argument. The South has thought that it can do better without the +North than with it; and if it has the power to separate itself, it +must be conceded that it has the right. + +And then as to that question of honesty. Whatever men do they +certainly should do honestly. Speaking broadly one may say that the +rule applies to nations as strongly as to individuals, and should +be observed in politics as accurately as in other matters. We must, +however, confess that men who are scrupulous in their private +dealings do too constantly drop those scruples when they handle +public affairs,--and especially when they handle them at stirring +moments of great national changes. The name of Napoleon III. stands +fair now before Europe, and yet he filched the French empire with a +falsehood. The union of England and Ireland is a successful fact, but +nevertheless it can hardly be said that it was honestly achieved. I +heartily believe that the whole of Texas is improved in every sense +by having been taken from Mexico and added to the Southern States, +but I much doubt whether that annexation was accomplished with +absolute honesty. We all reverence the name of Cavour, but Cavour did +not consent to abandon Nice to France with clean hands. When men have +political ends to gain they regard their opponents as adversaries, +and then that old rule of war is brought to bear, Deceit or +valour,--either may be used against a foe. Would it were not so! The +rascally rule--rascally in reference to all political contests--is +becoming less universal than it was. But it still exists with +sufficient force to be urged as an excuse; and while it does exist it +seems almost needless to show that a certain amount of fraud has been +used by a certain party in a revolution. If the South be ultimately +successful, the fraud of which it may have been guilty will be +condoned by the world. + +The Southern or democratic party of the United States had, as all +men know, been in power for many years. Either Southern Presidents +had been elected, or Northern Presidents with Southern politics. The +South for many years had had the disposition of military matters, and +the power of distributing military appliances of all descriptions. It +is now alleged by the North that a conspiracy had long been hatching +in the South with the view of giving to the Southern States the power +of secession whenever they might think fit to secede; and it is +further alleged that President after President for years back has +unduly sent the military treasure of the nation away from the North +down to the South, in order that the South might be prepared when +the day should come. That a President with Southern instincts should +unduly favour the South, that he should strengthen the South, and +feel that arms and ammunition were stored there with better effect +than they could be stored in the North, is very probable. We all +understand what is the bias of a man's mind, and how strong that +bias may become when the man is not especially scrupulous. But I do +not believe that any President previous to Buchanan sent military +materials to the South with the self-acknowledged purpose of using +them against the Union. That Buchanan did so, or knowingly allowed +this to be done, I do believe, and I think that Buchanan was a +traitor to the country whose servant he was and whose pay he +received. + +And now, having said so much in the way of introduction, I will begin +my journey. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +NEWPORT--RHODE ISLAND. + + +We--the we consisting of my wife and myself--left Liverpool for +Boston on the 24th August, 1861, in the "Arabia," one of Cunard's +North American mail packets. We had determined that my wife should +return alone at the beginning of winter, when I intended to go to a +part of the country in which, under the existing circumstances of the +war, a lady might not feel herself altogether comfortable. I proposed +staying in America over the winter, and returning in the spring; and +this programme I have carried out with sufficient exactness. + +The "Arabia" touched at Halifax; and as the touch extended from 11 +A.M. to 6 P.M. we had an opportunity of seeing a good deal of that +colony;--not quite sufficient to justify me at this critical age in +writing a chapter of travels in Nova Scotia, but enough perhaps to +warrant a paragraph. It chanced that a cousin of mine was then in +command of the troops there, so that we saw the fort with all the +honours. A dinner on shore was, I think, a greater treat to us even +than this. We also inspected sundry specimens of the gold which is +now being found for the first time in Nova Scotia,--as to the glory +and probable profits of which the Nova Scotians seemed to be fully +alive. But still, I think, the dinner on shore took rank with us as +the most memorable and meritorious of all that we did and saw at +Halifax. At seven o'clock on the morning but one after that, we were +landed at Boston. + +At Boston I found friends ready to receive us with open arms, though +they were friends we had never known before. I own that I felt myself +burdened with much nervous anxiety at my first introduction to men +and women in Boston. I knew what the feeling there was with reference +to England, and I knew also how impossible it is for an Englishman +to hold his tongue and submit to dispraise of England. As for going +among a people whose whole minds were filled with affairs of the +war, and saying nothing about the war,--I knew that no resolution +to such an effect could be carried out. If one could not trust +oneself to speak, one should have stayed at home in England. I will +here state that I always did speak out openly what I thought and +felt, and that though I encountered very strong--sometimes almost +fierce--opposition, I never was subjected to anything that was +personally disagreeable to me. + +In September we did not stay above a week in Boston, having been +fairly driven out of it by the mosquitoes. I had been told that I +should find nobody in Boston whom I cared to see, as everybody was +habitually out of town during the heat of the latter summer and early +autumn; but this was not so. The war and attendant turmoils of war +had made the season of vacation shorter than usual, and most of those +for whom I asked were back at their posts. I know no place at which +an Englishman may drop down suddenly among a pleasanter circle of +acquaintance, or find himself with a more clever set of men, than he +can do at Boston. I confess that in this respect I think that but few +towns are at present more fortunately circumstanced than the capital +of the Bay State, as Massachusetts is called, and that very few towns +make a better use of their advantages. Boston has a right to be proud +of what it has done for the world of letters. It is proud; but I have +not found that its pride was carried too far. + +Boston is not in itself a fine city, but it is a very pleasant city. +They say that the harbour is very grand and very beautiful. It +certainly is not so fine as that of Portland in a nautical point of +view, and as certainly it is not as beautiful. It is the entrance +from the sea into Boston of which people say so much; but I did not +think it quite worthy of all I had heard. In such matters, however, +much depends on the peculiar light in which scenery is seen. An +evening light is generally the best for all landscapes; and I did not +see the entrance to Boston harbour by an evening light. It was not +the beauty of the harbour of which I thought the most, but of the tea +that had been sunk there, and of all that came of that successful +speculation. Few towns now standing have a right to be more proud of +their antecedents than Boston. + +But as I have said, it is not specially interesting to the eye--what +new town, or even what simply adult town, can be so? There is an +Athenæum, and a State Hall, and a fashionable street,--Beacon Street, +very like Piccadilly as it runs along the Green Park,--and there is +the Green Park opposite to this Piccadilly, called Boston Common. +Beacon Street and Boston Common are very pleasant. Excellent houses +there are, and large churches, and enormous hotels; but of such +things as these a man can write nothing that is worth the reading. +The traveller who desires to tell his experience of North America +must write of people rather than of things. + +As I have said, I found myself instantly involved in discussions on +American politics, and the bearing of England upon those politics. +"What do you think, you in England--what do you all believe will +be the upshot of this war?" That was the question always asked in +those or other words. "Secession, certainly," I always said, but not +speaking quite with that abruptness. "And you believe, then, that the +South will beat the North?" I explained that I, personally, had never +so thought, and that I did not believe that to be the general idea. +Men's opinions in England, however, were too divided to enable me to +say that there was any prevailing conviction on the matter. My own +impression was, and is, that the North will, in a military point of +view, have the best of the contest,--will beat the South; but that +the Northerners will not prevent secession, let their success be what +it may. Should the North prevail after a two years' conflict, the +North will not admit the South to an equal participation of good +things with themselves, even though each separate rebellious State +should return suppliant, like a prodigal son, kneeling on the floor +of Congress, each with a separate rope of humiliation round its neck. +Such was my idea as expressed then, and I do not know that I have +since had much cause to change it. + +"We will never give it up," one gentleman said to me--and, indeed, +many have said the same,--"till the whole territory is again united +from the Bay to the Gulf! It is impossible that we should allow +of two nationalities within those limits." "And do you think it +possible," I asked, "that you should receive back into your bosom +this people which you now hate with so deep a hatred, and receive +them again into your arms as brothers on equal terms? Is it in +accordance with experience that a conquered people should be so +treated--and that, too, a people whose every habit of life is at +variance with the habits of their presumed conquerors? When you have +flogged them into a return of fraternal affection, are they to keep +their slaves or are they to abolish them?" "No," said my friend; "it +may not be practicable to put those rebellious States at once on an +equality with ourselves. For a time they will probably be treated as +the Territories are now treated." (The Territories are vast outlying +districts belonging to the Union, but not as yet endowed with State +governments, or a participation in the United States Congress.) "For +a time they must, perhaps, lose their full privileges; but the Union +will be anxious to readmit them at the earliest possible period." +"And as to the slaves?" I asked again. "Let them emigrate to Liberia: +back to their own country." I could not say that I thought much of +the solution of the difficulty. It would, I suggested, overtask even +the energy of America to send out an emigration of four million +souls, to provide for their wants in a new and uncultivated country, +and to provide after that for the terrible gap made in the labour +market of the Southern States. "The Israelites went back from +bondage," said my friend. But a way was opened for them by a miracle +across the sea, and food was sent to them from heaven, and they had +among them a Moses for a leader and a Joshua to fight their battles. +I could not but express my fear that the days of such immigrations +were over. This plan of sending back the negroes to Africa did not +reach me only from one or from two mouths; and it was suggested by +men whose opinions respecting their country have weight at home and +are entitled to weight abroad. I mention this merely to show how +insurmountable would be the difficulty of preventing secession, let +which side win that may. + +"We will never abandon the right to the mouth of the Mississippi." +That in all such arguments is a strong point with men of the Northern +States;--perhaps the point to which they all return with the greatest +firmness. It is that on which Mr. Everett insists in the last +paragraph of the oration which he made in New York on the 4th of +July, 1861. "The Missouri and the Mississippi rivers," he says, "with +their hundred tributaries give to the great central basin of our +continent its character and destiny. The outlet of this system lies +between the States of Tennessee and Missouri, of Mississippi and +Arkansas, and through the State of Louisiana. The ancient province +so called, the proudest monument of the mighty monarch whose +name it bears, passed from the jurisdiction of France to that of +Spain in 1763. Spain coveted it; not that she might fill it with +prosperous colonies and rising States, but that it might stretch +as a broad waste barrier, infested with warlike tribes, between +the Anglo-American power and the silver mines of Mexico. With the +independence of the United States, the fear of a still more dangerous +neighbour grew upon Spain; and in the insane expectation of checking +the progress of the Union westward, she threatened, and at times +attempted, to close the mouth of the Mississippi on the rapidly +increasing trade of the West. The bare suggestion of such a +policy roused the population upon the banks of the Ohio, then +inconsiderable, as one man. Their confidence in Washington scarcely +restrained them from rushing to the seizure of New Orleans, when +the treaty of San Lorenzo El Real, in 1795, stipulated for them a +precarious right of navigating the noble river to the sea, with a +right of deposit at New Orleans. This subject was for years the +turning-point of the politics of the West; and it was perfectly well +understood that, sooner or later, she would be content with nothing +less than the sovereign control of the mighty stream from its +head-spring to its outlet in the Gulf. _And that is as true now as it +was then._" + +This is well put. It describes with force the desires, ambition, +and necessities of a great nation, and it tells with historical truth +the story of the success of that nation. It was a great thing done +when the purchase of the whole of Louisiana was completed by the +United States,--that cession by France, however, having been made +at the instance of Napoleon, and not in consequence of any demand +made by the States. The district then called Louisiana included +the present State of that name, and the States of Missouri and +Arkansas;--included also the right to possess, if not the absolute +possession of, all that enormous expanse of country running from +thence back to the Pacific; a huge amount of territory of which the +most fertile portion is watered by the Mississippi and its vast +tributaries. That river and those tributaries are navigable through +the whole centre of the American continent up to Wisconsin and +Minnesota. To the United States the navigation of the Mississippi +was, we may say, indispensable; and to the States when no longer +united the navigation will be equally indispensable. But the days are +gone when any country, such as Spain was, can interfere to stop the +highways of the world with the all but avowed intention of arresting +the progress of civilization. It may be that the North and the South +can never again be friends as the component parts of one nation. Such +I take it is the belief of all politicians in Europe, and of many of +those who live across the water. But as separate nations they may yet +live together in amity, and share between them the great water-ways +which God has given them for their enrichment. The Rhine is free to +Prussia and to Holland. The Danube is not closed against Austria. It +will be said that the Danube has in fact been closed against Austria, +in spite of treaties to the contrary. But the faults of bad and weak +governments are made known as cautions to the world, and not as facts +to copy. The free use of the waters of a common river between two +nations is an affair for treaty; and it has not yet come to that that +treaties must necessarily be null and void through the falseness of +politicians. + +"And what will England do for cotton? Is it not the fact that Lord +John Russell with his professed neutrality intends to express +sympathy with the South, intends to pave the way for the advent +of Southern cotton?" "You ought to love us," so say men in Boston, +"because we have been with you in heart and spirit for long, +long years. But your trade has eaten into your souls, and you +love American cotton better than American loyalty and American +fellowship." This I found to be unfair, and in what politest language +I could use I said so. I had not any special knowledge of the minds +of English statesmen on this matter; but I knew as well as Americans +could do what our statesmen had said and done respecting it. That +cotton, if it came from the South, would be made very welcome in +Liverpool, of course, I knew. If private enterprise could bring it, +it might be brought. But the very declaration made by Lord John +Russell was the surest pledge that England as a nation would not +interfere, even to supply her own wants. It may easily be imagined +what eager words all this would bring about; but I never found that +eager words led to feelings which were personally hostile. + +All the world has heard of Newport in Rhode Island as being the +Brighton, and Tenby, and Scarborough of New England. And the glory +of Newport is by no means confined to New England, but is shared by +New York and Washington, and in ordinary years by the extreme South. +It is the habit of Americans to go to some watering place every +summer,--that is, to some place either of sea water or of inland +waters. This is done much in England; more in Ireland than in +England; but, I think, more in the States than even in Ireland. +But of all such summer haunts, Newport is supposed to be in many +ways the most captivating. In the first place it is certainly the +most fashionable, and in the next place it is said to be the most +beautiful. We decided on going to Newport,--led thither by the latter +reputation rather than the former. As we were still in the early part +of September we expected to find the place full, but in this we were +disappointed;--disappointed, I say, rather than gratified, although +a crowded house at such a place is certainly a nuisance. But a house +which is prepared to make up six hundred beds, and which is called +on to make up only twenty-five becomes, after a while, somewhat +melancholy. The natural depression of the landlord communicates +itself to his servants, and from the servants it descends to the +twenty-five guests, who wander about the long passages and deserted +balconies like the ghosts of those of the summer visitors, who cannot +rest quietly in their graves at home. + +In England we know nothing of hotels prepared for six hundred +visitors, all of whom are expected to live in common. Domestic +architects would be frightened at the dimensions which are needed, +and at the number of apartments which are required to be clustered +under one roof. We went to the Ocean Hotel at Newport, and fancied, +as we first entered the hall under a verandah as high as the house, +and made our way into the passage, that we had been taken to a +well-arranged barrack. "Have you rooms?" I asked, as a man always +does ask on first reaching his inn. "Rooms enough," the clerk +said. "We have only fifty here." But that fifty dwindled down to +twenty-five during the next day or two. + +We were a melancholy set, the ladies appearing to be afflicted in +this way worse than the gentlemen, on account of their enforced +abstinence from tobacco. What can twelve ladies do scattered about +a drawing-room, so-called, intended for the accommodation of two +hundred? The drawing-room at the Ocean Hotel, Newport, is not as big +as Westminster Hall, but would, I should think, make a very good +House of Commons for the British nation. Fancy the feelings of a lady +when she walks into such a room intending to spend her evening there, +and finds six or seven other ladies located on various sofas at +terrible distances,--all strangers to her. She has come to Newport +probably to enjoy herself; and as, in accordance with the customs of +the place, she has dined at two, she has nothing before her for the +evening but the society of that huge furnished cavern. Her husband, +if she have one, or her father, or her lover, has probably entered +the room with her. But a man has never the courage to endure such a +position long. He sidles out with some muttered excuse, and seeks +solace with a cigar. The lady, after half an hour of contemplation, +creeps silently near some companion in the desert, and suggests in a +whisper that Newport does not seem to be very full at present. + +We stayed there for a week, and were very melancholy; but in our +melancholy we still talked of the war. Americans are said to be given +to bragging, and it is a sin of which I cannot altogether acquit +them. But I have constantly been surprised at hearing the Northern +men speak of their own military achievements with anything but +self-praise. "We've been whipped, sir; and we shall be whipped again +before we've done; uncommon well whipped we shall be." "We began +cowardly, and were afraid to send our own regiments through one of +our own cities." This alluded to a demand that had been made on +the Government, that troops going to Washington should not be sent +through Baltimore, because of the strong feeling for rebellion which +was known to exist in that city. President Lincoln complied with this +request, thinking it well to avoid a collision between the mob and +the soldiers. "We began cowardly, and now we're going on cowardly, +and darn't attack them. Well; when we've been whipped often enough, +then we shall learn the trade." Now all this,--and I heard much of +such a nature,--could not be called boasting. But yet with it all +there was a substratum of confidence. I have heard northern gentlemen +complaining of the President, complaining of all his ministers one +after another, complaining of the contractors who were robbing the +army, of the commanders who did not know how to command the army, +and of the army itself which did not know how to obey; but I do not +remember that I have discussed the matter with any Northerner who +would admit a doubt as to ultimate success. + +We were certainly rather melancholy at Newport, and the empty house +may perhaps have given its tone to the discussions on the war. +I confess that I could not stand the drawing-room--the ladies' +drawing-room as such-like rooms are always called at the hotels,--and +that I basely deserted my wife. I could not stand it either here or +elsewhere, and it seemed to me that other husbands,--ay, and even +lovers,--were as hard pressed as myself. I protest that there is no +spot on the earth's surface so dear to me as my own drawing-room, +or rather my wife's drawing-room at home; that I am not a man +given hugely to clubs, but one rather rejoicing in the rustle of +petticoats. I like to have women in the same room with me. But at +these hotels I found myself driven away,--propelled as it were by +some unknown force,--to absent myself from the feminine haunts. +Anything was more palatable than them; even "liquoring up" at a +nasty bar, or smoking in a comfortless reading-room among a deluge +of American newspapers. And I protest also,--hoping as I do so +that I may say much in these volumes to prove the truth of such +protestation,--that this comes from no fault of the American women. +They are as lovely as our own women. Taken generally, they are better +instructed--though perhaps not better educated. They are seldom +troubled with _mauvaise honte_,--I do not say it in irony, but +begging that the words may be taken at their proper meaning. They +can always talk, and very often can talk well. But when assembled +together in these vast, cavernous, would-be luxurious, but in truth +horribly comfortless hotel drawing-rooms,--they are unapproachable. +I have seen lovers, whom I have known to be lovers, unable to remain +five minutes in the same cavern with their beloved ones. + +And then the music! There is always a piano in an hotel drawing-room, +on which, of course, some one of the forlorn ladies is generally +employed. I do not suppose that these pianos are in fact, as a +rule, louder and harsher, more violent and less musical, than other +instruments of the kind. They seem to be so, but that, I take it, +arises from the exceptional mental depression of those who have to +listen to them. Then the ladies, or probably some one lady, will +sing, and as she hears her own voice ring and echo through the lofty +corners and round the empty walls, she is surprised at her own force, +and with increased efforts sings louder and still louder. She is +tempted to fancy that she is suddenly gifted with some power of vocal +melody unknown to her before, and filled with the glory of her own +performance shouts till the whole house rings. At such moments she at +least is happy, if no one else is so. Looking at the general sadness +of her position, who can grudge her such happiness? + +And then the children,--babies, I should say if I were speaking of +English bairns of their age; but seeing that they are Americans, I +hardly dare to call them children. The actual age of these perfectly +civilized and highly educated beings may be from three to four. One +will often see five or six such seated at the long dinner-table of +the hotel, breakfasting and dining with their elders, and going +through the ceremony with all the gravity, and more than all the +decorum of their grandfathers. When I was three years old I had not +yet, as I imagine, been promoted beyond a silver spoon of my own +wherewith to eat my bread and milk in the nursery, and I feel assured +that I was under the immediate care of a nursemaid, as I gobbled up +my minced mutton mixed with potatoes and gravy. But at hotel life in +the States the adult infant lisps to the waiter for everything at +table, handles his fish with epicurean delicacy, is choice in his +selection of pickles, very particular that his beefsteak at breakfast +shall be hot, and is instant in his demand for fresh ice in his +water. But perhaps his, or in this case her, retreat from the +room when the meal is over, is the _chef d'oeuvre_ of the whole +performance. The little precocious, full-blown beauty of four +signifies that she has completed her meal,--or is "through" her +dinner, as she would express it,--by carefully extricating herself +from the napkin which has been tucked around her. Then the waiter, +ever attentive to her movements, draws back the chair on which she is +seated, and the young lady glides to the floor. A little girl in Old +England would scramble down, but little girls in New England never +scramble. Her father and mother, who are no more than her chief +ministers, walk before her out of the saloon, and then she--swims +after them. But swimming is not the proper word. Fishes in making +their way through the water assist, or rather impede, their motion +with no dorsal riggle. No animal taught to move directly by its +Creator adopts a gait so useless, and at the same time so graceless. +Many women, having received their lessons in walking from a less +eligible instructor, do move in this way, and such women this +unfortunate little lady has been instructed to copy. The peculiar +step to which I allude is to be seen often on the Boulevards in +Paris. It is to be seen more often in second rate French towns, and +among fourth rate French women. Of all signs in women betokening +vulgarity, bad taste, and aptitude to bad morals, it is the surest. +And this is the gait of going which American mothers,--some American +mothers I should say,--love to teach their daughters! As a comedy at +an hotel, it is very delightful, but in private life I should object +to it. + +To me Newport could never be a place charming by reason of its own +charms. That it is a very pleasant place when it is full of people +and the people are in spirits and happy, I do not doubt. But then the +visitors would bring, as far as I am concerned, the pleasantness with +them. The coast is not fine. To those who know the best portions of +the coast of Wales or Cornwall,--or better still, the western coast +of Ireland, of Clare and Kerry for instance,--it would not be in any +way remarkable. It is by no means equal to Dieppe or Biarritz, and +not to be talked of in the same breath with Spezzia. The hotels, too, +are all built away from the sea; so that one cannot sit and watch the +play of the waves from one's window. Nor are there pleasant rambling +paths down among the rocks, and from one short strand to another. +There is excellent bathing for those who like bathing on shelving +sand. I don't. The spot is about half a mile from the hotels, and to +this the bathers are carried in omnibuses. Till one o'clock ladies +bathe;--which operation, however, does not at all militate against +the bathing of men, but rather necessitates it as regards those men +who have ladies with them. For here ladies and gentlemen bathe in +decorous dresses, and are very polite to each other. I must say, that +I think the ladies have the best of it. My idea of sea-bathing for +my own gratification is not compatible with a full suit of clothing. +I own that my tastes are vulgar and perhaps indecent; but I love +to jump into the deep clear sea from off a rock, and I love to be +hampered by no outward impediments as I do so. For ordinary bathers, +for all ladies, and for men less savage in their instincts than I am, +the bathing at Newport is very good. + +The private houses--villa residences as they would be termed by an +auctioneer in England--are excellent. Many of them are, in fact, +large mansions, and are surrounded with grounds, which, as the shrubs +grow up, will be very beautiful. Some have large, well-kept lawns, +stretching down to the rocks, and these to my taste give the charm +to Newport. They extend about two miles along the coast. Should my +lot have made me a citizen of the United States, I should have had no +objection to become the possessor of one of these "villa residences," +but I do not think that I should have "gone in" for hotel life at +Newport. + +We hired saddle-horses, and rode out nearly the length of the island. +It was all very well, but there was little in it remarkable either +as regards cultivation or scenery. We found nothing that it would be +possible either to describe or remember. The Americans of the United +States have had time to build and populate vast cities, but they have +not yet had time to surround themselves with pretty scenery. Outlying +grand scenery is given by nature; but the prettiness of home scenery +is a work of art. It comes from the thorough draining of land, from +the planting and subsequent thinning of trees, from the controlling +of waters, and constant use of minute patches of broken land. +In another hundred years or so Rhode Island may be, perhaps, as +pretty as the Isle of Wight. The horses which we got were not good. +They were unhandy and badly mouthed, and that which my wife rode +was altogether ignorant of the art of walking. We hired them +from an Englishman, who had established himself at New York as a +riding-master for ladies, and who had come to Newport for the season +on the same business. He complained to me with much bitterness of the +saddle-horses which came in his way,--of course thinking that it was +the special business of a country to produce saddle-horses,--as I +think it the special business of a country to produce pens, ink, and +paper of good quality. According to him, riding has not yet become +an American art, and hence the awkwardness of American horses. "Lord +bless you, sir! they don't give an animal a chance of a mouth." In +this he alluded only, I presume, to saddle-horses. I know nothing of +the trotting-horses, but I should imagine that a fine mouth must be +an essential requisite for a trotting-match in harness. As regards +riding at Newport, we were not tempted to repeat the experiment. The +number of carriages which we saw there,--remembering as I did that +the place was comparatively empty,--and their general smartness, +surprised me very much. It seemed that every lady with a house of her +own had also her own carriage. These carriages were always open, and +the law of the land imperatively demands that the occupants shall +cover their knees with a worked worsted apron of brilliant colours. +These aprons at first, I confess, seemed tawdry; but the eye soon +becomes used to bright colours, in carriage aprons as well as in +architecture, and I soon learned to like them. + +Rhode Island, as the State is usually called, is the smallest State +in the Union. I may perhaps best show its disparity to other States +by saying that New York extends about 250 miles from north to south +and the same distance from east to west; whereas the State called +Rhode Island is about forty miles long by twenty broad, independently +of certain small islands. It would, in fact, not form a considerable +addition, if added on to many of the other States. Nevertheless, it +has all the same powers of self-government as are possessed by such +nationalities as the States of New York and Pennsylvania; and sends +two senators to the Senate at Washington, as do those enormous +States. Small as the State is, Rhode Island itself forms but a +small portion of it. The authorized and proper name of the State is +Providence Plantation and Rhode Island. Roger Williams was the first +founder of the colony, and he established himself on the mainland +at a spot which he called Providence. Here now stands the city of +Providence, the chief town of the State; and a thriving, comfortable +town it seems to be, full of banks, fed by railways and steamers, and +going ahead quite as quickly as Roger Williams could in his fondest +hopes have desired. + +Rhode Island, as I have said, has all the attributes of government in +common with her stouter and more famous sisters. She has a governor, +and an upper house, and a lower house of legislature; and she is +somewhat fantastic in the use of these constitutional powers, for she +calls on them to sit now in one town and now in another. Providence +is the capital of the State; but the Rhode Island parliament sits +sometimes at Providence and sometimes at Newport. At stated times +also it has to collect itself at Bristol, and at other stated times +at Kingston, and at others at East Greenwich. Of all legislative +assemblies it is the most peripatetic. Universal suffrage does not +absolutely prevail in this State, a certain property qualification +being necessary to confer a right to vote even for the State +Representatives. I should think it would be well for all parties +if the whole State could be swallowed up by Massachusetts or by +Connecticut, either of which lie conveniently for the feat; but I +presume that any suggestion of such a nature would be regarded as +treason by the men of Providence Plantation. + +We returned back to Boston by Attleborough, a town at which in +ordinary times the whole population is supported by the jewellers' +trade. It is a place with a speciality, upon which speciality it has +thriven well and become a town. But the speciality is one ill-adapted +for times of war; and we were assured that the trade was for the +present at an end. What man could now-a-days buy jewels, or even what +woman, seeing that everything would be required for the war? I do not +say that such abstinence from luxury has been begotten altogether by +a feeling of patriotism. The direct taxes which all Americans will +now be called on to pay, have had, and will have much to do with such +abstinence. In the mean time the poor jewellers of Attleborough have +gone altogether to the wall. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. + + +Perhaps I ought to assume that all the world in England knows that +that portion of the United States called New England consists of +the six States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, +Connecticut, and Rhode Island. This is especially the land of +Yankees, and none can properly be called Yankees but those who belong +to New England. I have named the States as nearly as may be in order +from the North downwards. Of Rhode Island, the smallest State in the +Union, I have already said what little I have to say. Of these six +States Boston may be called the capital. Not that it is so in any +civil or political sense;--it is simply the capital of Massachusetts. +But as it is the Athens of the Western world; as it was the cradle +of American freedom; as everybody of course knows that into Boston +harbour was thrown the tea which George III. would tax, and that at +Boston, on account of that and similar taxes, sprang up the new +revolution; and as it has grown in wealth, and fame, and size beyond +other towns in New England, it may be allowed to us to regard it as +the capital of these six Northern States, without guilt of _lèse +majesté_ towards the other five. To me, I confess, this Northern +division of our once unruly colonies is, and always has been, the +dearest. I am no Puritan myself, and fancy that had I lived in +the days of the Puritans, I should have been anti-Puritan to the +full extent of my capabilities. But I should have been so through +ignorance and prejudice, and actuated by that love of existing rights +and wrongs which men call loyalty. If the Canadas were to rebel now, +I should be for putting down the Canadians with a strong hand; but +not the less have I an idea that it will become the Canadas to rebel +and assert their independence at some future period;--unless it +be conceded to them without such rebellion. Who, on looking back, +can now refuse to admire the political aspirations of the English +Puritans, or decline to acknowledge the beauty and fitness of what +they did? It was by them that these States of New England were +colonized. They came hither stating themselves to be pilgrims, and as +such they first placed their feet on that hallowed rock at Plymouth, +on the shore of Massachusetts. They came here driven by no thirst of +conquest, by no greed for gold, dreaming of no Western empire such as +Cortez had achieved and Raleigh had meditated. They desired to earn +their bread in the sweat of their brow, worshipping God according to +their own lights, living in harmony under their own laws, and feeling +that no master could claim a right to put a heel upon their necks. +And be it remembered that here in England, in those days, earthly +masters were still apt to put their heels on the necks of men. The +Star Chamber was gone, but Jeffreys had not yet reigned. What earthly +aspirations were ever higher than these, or more manly? And what +earthly efforts ever led to grander results? + +We determined to go to Portland, in Maine, from thence to the White +Mountains in New Hampshire--the American Alps, as they love to call +themselves,--and then on to Quebec and up through the two Canadas +to Niagara; and this route we followed. From Boston to Portland we +travelled by railroad,--the carriages on which are in America always +called cars. And here I beg, once for all, to enter my protest loudly +against the manner in which these conveyances are conducted. The one +grand fault--there are other smaller faults--but the one grand fault +is that they admit but one class. Two reasons for this are given. +The first is that the finances of the companies will not admit of +a divided accommodation; and the second is that the republican +nature of the people will not brook a superior or aristocratic +classification of travelling. As regards the first, I do not in the +least believe in it. If a more expensive manner of railway travelling +will pay in England, it would surely do so here. Were a better class +of carriages organized, as large a portion of the population would +use them in the United States as in any country in Europe. And it +seems to be evident that in arranging that there shall be only one +rate of travelling, the price is enhanced on poor travellers exactly +in proportion as it is made cheap to those who are not poor. For the +poorer classes, travelling in America is by no means cheap,--the +average rate being, as far as I can judge, fully three halfpence a +mile. It is manifest that dearer rates for one class would allow +of cheaper rates for the other; and that in this manner general +travelling would be encouraged and increased. + +But I do not believe that the question of expenditure has had +anything to do with it. I conceive it to be true that the railways +are afraid to put themselves at variance with the general feeling of +the people. If so the railways may be right. But then, on the other +hand, the general feeling of the people must in such case be wrong. +Such a feeling argues a total mistake as to the nature of that +liberty and equality for the security of which the people are so +anxious, and that mistake the very one which has made shipwreck so +many attempts at freedom in other countries. It argues that confusion +between social and political equality which has led astray multitudes +who have longed for liberty fervently, but who have not thought of +it carefully. If a first-class railway carriage should be held as +offensive, so should a first-class house, or a first-class horse, or +a first-class dinner. But first-class houses, first-class horses, +and first-class dinners are very rife in America. Of course it may +be said that the expenditure shown in these last-named objects is +private expenditure, and cannot be controlled; and that railway +travelling is of a public nature, and can be made subject to public +opinion. But the fault is in that public opinion which desires to +control matters of this nature. Such an arrangement partakes of all +the vice of a sumptuary law, and sumptuary laws are in their very +essence mistakes. It is well that a man should always have all for +which he is willing to pay. If he desires and obtains more than is +good for him, the punishment, and thus also the preventive, will come +from other sources. + +It will be said that the American cars are good enough for all +purposes. The seats are not very hard, and the room for sitting is +sufficient. Nevertheless I deny that they are good enough for all +purposes. They are very long, and to enter them and find a place +often requires a struggle and almost a fight. There is rarely any +person to tell a stranger which car he should enter. One never meets +an uncivil or unruly man, but the women of the lower ranks are not +courteous. American ladies love to lie at ease in their carriages, as +thoroughly as do our women in Hyde Park, and to those who are used +to such luxury, travelling by railroad in their own country must be +grievous. I would not wish to be thought a Sybarite myself, or to be +held as complaining because I have been compelled to give up my seat +to women with babies and bandboxes who have accepted the courtesy +with very scanty grace. I have borne worse things than these, and +have roughed it much in my days from want of means and other reasons. +Nor am I yet so old but what I can rough it still. Nevertheless +I like to see things as well done as is practicable, and railway +travelling in the States is not well done. I feel bound to say as +much as this, and now I have said it, once for all. + +Few cities, or localities for cities, have fairer natural advantages +than Portland--and I am bound to say that the people of Portland have +done much in turning them to account. This town is not the capital of +the State in a political point of view. Augusta, which is further to +the North, on the Kenebec river, is the seat of the State Government +for Maine. It is very generally the case that the States do not hold +their legislatures and carry on their Government at their chief +towns. Augusta and not Portland is the capital of Maine. Of the State +of New York, Albany is the capital, and not the city which bears the +State's name. And of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg and not Philadelphia +is the capital. I think the idea has been that old-fashioned notions +were bad in that they were old-fashioned; and that a new people, +bound by no prejudices, might certainly make improvement by choosing +for themselves new ways. If so the American politicians have not been +the first in the world who have thought that any change must be a +change for the better. The assigned reason is the centrical position +of the selected political capitals: but I have generally found the +real commercial capital to be easier of access than the smaller +town in which the two legislative houses are obliged to collect +themselves. + +What must be the natural excellence of the harbour of Portland will +be understood when it is borne in mind that the Great Eastern can +enter it at all times, and that it can lie along the wharves at any +hour of the tide. The wharves which have been prepared for her--and +of which I will say a word further by-and-by--are joined to and in +fact are a portion of the station of the Grand Trunk Railway, which +runs from Portland up to Canada. So that passengers landing at +Portland out of a vessel so large even as the Great Eastern can walk +at once on shore, and goods can be passed on to the railway without +any of the cost of removal. I will not say that there is no other +harbour in the world that would allow of this, but I do not know any +other that would do so. + +From Portland a line of railway, called as a whole by the name of the +Canada Grand Trunk line, runs across the State of Maine through the +Northern parts of New Hampshire and Vermont, to Montreal, a branch +striking from Richmond, a little within the limits of Canada, to +Quebec, and down the St. Lawrence to Rivière du Loup. The main line +is continued from Montreal, through Upper Canada to Toronto, and from +thence to Detroit in the State of Michigan. The total distance thus +traversed is in a direct line about 900 miles. From Detroit there is +railway communication through the immense North-Western States of +Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois, than which perhaps the surface of +the globe affords no finer districts for purposes of agriculture. The +produce of the two Canadas must be poured forth to the Eastern world, +and the men of the Eastern world must throng into these lands, by +means of this railroad,--and, as at present arranged, through the +harbour of Portland. At present the line has been opened, and they +who have opened are sorely suffering in pocket for what they have +done. The question of the railway is rather one applying to Canada +than to the State of Maine, and I will therefore leave it for the +present. + +But the Great Eastern has never been to Portland, and as far as I +know has no intention of going there. She was, I believe, built with +that object. At any rate it was proclaimed during her building that +such was her destiny, and the Portlanders believed it with a perfect +faith. They went to work and built wharves expressly for her; two +wharves prepared to fit her two gangways, or ways of exit and +entrance. They built a huge hotel to receive her passengers. They +prepared for her advent with a full conviction that a millennium of +trade was about to be wafted to their happy port. "Sir, the town has +expended two hundred thousand dollars in expectation of that ship, +and that ship has deceived us." So was the matter spoken of to me by +an intelligent Portlander. I explained to that intelligent gentleman +that two hundred thousand dollars would go a very little way towards +making up the loss which the ill-fortuned vessel had occasioned +on the other side of the water. He did not in words express +gratification at this information, but he looked it. The matter +was as it were a partnership without deed of contract between the +Portlanders and the shareholders of the vessel, and the Portlanders, +though they also have suffered their losses, have not had the worst +of it. + +But there are still good days in store for the town. Though the Great +Eastern has not gone there, other ships from Europe, more profitable +if less in size, must eventually find their way thither. At present +the Canada line of packets runs to Portland only during those months +in which it is shut out from the St. Lawrence and Quebec by ice. +But the St. Lawrence and Quebec cannot offer the advantages which +Portland enjoys, and that big hotel and those new wharves will not +have been built in vain. + +I have said that a good time is coming, but I would by no means wish +to signify that the present times in Portland are bad. So far from +it, that I doubt whether I ever saw a town with more evident signs of +prosperity. It has about it every mark of ample means, and no mark +of poverty. It contains about 27,000 people, and for that population +covers a very large space of ground. The streets are broad and +well built, the main streets not running in those absolutely +straight parallels which are so common in American towns, and are so +distressing to English eyes and English feelings. All these, except +the streets devoted exclusively to business, are shaded on both sides +by trees--generally, if I remember rightly, by the beautiful American +elm, whose drooping boughs have all the grace of the willow without +its fantastic melancholy. What the poorer streets of Portland may be +like I cannot say. I saw no poor street. But in no town of 30,000 +inhabitants did I ever see so many houses which must require an +expenditure of from six to eight hundred a year to maintain them. + +The place too is beautifully situated. It is on a long promontory, +which takes the shape of a peninsula;--for the neck which joins it +to the mainland is not above half a mile across. But though the +town thus stands out into the sea, it is not exposed and bleak. The +harbour again is surrounded by land, or so guarded and locked by +islands as to form a series of salt-water lakes running round the +town. Of those islands there are, of course, 365. Travellers who +write their travels are constantly called upon to record that +number, so that it may now be considered as a superlative in local +phraseology, signifying a very great many indeed. The town stands +between two hills, the suburbs or outskirts running up on to each of +them. The one looking out towards the sea is called Mountjoy--though +the obstinate Americans will write it Munjoy on their maps. From +thence the view out to the harbour and beyond the harbour to the +islands is, I may not say unequalled, or I shall be guilty of running +into superlatives myself; but it is, in its way, equal to anything I +have seen. Perhaps it is more like Cork harbour, as seen from certain +heights over Passage than anything else I can remember; but Portland +harbour, though equally landlocked, is larger; and then from Portland +harbour there is as it were a river outlet, running through delicious +islands, most unalluring to the navigator, but delicious to the eyes +of an uncommercial traveller. There are in all four outlets to the +sea, one of which appears to have been made expressly for the Great +Eastern. Then there is the hill looking inwards. If it has a name +I forget it. The view from this hill is also over the water on each +side, and though not so extensive is perhaps as pleasing as the +other. + +The ways of the people seemed to be quiet, smooth, orderly, and +republican. There is nothing to drink in Portland of course, for, +thanks to Mr. Neal Dow, the Father Mathew of the State of Maine, the +Maine Liquor Law is still in force in that State. There is nothing +to drink, I should say, in such orderly houses as that I selected. +"People do drink some in the town, they say," said my hostess to +me; "and liquor is to be got. But I never venture to sell any. An +ill-natured person might turn on me, and where should I be then?" I +did not press her, and she was good enough to put a bottle of porter +at my right hand at dinner, for which I observed she made no charge. +"But they advertise beer in the shop-windows," I said to a man +who was driving me--"Scotch ale, and bitter beer. A man can get +drunk on them." "Wa'al, yes. If he goes to work hard, and drinks a +bucket-full," said the driver, "perhaps he may." From which and other +things I gathered that the men of Maine drank pottle deep before Mr. +Neal Dow brought his exertions to a successful termination. + +The Maine Liquor Law still stands in Maine, and is the law of the +land throughout New England; but it is not actually put in force in +the other States. By this law no man may retail wine, spirits, or, in +truth, beer, except with a special license, which is given only to +those who are presumed to sell them as medicines. A man may have what +he likes in his own cellar for his own use--such at least is the +actual working of the law--but may not obtain it at hotels and +public-houses. This law, like all sumptuary laws, must fail. And it +is fast failing even in Maine. But it did appear to me from such +information as I could collect that the passing of it had done much +to hinder and repress a habit of hard drinking which was becoming +terribly common, not only in the towns of Maine, but among the +farmers and hired labourers in the country. + +But if the men and women of Portland may not drink they may eat, and +it is a place, I should say, in which good living on that side of the +question is very rife. It has an air of supreme plenty, as though the +agonies of an empty stomach were never known there. The faces of the +people tell of three regular meals of meat a day, and of digestive +powers in proportion. Oh happy Portlanders, if they only knew their +own good fortune! They get up early, and go to bed early. The women +are comely and sturdy, able to take care of themselves without +any fal-lal of chivalry; and the men are sedate, obliging, and +industrious. I saw the young girls in the streets, coming home from +their tea-parties at nine o'clock, many of them alone, and all with +some basket in their hands which betokened an evening not passed +absolutely in idleness. No fear there of unruly questions on the way, +or of insolence from the ill-conducted of the other sex! All was, or +seemed to be, orderly, sleek, and unobtrusive. Probably of all modes +of life that are allotted to man by his Creator, life such as this is +the most happy. One hint, however, for improvement I must give, even +to Portland! It would be well if they could make their streets of +some material harder than sand. + +I must not leave the town without desiring those who may visit it to +mount the Observatory. They will from thence get the best view of the +harbour and of the surrounding land; and, if they chance to do so +under the reign of the present keeper of the signals, they will find +a man there able and willing to tell them everything needful about +the State of Maine in general, and the harbour in particular. He will +come out in his shirt sleeves, and, like a true American, will not +at first be very smooth in his courtesy; but he will wax brighter in +conversation, and if not stroked the wrong way will turn out to be an +uncommonly pleasant fellow. Such I believe to be the case with most +of them. + +From Portland we made our way up to the White Mountains, which lay on +our route to Canada. Now I would ask any of my readers who are candid +enough to expose their own ignorance whether they ever heard, or +at any rate whether they know anything of the White Mountains. As +regards myself I confess that the name had reached my ears; that I +had an indefinite idea that they formed an intermediate stage between +the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghenies, and that they were inhabited +either by Mormons, Indians, or simply by black bears. That there was +a district in New England containing mountain scenery superior to +much that is yearly crowded by tourists in Europe, that this is +to be reached with ease by railways and stage-coaches, and that +it is dotted with huge hotels, almost as thickly as they lie in +Switzerland, I had no idea. Much of this scenery, I say, is superior +to the famed and classic lands of Europe. I know nothing, for +instance, on the Rhine equal to the view from Mount Willard, down the +mountain pass called the Notch. + +Let the visitor of these regions be as late in the year as he can, +taking care that he is not so late as to find the hotels closed. +October, no doubt, is the most beautiful month among these mountains, +but according to the present arrangement of matters here, the hotels +are shut up by the end of September. With us, August, September, and +October are the holiday months; whereas our rebel children across the +Atlantic love to disport themselves in July and August. The great +beauty of the autumn, or fall, is in the brilliant hues which are +then taken by the foliage. The autumnal tints are fine with us. They +are lovely and bright wherever foliage and vegetation form a part +of the beauty of scenery. But in no other land do they approach the +brilliancy of the fall in America. The bright rose colour, the rich +bronze which is almost purple in its richness, and the glorious +golden yellows must be seen to be understood. By me at any rate they +cannot be described. These begin to show themselves in September, and +perhaps I might name the latter half of that month as the best time +for visiting the White Mountains. + +I am not going to write a guide-book, feeling sure that Mr. Murray +will do New England, and Canada, including Niagara and the Hudson +river, with a peep into Boston and New York before many more seasons +have passed by. But I cannot forbear to tell my countrymen that +any enterprising individual with a hundred pounds to spend on his +holiday,--a hundred and twenty would make him more comfortable, in +regard to wine, washing, and other luxuries,--and an absence of two +months from his labours, may see as much and do as much here for the +money as he can see or do elsewhere. In some respects he may do more; +for he will learn more of American nature in such a journey than he +can ever learn of the nature of Frenchmen or Americans by such an +excursion among them. Some three weeks of the time, or perhaps a day +or two over, he must be at sea, and that portion of his trip will +cost him fifty pounds,--presuming that he chooses to go in the most +comfortable and costly way;--but his time on board ship will not be +lost. He will learn to know much of Americans there, and will perhaps +form acquaintances of which he will not altogether lose sight for +many a year. He will land at Boston, and staying a day or two there +will visit Cambridge, Lowell, and Bunker Hill; and, if he be that +way given, will remember that here live, and occasionally are to +be seen alive, men such as Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorne, and a +host of others whose names and fames have made Boston the throne of +Western Literature. He will then,--if he take my advice and follow +my track,--go by Portland up into the White Mountains. At Gorham, a +station on the Grand Trunk line, he will find an hotel as good as any +of its kind, and from thence he will take a light waggon, so called +in these countries;--and here let me presume that the traveller +is not alone; he has his wife or friend, or perhaps a pair of +sisters,--and in his waggon he will go up through primeval forests to +the Glen House. When there he will ascend Mount Washington on a pony. +That is _de rigueur_, and I do not, therefore, dare to recommend him +to omit the ascent. I did not gain much myself by my labour. He will +not stay at the Glen House, but will go on to--Jackson's I think they +call the next hotel; at which he will sleep. From thence he will take +his waggon on through the Notch to the Crawford House, sleeping there +again; and when here let him of all things remember to go up Mount +Willard. It is but a walk of two hours, up and down, if so much. When +reaching the top he will be startled to find that he looks down into +the ravine without an inch of fore-ground. He will come out suddenly +on a ledge of rock, from whence, as it seems, he might leap down at +once into the valley below. Then going on from the Crawford House +he will be driven through the woods of Cherry Mount, passing, +I fear without toll of custom, the house of my excellent friend +Mr. Plaistead, who keeps an hotel at Jefferson. "Sir," said Mr. +Plaistead, "I have everything here that a man ought to want; air, +sir, that ain't to be got better nowhere; trout, chickens, beef, +mutton, milk,--and all for a dollar a day. A top of that hill, sir, +there's a view that ain't to be beaten this side of the Atlantic, or +I believe the other. And an echo, sir!--We've an echo that comes back +to us six times, sir; floating on the light wind, and wafted about +from rock to rock till you would think the angels were talking to +you. If I could raise that echo, sir, every day at command I'd give a +thousand dollars for it. It would be worth all the money to a house +like this." And he waved his hand about from hill to hill, pointing +out in graceful curves the lines which the sounds would take. Had +destiny not called on Mr. Plaistead to keep an American hotel, he +might have been a poet. + +My traveller, however, unless time were plenty with him, would pass +Mr. Plaistead, merely lighting a friendly cigar, or perhaps breaking +the Maine Liquor Law if the weather be warm, and would return to +Gorham on the railway. All this mountain district is in New +Hampshire, and presuming him to be capable of going about the world +with his mouth, ears, and eyes open, he would learn much of the way +in which men are settling themselves in this still sparsely populated +country. Here young farmers go into the woods, as they are doing +far down west in the Territories, and buying some hundred acres at +perhaps six shillings an acre, fell and burn the trees and build +their huts, and take the first steps, as far as man's work is +concerned, towards accomplishing the will of the Creator in those +regions. For such pioneers of civilization there is still ample room +even in the long settled States of New Hampshire and Vermont. + +But to return to my traveller, whom having brought so far, I must +send on. Let him go on from Gorham to Quebec, and the heights of +Abraham, stopping at Sherbrooke that he might visit from thence the +lake of Memphra Magog. As to the manner of travelling over this +ground I shall say a little in the next chapter, when I come to the +progress of myself and my wife. From Quebec he will go up the St. +Lawrence to Montreal. He will visit Ottawa, the new capital, and +Toronto. He will cross the Lake to Niagara, resting probably at the +Clifton House on the Canada side. He will then pass on to Albany, +taking the Trenton falls on his way. From Albany he will go down the +Hudson to West-Point. He cannot stop at the Catskill Mountains, for +the hotel will be closed. And then he will take the river boat, and +in a few hours will find himself at New York. If he desires to go +into American city society, he will find New York agreeable; but in +that case he must exceed his two months. If he do not so desire, a +short sojourn at New York will show him all that there is to be seen, +and all that there is not to be seen in that great city. That the +Cunard line of steamers will bring him safely back to Liverpool +in about eleven days, I need not tell to any Englishman, or, as +I believe, to any American. So much, in the spirit of a guide, +I vouchsafe to all who are willing to take my counsel,--thereby +anticipating Murray, and leaving these few pages as a legacy to him +or to his collaborateurs. + +I cannot say that I like the hotels in those parts, or indeed the +mode of life at American hotels in general. In order that I may not +unjustly defame them, I will commence these observations by declaring +that they are cheap to those who choose to practise the economy which +they encourage, that the viands are profuse in quantity and wholesome +in quality, that the attendance is quick and unsparing, and that +travellers are never annoyed by that grasping greedy hunger and +thirst after francs and shillings which disgrace in Europe many +English and many continental inns. All this is, as must be admitted, +great praise; and yet I do not like the American hotels. + +One is in a free country and has come from a country in which one +has been brought up to hug one's chains,--so at least the English +traveller is constantly assured--and yet in an American inn one can +never do as one likes. A terrific gong sounds early in the morning, +breaking one's sweet slumbers, and then a second gong sounding some +thirty minutes later, makes you understand that you must proceed to +breakfast, whether you be dressed or no. You certainly can go on with +your toilet and obtain your meal after half an hour's delay. Nobody +actually scolds you for so doing, but the breakfast is, as they say +in this country, "through." You sit down alone, and the attendant +stands immediately over you. Probably there are two so standing. They +fill your cup the instant it is empty. They tender you fresh food +before that which has disappeared from your plate has been swallowed. +They begrudge you no amount that you can eat or drink; but they +begrudge you a single moment that you sit there neither eating nor +drinking. This is your fate if you're too late, and therefore as a +rule you are not late. In that case you form one of a long row of +eaters who proceed through their work with a solid energy that is +past all praise. It is wrong to say that Americans will not talk at +their meals. I never met but few who would not talk to me, at any +rate till I got to the far west; but I have rarely found that they +would address me first. Then the dinner comes early; at least it +always does so in New England, and the ceremony is much of the same +kind. You came there to eat, and the food is pressed on you almost +_ad nauseam_. But as far as one can see there is no drinking. In +these days, I am quite aware, that drinking has become improper, even +in England. We are apt at home to speak of wine as a thing tabooed, +wondering how our fathers lived and swilled. I believe that as a fact +we drink as much as they did; but nevertheless that is our theory. I +confess, however, that I like wine. It is very wicked, but it seems +to me that my dinner goes down better with a glass of sherry than +without it. As a rule I always did get it at hotels in America. +But I had no comfort with it. Sherry they do not understand at +all. Of course I am only speaking of hotels. Their claret they get +exclusively from Mr. Gladstone, and looking at the quality, have a +right to quarrel even with Mr. Gladstone's price. But it is not the +quality of the wine that I hereby intend to subject to ignominy, so +much as the want of any opportunity for drinking it. After dinner, +if all that I hear be true, the gentlemen occasionally drop into the +hotel bar and "liquor up." Or rather this is not done specially after +dinner, but without prejudice to the hour at any time that may be +found desirable. I also have "liquored up," but I cannot say that +I enjoy the process. I do not intend hereby to accuse Americans of +drinking much, but I maintain that what they do drink, they drink in +the most uncomfortable manner that the imagination can devise. + +The greatest luxury at an English inn is one's tea, one's fire, and +one's book. Such an arrangement is not practicable at an American +hotel. Tea, like breakfast, is a great meal, at which meat should +be eaten, generally with the addition of much jelly, jam, and sweet +preserve; but no person delays over his tea-cup. I love to have my +tea-cup emptied and filled with gradual pauses, so that time for +oblivion may accrue, and no exact record be taken. No such meal is +known at American hotels. It is possible to hire a separate room and +have one's meals served in it; but in doing so a man runs counter to +all the institutions of the country, and a woman does so equally. A +stranger does not wish to be viewed askance by all around him; and +the rule which holds that men at Rome should do as Romans do, if true +anywhere, is true in America. Therefore I say that in an American inn +one can never do as one pleases. + +In what I have here said I do not intend to speak of hotels in the +largest cities, such as Boston or New York. At them meals are served +in the public room separately, and pretty nearly at any or at all +hours of the day; but at them also the attendant stands over the +unfortunate eater, and drives him. The guest feels that he is +controlled by laws adapted to the usages of the Medes and Persians. +He is not the master on the occasion, but the slave; a slave well +treated and fattened up to the full endurance of humanity; but yet a +slave. + +From Gorham we went on to Island Pond, a station on the same Canada +Trunk Railway, on a Saturday evening, and were forced by the +circumstances of the line to pass a melancholy Sunday at the place. +The cars do not run on Sundays, and run but once a day on other days +over the whole line; so that in fact the impediment to travelling +spreads over two days. Island Pond is a lake with an island in it, +and the place which has taken the name is a small village, about +ten years old, standing in the midst of uncut forests, and has been +created by the railway. In ten years more there will no doubt be +a spreading town at Island Pond; the forests will recede, and men +rushing out from the crowded cities will find here food and space +and wealth. For myself I never remain long in such a spot without +feeling thankful that it has not been my mission to be a pioneer of +civilization. + +The farther that I got away from Boston the less strong did I find +the feeling of anger against England. There, as I have said before, +there was a bitter animosity against the mother country in that she +had shown no open sympathy with the North. In Maine and New Hampshire +I did not find this to be the case to any violent degree. Men spoke +of the war as openly as they did at Boston, and in speaking to me +generally connected England with the subject. But they did so simply +to ask questions as to England's policy. What will she do for cotton +when her operatives are really pressed? Will she break the blockade? +Will she insist on a right to trade with Charlestown and New Orleans? +I always answered that she would insist on no such right, if that +right were denied to others and the denial enforced. England, I took +upon myself to say, would not break a veritable blockade, let her be +driven to what shifts she might in providing for her operatives. "Ah; +that's what we fear," a very stanch patriot said to me, if words may +be taken as a proof of stanchness. "If England allies herself with +the Southerners, all our trouble is for nothing." It was impossible +not to feel that all that was said was complimentary to England. It +is her sympathy that the Northern men desire, to her co-operation +that they would willingly trust, on her honesty that they would +choose to depend. It is the same feeling whether it shows itself +in anger or in curiosity. An American whether he be embarked in +politics, in literature, or in commerce, desires English admiration, +English appreciation of his energy, and English encouragement. The +anger of Boston is but a sign of its affectionate friendliness. What +feeling is so hot as that of a friend when his dearest friend refuses +to share his quarrel or to sympathize in his wrongs? To my thinking +the men of Boston are wrong and unreasonable in their anger; but were +I a man of Boston I should be as wrong and as unreasonable as any +of them. All that, however, will come right. I will not believe it +possible that there should in very truth be a quarrel between England +and the Northern States. + +In the guidance of those who are not quite _au fait_ at the details +of American Government, I will here in a few words describe the +outlines of State Government as it is arranged in New Hampshire. +The States in this respect are not all alike, the modes of election +of their officers and periods of service being different. Even the +franchise is different in different States. Universal suffrage is not +the rule throughout the United States; though it is I believe very +generally thought in England that such is the fact. I need hardly +say that the laws in the different States may be as various as the +different legislatures may choose to make them. + +In New Hampshire universal suffrage does prevail; which means that +any man may vote who lives in the State, supports himself, and +assists to support the poor by means of poor rates. A governor of the +State is elected for one year only, but it is customary or at any +rate not uncustomary to re-elect him for a second year. His salary is +a thousand dollars a year, or £200. It must be presumed therefore +that glory and not money is his object. To him is appended a council, +by whose opinions he must in a great degree be guided. His functions +are to the State what those of the President are to the country, and +for the short period of his reign he is as it were a Prime Minister +of the State with certain very limited regal attributes. He however +by no means enjoys the regal attribute of doing no wrong. In every +State there is an Assembly, consisting of two houses of elected +representatives; the Senate, or upper house, and the House of +Representatives so called. In New Hampshire this Assembly, or +Parliament, is styled The General Court of New Hampshire. It sits +annually; whereas the legislature in many States sits only every +other year. Both Houses are re-elected every year. This Assembly +passes laws with all the power vested in our Parliament, but such +laws apply of course only to the State in question. The Governor +of the State has a veto on all bills passed by the two Houses. But, +after receipt of his veto, any bill so stopped by the Governor can +be passed by a majority of two thirds in each House. The General +Court usually sits for about ten weeks. There are in the State eight +judges, three Supreme who sit at Concord, the capital, as a court +of appeal both in civil and criminal matters; and then five lesser +judges, who go circuit through the State. The salaries of these +lesser judges do not exceed from £250 to £300 a year; but they are, I +believe, allowed to practise as lawyers in any counties except those +in which they sit as judges,--being guided in this respect by the +same law as that which regulates the work of assistant barristers +in Ireland. The assistant barristers in Ireland are attached to the +counties as judges at Quarter Sessions, but they practise or may +practise as advocates in all counties except that to which they +are so attached. The judges in New Hampshire are appointed by +the Governor with the assistance of his Council. No judge in New +Hampshire can hold his seat after he has reached seventy years of +age. + +So much at the present moment with reference to the Government of New +Hampshire. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LOWER CANADA. + + +The Grand Trunk Railway runs directly from Portland to Montreal, +which latter town is, in fact, the capital of Canada, though it never +has been so exclusively, and, as it seems, never is to be so, as +regards authority, government, and official name. In such matters +authority and government often say one thing while commerce says +another; but commerce always has the best of it and wins the game +whatever Government may decree. Albany in this way is the capital of +the State of New York, as authorized by the State Government; but New +York has made herself the capital of America, and will remain so. So +also Montreal has made herself the capital of Canada. The Grand Trunk +Railway runs from Portland to Montreal; but there is a branch from +Richmond, a township within the limits of Canada, to Quebec; so that +travellers to Quebec, as we were, are not obliged to reach that place +_viâ_ Montreal. + +Quebec is the present seat of Canadian Government, its turn for that +honour having come round some two years ago; but it is about to be +deserted in favour of Ottawa, a town which is, in fact, still to be +built on the river of that name. The public edifices are, however, in +a state of forwardness; and if all goes well the Governor, the two +Councils, and the House of Representatives will be there before +two years are over whether there be any town to receive them or no. +Who can think of Ottawa without bidding his brothers to row, and +reminding them that the stream runs fast, that the rapids are near +and the daylight past? I asked, as a matter of course, whether Quebec +was much disgusted at the proposed change, and I was told that the +feeling was not now very strong. Had it been determined to make +Montreal the permanent seat of government Quebec and Toronto would +both have been up in arms. + +I must confess that in going from the States into Canada, an +Englishman is struck by the feeling that he is going from a richer +country into one that is poorer, and from a greater country into one +that is less. An Englishman going from a foreign land into a land +which is in one sense his own, of course finds much in the change to +gratify him. He is able to speak as the master, instead of speaking +as the visitor. His tongue becomes more free, and he is able to fall +back to his national habits and national expressions. He no longer +feels that he is admitted on sufferance, or that he must be careful +to respect laws which he does not quite understand. This feeling was +naturally strong in an Englishman in passing from the States into +Canada at the time of my visit. English policy at that moment was +violently abused by Americans, and was upheld as violently in Canada. +But, nevertheless, with all this, I could not enter Canada without +seeing, and hearing, and feeling that there was less of enterprise +around me there than in the States--less of general movement, and +less of commercial success. To say why this is so would require a +long and very difficult discussion, and one which I am not prepared +to hold. It may be that a dependent country, let the feeling of +dependence be ever so much modified by powers of self-governance, +cannot hold its own against countries which are in all respects their +own masters. Few, I believe, would now maintain that the Northern +States of America would have risen in commerce as they have risen, +had they still remained attached to England as colonies. If this be +so, that privilege of self-rule which they have acquired, has been +the cause of their success. It does not follow as a consequence that +the Canadas fighting their battle alone in the world could do as +the States have done. Climate, or size, or geographical position +might stand in their way. But I fear that it does follow, if not as a +logical conclusion at least as a natural result, that they never will +do so well unless some day they shall so fight their battle. It may +be argued that Canada has in fact the power of self-governance; that +she rules herself and makes her own laws as England does; that the +Sovereign of England has but a veto on those laws, and stands in +regard to Canada exactly as she does in regard to England. This is +so, I believe, by the letter of the Constitution, but is not so in +reality, and cannot, in truth, be so in any colony, even of Great +Britain. In England the political power of the Crown is nothing. The +Crown has no such power, and now-a-days makes no attempt at having +any. But the political power of the Crown, as it is felt in Canada, +is everything. The Crown has no such power in England because it must +change its ministers whenever called upon to do so by the House of +Commons. But the Colonial Minister in Downing Street is the Crown's +Prime Minister as regards the Colonies, and he is changed not as any +Colonial House of Assembly may wish, but in accordance with the will +of the British Commons. Both the Houses in Canada--that, namely, +of the Representatives, or Lower House, and of the Legislative +Council, or Upper House--are now elective, and are filled without +direct influence from the Crown. The power of self-government is +as thoroughly developed as perhaps may be possible in a colony. But +after all it is a dependent form of government, and as such may +perhaps not conduce to so thorough a development of the resources of +the country as might be achieved under a ruling power of its own, to +which the welfare of Canada itself would be the chief if not the only +object. + +I beg that it may not be considered from this that I would propose to +Canada to set up for itself at once and declare itself independent. +In the first place I do not wish to throw over Canada; and in the +next place I do not wish to throw over England. If such a separation +shall ever take place, I trust that it may be caused, not by Canadian +violence but by British generosity. Such a separation, however, never +can be good till Canada herself shall wish it. That she does not +wish it yet is certain. If Canada ever should wish it, and should +ever press for the accomplishment of such a wish, she must do so in +connection with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. If at any future time +there be formed such a separate political power, it must include the +whole of British North America. + +In the meantime, I return to my assertion, that in entering Canada +from the States one clearly comes from a richer to a poorer country. +When I have said so, I have heard no Canadian absolutely deny it; +though in refraining from denying it, they have usually expressed a +general conviction, that in settling himself for life, it is better +for a man to set up his staff in Canada than in the States. "I do not +know that we are richer," a Canadian says, "but on the whole we are +doing better and are happier." Now, I regard the golden rules against +the love of gold, the "_aurum irrepertum et sic melius situm_," and +the rest of it, as very excellent when applied to individuals. Such +teaching has not much effect, perhaps, in inducing men to abstain +from wealth,--but such effect as it may have will be good. Men and +women do, I suppose, learn to be happier when they learn to disregard +riches. But such a doctrine is absolutely false as regards a nation. +National wealth produces education and progress, and through them +produces plenty of food, good morals, and all else that is good. +It produces luxury also, and certain evils attendant on luxury. +But I think it may be clearly shown, and that it is universally +acknowledged, that national wealth produces individual well-being. If +this be so, the argument of my friend the Canadian is nought. + +To the feeling of a refined gentleman, or of a lady whose eye loves +to rest always on the beautiful, an agricultural population that +touches its hat, eats plain victuals, and goes to church is more +picturesque and delightful than the thronged crowd of a great city by +which a lady and gentleman is hustled without remorse, which never +touches its hat, and perhaps also never goes to church. And as we +are always tempted to approve of that which we like, and to think +that that which is good to us is good altogether, we--the refined +gentlemen and ladies of England I mean--are very apt to prefer the +hat-touchers to those who are not hat-touchers. In doing so we +intend, and wish, and strive to be philanthropical. We argue to +ourselves that the dear, excellent lower classes receive an immense +amount of consoling happiness from that ceremony of hat-touching, +and quite pity those who, unfortunately for themselves, know nothing +about it. I would ask any such lady or gentleman whether he or she +does not feel a certain amount of commiseration for the rudeness of +the town-bred artisan, who walks about with his hands in his pockets +as though he recognized a superior in no one. + +But that which is good and pleasant to us, is often not good and +pleasant altogether. Every man's chief object is himself; and the +philanthropist should endeavour to regard this question, not from +his own point of view, but from that which would be taken by the +individuals for whose happiness he is anxious. The honest, happy +rustic makes a very pretty picture; and I hope that honest rustics +are happy. But the man who earns two shillings a day in the country +would always prefer to earn five in the town. The man who finds +himself bound to touch his hat to the squire would be glad to +dispense with that ceremony, if circumstances would permit. A crowd +of greasy-coated town artisans with grimy hands and pale faces, is +not in itself delectable; but each of that crowd has probably more +of the goods of life than any rural labourer. He thinks more, reads +more, feels more, sees more, hears more, learns more, and lives more. +It is through great cities that the civilization of the world has +progressed, and the charms of life been advanced. Man in his rudest +state begins in the country, and in his most finished state may +retire there. But the battle of the world has to be fought in the +cities; and the country that shows the greatest city population is +ever the one that is going most ahead in the world's history. + +If this be so, I say that the argument of my Canadian friend was +nought. It may be that he does not desire crowded cities with +dirty, independent artisans; that to his view small farmers, living +sparingly but with content on the sweat of their brows, are surer +signs of a country's prosperity than hives of men and smoking +chimneys. He has, probably, all the upper classes of England with him +in so thinking, and as far as I know the upper classes of all Europe. +But the crowds themselves, the thick masses of which are composed +those populations which we count by millions, are against him. Up in +those regions which are watered by the great lakes, Lake Michigan, +Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and by the St. Lawrence, the +country is divided between Canada and the States. The cities in +Canada were settled long before those in the States. Quebec and +Montreal were important cities before any of the towns belonging to +the States had been founded. But taking the population of three of +each, including the three largest Canadian towns, we find they are +as follows:--In Canada, Quebec has 60,000; Montreal, 85,000; Toronto, +55,000. In the States, Chicago has 120,000; Detroit, 70,000; and +Buffalo, 80,000. If the population had been equal, it would have +shown a great superiority in the progress of those belonging to the +States, because the towns of Canada had so great a start. But the +numbers are by no means equal, showing instead a vast preponderance +in favour of the States. There can be no stronger proof that the +States are advancing faster than Canada,--and in fact doing better +than Canada. Quebec is a very picturesque town,--from its natural +advantages almost as much so as any town I know. Edinburgh, perhaps, +and Innspruck may beat it. But Quebec has very little to recommend it +beyond the beauty of its situation. Its public buildings and works of +art do not deserve a long narrative. It stands at the confluence of +the St. Lawrence and St. Charles rivers; the best part of the town is +built high upon the rock,--the rock which forms the celebrated plains +of Abram; and the view from thence down to the mountains which shut +in the St. Lawrence is magnificent. The best point of view is, I +think, from the esplanade, which is distant some five minutes' walk +from the hotels. When that has been seen by the light of the setting +sun, and seen again, if possible, by moonlight, the most considerable +lion of Quebec may be regarded as "done," and may be ticked off from +the list. + +The most considerable lion according to my taste. Lions which roar +merely by the force of association of ideas are not to me very +valuable beasts. To many the rock over which Wolfe climbed to the +plains of Abram, and on the summit of which he fell in the hour of +victory, gives to Quebec its chiefest charm. But I confess to being +somewhat dull in such matters. I can count up Wolfe, and realize his +glory, and put my hand as it were upon his monument, in my own room +at home as well as I can at Quebec. I do not say this boastingly or +with pride, but truly acknowledging a deficiency. I have never cared +to sit in chairs in which old kings have sat, or to have their crowns +upon my head. + +Nevertheless, and as a matter of course, I went to see the rock, +and can only say, as so many have said before me, that it is very +steep. It is not a rock which I think it would be difficult for +any ordinarily active man to climb,--providing, of course, that he +was used to such work. But Wolfe took regiments of men up there at +night--and that in face of enemies who held the summits. One grieves +that he should have fallen there and have never tasted the sweet cup +of his own fame. For fame is sweet, and the praise of one's brother +men the sweetest draught which a man can drain. But now, and for +coming ages, Wolfe's name stands higher than it probably would have +done had he lived to enjoy his reward. + +But there is another very worthy lion near Quebec,--the Falls, +namely, of Montmorency. They are eight miles from the town, and the +road lies through the suburb of St. Roch, and the long straggling +French village of Beauport. These are in themselves very interesting, +as showing the quiet, orderly, unimpulsive manner in which the French +Canadians live. Such is their character, although there have been +such men as Papineau, and although there have been times in which +English rule has been unpopular with the French settlers. As far as +I could learn there is no such feeling now. These people are quiet, +contented; and as regards a sufficiency of the simple staples of +living, sufficiently well to do. They are thrifty;--but they do not +thrive. They do not advance, and push ahead, and become a bigger +people from year to year as settlers in a new country should do. They +do not even hold their own in comparison with those around them. But +has not this always been the case with colonists out of France; and +has it not always been the case with Roman Catholics when they have +been forced to measure themselves against Protestants? As to the +ultimate fate in the world of this people, one can hardly form a +speculation. There are, as nearly as I could learn, about 800,000 of +them in Lower Canada; but it seems that the wealth and commercial +enterprise of the country is passing out of their hands. Montreal, +and even Quebec are, I think, becoming less and less French every +day; but in the villages and on the small farms the French remain, +keeping up their language, their habits, and their religion. In the +cities they are becoming hewers of wood and drawers of water. I am +inclined to think that the same will ultimately be their fate in +the country. Surely one may declare as a fact that a Roman Catholic +population can never hold its ground against one that is Protestant. +I do not speak of numbers, for the Roman Catholics will increase +and multiply, and stick by their religion, although their religion +entails poverty and dependence; as they have done and still do in +Ireland. But in progress and wealth the Romanists have always gone +to the wall when the two have been made to compete together. And +yet I love their religion. There is something beautiful and almost +divine in the faith and obedience of a true son of the Holy Mother. +I sometimes fancy that I would fain be a Roman Catholic,--if I +could; as also I would often wish to be still a child, if that were +possible. + +All this is on the way to the Falls of Montmorency. These falls are +placed exactly at the mouth of the little river of the same name, so +that it may be said absolutely to fall into the St. Lawrence. The +people of the country, however, declare that the river into which +the waters of the Montmorency fall is not the St. Lawrence, but the +Charles. Without a map I do not know that I can explain this. The +river Charles appears to, and in fact does, run into the St. Lawrence +just below Quebec. But the waters do not mix. The thicker, browner +stream of the lesser river still keeps the north-eastern bank till +it comes to the island of Orleans, which lies in the river five or +six miles below Quebec. Here or hereabouts are the Falls of the +Montmorency, and then the great river is divided for twenty-five +miles by the Isle of Orleans. It is said that the waters of the +Charles and the St. Lawrence do not mix till they meet each other at +the foot of this island. + +I do not know that I am particularly happy at describing a waterfall, +and what little capacity I may have in this way I would wish to keep +for Niagara. One thing I can say very positively about Montmorency, +and one piece of advice I can give to those who visit the falls. +The place from which to see them is not the horrible little wooden +temple, which has been built immediately over them on that side which +lies nearest to Quebec. The stranger is put down at a gate through +which a path leads to this temple, and at which a woman demands from +him twenty-five cents for the privilege of entrance. Let him by all +means pay the twenty-five cents. Why should he attempt to see the +falls for nothing, seeing that this woman has a vested interest in +the showing of them? I declare that if I thought that I should hinder +this woman from her perquisites by what I write, I would leave it +unwritten, and let my readers pursue their course to the temple--to +their manifest injury. But they will pay the twenty-five cents. Then +let them cross over the bridge, eschewing the temple, and wander +round on the open field till they get the view of the falls, and the +view of Quebec also, from the other side. It is worth the twenty-five +cents, and the hire of the carriage also. Immediately over the falls +there was a suspension bridge, of which the supporting, or rather +non-supporting, pillars are still to be seen. But the bridge fell +down one day into the river; and, alas, alas! with the bridge fell +down an old woman, and a boy, and a cart,--a cart and horse,--and +all found a watery grave together in the spray. No attempt has been +made since that to renew the suspension bridge; but the present +wooden bridge has been built higher up, in lieu of it. + +Strangers naturally visit Quebec in summer or autumn, seeing that +a Canada winter is a season with which a man cannot trifle; but I +imagine that the mid-winter is the best time for seeing the Falls of +Montmorency. The water in its fall is dashed into spray, and that +spray becomes frozen, till a cone of ice is formed immediately under +the cataract, which gradually rises till the temporary glacier +reaches nearly half-way to the level of the higher river. Up this men +climb,--and ladies also, I am told,--and then descend with pleasant +rapidity on sledges of wood, sometimes not without an innocent +tumble in the descent. As we were at Quebec in September, we did not +experience the delights of this pastime. + +As I was too early for the ice cone under the Montmorency Falls, so +also was I too late to visit the Saguenay river which runs into the +St. Lawrence some hundred miles below Quebec. I presume that the +scenery of the Saguenay is the finest in Canada. During the summer +steamers run down the St. Lawrence and up the Saguenay, but I was +too late for them. An offer was made to us through the kindness of +Sir Edmund Head, who was then the Governor-General, of the use of a +steam-tug belonging to a gentleman who carries on a large commercial +enterprise at Chicoutimi, far up the Saguenay; but an acceptance +of this offer would have entailed some delay at Quebec, and as we +were anxious to get into the North Western States before the winter +commenced, we were obliged with great regret to decline the journey. + +I feel bound to say that a stranger regarding Quebec merely as a +town, finds very much of which he cannot but complain. The foot-paths +through the streets are almost entirely of wood, as indeed seems +to be general throughout Canada. Wood is of course the cheapest +material, and though it may not be altogether good for such a purpose +it would not create animadversion if it were kept in tolerable order. +But in Quebec the paths are intolerably bad. They are full of holes. +The boards are rotten and worn in some places to dirt. The nails have +gone, and the broken planks go up and down under the feet, and in +the dark they are absolutely dangerous. But if the paths are bad the +roadways are worse. The street through the lower town along the quays +is, I think, the most disgraceful thoroughfare I ever saw in any +town. I believe the whole of it, or at any rate a great portion, +has been paved with wood; but the boards have been worked into mud, +and the ground under the boards has been worked into holes, till +the street is more like the bottom of a filthy ditch than a roadway +through one of the most thickly populated parts of a city. Had Quebec +in Wolfe's time been as it is now, Wolfe would have stuck in the mud +between the river and the rock, before he reached the point which he +desired to climb. In the upper town the roads are not so bad as they +are below, but still they are very bad. I was told that this arose +from disputes among the municipal corporations. Everything in Canada +relating to roads, and a very great deal affecting the internal +government of the people, is done by these municipalities. It is made +a subject of great boast in Canada that the communal authorities +do carry on so large a part of the public business, and that they +do it generally so well, and at so cheap a rate. I have nothing to +say against this, and as a whole believe that the boast is true. I +must protest, however, that the streets of the greater cities,--for +Montreal is nearly as bad as Quebec,--prove the rule by a very sad +exception. The municipalities of which I speak extend, I believe, to +all Canada; the two provinces being divided into counties, and the +counties subdivided into townships to which, as a matter of course, +the municipalities are attached. + +From Quebec to Montreal there are two modes of travel. There are the +steamers up the St. Lawrence which, as all the world know is, or at +any rate hitherto has been, the high road of the Canadas; and there +is the Grand Trunk Railway. Passengers choosing the latter go towards +Portland as far as Richmond, and there join the main line of the +road, passing from Richmond on to Montreal. We learned while at +Quebec that it behoved us not to leave the colony till we had seen +the lake and mountains of Memphra-Magog, and as we were clearly +neglecting our duty with regard to the Saguenay, we felt bound to +make such amends as lay in our power, by deviating from our way to +the lake above named. In order to do this we were obliged to choose +the railway, and to go back beyond Richmond to the station at +Sherbrooke. Sherbrooke is a large village on the confines of Canada, +and as it is on the railway will no doubt become a large town. It is +very prettily situated on the meeting of two rivers; it has three +or four different churches, and intends to thrive. It possesses two +newspapers, of the prosperity of which I should be inclined to feel +less assured. The annual subscription to such a newspaper published +twice a week is ten shillings per annum. A sale of a thousand copies +is not considered bad. Such a sale would produce £500 a year, and +this would, if entirely devoted to that purpose, give a moderate +income to a gentleman qualified to conduct a newspaper. But the paper +and printing must cost something, and the capital invested should +receive its proper remuneration. And then,--such at least is the +general idea,--the getting together of news and the framing of +intelligence is a costly operation. I can only hope that all this is +paid for by the advertisements, for I must trust that the editors do +not receive less than the moderate sum above named. At Sherbrooke we +are still in Lower Canada. Indeed, as regards distance, we are when +there nearly as far removed from Upper Canada as at Quebec. But the +race of people here is very different. The French population had made +their way down into these townships before the English and American +war broke out, but had not done so in great numbers. The country was +then very unapproachable, being far to the south of the St. Lawrence, +and far also from any great line of internal communication towards +the Atlantic. But, nevertheless, many settlers made their way in here +from the States; men who preferred to live under British rule, and +perhaps doubted the stability of the new order of things. They or +their children have remained here since, and as the whole country +has been opened up by the railway many others have flocked in. Thus +a better class of people than the French hold possession of the +larger farms, and are on the whole doing well. I am told that many +Americans are now coming here, driven over the borders from Maine, +New Hampshire, and Vermont by fears of the war and the weight of +taxation. I do not think that fears of war or the paying of taxes +drive many individuals away from home. Men who would be so influenced +have not the amount of foresight which would induce them to avoid +such evils; or, at any rate, such fears would act slowly. Labourers, +however, will go where work is certain, where work is well paid, and +where the wages to be earned will give plenty in return. It may be +that work will become scarce in the States, as it has done with those +poor jewellers at Attleborough, of whom we spoke, and that food will +become dear. If this be so, labourers from the States will no doubt +find their way into Canada. + +From Sherbrooke we went with the mails on a pair-horse waggon to +Magog. Cross country mails are not interesting to the generality +of readers, but I have a professional liking for them myself. I +have spent the best part of my life in looking after and I hope +in improving such mails, and I always endeavour to do a stroke of +work when I come across them. I learned on this occasion that the +conveyance of mails with a pair of horses in Canada costs little more +than half what is paid for the same work in England with one horse, +and something less than what is paid in Ireland, also for one horse. +But in Canada the average pace is only five miles an hour. In Ireland +it is seven, and the time is accurately kept, which does not seem to +be the case in Canada. In England the pace is eight miles an hour. +In Canada and in Ireland these conveyances carry passengers; but in +England they are prohibited from doing so. In Canada the vehicles +are much better got up than they are in England, and the horses too +look better. Taking Ireland as a whole they are more respectable in +appearance there than in England. From all which it appears that pace +is the article that costs the highest price, and that appearance does +not go for much in the bill. In Canada the roads are very bad in +comparison with the English or Irish roads; but to make up for this, +the price of forage is very low. + +I have said that the cross mail conveyances in Canada did not seem +to be very closely bound as to time; but they are regulated by +clock-work in comparison with some of them in the United States. +"Are you going this morning?" I said to a mail-driver in Vermont. "I +thought you always started in the evening." "Wa'll; I guess I do. But +it rained some last night, so I jist stayed at home." I do not know +that I ever felt more shocked in my life, and I could hardly keep my +tongue off the man. The mails, however, would have paid no respect to +me in Vermont, and I was obliged to walk away crestfallen. + +We went with the mails from Sherbrooke to a village called Magog at +the outlet of the lake, and from thence by a steamer up the lake to a +solitary hotel called the Mountain House, which is built at the foot +of the mountain on the shore, and which is surrounded on every side +by thick forest. There is no road within two miles of the house. The +lake therefore is the only highway, and that is frozen up for four +months in the year. When frozen, however, it is still a road, for it +is passable for sledges. I have seldom been in a house that seemed +so remote from the world, and so little within reach of doctors, +parsons, or butchers. Bakers in this country are not required, as all +persons make their own bread. But in spite of its position the hotel +is well kept, and on the whole we were more comfortable there than at +any other inn in Lower Canada. The Mountain House is but five miles +from the borders of Vermont, in which State the head of the lake +lies. The steamer which brought us runs on to Newport,--or rather +from Newport to Magog and back again. And Newport is in Vermont. + +The one thing to be done at the Mountain House is the ascent of the +mountain called the Owl's Head. The world there offers nothing else +of active enterprise to the traveller, unless fishing be considered +an active enterprise. I am not capable of fishing, therefore we +resolved on going up the Owl's Head. To dine in the middle of the day +is absolutely imperative at these hotels, and thus we were driven +to select either the morning or the afternoon. Evening lights we +declared were the best for all views, and therefore we decided on the +afternoon. It is but two miles; but then, as we were told more than +once by those who had spoken to us on the subject, those two miles +are not like other miles. "I doubt if the lady can do it," one man +said to me. I asked if ladies did not sometimes go up. "Yes; young +women do, at times," he said. After that my wife resolved that she +would see the top of the Owl's Head, or die in the attempt, and so +we started. They never think of sending a guide with one in these +places, whereas in Europe a traveller is not allowed to go a step +without one. When I asked for one to show us the way up Mount +Washington, I was told that there were no idle boys about that place. +The path was indicated to us, and off we started with high hopes. + +I have been up many mountains, and have climbed some that were +perhaps somewhat dangerous in their ascent. In climbing the Owl's +Head there is no danger. One is closed in by thick trees the whole +way. But I doubt if I ever went up a steeper ascent. It was very hard +work, but we were not beaten. We reached the top, and there sitting +down thoroughly enjoyed our victory. It was then half-past five +o'clock, and the sun was not yet absolutely sinking. It did not seem +to give us any warning that we should especially require its aid, +and as the prospect below us was very lovely we remained there for +a quarter of an hour. The ascent of the Owl's Head is certainly a +thing to do, and I still think, in spite of our following misfortune, +that it is a thing to do late in the afternoon. The view down upon +the lakes and the forests around, and on the wooded hills below, is +wonderfully lovely. I never was on a mountain which gave me a more +perfect command of all the country round. But as we arose to descend +we saw a little cloud coming towards us from over Newport. + +The little cloud came on with speed, and we had hardly freed +ourselves from the rocks of the summit before we were surrounded by +rain. As the rain became thicker, we were surrounded by darkness +also, or if not by darkness by so dim a light that it became a task +to find our path. I still thought that the daylight had not gone, and +that as we descended and so escaped from the cloud we should find +light enough to guide us. But it was not so. The rain soon became a +matter of indifference, and so also did the mud and briars beneath +our feet. Even the steepness of the way was almost forgotten as we +endeavoured to thread our path through the forest before it should +become impossible to discern the track. A dog had followed us up, and +though the beast would not stay with us so as to be our guide, he +returned ever and anon and made us aware of his presence by dashing +by us. I may confess now that I became much frightened. We were wet +through, and a night out in the forest would have been unpleasant to +us. At last I did utterly lose the track. It had become quite dark, +so dark that we could hardly see each other. We had succeeded in +getting down the steepest and worst part of the mountain, but we were +still among dense forest-trees, and up to our knees in mud. But the +people at the Mountain House were Christians, and men with lanterns +were sent hallooing after us through the dark night. When we were +thus found we were not many yards from the path, but unfortunately on +the wrong side of a stream. Through that we waded and then made our +way in safety to the inn. In spite of which misadventure I advise all +travellers in Lower Canada to go up the Owl's Head. + +On the following day we crossed the lake to Georgeville, and drove +round another lake called the Massawhippi back to Sherbrooke. This +was all very well, for it showed us a part of the country which +is comparatively well tilled, and has been long settled; but the +Massawhippi itself is not worth a visit. The route by which we +returned occupies a longer time than the other, and is more costly +as it must be made in a hired vehicle. The people here are quiet, +orderly, and I should say a little slow. It is manifest that a strong +feeling against the Northern States has lately sprung up. This is +much to be deprecated, but I cannot but say that it is natural. It is +not that the Canadians have any special Secession feelings, or that +they have entered with peculiar warmth into the questions of American +politics; but they have been vexed and acerbated by the braggadocio +of the Northern States. They constantly hear that they are to be +invaded, and translated into citizens of the Union: that British rule +is to be swept off the Continent, and that the star-spangled banner +is to be waved over them in pity. The star-spangled banner is in fact +a fine flag, and has waved to some purpose; but those who live near +it, and not under it, fancy that they hear too much of it. At the +present moment the loyalty of both the Canadas to Great Britain +is beyond all question. From all that I can hear I doubt whether +this feeling in the Provinces was ever so strong, and under such +circumstances American abuse of England and American braggadocio +is more than usually distasteful. All this abuse and all this +braggadocio comes to Canada from the Northern States, and therefore +the Southern cause is at the present moment the more popular with +them. + +I have said that the Canadians hereabouts are somewhat slow. As we +were driving back to Sherbrooke it became necessary that we should +rest for an hour or so in the middle of the day, and for this purpose +we stopped at a village inn. It was a large house, in which there +appeared to be three public sitting-rooms of ample size, one of which +was occupied as the bar. In this there were congregated some six or +seven men, seated in arm-chairs round a stove, and among these I +placed myself. No one spoke a word either to me or to any one else. +No one smoked, and no one read, nor did they even whittle sticks. I +asked a question first of one and then of another, and was answered +with monosyllables. So I gave up any hope in that direction, and sat +staring at the big stove in the middle of the room, as the others +did. Presently another stranger entered, having arrived in a waggon +as I had done. He entered the room and sat down, addressing no one, +and addressed by no one. After a while, however, he spoke. "Will +there be any chance of dinner here?" he said. "I guess there'll be +dinner by-and-by," answered the landlord, and then there was silence +for another ten minutes, during which the stranger stared at the +stove. "Is that dinner any way ready?" he asked again. "I guess it +is," said the landlord. And then the stranger went out to see after +his dinner himself. When we started at the end of an hour nobody said +anything to us. The driver "hitched" on the horses, as they call +it, and we started on our way, having been charged nothing for our +accommodation. That some profit arose from the horse provender is to +be hoped. + +On the following day we reached Montreal, which, as I have said +before, is the commercial capital of the two Provinces. This question +of the capitals is at the present moment a subject of great interest +in Canada, but as I shall be driven to say something on the matter +when I report myself as being at Ottawa, I will refrain now. There +are two special public affairs at the present moment to interest a +traveller in Canada. The first I have named, and the second is the +Grand Trunk Railway. I have already stated what is the course of this +line. It runs from the Western State of Michigan to Portland on the +Atlantic in the State of Maine, sweeping the whole length of Canada +in its route. It was originally made by three Companies. The Atlantic +and St. Lawrence constructed it from Portland to Island Pond on the +borders of the States. The St. Lawrence and Atlantic took it from the +South Eastern side of the river at Montreal to the same point, viz., +Island Pond. And the Grand Trunk Company have made it from Detroit to +Montreal, crossing the river there with a stupendous tubular bridge, +and have also made the branch connecting the main line with Quebec +and Rivière du Loup. This latter company is now incorporated with the +St. Lawrence and Atlantic, but has only leased the portion of the +line running through the States. This they have done, guaranteeing +the shareholders an interest of six per cent. There never was a +grander enterprise set on foot. I will not say there never was one +more unfortunate, for is there not the Great Eastern, which by the +weight and constancy of its failures demands for itself a proud +pre-eminence of misfortune? But surely the Grand Trunk comes next +to it. I presume it to be quite out of the question that the +shareholders should get any interest whatever on their shares for +years. The company when I was at Montreal had not paid the interest +due to the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Company for the last year, and +there was a doubt whether the lease would not be broken. No party +that had advanced money to the undertaking was able to recover what +had been advanced. I believe that one firm in London had lent nearly +a million to the Company and is now willing to accept half the sum so +lent in quittance of the whole debt. In 1860 the line could not carry +the freight that offered, not having or being able to obtain the +necessary rolling stock; and on all sides I heard men discussing +whether the line would be kept open for traffic. The Government of +Canada advanced to the Company three millions of money, with an +understanding that neither interest nor principal should be demanded +till all other debts were paid, and all shareholders in receipt of +six per cent. interest. But the three millions were clogged with +conditions which, though they have been of service to the country, +have been so expensive to the Company that it is hardly more solvent +with it than it would have been without it. As it is, the whole +property seems to be involved in ruin; and yet the line is one of the +grandest commercial conceptions that was ever carried out on the face +of the globe, and in the process of a few years will do more to make +bread cheap in England than any other single enterprise that exists. + +I do not know that blame is to be attached to any one. I at least +attach no such blame. Probably it might be easy now to show that the +road might have been made with sufficient accommodation for ordinary +purposes without some of the more costly details. The great tubular +bridge on which was expended £1,300,000 might, I should think, have +been dispensed with. The Detroit end of the line might have been +left for later time. As it stands now, however, it is a wonderful +operation carried to a successful issue as far as the public are +concerned, and one can only grieve that it should be so absolute a +failure to those who have placed their money in it. There are schemes +which seem to be too big for men to work out with any ordinary regard +to profit and loss. The Great Eastern is one, and this is another. +The national advantage arising from such enterprises is immense; but +the wonder is that men should be found willing to embark their money +where the risk is so great, and the return even hoped for is so +small. + +While I was in Canada some gentlemen were there from the Lower +Provinces--Nova Scotia, that is, and New Brunswick--agitating the +subject of another great line of railway from Quebec to Halifax. +The project is one in favour of which very much may be said. In a +national point of view an Englishman or a Canadian cannot but regret +that there should be no winter mode of exit from, or entrance to, +Canada, except through the United States. The St. Lawrence is blocked +up for four or five months in winter, and the steamers which run +to Quebec in the summer run to Portland during the season of ice. +There is at present no mode of public conveyance between the Canadas +and the Lower Provinces, and an immense district of country on the +borders of Lower Canada, through New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia +is now absolutely closed against civilization, which by such a +railway would be opened up to the light of day. We all know how much +the want of such a road was felt when our troops were being forwarded +to Canada during the last winter. It was necessary they should reach +their destination without delay; and as the river was closed, and +the passing of troops through the States was of course out of the +question, that long overland journey across Nova Scotia and New +Brunswick became a necessity. It would certainly be a very great +thing for British interests if a direct line could be made from such +a port as Halifax, a port which is open throughout the whole year, +up into the Canadas. If these Colonies belonged to France or to any +other despotic Government, the thing would be done. But the Colonies +do not belong to any despotic Government. + +Such a line would in fact be a continuance of the Grand Trunk; and +who that looks at the present state of the finances of the Grand +Trunk can think it to be on the cards that private enterprise should +come forward with more money,--with more millions? The idea is that +England will advance the money, and that the English House of Commons +will guarantee the interest, with some counter-guarantee from the +Colonies that this interest shall be duly paid. But it would seem +that if such Colonial guarantee is to go for anything, the Colonies +might raise the money in the money market without the intervention of +the British House of Commons. + +Montreal is an exceedingly good commercial town, and business there +is brisk. It has now 85,000 inhabitants. Having said that of it, I do +not know what more there is left to say. Yes; one word there is to +say of Sir William Logan the creator of the Geological Museum there +and the head of all matters geological throughout the Province. +While he was explaining to me with admirable perspicuity the result +of investigations into which he had poured his whole heart, I stood +by understanding almost nothing, but envying everything. That I +understood almost nothing, I know he perceived. That, ever and anon, +with all his graciousness became apparent. But I wonder whether +he perceived also that I did envy everything. I have listened to +geologists by the hour before--have had to listen to them, desirous +simply of escape. I have listened and understood absolutely nothing, +and have only wished myself away. But I could have listened to Sir +William Logan for the whole day, if time allowed. I found even in +that hour that some ideas found their way through to me, and I began +to fancy that even I could become a geologist at Montreal. + +Over and beyond Sir William Logan there is at Montreal for strangers +the drive round the mountain, not very exciting; and there is the +tubular bridge over the St. Lawrence. This, it must be understood, +is not made in one tube, as is that over the Menai Straits, but is +divided into, I think, thirteen tubes. To the eye there appear to be +twenty-five tubes; but each of the six side tubes is supported by a +pier in the middle. A great part of the expense of the bridge was +incurred in sinking the shafts for these piers. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +UPPER CANADA. + + +Ottawa is in Upper Canada, but crossing the suspension bridge from +Ottawa into Hull the traveller is in Lower Canada. It is therefore +exactly in the confines, and has been chosen as the site of the new +Government capital very much for this reason. Other reasons have, +no doubt, had a share in the decision. At the time when the choice +was made Ottawa was not large enough to create the jealousy of the +more populous towns. Though not on the main line of railway, it was +connected with it by a branch railway, and it is also connected with +the St. Lawrence by water communication. And then it stands nobly +on a magnificent river, with high overhanging rock, and a natural +grandeur of position which has perhaps gone far in recommending it to +those whose voice in the matter has been potential. Having the world +of Canada from whence to choose the site of a new town, the choosers +have certainly chosen well. It is another question whether or no a +new town should have been deemed necessary. + +Perhaps it may be well to explain the circumstances under which it +was thought expedient thus to establish a new Canadian capital. In +1841 when Lord Sydenham was Governor General of the Provinces, the +two Canadas, separate till then, were united under one Government. +At that time the people of Lower or French Canada, and the people +of Upper or English Canada differed much more in their habits and +language than they do now. I do not know that the English have become +in any way Gallicized, but the French have been very materially +Anglicized. But while this has been in progress, national jealousy +has been at work; and even yet that national jealousy is not at an +end. While the two provinces were divided, there were, of course, +two capitals, and two seats of Government. These were at Quebec for +Lower Canada, and at Toronto for Upper Canada, both which towns are +centrically situated as regards the respective provinces. When the +union was effected, it was deemed expedient that there should be but +one capital; and the small town of Kingstown was selected, which is +situated on the lower end of Lake Ontario in the Upper Province. +But Kingstown was found to be inconvenient, lacking space and +accommodation for those who had to follow the Government, and the +Governor removed it and himself to Montreal. Montreal is in the +Lower Province, but is very central to both the provinces; and it is, +moreover, the chief town in Canada. This would have done very well, +but for an unforeseen misfortune. + +It will be remembered by most readers that in 1837 took place the +Mackenzie-Papineau rebellion, of which those who were then old enough +to be politicians heard so much in England. I am not going back to +recount the history of the period, otherwise than to say that the +English Canadians at that time, in withstanding and combating the +rebels, did considerable injury to the property of certain French +Canadians, and that when the rebellion had blown over and those +in fault had been pardoned, a question arose whether or no the +Government should make good the losses of those French Canadians who +had been injured. The English Canadians protested that it would be +monstrous that they should be taxed to repair damages suffered by +rebels, and made necessary in the suppression of rebellion. The +French Canadians declared that the rebellion had been only a just +assertion of their rights, that if there had been crime on the part +of those who took up arms that crime had been condoned, and that the +damages had not fallen exclusively or even chiefly on those who had +done so. I will give no opinion on the merits of the question, but +simply say that blood ran very hot when it was discussed. At last +the Houses of the Provincial Parliament, then assembled at Montreal, +decreed that the losses should be made good by the public treasury; +and the English mob in Montreal, when this decree became known, was +roused to great wrath by a decision which seemed to be condemnatory +of English loyalty. It pelted Lord Elgin, the Governor General, with +rotten eggs, and burned down the Parliament House. Hence, there +arose, not unnaturally, a strong feeling of anger on the part of the +local Government against Montreal; and moreover there was no longer a +House in which the Parliament could be held in that town. For these +conjoint reasons it was decided to move the seat of Government again, +and it was resolved that the Governor and the Parliament should +sit alternately at Toronto in Upper Canada, and at Quebec in Lower +Canada, remaining four years at each place. They went at first to +Toronto for two years only, having agreed that they should be there +on this occasion only for the remainder of the term of the then +Parliament. After that they were at Quebec for four years; then at +Toronto for four; and now are again at Quebec. But this arrangement +has been found very inconvenient. In the first place there is a great +national expenditure incurred in moving old records, and in keeping +double records, in moving the library, and as I have been informed +even the pictures. The Government clerks also are called on to +move as the Government moves; and though an allowance is made to +them from the national purse to cover their loss, the arrangement +has nevertheless been felt by them to be a grievance, as may be +well understood. The accommodation also for the ministers of the +Government, and for members of the two Houses has been insufficient. +Hotels, lodgings, and furnished houses could not be provided to the +extent required, seeing that they would be left nearly empty for +every alternate space of four years. Indeed it needs but little +argument to prove that the plan adopted must have been a thoroughly +uncomfortable plan, and the wonder is that it should have been +adopted. Lower Canada had undertaken to make all her leading citizens +wretched, providing Upper Canada would treat hers with equal +severity. This has now gone on for some twelve years, and as the +system was found to be an unendurable nuisance it has been at last +admitted that some steps must be taken towards selecting one capital +for the country. + +I should here, in justice to the Canadians, state a remark made to +me on this matter by one of the present leading politicians of the +colony. I cannot think that the migratory scheme was good; but he +defended it, asserting that it had done very much to amalgamate the +people of the two provinces; that it had brought Lower Canadians into +Upper Canada, and Upper Canadians into Lower Canada, teaching English +to those who spoke only French before, and making each pleasantly +acquainted with the other. I have no doubt that something,--perhaps +much,--has been done in this way; but valuable as the result may have +been, I cannot think it worth the cost of the means employed. The +best answer to the above argument consists in the undoubted fact that +a migratory Government would never have been established for such +a reason. It was so established because Montreal, the central town, +had given offence, and because the jealousy of the provinces against +each other would not admit of the Government being placed entirely at +Quebec, or entirely at Toronto. + +But it was necessary that some step should be taken; and as it was +found to be unlikely that any resolution should be reached by the +joint provinces themselves, it was loyally and wisely determined to +refer the matter to the Queen. That Her Majesty has constitutionally +the power to call the Parliament of Canada at any town of Canada +which she may select, admits, I conceive, of no doubt. It is, I +imagine, within her prerogative to call the Parliament of England +where she may please within that realm, though her lieges would be +somewhat startled if it were called otherwhere than in London. It +was therefore well done to ask Her Majesty to act as arbiter in +the matter. But there are not wanting those in Canada who say that +in referring the matter to the Queen it was in truth referring it +to those by whom very many of the Canadians were least willing to +be guided in the matter; to the Governor General namely, and the +Colonial Secretary. Many indeed in Canada now declare that the +decision simply placed the matter in the hands of the Governor +General. + +Be that as it may, I do not think that any unbiassed traveller will +doubt that the best possible selection has been made, presuming +always, as we may presume in the discussion, that Montreal could +not be selected. I take for granted that the rejection of Montreal +was regarded as a _sine quâ non_ in the decision. To me it appears +grievous that this should have been so. It is a great thing for any +country to have a large, leading, world-known city, and I think that +the Government should combine with the commerce of the country in +carrying out this object. But commerce can do a great deal more +for Government than Government can do for commerce. Government has +selected Ottawa as the capital of Canada; but commerce has already +made Montreal the capital, and Montreal will be the chief city of +Canada, let Government do what it may to foster the other town. The +idea of spiting a town because there has been a row in it seems to +me to be preposterous. The row was not the work of those who have +made Montreal rich and respectable. Montreal is more centrical than +Ottawa,--nay, it is as nearly centrical as any town can be. It is +easier to get to Montreal from Toronto than to Ottawa;--and if from +Toronto, then from all that distant portion of Upper Canada, back of +Toronto. To all Lower Canada Montreal is, as a matter of course, much +easier of access than Ottawa. But having said so much in favour of +Montreal, I will again admit that, putting aside Montreal, the best +possible selection has been made. + +When Ottawa was named, no time was lost in setting to work to prepare +for the new migration. In 1859 the Parliament was removed to Quebec, +with the understanding that it should remain there till the new +buildings should be completed. These buildings were absolutely +commenced in April 1860, and it was, and I believe still is, expected +that they will be completed in 1863. I am now writing in the winter +of 1861; and, as is necessary in Canadian winters, the works are +suspended. But unfortunately they were suspended in the early part +of October,--on the 1st of October,--whereas they might have been +continued, as far as the season is concerned, up to the end of +November. We reached Ottawa on the 3rd of October, and more than a +thousand men had then been just dismissed. All the money in hand +had been expended, and the Government,--so it was said,--could give +no more money till Parliament should meet again. This was most +unfortunate. In the first place the suspension was against the +contract as made with the contractors for the building; in the next +place there was the delay; and then, worst of all, the question again +became agitated whether the colonial legislature were really in +earnest with reference to Ottawa. Many men of mark in the colony were +still anxious--I believe are still anxious,--to put an end to the +Ottawa scheme, and think that there still exists for them a chance +of success. And very many men who are not of mark are thus united, +and a feeling of doubt on the subject has been created. £225,000 has +already been spent on these buildings, and I have no doubt myself +that they will be duly completed, and duly used. + +We went up to the new town by boat, taking the course of the river +Ottawa. We passed St. Ann's, but no one at St. Ann's seemed to know +anything of the brothers who were to rest there on their weary oars. +At Maxwellstown I could hear nothing of Annie Laurie or of her +trysting place on the braes, and the turnpike man at Tara could +tell me nothing of the site of the hall, and had never even heard +of the harp. When I go down South I shall expect to find that the +negro melodies have not yet reached "Old Virginie." This boat +conveyance from Montreal to Ottawa is not all that could be wished +in convenience, for it is allied too closely with railway travelling. +Those who use it leave Montreal by a railway; after nine miles, they +are changed into a steamboat. Then they encounter another railway, +and at last reach Ottawa in a second steamboat. But the river is +seen, and a better idea of the country is obtained than can be had +solely from the railway cars. The scenery is by no means grand, nor +is it strikingly picturesque; but it is in its way interesting. For a +long portion of the river the old primeval forests come down close to +the water's edge, and in the fall of the year the brilliant colouring +is very lovely. It should not be imagined,--as I think it often is +imagined,--that these forests are made up of splendid trees, or +that splendid trees are even common. When timber grows on undrained +ground, and when it is uncared for, it does not seem to approach +nearer to its perfection than wheat and grass do under similar +circumstances. Seen from a little distance the colour and effect is +good, but the trees themselves have shallow roots and grow up tall, +narrow, and shapeless. It necessarily is so with all timber that is +not thinned in its growth. When fine forest trees are found, and are +left standing alone by any cultivator who may have taste enough to +wish for such adornment, they almost invariably die. They are robbed +of the sickly shelter by which they have been surrounded; the hot +sun strikes the uncovered fibres of the roots, and the poor solitary +invalid languishes and at last dies. + +As one ascends the river, which by its breadth forms itself into +lakes, one is shown Indian villages clustering down upon the bank. +Some years ago these Indians were rich, for the price of furs, in +which they dealt, was high; but furs have become cheaper, and the +beavers with which they used to trade are almost valueless. That a +change in the fashion of hats should have assisted to polish these +poor fellows off the face of creation must, one may suppose, be very +unintelligible to them; but nevertheless it is probably a subject of +deep speculation. If the reading world were to take to sermons again +and eschew their novels, Messrs. Thackeray, Dickens, and some others +would look about them and inquire into the causes of such a change +with considerable acuteness. They might not, perhaps, hit the truth, +and these Indians are much in that predicament. It is said that very +few pure-blooded Indians are now to be found in their villages, but I +doubt whether this is not erroneous. The children of the Indians are +now fed upon baked bread, and on cooked meat, and are brought up in +houses. They are nursed somewhat as the children of the white men are +nursed; and these practices no doubt have done much towards altering +their appearance. The negroes who have been bred in the States, and +whose fathers have been so bred before them, differ both in colour +and form from their brothers who have been born and nurtured in +Africa. + +I said in the last chapter that the city of Ottawa was still to be +built; but I must explain, lest I should draw down on my head the +wrath of the Ottawaites, that the place already contains a population +of 15,000 inhabitants. As, however, it is being prepared for four +times that number--for eight times that number let us hope--and as it +straggles over a vast extent of ground, it gives one the idea of a +city in an active course of preparation. In England we know nothing +about unbuilt cities. With us four or five blocks of streets together +never assume that ugly, unfledged appearance which belongs to the +half-finished carcase of a house, as they do so often on the other +side of the Atlantic. Ottawa is preparing for itself broad streets, +and grand thoroughfares. The buildings already extend over a length +considerably exceeding two miles, and half a dozen hotels have been +opened, which, if I were writing a guide-book in a complimentary +tone, it would be my duty to describe as first-rate. But the +half-dozen first-rate hotels, though open, as yet enjoy but a +moderate amount of custom. All this justifies me, I think, in saying +that the city has as yet to get itself built. The manner in which +this is being done justifies me also in saying that the Ottawaites +are going about their task with a worthy zeal. + +To me I confess that the nature of the situation has great +charms,--regarding it as the site for a town. It is not on a plain, +and from the form of the rock overhanging the river, and of the +hill that falls from thence down to the water, it has been found +impracticable to lay out the place in right-angled parallelograms. A +right-angled parallelogramical city, such as are Philadelphia and the +new portion of New York, is from its very nature odious to me. I know +that much may be said in its favour--that drainage and gas-pipes come +easier to such a shape, and that ground can be better economized. +Nevertheless I prefer a street that is forced to twist itself about. +I enjoy the narrowness of Temple Bar, and the misshapen curvature +of Pickett Street. The disreputable dinginess of Holywell Street is +dear to me, and I love to thread my way up by the Olympic into Covent +Garden. Fifth Avenue in New York is as grand as paint and glass can +make it; but I would not live in a palace in Fifth Avenue if the +corporation of the city would pay my baker's and butcher's bills. + +The town of Ottawa lies between two waterfalls. The upper one, or +Rideau Fall, is formed by the confluence of a small river with the +larger one; and the lower fall--designated as lower because it is at +the foot of the hill, though it is higher up the Ottawa river--is +called the Chaudière, from its resemblance to a boiling kettle. +This is on the Ottawa river itself. The Rideau fall is divided into +two branches, thus forming an island in the middle as is the case +at Niagara. It is pretty enough, and worth visiting, even were it +further from the town than it is; but by those who have hunted out +many cataracts in their travels it will not be considered very +remarkable. The Chaudière fall I did think very remarkable. It is of +trifling depth, being formed by fractures in the rocky bed of the +river; but the waters have so cut the rock as to create beautiful +forms in the rush which they make in their descent. Strangers are +told to look at these falls from the suspension bridge; and it +is well that they should do so. But in so looking at them they +obtain but a very small part of their effect. On the Ottawa side +of the bridge is a brewery, which brewery is surrounded by a +huge timber-yard. This timber-yard I found to be very muddy, and +the passing and repassing through it is a work of trouble; but +nevertheless let the traveller by all means make his way through the +mud, and scramble over the timber, and cross the plank bridges which +traverse the streams of the sawmills, and thus take himself to the +outer edge of the woodwork over the water. If he will then seat +himself, about the hour of sunset, he will see the Chaudière fall +aright. + +But the glory of Ottawa will be--and, indeed, already is--the set of +public buildings which is now being erected on the rock which guards +as it were the town from the river. How much of the excellence of +these buildings may be due to the taste of Sir Edmund Head, the late +Governor, I do not know. That he has greatly interested himself +in the subject is well known: and as the style of the different +buildings is so much alike as to make one whole, though the designs +of different architects were selected, and these different architects +employed, I imagine that considerable alterations must have been made +in the original drawings. There are three buildings, forming three +sides of a quadrangle; but they are not joined, the vacant spaces +at the corner being of considerable extent. The fourth side of the +quadrangle opens upon one of the principal streets of the town. The +centre building is intended for the Houses of Parliament, and the +two side buildings for the Government offices. Of the first Messrs. +Fuller and Jones are the architects, and of the latter Messrs. Stent +and Laver. I did not have the pleasure of meeting any of these +gentlemen; but I take upon myself to say that as regards purity of +art and manliness of conception their joint work is entitled to the +very highest praise. How far the buildings may be well arranged +for the required purposes, how far they may be economical in +construction, or specially adapted to the severe climate of the +country, I cannot say; but I have no hesitation in risking my +reputation for judgment in giving my warmest commendation to them as +regards beauty of outline and truthful nobility of detail. + +I will not attempt to describe them, for I should interest no one in +doing so, and should certainly fail in my attempt to make any reader +understand me. I know no modern Gothic purer of its kind, or less +sullied with fictitious ornamentation. Our own Houses of Parliament +are very fine, but it is, I believe, generally felt that the +ornamentation is too minute; and, moreover, it may be questioned +whether perpendicular Gothic is capable of the highest nobility which +architecture can achieve. I do not pretend to say that these Canadian +public buildings will reach that highest nobility. They must be +finished before any final judgment can be pronounced; but I do feel +very certain that that final judgment will be greatly in their +favour. The total frontage of the quadrangle, including the side +buildings, is 1,200 feet; that of the centre buildings is 475. As +I have said before, £225,000 has already been expended, and it +is estimated that the total cost, including the arrangement and +decoration of the ground behind the building and in the quadrangle, +will be half a million. + +The buildings front upon what will, I suppose, be the principal +street of Ottawa, and they stand upon a rock looking immediately down +upon the river. In this way they are blessed with a site peculiarly +happy. Indeed I cannot at this moment remember any so much so. The +castle of Edinburgh stands very well; but then, like many other +castles, it stands on a summit by itself, and can only be approached +by a steep ascent. These buildings at Ottawa, though they look down +from a grand eminence immediately on the river, are approached +from the town without any ascent. The rock, though it falls +almost precipitously down to the water, is covered with trees and +shrubs, and then the river that runs beneath is rapid, bright, and +picturesque in the irregularity of all its lines. The view from the +back of the library, up to the Chaudière falls, and to the saw-mills +by which they are surrounded, is very lovely. So that I will say +again, that I know no site for such a set of buildings so happy as +regards both beauty and grandeur. It is intended that the library, of +which the walls were only ten feet above the ground when I was there, +shall be an octagonal building, in shape and outward character like +the chapter-house of a cathedral. This structure will, I presume, be +surrounded by gravel walks and green sward. Of the library there is a +large model showing all the details of the architecture; and if that +model be ultimately followed, this building alone will be worthy of a +visit from English tourists. To me it was very wonderful to find such +an edifice in the course of erection on the banks of a wild river, +almost at the back of Canada. But if ever I visit Canada again it +will be to see those buildings when completed. + +And now, like all friendly critics, having bestowed my modicum of +praise, I must proceed to find fault. I cannot bring myself to +administer my sugar-plum without adding to it some bitter morsel by +way of antidote. The building to the left of the quadrangle as it is +entered is deficient in length, and on that account appears mean to +the eye. The two side buildings are brought up close to the street, +so that each has a frontage immediately on the street. Such being the +case they should be of equal length, or nearly so. Had the centre of +one fronted the centre of the other, a difference of length might +have been allowed; but in this case the side front of the smaller +one would not have reached the street. As it is, the space between +the main building and the smaller wing is disproportionably large, +and the very distance at which it stands will, I fear, give to +it that appearance of meanness of which I have spoken. The clerk +of the works, who explained to me with much courtesy the plan of +the buildings, stated that the design of this wing was capable of +elongation, and had been expressly prepared with that object. If this +be so, I trust that the defect will be remedied. + +The great trade of Canada is lumbering; and lumbering consists in +cutting down pine trees up in the far distant forests, in hewing or +sawing them into shape for market, and getting them down the rivers +to Quebec, from whence they are exported to Europe, and chiefly +to England. Timber in Canada is called lumber; those engaged in +the trade are called lumberers, and the business itself is called +lumbering. After a lapse of time it must no doubt become monotonous +to those engaged in it, and the name is not engaging; but there is +much about it that is very picturesque. A saw-mill worked by water +power is almost always a pretty object, and stacks of new cut timber +are pleasant to the smell, and group themselves not amiss on the +water's edge. If I had the time, and were a year or two younger, I +should love well to go up lumbering into the woods. The men for this +purpose are hired in the fall of the year, and are sent up hundreds +of miles away to the pine forests in strong gangs. Everything is +there found for them. They make log huts for their shelter, and food +of the best and the strongest is taken up for their diet. But no +strong drink of any kind is allowed, nor is any within reach of the +men. There are no publics, no shebeen houses, no grog-shops. Sobriety +is an enforced virtue; and so much is this considered by the masters, +and understood by the men, that very little contraband work is done +in the way of taking up spirits to these settlements. It may be said +that the work up in the forests is done with the assistance of no +stronger drink than tea; and it is very hard work. There cannot be +much work that is harder; and it is done amidst the snows and forests +of a Canadian winter. A convict in Bermuda cannot get through his +daily eight hours of light labour without an allowance of rum; but +a Canadian lumberer can manage to do his daily task on tea without +milk. These men, however, are by no means teetotallers. When they +come back to the towns they break out, and reward themselves for +their long enforced moderation. The wages I found to be very various, +running from thirteen or fourteen dollars a month to twenty-eight or +thirty, according to the nature of the work. The men who cut down the +trees receive more than those who hew them when down, and these again +more than the under class who make the roads and clear the ground. +These money wages, however, are in addition to their diet. The +operation requiring the most skill is that of marking the trees for +the axe. The largest only are worth cutting, and form and soundness +must also be considered. + +But if I were about to visit a party of lumberers in the forest, I +should not be disposed to pass a whole winter with them. Even of a +very good thing one may have too much. I would go up in the spring, +when the rafts are being formed in the small tributary streams, and +I would come down upon one of them, shooting the rapids of the rivers +as soon as the first freshets had left the way open. A freshet in the +rivers is the rush of waters occasioned by melting snow and ice. The +first freshets take down the winter waters of the nearer lakes and +rivers. Then the streams become for a time navigable, and the rafts +go down. After that comes the second freshet, occasioned by the +melting of far-off snow and ice up in the great northern lakes which +are little known. These rafts are of immense construction, such as +those which we have seen on the Rhone and Rhine, and often contain +timber to the value of two, three, and four thousand pounds. At the +rapids the large rafts are, as it were, unyoked, and divided into +small portions, which go down separately. The excitement and motion +of such transit must, I should say, be very joyous. I was told that +the Prince of Wales desired to go down a rapid on a raft, but that +the men in charge would not undertake to say that there was no +possible danger. Whereupon those who accompanied the prince requested +his Royal Highness to forbear. I fear that in these careful days +crowned heads and their heirs must often find themselves in the +position of Sancho at the banquet. The sailor prince who came after +his brother was allowed to go down a rapid, and got, as I was told, +rather a rough bump as he did so. + +Ottawa is a great place for these timber rafts. Indeed, it may, I +think, be called the head-quarters of timber for the world. Nearly +all the best pine wood comes down the Ottawa and its tributaries. +The other rivers by which timber is brought down to the St. Lawrence +are chiefly the St. Maurice, the Madawaska, and the Saguenay; but +the Ottawa and its tributaries water 75,000 square miles; whereas +the other three rivers with their tributaries water only 53,000. +The timber from the Ottawa and St. Maurice finds its way down the +St. Lawrence to Quebec, where, however, it loses the whole of its +picturesque character. The Saguenay and the Madawaska fall into the +St. Lawrence below Quebec. + +From Ottawa we went by rail to Prescott, which is surely one of the +most wretched little places to be found in any country. Immediately +opposite to it, on the other side of the St. Lawrence, is the +thriving town of Ogdensburgh. But Ogdensburgh is in the United +States. Had we been able to learn at Ottawa any facts as to the hours +of the river steamers and railways we might have saved time and have +avoided Prescott; but this was out of the question. Had I asked the +exact hour at which I might reach Calcutta by the quickest route, an +accurate reply would not have been more out of the question. I was +much struck at Prescott--and indeed all through Canada, though more +in the upper than in the lower province--by the sturdy roughness, +some would call it insolence, of those of the lower classes of the +people with whom I was brought into contact. If the words "lower +classes" give offence to any reader, I beg to apologize;--to +apologize and to assert that I am one of the last of men to apply +such a term in a sense of reproach to those who earn their bread by +the labour of their hands. But it is hard to find terms which will +be understood; and that term, whether it give offence or no, will be +understood. Of course such a complaint as that I now make is very +common as made against the States. Men in the States with horned +hands and fustian coats are very often most unnecessarily insolent +in asserting their independence. What I now mean to say is that +precisely the same fault is to be found in Canada. I know well what +the men mean when they offend in this manner. And when I think on +the subject with deliberation, at my own desk, I can not only excuse, +but almost approve them. But when one personally encounters their +corduroy braggadocio; when the man to whose services one is entitled +answers one with determined insolence; when one is bidden to follow +"that young lady," meaning the chambermaid, or desired, with a toss +of the head, to wait for the "gentleman who is coming," meaning the +boots, the heart is sickened, and the English traveller pines for the +civility,--for the servility, if my American friends choose to call +it so,--of a well-ordered servant. But the whole scene is easily +construed, and turned into English. A man is asked by a stranger some +question about his employment, and he replies in a tone which seems +to imply anger, insolence, and a dishonest intention to evade the +service for which he is paid. Or if there be no question of service +or payment, the man's manner will be the same, and the stranger feels +that he is slapped in the face and insulted. The translation of +it is this. The man questioned, who is aware that as regards coat, +hat, boots, and outward cleanliness he is below him by whom he is +questioned, unconsciously feels himself called upon to assert his +political equality. It is his shibboleth that he is politically equal +to the best, that he is independent, and that his labour, though it +earn him but a dollar a day by porterage, places him as a citizen on +an equal rank with the most wealthy fellow-man that may employ or +accost him. But being so inferior in that coat, hat and boots matter, +he is forced to assert his equality by some effort. As he improves in +externals he will diminish the roughness of his claim. As long as the +man makes his claim with any roughness, so long does he acknowledge +within himself some feeling of external inferiority. When that has +gone,--when the American has polished himself up by education and +general well being to a feeling of external equality with gentlemen, +he shows, I think, no more of that outward braggadocio of +independence than a Frenchman. + +But the blow at the moment of the stroke is very galling. I confess +that I have occasionally all but broken down beneath it. But when it +is thought of afterwards it admits of full excuse. No effort that a +man can make is better than a true effort at independence. But this +insolence is a false effort, it will be said. It should rather be +called a false accompaniment to a life-long true effort. The man +probably is not dishonest, does not desire to shirk any service which +is due from him,--is not even inclined to insolence. Accept his first +declaration of equality for that which it is intended to represent, +and the man afterwards will be found obliging and communicative. +If occasion offer he will sit down in the room with you and will +talk with you on any subject that he may choose; but having once +ascertained that you show no resentment for this assertion of +equality, he will do pretty nearly all that he is asked. He will at +any rate do as much in that way as an Englishman. I say thus much on +this subject now especially, because I was quite as much struck by +the feeling in Canada as I was within the States. + +From Prescott we went on by the Grand Trunk Railway to Toronto, and +stayed there for a few days. Toronto is the capital of the province +of Upper Canada, and I presume will in some degree remain so in spite +of Ottawa and its pretensions. That is, the law courts will still +be held there. I do not know that it will enjoy any other supremacy, +unless it be that of trade and population. Some few years ago Toronto +was advancing with rapid strides, and was bidding fair to rival +Quebec, or even perhaps Montreal. Hamilton, also, another town of +Upper Canada, was going a head in the true American style; but +then reverses came in trade, and the towns were checked for a +while. Toronto, with a neighbouring suburb which is a part of it, +as Southwark is of London, contains now over 50,000 inhabitants. +The streets are all parallelogramical, and there is not a single +curvature to rest the eye. It is built down close upon Lake Ontario; +and as it is also on the Grand Trunk Railway it has all the aid which +facility of traffic can give it. + +The two sights of Toronto are the Osgoode Hall and the University. +The Osgoode Hall is to Upper Canada what the Four Courts are to +Ireland. The law courts are all held there. Exteriorly little can +be said for Osgoode Hall, whereas the exterior of the Four Courts +in Dublin is very fine; but as an interior the temple of Themis at +Toronto beats hollow that which the goddess owns in Dublin. In Dublin +the Courts themselves are shabby, and the space under the dome is +not so fine as the exterior seems to promise that it should be. In +Toronto the Courts themselves are, I think, the most commodious that +I ever saw, and the passages, vestibules, and hall are very handsome. +In Upper Canada the common law judges and those in Chancery are +divided as they are in England; but it is, as I was told, the opinion +of Canadian lawyers that the work may be thrown together. Appeal is +allowed in criminal cases; but as far as I could learn such power of +appeal is held to be both troublesome and useless. In Lower Canada +the old French laws are still administered. + +But the University is the glory of Toronto. This is a Gothic building +and will take rank after, but next to the buildings at Ottawa. It +will be the second piece of noble architecture in Canada, and as far +as I know on the American continent. It is, I believe, intended to be +purely Norman, though I doubt whether the received types of Norman +architecture have not been departed from in many of the windows. Be +this as it may the College is a manly, noble structure, free from +false decoration, and infinitely creditable to those who projected +it. I was informed by the head of the College that it has been open +only two years, and here also I fancy that the colony has been much +indebted to the taste of the late Governor, Sir Edmund Head. + +Toronto as a city is not generally attractive to a traveller. The +country around it is flat; and, though it stands on a lake, that +lake has no attributes of beauty. Large inland seas such as are +these great Northern lakes of America never have such attributes. +Picturesque mountains rise from narrow valleys, such as form the beds +of lakes in Switzerland, Scotland, and Northern Italy. But from such +broad waters as those of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and Lake Michigan, +the shores shelve very gradually, and have none of the materials of +lovely scenery. + +The streets in Toronto are framed with wood, or rather planked, as +are those of Montreal and Quebec; but they are kept in better order. +I should say that the planks are first used at Toronto, then sent +down by the lake to Montreal, and when all but rotted out there, are +again floated off by the St. Lawrence to be used in the thoroughfares +of the old French capital. But if the streets of Toronto are better +than those of the other towns, the roads round it are worse. I had +the honour of meeting two distinguished members of the Provincial +Parliament at dinner some few miles out of town, and, returning back +a short while after they had left our host's house, was glad to be +of use in picking them up from a ditch into which their carriage had +been upset. To me it appeared all but miraculous that any carriage +should make its way over that road without such misadventure. I may +perhaps be allowed to hope that the discomfiture of those worthy +legislators may lead to some improvement in the thoroughfare. + +I had on a previous occasion gone down the St. Lawrence, through the +thousand isles, and over the rapids in one of those large summer +steamboats which ply upon the lake and river. I cannot say that I was +much struck by the scenery, and therefore did not encroach upon my +time by making the journey again. Such an opinion will be regarded +as heresy by many who think much of the thousand islands. I do not +believe that they would be expressly noted by any traveller who was +not expressly bidden to admire them. + +From Toronto we went across to Niagara, re-entering the States at +Lewiston in New York. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE CONNEXION OF THE CANADAS WITH GREAT BRITAIN. + + +When the American war began troops were sent out to Canada, and when +I was in the Provinces more troops were then expected. The matter was +much talked of, as a matter of course, in Canada; and it had been +discussed in England before I left. I had seen much said about it +in the English papers since, and it also had become the subject of +very hot question among the politicians of the Northern States. +The measure had at that time given more umbrage to the North than +anything else done or said by England from the beginning of the war +up to that time, except the declaration made by Lord John Russell in +the House of Commons as to the neutrality to be preserved by England +between the two belligerents. The argument used by the Northern +States was this. If France collects men and material of war in the +neighbourhood of England, England considers herself injured, calls +for an explanation, and talks of invasion. Therefore as England is +now collecting men and material of war in our neighbourhood, we +will consider ourselves injured. It does not suit us to ask for an +explanation, because it is not our habit to interfere with other +nations. We will not pretend to say that we think we are to be +invaded. But as we clearly are injured, we will express our anger at +that injury, and when the opportunity shall come will take advantage +of having that new grievance. + +As we all know, a very large increase of force was sent when we +were still in doubt as to the termination of the Trent affair, and +imagined that war was imminent. But the sending of that large force +did not anger the Americans, as the first despatch of troops to +Canada had angered them. Things had so turned out that measures of +military precaution were acknowledged by them to be necessary. I +cannot, however, but think that Mr. Seward might have spared that +offer to send British troops across Maine; and so, also, have all his +countrymen thought by whom I have heard the matter discussed. + +As to any attempt at invasion of Canada by the Americans, or idea +of punishing the alleged injuries suffered by the States from Great +Britain by the annexation of those provinces, I do not believe that +any sane-minded citizens of the States believe in the possibility of +such retaliation. Some years since the Americans thought that Canada +might shine in the Union firmament as a new star, but that delusion +is, I think, over. Such annexation if ever made, must have been made +not only against the arms of England but must also have been made +in accordance with the wishes of the people so annexed. It was then +believed that the Canadians were not averse to such a change, and +there may possibly have then been among them the remnant of such a +wish. There is certainly no such desire now, not even a remnant of +such a desire; and the truth on this matter is, I think, generally +acknowledged. The feeling in Canada is one of strong aversion to the +United States Government, and of predilection for self-government +under the English Crown. A fainéant Governor and the prestige of +British power is now the political aspiration of the Canadians in +general; and I think that this is understood in the States. Moreover +the States have a job of work on hand which, as they themselves +are well aware, is taxing all their energies. Such being the case +I do not think that England needs to fear any invasion of Canada, +authorized by the States Government. + +This feeling of a grievance on the part of the States was a manifest +absurdity. The new reinforcement of the garrisons in Canada did not, +when I was in Canada, amount as I believe to more than 2,000 men. But +had it amounted to 20,000 the States would have had no just ground +for complaint. Of all nationalities that in modern days have risen +to power, they above all others have shown that they would do what +they liked with their own, indifferent to foreign councils, and +deaf to foreign remonstrance. "Do you go your way, and let us go +ours. We will trouble you with no question, nor do you trouble us." +Such has been their national policy, and it has obtained for them +great respect. They have resisted the temptation of putting their +fingers into the caldron of foreign policy; and foreign politicians, +acknowledging their reserve in this respect, have not been offended +at the bristles with which their Noli me tangere has been proclaimed. +Their intelligence has been appreciated, and their conduct has been +respected. But if this has been their line of policy, they must be +entirely out of court in raising any question as to the position of +British troops on British soil. + +"It shows us that you doubt us," an American says, with an air of +injured honour--or did say, before that Trent affair. "And it is done +to express sympathy with the South. The Southerners understand it, +and we understand it also. We know where your hearts are--nay, your +very souls. They are among the slave-begotten cotton bales of the +rebel South." Then comes the whole of the long argument, in which it +seems so easy to an Englishman to prove that England in the whole of +this sad matter has been true and loyal to her friend. She could not +interfere when the husband and wife would quarrel. She could only +grieve, and wish that things might come right and smooth for both +parties. But the argument though so easy is never effectual. + +It seems to me foolish in an American to quarrel with England for +sending soldiers to Canada; but I cannot say that I thought it was +well done to send them at the beginning of the war. The English +Government did not, I presume, take this step with reference to any +possible invasion of Canada by the Government of the States. We are +fortifying Portsmouth, and Portland, and Plymouth, because we would +fain be safe against the French army acting under a French Emperor. +But we sent 2,000 troops to Canada, if I understand the matter +rightly, to guard our provinces against the filibustering energies of +a mass of unemployed American soldiers, when those soldiers should +come to be disbanded. When this war shall be over--a war during which +not much, if any, under a million of American citizens will have been +under arms--it will not be easy for all who survive to return to +their old homes and old occupations. Nor does a disbanded soldier +always make a good husbandman, notwithstanding the great examples of +Cincinnatus and Bird-o'-freedom Sawin. It may be that a considerable +amount of filibustering energy will be afloat, and that the then +Government of those who neighbour us in Canada will have other +matters in hand more important to them than the controlling of these +unruly spirits. That, as I take it, was the evil against which we of +Great Britain and of Canada desired to guard ourselves. + +But I doubt whether 2,000 or 10,000 British soldiers would be any +effective guard against such inroads, and I doubt more strongly +whether any such external guarding will be necessary. If the +Canadians were prepared to fraternize with filibusters from the +States, neither three nor ten thousand soldiers would avail against +such a feeling over a frontier stretching from the State of Maine to +the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Erie. If such a feeling did exist, +if the Canadians wished the change, in God's name let them go. It is +for their sakes and not for our own that we would have them bound to +us. But the Canadians are averse to such a change with a degree of +feeling that amounts to national intensity. Their sympathies are with +the Southern States, not because they care for cotton, not because +they are anti-abolitionists, not because they admire the hearty +pluck of those who are endeavouring to work out for themselves a new +revolution. They sympathize with the South from strong dislike to the +aggression, the braggadocio, and the insolence they have felt upon +their own borders. They dislike Mr. Seward's weak and vulgar joke +with the Duke of Newcastle. They dislike Mr. Everett's flattering +hints to his countrymen as to the one nation that is to occupy the +whole continent. They dislike the Monroe doctrine. They wonder at the +meekness with which England has endured the vauntings of the Northern +States, and are endued with no such meekness of their own. They +would, I believe, be well prepared to meet and give an account of any +filibusters who might visit them; and I am not sure that it is wisely +done on our part to show any intention of taking the work out of +their hands. + +But I am led to this opinion in no degree by a feeling that Great +Britain ought to grudge the cost of the soldiers. If Canada will be +safer with them, in heaven's name let her have them. It has been +argued in many places, not only with regard to Canada, but as to all +our self-governed colonies, that military service should not be given +at British expense and with British men to any colony which has its +own representative government, and which levies its own taxes. "While +Great Britain absolutely held the reins of government, and did as it +pleased with the affairs of its dependencies," such politicians say, +"it was just and right that she should pay the bill. As long as her +government of a colony was paternal, so long was it right that the +mother country should put herself in the place of a father, and +enjoy a father's undoubted prerogative of putting his hand into +his breeches pocket to provide for all the wants of his child. But +when the adult son set up for himself in business, having received +education from the parent, and having had his apprentice fees duly +paid, then that son should settle his own bills, and look no longer +to the paternal pocket." Such is the law of the world all over, from +little birds whose young fly away when fledged, upwards to men and +nations. Let the father work for the child while he is a child, +but when the child has become a man let him lean no longer on his +father's staff. + +The argument is, I think, very good; but it proves, not that we are +relieved from the necessity of assisting our colonies with payments +made out of British taxes, but that we are still bound to give such +assistance; and that we shall continue to be so bound as long as we +allow these colonies to adhere to us, or as they allow us to adhere +to them. In fact the young bird is not yet fully fledged. That +illustration of the father and the child is a just one, but in order +to make it just it should be followed throughout. When the son is +in fact established on his own bottom, then the father expects that +he will live without assistance. But when the son does so live he +is freed from all paternal control. The father, while he expects to +be obeyed, continues to fill the paternal office of paymaster,--of +paymaster, at any rate, to some extent. And so, I think, it must be +with our colonies. The Canadas at present are not independent, and +have not political power of their own apart from the political power +of Great Britain. England has declared herself neutral as regards the +Northern and Southern States, and by that neutrality the Canadas are +bound; and yet the Canadas were not consulted in the matter. Should +England go to war with France, Canada must close her ports against +French vessels. If England chooses to send her troops to Canadian +barracks, Canada cannot refuse to accept them. If England should send +to Canada an unpopular Governor, Canada has no power to reject his +services. As long as Canada is a colony, so called, she cannot be +independent, and should not be expected to walk alone. It is exactly +the same with the colonies of Australia, with New Zealand, with +the Cape of Good Hope, and with Jamaica. While England enjoys the +prestige of her colonies, while she boasts that such large and now +populous territories are her dependencies, she must and should be +content to pay some portion of the bill. Surely it is absurd +on our part to quarrel with Caffre warfare, with New Zealand +fighting, and the rest of it. Such complaints remind one of an +ancient paterfamilias, who insists on having his children and his +grandchildren under the old paternal roof, and then grumbles because +the butcher's bill is high. Those who will keep large households and +bountiful tables should not be afraid of facing the butcher's bill, +or unhappy at the tonnage of the coal. It is a grand thing, that +power of keeping a large table; but it ceases to be grand when the +items heaped upon it cause inward groans and outward moodiness. + +Why should the colonies remain true to us as children are true to +their parents, if we grudge them the assistance which is due to a +child? They raise their own taxes, it is said, and administer them. +True; and it is well that the growing son should do something for +himself. While the father does all for him the son's labour belongs +to the father. Then comes a middle state in which the son does +much for himself, but not all. In that middle state now stand our +prosperous colonies. Then comes the time when the son shall stand +alone by his own strength; and to that period of manly self-respected +strength let us all hope that those colonies are advancing. It is +very hard for a mother country to know when such a time has come; +and hard also for the child-colony to recognize justly the period of +its own maturity. Whether or no such severance may ever take place +without a quarrel, without weakness on one side and pride on the +other, is a problem in the world's history yet to be solved. The most +successful child that ever yet has gone off from a successful parent +and taken its own path into the world, is without doubt the nation +of the United States. Their present troubles are the result and +the proofs of their success. The people that were too great to be +dependent on any nation have now spread till they are themselves too +great for a single nationality. No one now thinks that that daughter +should have remained longer subject to her mother. But the severance +was not made in amity, and the shrill notes of the old family quarrel +are still sometimes heard across the waters. + +From all this the question arises whether that problem may ever be +solved with reference to the Canadas. That it will never be their +destiny to join themselves to the States of the Union, I feel fully +convinced. In the first place it is becoming evident from the present +circumstances of the Union,--if it had never been made evident by +history before,--that different people with different habits living +at long distances from each other cannot well be brought together +on equal terms under one Government. That noble ambition of the +Americans that all the continent north of the isthmus should be +united under one flag, has already been thrown from its saddle. The +North and South are virtually separated, and the day will come in +which the West also will secede. As population increases and trades +arise peculiar to those different climates, the interests of the +people will differ, and a new secession will take place beneficial +alike to both parties. If this be so, if even there be any tendency +this way, it affords the strongest argument against the probability +of any future annexation of the Canadas. And then, in the second +place, the feeling of Canada is not American, but British. If ever +she be separated from Great Britain, she will be separated as the +States were separated. She will desire to stand alone, and to enter +herself as one among the nations of the earth. + +She will desire to stand alone;--alone, that is without dependence +either on England or on the States. But she is so circumstanced +geographically that she can never stand alone without amalgamation +with our other North American provinces. She has an outlet to the +sea at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but it is only a summer outlet. Her +winter outlet is by railway through the States, and no other winter +outlet is possible for her except through the sister provinces. +Before Canada can be nationally great, the line of railway which now +runs for some hundred miles below Quebec to Rivière du Loup, must be +continued on through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to the port of +Halifax. + +When I was in Canada I heard the question discussed of a Federal +Government between the provinces of the two Canadas, New Brunswick +and Nova Scotia. To these were added, or not added, according to +the opinion of those who spoke, the smaller outlying colonies of +Newfoundland and Prince Edward's Island. If a scheme for such a +Government were projected in Downing Street, all would no doubt be +included, and a clean sweep would be made without difficulty. But +the project as made in the colonies appears in different guises as +it comes either from Canada or from one of the other provinces. The +Canadian idea would be that the two Canadas should form two States +of such a confederation, and the other provinces a third State. But +this slight participation in power would hardly suit the views of New +Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In speaking of such a Federal Government +as this, I shall of course be understood as meaning a confederation +acting in connection with a British Governor, and dependent upon +Great Britain as far as the different colonies are now dependent. + +I cannot but think that such a confederation might be formed with +great advantage to all the colonies and to Great Britain. At present +the Canadas are in effect almost more distant from Nova Scotia and +New Brunswick than they are from England. The intercourse between +them is very slight--so slight that it may almost be said that there +is no intercourse. A few men of science or of political importance +may from time to time make their way from one colony into the other, +but even this is not common. Beyond that they seldom see each other. +Though New Brunswick borders both with Lower Canada and with Nova +Scotia, thus making one whole of the three colonies, there is neither +railroad nor stage conveyance running from one to the other. And yet +their interests should be similar. From geographical position their +modes of life must be alike, and a close conjunction between them is +essentially necessary to give British North America any political +importance in the world. There can be no such conjunction, no +amalgamation of interests, until a railway shall have been made +joining the Canada Grand Trunk Line with the two outlying colonies. +Upper Canada can feed all England with wheat, and could do so without +any aid of railway through the States, if a railway were made from +Quebec to Halifax. But then comes the question of the cost. The +Canada Grand Trunk is at the present moment at the lowest ebb of +commercial misfortune, and with such a fact patent to the world what +company will come forward with funds for making four or five hundred +miles of railway, through a district of which one half is not +yet prepared for population? It would be, I imagine, out of the +question that such a speculation should for many years give any fair +commercial interest on the money to be expended. But nevertheless +to the colonies,--that is, to the enormous regions of British +North America,--such a railroad would be invaluable. Under such +circumstances it is for the Home Government and the colonies between +them to see how such a measure may be carried out. As a national +expenditure to be defrayed in the course of years by the territories +interested, the sum of money required would be very small. + +But how would this affect England? And how would England be affected +by a union of the British North American colonies under one Federal +Government? Before this question can be answered, he who prepares to +answer it must consider what interest England has in her colonies, +and for what purpose she holds them. Does she hold them for profit, +or for glory, or for power; or does she hold them in order that she +may carry out the duty which has devolved upon her of extending +civilization, freedom, and well-being through the new uprising +nations of the world? Does she hold them, in fact, for her own +benefit, or does she hold them for theirs? I know nothing of the +ethics of the Colonial Office, and not much perhaps of those of the +House of Commons; but looking at what Great Britain has hitherto done +in the way of colonization, I cannot but think that the national +ambition looks to the welfare of the colonists, and not to home +aggrandisement. That the two may run together is most probable. +Indeed there can be no glory to a people so great or so readily +recognized by mankind at large as that of spreading civilization from +East to West, and from North to South. But the one object should be +the prosperity of the colonists; and not profit, nor glory, nor even +power to the parent country. + +There is no virtue of which more has been said and sung than +patriotism, and none which when pure and true has led to finer +results. Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori. To live for one's +country also is a very beautiful and proper thing. But if we examine +closely much patriotism, that is so called, we shall find it going +hand in hand with a good deal that is selfish, and with not a little +that is devilish. It was some fine fury of patriotic feeling which +enabled the national poet to put into the mouth of every Englishman +that horrible prayer with regard to our enemies, which we sing when +we wish to do honour to our sovereign. It did not seem to him that it +might be well to pray that their hearts should be softened, and our +own hearts softened also. National success was all that a patriotic +poet could desire, and therefore in our national hymn have we gone +on imploring the Lord to arise and scatter our enemies; to confound +their politics, whether they be good or ill; and to expose their +knavish tricks,--such knavish tricks being taken for granted. And +then with a steady confidence we used to declare how certain we +were that we should achieve all that was desirable, not exactly by +trusting to our prayer to heaven, but by relying almost exclusively +on George the Third or George the Fourth. Now I have always thought +that that was rather a poor patriotism. Luckily for us our national +conduct has not squared itself with our national anthem. Any +patriotism must be poor which desires glory or even profit for a few +at the expense of many, even though the few be brothers and the many +aliens. As a rule patriotism is a virtue only because man's aptitude +for good is so finite, that he cannot see and comprehend a wider +humanity. He can hardly bring himself to understand that salvation +should be extended to Jew and Gentile alike. The word philanthropy +has become odious, and I would fain not use it; but the thing itself +is as much higher than patriotism, as heaven is above the earth. + +A wish that British North America should ever be severed from +England, or that the Australian colonies should ever be so severed, +will by many Englishmen be deemed unpatriotic. But I think that +such severance is to be wished if it be the case that the colonies +standing alone would become more prosperous than they are under +British rule. We have before us an example in the United States of +the prosperity which has attended such a rupture of old ties. I will +not now contest the point with those who say that the present moment +of an American civil war is ill chosen for vaunting that prosperity. +There stand the cities which the people have built, and their power +is attested by the world-wide importance of their present contest. +And if the States have so risen since they left their parent's +apron-string, why should not British North America rise as high? That +the time has as yet come for such rising I do not think; but that it +will soon come I do most heartily hope. The making of the railway +of which I have spoken, and the amalgamation of the provinces would +greatly tend to such an event. If, therefore, England desires to keep +these colonies in a state of dependency; if it be more essential to +her to maintain her own power with regard to them than to increase +their influence; if her main object be to keep the colonies and not +to improve the colonies, then I should say that an amalgamation of +the Canadas with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick should not be regarded +with favour by statesmen in Downing Street. But if, as I would fain +hope, and do partly believe, such ideas of national power as these +are now out of vogue with British statesmen, then I think that such +an amalgamation should receive all the support which Downing Street +can give it. + +The United States severed themselves from Great Britain with a great +struggle and after heartburnings and bloodshed. Whether Great Britain +will ever allow any colony of hers to depart from out of her nest, to +secede and start for herself, without any struggle or heartburnings, +with all furtherance for such purpose which an old and powerful +country can give to a new nationality then first taking its own place +in the world's arena, is a problem yet to be solved. There is, I +think, no more beautiful sight than that of a mother, still in all +the glory of womanhood, preparing the wedding trousseau for her +daughter. The child hitherto has been obedient and submissive. She +has been one of a household in which she has held no command. She has +sat at table as a child, fitting herself in all things to the behests +of others. But the day of her power and her glory, and also of her +cares and solicitude is at hand. She is to go forth, and do as she +best may in the world under that teaching which her old home has +given her. The hour of separation has come; and the mother, smiling +through her tears, sends her forth decked with a bounteous hand and +furnished with full stores, so that all may be well with her as she +enters on her new duties. So is it that England should send forth her +daughters. They should not escape from her arms with shrill screams +and bleeding wounds, with ill-omened words which live so long, though +the speakers of them lie cold in their graves. + +But this sending forth of a child-nation to take its own political +status in the world has never yet been done by Great Britain. I +cannot remember that such has ever been done by any great power with +reference to its dependency;--by any power that was powerful enough +to keep such dependency within its grasp. But a man thinking on these +matters cannot but hope that a time will come when such amicable +severance may be effected. Great Britain cannot think that through +all coming ages she is to be the mistress of the vast continent of +Australia, lying on the other side of the globe's surface; that she +is to be the mistress of all South Africa, as civilization shall +extend northward; that the enormous territories of British North +America are to be subject for ever to a veto from Downing Street. +If the history of past empires does not teach her that this may not +be so, at least the history of the United States might so teach her. +"But we have learned a lesson from those United States," the patriot +will argue who dares to hope that the glory and extent of the British +Empire may remain unimpaired _in sæcula sæculorum_. "Since that day +we have given political rights to our colonies, and have satisfied +the political longings of their inhabitants. We do not tax their +tea and stamps, but leave it to them to tax themselves as they may +please." True. But in political aspirations the giving of an inch +has ever created the desire for an ell. If the Australian colonies, +even now,--with their scanty population and still young civilization, +chafe against imperial interference, will they submit to it when they +feel within their veins all the full blood of political manhood? What +is the cry even of the Canadians--of the Canadians who are thoroughly +loyal to England? Send us a fainéant Governor, a King Log, who will +not presume to interfere with us; a Governor who will spend his money +and live like a gentleman and care little or nothing for politics. +That is the Canadian _beau idéal_ of a Governor. They are to govern +themselves; and he who comes to them from England is to sit among +them as the silent representative of England's protection. If that +be true--and I do not think that any who know the Canadas will +deny it--must it not be presumed that they will soon also desire a +fainéant minister in Downing Street? Of course they will so desire. +Men do not become milder in their aspirations for political power, +the more that political power is extended to them. Nor would it be +well that they should be so humble in their desires. Nations devoid +of political power have never risen high in the world's esteem. Even +when they have been commercially successful, commerce has not brought +to them the greatness which it has always given when joined with a +strong political existence. The Greeks are commercially rich and +active; but "Greece" and "Greek" are bye-words now for all that is +mean. Cuba is a colony, and putting aside the cities of the States, +the Havana is the richest town on the other side of the Atlantic and +commercially the greatest; but the political villainy of Cuba, her +daily importation of slaves, her breaches of treaty, and the bribery +of her all but royal Governor are known to all men. But Canada is not +dishonest; Canada is no bye-word for anything evil; Canada eats her +own bread in the sweat of her brow, and fears a bad word from no +man. True. But why does New York with its suburbs boast a million of +inhabitants, while Montreal has 85,000? Why has that babe in years, +Chicago, 120,000, while Toronto has not half the number? I do not say +that Montreal and Toronto should have gone ahead abreast with New +York and Chicago. In such races one must be first, and one last. But +I do say that the Canadian towns will have no equal chance, till +they are actuated by that feeling of political independence which has +created the growth of the towns in the United States. + +I do not think that the time has yet come in which Great Britain +should desire the Canadians to start for themselves. There is the +making of that railroad to be effected, and something done towards +the union of those provinces. Canada could no more stand alone +without New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, than could those latter +colonies without Canada. But I think it would be well to be prepared +for such a coming day; and that it would at any rate be well to bring +home to ourselves and realize the idea of such secession on the +part of our colonies, when the time shall have come at which such +secession may be carried out with profit and security to them. Great +Britain, should she ever send forth her child alone into the world, +must of course guarantee her security. Such guarantees are given +by treaties; and in the wording of them it is presumed that such +treaties will last for ever. It will be argued that in starting +British North America as a political power on its own bottom, we +should bind ourself to all the expense of its defence, while we +should give up all right to any interference in its concerns; and +that from a state of things so unprofitable as this there would be no +prospect of deliverance. But such treaties, let them be worded how +they will, do not last for ever. For a time, no doubt, Great Britain +would be so hampered--if indeed she would feel herself hampered by +extending her name and prestige to a country bound to her by ties +such as those which would then exist between her and this new nation. +Such treaties are not everlasting, nor can they be made to last even +for ages. Those who word them seem to think that powers and dynasties +will never pass away. But they do pass away, and the balance of power +will not keep itself fixed for ever on the same pivot. The time may +come--that it may not come soon we will all desire--but the time may +come when the name and prestige of what we call British North America +will be as serviceable to Great Britain as those of Great Britain are +now serviceable to her colonies. + +But what shall be the new form of government for the new kingdom? +That is a speculation very interesting to a politician; though one +which to follow out at great length in these early days would be +rather premature. That it should be a kingdom--that the political +arrangement should be one of which a crowned hereditary king +should form a part, nineteen out of every twenty Englishmen would +desire; and, as I fancy, so would also nineteen out of every twenty +Canadians. A king for the United States when they first established +themselves was impossible. A total rupture from the Old World and all +its habits was necessary for them. The name of a king, or monarch, or +sovereign had become horrible to their ears. Even to this day they +have not learned the difference between arbitrary power retained in +the hand of one man, such as that now held by the Emperor over the +French, and such hereditary headship in the State as that which +belongs to the Crown in Great Britain. And this was necessary, seeing +that their division from us was effected by strife, and carried out +with war and bitter animosities. In those days also there was a +remnant, though but a small remnant, of the power of tyranny left +within the scope of the British Crown. That small remnant has been +removed; and to me it seems that no form of existing government--no +form of government that ever did exist, gives or has given so large +a measure of individual freedom to all who live under it as a +constitutional monarchy in which the Crown is divested of direct +political power. + +I will venture then to suggest a king for this new nation; and seeing +that we are rich in princes there need be no difficulty in the +selection. Would it not be beautiful to see a new nation established +under such auspices, and to establish a people to whom their +independence had been given,--to whom it had been freely surrendered +as soon as they were capable of holding the position assigned to +them? + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +NIAGARA. + + +Of all the sights on this earth of ours which tourists travel to +see,--at least of all those which I have seen,--I am inclined to give +the palm to the Falls of Niagara. In the catalogue of such sights I +intend to include all buildings, pictures, statues, and wonders of +art made by men's hands, and also all beauties of nature prepared by +the Creator for the delight of his creatures. This is a long word; +but as far as my taste and judgment go, it is justified. I know no +other one thing so beautiful, so glorious, and so powerful. I would +not by this be understood as saying that a traveller wishing to do +the best with his time should first of all places seek Niagara. In +visiting Florence he may learn almost all that modern art can teach. +At Rome he will be brought to understand the cold hearts, correct +eyes, and cruel ambition of the old Latin race. In Switzerland he +will surround himself with a flood of grandeur and loveliness, and +fill himself, if he be capable of such filling, with a flood of +romance. The Tropics will unfold to him all that vegetation in its +greatest richness can produce. In Paris he will find the supreme +of polish, the _ne plus ultra_ of varnish according to the world's +capability of varnishing. And in London he will find the supreme +of power, the _ne plus ultra_ of work according to the world's +capability of working. Any one of such journeys may be more valuable +to a man,--nay, any one such journey must be more valuable to a +man,--than a visit to Niagara. At Niagara there is that fall of +waters alone. But that fall is more graceful than Giotto's tower, +more noble than the Apollo. The peaks of the Alps are not so +astounding in their solitude. The valleys of the Blue Mountains in +Jamaica are less green. The finished glaze of life in Paris is less +invariable; and the full tide of trade round the Bank of England is +not so inexorably powerful. + +I came across an artist at Niagara who was attempting to draw the +spray of the waters. "You have a difficult subject," said I. "All +subjects are difficult," he replied, "to a man who desires to do +well." "But yours, I fear, is impossible," I said. "You have no +right to say so till I have finished my picture," he replied. I +acknowledged the justice of his rebuke, regretted that I could not +remain till the completion of his work should enable me to revoke +my words, and passed on. Then I began to reflect whether I did not +intend to try a task as difficult in describing the falls, and +whether I felt any of that proud self-confidence which kept him happy +at any rate while his task was in hand. I will not say that it is as +difficult to describe aright that rush of waters, as it is to paint +it well. But I doubt whether it is not quite as difficult to write +a description that shall interest the reader, as it is to paint a +picture of them that shall be pleasant to the beholder. My friend the +artist was at any rate not afraid to make the attempt, and I also +will try my hand. + +That the waters of Lake Erie have come down in their courses from the +broad basins of Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, and Lake Huron; that +these waters fall into Lake Ontario by the short and rapid river of +Niagara, and that the Falls of Niagara are made by a sudden break +in the level of this rapid river, is probably known to all who will +read this book. All the waters of these huge northern inland seas run +over that breach in the rocky bottom of the stream; and thence it +comes that the flow is unceasing in its grandeur, and that no eye +can perceive a difference in the weight, or sound, or violence of +the fall, whether it be visited in the drought of autumn, amidst the +storms of winter, or after the melting of the upper worlds of ice in +the days of the early summer. How many cataracts does the habitual +tourist visit at which the waters fail him? But at Niagara the waters +never fail. There it thunders over its ledge in a volume that never +ceases and is never diminished;--as it has done from times previous +to the life of man, and as it will do till tens of thousands of years +shall see the rocky bed of the river worn away, back to the upper +lake. + +This stream divides Canada from the States, the western or +farthermost bank belonging to the British Crown, and the eastern or +nearer bank being in the State of New York. In visiting Niagara it +always becomes a question on which side the visitor shall take up his +quarters. On the Canada side there is no town, but there is a large +hotel, beautifully placed immediately opposite to the falls, and this +is generally thought to be the best locality for tourists. In the +State of New York is the town called Niagara Falls, and here there +are two large hotels, which, as to their immediate site, are not so +well placed as that in Canada. I first visited Niagara some three +years since. I stayed then at the Clifton House on the Canada side, +and have since sworn by that position. But the Clifton House was +closed for the season when I was last there, and on that account we +went to the Cataract House in the town on the other side. I now think +that I should set up my staff on the American side if I went again. +My advice on the subject to any party starting for Niagara would +depend upon their habits, or on their nationality. I would send +Americans to the Canadian side, because they dislike walking; but +English people I would locate on the American side, seeing that +they are generally accustomed to the frequent use of their own legs. +The two sides are not very easily approached, one from the other. +Immediately below the falls there is a ferry, which may be traversed +at the expense of a shilling; but the labour of getting up and down +from the ferry is considerable, and the passage becomes wearisome. +There is also a bridge, but it is two miles down the river, making a +walk or drive of four miles necessary, and the toll for passing is +four shillings or a dollar in a carriage, and one shilling on foot. +As the greater variety of prospect can be had on the American side, +as the island between the two falls is approachable from the American +side and not from the Canadian, and as it is in this island that +visitors will best love to linger and learn to measure in their +minds the vast triumph of waters before them, I recommend such of my +readers as can trust a little,--it need be but a little,--to their +own legs to select their hotel at Niagara Falls town. + +It has been said that it matters much from what point the falls are +first seen, but to this I demur. It matters, I think, very little, +or not at all. Let the visitor first see it all, and learn the +whereabouts of every point, so as to understand his own position and +that of the waters; and then having done that in the way of business +let him proceed to enjoyment. I doubt whether it be not the best to +do this with all sight seeing. I am quite sure that it is the way in +which acquaintance may be best and most pleasantly made with a new +picture. + +The falls are, as I have said, made by a sudden breach in the level +of the river. All cataracts are, I presume, made by such breaches; +but generally the waters do not fall precipitously as they do at +Niagara, and never elsewhere, as far as the world yet knows, has a +breach so sudden been made in a river carrying in its channel such +or any approach to such a body of water. Up above the falls, for +more than a mile, the waters leap and burst over rapids, as though +conscious of the destiny that awaits them. Here the river is very +broad, and comparatively shallow, but from shore to shore it frets +itself into little torrents, and begins to assume the majesty of its +power. Looking at it even here, in the expanse which forms itself +over the greater fall, one feels sure that no strongest swimmer +could have a chance of saving himself, if fate had cast him in even +among those petty whirlpools. The waters, though so broken in their +descent, are deliciously green. This colour as seen early in the +morning, or just as the sun has set, is so bright as to give to the +place one of its chiefest charms. + +This will be best seen from the further end of the island,--Goat +Island, as it is called,--which, as the reader will understand, +divides the river immediately above the falls. Indeed the island is a +part of that precipitously broken ledge over which the river tumbles; +and no doubt in process of time will be worn away and covered with +water. The time, however, will be very long. In the meanwhile it is +perhaps a mile round, and is covered thickly with timber. At the +upper end of the island the waters are divided, and coming down in +two courses, each over its own rapids, form two separate falls. The +bridge by which the island is entered is a hundred yards or more +above the smaller fall. The waters here have been turned by the +island, and make their leap into the body of the river below at a +right angle with it,--about two hundred yards below the greater fall. +Taken alone this smaller cataract would, I imagine, be the heaviest +fall of water known, but taken in conjunction with the other it is +terribly shorn of its majesty. The waters here are not green as they +are at the larger cataract, and though the ledge has been hollowed +and bowed by them so as to form a curve, that curve does not deepen +itself into a vast abyss as it does at the horseshoe up above. This +smaller fall is again divided, and the visitor passing down a flight +of steps and over a frail wooden bridge finds himself on a smaller +island in the midst of it. + +But we will go at once on to the glory, and the thunder, and the +majesty, and the wrath of that upper hell of waters. We are still, +let the reader remember, on Goat Island, still in the States, and +on what is called the American side of the main body of the river. +Advancing beyond the path leading down to the lesser fall, we come to +that point of the island at which the waters of the main river begin +to descend. From hence across to the Canadian side the cataract +continues itself in one unabated line. But the line is very far from +being direct or straight. After stretching for some little way from +the shore, to a point in the river which is reached by a wooden +bridge at the end of which stands a tower upon the rock,--after +stretching to this, the line of the ledge bends inwards against the +flood,--in, and in, and in till one is led to think that the depth +of that horseshoe is immeasurable. It has been cut with no stinting +hand. A monstrous cantle has been worn back out of the centre of the +rock, so that the fury of the waters converges, and the spectator as +he gazes into the hollow with wishful eyes fancies that he can hardly +trace out the centre of the abyss. + +Go down to the end of that wooden bridge, seat yourself on the rail, +and there sit till all the outer world is lost to you. There is no +grander spot about Niagara than this. The waters are absolutely +around you. If you have that power of eye-control which is so +necessary to the full enjoyment of scenery you will see nothing but +the water. You will certainly hear nothing else; and the sound, I beg +you to remember, is not an ear-cracking, agonizing crash and clang of +noises; but is melodious, and soft withal, though loud as thunder. It +fills your ears, and as it were envelopes them, but at the same time +you can speak to your neighbour without an effort. But at this place, +and in these moments, the less of speaking I should say the better. +There is no grander spot than this. Here, seated on the rail of the +bridge, you will not see the whole depth of the fall. In looking at +the grandest works of nature, and of art too, I fancy, it is never +well to see all. There should be something left to the imagination, +and much should be half concealed in mystery. The greatest charm of a +mountain range is the wild feeling that there must be strange unknown +desolate worlds in those far-off valleys beyond. And so here, at +Niagara, that converging rush of waters may fall down, down at once +into a hell of rivers for what the eye can see. It is glorious to +watch them in their first curve over the rocks. They come green +as a bank of emeralds; but with a fitful flying colour, as though +conscious that in one moment more they would be dashed into spray and +rise into air, pale as driven snow. The vapour rises high into the +air, and is gathered there, visible always as a permanent white cloud +over the cataract; but the bulk of the spray which fills the lower +hollow of that horse-shoe is like a tumult of snow. This you will +not fully see from your seat on the rail. The head of it rises ever +and anon out of that caldron below, but the caldron itself will be +invisible. It is ever so far down,--far as your own imagination can +sink it. But your eyes will rest full upon the curve of the waters. +The shape you will be looking at is that of a horse-shoe, but of +a horse-shoe miraculously deep from toe to heel;--and this depth +becomes greater as you sit there. That which at first was only great +and beautiful, becomes gigantic and sublime till the mind is at loss +to find an epithet for its own use. To realize Niagara you must sit +there till you see nothing else than that which you have come to see. +You will hear nothing else, and think of nothing else. At length you +will be at one with the tumbling river before you. You will find +yourself among the waters as though you belonged to them. The cool +liquid green will run through your veins, and the voice of the +cataract will be the expression of your own heart. You will fall as +the bright waters fall, rushing down into your new world with no +hesitation and with no dismay; and you will rise again as the spray +rises, bright, beautiful, and pure. Then you will flow away in your +course to the uncompassed, distant, and eternal ocean. + +When this state has been reached and has passed away you may get off +your rail and mount the tower. I do not quite approve of that tower, +seeing that it has about it a gingerbread air, and reminds one of +those well-arranged scenes of romance in which one is told that on +the left you turn to the lady's bower, price sixpence; and on the +right ascend to the knight's bed, price sixpence more, with a view +of the hermit's tomb thrown in. But nevertheless the tower is worth +mounting, and no money is charged for the use of it. It is not very +high, and there is a balcony at the top on which some half dozen +persons may stand at ease. Here the mystery is lost, but the whole +fall is seen. It is not even at this spot brought so fully before +your eye,--made to show itself in so complete and entire a shape, +as it will do when you come to stand near to it on the opposite or +Canadian shore. But I think that it shows itself more beautifully. +And the form of the cataract is such, that, here in Goat Island, +on the American side, no spray will reach you, although you are +absolutely over the waters. But on the Canadian side, the road as it +approaches the fall is wet and rotten with spray, and you, as you +stand close upon the edge, will be wet also. The rainbows as they are +seen through the rising cloud--for the sun's rays as seen through +these waters show themselves in a bow as they do when seen through +rain,--are pretty enough, and are greatly loved. For myself I do +not care for this prettiness at Niagara. It is there, but I forget +it,--and do not mind how soon it is forgotten. + +But we are still on the tower; and here I must declare that though +I forgive the tower, I cannot forgive the horrid obelisk which has +latterly been built opposite to it, on the Canadian side, up above +the fall; built apparently,--for I did not go to it,--with some +camera obscura intention for which the projector deserves to be put +in Coventry by all good Christian men and women. At such a place as +Niagara tasteless buildings, run up in wrong places with a view to +money making, are perhaps necessary evils. It may be that they are +not evils at all;--that they give more pleasure than pain, seeing +that they tend to the enjoyment of the multitude. But there are +edifices of this description which cry aloud to the gods by the force +of their own ugliness and malposition. As to such it may be said that +there should somewhere exist a power capable of crushing them in +their birth. This new obelisk or picture-building at Niagara is one +of such. + +And now we will cross the water, and with this object will return by +the bridge out of Goat Island on the main land of the American side. +But as we do so let me say that one of the great charms of Niagara +consists in this,--that over and above that one great object of +wonder and beauty, there is so much little loveliness;--loveliness +especially of water I mean. There are little rivulets running here +and there over little falls, with pendent boughs above them, and +stones shining under their shallow depths. As the visitor stands and +looks through the trees the rapids glitter before him, and then hide +themselves behind islands. They glitter and sparkle in far distances +under the bright foliage till the remembrance is lost, and one +knows not which way they run. And then the river below, with its +whirlpool;--but we shall come to that by-and-by, and to the mad +voyage which was made down the rapids by that mad captain who ran the +gauntlet of the waters at the risk of his own life, with fifty to one +against him, in order that he might save another man's property from +the Sheriff. + +The readiest way across to Canada is by the ferry; and on the +American side this is very pleasantly done. You go into a little +house, pay 20 cents, take a seat on a wooden car of wonderful shape, +and on the touch of a spring find yourself travelling down an +inclined plane of terrible declivity and at a very fast rate. You +catch a glance of the river below you, and recognize the fact that +if the rope by which you are held should break, you would go down at +a very fast rate indeed,--and find your final resting place in the +river. As I have gone down some dozen times and have come to no such +grief, I will not presume that you will be less lucky. Below there is +a boat generally ready. If it be not there, the place is not chosen +amiss for a rest of ten minutes, for the lesser fall is close at +hand, and the larger one is in full view. Looking at the rapidity +of the river you will think that the passage must be dangerous and +difficult. But no accidents ever happen, and the lad who takes you +over seems to do it with sufficient ease. The walk up the hill on +the other side is another thing. It is very steep, and for those who +have not good locomotive power of their own, will be found to be +disagreeable. In the full season, however, carriages are generally +waiting there. In so short a distance I have always been ashamed to +trust to other legs than my own, but I have observed that Americans +are always dragged up. I have seen single young men of from eighteen +to twenty-five, from whose outward appearance no story of idle +luxurious life can be read, carried about alone in carriages over +distances which would be counted as nothing by any healthy English +lady of fifty. None but the old and invalids should require the +assistance of carriages in seeing Niagara, but the trade in carriages +is to all appearance the most brisk trade there. + +Having mounted the hill on the Canada side you will walk on towards +the falls. As I have said before, you will from this side look +directly into the full circle of the upper cataract, while you will +have before you at your left hand the whole expanse of the lesser +fall. For those who desire to see all at a glance, who wish to +comprise the whole with their eyes, and to leave nothing to be +guessed, nothing to be surmised, this, no doubt, is the best point of +view. + +You will be covered with spray as you walk up to the ledge of rocks, +but I do not think that the spray will hurt you. If a man gets wet +through going to his daily work, cold, catarrh, cough, and all their +attendant evils may be expected; but these maladies usually spare +the tourist. Change of air, plenty of air, excellence of air, and +increased exercise make these things powerless. I should therefore +bid you disregard the spray. If, however, you are yourself of a +different opinion, you may hire a suit of oil-cloth clothes for, I +believe, a quarter of a dollar. They are nasty of course, and have +this further disadvantage, that you become much more wet having them +on than you would be without them. + +Here, on this side, you walk on to the very edge of the cataract, +and, if your tread be steady and your legs firm, you dip your foot +into the water exactly at the spot where the thin outside margin of +the current reaches the rocky edge and jumps to join the mass of the +fall. The bed of white foam beneath is certainly seen better here +than elsewhere, and the green curve of the water is as bright here as +when seen from the wooden rail across. But nevertheless I say again +that that wooden rail is the one point from whence Niagara may be +best seen aright. + +Close to the cataract, exactly at the spot from whence in former days +the Table Rock used to project from the land over the boiling caldron +below, there is now a shaft down which you will descend to the level +of the river, and pass between the rock and the torrent. This Table +Rock broke away from the cliff and fell, as up the whole course of +the river the seceding rocks have split and fallen from time to time +through countless years, and will continue to do till the bed of +the upper lake is reached. You will descend this shaft, taking to +yourself or not taking to yourself a suit of oil-clothes as you +may think best. I have gone with and without the suit, and again +recommend that they be left behind. I am inclined to think that +the ordinary payment should be made for their use, as otherwise it +will appear to those whose trade it is to prepare them that you are +injuring them in their vested rights. + +Some three years since I visited Niagara on my way back to England +from Bermuda, and in a volume of travels which I then published I +endeavoured to explain the impression made upon me by this passage +between the rock and the waterfall. An author should not quote +himself; but as I feel myself bound, in writing a chapter specially +about Niagara, to give some account of this strange position, I will +venture to repeat my own words. + +In the spot to which I allude the visitor stands on a broad safe +path, made of shingles, between the rock over which the water rushes +and the rushing water. He will go in so far that the spray rising +back from the bed of the torrent does not incommode him. With this +exception, the further he can go in the better; but circumstances +will clearly show him the spot to which he should advance. Unless +the water be driven in by a very strong wind, five yards make the +difference between a comparatively dry coat and an absolutely wet +one. And then let him stand with his back to the entrance, thus +hiding the last glimmer of the expiring day. So standing he will look +up among the falling waters, or down into the deep misty pit, from +which they reascend in almost as palpable a bulk. The rock will be +at his right hand, high and hard, and dark and straight, like the +wall of some huge cavern, such as children enter in their dreams. +For the first five minutes he will be looking but at the waters of a +cataract,--at the waters, indeed, of such a cataract as we know no +other, and at their interior curves which elsewhere we cannot see. +But by-and-by all this will change. He will no longer be on a shingly +path beneath a waterfall; but that feeling of a cavern wall will grow +upon him, of a cavern deep, below roaring seas, in which the waves +are there, though they do not enter in upon him; or rather not the +waves, but the very bowels of the ocean. He will feel as though the +floods surrounded him, coming and going with their wild sounds, and +he will hardly recognize that though among them he is not in them. +And they, as they fall with a continual roar, not hurting the ear, +but musical withal, will seem to move as the vast ocean waters may +perhaps move in their internal currents. He will lose the sense of +one continued descent, and think that they are passing round him in +their appointed courses. The broken spray that rises from the depth +below, rises so strongly, so palpably, so rapidly, that the motion in +every direction will seem equal. And, as he looks on, strange colours +will show themselves through the mist; the shades of grey will become +green or blue, with ever and anon a flash of white; and then, when +some gust of wind blows in with greater violence, the sea-girt cavern +will become all dark and black. Oh, my friend, let there be no one +there to speak to thee then; no, not even a brother. As you stand +there speak only to the waters. + +Two miles below the falls the river is crossed by a suspension bridge +of marvellous construction. It affords two thoroughfares, one above +the other. The lower road is for carriages and horses, and the upper +one bears a railway belonging to the Great Western Canada line. The +view from hence both up and down the river is very beautiful, for the +bridge is built immediately over the first of a series of rapids. One +mile below the bridge these rapids end in a broad basin called the +whirlpool, and, issuing out of this, the current turns to the right +through a narrow channel overhung by cliffs and trees, and then makes +its way down to Lake Ontario with comparative tranquillity. + +But I will beg you to take notice of those rapids from the bridge and +to ask yourself what chance of life would remain to any ship, craft, +or boat required by destiny to undergo navigation beneath the bridge +and down into that whirlpool. Heretofore all men would have said +that no chance of life could remain to so ill-starred a bark. The +navigation, however, has been effected. But men used to the river +still say that the chances would be fifty to one against any vessel +which should attempt to repeat the experiment. + +The story of that wondrous voyage was as follows. A small steamer +called the Maid of the Mist was built upon the river, between the +falls and the rapids, and was used for taking adventurous tourists up +amidst the spray, as near to the cataract as was possible. The Maid +of the Mist plied in this way for a year or two, and was, I believe, +much patronized during the season. But in the early part of last +summer an evil time had come. Either the Maid got into debt, or her +owner had embarked in other and less profitable speculations. At any +rate he became subject to the law, and tidings reached him that the +Sheriff would seize the Maid. On most occasions the Sheriff is bound +to keep such intentions secret, seeing that property is moveable, +and that an insolvent debtor will not always await the officers of +justice. But with the poor Maid there was no need of such secresy. +There was but a mile or so of water on which she could ply, and she +was forbidden by the nature of her properties to make any way upon +land. The Sheriff's prey therefore was easy and the poor Maid was +doomed. + +In any country in the world but America such would have been the +case, but an American would steam down Phlegethon to save his +property from the Sheriff; he would steam down Phlegethon or get some +one else to do it for him. Whether or no in this case the captain of +the boat was the proprietor, or whether, as I was told, he was paid +for the job, I do not know; but he determined to run the rapids, and +he procured two others to accompany him in the risk. He got up his +steam, and took the Maid up amidst the spray according to his custom. +Then suddenly turning on his course, he with one of his companions +fixed himself at the wheel, while the other remained at his engine. +I wish I could look into the mind of that man and understand what his +thoughts were at that moment; what were his thoughts and what his +beliefs. As to one of the men I was told that he was carried down, +not knowing what he was about to do, but I am inclined to believe +that all the three were joined together in the attempt. + +I was told by a man who saw the boat pass under the bridge, that she +made one long leap down as she came thither, that her funnel was at +once knocked flat on the deck by the force of the blow, that the +waters covered her from stem to stern, and that then she rose again +and skimmed into the whirlpool a mile below. When there she rode with +comparative ease upon the waters, and took the sharp turn round into +the river below without a struggle. The feat was done, and the Maid +was rescued from the Sheriff. It is said that she was sold below at +the mouth of the river, and carried from thence over Lake Ontario and +down the St. Lawrence to Quebec. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +NORTH AND WEST. + + +From Niagara we determined to proceed north-west; as far to the +north-west as we could go with any reasonable hope of finding +American citizens in a state of political civilization, and perhaps +guided also in some measure by our hopes as to hotel accommodation. +Looking to these two matters we resolved to get across to the +Mississippi, and to go up that river as far as the town of St. Paul +and the falls of St. Anthony, which are some twelve miles above the +town; then to descend the river as far as the States of Iowa on +the west and Illinois on the east; and to return eastwards through +Chicago and the large cities on the southern shores of Lake Erie, +from whence we would go across to Albany, the capital of New York +State, and down the Hudson to New York, the capital of the Western +world. For such a journey, in which scenery was one great object, +we were rather late, as we did not leave Niagara till the 10th of +October; but though the winters are extremely cold through all this +portion of the American continent--15, 20, and even 25 degrees below +zero being an ordinary state of the atmosphere in latitudes equal +to those of Florence, Nice, and Turin--nevertheless the autumns are +mild, the noon day being always warm, and the colours of the foliage +are then in all their glory. I was also very anxious to ascertain, +if it might be in my power to do so, with what spirit or true feeling +as to the matter, the work of recruiting for the now enormous army +of the States was going on in those remote regions. That men should +be on fire in Boston and New York, in Philadelphia, and along the +borders of secession, I could understand. I could understand also +that they should be on fire throughout the cotton, sugar, and rice +plantations of the South. But I could hardly understand that this +political fervour should have communicated itself to the far-off +farmers who had thinly spread themselves over the enormous +wheat-growing districts of the North-West. St. Paul, the capital +of Minnesota, is 900 miles directly north of St. Louis, the most +northern point to which slavery extends in the Western States of the +Union, and the farming lands of Minnesota stretch away again for some +hundreds of miles north and west of St. Paul. Could it be that those +scanty and far-off pioneers of agriculture, those frontier farmers +who are nearly one half German and nearly the other half Irish, would +desert their clearings and ruin their chances of progress in the +world for distant wars of which the causes must, as I thought, be +to them unintelligible? I had been told that distance had but lent +enchantment to the view, and that the war was even more popular in +the remote and newly settled States than in those which have been +longer known as great political bodies. So I resolved that I would go +and see. + +It may be as well to explain here that that great political Union +hitherto called the United States of America may be more properly +divided into three than into two distinct interests. In England we +have long heard of North and South as pitted against each other, and +we have always understood that the southern politicians or democrats +have prevailed over the northern politicians or republicans, because +they were assisted in their views by northern men of mark who have +held southern principles;--that is, by northern men who have been +willing to obtain political power by joining themselves to the +southern party. That as far as I can understand has been the general +idea in England, and in a broad way it has been true. But as years +have advanced and as the States have extended themselves westward, a +third large party has been formed, which sometimes rejoices to call +itself The Great West; and though at the present time the West and +the North are joined together against the South, the interests of the +North and the West are not, I think, more closely interwoven than are +those of the West and South; and when the final settlement of this +question shall be made, there will doubtless be great difficulty in +satisfying the different aspirations and feelings of two great free +soil populations. The North, I think, will ultimately perceive that +it will gain much by the secession of the South; but it will be very +difficult to make the West believe that secession will suit its +views. + +I will attempt in a rough way to divide the States, as they seem to +divide themselves, into these three parties. As to the majority of +them there is no difficulty in locating them; but this cannot be done +with absolute certainty as to some few that lie on the borders. + +New England consists of six States, of which all of course belong +to the North. They are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, +Rhode Island, and Connecticut; the six States which should be most +dear to England, and in which the political success of the United +States as a nation is to my eyes the most apparent. But even in them +there was till quite of late a strong section so opposed to the +republican party as to give a material aid to the South. This, I +think, was particularly so in New Hampshire, from whence President +Pierce came. He had been one of the senators from New Hampshire; and +yet to him, as President, is affixed the disgrace,--whether truly +affixed or not I do not say,--of having first used his power in +secretly organizing those arrangements which led to secession and +assisted at its birth. In Massachusetts also itself there was a +strong democratic party, of which Massachusetts now seems to be +somewhat ashamed. Then, to make up the North, must be added the two +great States of New York and Pennsylvania, and the small State of New +Jersey. The West will not agree even to this absolutely, seeing that +they claim all territory west of the Alleghenies, and that a portion +of Pennsylvania, and some part also of New York lie westward of +that range; but in endeavouring to make these divisions ordinarily +intelligible I may say that the North consists of the nine States +above named. But the North will also claim Maryland and Delaware, and +the eastern half of Virginia. The North will claim them though they +are attached to the South by joint participation in the great social +institution of slavery, for Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia are +slave States;--and I think that the North will ultimately make good +its claim. Maryland and Delaware lie, as it were, behind the capital, +and Eastern Virginia is close upon the capital. And these regions are +not tropical in their climate or influences. They are and have been +slave States; but will probably rid themselves of that taint and +become a portion of the free North. + +The southern or slave States, properly so called, are easily defined. +They are Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, +Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The South will also +claim Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, Delaware, and +Maryland, and will endeavour to prove its right to the claim by the +fact of the social institution being the law of the land in those +States. Of Delaware, Maryland, and Eastern Virginia, I have already +spoken. Western Virginia is, I think, so little tainted with slavery, +that, as she stands even at present, she properly belongs to the +West. As I now write the struggle is going on in Kentucky and +Missouri. In Missouri the slave population is barely more than a +tenth of the whole, while in South Carolina and Mississippi it is +more than half. And, therefore, I venture to count Missouri among the +western States, although slavery is still the law of the land within +its borders. It is surrounded on three sides by free States of the +West, and its soil, let us hope, must become free. Kentucky I must +leave as doubtful, though I am inclined to believe that slavery will +be abolished there also. Kentucky at any rate will never throw in its +lot with the southern States. As to Tennessee, it seceded heart and +soul, and I fear that it must be accounted as southern, although the +northern army has now, in May 1862, possessed itself of the greater +part of the State. + +To the great West remains an enormous territory, of which, however, +the population is as yet but scanty; though perhaps no portion of +the world has increased so fast in population as have these western +States. The list is as follows: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, +Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas,--to which I would add Missouri, +and probably the western half of Virginia. We have then to account +for the two already admitted States on the Pacific, California and +Oregon, and also for the unadmitted Territories, Dacotah, Nebraska, +Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Neveda. I should be +refining too much for my present very general purpose, if I were to +attempt to marshal these huge but thinly populated regions in either +rank. Of California and Oregon it may probably be said that it is +their ambition to form themselves into a separate division;--a +division which may be called the further West. + +I know that all statistical statements are tedious, and I believe +that but few readers believe them. I will, however, venture to give +the populations of these States in the order I have named them, +seeing that power in America depends almost entirely on population. +The census of 1860 gave the following results:-- + +In the North. + + Maine 619,000 + New Hampshire 326,872 + Vermont 325,827 + Massachusetts 1,231,494 + Rhode Island 174,621 + Connecticut 460,670 + New York 3,851,563 + Pennsylvania 2,916,018 + New Jersey 676,034 + ---------- + Total 10,582,099 + +In the South--the population of which must be divided into free and +slave. + + FREE. SLAVE. TOTAL. + + Texas 415,999 184,956 600,955 + Louisiana 354,245 312,186 666,431 + Arkansas 331,710 109,065 440,775 + Mississippi 407,051 479,607 886,658 + Alabama 520,444 435,473 955,917 + Florida 81,885 63,809 145,694 + Georgia 615,366 467,461 1,082,827 + South Carolina 308,186 407,185 715,371 + North Carolina 679,965 328,377 1,008,342 + Tennessee 859,578 287,112 1,146,690 + --------- --------- --------- + Total 4,574,429 3,075,231 7,649,660 + +In the West. + + Ohio 2,377,917 + Indiana 1,350,802 + Illinois 1,691,238 + Michigan 754,291 + Wisconsin 763,485 + Minnesota 172,796 + Iowa 682,002 + Kansas 143,645 + Missouri *1,204,214 + --------- + Total 9,140,390 + + *Of which number, in Missouri, 115,619 are slaves. + +In the doubtful States. + + FREE. SLAVE. TOTAL. + + Maryland 646,183 85,382 731,565 + Delaware 110,548 1,805 112,353 + Virginia 1,097,373 495,826 1,593,199 + Kentucky 920,077 225,490 1,145,567 + --------- ------- --------- + Total 2,774,181 808,503 3,582,684 + +To these must be added to make up the population of the United +States, as it stood in 1860. + + The separate district of Columbia, + in which is included Washington, + the seat of the Federal Government 75,321 + California 384,770 + Oregon 52,566 + The Territories of + Dacotah 4,839 + Nebraska 28,892 + Washington 11,624 + Utah 49,000 + New Mexico 93,024 + Colorado 34,197 + Neveda 6,857 + ------- + Total 741,090 + +And thus the total population may be given as follows:-- + + North 10,582,099 + South 7,649,660 + West 9,140,390 + Doubtful 3,582,684 + Outlying States and Territories 741,090 + ---------- + Total 31,695,923 + +Each of the three interests would consider itself wronged by the +division above made, but the South would probably be the loudest in +asserting its grievance. The South claims all the slave States, and +would point to secession in Virginia to justify such claim,--and +would point also to Maryland and Baltimore, declaring that secession +would be as strong there as at New Orleans, if secession were +practicable. Maryland and Baltimore lie behind Washington, and are +under the heels of the northern troops, so that secession is not +practicable; but the South would say that they have seceded in heart. +In this the South would have some show of reason for its assertion; +but, nevertheless, I shall best convey a true idea of the position of +these States by classing them as doubtful. When secession shall have +been accomplished,--if ever it be accomplished,--it will hardly be +possible that they should adhere to the South. + +It will be seen by the above tables that the population of the West +is nearly equal to that of the North, and that therefore western +power is almost as great as northern. It is almost as great already, +and as population in the West increases faster than it does in the +North, the two will soon be equalized. They are already sufficiently +on a par to enable them to fight on equal terms, and they will be +prepared for fighting--political fighting, if no other--as soon as +they have established their supremacy over a common enemy. + +Whilst I am on the subject of population, I should explain--though +the point is not one which concerns the present argument--that the +numbers given, as they regard the South, include both the whites and +the blacks, the free men and the slaves. The political power of the +South is of course in the hands of the white race only, and the total +white population should therefore be taken as the number indicating +the southern power. The political power of the South, however, as +contrasted with that of the North, has, since the commencement of the +Union, been much increased by the slave population. The slaves have +been taken into account in determining the number of representatives +which should be sent to Congress by each State. That number depends +on the population, but it was decided in 1787, that in counting up +the number of representatives to which each State should be held to +be entitled, five slaves should represent three white men. A Southern +population, therefore, of five thousand free men and five thousand +slaves would claim as many representatives as a Northern population +of eight thousand free men, although the voting would be confined to +the free population. This has ever since been the law of the United +States. + +The western power is nearly equal to that of the North, and this +fact, somewhat exaggerated in terms, is a frequent boast in the +mouths of western men. "We ran Fremont for President," they say, "and +had it not been for northern men with southern principles, we should +have put him in the White House instead of the traitor Buchanan. If +that had been done, there would have been no secession." How things +might have gone had Fremont been elected in lieu of Buchanan, I +will not pretend to say; but the nature of the argument shows the +difference that exists between northern and western feeling. At the +time that I was in the West, General Fremont was the great topic of +public interest. Every newspaper was discussing his conduct, his +ability as a soldier, his energy, and his fate. At that time General +Maclellan was in command at Washington on the Potomac, it being +understood that he held his power directly under the President,--free +from the exercise of control on the part of the veteran General +Scott, though at that time General Scott had not actually resigned +his position as head of the army. And General Fremont, who some five +years before had been "run" for President by the Western States, held +another command of nearly equal independence in Missouri. He had been +put over General Lyon in the western command, and directly after +this General Lyon had fallen in battle at Springfield, in the first +action in which the opposing armies were engaged in the West. General +Fremont at once proceeded to carry matters with a very high hand. +On the 30th of August, 1861, he issued a proclamation by which he +declared martial law at St. Louis, the city at which he held his head +quarters, and indeed throughout the State of Missouri generally. In +this proclamation he declared his intention of exercising a severity +beyond that ever threatened, as I believe, in modern warfare. He +defines the region presumed to be held by his army of occupation, +drawing his lines across the State, and then declares "that all +persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within those +lines shall be tried by Court Martial, and if found guilty will +be shot." He then goes on to say that he will confiscate all the +property of persons in the State who shall have taken up arms against +the Union, or who shall have taken part with the enemies of the +Union, and that he will make free all slaves belonging to such +persons. This proclamation was not approved at Washington, and was +modified by the order of the President. It was understood also that +he issued orders for military expenditure, which were not recognized +at Washington, and men began to understand that the army in the West +was gradually assuming that irresponsible military position, which +in disturbed countries and in times of civil war has so frequently +resulted in a military dictatorship. Then there arose a clamour +for the removal of General Fremont. A semi-official account of his +proceedings, which had reached Washington from an officer under his +command, was made public; and also the correspondence which took +place on the subject between the President and General Fremont's +wife. The officer in question was thereupon placed under arrest, but +immediately released by orders from Washington. He then made official +complaint of his General, sending forward a list of charges in which +Fremont was accused of rashness, incompetency, want of fidelity of +the interests of the Government, and disobedience to orders from +head quarters. After a while the Secretary of War himself proceeded +from Washington to the quarters of General Fremont at St. Louis, and +remained there for a day or two, making or pretending to make inquiry +into the matter. But when he returned he left the General still in +command. During the whole month of October the papers were occupied +in declaring in the morning that General Fremont had been recalled +from his command, and in the evening that he was to remain. In the +mean time they who befriended his cause, and this included the whole +West, were hoping from day to day that he would settle the matter +for himself and silence his accusers, by some great military success. +General Price held the command opposed to him, and men said that +Fremont would sweep General Price and his army down the valley of the +Mississippi into the sea. But General Price would not be so swept, +and it began to appear that a guerilla warfare would prevail; that +General Price, if driven southwards, would reappear behind the backs +of his pursuers, and that General Fremont would not accomplish all +that was expected of him with that rapidity for which his friends had +given him credit. So the newspapers still went on waging the war, and +every morning General Fremont was recalled, and every evening they +who had recalled him were shown up as having known nothing of the +matter. + +"Never mind; he is a pioneer man, and will do a'most anything he puts +his hand to," his friends in the West still said. "He understands the +frontier." Understanding the frontier is a great thing in Western +America, across which the vanguard of civilization continues to march +on in advance from year to year. "And it's he that is bound to sweep +slavery from off the face of this Continent. He's the man, and he's +about the only man." I am not qualified to write the life of General +Fremont, and can at present only make this slight reference to the +details of his romantic career. That it has been full of romance, +and that the man himself is indued with a singular energy and a high +romantic idea of what may be done by power and will, there is no +doubt. Five times he has crossed the continent of North America +from Missouri to Oregon and California, enduring great hardships in +the service of advancing civilization and knowledge. That he has +considerable talent, immense energy, and strong self-confidence, +I believe. He is a frontier man; one of those who care nothing for +danger, and who would dare anything with the hope of accomplishing a +great career. But I have never heard that he has shown any practical +knowledge of high military matters. It may be doubted whether a man +of this stamp is well fitted to hold the command of a nation's army +for great national purposes. May it not even be presumed that a man +of this class is of all men the least fitted for such a work? The +officer required should be a man with two specialities--a speciality +for military tactics, and a speciality for national duty. The army +in the West was far removed from head quarters in Washington, and +it was peculiarly desirable that the General commanding it should +be one possessing a strong idea of obedience to the control of his +own Government. Those frontier capabilities, that self-dependent +energy for which his friends gave Fremont,--and probably justly gave +him,--such unlimited credit are exactly the qualities which are most +dangerous in such a position. + +I have endeavoured to explain the circumstances of the Western +command in Missouri, as they existed at the time when I was in the +North-Western States, in order that the double action of the North +and West may be understood. I, of course, was not in the secret +of any official persons, but I could not but feel sure that the +Government in Washington would have been glad to have removed Fremont +at once from the command, had they not feared that by doing so they +would have created a schism, as it were, in their own camp, and have +done much to break up the integrity or oneness of Northern loyalty. +The western people almost to a man desired abolition. The States +there were sending out their tens of thousands of young men into +the army with a prodigality as to their only source of wealth which +they hardly recognized themselves, because this to them was a fight +against slavery. The western population has been increased to a +wonderful degree by a German infusion;--so much so that the western +towns appear to have been peopled with Germans. I found regiments +of volunteers consisting wholly of Germans. And the Germans are all +abolitionists. To all the men of the West the name of Fremont is +dear. He is their hero, and their Hercules. He is to cleanse the +stables of the southern king, and turn the waters of emancipation +through the foul stalls of slavery. And, therefore, though the +Cabinet in Washington would have been glad for many reasons to +have removed Fremont in October last, it was at first scared from +committing itself to so strong a measure. At last, however, the +charges made against him were too fully substantiated to allow of +their being set on one side, and early in November, 1861, he was +superseded. I shall be obliged to allude again to General Fremont's +career as I go on with my narrative. + +At this time the North was looking for a victory on the Potomac; but +they were no longer looking for it with that impatience which in the +summer had led to the disgrace at Bull's Run. They had recognized the +fact that their troops must be equipped, drilled, and instructed; and +they had also recognized the perhaps greater fact, that their enemies +were neither weak, cowardly, nor badly officered. I have always +thought that the tone and manner with which the North bore the defeat +at Bull's Run was creditable to it. It was never denied, never +explained away, never set down as trifling. "We have been whipped!" +was what all Northerners said,--"We've got an almighty whipping, and +here we are." I have heard many Englishmen complain of this, saying +that the matter was taken almost as a joke,--that no disgrace was +felt, and the licking was owned by a people who ought never to have +allowed that they had been licked. To all this, however, I demur. +Their only chance of speedy success consisted in their seeing and +recognizing the truth. Had they confessed the whipping and then sat +down with their hands in their pockets,--had they done as second-rate +boys at school will do,--declare that they had been licked, and then +feel that all the trouble is over,--they would indeed have been open +to reproach. The old mother across the water would in such case have +disowned her son. But they did the very reverse of this. "I have been +whipped," Jonathan said, and he immediately went into training under +a new system for another fight. + +And so all through September and October the great armies on the +Potomac rested comparatively in quiet, the Northern forces drawing to +themselves immense levies. The general confidence in Maclellan was +then very great, and the cautious measures by which he endeavoured to +bring his vast untrained body of men under discipline were such as +did at that time recommend themselves to most military critics. Early +in September the northern party obtained a considerable advantage +by taking the fort at Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina, situated +on one of those long banks which lie along the shores of the +Southern States; but towards the end of October they experienced a +considerable reverse in an attack which was made on the Secessionists +by General Stone, and in which Colonel Baker was killed. Colonel +Baker had been senator for Oregon, and was well known as an orator. +Taking all things together, however, nothing material had been +done up to the end of October; and at that time northern men were +waiting--not perhaps impatiently, considering the great hopes, +and perhaps great fears which filled their hearts, but with eager +expectation for some event of which they might talk with pride. + +The man to whom they had trusted all their hopes was young for so +great a command. I think that at this time (October 1861) General +Maclellan was not yet thirty-five. He had served early in life in the +Mexican war, having come originally from Pennsylvania, and having +been educated at the military college at West Point. During our +war with Russia he was sent to the Crimea by his own Government +in conjunction with two other officers of the United States army, +that they might learn all that was to be learned there as to +military tactics, and report especially as to the manner in which +fortifications were made and attacked. I have been informed that a +very able report was sent in by them to the Government, on their +return, and that this was drawn up by Maclellan. But in America a +man is not only a soldier or always a soldier; nor is he always a +clergyman if once a clergyman. He takes a spell at anything suitable +that may be going. And in this way Maclellan was for some years +engaged on the Central Illinois Railway, and was for a considerable +time the head manager of that concern. We all know with what +suddenness he rose to the highest command in the army immediately +after the defeat at Bull's Run. + +I have endeavoured to describe what were the feelings of the West +in the autumn of 1861 with regard to the war. The excitement and +eagerness there were very great, and they were perhaps as great in +the North. But in the North the matter seemed to me to be regarded +from a different point of view. As a rule, the men of the North are +not abolitionists. It is quite certain that they were not so before +secession began. They hate slavery as we in England hate it; but they +are aware, as also are we, that the disposition of four million of +black men and women forms a question which cannot be solved by the +chivalry of any modern Orlando. The property invested in these four +million slaves forms the entire wealth of the South. If they could +be wafted by a philanthropic breeze back to the shores of Africa,--a +breeze of which the philanthropy would certainly not be appreciated +by those so wafted--the South would be a wilderness. The subject is +one as full of difficulty as any with which politicians of these days +are tormented. The Northerners fully appreciate this, and as a rule +are not abolitionists in the western sense of the word. To them the +war is recommended by precisely those feelings which animated us when +we fought for our colonies,--when we strove to put down American +independence. Secession is rebellion against the Government: and is +all the more bitter to the North because that rebellion broke out at +the first moment of northern ascendancy. "We submitted," the North +says, "to southern Presidents, and southern statesmen, and southern +councils, because we obeyed the vote of the people. But as to +you--the voice of the people is nothing in your estimation! At +the first moment in which the popular vote places at Washington a +President with northern feelings, you rebel. We submitted in your +days; and by heaven, you shall submit in ours! We submitted loyally; +through love of the law and the Constitution. You have disregarded +the law, and thrown over the Constitution. But you shall be made to +submit, as a child is made to submit to its governor." + +It must also be remembered that on commercial questions the North +and the West are divided. The Morrill tariff is as odious to the +West as it is to the South. The South and West are both agricultural +productive regions, desirous of sending cotton and corn to foreign +countries and of receiving back foreign manufactures on the best +terms. But the North is a manufacturing country--a poor manufacturing +country as regards excellence of manufacture--and therefore the more +anxious to foster its own growth by protective laws. The Morrill +tariff is very injurious to the West, and is odious there. I might +add that its folly has already been so far recognized even in the +North, as to make it very generally odious there also. + +So much I have said endeavouring to make it understood how far the +North and West were united in feeling against the South in the autumn +of 1861, and how far there existed between them a diversity of +interests. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. + + +From Niagara we went by the Canada Great Western Railway to Detroit, +the big city of Michigan. It is an American institution that the +States should have a commercial capital, or what I call their big +city, as well as a political capital, which may as a rule be called +the State's central city. The object in choosing the political +capital is average nearness of approach from the various confines +of the State; but commerce submits to no such Procrustean laws in +selecting her capitals, and consequently she has placed Detroit on +the borders of Michigan, on the shore of the neck of water which +joins Lake Huron to Lake Erie through which all the trade must flow +which comes down from Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron, on its way +to the eastern States and to Europe. We had thought of going from +Buffalo across Lake Erie to Detroit; but we found that the better +class of steamers had been taken off the waters for the winter. And +we also found that navigation among these lakes is a mistake whenever +the necessary journey can be taken by railway. Their waters are by +no means smooth; and then there is nothing to be seen. I do not +know whether others may have a feeling, almost instinctive, that +lake navigation must be pleasant,--that lakes must of necessity +be beautiful. I have such a feeling; but not now so strongly as +formerly. Such an idea should be kept for use in Europe, and never +brought over to America with other travelling gear. The lakes in +America are cold, cumbrous, uncouth, and uninteresting--intended by +nature for the conveyance of cereal produce, but not for the comfort +of travelling men and women. So we gave up our plan of traversing +the lake, and passing back into Canada by the suspension bridge at +Niagara, we reached the Detroit river at Windsor by the Great Western +line, and passed thence by the ferry into the city of Detroit. + +In making this journey at night we introduced ourselves to the +thoroughly American institution of sleeping-cars;--that is, of cars +in which beds are made up for travellers. The traveller may have a +whole bed, or half a bed, or no bed at all as he pleases, paying a +dollar or half a dollar extra should he choose the partial or full +fruition of a couch. I confess I have always taken a delight in +seeing these beds made up, and consider that the operations of +the change are generally as well executed as the manoeuvres of +any pantomime at Drury Lane. The work is usually done by negroes +or coloured men; and the domestic negroes of America are always +light-handed and adroit. The nature of an American car is no +doubt known to all men. It looks as far removed from all bedroom +accommodation, as the baker's barrow does from the steam-engine into +which it is to be converted by Harlequin's wand. But the negro goes +to work much more quietly than the Harlequin, and for every four +seats in the railway car he builds up four beds, almost as quickly +as the hero of the pantomime goes through his performance. The great +glory of the Americans is in their wondrous contrivances,--in their +patent remedies for the usually troublous operations of life. In +their huge hotels all the bell-ropes of each house ring on one bell +only, but a patent indicator discloses a number, and the whereabouts +of the ringer is shown. One fire heats every room, passage, hall, and +cupboard,--and does it so effectually that the inhabitants are all +but stifled. Soda-water bottles open themselves without any trouble +of wire or strings. Men and women go up and down stairs without +motive power of their own. Hot and cold water are laid on to all the +chambers;--though it sometimes happens that the water from both taps +is boiling, and that when once turned on it cannot be turned off +again by any human energy. Everything is done by a new and wonderful +patent contrivance; and of all their wonderful contrivances that +of their railroad beds is by no means the least. For every four +seats the negro builds up four beds,--that is, four half-beds or +accommodation for four persons. Two are supposed to be below on the +level of the ordinary four seats, and two up above on shelves which +are let down from the roof. Mattresses slip out from one nook and +pillows from another. Blankets are added, and the bed is ready. Any +over particular individual--an islander, for instance, who hugs +his chains--will generally prefer to pay the dollar for the double +accommodation. Looking at the bed in the light of a bed,--taking as +it were an abstract view of it,--or comparing it with some other +bed or beds with which the occupant may have acquaintance, I cannot +say that it is in all respects perfect. But distances are long in +America; and he who declines to travel by night will lose very much +time. He who does so travel will find the railway bed a great relief. +I must confess that the feeling of dirt on the following morning is +rather oppressive. + +From Windsor on the Canada side we passed over to Detroit in the +State of Michigan by a steam ferry. But ferries in England and +ferries in America are very different. Here on this Detroit ferry, +some hundred of passengers who were going forward from the other side +without delay, at once sat down to breakfast. I may as well explain +the way in which disposition is made of one's luggage as one takes +these long journeys. The traveller when he starts has his baggage +checked. He abandons his trunk--generally a box studded with nails, +as long as a coffin and as high as a linen chest,--and in return for +this he receives an iron ticket with a number on it. As he approaches +the end of his first instalment of travel, and while the engine is +still working its hardest, a man comes up to him, bearing with him +suspended on a circular bar an infinite variety of other checks. The +traveller confides to this man his wishes; and if he be going further +without delay, surrenders his check and receives a counter-check in +return. Then while the train is still in motion, the new destiny +of the trunk is imparted to it. But another man, with another set +of checks, also comes the way, walking leisurely through the train +as he performs his work. This is the minister of the hotel-omnibus +institution. His business is with those who do not travel beyond +the next terminus. To him, if such be your intention, you make your +confidence, giving up your tallies and taking other tallies, by way +of receipt; and your luggage is afterwards found by you in the hall +of your hotel. There is undoubtedly very much of comfort in this; and +the mind of the traveller is lost in amazement as he thinks of the +futile efforts with which he would struggle to regain his luggage +were there no such arrangement. Enormous piles of boxes are disclosed +on the platform at all the larger stations, the numbers of which are +roared forth with quick voice by some two or three railway denizens +at once. A modest English voyager with six or seven small packages, +would stand no chance of getting anything if he were left to his own +devices. As it is I am bound to say that the thing is well done. +I have had my desk with all my money in it lost for a day, and my +black leather bag was on one occasion sent back over the line. They, +however, were recovered; and on the whole I feel grateful to the +check system of the American railways. And then, too, one never hears +of extra luggage. Of weight they are quite regardless. On two or +three occasions an overwrought official has muttered between his +teeth that ten packages were a great many, and that some of those +"light fixings" might have been made up into one. And when I came to +understand that the number of every check was entered in a book, and +re-entered at every change, I did whisper to my wife that she ought +to do without a bonnet-box. The ten, however, went on, and were +always duly protected. I must add, however, that articles requiring +tender treatment will sometimes reappear a little the worse from the +hardships of their journey. + +I have not much to say of Detroit; not much, that is, beyond what I +have to say of all the North. It is a large well-built half-finished +city, lying on a convenient water way, and spreading itself out +with promises of a wide and still wider prosperity. It has about it +perhaps as little of intrinsic interest as any of those large western +towns which I visited. It is not so pleasant as Milwaukee, nor so +picturesque as St. Paul, nor so grand as Chicago, nor so civilized as +Cleveland, nor so busy as Buffalo. Indeed Detroit is neither pleasant +nor picturesque at all. I will not say that it is uncivilized, but it +has a harsh, crude, unprepossessing appearance. It has some 70,000 +inhabitants, and good accommodation for shipping. It was doing an +enormous business before the war began, and when these troublous +times are over will no doubt again go ahead. I do not, however, +think it well to recommend any Englishman to make a special visit to +Detroit, who may be wholly uncommercial in his views and travel in +search of that which is either beautiful or interesting. + +From Detroit we continued our course westward across the State of +Michigan through a country that was absolutely wild till the railway +pierced it. Very much of it is still absolutely wild. For miles upon +miles the road passes the untouched forest, showing that even in +Michigan the great work of civilization has hardly more than been +commenced. As one thinks of the all but countless population which is +before long to be fed from these regions, of the cities which will +grow here, and of the amount of government which in due time will be +required, one can hardly fail to feel that the division of the United +States into separate nationalities is merely a part of the ordained +work of creation, as arranged for the well-being of mankind. The +States already boast of thirty millions of inhabitants,--not of +unnoticed and unnoticeable beings, requiring little, knowing little, +and doing little, such as are the Eastern hordes which may be counted +by tens of millions; but of men and women who talk loudly and are +ambitious, who eat beef, who read and write, and understand the +dignity of manhood. But these thirty millions are as nothing to the +crowds which will grow sleek and talk loudly, and become aggressive +on these wheat and meat producing levels. The country is as yet but +touched by the pioneering hand of population. In the old countries +agriculture, following on the heels of pastoral patriarchal life, +preceded the birth of cities. But in this young world the cities have +come first. The new Jasons, blessed with the experience of the old +world adventurers, have gone forth in search of their golden fleeces +armed with all that the science and skill of the East had as yet +produced, and in settling up their new Colchis have begun by the +erection of first-class hotels and the fabrication of railroads. Let +the old world bid them God speed in their work. Only it would be well +if they could be brought to acknowledge from whence they have learned +all that they know. + +Our route lay right across the State to a place called Grand Haven on +Lake Michigan, from whence we were to take boat for Milwaukee, a town +in Wisconsin on the opposite or western shore of the lake. Michigan +is sometimes called the Peninsular State from the fact that the +main part of its territory is surrounded by Lakes Michigan and +Huron, by the little Lake St. Clair, and by Lake Erie. It juts out +to the northward from the main land of Indiana and Ohio, and is +circumnavigable on the east, north, and west. These particulars +refer, however, to a part of the State only, for a portion of it lies +on the other side of Lake Michigan, between that and Lake Superior. I +doubt whether any large inland territory in the world is blessed with +such facilities of water carriage. + +On arriving at Grand Haven we found that there had been a storm on +the lake, and that the passengers from the trains of the preceding +day were still remaining there, waiting to be carried over to +Milwaukee. The water, however,--or the sea as they all call it,--was +still very high, and the captain declared his intention of remaining +there that night. Whereupon all our fellow-travellers huddled +themselves into the great lake steam-boat, and proceeded to carry on +life there as though they were quite at home. The men took themselves +to the bar-room and smoked cigars and talked about the war with +their feet upon the counter, and the women got themselves into +rocking-chairs in the saloon and sat there listless and silent, +but not more listless and silent than they usually are in the big +drawing-rooms of the big hotels. There was supper there, precisely +at six o'clock, beefsteaks, and tea, and apple jam, and hot cakes, +and light fixings, to all which luxuries an American deems himself +entitled, let him have to seek his meal where he may. And I was soon +informed with considerable energy, that let the boat be kept there +as long as it might by stress of weather, the beefsteaks and apple +jam, light fixings and heavy fixings, must be supplied at the cost of +the owners of the ship. "Your first supper you pay for," my informant +told me, "because you eat that on your own account. What you consume +after that comes of their doing, because they don't start; and if +it's three meals a day for a week, it's their look out." It occurred +to me that under such circumstances a captain would be very apt to +sail either in foul weather or in fair. + +It was a bright moonlight night, moonlight such as we rarely have in +England, and I started off by myself for a walk, that I might see +of what nature were the environs of Grand Haven. A more melancholy +place I never beheld. The town of Grand Haven itself is placed on the +opposite side of a creek, and was to be reached by a ferry. On our +side, to which the railway came and from which the boat was to sail, +there was nothing to be seen but sandhills which stretched away for +miles along the shore of the lake. There were great sand mountains, +and sand valleys, on the surface of which were scattered the debris +of dead trees, scattered logs white with age, and boughs half buried +beneath the sand. Grand Haven itself is but a poor place, not having +succeeded in catching much of the commerce which comes across the +lake from Wisconsin, and which takes itself on eastwards by the +railway. Altogether it is a dreary place, such as might break a man's +heart, should he find that inexorable fate required him there to +pitch his tent. + +On my return I went down into the bar-room of the steamer, put my +feet upon the counter, lit my cigar, and struck into the debate then +proceeding on the subject of the war. I was getting West, and General +Fremont was the hero of the hour. "He's a frontier man, and that's +what we want. I guess he'll about go through. Yes, sir." "As for +relieving General Fre-mont,"--with the accent always strongly on +the "mont,"--"I guess you may as well talk of relieving the whole +West. They won't meddle with Fre-mont. They are beginning to know in +Washington what stuff he's made of." "Why, sir, there are 50,000 men +in these States who will follow Fre-mont, who would not stir a foot +after any other man." From which, and the like of it in many other +places, I began to understand how difficult was the task which the +statesmen in Washington had in hand. + +I received no pecuniary advantage whatever from that law as to the +steam-boat meals which my new friend had revealed to me. For my one +supper of course I paid, looking forward to any amount of subsequent +gratuitous provisions. But in the course of the night the ship +sailed, and we found ourselves at Milwaukee in time for breakfast on +the following morning. + +Milwaukee is a pleasant town, a very pleasant town, containing 45,000 +inhabitants. How many of my readers can boast that they know anything +of Milwaukee, or even have heard of it? To me its name was unknown +until I saw it on huge railway placards stuck up in the smoking-rooms +and lounging halls of all American hotels. It is the big town of +Wisconsin, whereas Madison is the capital. It stands immediately on +the western shore of Lake Michigan, and is very pleasant. Why it +should be so, and why Detroit should be the contrary, I can hardly +tell; only I think that the same verdict would be given by any +English tourist. It must be always borne in mind that 10,000 or +40,000 inhabitants in an American town, and especially in any new +western town, is a number which means much more than would be implied +by any similar number as to an old town in Europe. Such a population +in America consumes double the amount of beef which it would in +England, wears double the amount of clothes, and demands double as +much of the comforts of life. If a census could be taken of the +watches it would be found, I take it, that the American population +possessed among them nearly double as many as would the English; and +I fear also that it would be found that many more of the Americans +were readers and writers by habit. In any large town in England it is +probable that a higher excellence of education would be found than +in Milwaukee, and also a style of life into which more of refinement +and more of luxury had found its way. But the general level of these +things, of material and intellectual well being--of beef, that is, +and book learning--is no doubt infinitely higher in a new American +than in an old European town. Such an animal as a beggar is as +much unknown as a mastodon. Men out of work and in want are almost +unknown. I do not say that there are none of the hardships of +life--and to them I will come by-and-by; but want is not known as +a hardship in these towns, nor is that dense ignorance in which so +large a proportion of our town populations is still steeped. And then +the town of 40,000 inhabitants is spread over a surface which would +suffice in England for a city of four times the size. Our towns in +England,--and the towns, indeed, of Europe generally,--have been +built as they have been wanted. No aspiring ambition as to hundreds +of thousands of people warmed the bosoms of their first founders. Two +or three dozen men required habitations in the same locality, and +clustered them together closely. Many such have failed and died out +of the world's notice. Others have thriven, and houses have been +packed on to houses till London and Manchester, Dublin and Glasgow +have been produced. Poor men have built, or have had built for them, +wretched lanes; and rich men have erected grand palaces. From the +nature of their beginnings such has, of necessity, been the manner +of their creation. But in America, and especially in Western America, +there has been no such necessity and there is no such result. The +founders of cities have had the experience of the world before them. +They have known of sanitary laws as they began. That sewerage, and +water, and gas, and good air would be needed for a thriving community +has been to them as much a matter of fact as are the well understood +combinations between timber and nails, and bricks and mortar. They +have known that water carriage is almost a necessity for commercial +success, and have chosen their sites accordingly. Broad streets +cost as little, while land by the foot is not as yet of value to be +regarded, as those which are narrow; and therefore the sites of towns +have been prepared with noble avenues, and imposing streets. A city +at its commencement is laid out with an intention that it shall be +populous. The houses are not all built at once, but there are the +places allocated for them. The streets are not made, but there are +the spaces. Many an abortive attempt at municipal greatness has so +been made and then all but abandoned. There are wretched villages +with huge straggling parallel ways which will never grow into +towns. They are the failures,--failures in which the pioneers of +civilization, frontier men as they call themselves, have lost their +tens of thousands of dollars. But when the success comes; when the +happy hit has been made, and the ways of commerce have been truly +foreseen with a cunning eye, then a great and prosperous city springs +up, ready made, as it were, from the earth. Such a town is Milwaukee, +now containing 45,000 inhabitants, but with room apparently for +double that number; with room for four times that number, were men +packed as closely there as they are with us. + +In the principal business streets of all these towns one sees +vast buildings. They are usually called blocks, and are often so +denominated in large letters on their front, as Portland Block, +Devereux Block, Buel's Block. Such a block may face to two, three, or +even four streets, and, as I presume, has generally been a matter of +one special speculation. It may be divided into separate houses, or +kept for a single purpose, such as that of an hotel, or grouped into +shops below, and into various sets of chambers above. I have had +occasion in various towns to mount the stairs within these blocks, +and have generally found some portion of them vacant;--have sometimes +found the greater portion of them vacant. Men build on an enormous +scale, three times, ten times as much as is wanted. The only measure +of size is an increase on what men have built before. Monroe P. +Jones, the speculator, is very probably ruined, and then begins the +world again, nothing daunted. But Jones's block remains, and gives to +the city in its aggregate a certain amount of wealth. Or the block +becomes at once of service and finds tenants. In which case Jones +probably sells it and immediately builds two others twice as +big. That Monroe P. Jones will encounter ruin is almost a matter +of course; but then he is none the worse for being ruined. It +hardly makes him unhappy. He is greedy of dollars with a terrible +covetousness; but he is greedy in order that he may speculate more +widely. He would sooner have built Jones' tenth block, with a +prospect of completing a twentieth, than settle himself down at +rest for life as the owner of a Chatsworth or a Woburn. As for his +children he has no desire of leaving them money. Let the girls marry. +And for the boys,--for them it will be good to begin as he begun. If +they cannot build blocks for themselves, let them earn their bread +in the blocks of other men. So Monroe P. Jones, with his million of +dollars accomplished, advances on to a new frontier, goes to work +again on a new city, and loses it all. As an individual I differ very +much from Monroe P. Jones. The first block accomplished, with an +adequate rent accruing to me as the builder, I fancy that I should +never try a second. But Jones is undoubtedly the man for the West. +It is that love of money to come, joined to a strong disregard for +money made, which constitutes the vigorous frontier mind, the true +pioneering organization. Monroe P. Jones would be a great man to all +posterity, if only he had a poet to sing of his valour. + +It may be imagined how large in proportion to its inhabitants will +be a town which spreads itself in this way. There are great houses +left untenanted, and great gaps left unfilled. But if the place be +successful,--if it promise success, it will be seen at once that +there is life all through it. Omnibuses, or street cars working on +rails run hither and thither. The shops that have been opened are +well filled. The great hotels are thronged. The quays are crowded +with vessels, and a general feeling of progress pervades the place. +It is easy to perceive whether or no an American town is going ahead. +The days of my visit to Milwaukee were days of civil war and national +trouble, but in spite of civil war and national trouble Milwaukee +looked healthy. + +I have said that there was but little poverty,--little to be seen +of real want in these thriving towns, but that they who laboured in +them had nevertheless their own hardships. This is so. I would not +have any man believe that he can take himself to the Western States +of America,--to those States of which I am now speaking,--Michigan, +Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, or Illinois, and there by industry escape +the ills to which flesh is heir. The labouring Irish in these towns +eat meat seven days a week, but I have met many a labouring Irishman +among them who has wished himself back in his old cabin. Industry is +a good thing, and there is no bread so sweet as that which is eaten +in the sweat of a man's brow; but labour carried to excess wearies +the mind as well as body, and the sweat that is ever running makes +the bread bitter. There is, I think, no task-master over free labour +so exacting as an American. He knows nothing of hours, and seems to +have that idea of a man which a lady always has of a horse. He thinks +that he will go for ever. I wish those masons in London who strike +for nine hours' work with ten hours' pay could be driven to the +labour market of Western America for a spell. And moreover, which +astonished me, I have seen men driven and hurried,--as it were forced +forward at their work, in a manner which to an English workman would +be intolerable. This surprised me much, as it was at variance with +our,--or perhaps I should say with my,--preconceived ideas as to +American freedom. I had fancied that an American citizen would not +submit to be driven;--that the spirit of the country if not the +spirit of the individual would have made it impossible. I thought +that the shoe would have pinched quite on the other foot. But I found +that such driving did exist; and American masters in the West with +whom I had an opportunity of discussing the subject all admitted it. +"Those men 'll never half move unless they're driven," a foreman said +to me once as we stood together over some twenty men who were at +their work. "They kinder look for it, and don't well know how to get +along when they miss it." It was not his business at this moment to +drive;--nor was he driving. He was standing at some little distance +from the scene with me, and speculating on the sight before him. I +thought the men were working at their best; but their movements did +not satisfy his practised eye, and he saw at a glance that there was +no one immediately over them. + +But there is worse even than this. Wages in these regions are what we +should call high. An agricultural labourer will earn perhaps fifteen +dollars a month and his board; and a town labourer will earn a dollar +a day. A dollar may be taken as representing four shillings, though +it is in fact more. Food in these parts is much cheaper than in +England, and therefore the wages must be considered as very good. +In making, however, a just calculation it must be borne in mind +that clothing is dearer than in England and that much more of it +is necessary. The wages nevertheless are high, and will enable the +labourer to save money,--if only he can get them paid. The complaint +that wages are held back and not even ultimately paid is very common. +There is no fixed rule for satisfying all such claims once a week; +and thus debts to labourers are contracted and when contracted are +ignored. With us there is a feeling that it is pitiful, mean almost +beyond expression, to wrong a labourer of his hire. We have men +who go in debt to tradesmen perhaps without a thought of paying +them;--but when we speak of such a one who has descended into +the lowest mire of insolvency, we say that he has not paid his +washerwoman. Out there in the West the washerwoman is as fair game +as the tailor, the domestic servant as the wine merchant. If a man +be honest he will not willingly take either goods or labour without +payment; and it may be hard to prove that he who takes the latter is +more dishonest than he who takes the former; but with us there is a +prejudice in favour of one's washerwoman by which the western mind +is not weakened. "They certainly have to be smart to get it," a +gentleman said to me whom I taxed on the subject. "You see on the +frontier a man is bound to be smart. If he ain't smart he'd better +go back East;--perhaps as far as Europe. He'll do there." I had got +my answer, and my friend had turned the question. But the fact was +admitted by him as it had been by many others. + +Why this should be so, is a question, to answer which thoroughly +would require a volume in itself. As to the driving, why should men +submit to it, seeing that labour is abundant, and that in all newly +settled countries the labourer is the true hero of the age? In answer +to this is to be alleged the fact that hired labour is chiefly done +by fresh comers, by Irish and Germans, who have not as yet among them +any combination sufficient to protect them from such usage. The men +over them are new as masters,--masters who are rough themselves, who +themselves have been roughly driven, and who have not learned to be +gracious to those below them. It is a part of their contract that +very hard work shall be exacted; and the driving resolves itself into +this,--that the master looking after his own interest is constantly +accusing his labourer of a breach of his part of the contract. The +men no doubt do become used to it, and slacken probably in their +endeavours when the tongue of the master or foreman is not heard. But +as to that matter of non-payment of wages, the men must live; and +here as elsewhere the master who omits to pay once, will hardly find +labourers in future. The matter would remedy itself elsewhere, and +does it not do so here? This of course is so, and it is not to be +understood that labour as a rule is defrauded of its hire. But the +relation of the master and the man admits of such fraud here much +more frequently than in England. In England the labourer who did not +get his wages on the Saturday could not go on for the next week. To +him under such circumstances the world would be coming to an end. But +in the Western States, the labourer does not live so completely from +hand to mouth. He is rarely paid by the week, is accustomed to give +some credit, and till hard pressed by bad circumstances generally has +something by him. They do save money, and are thus fattened up to a +state which admits of victimization. I cannot owe money to the little +village cobbler who mends my shoes, because he demands and receives +his payment when his job is done. But to my friend in Regent Street I +extend my custom on a different system; and when I make my start for +continental life, I have with him a matter of unsettled business to a +considerable extent. The American labourer is in the condition of the +Regent Street boot-maker;--excepting in this respect, that he gives +his credit under compulsion. "But does not the law set him right? +Is there no law against debtors?" The laws against debtors are +plain enough as they are written down, but seem to be anything but +plain when called into action. They are perfectly understood, and +operations are carried on with the express purpose of evading them. +If you proceed against a man, you find that his property is in the +hands of some one else. You work in fact for Jones who lives in the +next street to you; but when you quarrel with Jones about your wages, +you find that according to law you have been working for Smith in +another State. In all countries such dodges are probably practicable. +But men will or will not have recourse to such dodges according to +the light in which they are regarded by the community. In the Western +States such dodges do not appear to be regarded as disgraceful. "It +behoves a frontier man to be smart, sir." + +Honesty is the best policy. That is a doctrine which has been widely +preached, and which has recommended itself to many minds as being +one of absolute truth. It is not very ennobling in its sentiment, +seeing that it advocates a special virtue, not on the ground that +that virtue is in itself a thing beautiful, but on account of the +immediate reward which will be its consequence. Smith is enjoined not +to cheat Jones, because he will, in the long run, make more money by +dealing with Jones on the square. This is not teaching of the highest +order; but it is teaching well adapted to human circumstances, and +has obtained for itself a wide credit. One is driven, however, to +doubt whether even this teaching is not too high for the frontier +man. Is it possible that a frontier man should be scrupulous and at +the same time successful? Hitherto those who have allowed scruples to +stand in their way have not succeeded; and they who have succeeded +and made for themselves great names,--who have been the pioneers of +civilization,--have not allowed ideas of exact honesty to stand in +their way. From General Jason down to General Fremont there have +been men of great aspirations but of slight scruples. They have been +ambitious of power and desirous of progress, but somewhat regardless +how power and progress shall be attained. Clive and Warren Hastings +were great frontier men, but we cannot imagine that they had ever +realized the doctrine that honesty is the best policy. Cortez, and +even Columbus, the prince of frontier men, are in the same category. +The names of such heroes is legion. But with none of them has +absolute honesty been a favourite virtue. "It behoves a frontier man +to be smart, sir." Such, in that or other language, has been the +prevailing idea. Such is the prevailing idea. And one feels driven to +ask oneself whether such must not be the prevailing idea with those +who leave the world and its rules behind them, and go forth with the +resolve that the world and its rules shall follow them. + +Of filibustering, annexation, and polishing savages off the face of +creation there has been a great deal, and who can deny that humanity +has been the gainer? It seems to those who look widely back over +history, that all such works have been carried on in obedience to +God's laws. When Jacob by Rebecca's aid cheated his elder brother he +was very smart; but we cannot but suppose that a better race was by +this smartness put in possession of the patriarchal sceptre. Esau was +polished off, and readers of Scripture wonder why heaven with its +thunder did not open over the heads of Rebecca and her son. But Jacob +with all his fraud was the chosen one. Perhaps the day may come when +scrupulous honesty may be the best policy even on the frontier. I can +only say that hitherto that day seems to be as distant as ever. I do +not pretend to solve the problem, but simply record my opinion that +under circumstances as they still exist I should not willingly select +a frontier life for my children. + +I have said that all great frontier men have been unscrupulous. There +is, however, an exception in history which may perhaps serve to prove +the rule. The Puritans who colonized New England were frontier men, +and were, I think, in general scrupulously honest. They had their +faults. They were stern, austere men, tyrannical at the backbone when +power came in their way,--as are all pioneers;--hard upon vices for +which they who made the laws had themselves no minds; but they were +not dishonest. + +At Milwaukee I went up to see the Wisconsin volunteers, who were +then encamped on open ground in the close vicinity of the town. +Of Wisconsin I had heard before,--and have heard the same opinion +repeated since,--that it was more backward in its volunteering than +its neighbour States in the West. Wisconsin has 760,000 inhabitants, +and its tenth thousand of volunteers was not then made up; whereas +Indiana with less than double its number had already sent out +thirty-six thousand. Iowa, with a hundred thousand less of +inhabitants, had then made up fifteen thousand. But nevertheless to +me it seemed that Wisconsin was quite alive to its presumed duty +in that respect. Wisconsin with its three quarters of a million +of people is as large as England. Every acre of it may be made +productive, but as yet it is not half cleared. Of such a country its +young men are its heart's blood. Ten thousand men fit to bear arms +carried away from such a land to the horrors of civil war is a sight +as full of sadness as any on which the eye can rest. Ah me, when will +they return, and with what altered hopes! It is, I fear, easier to +turn the sickle into the sword, than to recast the sword back again +into the sickle! + +We found a completed regiment at Wisconsin consisting entirely of +Germans. A thousand Germans had been collected in that State and +brought together in one regiment, and I was informed by an officer +on the ground that there are many Germans in sundry other of the +Wisconsin regiments. It may be well to mention here that the number +of Germans through all these western States is very great. Their +number and well-being were to me astonishing. That they form a great +portion of the population of New York, making the German quarter of +that city the third largest German town in the world, I have long +known; but I had no previous idea of their expansion westward. In +Detroit nearly every third shop bore a German name, and the same +remark was to be made at Milwaukee;--and on all hands I heard praises +of their morals, of their thrift, and of their new patriotism. I was +continually told how far they exceeded the Irish settlers. To me in +all parts of the world an Irishman is dear. When handled tenderly he +becomes a creature most loveable. But with all my judgment in the +Irishman's favour, and with my prejudices leaning the same way, I +feel myself bound to state what I heard and what I saw as to the +Germans. + +But this regiment of Germans, and another not completed regiment, +called from the State generally, were as yet without arms, +accoutrements, or clothing. There was the raw material of the +regiment, but there was nothing else. Winter was coming on,--winter +in which the mercury is commonly 20 degrees below zero,--and the men +were in tents with no provision against the cold. These tents held +each two men, and were just large enough for two to lie. The canvas +of which they were made seemed to me to be thin, but was I think +always double. At this camp there was a house in which the men took +their meals, but I visited other camps in which there was no such +accommodation. I saw the German regiment called to its supper by tuck +of drum, and the men marched in gallantly, armed each with a knife +and spoon. I managed to make my way in at the door after them, and +can testify to the excellence of the provisions of which their +supper consisted. A poor diet never enters into any combination +of circumstances contemplated by an American. Let him be where he +will, animal food is, with him, the first necessary of life, and he +is always provided accordingly. As to those Wisconsin men whom I +saw, it was probable that they might be marched off, down south to +Washington, or to the doubtful glories of the western campaign under +Fremont before the winter commenced. The same might have been said +of any special regiment. But taking the whole mass of men who were +collected under canvas at the end of the autumn of 1861, and who +were so collected without arms or military clothing, and without +protection from the weather, it did seem that the task taken in +hand by the Commissariat of the Northern army was one not devoid of +difficulty. + +The view from Milwaukee over Lake Michigan is very pleasing. One +looks upon a vast expanse of water to which the eye finds no bounds, +and therefore there are none of the common attributes of lake beauty; +but the colour of the lake is bright, and within a walk of the city +the traveller comes to the bluffs or low round-topped hills from +which he can look down upon the shores. These bluffs form the beauty +of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and relieve the eye after the flat level +of Michigan. Round Detroit there is no rising ground, and therefore, +perhaps, it is that Detroit is uninteresting. + +I have said that those who are called on to labour in these States +have their own hardships, and I have endeavoured to explain what +are the sufferings to which the town labourer is subject. To escape +from this is the labourer's great ambition, and his mode of doing +so consists almost universally in the purchase of land. He saves up +money in order that he may buy a section of an allotment, and thus +become his own master. All his savings are made with a view to this +independence. Seated on his own land he will have to work probably +harder than ever, but he will work for himself. No taskmaster can +then stand over him and wound his pride with harsh words. He will be +his own master; will eat the food which he himself has grown, and +live in the cabin which his own hands have built. This is the object +of his life; and to secure this position he is content to work late +and early and to undergo the indignities of previous servitude. The +Government price for land is about five shillings an acre--one dollar +and a quarter--and the settler may get it for this price if he be +contented to take it not only untouched as regards clearing, but also +far removed from any completed road. The traffic in these lands has +been the great speculating business of western men. Five or six years +ago, when the rage for such purchases was at its height, land was +becoming a scarce article in the market! Individuals or companies +bought it up with the object of reselling it at a profit; and many +no doubt did make money. Railway companies were, in fact, companies +combined for the purchase of land. They purchased land, looking to +increase the value of it five-fold by the opening of a railroad. It +may easily be understood that a railway, which could not be in itself +remunerative, might in this way become a lucrative speculation. No +settler could dare to place himself absolutely at a distance from +any thoroughfare. At first the margins of nature's highways, the +navigable rivers and lakes, were cleared. But as the railway system +grew and expanded itself, it became manifest that lands might be +rendered quickly available which were not so circumstanced by nature, +A company which had purchased an enormous territory from the United +States Government at five shillings an acre might well repay itself +all the cost of a railway through that territory, even though the +receipts of the railway should do no more than maintain the current +expenses. It is in this way that the thousands of miles of American +railroads have been opened; and here again must be seen the immense +advantages which the States as a new country have enjoyed. With us +the purchase of valuable land for railways, together with the legal +expenses which those compulsory purchases entailed, have been so +great that with all our traffic railways are not remunerative. But +in the States the railways have created the value of the land. The +States have been able to begin at the right end, and to arrange +that the districts which are benefited shall themselves pay for the +benefit they receive. + +The Government price of land is 125 cents, or about five shillings an +acre; and even this need not be paid at once if the settler purchase +directly from the Government. He must begin by making certain +improvements on the selected land,--clearing and cultivating some +small portion, building a hut, and probably sinking a well. When this +has been done,--when he has thus given a pledge of his intentions +by depositing on the land the value of a certain amount of labour, +he cannot be removed. He cannot be removed for a term of years, and +then if he pays the price of the land it becomes his own with an +indefeasible title. Many such settlements are made on the purchase +of warrants for land. Soldiers returning from the Mexican wars +were donated with warrants for land,--the amount being 160 acres, +or the quarter of a section. The localities of such lands were +not specified, but the privilege granted was that of occupying +any quarter-section not hitherto tenanted. It will of course be +understood that lands favourably situated would be tenanted. Those +contiguous to railways were of course so occupied, seeing that +the lines were not made till the lands were in the hands of the +companies. It may therefore be understood of what nature would be +the traffic in these warrants. The owner of a single warrant might +find it of no value to him. To go back utterly into the woods, away +from river or road, and there to commence with 160 acres of forest, +or even of prairie, would be a hopeless task even to an American +settler. Some mode of transport for his produce must be found before +his produce would be of value,--before indeed he could find the means +of living. But a company buying up a large aggregate of such warrants +would possess the means of making such allotments valuable and of +reselling them at greatly increased prices. + +The primary settler, therefore,--who, however, will not usually have +been the primary owner,--goes to work upon his land amidst all the +wildness of nature. He levels and burns the first trees, and raises +his first crop of corn amidst stumps still standing four or five feet +above the soil; but he does not do so till some mode of conveyance +has been found for him. So much I have said hoping to explain the +mode in which the frontier speculator paves the way for the frontier +agriculturist. But the permanent farmer very generally comes on the +land as the third owner. The first settler is a rough fellow, and +seems to be so wedded to his rough life that he leaves his land after +his first wild work is done, and goes again further off to some +untouched allotment. He finds that he can sell his improvements at a +profitable rate and takes the price. He is a preparer of farms rather +than a farmer. He has no love for the soil which his hand has first +turned. He regards it merely as an investment; and when things about +him are beginning to wear an aspect of comfort,--when his property +has become valuable, he sells it, packs up his wife and little ones, +and goes again into the woods. The western American has no love for +his own soil, or his own house. The matter with him is simply one of +dollars. To keep a farm which he could sell at an advantage from any +feeling of affection,--from what we should call an association of +ideas,--would be to him as ridiculous as the keeping of a family pig +would be in an English farmer's establishment. The pig is a part of +the farmer's stock in trade, and must go the way of all pigs. And +so is it with house and land in the life of the frontier man in the +western States. + +But yet this man has his romance, his high poetic feeling, and above +all his manly dignity. Visit him, and you will find him without coat +or waistcoat, unshorn, in ragged blue trousers and old flannel shirt, +too often bearing on his lantern jaws the signs of ague and sickness; +but he will stand upright before you and speak to you with all the +ease of a lettered gentleman in his own library. All the odious +incivility of the republican servant has been banished. He is his own +master, standing on his own threshold, and finds no need to assert +his equality by rudeness. He is delighted to see you, and bids you +sit down on his battered bench without dreaming of any such apology +as an English cottier offers to a Lady Bountiful when she calls. He +has worked out his independence, and shows it in every easy movement +of his body. He tells you of it unconsciously in every tone of his +voice. You will always find in his cabin some newspaper, some book, +some token of advance in education. When he questions you about the +old country he astonishes you by the extent of his knowledge. I defy +you not to feel that he is superior to the race from whence he has +sprung in England or in Ireland. To me I confess that the manliness +of such a man is very charming. He is dirty and perhaps squalid. His +children are sick and he is without comforts. His wife is pale, and +you think you see shortness of life written in the faces of all the +family. But over and above it all there is an independence which sits +gracefully on their shoulders, and teaches you at the first glance +that the man has a right to assume himself to be your equal. It is +for this position that the labourer works, bearing hard words and +the indignity of tyranny,--suffering also too often the dishonest +ill-usage which his superior power enables the master to inflict. + +"I have lived very rough," I heard a poor woman say, whose husband +had ill-used and deserted her. "I have known what it is to be hungry +and cold, and to work hard till my bones have ached. I only wish that +I might have the same chance again. If I could have ten acres cleared +two miles away from any living being, I could be happy with my +children. I find a kind of comfort when I am at work from daybreak to +sundown, and know that it is all my own." I believe that life in the +backwoods has an allurement to those who have been used to it, that +dwellers in cities can hardly comprehend. + +From Milwaukee we went across Wisconsin and reached the Mississippi +at La Crosse. From hence, according to agreement, we were to start +by steamer at once up the river. But we were delayed again, as had +happened to us before on Lake Michigan at Grand Haven. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. + + +It had been promised to us that we should start from La Crosse by +the river steamer immediately on our arrival there; but on reaching +La Crosse we found that the vessel destined to take us up the river +had not yet come down. She was bringing a regiment from Minnesota, +and under such circumstances some pardon might be extended to +irregularities. This plea was made by one of the boat clerks in +a very humble tone, and was fully accepted by us. The wonder was +that at such a period all means of public conveyance were not put +absolutely out of gear. One might surmise that when regiments were +constantly being moved for the purposes of civil war, when the whole +North had but the one object of collecting together a sufficient +number of men to crush the South, ordinary travelling for ordinary +purposes would be difficult, slow, and subject to sudden stoppages. +Such, however, was not the case either in the northern or western +States. The trains ran much as usual, and those connected with the +boats and railways were just as anxious as ever to secure passengers. +The boat clerk at La Crosse apologised amply for the delay, and we +sat ourselves down with patience to await the arrival of the second +Minnesota regiment on its way to Washington. + +During the four hours that we were kept waiting we were harboured on +board a small steamer, and at about eleven the terribly harsh whistle +that is made by the Mississippi boats informed us that the regiment +was arriving. It came up to the quay in two steamers, 750 being +brought in that which was to take us back, and 250 in a smaller one. +The moon was very bright, and great flaming torches were lit on the +vessel's side, so that all the operations of the men were visible. +The two steamers had run close up, thrusting us away from the quay +in their passage, but doing it so gently that we did not even feel +the motion. These large boats--and their size may be understood from +the fact that one of them had just brought down 750 men,--are moved +so easily and so gently that they come gliding in among each other +without hesitation and without pause. On English waters we do +not willingly run ships against each other; and when we do so +unwillingly, they bump and crush and crash upon each other, and +timbers fly while men are swearing. But here there was neither +crashing nor swearing, and the boats noiselessly pressed against each +other as though they were cased in muslin and crinoline. + +I got out upon the quay and stood close by the plank, watching each +man as he left the vessel and walked across towards the railway. +Those whom I had previously seen in tents were not equipped, but +these men were in uniform and each bore his musket. Taking them all +together they were as fine a set of men as I ever saw collected. No +man could doubt on seeing them that they bore on their countenances +the signs of higher breeding and better education than would be +seen in a thousand men enlisted in England. I do not mean to argue +from this that Americans are better than English. I do not mean to +argue here that they are even better educated. My assertion goes to +show that the men generally were taken from a higher level in the +community than that which fills our own ranks. It was a matter of +regret to me, here and on many subsequent occasions, to see men bound +for three years to serve as common soldiers, who were so manifestly +fitted for a better and more useful life. To me it is always a source +of sorrow to see a man enlisted. I feel that the individual recruit +is doing badly with himself--carrying himself and the strength and +intelligence which belongs to him to a bad market. I know that there +must be soldiers; but as to every separate soldier I regret that he +should be one of them. And the higher is the class from which such +soldiers are drawn, the greater the intelligence of the men so to +be employed, the deeper with me is that feeling of regret. But this +strikes one much less in an old country than in a country that is +new. In the old countries population is thick, and food sometimes +scarce. Men can be spared, and any employment may be serviceable, +even though that employment be in itself so unproductive as that of +fighting battles or preparing for them. But in the western States of +America every arm that can guide a plough is of incalculable value. +Minnesota was admitted as a State about three years before this time, +and its whole population is not much above 150,000. Of this number +perhaps 40,000 may be working men. And now this infant State with +its huge territory and scanty population is called upon to send its +heart's blood out to the war. + +And it has sent its heart's best blood. Forth they came--fine, +stalwart, well-grown fellows, looking to my eye as though they had +as yet but faintly recognised the necessary severity of military +discipline. To them hitherto the war had seemed to be an arena on +which each might do something for his country, which that country +would recognise. To themselves as yet--and to me also--they were a +band of heroes, to be reduced by the compressing power of military +discipline to the lower level, but more necessary position of a +regiment of soldiers. Ah me! how terrible to them has been the +breaking up of that delusion! When a poor yokel in England is +enlisted with a shilling and a promise of unlimited beer and glory, +one pities and if possible would save him. But with him the mode of +life to which he goes may not be much inferior to that he leaves. +It may be that for him soldiering is the best trade possible in his +circumstances. It may keep him from the hen-roosts, and perhaps +from his neighbours' pantries; and discipline may be good for him. +Population is thick with us, and there are many whom it may be well +to collect and make available under the strictest surveillance. But +of these men whom I saw entering on their career upon the banks of +the Mississippi, many were fathers of families, many were owners of +lands, many were educated men capable of high aspirations,--all were +serviceable members of their State. There were probably there not +three or four of whom it would be well that the State should be rid. +As soldiers fit, or capable of being made fit for the duties they had +undertaken, I could find but one fault with them. Their average age +was too high. There were men among them with grizzled beards, and +many who had counted thirty, thirty-five, and forty years. They had, +I believe, devoted themselves with a true spirit of patriotism. No +doubt each had some ulterior hope as to himself,--as has every mortal +patriot. Regulus when he returned hopeless to Carthage, trusted that +some Horace would tell his story. Each of these men from Minnesota +looked probably forward to his reward; but the reward desired was of +a high class. + +The first great misery to be endured by these regiments will be the +military lesson of obedience which they must learn before they can +be of any service. It always seemed to me when I came near them +that they had not as yet recognized the necessary austerity of an +officer's duty. Their idea of a captain was the stage idea of a +leader of dramatic banditti, a man to be followed and obeyed as a +leader, but to be obeyed with that free and easy obedience which is +accorded to the reigning chief of the forty thieves. "Wa'll Captain," +I have heard a private say to his officer, as he sat on one seat in a +railway-car with his feet upon the back of another. And the captain +has looked as though he did not like it. The captain did not like it, +but the poor private was being fast carried to that destiny which +he would like still less. From the first I have had faith in the +northern army; but from the first I have felt that the suffering to +be endured by these free and independent volunteers would be very +great. A man to be available as a private soldier must be compressed +and belted in till he be a machine. + +As soon as the men had left the vessel we walked over the side of +it and took possession. "I am afraid your cabin won't be ready for +a quarter of an hour," said the clerk. "Such a body of men as that +will leave some dirt after them." I assured him of course that our +expectations under such circumstances were very limited, and that +I was fully aware that the boat and the boat's company were taken +up with matters of greater moment than the carriage of ordinary +passengers. But to this he demurred altogether. "The regiments +were very little to them, but occasioned much trouble. Everything, +however, should be square in fifteen minutes." At the expiration of +the time named the key of our state-room was given to us, and we +found the appurtenances as clean as though no soldier had ever put +his foot upon the vessel. + +From La Crosse to St. Paul, the distance up the river is something +over 200 miles, and from St. Paul down to Dubuque, in Iowa, to which +we went on our return, the distance is 450 miles. We were therefore +for a considerable time on board these boats; more so than such a +journey may generally make necessary, as we were delayed at first by +the soldiers, and afterwards by accidents, such as the breaking of +a paddle-wheel, and other causes to which navigation on the Upper +Mississippi seems to be liable. On the whole we slept on board four +nights, and lived on board as many days. I cannot say that the life +was comfortable, though I do not know that it could be made more so +by any care on the part of the boat-owners. My first complaint would +be against the great heat of the cabins. The Americans as a rule live +in an atmosphere which is almost unbearable by an Englishman. To this +cause, I am convinced, is to be attributed their thin faces, their +pale skins, their unenergetic temperament,--unenergetic as regards +physical motion,--and their early old age. The winters are long and +cold in America, and mechanical ingenuity is far extended. These two +facts together have created a system of stoves, hot-air pipes, steam +chambers, and heating apparatus so extensive that from autumn till +the end of spring all inhabited rooms are filled with the atmosphere +of a hot oven. An Englishman fancies that he is to be baked, and +for a while finds it almost impossible to exist in the air prepared +for him. How the heat is engendered on board the river steamers +I do not know, but it is engendered to so great a degree that the +sitting-cabins are unendurable. The patient is therefore driven out +at all hours into the outside balconies of the boat, or on to the top +roof,--for it is a roof rather than a deck,--and there as he passes +through the air at the rate of twenty miles an hour, finds himself +chilled to the very bones. That is my first complaint. But as the +boats are made for Americans, and as Americans like hot air, I do not +put it forward with any idea that a change ought to be effected. My +second complaint is equally unreasonable, and is quite as incapable +of a remedy as the first. Nine-tenths of the travellers carry +children with them. They are not tourists engaged on pleasure +excursions, but men and women intent on the business of life. They +are moving up and down, looking for fortune, and in search of new +homes. Of course they carry with them all their household goods. Do +not let any critic say that I grudge these young travellers their +right to locomotion. Neither their right to locomotion is grudged +by me, nor any of those privileges which are accorded in America to +the rising generation. The habits of their country and the choice +of their parents give to them full dominion over all hours and over +all places, and it would ill become a foreigner to make such habits +and such choice a ground of serious complaint. But nevertheless the +uncontrolled energies of twenty children round one's legs do not +convey comfort or happiness, when the passing events are producing +noise and storm rather than peace and sunshine. I must protest that +American babies are an unhappy race. They eat and drink just as they +please; they are never punished; they are never banished, snubbed, +and kept in the back ground as children are kept with us; and yet +they are wretched and uncomfortable. My heart has bled for them +as I have heard them squalling by the hour together in agonies of +discontent and dyspepsia. Can it be, I wonder, that children are +happier when they are made to obey orders and are sent to bed at six +o'clock, than when allowed to regulate their own conduct; that bread +and milk are more favourable to laughter and soft childish ways +than beef-steaks and pickles three times a day; that an occasional +whipping, even, will conduce to rosy cheeks? It is an idea which I +should never dare to broach to an American mother; but I must confess +that after my travels on the western continent my opinions have a +tendency in that direction. Beef-steaks and pickles certainly produce +smart little men and women. Let that be taken for granted. But rosy +laughter and winning childish ways are, I fancy, the produce of +bread and milk. But there was a third reason why travelling on +these boats was not as pleasant as I had expected. I could not get +my fellow-travellers to talk to me. It must be understood that +our fellow-travellers were not generally of that class which we +Englishmen, in our pride, designate as gentlemen and ladies. They +were people, as I have said, in search of new homes and new fortunes. +But I protest that as such they would have been in those parts much +more agreeable as companions to me than any gentlemen or any ladies, +if only they would have talked to me. I do not accuse them of any +incivility. If addressed, they answered me. If application was made +by me for any special information, trouble was taken to give it +me. But I found no aptitude, no wish for conversation; nay, even a +disinclination to converse. In the western States I do not think +that I was ever addressed first by an American sitting next to me at +table. Indeed I never held any conversation at a public table in the +West. I have sat in the same room with men for hours, and have not +had a word spoken to me. I have done my very best to break through +this ice, and have always failed. A western American man is not a +talking man. He will sit for hours over a stove with his cigar in +his mouth, and his hat over his eyes, chewing the cud of reflection. +A dozen will sit together in the same way, and there shall not be +a dozen words spoken between them in an hour. With the women one's +chance of conversation is still worse. It seemed as though the +cares of the world had been too much for them, and that all talking +excepting as to business,--demands for instance on the servants +for pickles for their children,--had gone by the board. They were +generally hard, dry, and melancholy. I am speaking of course of aged +females,--from five and twenty perhaps to thirty, who had long since +given up the amusements and levities of life. I very soon abandoned +any attempt at drawing a word from these ancient mothers of families; +but not the less did I ponder in my mind over the circumstances of +their lives. Had things gone with them so sadly, was the struggle +for independence so hard, that all the softness of existence had +been trodden out of them? In the cities too it was much the same. It +seemed to me that a future mother of a family in those parts had left +all laughter behind her when she put out her finger for the wedding +ring. + +For these reasons I must say that life on board these steam-boats was +not as pleasant as I had hoped to find it, but for our discomfort in +this respect we found great atonement in the scenery through which we +passed. I protest that of all the river scenery that I know, that of +the Upper Mississippi is by far the finest and the most continued. +One thinks of course of the Rhine; but, according to my idea of +beauty, the Rhine is nothing to the Upper Mississippi. For miles upon +miles, for hundreds of miles, the course of the river runs through +low hills, which are there called bluffs. These bluffs rise in every +imaginable form, looking sometimes like large straggling unwieldy +castles, and then throwing themselves into sloping lawns which +stretch back away from the river till the eye is lost in their twists +and turnings. Landscape beauty, as I take it, consists mainly in four +attributes: in water, in broken land, in scattered timber,--timber +scattered as opposed to continuous forest timber,--and in the +accident of colour. In all these particulars the banks of the Upper +Mississippi can hardly be beaten. There are no high mountains; but +high mountains themselves are grand rather than beautiful. There +are no high mountains, but there is a succession of hills which +group themselves for ever without monotony. It is perhaps the +ever-variegated forms of these bluffs which chiefly constitute the +wonderful loveliness of this river. The idea constantly occurs that +some point on every hillside would form the most charming site ever +yet chosen for a noble residence. I have passed up and down rivers +clothed to the edge with continuous forest. This at first is grand +enough, but the eye and feeling soon become weary. Here the trees are +scattered so that the eye passes through them, and ever and again +a long lawn sweeps back into the country, and up the steep side of +a hill, making the traveller long to stay there and linger through +the oaks, and climb the bluffs, and lie about on the bold but easy +summits. The boat, however, steams quickly up against the current, +and the happy valleys are left behind, one quickly after another. +The river is very various in its breadth, and is constantly divided +by islands. It is never so broad that the beauty of the banks is +lost in the distance or injured by it. It is rapid, but has not the +beautifully bright colour of some European rivers,--of the Rhine for +instance, and the Rhone. But what is wanting in the colour of the +water is more than compensated by the wonderful hues and lustre of +the shores. We visited the river in October, and I must presume that +they who seek it solely for the sake of scenery should go there in +that month. It was not only that the foliage of the trees was bright +with every imaginable colour, but that the grass was bronzed, and +that the rocks were golden. And this beauty did not last only for a +while and then cease. On the Rhine there are lovely spots and special +morsels of scenery with which the traveller becomes duly enraptured. +But on the Upper Mississippi there are no special morsels. The +position of the sun in the heavens will, as it always does, make much +difference in the degree of beauty. The hour before and the half-hour +after sunset are always the loveliest for such scenes. But of the +shores themselves one may declare that they are lovely throughout +those 400 miles which run immediately south from St. Paul. + +About half-way between La Crosse and St. Paul we came upon Lake +Pepin, and continued our course up the lake for perhaps fifty or +sixty miles. This expanse of water is narrow for a lake, and by those +who know the lower courses of great rivers, would hardly be dignified +by that name. But, nevertheless, the breadth here lessens the beauty. +There are the same bluffs, the same scattered woodlands, and the +same colours. But they are either at a distance, or else they are +to be seen on one side only. The more that I see of the beauty +of scenery, and the more I consider its elements, the stronger +becomes my conviction that size has but little to do with it, and +rather detracts from it than adds to it. Distance gives one of its +greatest charms, but it does so by concealing rather than displaying +an expanse of surface. The beauty of distance arises from the +romance,--the feeling of mystery which it creates. It is like the +beauty of woman which allures the more the more that it is veiled. +But open, uncovered land and water, mountains which simply rise to +great heights with long unbroken slopes, wide expanses of lake, and +forests which are monotonous in their continued thickness, are never +lovely to me. A landscape should always be partly veiled, and display +only half its charms. + +To my taste the finest stretch of the river was that immediately +above Lake Pepin; but then, at this point, we had all the glory of +the setting sun. It was like fairy land, so bright were the golden +hues, so fantastic were the shapes of the hills, so broken and +twisted the course of the waters! But the noisy steamer went groaning +up the narrow passages with almost unabated speed, and left the fairy +land behind all too quickly. Then the bell would ring for tea, and +the children with the beef-steaks, the pickled onions, and the light +fixings would all come over again. The care-laden mothers would tuck +the bibs under the chins of their tyrant children, and some embryo +senator of four years old would listen with concentrated attention, +while the negro servant recapitulated to him the delicacies of +the supper-table, in order that he might make his choice with due +consideration. "Beef-steak," the embryo four-year old senator would +lisp, "and stewed potato, and buttered toast, and corn cake, and +coffee,--and--and--and--; mother, mind you get me the pickles." + +St. Paul enjoys the double privilege of being the commercial and +political capital of Minnesota. The same is the case with Boston in +Massachusetts, but I do not remember another instance in which it is +so. It is built on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, though the +bulk of the State lies to the west of the river. It is noticeable as +the spot up to which the river is navigable. Immediately above St. +Paul there are narrow rapids up which no boat can pass. North of +this, continuous navigation does not go; but from St. Paul down +to New Orleans, and the Gulf of Mexico, it is uninterrupted. The +distance to St. Louis in Missouri, a town built below the confluence +of the three rivers, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois, is 900 +miles; and then the navigable waters down to the gulf wash a southern +country of still greater extent. No river on the face of the globe +forms a highway for the produce of so wide an extent of agricultural +land. The Mississippi with its tributaries carried to market, before +the war, the produce of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, +Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, +Mississippi, and Louisiana. This country is larger than England, +Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain +together, and is undoubtedly composed of much more fertile land. The +States named comprise the great centre valley of the continent, and +are the farming lands and garden grounds of the western world. He who +has not seen corn on the ground in Illinois or Minnesota, does not +know to what extent the fertility of land may go, or how great may be +the weight of cereal crops. And for all this the Mississippi was the +high road to market. When the crop of 1861 was garnered this high +road was stopped by the war. What suffering this entailed on the +South, I will not here stop to say, but on the West the effect was +terrible. Corn was in such plenty, Indian corn that is, or maize, +that it was not worth the farmer's while to prepare it for market. +When I was in Illinois the second quality of Indian corn when shelled +was not worth more than from eight to ten cents a bushel. But the +shelling and preparation are laborious, and in some instances it was +found better to burn it for fuel than to sell it. Respecting the +export of corn from the West, I must say a further word or two in +the next chapter; but it seemed to be indispensable that I should +point out here how great to the United States is the need of the +Mississippi. Nor is it for corn and wheat only that its waters are +needed. Timber, lead, iron, coal, pork, all find, or should find, +their exit to the world at large by this road. There are towns on it, +and on its tributaries, already holding more than one hundred and +fifty thousand inhabitants. The number of Cincinnati exceeds that, as +also does the number of St. Louis. Under these circumstances it is +not wonderful that the States should wish to keep in their own hands +the navigation of this river. + +It is not wonderful. But it will not, I think, be admitted by the +politicians of the world, that the navigation of the Mississippi need +be closed against the West, even though the southern States should +succeed in raising themselves to the power and dignity of a separate +nationality. If the waters of the Danube be not open to Austria, it +is through the fault of Austria. That the subject will be one of +trouble no man can doubt; and of course it would be well for the +North to avoid that, or any other trouble. In the meantime the +importance of this right of way must be admitted; and it must be +admitted also that whatever may be the ultimate resolve of the North, +it will be very difficult to reconcile the West to a divided dominion +of the Mississippi. + +St. Paul contains about fourteen thousand inhabitants, and, like all +other American towns, is spread over a surface of ground adapted to +the accommodation of a very extended population. As it is belted on +one side by the river, and on the other by the bluffs which accompany +the course of the river, the site is pretty, and almost romantic. +Here also we found a great hotel,--a huge square building, such as +we in England might perhaps place near to a railway terminus, in such +a city as Glasgow or Manchester; but on which no living Englishman +would expend his money in a town even five times as big again as +St. Paul. Everything was sufficiently good, and much more than +sufficiently plentiful. The whole thing went on exactly as hotels do +down in Massachusetts, or the State of New York. Look at the map, and +see where St. Paul is. Its distance from all known civilization,--all +civilization that has succeeded in obtaining acquaintance with the +world at large, is very great. Even American travellers do not go up +there in great numbers, excepting those who intend to settle there. +A stray sportsman or two, American or English, as the case may be, +makes his way into Minnesota for the sake of shooting, and pushes on +up through St. Paul to the Red River. Some few adventurous spirits +visit the Indian settlements, and pass over into the unsettled +regions of Dacotah and Washington territory. But there is no throng +of travelling. Nevertheless, an hotel has been built there capable +of holding three hundred guests, and other hotels exist in the +neighbourhood, one of which is even larger than that at St. Paul. +Who can come to them, and create even a hope that such an enterprise +may be remunerative? In America it is seldom more than hope, for one +always hears that such enterprises fail. + +When I was there the war was in hand, and it was hardly to be +expected that any hotel should succeed. The landlord told me that he +held it at the present time for a very low rent, and that he could +just manage to keep it open without loss. The war which hindered +people from travelling, and in that way injured the innkeepers, also +hindered people from housekeeping, and reduced them to the necessity +of boarding out,--by which the innkeepers were, of course, benefited. +At St. Paul I found that the majority of the guests were inhabitants +of the town, boarding at the hotel, and thus dispensing with the +cares of a separate establishment. I do not know what was charged for +such accommodation at St. Paul, but I have come across large houses +at which a single man could get all that he required for a dollar a +day. Now Americans are great consumers, especially at hotels, and all +that a man requires includes three hot meals with a choice from about +two dozen dishes at each. + +From St. Paul there are two waterfalls to be seen, which we, of +course, visited. We crossed the river at Fort Snelling, a ricketty, +ill-conditioned building, standing at the confluence of the Minnesota +and Mississippi rivers, built there to repress the Indians. It is, +I take it, very necessary, especially at the present moment, as +the Indians seem to require repressing. They have learned that the +attention of the federal government has been called to the war, and +have become bold in consequence. When I was at St. Paul I heard of a +party of Englishmen who had been robbed of everything they possessed, +and was informed that the farmers in the distant parts of the State +were by no means secure. The Indians are more to be pitied than the +farmers. They are turning against enemies who will neither forgive +nor forget any injuries done. When the war is over they will be +improved, and polished, and annexed, till no Indian will hold an acre +of land in Minnesota. At present Fort Snelling is the nucleus of a +recruiting camp. On the point between the bluffs of the two rivers +there is a plain, immediately in front of the fort, and there we +saw the newly-joined Minnesota recruits going through their first +military exercises. They were in detachments of twenties, and were +rude enough at their goose step. The matter which struck me most in +looking at them was the difference of condition which I observed in +the men. There were the country lads, fresh from the farms, such as +we see following the recruiting sergeant through English towns; but +there were also men in black coats and black trousers, with thin +boots, and trimmed beards,--beards which had been trimmed till very +lately; and some of them with beards which showed that they were +no longer young. It was inexpressibly melancholy to see such men +as these twisting and turning about at the corporal's word, each +handling some stick in his hand in lieu of weapon. Of course they +were more awkward than the boys, even though they were twice more +assiduous in their efforts. Of course they were sad, and wretched. +I saw men there that were very wretched,--all but heart-broken, if +one might judge from their faces. They should not have been there +handling sticks, and moving their unaccustomed legs in cramped paces. +They were as razors, for which no better purpose could be found than +the cutting of blocks. When such attempts are made the block is not +cut, but the razor is spoilt. Most unfit for the commencement of +a soldier's life were some that I saw there, but I do not doubt +that they had been attracted to the work by the one idea of doing +something for their country in its trouble. + +From Fort Snelling we went on to the Falls of Minnehaha. Minnehaha, +laughing water. Such I believe is the interpretation. The name in +this case is more imposing than the fall. It is a pretty little +cascade, and might do for a picnic in fine weather, but it is not a +waterfall of which a man can make much when found so far away from +home. Going on from Minnehaha we came to Minneapolis, at which place +there is a fine suspension bridge across the river, just above the +falls of St. Anthony and leading to the town of that name. Till I got +there I could hardly believe that in these days there should be a +living village called Minneapolis by living men. I presume I should +describe it as a town, for it has a municipality, and a post-office, +and, of course, a large hotel. The interest of the place however is +in the saw-mills. On the opposite side of the water, at St. Anthony, +is another very large hotel,--and also a smaller one. The smaller +one may be about the size of the first-class hotels at Cheltenham or +Leamington. They were both closed, and there seemed to be but little +prospect that either would be opened till the war should be over. The +saw-mills, however, were at full work, and to my eyes were extremely +picturesque. I had been told that the beauty of the falls had been +destroyed by the mills. Indeed all who had spoken to me about St. +Anthony had said so. But I did not agree with them. Here, as at +Ottawa, the charm in fact consists, not in an uninterrupted shoot +of water, but in a succession of rapids over a bed of broken rocks. +Among these rocks logs of loose timber are caught, which have escaped +from their proper courses, and here they lie, heaped up in some +places, and constructing themselves into bridges in others, till +the freshets of the spring carry them off. The timber is generally +brought down in logs to St. Anthony, is sawn there, and then sent +down the Mississippi in large rafts. These rafts on other rivers are +I think generally made of unsawn timber. Such logs as have escaped in +the manner above described are recognized on their passage down the +river by their marks, and are made up separately, the original owners +receiving the value,--or not receiving it as the case may be. "There +is quite a trade going on with the loose lumber," my informant told +me. And from his tone I was led to suppose that he regarded the trade +as sufficiently lucrative if not peculiarly honest. + +There is very much in the mode of life adopted by the settlers +in these regions which creates admiration. The people are all +intelligent. They are energetic and speculative, conceiving grand +ideas, and carrying them out almost with the rapidity of magic. +A suspension bridge half a mile long is erected, while in England +we should be fastening together a few planks for a foot passage. +Progress, mental as well as material, is the demand of the people +generally. Everybody understands everything, and everybody intends +sooner or later to do everything. All this is very grand;--but +then there is a terrible drawback. One hears on every side of +intelligence, but one hears also on every side of dishonesty. Talk +to whom you will, of whom you will, and you will hear some tale of +successful or unsuccessful swindling. It seems to be the recognized +rule of commerce in the Far West that men shall go into the world's +markets prepared to cheat and to be cheated. It may be said that as +long as this is acknowledged and understood on all sides, no harm +will be done. It is equally fair for all. When I was a child there +used to be certain games at which it was agreed in beginning either +that there should be cheating or that there should not. It may be +said that out there in the western States, men agree to play the +cheating game; and that the cheating game has more of interest in it +than the other. Unfortunately, however, they who agree to play this +game on a large scale, do not keep outsiders altogether out of the +play-ground. Indeed outsiders become very welcome to them;--and then +it is not pleasant to hear the tone in which such outsiders speak of +the peculiarities of the sport to which they have been introduced. +When a beginner in trade finds himself furnished with a barrel of +wooden nutmegs, the joke is not so good to him as to the experienced +merchant who supplies him. This dealing in wooden nutmegs, this +selling of things which do not exist, and buying of goods for which +no price is ever to be given, is an institution which is much +honoured in the West. We call it swindling;--and so do they. But it +seemed to me that in the western States the word hardly seemed to +leave the same impress on the mind that it does elsewhere. + +On our return down the river we passed La Crosse, at which we had +embarked, and went down as far as Dubuque in Iowa. On our way down we +came to grief and broke one of our paddle-wheels to pieces. We had +no special accident. We struck against nothing above or below water. +But the wheel went to pieces, and we lay-to on the river side for the +greater part of a day while the necessary repairs were being made. +Delay in travelling is usually an annoyance, because it causes the +unsettlement of a settled purpose. But the loss of the day did us no +harm, and our accident had happened at a very pretty spot. I climbed +up to the top of the nearest bluff, and walked back till I came to +the open country, and also went up and down the river banks, visiting +the cabins of two settlers who live there by supplying wood to the +river steamers. One of these was close to the spot at which we were +lying; and yet though most of our passengers came on shore, I was +the only one who spoke to the inmates of the cabin. These people +must live there almost in desolation from one year's end to another. +Once in a fortnight or so they go up to a market town in their small +boats, but beyond that they can have little intercourse with their +fellow-creatures. Nevertheless none of these dwellers by the river +side came out to speak to the men and women who were lounging about +from eleven in the morning till four in the afternoon; nor did one of +the passengers except myself knock at the door or enter the cabin, or +exchange a word with those who lived there. + +I spoke to the master of the house, whom I met outside, and he at +once asked me to come in and sit down. I found his father there and +his mother, his wife, his brother, and two young children. The wife, +who was cooking, was a very pretty, pale young woman, who, however, +could have circulated round her stove more conveniently had her +crinoline been of less dimensions. She bade me welcome very prettily, +and went on with her cooking, talking the while, as though she were +in the habit of entertaining guests in that way daily. The old woman +sat in a corner knitting--as old women always do. The old man lounged +with a grandchild on his knee, and the master of the house threw +himself on the floor while the other child crawled over him. There +was no stiffness or uneasiness in their manners, nor was there +anything approaching to that republican roughness which so often +operates upon a poor, well-intending Englishman like a slap on the +cheek. I sat there for about an hour, and when I had discussed with +them English politics and the bearing of English politics upon the +American war, they told me of their own affairs. Food was very +plenty, but life was very hard. Take the year through, each man could +not earn above half a dollar a day by cutting wood. This, however, +they owned, did not take up all their time. Working on favourable +wood on favourable days they could each earn two dollars a day; but +these favourable circumstances did not come together very often. They +did not deal with the boats themselves, and the profits were eaten up +by the middleman. He, the middleman, had a good thing of it, because +he could cheat the captains of the boats in the measurement of the +wood. The chopper was obliged to supply a genuine cord of logs,--true +measure. But the man who took it off in the barge to the steamer +could so pack it that fifteen true cords would make twenty-two false +cords. "It cuts up into a fine trade, you see, sir," said the young +man, as he stroked back the little girl's hair from her forehead. +"But the captains of course must find it out," said I. This he +acknowledged, but argued that the captains on this account insisted +on buying the wood so much cheaper, and that the loss all came upon +the chopper. I tried to teach him that the remedy lay in his own +hands, and the three men listened to me quite patiently while I +explained to them how they should carry on their own trade. But the +young father had the last word. "I guess we don't get above the fifty +cents a day any way." He knew at least where the shoe pinched him. +He was a handsome, manly, noble-looking fellow, tall and thin, with +black hair and bright eyes. But he had the hollow look about his +jaws, and so had his wife, and so had his brother. They all owned +to fever and ague. They had a touch of it most years, and sometimes +pretty sharply. "It was a coarse place to live in," the old woman +said, "but there was no one to meddle with them, and she guessed that +it suited." They had books and newspapers, tidy delf, and clean glass +upon their shelves, and undoubtedly provisions in plenty. Whether +fever and ague yearly, and cords of wood stretched from fifteen to +twenty-two are more than a set-off for these good things, I will +leave every one to decide according to his own taste. + +In another cabin I found women and children only, and one of the +children was in the last stage of illness. But nevertheless the woman +of the house seemed glad to see me, and talked cheerfully as long as +I would remain. She inquired what had happened to the vessel, but +it had never occurred to her to go out and see. Her cabin was neat +and well furnished, and there also I saw newspapers and Harper's +everlasting magazine. She said it was a coarse, desolate place for +living, but that she could raise almost anything in her garden. + +I could not then understand, nor can I now understand, why none of +the numerous passengers out of the boat should have entered those +cabins except myself, and why the inmates of the cabins should not +have come out to speak to any one. Had they been surly, morose +people, made silent by the specialties of their life, it would have +been explicable; but they were delighted to talk and to listen. The +fact, I take it, is, that the people are all harsh to each other. +They do not care to go out of their way to speak to any one unless +something is to be gained. They say that two Englishmen meeting in +the desert would not speak unless they were introduced. The further I +travel, the less true do I find this of Englishmen, and the more true +of other people. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CERES AMERICANA. + + +We stopped at the Julien House, Dubuque. Dubuque is a city in Iowa +on the western shore of the Mississippi, and as the names both of +the town and of the hotel sounded French in my ears, I asked for +an explanation. I was then told that Julien Dubuque, a Canadian +Frenchman, had been buried on one of the bluffs of the river within +the precincts of the present town, that he had been the first white +settler in Iowa, and had been the only man who had ever prevailed +upon the Indians to work. Among them he had become a great +"Medicine," and seems for a while to have had absolute power over +them. He died I think in 1800, and was buried on one of the hills +over the river. "He was a bold bad man," my informant told me, "and +committed every sin under heaven. But he made the Indians work." + +Lead mines are the glory of Dubuque, and very large sums of money +have been made from them. I was taken out to see one of them, and to +go down it; but we found, not altogether to my sorrow, that the works +had been stopped on account of the water. No effort has been made in +any of these mines to subdue the water, nor has steam been applied to +the working of them. The lodes have been so rich with lead that the +speculators have been content to take out the metal that was easily +reached, and to go off in search of fresh ground when disturbed by +water. "And are wages here paid pretty punctually?" I asked. "Well; +a man has to be smart, you know." And then my friend went on to +acknowledge that it would be better for the country if smartness were +not so essential. + +Iowa has a population of 674,000 souls, and in October 1861 had +already mustered eighteen regiments of 1000 men each. Such a +population would give probably 170,000 men capable of bearing arms, +and therefore the number of soldiers sent had already amounted to +more than a decimation of the available strength of the State. When +we were at Dubuque nothing was talked of but the army. It seemed +that mines, coal-pits, and corn-fields, were all of no account in +comparison with the war. How many regiments could be squeezed out +of the State, was the one question which filled all minds; and the +general desire was that such regiments should be sent to the Western +army, to swell the triumph which was still expected for General +Fremont, and to assist in sweeping slavery out into the Gulf of +Mexico. The patriotism of the West has been quite as keen as that +of the North, and has produced results as memorable; but it has +sprung from a different source, and been conducted and animated by a +different sentiment. National greatness and support of the law have +been the ideas of the North; national greatness and abolition of +slavery have been those of the West. How they are to agree as to +terms when between them they have crushed the South,--that is the +difficulty. + +At Dubuque in Iowa, I ate the best apple that I ever encountered. +I make that statement with the purpose of doing justice to the +Americans on a matter which is to them one of considerable +importance. Americans as a rule do not believe in English apples. +They declare that there are none, and receive accounts of Devonshire +cyder with manifest incredulity. "But at any rate there are no +apples in England equal to ours." That is an assertion to which an +Englishman is called upon to give an absolute assent; and I hereby +give it. Apples so excellent as some which were given to us at +Dubuque, I have never eaten in England. There is a great jealousy +respecting all the fruits of the earth. "Your peaches are fine to +look at," was said to me, "but they have no flavour." This was the +assertion of a lady, and I made no answer. My idea had been that +American peaches had no flavour; that French peaches had none; that +those of Italy had none; that little as there might be of which +England could boast with truth, she might at any rate boast of her +peaches without fear of contradiction. Indeed my idea had been that +good peaches were to be got in England only. I am beginning to doubt +whether my belief on the matter has not been the product of insular +ignorance, and idolatrous self-worship. It may be that a peach should +be a combination of an apple and a turnip. "My great objection +to your country, sir," said another, "is that you have got no +vegetables." Had he told me that we had got no seaboard, or no coals, +he would not have surprised me more. No vegetables in England! I +could not restrain myself altogether, and replied by a confession +"that we 'raised' no squash." Squash is the pulp of the pumpkin, +and is much used in the States, both as a vegetable and for pies. +No vegetables in England! Did my surprise arise from the insular +ignorance and idolatrous self-worship of a Britisher, or was my +American friend labouring under a delusion? Is Covent Garden well +supplied with vegetables, or is it not? Do we cultivate our kitchen +gardens with success, or am I under a delusion on that subject? Do +I dream, or is it true that out of my own little patches at home +I have enough for all domestic purposes of peas, beans, broccoli, +cauliflower, celery, beet-root, onions, carrots, parsnips, turnips, +seakale, asparagus, French beans, artichokes, vegetable marrow, +cucumbers, tomatoes, endive, lettuce, as well as herbs of many kinds, +cabbages throughout the year, and potatoes? No vegetables! Had the +gentleman told me that England did not suit him because we had +nothing but vegetables, I should have been less surprised. + +From Dubuque, on the western shore of the river, we passed over to +Dunleath in Illinois, and went on from thence by railway to Dixon. +I was induced to visit this not very flourishing town by a desire +to see the rolling prairie of Illinois, and to learn by eyesight +something of the crops of corn or Indian maize which are produced +upon the land. Had that gentleman told me that we knew nothing of +producing corn in England he would have been nearer the mark; for +of corn in the profusion in which it is grown here we do not know +much. Better land than the prairies of Illinois for cereal crops +the world's surface probably cannot show. And here there has been +no necessity for the long previous labour of banishing the forest. +Enormous prairies stretch across the State, into which the plough can +be put at once. The earth is rich with the vegetation of thousands +of years, and the farmer's return is given to him without delay. The +land bursts with its own produce, and the plenty is such that it +creates wasteful carelessness in the gathering of the crop. It is +not worth a man's while to handle less than large quantities. Up in +Minnesota I had been grieved by the loose manner in which wheat was +treated. I have seen bags of it upset, and left upon the ground. +The labour of collecting it was more than it was worth. There wheat +is the chief crop, and as the lands become cleared and cultivation +spreads itself, the amount coming down the Mississippi will be +increased almost to infinity. The price of wheat in Europe will soon +depend, not upon the value of the wheat in the country which grows +it, but on the power and cheapness of the modes which may exist for +transporting it. I have not been able to obtain the exact prices with +reference to the carriage of wheat from St. Paul, the capital of +Minnesota, to Liverpool, but I have done so as regards Indian corn +from the State of Illinois. The following statement will show what +proportion the value of the article at the place of its growth bears +to the cost of the carriage; and it shows also how enormous an effect +on the price of corn in England would follow any serious decrease in +the cost of carriage. + + A bushel of Indian corn at Bloomington + in Illinois cost in October, 1861 10 cents. + Freight to Chicago 10 " + Storeage 2 " + Freight from Chicago to Buffalo 22 " + Elevating, and canal freight to + New York 19 " + Transfer in New York and insurance 3 " + Ocean freight 23 " + -- + Cost of a bushel of Indian corn at + Liverpool 89 cents. + +Thus corn which in Liverpool costs 3_s._ 10_d._, has been sold by +the farmer who produced it for 5_d._! It is probable that no great +reduction can be expected in the cost of ocean transit; but it will +be seen by the above figures that out of the Liverpool price of 3_s._ +10_d._ or 89 cents, considerably more than half is paid for carriage +across the United States. All or nearly all this transit is by water, +and there can, I think, be no doubt but that a few years will see +it reduced by fifty per cent. In October last the Mississippi was +closed, the railways had not rolling stock sufficient for their work, +the crops of the two last years had been excessive, and there existed +the necessity of sending out the corn before the internal navigation +had been closed by frost. The parties who had the transit in their +hands put their heads together and were able to demand any prices +that they pleased. It will be seen that the cost of carrying a bushel +of corn from Chicago to Buffalo, by the lakes, was within one cent of +the cost of bringing it from New York to Liverpool. These temporary +causes for high prices of transit will cease, a more perfect system +of competition between the railways and the water transit will be +organized, and the result must necessarily be both an increase of +price to the producer and a decrease of price to the consumer. It +certainly seems that the produce of cereal crops in the valleys of +the Mississippi and its tributaries increases at a faster rate than +population increases. Wheat and corn are sown by the thousand acres +in a piece. I heard of one farmer who had 10,000 acres of corn. +Thirty years ago grain and flour were sent westward out of the +State of New York to supply the wants of those who had emigrated +into the prairies, and now we find that it will be the destiny of +those prairies to feed the universe. Chicago is the main point of +exportation north-westward from Illinois, and at the present time +sends out from its granaries more cereal produce than any other town +in the world. The bulk of this passes, in the shape of grain or +flour, from Chicago to Buffalo, which latter place is as it were +a gateway leading from the lakes or big waters to the canals or +small waters. I give below the amount of grain and flour in bushels +received into Buffalo for transit in the month of October during four +consecutive years. + + October, 1858 4,429,055 bushels. + " 1859 5,523,448 " + " 1860 6,500,864 " + " 1861 12,483,797 " + +In 1860, from the opening to the close of navigation, 30,837,632 +bushels of grain and flour passed through Buffalo. In 1861 the amount +received up to the 31st of October was 51,969,142 bushels. As the +navigation would be closed during the month of November, the above +figures may be taken as representing not quite the whole amount +transported for the year. It may be presumed the 52,000,000 of +bushels, as quoted above, will swell itself to 60,000,000. I confess +that to my own mind statistical amounts do not bring home any +enduring idea. Fifty million bushels of corn and flour simply seems +to mean a great deal. It is a powerful form of superlative, and soon +vanishes away, as do other superlatives in this age of strong words. +I was at Chicago and at Buffalo in October 1861. I went down to the +granaries, and climbed up into the elevators. I saw the wheat running +in rivers from one vessel into another, and from the railroad vans up +into the huge bins on the top stores of the warehouses;--for these +rivers of food run up hill as easily as they do down. I saw the corn +measured by the forty bushel measure with as much ease as we measure +an ounce of cheese, and with greater rapidity. I ascertained that the +work went on, week day and Sunday, day and night incessantly; rivers +of wheat and rivers of maize ever running. I saw the men bathed in +corn as they distributed it in its flow. I saw bins by the score +laden with wheat, in each of which bins there was space for a +comfortable residence. I breathed the flour, and drank the flour, +and felt myself to be enveloped in a world of breadstuff. And then +I believed, understood, and brought it home to myself as a fact, +that here in the corn lands of Michigan, and amidst the bluffs +of Wisconsin, and on the high table plains of Minnesota, and the +prairies of Illinois, had God prepared the food for the increasing +millions of the Eastern world, as also for the coming millions of the +Western. + +I do not find many minds constituted like my own, and therefore I +venture to publish the above figures. I believe them to be true in +the main, and they will show, if credited, that the increase during +the last four years has gone on with more than fabulous rapidity. For +myself I own that those figures would have done nothing unless I had +visited the spot myself. A man cannot, perhaps, count up the results +of such a work by a quick glance of his eye, nor communicate with +precision to another the conviction which his own short experience +has made so strong within himself;--but to himself seeing is +believing. To me it was so at Chicago and at Buffalo. I began then +to know what it was for a country to overflow with milk and honey, +to burst with its own fruits, and be smothered by its own riches. +From St. Paul down the Mississippi by the shores of Wisconsin and +Iowa,--by the ports on Lake Pepin,--by La Crosse, from which one +railway runs eastward,--by Prairie du Chien the terminus of a +second,--by Dunleath, Fulton, and Rock Island from whence three other +lines run eastward, all through that wonderful State of Illinois--the +farmers' glory,--along the ports of the great lakes,--through +Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and further Pennsylvania, up to Buffalo, the +great gate of the western Ceres, the loud cry was this--"How shall we +rid ourselves of our corn and wheat?" The result has been the passage +of 60,000,000 bushels of breadstuffs through that gate in one year! +Let those who are susceptible of statistics ponder that. For them who +are not I can only give this advice:--Let them go to Buffalo next +October, and look for themselves. + +In regarding the above figures and the increase shown between the +years 1860 and 1861, it must of course be borne in mind that during +the latter autumn no corn or wheat was carried into the Southern +States, and that none was exported from New Orleans or the mouth of +the Mississippi. The States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana +have for some time past received much of their supplies from +the north-western lands, and the cutting off of this current of +consumption has tended to swell the amount of grain which has been +forced into the narrow channel of Buffalo. There has been no southern +exit allowed, and the southern appetite has been deprived of its +food. But taking this item for all that it is worth,--or taking +it, as it generally will be taken, for much more than it can be +worth,--the result left will be materially the same. The grand +markets to which the western States look and have looked are those of +New England, New York, and Europe. Already corn and wheat are not the +common crops of New England. Boston, and Hartford, and Lowell are fed +from the great western States. The State of New York, which, thirty +years ago, was famous chiefly for its cereal produce, is now fed +from these States. New York city would be starved if it depended +on its own State; and it will soon be as true that England would +be starved if it depended on itself. It was but the other day that +we were talking of free trade in corn as a thing desirable, but as +yet doubtful;--but the other day that Lord Derby who may be Prime +Minister to-morrow, and Mr. Disraeli who may be Chancellor of the +Exchequer to-morrow, were stoutly of opinion that the corn laws might +be and should be maintained;--but the other day that the same opinion +was held with confidence by Sir Robert Peel, who, however, when the +day for the change came, was not ashamed to become the instrument +used by the people for their repeal. Events in these days march so +quickly that they leave men behind, and our dear old Protectionists +at home will have grown sleek upon American flour before they have +realized the fact that they are no longer fed from their own furrows. + +I have given figures merely as regards the trade of Buffalo; but it +must not be presumed that Buffalo is the only outlet from the great +corn lands of Northern America. In the first place no grain of the +produce of Canada finds its way to Buffalo. Its exit is by the St. +Lawrence, or by the Grand Trunk Railway, as I have stated when +speaking of Canada. And then there is the passage for large vessels +from the Upper Lakes, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie, +through the Welland Canal, into Lake Ontario, and out by the St. +Lawrence. There is also the direct communication from Lake Erie, by +the New York and Erie railway to New York. I have more especially +alluded to the trade of Buffalo, because I have been enabled to +obtain a reliable return of the quantity of grain and flour which +passes through that town, and because Buffalo and Chicago are the two +spots which are becoming most famous in the cereal history of the +western States. + +Everybody has a map of North America. A reference to such a map will +show the peculiar position of Chicago. It is at the south or head +of Lake Michigan, and to it converge railways from Wisconsin, Iowa, +Illinois, and Indiana. At Chicago is found the nearest water carriage +which can be obtained for the produce of a large portion of these +States. From Chicago there is direct water conveyance round through +the lakes to Buffalo at the foot of Lake Erie. At Milwaukee, higher +up on the lake, certain lines of railway come in, joining the lake to +the Upper Mississippi, and to the wheat-lands of Minnesota. Thence +the passage is round by Detroit which is the port for the produce +of the greatest part of Michigan, and still it all goes on towards +Buffalo. Then on Lake Erie there are the ports of Toledo, Cleveland, +and Erie. At the bottom of Lake Erie, there is this city of corn, at +which the grain and flour are transhipped into the canal boats and +into the railway cars for New York; and there is also the Welland +Canal, through which large vessels pass from the upper lakes, without +transhipment of their cargo. + +I have said above that corn--meaning maize or Indian corn--was to be +bought at Bloomington in Illinois for 10 cents or fivepence a bushel. +I found this also to be the case at Dixon--and also that corn of +inferior quality might be bought for fourpence; but I found also that +it was not worth the farmers' while to shell it and sell it at such +prices. I was assured that farmers were burning their Indian corn in +some places, finding it more available to them as fuel, than it was +for the market. The labour of detaching a bushel of corn from the +hulls or cobs is considerable, as is also the task of carrying it to +market. I have known potatoes in Ireland so cheap that they would not +pay for digging and carrying away for purposes of sale. There was +then a glut of potatoes in Ireland; and in the same way there was in +the autumn of 1861 a glut of corn in the western States. The best +qualities would fetch a price, though still a low price; but corn +that was not of the best quality was all but worthless. It did for +fuel, and was burnt. The fact was that the produce had re-created +itself quicker than mankind had multiplied. The ingenuity of man had +not worked quick enough for its disposal. The earth had given forth +her increase so abundantly that the lap of created humanity could not +stretch itself to hold it. At Dixon in 1861 corn cost fourpence a +bushel. In Ireland in 1848, it was sold for a penny a pound, a pound +being accounted sufficient to sustain life for a day,--and we all +felt that at that price food was brought into the country cheaper +than it had ever been brought before. + +Dixon is not a town of much apparent prosperity. It is one of those +places at which great beginnings have been made, but as to which the +deities presiding over new towns have not been propitious. Much of it +has been burnt down, and more of it has never been built up. It had a +straggling, ill-conditioned, uncommercial aspect, very different from +the look of Detroit, Milwaukee, or St. Paul. There was, however, a +great hotel there, as usual, and a grand bridge over the Rock River, +a tributary of the Mississippi which runs by or through the town. I +found that life might be maintained on very cheap terms at Dixon. To +me as a passing traveller the charges at the hotel were, I take it, +the same as elsewhere. But I learned from an inmate there that he +with his wife and horse were fed and cared for and attended for two +dollars or 8_s._ 4_d._ a day. This included a private sitting-room, +coals, light, and all the wants of life--as my informant told +me--except tobacco and whiskey. Feeding at such a house means a +succession of promiscuous hot meals as often as the digestion of the +patient can face them. Now I do not know any locality where a man can +keep himself and his wife, with all material comforts, and the luxury +of a horse and carriage, on cheaper terms than that. Whether or no it +might be worth a man's while to live at all at such a place as Dixon +is altogether another question. + +We went there because it is surrounded by the prairie, and out into +the prairie we had ourselves driven. We found some difficulty in +getting away from the corn, though we had selected this spot as one +at which the open rolling prairie was specially attainable. As long +as I could see a corn-field or a tree I was not satisfied. Nor indeed +was I satisfied at last. To have been thoroughly on the prairie and +in the prairie I should have been a day's journey from tilled land. +But I doubt whether that could now be done in the State of Illinois. +I got out into various patches and brought away specimens of +corn;--ears bearing sixteen rows of grain, with forty grains in each +row; each ear bearing a meal for a hungry man. + +At last we did find ourselves on the prairie, amidst the waving +grass, with the land rolling on before us in a succession of gentle +sweeps, never rising so as to impede the view, or apparently changing +in its general level,--but yet without the monotony of flatness. We +were on the prairie, but still I felt no satisfaction. It was private +property--divided among holders and pastured over by private cattle. +Salisbury plain is as wild, and Dartmoor almost wilder. Deer they +told me were to be had within reach of Dixon; but for the buffalo one +has to go much further afield than Illinois. The farmer may rejoice +in Illinois, but the hunter and the trapper must cross the big rivers +and pass away into the western territories before he can find lands +wild enough for his purposes. My visit to the corn-fields of Illinois +was in its way successful; but I felt as I turned my face eastward +towards Chicago that I had no right to boast that I had as yet made +acquaintance with a prairie. + +All minds were turned to the war, at Dixon as elsewhere. In Illinois +the men boasted that as regards the war, they were the leading State +of the Union. But the same boast was made in Indiana, and also in +Massachusetts; and probably in half the States of the North and West. +They, the Illinoisians, call their country the war nest of the West. +The population of the State is 1,700,000, and it had undertaken +to furnish sixty volunteer regiments of 1000 men each. And let it +be borne in mind that these regiments, when furnished, are really +full,--absolutely containing the thousand men when they are sent away +from the parent States. The number of souls above named will give +420,000 working men, and if out of these 60,000 are sent to the war, +the State, which is almost purely agricultural, will have given more +than one man in eight. When I was in Illinois, over forty regiments +had already been sent--forty-six if I remember rightly,--and there +existed no doubt whatever as to the remaining number. From the next +State of Indiana, with a population of 1,350,000, giving something +less than 350,000 working men, thirty-six regiments had been sent. +I fear that I am mentioning these numbers usque ad nauseam; but I +wish to impress upon English readers the magnitude of the effort +made by the States in mustering and equipping an army within six or +seven months of the first acknowledgment that such an army would be +necessary. The Americans have complained bitterly of the want of +English sympathy, and I think they have been weak in making that +complaint. But I would not wish that they should hereafter have the +power of complaining of a want of English justice. There can be no +doubt that a genuine feeling of patriotism was aroused throughout +North and West, and that men rushed into the ranks actuated by that +feeling--men for whom war and army life, a camp and fifteen dollars +a month, would not of themselves have had any attraction. It came +to that, that young men were ashamed not to go into the army. This +feeling of course produced coercion, and the movement was in that way +tyrannical. There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular +feeling among a democratic people. During the period of enlistment +this tyranny was very strong. But the existence of such a tyranny +proves the passion and patriotism of the people. It got the better +of the love of money, of the love of children, and of the love of +progress. Wives who with their bairns were absolutely dependent on +their husbands' labours, would wish their husbands to be at the +war. Not to conduce, in some special way, towards the war,--to have +neither father there, nor brother, nor son,--not to have lectured, or +preached, or written for the war,--to have made no sacrifice for the +war, to have had no special and individual interest in the war, was +disgraceful. One sees at a glance the tyranny of all this in such a +country as the States. One can understand how quickly adverse stories +would spread themselves as to the opinion of any man who chose to +remain tranquil at such a time. One shudders at the absolute absence +of true liberty which such a passion throughout a democratic country +must engender. But he who has observed all this must acknowledge that +that passion did exist. Dollars, children, progress, education, and +political rivalry all gave way to the one strong national desire for +the thrashing and crushing of those who had rebelled against the +authority of the Stars and Stripes. + +When we were at Dixon they were getting up the Dement regiment. The +attempt at the time did not seem to be prosperous, and the few men +who had been collected had about them a forlorn, ill-conditioned +look. But then, as I was told, Dixon had already been decimated and +re-decimated by former recruiting colonels. Colonel Dement, from whom +the regiment was to be named, and whose military career was only now +about to commence, had come late into the field. I did not afterwards +ascertain what had been his success, but I hardly doubt that he did +ultimately scrape together his thousand men. "Why don't you go?" I +said to a burly Irishman who was driving me. "I'm not a sound man, +yer honour," said the Irishman. "I'm deficient in me liver." Taking +the Irishmen, however, throughout the Union, they had not been found +deficient in any of the necessaries for a career of war. I do not +think that any men have done better than the Irish in the American +army. + +From Dixon we went to Chicago. Chicago is in many respects the +most remarkable city among all the remarkable cities of the Union. +Its growth has been the fastest and its success the most assured. +Twenty-five years ago there was no Chicago, and now it contains +120,000 inhabitants. Cincinnati on the Ohio, and St. Louis at the +junction of the Missouri and Mississippi, are larger towns; but they +have not grown large so quickly nor do they now promise so excessive +a development of commerce. Chicago may be called the metropolis +of American corn--the favourite city haunt of the American Ceres. +The goddess seats herself there amidst the dust of her full barns, +and proclaims herself a goddess ruling over things political and +philosophical as well as agricultural. Not furrows only are in her +thoughts, but free trade also, and brotherly love. And within her own +bosom there is a boast that even yet she will be stronger than Mars. +In Chicago there are great streets, and rows of houses fit to be the +residences of a new Corn Exchange nobility. They look out on the wide +lake which is now the highway for breadstuffs, and the merchant, as +he shaves at his window, sees his rapid ventures as they pass away, +one after the other, towards the East. + +I went over one great grain store in Chicago possessed by gentlemen +of the name of Sturgess and Buckenham. It was a world in itself,--and +the dustiest of all the worlds. It contained, when I was there, half +a million bushels of wheat--or a very great many, as I might say +in other language. But it was not as a storehouse that this great +building was so remarkable, but as a channel or a river course for +the flooding freshets of corn. It is so built that both railway vans +and vessels come immediately under its claws, as I may call the great +trunks of the elevators. Out of the railway vans the corn and wheat +is clawed up into the building, and down similar trunks it is at once +again poured out into the vessels. I shall be at Buffalo in a page or +two, and then I will endeavour to explain more minutely how this is +done. At Chicago the corn is bought and does change hands, and much +of it, therefore, is stored there for some space of time,--shorter +or longer as the case may be. When I was at Chicago, the only +limit to the rapidity of its transit was set by the amount of boat +accommodation. There were not bottoms enough to take the corn away +from Chicago, nor indeed on the railway was there a sufficiency of +rolling stock or locomotive power to bring it into Chicago. As I said +before, the country was bursting with its own produce and smothered +in its own fruits. + +At Chicago the hotel was bigger than other hotels, and grander. There +were pipes without end for cold water which ran hot, and for hot +water which would not run at all. The post-office also was grander +and bigger than other post-offices;--though the postmaster confessed +to me that that matter of the delivery of letters was one which could +not be compassed. Just at that moment it was being done as a private +speculation; but it did not pay, and would be discontinued. The +theatre too was large, handsome, and convenient; but on the night of +my attendance it seemed to lack an audience. A good comic actor it +did not lack, and I never laughed more heartily in my life. There was +something wrong too just at that time--I could not make out what--in +the constitution of Illinois, and the present moment had been +selected for voting a new constitution. To us in England such a +necessity would be considered a matter of importance, but it did not +seem to be much thought of here. "Some slight alteration probably," +I suggested. "No," said my informant--one of the judges of their +courts--"it is to be a thorough radical change of the whole +constitution. They are voting the delegates to-day." I went to see +them vote the delegates; but unfortunately got into a wrong place--by +invitation--and was turned out, not without some slight tumult. I +trust that the new constitution was carried through successfully. + +From these little details it may perhaps be understood how a town +like Chicago goes on and prospers, in spite of all the drawbacks +which are incident to newness. Men in those regions do not mind +failures, and when they have failed, instantly begin again. They make +their plans on a large scale, and they who come after them fill up +what has been wanting at first. Those taps of hot and cold water will +be made to run by the next owner of the hotel, if not by the present +owner. In another ten years the letters, I do not doubt, will all +be delivered. Long before that time the theatre will probably be +full. The new constitution is no doubt already at work; and if found +deficient, another will succeed to it without any trouble to the +State or any talk on the subject through the Union. Chicago was +intended as a town of export for corn, and, therefore, the corn +stores have received the first attention. When I was there, they were +in perfect working order. + +From Chicago we went on to Cleveland, a town in the State of Ohio on +Lake Erie, again travelling by the sleeping cars. I found that these +cars were universally mentioned with great horror and disgust by +Americans of the upper class. They always declared that they would +not travel in them on any account. Noise and dirt were the two +objections. They are very noisy, but to us belonged the happy power +of sleeping down noise. I invariably slept all through the night, and +knew nothing about the noise. They are also very dirty,--extremely +dirty,--dirty so as to cause much annoyance. But then they are not +quite so dirty as the day cars. If dirt is to be a bar against +travelling in America, men and women must stay at home. For myself I +don't much care for dirt, having a strong reliance on soap and water +and scrubbing brushes. No one regards poisons who carries antidotes +in which he has perfect faith. + +Cleveland is another pleasant town,--pleasant as Milwaukee and +Portland. The streets are handsome, and are shaded by grand avenues +of trees. One of these streets is over a mile in length, and +throughout the whole of it, there are trees on each side--not little +paltry trees as are to be seen on the boulevards of Paris, but +spreading elms,--the beautiful American elm which not only spreads, +but droops also, and makes more of its foliage than any other tree +extant. And there is a square in Cleveland, well sized, as large +as Russell Square I should say, with open paths across it, and +containing one or two handsome buildings. I cannot but think that all +men and women in London would be great gainers if the iron rails of +the squares were thrown down, and the grassy enclosures thrown open +to the public. Of course the edges of the turf would be worn, and the +paths would not keep their exact shapes. But the prison look would be +banished, and the sombre sadness of the squares would be relieved. + +I was particularly struck by the size and comfort of the houses at +Cleveland. All down that street of which I have spoken, they do not +stand continuously together, but are detached and separate; houses +which in England would require some fifteen or eighteen hundred a +year for their maintenance. In the States, however, men commonly +expend upon house rent a much greater proportion of their income than +they do in England. With us it is, I believe, thought that a man +should certainly not apportion more than a seventh of his spending +income to his house rent,--some say not more than a tenth. But in +many cities of the States a man is thought to live well within bounds +if he so expends a fourth. There can be no doubt as to Americans +living in better houses than Englishmen,--making the comparison of +course between men of equal incomes. But the Englishman has many more +incidental expenses than the American. He spends more on wine, on +entertainments, on horses, and on amusements. He has a more numerous +establishment, and keeps up the adjuncts and outskirts of his +residence with a more finished neatness. + +These houses in Cleveland were very good,--as indeed they are in most +Northern towns; but some of them have been erected with an amount +of bad taste that is almost incredible. It is not uncommon to see +in front of a square brick house a wooden quasi-Greek portico, with +a pediment and Ionic columns, equally high with the house itself. +Wooden columns with Greek capitals attached to the doorways, and +wooden pediments over the windows, are very frequent. As a rule these +are attached to houses which, without such ornamentation, would +be simple, unpretentious, square, roomy residences. An Ionic or +Corinthian capital stuck on to a log of wood called a column, and +then fixed promiscuously to the outside of an ordinary house, is to +my eye the vilest of architectural pretences. Little turrets are +better than this; or even brown battlements made of mortar. Except in +America I do not remember to have seen these vicious bits of white +timber,--timber painted white,--plastered on to the fronts and sides +of red-brick houses. + +Again we went on by rail,--to Buffalo. I have travelled some +thousands of miles by railway in the States, taking long journeys by +night and longer journeys by day; but I do not remember that while +doing so I ever made acquaintance with an American. To an American +lady in a railway car I should no more think of speaking than I +should to an unknown female in the next pew to me at a London church. +It is hard to understand from whence come the laws which govern +societies in this respect; but there are different laws in different +societies, which soon obtain recognition for themselves. American +ladies are much given to talking, and are generally free from all +_mauvaise honte_. They are collected in manner, well instructed, and +resolved to have their share of the social advantages of the world. +In this phase of life they come out more strongly than English women. +But on a railway journey, be it ever so long, they are never seen +speaking to a stranger. English women, however, on English railways +are generally willing to converse. They will do so if they be on a +journey; but will not open their mouths if they be simply passing +backwards and forwards between their homes and some neighbouring +town. We soon learn the rules on these subjects;--but who make the +rules? If you cross the Atlantic with an American lady you invariably +fall in love with her before the journey is over. Travel with the +same woman in a railway car for twelve hours, and you will have +written her down in your own mind in quite other language than that +of love. + +And now for Buffalo, and the elevators. I trust I have made it +understood that corn comes into Buffalo, not only from Chicago, of +which I have spoken specially, but from all the ports round the +lakes: Racine, Milwaukee, Grandhaven, Port Sarnia, Detroit, Toledo, +Cleveland, and many others. At these ports the produce is generally +bought and sold; but at Buffalo it is merely passed through a +gateway. It is taken from vessels of a size fitted for the lakes, and +placed in other vessels fitted for the canal. This is the Erie Canal, +which connects the lakes with the Hudson River and with New York. +The produce which passes through the Welland Canal--the canal which +connects Lake Erie and the upper lakes with Lake Ontario and the St. +Lawrence--is not transhipped, seeing that the Welland Canal, which +is less than thirty miles in length, gives a passage to vessels of +500 tons. As I have before said, 60,000,000 bushels of breadstuff +were thus pushed through Buffalo in the open months of the year 1861. +These open months run from the middle of April to the middle of +November; but the busy period is that of the last two months,--the +time that is which intervenes between the full ripening of the corn +and the coming of the ice. + +An elevator is as ugly a monster as has been yet produced. In +uncouthness of form it outdoes those obsolete old brutes who used to +roam about the semi-aqueous world, and live a most uncomfortable life +with their great hungering stomachs and huge unsatisfied maws. The +elevator itself consists of a big moveable trunk,--moveable as is +that of an elephant, but not pliable, and less graceful even than an +elephant's. This is attached to a huge granary or barn; but in order +to give altitude within the barn for the necessary moving up and +down of this trunk,--seeing that it cannot be curled gracefully +to its purposes as the elephant's is curled,--there is an awkward +box erected on the roof of the barn, giving some twenty feet of +additional height, up into which the elevator can be thrust. It will +be understood, then, that this big moveable trunk, the head of which, +when it is at rest, is thrust up into the box on the roof, is made +to slant down in an oblique direction from the building to the river. +For the elevator is an amphibious institution, and flourishes only on +the banks of navigable waters. When its head is ensconced within its +box, and the beast of prey is thus nearly hidden within the building, +the unsuspicious vessel is brought up within reach of the creature's +trunk, and down it comes, like a mosquito's proboscis, right through +the deck, in at the open aperture of the hole, and so into the very +vitals and bowels of the ship. When there, it goes to work upon its +food with a greed and an avidity that is disgusting to a beholder +of any taste or imagination. And now I must explain the anatomical +arrangement by which the elevator still devours and continues to +devour, till the corn within its reach has all been swallowed, +masticated, and digested. Its long trunk, as seen slanting down from +out of the building across the wharf and into the ship, is a mere +wooden pipe; but this pipe is divided within. It has two departments; +and as the grain-bearing troughs pass up the one on a pliable band, +they pass empty down the other. The system therefore is that of an +ordinary dredging machine; only that corn, and not mud is taken away, +and that the buckets or troughs are hidden from sight. Below, within +the stomach of the poor bark, three or four labourers are at work, +helping to feed the elevator. They shovel the corn up towards its +maw, so that at every swallow he should take in all that he can hold. +Thus the troughs, as they ascend, are kept full, and when they reach +the upper building they empty themselves into a shoot, over which a +porter stands guard, moderating the shoot by a door, which the weight +of his finger can open and close. Through this doorway the corn +runs into a measure, and is weighed. By measures of forty bushels +each, the tale is kept. There stands the apparatus, with the figures +plainly marked, over against the porter's eye; and as the sum mounts +nearly up to forty bushels he closes the door till the grains run +thinly through, hardly a handful at a time, so that the balance is +exactly struck. Then the teller standing by marks down his figure, +and the record is made. The exact porter touches the string of +another door, and the forty bushels of corn run out at the bottom of +the measure, disappear down another shoot, slanting also towards the +water, and deposit themselves in the canal-boat. The transit of the +bushels of corn from the larger vessel to the smaller will have taken +less than a minute, and the cost of that transit will have been--a +farthing. + +But I have spoken of the rivers of wheat, and I must explain what +are those rivers. In the working of the elevator, which I have just +attempted to describe, the two vessels were supposed to be lying at +the same wharf, on the same side of the building, in the same water, +the smaller vessel inside the larger one. When this is the case +the corn runs direct from the weighing measure into the shoot that +communicates with the canal boat. But there is not room or time for +confining the work to one side of the building. There is water on +both sides, and the corn or wheat is elevated on the one side, and +re-shipped on the other. To effect this the corn is carried across +the breadth of the building; but, nevertheless, it is never handled +or moved in its direction on trucks or carriages requiring the use +of men's muscles for its motion. Across the floor of the building +are two gutters, or channels, and through these small troughs on a +pliable band circulate very quickly. They which run one way, in one +channel, are laden; they which return by the other channel are empty. +The corn pours itself into these, and they again pour it into the +shoot which commands the other water. And thus rivers of corn are +running through these buildings night and day. The secret of all the +motion and arrangement consists of course in the elevation. The corn +is lifted up; and when lifted up can move itself and arrange itself, +and weigh itself, and load itself. + +I should have stated that all this wheat which passes through Buffalo +comes loose, in bulk. Nothing is known of sacks or bags. To any +spectator at Buffalo this becomes immediately a matter of course; but +this should be explained, as we in England are not accustomed to see +wheat travelling in this open, unguarded, and plebeian manner. Wheat +with us is aristocratic, and travels always in its private carriage. + +Over and beyond the elevators there is nothing specially worthy of +remark at Buffalo. It is a fine city, like all other American cities +of its class. The streets are broad, the "blocks" are high, and cars +on tram-ways run all day, and nearly all night as well. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +BUFFALO TO NEW YORK. + + +We had now before us only two points of interest before we should +reach New York,--the Falls of Trenton, and West Point on the Hudson +River. We were too late in the year to get up to Lake George, which +lies in the State of New York, north of Albany, and is, in fact, the +southern continuation of Lake Champlain. Lake George, I know, is very +lovely, and I would fain have seen it; but visitors to it must have +some hotel accommodation, and the hotel was closed when we were near +enough to visit it. I was in its close neighbourhood three years +since in June; but then the hotel was not yet opened. A visitor to +Lake George must be very exact in his time. July and August are the +months,--with perhaps the grace of a week in September. + +The hotel at Trenton was also closed, as I was told. But even if +there were no hotel at Trenton, it can be visited without difficulty. +It is within a carriage drive of Utica, and there is moreover a +direct railway from Utica, with a station at the Trenton Falls. Utica +is a town on the line of railway from Buffalo to New York viâ Albany, +and is like all the other towns we had visited. There are broad +streets, and avenues of trees, and large shops, and excellent houses. +A general air of fat prosperity pervades them all, and is strong at +Utica as elsewhere. + +I remember to have been told thirty years ago that a traveller might +go far and wide in search of the picturesque, without finding a spot +more romantic in its loveliness than Trenton Falls. The name of the +river is Canada Creek West; but as that is hardly euphonious, the +course of the water which forms the falls has been called after +the town or parish. This course is nearly two miles in length, and +along the space of these two miles it is impossible to say where the +greatest beauty exists. To see Trenton aright one must be careful not +to have too much water. A sufficiency is no doubt desirable, and it +may be that at the close of summer, before any of the autumnal rains +have fallen, there may occasionally be an insufficiency. But if there +be too much, the passage up the rocks along the river is impossible. +The way on which the tourist should walk becomes the bed of the +stream, and the great charm of the place cannot be enjoyed. That +charm consists in descending into the ravine of the river, down +amidst the rocks through which it has cut its channel, and in walking +up the bed against the stream, in climbing the sides of the various +falls, and sticking close to the river till an envious block is +reached, which comes sheer down into the water, and prevents further +progress. This is nearly two miles above the steps by which the +descent is made; and not a foot of this distance but is wildly +beautiful. When the river is very low there is a pathway even beyond +that block; but when this is the case there can hardly be enough of +water to make the fall satisfactory. + +There is no one special cataract at Trenton which is in itself either +wonderful or pre-eminently beautiful. It is the position, form, +colour, and rapidity of the river which give the charm. It runs +through a deep ravine, at the bottom of which the water has cut +for itself a channel through the rocks, the sides of which rise +sometimes with the sharpness of the walls of a stone sarcophagus. +They are rounded too towards the bed, as I have seen the bottom of a +sarcophagus. Along the side of the right bank of the river there is +a passage, which when the freshets come is altogether covered. This +passage is sometimes very narrow, but in the narrowest parts an iron +chain is affixed into the rock. It is slippery and wet, and it is +well for ladies when visiting the place to be provided with outside +india-rubber shoes, which keep a hold upon the stone. If I remember +rightly there are two actual cataracts, one not far above the steps +by which the descent is made into the channel, and the other close +under a summer-house, near to which the visitors reascend into +the wood. But these cataracts, though by no means despicable as +cataracts, leave comparatively a slight impression. They tumble +down with sufficient violence, and the usual fantastic disposition +of their forces; but simply as cataracts, within a day's journey +of Niagara, they would be nothing. Up beyond the summer-house the +passage along the river can be continued for another mile, but it is +rough, and the climbing in some places rather difficult for ladies. +Every man, however, who has the use of his legs, should do it, for +the succession of rapids, and the twistings of the channels, and the +forms of the rocks are as wild and beautiful as the imagination can +desire. The banks of the river are closely wooded on each side; and +though this circumstance does not at first seem to add much to the +beauty, seeing that the ravine is so deep that the absence of wood +above would hardly be noticed, still there are broken clefts ever and +anon through which the colours of the foliage show themselves, and +straggling boughs and rough roots break through the rocks here and +there, and add to the wildness and charm of the whole. + +The walk back from the summer-house through the wood is very lovely; +but it would be a disappointing walk to visitors who had been +prevented by a flood in the river from coming up the channel, for it +indicates plainly how requisite it is that the river should be seen +from below and not from above. The best view of the larger fall +itself is that seen from the wood. And here again I would point out +that any male visitor should walk the channel of the river up and +down. The descent is too slippery and difficult for bipeds laden with +petticoats. We found a small hotel open at Trenton, at which we got +a comfortable dinner, and then in the evening were driven back to +Utica. + +Albany is the capital of the State of New York, and our road from +Trenton to West Point lay through that town; but these political +State capitals have no interest in themselves. The State legislature +was not sitting, and we went on, merely remarking that the manner in +which the railway cars are made to run backward and forward through +the crowded streets of the town must cause a frequent loss of human +life. One is led to suppose that children in Albany can hardly have +a chance of coming to maturity. Such accidents do not become the +subject of long-continued and strong comment in the States as they do +with us; but, nevertheless, I should have thought that such a state +of things as we saw there would have given rise to some remark on the +part of the philanthropists. I cannot myself say that I saw anybody +killed, and therefore should not be justified in making more than +this passing remark on the subject. + +When first the Americans of the Northern States began to talk much +of their country, their claims as to fine scenery were confined to +Niagara and the Hudson River. Of Niagara, I have spoken, and all +the world has acknowledged that no claim made on that head can be +regarded as exaggerated. As to the Hudson, I am not prepared to say +so much generally, though there is one spot upon it which cannot be +beaten for sweetness. I have been up and down the Hudson by water, +and confess that the entire river is pretty. But there is much of +it that is not pre-eminently pretty among rivers. As a whole it +cannot be named with the Upper Mississippi, with the Rhine, with the +Moselle, or with the Upper Rhone. The palisades just out of New York +are pretty, and the whole passage through the mountains from West +Point up to Catskill and Hudson is interesting. But the glory of the +Hudson is at West Point itself; and thither on this occasion we went +direct by railway, and there we remained for two days. The Catskill +mountains should be seen by a detour off from the river. We did not +visit them because, here again, the hotel was closed. I will leave +them therefore for the new handbook which Mr. Murray will soon bring +out. + +Of West Point there is something to be said independently of its +scenery. It is the Sandhurst of the States. Here is their military +school, from which officers are drafted to their regiments, and the +tuition for military purposes is, I imagine, of a high order. It +must, of course, be borne in mind that West Point, even as at present +arranged, is fitted to the wants of the old army, and not to that of +the army now required. It can go but a little way to supply officers +for 500,000 men; but would do much towards supplying them for 40,000. +At the time of my visit to West Point the regular army of the +northern States had not even then swelled itself to the latter +number. + +I found that there were 220 students at West Point; that about forty +graduate every year, each of whom receives a commission in the army; +that about 120 pupils are admitted every year; and that in the course +of every year about eighty either resign, or are called upon to leave +on account of some deficiency, or fail in their final examination. +The result is simply this, that one third of those who enter +succeeds, and that two thirds fail. The number of failures seemed +to me to be terribly large,--so large as to give great ground of +hesitation to a parent in accepting a nomination for the college. +I especially inquired into the particulars of these dismissals and +resignations, and was assured that the majority of them take place in +the first year of the pupillage. It is soon seen whether or no a lad +has the mental and physical capacities necessary for the education +and future life required of him, and care is taken that those shall +be removed early as to whom it may be determined that the necessary +capacity is clearly wanting. If this is done,--and I do not doubt +it,--the evil is much mitigated. The effect otherwise would be very +injurious. The lads remain till they are perhaps one and twenty, +and have then acquired aptitudes for military life, but no other +aptitudes. At that age the education cannot be commenced anew, and, +moreover, at that age the disgrace of failure is very injurious. +The period of education used to be five years, but has now been +reduced to four. This was done in order that a double class might be +graduated in 1861 to supply the wants of the war. I believe it is +considered that but for such necessity as that, the fifth year of +education can be ill spared. + +The discipline, to our English ideas, is very strict. In the first +place no kind of beer, wine, or spirits is allowed at West Point. The +law upon this point may be said to be very vehement, for it debars +even the visitors at the hotel from the solace of a glass of beer. +The hotel is within the bounds of the College, and as the lads might +become purchasers at the bar, there is no bar allowed. Any breach of +this law leads to instant expulsion; or, I should say rather, any +detection of such breach. The officer who showed us over the College +assured me that the presence of a glass of wine in a young man's room +would secure his exclusion, even though there should be no evidence +that he had tasted it. He was very firm as to this; but a little bird +of West Point, whose information, though not official or probably +accurate in words, seemed to me to be worthy of reliance in general, +told me that eyes were wont to wink when such glasses of wine made +themselves unnecessarily visible. Let us fancy an English mess of +young men from seventeen to twenty-one, at which a mug of beer would +be felony, and a glass of wine high treason! But the whole management +of the young with the Americans differs much from that in vogue +with us. We do not require so much at so early an age, either in +knowledge, in morals, or even in manliness. In America, if a lad be +under control, as at West Point, he is called upon for an amount of +labour, and a degree of conduct, which would be considered quite +transcendental and out of the question in England. But if he be not +under control, if at the age of eighteen he be living at home, or +be from his circumstances exempt from professorial power, he is a +full-fledged man with his pipe apparatus and his bar acquaintances. + +And then I was told at West Point how needful and yet how painful +it was that all should be removed who were in any way deficient in +credit to the establishment. "Our rules are very exact," my informant +told me; "but the carrying out of our rules is a task not always very +easy." As to this also I had already heard something from that little +bird of West Point, but of course I wisely assented to my informant, +remarking that discipline in such an establishment was essentially +necessary. The little bird had told me that discipline at West Point +had been rendered terribly difficult by political interference. "A +young man will be dismissed by the unanimous voice of the Board, and +will be sent away. And then, after a week or two, he will be sent +back, with an order from Washington, that another trial shall be +given him. The lad will march back into the college with all the +honours of a victory, and will be conscious of a triumph over the +superintendent and his officers." "And is that common?" I asked. +"Not at the present moment," I was told. "But it was common before +the war. While Mr. Buchanan, and Mr. Pierce, and Mr. Polk were +Presidents, no officer or board of officers then at West Point was +able to dismiss a lad whose father was a Southerner, and who had +friends among the Government." + +Not only was this true of West Point, but the same allegation is true +as to all matters of patronage throughout the United States. During +the three or four last Presidencies, and I believe back to the time +of Jackson, there has been an organized system of dishonesty in +the management of all beneficial places under the control of the +Government. I doubt whether any despotic court of Europe has been +so corrupt in the distribution of places,--that is in the selection +of public officers,--as has been the assemblage of statesmen at +Washington. And this is the evil which the country is now expiating +with its blood and treasure. It has allowed its knaves to stand in +the high places; and now it finds that knavish works have brought +about evil results. But of this I shall be constrained to say +something further hereafter. + +We went into all the schools of the College, and made ourselves +fully aware that the amount of learning imparted was far above our +comprehension. It always occurs to me in looking through the new +schools of the present day, that I ought to be thankful to persons +who know so much for condescending to speak to me at all in plain +English. I said a word to the gentleman who was with me about horses, +seeing a lot of lads going to their riding lesson. But he was down +upon me, and crushed me instantly beneath the weight of my own +ignorance. He walked me up to the image of a horse, which he took to +pieces bit by bit, taking off skin, muscle, flesh, nerves and bones, +till the animal was a heap of atoms, and assured me that the anatomy +of the horse throughout was one of the necessary studies of the +place. We afterwards went to see the riding. The horses themselves +were poor enough. This was accounted for by the fact that such of +them as had been found fit for military service had been taken for +the use of the army. + +There is a gallery in the College in which are hung sketches and +pictures by former students. I was greatly struck with the merit of +many of these. There were some copies from well-known works of art +of very high excellence, when the age is taken into account of those +by whom they were done. I don't know how far the art of drawing, +as taught generally and with no special tendency to military +instruction, may be necessary for military training; but if it be +necessary I should imagine that more is done in that direction at +West Point than at Sandhurst. I found, however, that much of that in +the gallery which was good had been done by lads who had not obtained +their degree, and who had shown an aptitude for drawing, but had not +shown any aptitude for other pursuits necessary to their intended +career. + +And then we were taken to the chapel, and there saw, displayed as +trophies, two of our own dear old English flags. I have seen many a +banner hung up in token of past victory, and many a flag taken on +the field of battle mouldering by degrees into dust on some chapel's +wall,--but they have not been the flags of England. Till this +day I had never seen our own colours in any position but one of +self-assertion and independent power. From the tone used by the +gentleman who showed them to me, I could gather that he would have +passed them by had he not foreseen that he could not do so without my +notice. "I don't know that we are right to put them there," he said. +"Quite right," was my reply, "as long as the world does such things." +In private life it is vulgar to triumph over one's friends, and +malicious to triumph over one's enemies. We have not got so far yet +in public life, but I hope we are advancing toward it. In the mean +time I did not begrudge the Americans our two flags. If we keep flags +and cannons taken from our enemies, and show them about as signs of +our own prowess after those enemies have become friends, why should +not others do so as regards us? It clearly would not be well for the +world that we should always beat other nations and never be beaten. +I did not begrudge that chapel our two flags. But nevertheless the +sight of them made me sick in the stomach and uncomfortable. As an +Englishman I do not want to be ascendant over any one. But it makes +me very ill when any one tries to be ascendant over me. I wish we +could send back with our compliments all the trophies that we hold, +carriage paid, and get back in return those two flags and any other +flag or two of our own that may be doing similar duty about the +world. I take it that the parcel sent away would be somewhat more +bulky than that which would reach us in return. + +The discipline at West Point seemed, as I have said, to be very +severe; but it seemed also that that severity could not in all cases +be maintained. The hours of study also were long, being nearly +continuous throughout the day. "English lads of that age could not +do it," I said; thus confessing that English lads must have in them +less power of sustained work than those of America. "They must do it +here," said my informant, "or else leave us." And then he took us off +to one of the young gentleman's quarters, in order that we might see +the nature of their rooms. We found the young gentleman fast asleep +on his bed, and felt uncommonly grieved that we should have thus +intruded on him. As the hour was one of those allocated by my +informant in the distribution of the day to private study, I could +not but take the present occupation of the embryo warrior as an +indication that the amount of labour required might be occasionally +too much even for an American youth. "The heat makes one so +uncommonly drowsy," said the young man. I was not the least surprised +at the exclamation. The air of the apartment had been warmed up to +such a pitch by the hot-pipe apparatus of the building that prolonged +life to me would, I should have thought, be out of the question in +such an atmosphere. "Do you always have it as hot as this?" I asked. +The young man swore that it was so, and with considerable energy +expressed his opinion that all his health and spirits and vitality +were being baked out of him. He seemed to have a strong opinion on +the matter, for which I respected him; but it had never occurred to +him, and did not then occur to him, that anything could be done to +moderate that deathly flow of hot air which came up to him from the +neighbouring infernal regions. He was pale in the face, and all the +lads there were pale. American lads and lasses are all pale. Men at +thirty and women at twenty-five have had all semblance of youth baked +out of them. Infants even are not rosy, and the only shades known +on the cheeks of children are those composed of brown, yellow, and +white. All this comes of those damnable hot-air pipes with which +every tenement in America is infested. "We cannot do without them," +they say. "Our cold is so intense that we must heat our houses +throughout. Open fire-places in a few rooms would not keep our toes +and fingers from the frost." There is much in this. The assertion is +no doubt true, and thereby a great difficulty is created. It is no +doubt quite within the power of American ingenuity to moderate the +heat of these stoves, and to produce such an atmosphere as may be +most conducive to health. In hospitals no doubt this will be done; +perhaps is done at present,--though even in hospitals I have thought +the air hotter than it should be. But hot-air-drinking is like +dram-drinking. There is the machine within the house capable of +supplying any quantity, and those who consume it unconsciously +increase their draughts, and take their drams stronger and stronger, +till a breath of fresh air is felt to be a blast direct from Boreas. + +West Point is at all points a military colony, and as such belongs +exclusively to the Federal Government as separate from the Government +of any individual State. It is the purchased property of the United +States as a whole, and is devoted to the necessities of a military +college. No man could take a house there, or succeed in getting even +permanent lodgings, unless he belonged to or were employed by the +establishment. There is no intercourse by road between West Point and +other towns or villages on the river side, and any such intercourse +even by water is looked upon with jealousy by the authorities. +The wish is that West Point should be isolated and kept apart +for military instruction to the exclusion of all other purposes +whatever,--especially love-making purposes. The coming over from the +other side of the water of young ladies by the ferry is regarded as a +great hindrance. They will come, and then the military students will +talk to them. We all know to what such talking leads! A lad when I +was there had been tempted to get out of barracks in plain clothes, +in order that he might call on a young lady at the hotel;--and was +in consequence obliged to abandon his commission and retire from the +Academy. Will that young lady ever again sleep quietly in her bed? +I should hope not. An opinion was expressed to me that there should +be no hotel in such a place;--that there should be no ferry, no +roads, no means by which the attention of the students should be +distracted;--that these military Rasselases should live in a happy +military valley from which might be excluded both strong drinks and +female charms,--those two poisons from which youthful military ardour +is supposed to suffer so much. + +It always seems to me that such training begins at the wrong end. +I will not say that nothing should be done to keep lads of eighteen +from strong drinks. I will not even say that there should not be +some line of moderation with reference to feminine allurements. But +as a rule the restraint should come from the sense, good feeling, +and education of him who is restrained. There is no embargo on the +beer-shops either at Harrow or at Oxford,--and certainly none upon +the young ladies. Occasional damage may accrue from habits early +depraved, or a heart too early and too easily susceptible; but +the injury so done is not, I think, equal to that inflicted by a +Draconian code of morals, which will probably be evaded, and will +certainly create a desire for its evasion. + +Nevertheless, I feel assured that West Point, taken as a whole, is an +excellent military academy, and that young men have gone forth from +it, and will go forth from it, fit for officers as far as training +can make men fit. The fault, if fault there be, is that which is to +be found in so many of the institutions of the United States; and is +one so allied to a virtue that no foreigner has a right to wonder +that it is regarded in the light of a virtue by all Americans. There +has been an attempt to make the place too perfect. In the desire to +have the establishment self-sufficient at all points, more has been +attempted than human nature can achieve. The lad is taken to West +Point, and it is presumed that from the moment of his reception, he +shall expend every energy of his mind and body in making himself a +soldier. At fifteen he is not to be a boy, at twenty he is not to be +a young man. He is to be a gentleman, a soldier, and an officer. I +believe that those who leave the College for the army are gentlemen, +soldiers, and officers, and therefore the result is good. But they +are also young men; and it seems that they have become so, not in +accordance with their training, but in spite of it. + +But I have another complaint to make against the authorities of +West Point, which they will not be able to answer so easily as +that already preferred. What right can they have to take the +very prettiest spot on the Hudson--the prettiest spot on the +continent--one of the prettiest spots which Nature, with all her +vagaries, ever formed--and shut it up from all the world for purposes +of war? Would not any plain, however ugly, do for military exercises? +Cannot broadsword, goose-step, and double quick time be instilled +into young hands and legs in any field of thirty, forty, or fifty +acres? I wonder whether these lads appreciate the fact that they are +studying fourteen hours a day amidst the sweetest river, rock, and +mountain scenery that the imagination can conceive. Of course it +will be said that the world at large is not excluded from West Point, +that the ferry to the place is open, and that there is even a hotel +there, closed against no man or woman who will consent to become a +teetotaller for the period of his visit. I must admit that this is +so; but still one feels that one is only admitted as a guest. I want +to go and live at West Point, and why should I be prevented? The +Government had a right to buy it of course, but Government should +not buy up the prettiest spots on a country's surface. If I were an +American I should make a grievance of this; but Americans will suffer +things from their Government which no Englishmen would endure. + +It is one of the peculiarities of West Point that every thing there +is in good taste. The Point itself consists of a bluff of land so +formed that the river Hudson is forced to run round three sides of +it. It is consequently a peninsula, and as the surrounding country is +mountainous on both sides of the river, it may be imagined that the +site is good. The views both up and down the river are lovely, and +the mountains behind break themselves so as to make the landscape +perfect. But this is not all. At West Point there is much of +buildings, much of military arrangement in the way of cannons, forts, +and artillery yards. All these things are so contrived as to group +themselves well into pictures. There is no picture of architectural +grandeur; but everything stands well and where it should stand, and +the eye is not hurt at any spot. I regard West Point as a delightful +place, and was much gratified by the kindness I received there. + +From West Point we went direct to New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR. + + +I think it may be received as a fact that the Northern States, taken +together, sent a full tenth of their able-bodied men into the ranks +of the army in the course of the summer and autumn of 1861. The +South, no doubt, sent a much larger proportion; but the effect of +such a drain upon the South would not be the same, because the slaves +were left at home to perform the agricultural work of the country. I +very much doubt whether any other nation ever made such an effort +in so short a time. To a people who can do this it may well be +granted that they are in earnest; and I do not think it should be +lightly decided by any foreigner that they are wrong. The strong and +unanimous impulse of a great people is seldom wrong. And let it be +borne in mind that in this case both people may be right,--the people +both of North and South. Each may have been guided by a just and +noble feeling; though each was brought to its present condition by +bad government and dishonest statesmen. + +There can be no doubt that, since the commencement of the war, the +American feeling against England has been very bitter. All Americans +to whom I spoke on the subject admitted that it was so. I, as an +Englishman, felt strongly the injustice of this feeling, and lost +no opportunity of showing or endeavouring to show that the line of +conduct pursued by England towards the States was the only line which +was compatible with her own policy and just interests, and also with +the dignity of the States' Government. I heard much of the tender +sympathy of Russia. Russia sent a flourishing general message, saying +that she wished the North might win, and ending with some good +general advice, proposing peace. It was such a message as strong +nations send to those which are weaker. Had England ventured on such +counsel the diplomatic paper would probably have been returned to +her. It is, I think, manifest that an absolute and disinterested +neutrality has been the only course which could preserve England from +deserved rebuke,--a neutrality on which her commercial necessity for +importing cotton or exporting her own manufactures should have no +effect. That our Government would preserve such a neutrality I have +always insisted, and I believe it has been done with a pure and +strict disregard to any selfish views on the part of Great Britain. +So far I think England may feel that she has done well in this +matter. But I must confess that I have not been so proud of the tone +of all our people at home as I have been of the decisions of our +statesmen. It seems to me that some of us never tire in abusing the +Americans, and calling them names for having allowed themselves to +be driven into this civil war. We tell them that they are fools and +idiots; we speak of their doings as though there had been some plain +course by which the war might have been avoided; and we throw it in +their teeth that they have no capability for war. We tell them of +the debt which they are creating, and point out to them that they +can never pay it. We laugh at their attempt to sustain loyalty, and +speak of them as a steady father of a family is wont to speak of some +unthrifty prodigal who is throwing away his estate and hurrying from +one ruinous debauchery to another. And, alas! we too frequently allow +to escape from us some expression of that satisfaction which one +rival tradesman has in the downfall of another. "Here you are with +all your boasting," is what we say. "You were going to whip all +creation the other day; and it has come to this! Brag is a good +dog, but Holdfast is a better. Pray remember that, if ever you find +yourselves on your legs again." That little advice about the two +dogs is very well, and was not altogether inapplicable. But this +is not the time in which it should be given. Putting aside slight +asperities, we will all own that the people of the States have +been and are our friends, and that as friends we cannot spare them. +For one Englishman who brings home to his own heart a feeling of +cordiality for France--a belief in the affection of our French +alliance--there are ten who do so with reference to the States. Now, +in these days of their trouble, I think that we might have borne with +them more tenderly. + +And how was it possible that they should have avoided this war? I +will not now go into the cause of it, or discuss the course which it +has taken, but will simply take up the fact of the rebellion. The +South rebelled against the North, and such being the case, was it +possible that the North should yield without a war? It may very +likely be well that Hungary should be severed from Austria, or Poland +from Russia, or Venice from Austria. Taking Englishmen in a lump, +they think that such separation would be well. The subject people do +not speak the language of those that govern them, or enjoy kindred +interests. But yet when military efforts are made by those who govern +Hungary, Poland, and Venice to prevent such separation, we do not +say that Russia and Austria are fools. We are not surprised that +they should take up arms against the rebels, but would be very much +surprised indeed if they did not do so. We know that nothing but +weakness would prevent their doing so. But if Austria and Russia +insist on tying to themselves a people who do not speak their +language or live in accordance with their habits, and are not +considered unreasonable in so insisting, how much more thoroughly +would they carry with them the sympathy of their neighbours +in preventing any secession by integral parts of their own +nationalities? Would England let Ireland walk off by herself if +she wished it? In 1843 she did wish it. Three-fourths of the Irish +population would have voted for such a separation; but England would +have prevented such secession _vi et armis_ had Ireland driven her to +the necessity of such prevention. + +I will put it to any reader of history whether, since government +commenced, it has not been regarded as the first duty of government +to prevent a separation of the territories governed, and whether also +it has not been regarded as a point of honour with all nationalities +to preserve uninjured each its own greatness and its own power? I +trust that I may not be thought to argue that all governments or even +all nationalities should succeed in such endeavours. Few kings have +fallen in my day in whose fate I have not rejoiced; none, I take it, +except that poor citizen King of the French. And I can rejoice that +England lost her American colonies, and shall rejoice when Spain has +been deprived of Cuba. But I hold that citizen King of the French in +small esteem, seeing that he made no fight, and I know that England +was bound to struggle when the Boston people threw her tea into the +water. Spain keeps a tighter hand on Cuba than we thought she would +some ten years since, and therefore she stands higher in the world's +respect. + +It may be well that the South should be divided from the North. I am +inclined to think that it would be well--at any rate for the North; +but the South must have been aware that such division could only +be effected in two ways: either by agreement,--in which case the +proposition must have been brought forward by the South and discussed +by the North,--or by violence. They chose the latter way, as being +the readier and the surer, as most seceding nations have done. +O'Connell, when struggling for the secession of Ireland, chose the +other, and nothing came of it. The South chose violence, and prepared +for it secretly and with great adroitness. If that be not rebellion +there never has been rebellion since history began; and if civil +war was ever justified in one portion of a nation by turbulence in +another, it has now been justified in the northern States of America. + +What was the North to do; this foolish North, which has been so +liberally told by us that she has taken up arms for nothing, that she +is fighting for nothing, and will ruin herself for nothing? When was +she to take the first step towards peace? Surely every Englishman +will remember that when the earliest tidings of the coming quarrel +reached us on the election of Mr. Lincoln, we all declared that any +division was impossible;--it was a mere madness to speak of it. The +States, which were so great in their unity, would never consent to +break up all their prestige and all their power by a separation! +Would it have been well for the North then to say, "If the South wish +it we will certainly separate?" After that, when Mr. Lincoln assumed +the power to which he had been elected, and declared with sufficient +manliness, and sufficient dignity also, that he would make no war +upon the South, but would collect the customs and carry on the +government, did we turn round and advise him that he was wrong? No. +The idea in England then was that his message was, if anything, too +mild. "If he means to be President of the whole Union," England said, +"he must come out with something stronger than that." Then came Mr. +Seward's speech, which was, in truth, weak enough. Mr. Seward had ran +Mr. Lincoln very hard for the President's chair on the republican +interest, and was--most unfortunately, as I think--made Secretary +of State by Mr. Lincoln, or by his party. The Secretary of State +holds the highest office in the United States Government under the +President. He cannot be compared to our Prime Minister, seeing +that the President himself exercises political power, and is +responsible for its exercise. Mr. Seward's speech simply amounted to +a declaration that separation was a thing of which the Union would +neither hear, speak, nor, if possible, think. Things looked very like +it; but no; they could never come to that! The world was too good, +and especially the American world. Mr. Seward had no specific against +secession; but let every free man strike his breast, look up to +heaven, determine to be good, and all would go right. A great deal +had been expected from Mr. Seward, and when this speech came out, we +in England were a little disappointed, and nobody presumed even then +that the North would let the South go. + +It will be argued by those who have gone into the details of American +politics that an acceptance of the Crittenden compromise at this +point would have saved the war. What is or was the Crittenden +compromise I will endeavour to explain hereafter; but the terms and +meaning of that compromise can have no bearing on the subject. The +republican party who were in power disapproved of that compromise, +and could not model their course upon it. The republican party may +have been right or may have been wrong; but surely it will not be +argued that any political party elected to power by a majority should +follow the policy of a minority, lest that minority should rebel. +I can conceive of no government more lowly placed than one which +deserts the policy of the majority which supports it, fearing either +the tongues or arms of a minority. + +As the next scene in the play, the State of South Carolina bombarded +Fort Sumter. Was that to be the moment for a peaceable separation? +Let us suppose that O'Connell had marched down to the Pigeon House at +Dublin, and had taken it--in 1843, let us say--would that have been +an argument to us for allowing Ireland to set up for herself? Is +that the way of men's minds, or of the minds of nations? The powers +of the President were defined by law, as agreed upon among all the +States of the Union, and against that power and against that law, +South Carolina raised her hand, and the other States joined her in +rebellion. When circumstances had come to that, it was no longer +possible that the North should shun the war. To my thinking the +rights of rebellion are holy. Where would the world have been, +or where would the world hope to be, without rebellion? But let +rebellion look the truth in the face, and not blanch from its own +consequences. She has to judge her own opportunities and to decide on +her own fitness. Success is the test of her judgment. But rebellion +can never be successful except by overcoming the power against which +she raises herself. She has no right to expect bloodless triumphs; +and if she be not the stronger in the encounter which she creates, +she must bear the penalty of her rashness. Rebellion is justified +by being better served than constituted authority, but cannot be +justified otherwise. Now and again it may happen that rebellion's +cause is so good that constituted authority will fall to the ground +at the first glance of her sword. This was so the other day in +Naples, when Garibaldi blew away the king's armies with a breath. But +this is not so often. Rebellion knows that it must fight, and the +legalized power against which rebels rise must of necessity fight +also. + +I cannot see at what point the North first sinned; nor do I think +that had the North yielded, England would have honoured her for her +meekness. Had she yielded without striking a blow she would have +been told that she had suffered the Union to drop asunder by her +supineness. She would have been twitted with cowardice, and told +that she was no match for Southern energy. It would then have seemed +to those who sat in judgment on her that she might have righted +everything by that one blow from which she had abstained. But having +struck that one blow, and having found that it did not suffice, could +she then withdraw, give way, and own herself beaten? Has it been so +usually with Anglo-Saxon pluck? In such case as that would there have +been no mention of those two dogs, Brag and Holdfast? The man of the +northern States knows that he has bragged,--bragged as loudly as his +English forefathers. In that matter of bragging the British lion and +the Star-spangled banner may abstain from throwing mud at each other. +And now the northern man wishes to show that he can hold fast also. +Looking at all this I cannot see that peace has been possible to the +North. + +As to the question of secession and rebellion being one and the +same thing, the point to me does not seem to bear an argument. The +confederation of States had a common army, a common policy, a common +capital, a common government, and a common debt. If one might secede, +any or all might secede, and where then would be their property, +their debt, and their servants? A confederation with such a license +attached to it would have been simply playing at national power. +If New York had seceded--a State which stretches from the Atlantic +to British North America--it would have cut New England off from +the rest of the Union. Was it legally within the power of New York +to place the six States of New England in such a position? And +why should it be assumed that so suicidal a power of destroying a +nationality should be inherent in every portion of the nation? The +States are bound together by a written compact, but that compact +gives each State no such power. Surely such a power would have been +specified had it been intended that it should be given. But there are +axioms in politics as in mathematics, which recommend themselves to +the mind at once, and require no argument for their proof. Men who +are not argumentative perceive at once that they are true. A part +cannot be greater than the whole. + +I think it is plain that the remnant of the Union was bound to take +up arms against those States which had illegally torn themselves off +from her; and if so, she could only do so with such weapons as were +at her hand. The United States' army had never been numerous or well +appointed; and of such officers and equipments as it possessed, the +more valuable part was in the hands of the Southerners. It was clear +enough that she was ill-provided, and that in going to war she was +undertaking a work as to which she had still to learn many of the +rudiments. But Englishmen should be the last to twit her with such +ignorance. It is not yet ten years since we were all boasting that +swords and guns were useless things, and that military expenditure +might be cut down to any minimum figure that an economizing +Chancellor of the Exchequer could name. Since that we have +extemporized two, if not three armies. There are our volunteers at +home; and the army which holds India can hardly be considered as one +with that which is to maintain our prestige in Europe and the West. +We made some natural blunders in the Crimea, but in making those +blunders we taught ourselves the trade. It is the misfortune of the +northern States that they must learn these lessons in fighting their +own countrymen. In the course of our history we have suffered the +same calamity more than once. The Roundheads, who beat the Cavaliers +and created English liberty, made themselves soldiers on the bodies +of their countrymen. But England was not ruined by that civil war; +nor was she ruined by those which preceded it. From out of these she +came forth stronger than she entered them,--stronger, better, and +more fit for a great destiny in the history of nations. The northern +States had nearly five hundred thousand men under arms when the +winter of 1861 commenced, and for that enormous multitude all +commissariat requirements were well supplied. Camps and barracks +sprang up through the country as though by magic. Clothing was +obtained with a rapidity that has, I think, never been equalled. The +country had not been prepared for the fabrication of arms, and yet +arms were put into the men's hands almost as quickly as the regiments +could be mustered. The eighteen millions of the northern States lent +themselves to the effort as one man. Each State gave the best it had +to give. Newspapers were as rabid against each other as ever, but +no newspaper could live which did not support the war. "The South +has rebelled against the law, and the law shall be supported." This +has been the cry and the heartfelt feeling of all men; and it is a +feeling which cannot but inspire respect. + +We have heard much of the tyranny of the present Government of the +United States, and of the tyranny also of the people. They have both +been very tyrannical. The "habeas corpus" has been suspended by the +word of one man. Arrests have been made on men who have been hardly +suspected of more than secession principles. Arrests have, I believe, +been made in cases which have been destitute even of any fair ground +for such suspicion. Newspapers have been stopped for advocating views +opposed to the feelings of the North, as freely as newspapers were +ever stopped in France for opposing the Emperor. A man has not been +safe in the streets who was known to be a Secessionist. It must be at +once admitted that opinion in the northern States was not free when I +was there. But has opinion ever been free anywhere on all subjects? +In the best-built strongholds of freedom have there not always been +questions on which opinion has not been free; and must it not always +be so? When the decision of a people on any matter has become, so +to say, unanimous,--when it has shown itself to be so general as +to be clearly the expression of the nation's voice as a single +chorus,--that decision becomes holy, and may not be touched. Could +any newspaper be produced in England which advocated the overthrow +of the Queen? And why may not the passion for the Union be as strong +with the northern States, as the passion for the Crown is strong with +us? The Crown with us is in no danger, and therefore the matter is at +rest. But I think we must admit that in any nation, let it be ever +so free, there may be points on which opinion must be held under +restraint. And as to those summary arrests, and the suspension of the +"habeas corpus," is there not something to be said for the States' +Government on that head also? Military arrests are very dreadful, +and the soul of a nation's liberty is that personal freedom from +arbitrary interference which is signified to the world by those two +unintelligible Latin words. A man's body shall not be kept in duress +at any man's will; but shall be brought up into open court, with +uttermost speed, in order that the law may say whether or no it +should be kept in duress. That I take it is the meaning of "habeas +corpus," and it is easy to see that the suspension of that privilege +destroys all freedom, and places the liberty of every individual at +the mercy of him who has the power to suspend it. Nothing can be +worse than this; and such suspension, if extended over any long +period of years, will certainly make a nation weak, mean-spirited, +and poor. But in a period of civil war, or even of a widely-extended +civil commotion, things cannot work in their accustomed grooves. A +lady does not willingly get out of her bedroom-window with nothing on +but her nightgown; but when her house is on fire she is very thankful +for an opportunity of doing so. It is not long since the "habeas +corpus" was suspended in parts of Ireland, and absurd arrests were +made almost daily when that suspension first took effect. It was +grievous that there should be necessity for such a step, and it is +very grievous now that such necessity should be felt in the northern +States. But I do not think that it becomes Englishmen to bear +hardly upon Americans generally for what has been done in that +matter. Mr. Seward, in an official letter to the British Minister at +Washington--which letter, through official dishonesty, found its way +to the press--claimed for the President the right of suspending the +"habeas corpus" in the States whenever it might seem good to him +to do so. If this be in accordance with the law of the land, which +I think must be doubted, the law of the land is not favourable to +freedom. For myself, I conceive that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward have +been wrong in their law, and that no such right is given to the +President by the Constitution of the United States. This I will +attempt to prove in some subsequent chapter. But I think it must be +felt by all who have given any thought to the constitution of the +States, that let what may be the letter of the law, the Presidents of +the United States have had no such power. It is because the States +have been no longer united that Mr. Lincoln has had the power, +whether it be given to him by the law or no. + +And then as to the debt; it seems to me very singular that we in +England should suppose that a great commercial people would be ruined +by a national debt. As regards ourselves, I have always looked on our +national debt as the ballast in our ship. We have a great deal of +ballast, but then the ship is very big. The States also are taking in +ballast at a rather rapid rate;--and we too took it in quickly when +we were about it. But I cannot understand why their ship should not +carry, without shipwreck, that which our ship has carried without +damage, and, as I believe, with positive advantage to its sailing. +The ballast, if carried honestly, will not, I think, bring the vessel +to grief. The fear is lest the ballast should be thrown overboard. + +So much I have said, wishing to plead the cause of the northern +States before the bar of English opinion, and thinking that there is +ground for a plea in their favour. But yet I cannot say that their +bitterness against Englishmen has been justified, or that their tone +towards England has been dignified. Their complaint is that they +have received no sympathy from England; but it seems to me that a +great nation should not require an expression of sympathy during its +struggle. Sympathy is for the weak rather than for the strong. When +I hear two powerful men contending together in argument, I do not +sympathize with him who has the best of it; but I watch the precision +of his logic, and acknowledge the effects of his rhetoric. There has +been a whining weakness in the complaints made by Americans against +England, which has done more to lower them as a people in my judgment +than any other part of their conduct during the present crisis. When +we were at war with Russia, the feeling of the States was strongly +against us. All their wishes were with our enemies. When the Indian +mutiny was at its worst, the feeling of France was equally adverse to +us. The joy expressed by the French newspapers was almost ecstatic. +But I do not think that on either occasion we bemoaned ourselves +sadly on the want of sympathy shown by our friends. On each occasion +we took the opinion expressed for what it was worth, and managed to +live it down. We listened to what was said, and let it pass by. When +in each case we had been successful, there was an end of our friends' +croakings. + +But in the northern States of America the bitterness against England +has amounted almost to a passion. The players, those chroniclers of +the time, have had no hits so sure as those which have been aimed +at Englishmen as cowards, fools, and liars. No paper has dared to +say that England has been true in her American policy. The name +of an Englishman has been made a byword for reproach. In private +intercourse private amenities have remained. I, at any rate, may +boast that such has been the case as regards myself. But even in +private life I have been unable to keep down the feeling that I have +always been walking over smothered ashes. + +It may be that, when the civil war in America is over, all this will +pass by, and there will be nothing left of international bitterness +but its memory. It is sincerely to be hoped that this may be +so;--that even the memory of the existing feeling may fade away and +become unreal. I for one cannot think that two nations, situated as +are the States and England, should permanently quarrel and avoid each +other. But words have been spoken which will, I fear, long sound in +men's ears, and thoughts have sprung up which will not easily allow +themselves to be extinguished. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +NEW YORK. + + +Speaking of New York as a traveller I have two faults to find with +it. In the first place there is nothing to see; and in the second +place there is no mode of getting about to see anything. Nevertheless +New York is a most interesting city. It is the third biggest city +in the known world;--for those Chinese congregations of unwinged +ants are not cities in the known world. In no other city is there +a population so mixed and cosmopolitan in their modes of life. And +yet in no other city that I have seen are there such strong and +ever-visible characteristics of the social and political bearings of +the nation to which it belongs. New York appears to me as infinitely +more American than Boston, Chicago, or Washington. It has no peculiar +attribute of its own, as have those three cities; Boston in its +literature and accomplished intelligence, Chicago in its internal +trade, and Washington in its congressional and State politics. +New York has its literary aspirations, its commercial grandeur, +and,--heaven knows,--it has its politics also. But these do not +strike the visitor as being specially characteristic of the city. +That it is pre-eminently American is its glory or its disgrace,--as +men of different ways of thinking may decide upon it. Free +institutions, general education, and the ascendancy of dollars are +the words written on every paving-stone along Fifth Avenue, down +Broadway, and up Wall Street. Every man can vote, and values the +privilege. Every man can read, and uses the privilege. Every man +worships the dollar, and is down before his shrine from morning to +night. + +As regards voting and reading no American will be angry with me +for saying so much of him; and no Englishman, whatever may be his +ideas as to the franchise in his own country, will conceive that +I have said aught to the dishonour of an American. But as to that +dollar-worshipping, it will of course seem that I am abusing the New +Yorkers. We all know what a wretchedly wicked thing money is! How it +stands between us and heaven! How it hardens our hearts, and makes +vulgar our thoughts! Dives has ever gone to the devil, while Lazarus +has been laid up in heavenly lavender. The hand that employs itself +in compelling gold to enter the service of man has always been +stigmatized as the ravisher of things sacred. The world is agreed +about that, and therefore the New Yorker is in a bad way. There +are very few citizens in any town known to me which under this +dispensation are in a good way, but the New Yorker is in about the +worst way of all. Other men, the world over, worship regularly at the +shrine with matins and vespers, nones and complines, and whatever +other daily services may be known to the religious houses; but the +New Yorker is always on his knees. + +That is the amount of the charge which I bring against New York; +and now having laid on my paint thickly, I shall proceed, like an +unskilful artist, to scrape a great deal of it off again. New York +has been a leading commercial city in the world for not more than +fifty or sixty years. As far as I can learn, its population at the +close of the last century did not exceed 60,000, and ten years later +it had not reached 100,000. In 1860 it had reached nearly 800,000 in +the city of New York itself. To this number must be added the numbers +of Brooklyn, Williamsburgh, and the city of New Jersey, in order +that a true conception may be had of the population of this American +metropolis, seeing that those places are as much a part of New York +as Southwark is of London. By this the total will be swelled to +considerably above a million. It will no doubt be admitted that this +growth has been very fast, and that New York may well be proud of it. +Increase of population is, I take it, the only trustworthy sign of +a nation's success or of a city's success. We boast that London has +beaten the other cities of the world, and think that that boast is +enough to cover all the social sins for which London has to confess +her guilt. New York beginning with 60,000 sixty years since has now a +million souls;--a million mouths, all of which eat a sufficiency of +bread, all of which speak _ore rotundo_, and almost all of which can +read. And this has come of its love of dollars. + +For myself I do not believe that Dives is so black as he is painted, +or that his peril is so imminent. To reconcile such an opinion with +holy writ might place me in some difficulty were I a clergyman. +Clergymen in these days are surrounded by difficulties of this +nature, finding it necessary to explain away many old-established +teachings which narrowed the Christian Church, and to open the +door wide enough to satisfy the aspirations and natural hopes +of instructed men. The brethren of Dives are now so many and so +intelligent that they will no longer consent to be damned without +looking closely into the matter themselves. I will leave them to +settle the matter with the Church, merely assuring them of my +sympathies in their little difficulties in any case in which mere +money causes the hitch. + +To eat his bread in the sweat of his brow was man's curse in Adam's +day, but is certainly man's blessing in our day. And what is eating +one's bread in the sweat of one's brow but making money? I will +believe no man who tells me that he would not sooner earn two loaves +than one;--and if two, then two hundred. I will believe no man who +tells me that he would sooner earn one dollar a day than two;--and +if two, then two hundred. That is, in the very nature of the +argument,--_coeteris paribus_. When a man tells me that he would +prefer one honest loaf to two that are dishonest, I will, in all +possible cases, believe him. So also a man may prefer one quiet loaf +to two that are unquiet. But under circumstances that are the same, +and to a man who is sane, a whole loaf is better than half, and two +loaves are better than one. The preachers have preached well, but on +this matter they have preached in vain. Dives has never believed that +he will be damned because he is Dives. He has never even believed +that the temptations incident to his position have been more than a +fair counterpoise, or even so much as a fair counterpoise, to his +opportunities for doing good. All men who work desire to prosper +by their work, and they so desire by the nature given to them from +God. Wealth and progress must go on hand in hand together, let the +accidents which occasionally divide them for a time happen as often +as they may. The progress of the Americans has been caused by their +aptitude for money-making, and that continual kneeling at the shrine +of the coined goddess has carried them across from New York to San +Francisco. Men who kneel at that shrine are called on to have ready +wits, and quick hands, and not a little aptitude for self-denial. The +New Yorker has been true to his dollar, because his dollar has been +true to him. + +But not on this account can I, nor on this account will any +Englishman, reconcile himself to the savour of dollars which pervades +the atmosphere of New York. The _ars celare artem_ is wanting. The +making of money is the work of man; but he need not take his work +to bed with him, and have it ever by his side at table, amidst his +family, in church, while he disports himself, as he declares his +passion to the girl of his heart, in the moments of his softest +bliss, and at the periods of his most solemn ceremonies. That many +do so elsewhere than in New York,--in London, for instance, in Paris, +among the mountains of Switzerland, and the steppes of Russia, I +do not doubt. But there is generally a veil thrown over the object +of the worshipper's idolatry. In New York one's ear is constantly +filled with the fanatic's voice as he prays, one's eyes are always +on the familiar altar. The frankincense from the temple is ever in +one's nostrils. I have never walked down Fifth Avenue alone without +thinking of money. I have never walked there with a companion without +talking of it. I fancy that every man there, in order to maintain the +spirit of the place, should bear on his forehead a label stating how +many dollars he is worth, and that every label should be expected to +assert a falsehood. + +I do not think that New York has been less generous in the use of its +money than other cities, or that the men of New York generally are +so. Perhaps I might go farther and say that in no city has more been +achieved for humanity by the munificence of its richest citizens than +in New York. Its hospitals, asylums, and institutions for the relief +of all ailments to which flesh is heir, are very numerous, and beyond +praise in the excellence of their arrangements. And this has been +achieved in a great degree by private liberality. Men in America +are not as a rule anxious to leave large fortunes to their children. +The millionaire when making his will very generally gives back a +considerable portion of the wealth which he has made to the city in +which he made it. The rich citizen is always anxious that the poor +citizen shall be relieved. It is a point of honour with him to raise +the character of his municipality, and to provide that the deaf and +dumb, the blind, the mad, the idiots, the old, and the incurable +shall have such alleviation in their misfortune as skill and kindness +can afford. + +Nor is the New Yorker a hugger-mugger with his money. He does not +hide up his dollars in old stockings and keep rolls of gold in hidden +pots. He does not even invest it where it will not grow but only +produce small though sure fruit. He builds houses, he speculates +largely, he spreads himself in trade to the extent of his wings,--and +not seldom somewhat further. He scatters his wealth broadcast over +strange fields, trusting that it may grow with an increase of an +hundred-fold, but bold to bear the loss should the strange field +prove itself barren. His regret at losing his money is by no means +commensurate with his desire to make it. In this there is a living +spirit which to me divests the dollar-worshipping idolatry of +something of its ugliness. The hand when closed on the gold is +instantly reopened. The idolator is anxious to get, but he is anxious +also to spend. He is energetic to the last, and has no comfort +with his stock unless it breeds with transatlantic rapidity of +procreation. + +So much I say, being anxious to scrape off some of that daub of +black paint with which I have smeared the face of my New Yorker; but +not desiring to scrape it all off. For myself, I do not love to +live amidst the clink of gold, and never have "a good time," as the +Americans say, when the price of shares and percentages come up in +conversation. That state of men's minds here which I have endeavoured +to explain tends, I think, to make New York disagreeable. A stranger +there who has no great interest in percentages soon finds himself +anxious to escape. By degrees he perceives that he is out of his +element, and had better go away. He calls at the bank, and when he +shows himself ignorant as to the price at which his sovereigns should +be done, he is conscious that he is ridiculous. He is like a man who +goes out hunting for the first time at forty years of age. He feels +himself to be in the wrong place, and is anxious to get out of it. +Such was my experience of New York, at each of the visits that I paid +to it. + +But yet, I say again, no other American city is so intensely American +as New York. It is generally considered that the inhabitants of +New England, the Yankees properly so called, have the American +characteristics of physiognomy in the fullest degree. The lantern +jaws, the thin and lithe body, the dry face on which there has +been no tint of the rose since the baby's long-clothes were first +abandoned, the harsh, thick hair, the thin lips, the intelligent +eyes, the sharp voice with the nasal twang--not altogether harsh, +though sharp and nasal,--all these traits are supposed to belong +especially to the Yankee. Perhaps it was so once, but at present they +are, I think, more universally common in New York than in any other +part of the States. Go to Wall Street, the front of the Astor House, +and the regions about Trinity Church, and you will find them in their +fullest perfection. + +What circumstances of blood or food, of early habit or subsequent +education, have created for the latter-day American his present +physiognomy? It is as completely marked, as much his own, as is that +of any race under the sun that has bred in and in for centuries. But +the American owns a more mixed blood than any other race known. The +chief stock is English, which is itself so mixed that no man can +trace its ramifications. With this are mingled the bloods of Ireland, +Holland, France, Sweden, and Germany. All this has been done within +but a few years, so that the American may be said to have no claim +to any national type of face. Nevertheless, no man has a type of +face so clearly national as the American. He is acknowledged by it +all over the continent of Europe, and on his own side of the water +is gratified by knowing that he is never mistaken for his English +visitor. I think it comes from the hot-air pipes and from dollar +worship. In the Jesuit his mode of dealing with things divine has +given a peculiar cast of countenance; and why should not the American +be similarly moulded by his special aspirations? As to the hot-air +pipes, there can, I think, be no doubt that to them is to be charged +the murder of all rosy cheeks throughout the States. If the effect +was to be noticed simply in the dry faces of the men about Wall +Street, I should be very indifferent to the matter. But the young +ladies of Fifth Avenue are in the same category. The very pith and +marrow of life is baked out of their young bones by the hot-air +chambers to which they are accustomed. Hot air is the great destroyer +of American beauty. + +In saying that there is very little to be seen in New York, I have +also said that there is no way of seeing that little. My assertion +amounts to this,--that there are no cabs. To the reading world at +large this may not seem to be much, but let the reading world go to +New York, and it will find out how much the deficiency means. In +London, in Paris, in Florence, in Rome, in the Havana, or at Grand +Cairo, the cab-driver or attendant does not merely drive the cab or +belabour the donkey, but he is the visitor's easiest and cheapest +guide. In London, the Tower, Westminster Abbey, and Madame Tussaud, +are found by the stranger without difficulty, and almost without a +thought, because the cab-driver knows the whereabouts and the way. +Space is moreover annihilated, and the huge distances of the English +metropolis are brought within the scope of mortal power. But in New +York there is no such institution. + +In New York there are street omnibuses as we have,--there are +street cars such as last year we declined to have,--and there +are very excellent public carriages; but none of these give you +the accommodation of a cab, nor can all of them combined do +so. The omnibuses, though clean and excellent, were to me very +unintelligible. They have no conductor to them. To know their +different lines and usages a man should have made a scientific study +of the city. To those going up and down Broadway I became accustomed, +but in them I was never quite at my ease. The money has to be paid +through a little hole behind the driver's back, and should, as I +learned at last, be paid immediately on entrance. But in getting up +to do this I always stumbled about, and it would happen that when +with considerable difficulty I had settled my own account, two or +three ladies would enter, and would hand me, without a word, some +coins with which I had no life-long familiarity in order that I might +go through the same ceremony on their account. The change I would +usually drop into the straw, and then there would arise trouble and +unhappiness. Before I became aware of that law as to instant payment, +bells used to be rung at me which made me uneasy. I knew I was not +behaving as a citizen should behave, but could not compass the exact +points of my delinquency. And then when I desired to escape, the door +being strapped up tight, I would halloo vainly at the driver through +the little hole; whereas, had I known my duty, I should have rung +a bell, or pulled a strap, according to the nature of the omnibus +in question. In a month or two all these things may possibly be +learned;--but the visitor requires his facilities for locomotion at +the first moment of his entrance into the city. I heard it asserted +by a lecturer in Boston, Mr. Wendell Phillips, whose name is there +a household word, that citizens of the United States carried brains +in their fingers as well as in their heads, whereas "common people," +by which Mr. Phillips intended to designate the remnant of mankind +beyond the United States, were blessed with no such extended cerebral +development. Having once learned this fact from Mr. Phillips, +I understood why it was that a New York omnibus should be so +disagreeable to me, and at the same time so suitable to the wants of +the New Yorkers. + +And then there are street cars--very long omnibuses--which run on +rails but are dragged by horses. They are capable of holding forty +passengers each, and as far as my experience goes carry an average +load of sixty. The fare of the omnibus is six cents or three pence. +That of the street car five cents or two pence halfpenny. They run +along the different avenues, taking the length of the city. In the +upper or new part of the town their course is simple enough, but +as they descend to the Bowery, Peckslip, and Pearl Street, nothing +can be conceived more difficult or devious than their courses. The +Broadway omnibus, on the other hand, is a straightforward honest +vehicle in the lower part of the town, becoming, however, dangerous +and miscellaneous when it ascends to Union Square and the vicinities +of fashionable life. + +The street cars are manned with conductors, and therefore are free +from many of the perils of the omnibus, but they have perils of their +own. They are always quite full. By that I mean that every seat is +crowded, that there is a double row of men and women standing down +the centre, and that the driver's platform in front is full, and also +the conductor's platform behind. That is the normal condition of a +street car in the Third Avenue. You, as a stranger in the middle of +the car, wish to be put down at, let us say, 89th Street. In the map +of New York now before me the cross streets running from east to +west are numbered up northwards as far as 154th Street. It is quite +useless for you to give the number as you enter. Even an American +conductor, with brains all over him, and an anxious desire to +accommodate, as is the case with all these men, cannot remember. You +are left therefore in misery to calculate the number of the street +as you move along, vainly endeavouring through the misty glass to +decipher the small numbers which after a day or two you perceive to +be written on the lamp posts. + +But I soon gave up all attempts at keeping a seat in one of these +cars. It became my practice to sit down on the outside iron rail +behind, and as the conductor generally sat in my lap I was in a +measure protected. As for the inside of these vehicles, the women +of New York were, I must confess, too much for me. I would no +sooner place myself on a seat, than I would be called on by a mute, +unexpressive, but still impressive stare into my face, to surrender +my place. From cowardice if not from gallantry I would always obey; +and as this led to discomfort and an irritated spirit, I preferred +nursing the conductor on the hard bar in the rear. + +And here if I seem to say a word against women in America, I beg that +it may be understood that I say that word only against a certain +class; and even as to that class I admit that they are respectable, +intelligent, and, as I believe, industrious. Their manners, however, +are to me more odious than those of any other human beings that I +ever met elsewhere. Nor can I go on with that which I have to say +without carrying my apology further, lest perchance I should be +misunderstood by some American women whom I would not only exclude +from my censure, but would include in the very warmest eulogium which +words of mine could express as to those of the female sex whom I love +and admire the most. I have known, do know, and mean to continue +to know as far as in me may lie, American ladies as bright, as +beautiful, as graceful, as sweet, as mortal limits for brightness, +beauty, grace, and sweetness will permit. They belong to the +aristocracy of the land, by whatever means they may have become +aristocrats. In America one does not inquire as to their birth, their +training, or their old names. The fact of their aristocratic power +comes out in every word and look. It is not only so with those who +have travelled or with those who are rich. I have found female +aristocrats with families and slender means, who have as yet made +no grand tour across the ocean. These women are charming beyond +expression. It is not only their beauty. Had he been speaking of +such, Wendell Phillips would have been right in saying that they have +brains all over them. So much for those who are bright and beautiful, +who are graceful and sweet! And now a word as to those who to me are +neither bright nor beautiful, and who can be to none either graceful +or sweet. + +It is a hard task that of speaking ill of any woman, but it seems +to me that he who takes upon himself to praise incurs the duty of +dispraising also where dispraise is, or to him seems to be, deserved. +The trade of a novelist is very much that of describing the softness, +sweetness, and loving dispositions of women; and this he does, +copying as best he can from nature. But if he only sings of that +which is sweet, whereas that which is not sweet too frequently +presents itself, his song will in the end be untrue and ridiculous. +Women are entitled to much observance from men, but they are entitled +to no observance which is incompatible with truth. Women, by the +conventional laws of society, are allowed to exact much from men, +but they are allowed to exact nothing for which they should not make +some adequate return. It is well that a man should kneel in spirit +before the grace and weakness of a woman, but it is not well that he +should kneel either in spirit or body if there be neither grace nor +weakness. A man should yield everything to a woman for a word, for a +smile,--to one look of entreaty. But if there be no look of entreaty, +no word, no smile, I do not see that he is called upon to yield much. + +The happy privileges with which women are at present blessed have +come to them from the spirit of chivalry. That spirit has taught men +to endure in order that women may be at their ease; and has generally +taught women to accept the ease bestowed on them with grace and +thankfulness. But in America the spirit of chivalry has sunk deeper +among men than it has among women. It must be borne in mind that in +that country material well-being and education are more extended than +with us; and that, therefore, men there have learned to be chivalrous +who with us have hardly progressed so far. The conduct of men to +women throughout the States is always gracious. They have learned the +lesson. But it seems to me that the women have not advanced as far +as the men have done. They have acquired a sufficient perception of +the privileges which chivalry gives them, but no perception of that +return which chivalry demands from them. Women of the class to which +I allude are always talking of their rights, but seem to have a most +indifferent idea of their duties. They have no scruple at demanding +from men everything that a man can be called on to relinquish in a +woman's behalf, but they do so without any of that grace which turns +the demand made into a favour conferred. + +I have seen much of this in various cities of America, but much +more of it in New York than elsewhere. I have heard young Americans +complain of it, swearing that they must change the whole tenor of +their habits towards women. I have heard American ladies speak of it +with loathing and disgust. For myself, I have entertained on sundry +occasions that sort of feeling for an American woman which the close +vicinity of an unclean animal produces. I have spoken of this with +reference to street cars, because in no position of life does an +unfortunate man become more liable to these anti-feminine atrocities +than in the centre of one of these vehicles. The woman, as she +enters, drags after her a misshapen, dirty mass of battered wirework, +which she calls her crinoline, and which adds as much to her grace +and comfort as a log of wood does to a donkey when tied to the +animal's leg in a paddock. Of this she takes much heed, not managing +it so that it may be conveyed up the carriage with some decency, but +striking it about against men's legs, and heaving it with violence +over people's knees. The touch of a real woman's dress is in itself +delicate; but these blows from a harpy's fins are loathsome. If +there be two of them they talk loudly together, having a theory that +modesty has been put out of court by women's rights. But, though +not modest, the woman I describe is ferocious in her propriety. She +ignores the whole world around her, and as she sits with raised chin +and face flattened by affectation, she pretends to declare aloud that +she is positively not aware that any man is even near her. She speaks +as though to her, in her womanhood, the neighbourhood of men was the +same as that of dogs or cats. They are there, but she does not hear +them, see them, or even acknowledge them by any courtesy of motion. +But her own face always gives her the lie. In her assumption of +indifference she displays her nasty consciousness, and in each +attempt at a would-be propriety is guilty of an immodesty. Who does +not know the timid retiring face of the young girl who when alone +among men unknown to her feels that it becomes her to keep herself +secluded? As many men as there are around her, so many knights has +such a one, ready bucklered for her service, should occasion require +such services. Should it not, she passes on unmolested,--but not, as +she herself will wrongly think, unheeded. But as to her of whom I am +speaking, we may say that every twist of her body, and every tone +of her voice is an unsuccessful falsehood. She looks square at you +in the face, and you rise to give her your seat. You rise from a +deference to your own old convictions, and from that courtesy which +you have ever paid to a woman's dress, let it be worn with ever such +hideous deformities. She takes the place from which you have moved +without a word or a bow. She twists herself round, banging your shins +with her wires, while her chin is still raised, and her face is still +flattened, and she directs her friend's attention to another seated +man, as though that place were also vacant, and necessarily at her +disposal. Perhaps the man opposite has his own ideas about chivalry. +I have seen such a thing, and have rejoiced to see it. + +You will meet these women daily, hourly,--everywhere in the streets. +Now and again you will find them in society, making themselves even +more odious there than elsewhere. Who they are, whence they come, +and why they are so unlike that other race of women of which I have +spoken, you will settle for yourself. Do we not all say of our chance +acquaintances after half an hour's conversation,--nay, after half an +hour spent in the same room without conversation,--that this woman +is a lady, and that that other woman is not? They jostle each other +even among us, but never seem to mix. They are closely allied; but +neither imbues the other with her attributes. Both shall be equally +well-born, or both shall be equally ill-born; but still it is so. +The contrast exists in England; but in America it is much stronger. +In England women become ladylike or vulgar. In the States they are +either charming or odious. + +See that female walking down Broadway. She is not exactly such a +one as her I have attempted to describe on her entrance into the +street car; for this lady is well-dressed, if fine clothes will +make well-dressing. The machinery of her hoops is not battered, and +altogether she is a personage much more distinguished in all her +expenditures. But yet she is a copy of the other woman. Look at the +train which she drags behind her over the dirty pavement, where dogs +have been, and chewers of tobacco, and everything concerned with +filth except a scavenger. At every hundred yards some unhappy man +treads upon the silken swab which she trails behind her,--loosening +it dreadfully at the girth one would say; and then see the style +of face and the expression of features with which she accepts the +sinner's half-muttered apology. The world, she supposes, owes her +everything because of her silken train,--even room enough in a +crowded thoroughfare to drag it along unmolested. But, according to +her theory, she owes the world nothing in return. She is a woman with +perhaps a hundred dollars on her back, and having done the world +the honour of wearing them in the world's presence, expects to be +repaid by the world's homage and chivalry. But chivalry owes her +nothing,--nothing, though she walk about beneath a hundred times +a hundred dollars,--nothing even though she be a woman. Let every +woman learn this,--that chivalry owes her nothing unless she also +acknowledge her debt to chivalry. She must acknowledge it and pay it; +and then chivalry will not be backward in making good her claims upon +it. + +All this has come of the street cars. But as it was necessary that I +should say it somewhere, it is as well said on that subject as on any +other. And now to continue with the street cars. They run, as I have +said, the length of the town, taking parallel lines. They will take +you from the Astor House, near the bottom of the town, for miles and +miles northward,--half way up the Hudson river,--for, I believe, five +pence. They are very slow, averaging about five miles an hour; but +they are very sure. For regular inhabitants, who have to travel five +or six miles perhaps to their daily work, they are excellent. I have +nothing really to say against the street cars. But they do not fill +the place of cabs. + +There are, however, public carriages, roomy vehicles dragged by two +horses, clean and nice, and very well suited to ladies visiting the +city. But they have none of the attributes of the cab. As a rule they +are not to be found standing about. They are very slow. They are very +dear. A dollar an hour is the regular charge; but one cannot regulate +one's motion by the hour. Going out to dinner and back costs two +dollars, over a distance which in London would cost two shillings. As +a rule, the cost is four times that of a cab; and the rapidity half +that of a cab. Under these circumstances I think I am justified in +saying that there is no mode of getting about in New York to see +anything. + +And now as to the other charge against New York, of there being +nothing to see. How should there be anything there to see of general +interest? In other large cities, cities as large in name as New York, +there are works of art, fine buildings, ruins, ancient churches, +picturesque costumes, and the tombs of celebrated men. But in New +York there are none of these things. Art has not yet grown up there. +One or two fine figures by Crawford are in the town,--especially +that of the sorrowing Indian at the rooms of the Historical Society; +but art is a luxury in a city which follows but slowly on the heels +of wealth and civilization. Of fine buildings,--which indeed are +comprised in art,--there are none deserving special praise or remark. +It might well have been that New York should ere this have graced +herself with something grand in architecture; but she has not done +so. Some good architectural effect there is, and much architectural +comfort. Of ruins of course there can be none; none at least of such +ruins as travellers admire, though perhaps some of that sort which +disgraces rather than decorates. Churches there are plenty, but none +that are ancient. The costume is the same as our own; and I need +hardly say that it is not picturesque. And the time for the tombs of +celebrated men has not yet come. A great man's ashes are hardly of +value till they have all but ceased to exist. + +The visitor to New York must seek his gratification and obtain his +instruction from the habits and manners of men. The American, though +he dresses like an Englishman, and eats roast beef with a silver +fork,--or sometimes with a steel knife,--as does an Englishman, +is not like an Englishman in his mind, in his aspirations, in +his tastes, or in his politics. In his mind he is quicker, more +universally intelligent, more ambitious of general knowledge, less +indulgent of stupidity and ignorance in others, harder, sharper, +brighter with the surface brightness of steel, than is an Englishman; +but he is more brittle, less enduring, less malleable, and I think +less capable of impressions. The mind of the Englishman has more +imagination, but that of the American more incision. The American is +a great observer, but he observes things material rather than things +social or picturesque. He is a constant and ready speculator; but all +speculations, even those which come of philosophy, are with him more +or less material. In his aspirations the American is more constant +than an Englishman,--or I should rather say he is more constant +in aspiring. Every citizen of the United States intends to do +something. Every one thinks himself capable of some effort. But in +his aspirations he is more limited than an Englishman. The ambitious +American never soars so high as the ambitious Englishman. He does +not even see up to so great a height; and when he has raised himself +somewhat above the crowd becomes sooner dizzy with his own altitude. +An American of mark, though always anxious to show his mark, is +always fearful of a fall. In his tastes the American imitates the +Frenchman. Who shall dare to say that he is wrong, seeing that +in general matters of design and luxury the French have won for +themselves the foremost name? I will not say that the American is +wrong, but I cannot avoid thinking that he is so. I detest what is +called French taste; but the world is against me. When I complained +to a landlord of an hotel out in the West that his furniture was +useless; that I could not write at a marble table whose outside rim +was curved into fantastic shapes; that a gold clock in my bedroom +which did not go would give me no aid in washing myself; that a +heavy, immoveable curtain shut out the light; and that papier-mache +chairs with small fluffy velvet seats were bad to sit on,--he +answered me completely by telling me that his house had been +furnished not in accordance with the taste of England, but with +that of France. I acknowledged the rebuke, gave up my pursuits of +literature and cleanliness, and hurried out of the house as quickly +as I could. All America is now furnishing itself by the rules which +guided that hotel-keeper. I do not merely allude to actual household +furniture,--to chairs, tables, and detestable gilt clocks. The taste +of America is becoming French in its conversation, French in its +comforts and French in its discomforts, French in its eating, and +French in its dress, French in its manners, and will become French in +its art. There are those who will say that English taste is taking +the same direction. I do not think so. I strongly hope that it is not +so. And therefore I say that an Englishman and an American differ in +their tastes. + +But of all differences between an Englishman and an American that +in politics is the strongest, and the most essential. I cannot here, +in one paragraph, define that difference with sufficient clearness +to make my definition satisfactory; but I trust that some idea of +that difference may be conveyed by the general tenor of my book. The +American and the Englishman are both Republicans. The governments +of the States and of England are probably the two purest republican +governments in the world. I do not, of course, here mean to say that +the governments are more pure than others, but that the systems +are more absolutely republican. And yet no men can be much further +asunder in politics than the Englishman and the American. The +American of the present day puts a ballot-box into the hands of every +citizen and takes his stand upon that and that only. It is the duty +of an American citizen to vote, and when he has voted he need trouble +himself no further till the time for voting shall come round again. +The candidate for whom he has voted represents his will, if he have +voted with the majority, and in that case he has no right to look +for further influence. If he have voted with the minority, he has no +right to look for any influence at all. In either case he has done +his political work, and may go about his business till the next year +or the next two or four years shall have come round. The Englishman, +on the other hand, will have no ballot-box, and is by no means +inclined to depend exclusively upon voters or upon voting. As far +as voting can show it, he desires to get the sense of the country; +but he does not think that that sense will be shown by universal +suffrage. He thinks that property amounting to a thousand pounds +will show more of that sense than property amounting to a hundred; +but he will not on that account go to work and apportion votes to +wealth. He thinks that the educated can show more of that sense than +the uneducated; but he does not therefore lay down any rule about +reading, writing, and arithmetic, or apportion votes to learning. He +prefers that all these opinions of his shall bring themselves out and +operate by their own intrinsic weight. Nor does he at all confine +himself to voting in his anxiety to get the sense of the country. He +takes it in any way that it will show itself, uses it for what it is +worth,--or perhaps for more than it is worth,--and welds it into that +gigantic lever by which the political action of the country is moved. +Every man in Great Britain, whether he possess any actual vote or no, +can do that which is tantamount to voting every day of his life, by +the mere expression of his opinion. Public opinion in America has +hitherto been nothing, unless it has managed to express itself by a +majority of ballot-boxes. Public opinion in England is everything, +let votes go as they may. Let the people want a measure, and there +is no doubt of their obtaining it. Only the people must want +it;--as they did want Catholic emancipation, reform, and corn-law +repeal;--and as they would want war if it were brought home to them +that their country was insulted. + +In attempting to describe this difference in the political action of +the two countries, I am very far from taking all praise for England +or throwing any reproach on the States. The political action of the +States is undoubtedly the more logical and the clearer. That indeed +of England is so illogical and so little clear that it would be quite +impossible for any other nation to assume it, merely by resolving to +do so. Whereas the political action of the States might be assumed by +any nation to-morrow, and all its strength might be carried across +the water in a few written rules as are the prescriptions of a +physician or the regulations of an infirmary. With us the thing has +grown of habit, has been fostered by tradition, has crept up uncared +for and in some parts unnoticed. It can be written in no book, can be +described in no words, can be copied by no statesmen, and I almost +believe can be understood by no people but that to whose peculiar +uses it has been adapted. + +In speaking as I have here done of American taste and American +politics I must allude to a special class of Americans who are to be +met more generally in New York than elsewhere,--men who are educated, +who have generally travelled, who are almost always agreeable, but +who as regards their politics are to me the most objectionable of all +men. As regards taste they are objectionable to me also. But that is +a small thing; and as they are quite as likely to be right as I am I +will say nothing against their taste. But in politics it seems to me +that these men have fallen into the bitterest and perhaps into the +basest of errors. Of the man who begins his life with mean political +ideas, having sucked them in with his mother's milk, there may be +some hope. The evil is at any rate the fault of his forefathers +rather than of himself. But who can have hope of him who, having been +thrown by birth and fortune into the running river of free political +activity, has allowed himself to be drifted into the stagnant level +of general political servility? There are very many such Americans. +They call themselves republicans, and sneer at the idea of a limited +monarchy, but they declare that there is no republic so safe, so +equal for all men, so purely democratic as that now existing in +France. Under the French empire all men are equal. There is no +aristocracy; no oligarchy; no overshadowing of the little by the +great. One superior is admitted;--admitted on earth, as a superior is +also admitted in heaven. Under him everything is level, and--provided +he be not impeded--everything is free. He knows how to rule, and the +nation, allowing him the privilege of doing so, can go along its +course safely;--can eat, drink, and be merry. If few men can rise +high, so also can few men fall low. Political equality is the one +thing desirable in a commonwealth, and by this arrangement political +equality is obtained. Such is the modern creed of many an educated +republican of the States. + +To me it seems that such a political state is about the vilest to +which a man can descend. It amounts to a tacit abandonment of the +struggle which men are making for political truth and political +beneficence, in order that bread and meat may be eaten in peace +during the score of years or so that are at the moment passing over +us. The politicians of this class have decided for themselves that +the _summum bonum_ is to be found in bread and the circus games. +If they be free to eat, free to rest, free to sleep, free to drink +little cups of coffee while the world passes before them on a +boulevard, they have that freedom which they covet. But equality is +necessary as well as freedom. There must be no towering trees in this +parterre to overshadow the clipped shrubs, and destroy the uniformity +of a growth which should never mount more than two feet above the +earth. The equality of this politician would forbid any to rise above +him instead of inviting all to rise up to him. It is the equality +of fear and of selfishness, and not the equality of courage and +philanthropy. And brotherhood too must be invoked,--fraternity as we +may better call it in the jargon of the school. Such politicians tell +one much of fraternity, and define it too. It consists in a general +raising of the hat to all mankind; in a daily walk that never hurries +itself into a jostling trot, inconvenient to passengers on the +pavement;--in a placid voice, a soft smile, and a small cup of coffee +on a boulevard. It means all this, but I could never find that it +meant any more. There is a nation for which one is almost driven to +think that such political aspirations as these are suitable; but that +nation is certainly not the States of America. + +And yet one finds many American gentlemen who have allowed themselves +to be drifted into such a theory. They have begun the world as +republican citizens, and as such they must go on. But in their +travels and their studies, and in the luxury of their life, they have +learned to dislike the rowdiness of their country's politics. They +want things to be soft and easy;--as republican as you please, but +with as little noise as possible. The President is there for four +years. Why not elect him for eight, for twelve, or for life?--for +eternity if it were possible to find one who could continue to live? +It is to this way of thinking that Americans are driven, when the +polish of Europe has made the roughness of their own elections odious +to them. + +"Have you seen any of our great institootions, sir?" That of course +is a question which is put to every Englishman who has visited New +York, and the Englishman who intends to say that he has seen New +York, should visit many of them. I went to schools, hospitals, +lunatic asylums, institutes for deaf and dumb, water works, +historical societies, telegraph offices, and large commercial +establishments. I rather think that I did my work in a thorough +and conscientious manner, and I owe much gratitude to those who +guided me on such occasions. Perhaps I ought to describe all these +institutions; but were I to do so, I fear that I should inflict fifty +or sixty very dull pages on my readers. If I could make all that I +saw as clear and intelligible to others as it was made to me who saw +it, I might do some good. But I know that I should fail. I marvelled +much at the developed intelligence of a room full of deaf and dumb +pupils, and was greatly astonished at the performance of one special +girl, who seemed to be brighter and quicker, and more rapidly easy +with her pen than girls generally are who can hear and talk; but I +cannot convey my enthusiasm to others. On such a subject a writer may +be correct, may be exhaustive, may be statistically great; but he +can hardly be entertaining, and the chances are that he will not be +instructive. + +In all such matters, however, New York is preeminently great. All +through the States suffering humanity receives so much attention that +humanity can hardly be said to suffer. The daily recurring boast of +"our glorious institootions, sir," always provokes the ridicule of an +Englishman. The words have become ridiculous, and it would, I think, +be well for the nation if the term "Institution" could be excluded +from its vocabulary. But, in truth, they are glorious. The country in +this respects boasts, but it has done that which justifies a boast. +The arrangements for supplying New York with water are magnificent. +The drainage of the new part of the city is excellent. The +hospitals are almost alluring. The lunatic asylum which I saw was +perfect,--though I did not feel obliged to the resident physician +for introducing me to all the worst patients as countrymen of my own. +"An English lady, Mr. Trollope. I'll introduce you. Quite a hopeless +case. Two old women. They've been here fifty years. They're English. +Another gentleman from England, Mr. Trollope. A very interesting +case! Confirmed inebriety." + +And as to the schools, it is almost impossible to mention them with +too high a praise. I am speaking here specially of New York, though +I might say the same of Boston, or of all New England. I do not know +any contrast that would be more surprising to an Englishman, up to +that moment ignorant of the matter, than that which he would find by +visiting first of all a free school in London, and then a free school +in New York. If he would also learn the number of children that are +educated gratuitously in each of the two cities, and also the number +in each which altogether lack education, he would, if susceptible of +statistics, be surprised also at that. But seeing and hearing are +always more effective than mere figures. The female pupil at a free +school in London is, as a rule, either a ragged pauper, or a charity +girl, if not degraded at least stigmatized by the badges and dress +of the Charity. We Englishmen know well the type of each, and have a +fairly correct idea of the amount of education which is imparted to +them. We see the result afterwards when the same girls become our +servants, and the wives of our grooms and porters. The female pupil +at a free school in New York is neither a pauper nor a charity girl. +She is dressed with the utmost decency. She is perfectly cleanly. In +speaking to her, you cannot in any degree guess whether her father +has a dollar a day, or three thousand dollars a year. Nor will you +be enabled to guess by the manner in which her associates treat her. +As regards her own manner to you, it is always the same as though +her father were in all respects your equal. As to the amount of her +knowledge, I fairly confess that it is terrific. When, in the first +room which I visited, a slight slim creature was had up before me +to explain to me the properties of the hypothenuse I fairly confess +that, as regards education, I backed down, and that I resolved to +confine my criticisms to manner, dress, and general behaviour. In +the next room I was more at my ease, finding that ancient Roman +history was on the tapis. "Why did the Romans run away with the +Sabine women?" asked the mistress, herself a young woman of about +three-and-twenty. "Because they were pretty," simpered out a +little girl with a cherry mouth. The answer did not give complete +satisfaction; and then followed a somewhat abstruse explanation +on the subject of population. It was all done with good faith and +a serious intent, and showed what it was intended to show,--that +the girls there educated had in truth reached the consideration of +important subjects, and that they were leagues beyond that terrible +repetition of A B C, to which, I fear, that most of our free +metropolitan schools are still necessarily confined. You and I, +reader, were we called on to superintend the education of girls of +sixteen, might not select as favourite points either the hypothenuse, +or the ancient methods of populating young colonies. There may be, +and to us on the European side of the Atlantic there will be, a +certain amount of absurdity in the transatlantic idea that all +knowledge is knowledge, and that it should be imparted if it be not +knowledge of evil. But as to the general result, no fair-minded man +or woman can have a doubt. That the lads and girls in these schools +are excellently educated comes home as a fact to the mind of any one +who will look into the subject. That girl could not have got as far +as the hypothenuse without a competent and abiding knowledge of much +that is very far beyond the outside limits of what such girls know +with us. It was at least manifest in the other examination that the +girls knew as well as I did who were the Romans, and who were the +Sabine women. That all this is of use, was shown in the very gestures +and bearings of the girl. _Emollit mores_, as Colonel Newcombe used +to say. That young woman whom I had watched while she cooked her +husband's dinner upon the banks of the Mississippi, had doubtless +learned all about the Sabine women, and I feel assured that she +cooked her husband's dinner all the better for that knowledge,--and +faced the hardships of the world with a better front than she would +have done had she been ignorant on the subject. + +In order to make a comparison between the schools of London and those +of New York, I have called them both free schools. They are in fact +more free in New York than they are in London, because in New York +every boy and girl, let his parentage be what it may, can attend +these schools without any payment. Thus an education as good as the +American mind can compass, prepared with every care, carried on by +highly paid tutors, under ample surveillance, provided with all that +is most excellent in the way of rooms, desks, books, charts, maps, +and implements, is brought actually within the reach of everybody. +I need not point out to Englishmen how different is the nature of +schools in London. It must not, however, be supposed that these are +charity schools. Such is not their nature. Let us say what we may +as to the beauty of charity as a virtue, the recipient of charity +in its customary sense among us is ever more or less degraded by +the position. In the States that has been fully understood, and +the schools to which I allude are carefully preserved from any +such taint. Throughout the States a separate tax is levied for the +maintenance of these schools, and as the tax-payer supports them, +he is of course entitled to the advantage which they confer. The +child of the non-tax-payer is also entitled, and to him the boon, if +strictly analysed, will come in the shape of a charity. But under +the system as it is arranged, this is not analysed. It is understood +that the school is open to all in the ward to which it belongs, and +no inquiry is made whether the pupil's parent has or has not paid +anything towards the school's support. I found this theory carried +out so far that at the deaf and dumb school, where some of the poorer +children are wholly provided by the institution, care is taken to +clothe them in dresses of different colours and different make, in +order that nothing may attach to them which has the appearance of a +badge. Political economists will see something of evil in this. But +philanthropists will see very much that is good. + +It is not without a purpose that I have given this somewhat glowing +account of a girls' school in New York so soon after my little +picture of New York women, as they behave themselves in the streets +and street cars. It will, of course, be said that those women of whom +I have spoken, by no means in terms of admiration, are the very girls +whose education has been so excellent. This of course is so; but I +beg to remark that I have by no means said that an excellent school +education will produce all female excellences. The fact, I take it, +is this,--that seeing how high in the scale these girls have been +raised, one is anxious that they should be raised higher. One is +surprised at their pert vulgarity and hideous airs, not because they +are so low in our general estimation but because they are so high. +Women of the same class in London are humble enough, and therefore +rarely offend us who are squeamish. They show by their gestures that +they hardly think themselves good enough to sit by us; they apologise +for their presence; they conceive it to be their duty to be lowly +in their gestures. The question is which is best, the crouching and +crawling or the impudent unattractive self-composure. Not, my reader, +which action on her part may the better conduce to my comfort or to +yours! That is by no means the question. Which is the better for +the woman herself? That I take it is the point to be decided. That +there is something better than either we shall all agree;--but to my +thinking the crouching and crawling is the lowest type of all. + +At that school I saw some five or six hundred girls collected in one +room, and heard them sing. The singing was very pretty, and it was +all very nice; but I own that I was rather startled, and to tell the +truth somewhat abashed, when I was invited to "say a few words to +them." No idea of such a suggestion had dawned upon me, and I felt +myself quite at a loss. To be called up before five hundred men is +bad enough, but how much worse before that number of girls! What +could I say but that they were all very pretty? As far as I can +remember I did say that and nothing else. Very pretty they were, and +neatly dressed, and attractive; but among them all there was not a +pair of rosy cheeks. How should there be, when every room in the +building was heated up to the condition of an oven by those damnable +hot-air pipes! + +In England a taste for very large shops has come up during the last +twenty years. A firm is not doing a good business, or at any rate +a distinguished business, unless he can assert in his trade card +that he occupies at least half a dozen houses--Nos. 105, 106, 107, +108, 109, and 110. The old way of paying for what you want over +the counter is gone; and when you buy a yard of tape or a new +carriage,--for either of which articles you will probably visit the +same establishment,--you go through about the same amount of ceremony +as when you sell a thousand pounds out of the stocks in propriâ +personâ. But all this is still further exaggerated in New York. Mr. +Stewart's store there is perhaps the handsomest institution in the +city, and his hall of audience for new carpets is a magnificent +saloon. "You have nothing like that in England," my friend said to +me as he walked me through it in triumph. "I wish we had nothing +approaching to it," I answered. For I confess to a liking for +the old-fashioned private shops. Harper's establishment for the +manufacture and sale of books is also very wonderful. Everything is +done on the premises, down to the very colouring of the paper which +lines the covers, and places the gilding on their backs. The firm +prints, engraves, electroplates, sews, binds, publishes, and sells +wholesale and retail. I have no doubt that the authors have rooms in +the attics where the other slight initiatory step is taken towards +the production of literature. + +New York is built upon an island, which is I believe about ten +miles long, counting from the southern point at the Battery up +to Carmansville, to which place the city is presumed to extend +northwards. This island is called Manhattan,--a name which I have +always thought would have been more graceful for the city than that +of New York. It is formed by the Sound or East river, which divides +the continent from Long Island, by the Hudson river which runs into +the Sound or rather joins it at the city foot, and by a small stream +called the Haarlem river which runs out of the Hudson and meanders +away into the Sound at the north of the city, thus cutting the city +off from the main land. The breadth of the island does not much +exceed two miles, and therefore the city is long, and not capable of +extension in point of breadth. In its old days it clustered itself +round about the Point, and stretched itself up from there along +the quays of the two waters. The streets down in this part of the +town are devious enough, twisting themselves about with delightful +irregularity; but as the city grew there came the taste for +parallelograms, and the upper streets are rectangular and numbered. +Broadway, the street of New York with which the world is generally +best acquainted, begins at the southern point of the town and goes +northward through it. For some two miles and a half it walks away in +a straight line, and then it turns to the left towards the Hudson, +and becomes in fact a continuation of another street called the +Bowery, which comes up in a devious course from the south-east +extremity of the island. From that time Broadway never again takes +a straight course, but crosses the various Avenues in an oblique +direction till it becomes the Bloomingdale road, and under that +name takes itself out of town. There are eleven so-called Avenues, +which descend in absolutely straight lines from the northern, and +at present unsettled, extremity of the new town, making their way +southward till they lose themselves among the old streets. These are +called First Avenue, Second Avenue, and so on. The town had already +progressed two miles up northwards from the Battery before it had +caught the parallelogrammic fever from Philadelphia, for at about +that distance we find "First Street." First Street runs across the +Avenues from water to water, and then Second Street. I will not name +them all, seeing that they go up to 154th Street! They do so at least +on the map, and I believe on the lamp-posts. But the houses are not +yet built in order beyond 50th or 60th Street. The other hundred +streets, each of two miles long, with the Avenues which are mostly +unoccupied for four or five miles, is the ground over which the young +New Yorkers are to spread themselves. I do not in the least doubt +that they will occupy it all, and that 154th Street will find itself +too narrow a boundary for the population. + +I have said that there was some good architectural effect in New +York, and I alluded chiefly to that of the Fifth Avenue. The Fifth +Avenue is the Belgrave Square, the Park Lane, and the Pall Mall of +New York. It is certainly a very fine street. The houses in it are +magnificent, not having that aristocratic look which some of our +detached London residences enjoy, or the palatial appearance of an +old-fashioned hotel in Paris, but an air of comfortable luxury and +commercial wealth which is not excelled by the best houses of any +other town that I know. They are houses, not hotels or palaces; but +they are very roomy houses, with every luxury that complete finish +can give them. Many of them cover large spaces of ground, and their +rent will sometimes go up as high as £800 and £1000 a year. Generally +the best of these houses are owned by those who live in them, and +rent is not therefore paid. But this is not always the case, and the +sums named above may be taken as expressing their value. In England +a man should have a very large income indeed who could afford to pay +£1000 a year for his house in London. Such a one would as a matter of +course have an establishment in the country, and be an Earl or a Duke +or a millionaire. But it is different in New York. The resident there +shows his wealth chiefly by his house, and though he may probably +have a villa at Newport or a box somewhere up the Hudson he has no +second establishment. Such a house therefore will not represent a +total expenditure of above £4,000 a year. + +There are churches on each side of Fifth Avenue,--perhaps five or +six within sight at one time,--which add much to the beauty of the +street. They are well-built, and in fairly good taste. These, added +to the general well-being and splendid comfort of the place, give it +an effect better than the architecture of the individual houses would +seem to warrant. I own that I have enjoyed the vista as I have walked +up and down Fifth Avenue, and have felt that the city had a right to +be proud of its wealth. But the greatness and beauty and glory of +wealth have on such occasions been all in all with me. I know no +great man, no celebrated statesman, no philanthropist of peculiar +note who has lived in Fifth Avenue. That gentleman on the right made +a million of dollars by inventing a shirt-collar; this one on the +left electrified the world by a lotion; as to the gentleman at the +corner there,--there are rumours about him and the Cuban slave-trade; +but my informant by no means knows that they are true. Such are the +aristocracy of Fifth Avenue. I can only say that if I could make a +million dollars by a lotion, I should certainly be right to live in +such a house as one of those. + +The suburbs of New York are, by the nature of the localities, divided +from the city by water. New Jersey and Hoboken are on the other side +of the Hudson, and in another State. Williamsburgh and Brooklyn are +in Long Island, which is a part of the State of New York. But these +places are as easily reached as Lambeth is reached from Westminster. +Steam ferries ply every three or four minutes, and into these boats +coaches, carts, and waggons of any size or weight are driven. In fact +they make no other stoppage to the commerce than that occasioned by +the payment of a few cents. Such payment no doubt is a stoppage, and +therefore it is that New Jersey, Brooklyn, and Williamsburgh are, at +any rate in appearance, very dull and uninviting. They are, however, +very populous. Many of the quieter citizens prefer to live there; and +I am told that the Brooklyn tea-parties consider themselves to be, in +æsthetic feeling, very much ahead of anything of the kind in the more +opulent centres of the city. In beauty of scenery Staten Island is +very much the prettiest of the suburbs of New York. The view from the +hill side in Staten Island down upon New York harbour is very lovely. +It is the only really good view of that magnificent harbour which I +have been able to find. As for appreciating such beauty when one is +entering a port from sea, or leaving it for sea, I do not believe in +any such power. The ship creeps up or creeps out while the mind is +engaged on other matters. The passenger is uneasy either with hopes +or fears; and then the grease of the engines offends one's nostrils. +But it is worth the tourist's while to look down upon New York +harbour from the hill side in Staten Island. When I was there Fort +Lafayette looked black in the centre of the channel, and we knew that +it was crowded with the victims of secession. Fort Tomkins was being +built, to guard the pass,--worthy of a name of richer sound; and Fort +something else was bristling with new cannon. Fort Hamilton, on Long +Island, opposite, was frowning at us; and immediately around us a +regiment of volunteers was receiving regimental stocks and boots from +the hands of its officers. Everything was bristling with war; and one +could not but think that not in this way had New York raised herself +so quickly to her present greatness. + +But the glory of New York is the Central Park;--its glory in the mind +of all New Yorkers of the present day. The first question asked of +you is whether you have seen the Central Park, and the second is as +to what you think of it. It does not do to say simply that it is +fine, grand, beautiful, and miraculous. You must swear by cock and +pie that it is more fine, more grand, more beautiful, more miraculous +than anything else of the kind anywhere. Here you encounter, in its +most annoying form, that necessity for eulogium which presses you +everywhere. For, in truth, taken as it is at present, the Central +Park is not fine, nor grand, nor beautiful. As to the miracle, let +that pass. It is perhaps as miraculous as some other great latter-day +miracles. + +But the Central Park is a very great fact, and affords a strong +additional proof of the sense and energy of the people. It is very +large, being over three miles long, and about three quarters of +a mile in breadth. When it was found that New York was extending +itself, and becoming one of the largest cities of the world, a space +was selected between Fifth and Seventh Avenues, immediately outside +the limits of the city as then built, but nearly in the centre of +the city as it is intended to be built. The ground around it became +at once of great value; and I do not doubt that the present fashion +of the Fifth Avenue about Twentieth Street will in course of time +move itself up to the Fifth Avenue as it looks, or will look, over +the Park at Seventieth, Eightieth, and Ninetieth Streets. The great +waterworks of the city bring the Croton River, whence New York is +supplied, by an aqueduct over the Haarlem river into an enormous +reservoir just above the Park; and hence it has come to pass that +there will be water not only for sanitary and useful purposes, but +also for ornament. At present the Park, to English eyes, seems to be +all road. The trees are not grown up, and the new embankments, and +new lakes, and new ditches, and new paths give to the place anything +but a picturesque appearance. The Central Park is good for what it +will be, rather than for what it is. The summer heat is so very great +that I doubt much whether the people of New York will ever enjoy such +verdure as our parks show. But there will be a pleasant assemblage of +walks and water-works, with fresh air, and fine shrubs and flowers, +immediately within the reach of the citizens. All that art and energy +can do will be done, and the Central Park doubtless will become one +of the great glories of New York. When I was expected to declare +that St. James's Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens, +altogether, were nothing to it, I confess that I could only remain +mute. + +Those who desire to learn what are the secrets of society in New +York, I would refer to the Potiphar Papers. The Potiphar Papers are +perhaps not as well known in England as they deserve to be. They were +published, I think, as much as seven or eight years ago; but are +probably as true now as they were then. What I saw of society in New +York was quiet and pleasant enough; but doubtless I did not climb +into that circle in which Mrs. Potiphar held so distinguished a +position. It may be true that gentlemen habitually throw fragments of +their supper and remnants of their wine on to their host's carpets; +but if so I did not see it. + +As I progress in my work I feel that duty will call upon me to write +a separate chapter on hotels in general, and I will not, therefore, +here say much about those in New York. I am inclined to think +that few towns in the world, if any, afford on the whole better +accommodation, but there are many in which the accommodation is +cheaper. Of the railways also I ought to say something. The fact +respecting them which is most remarkable is that of their being +continued into the centre of the town through the streets. The cars +are not dragged through the city by locomotive engines, but by +horses; the pace therefore is slow, but the convenience to travellers +in being brought nearer to the centre of trade must be much felt. It +is as though passengers from Liverpool and passengers from Bristol +were carried on from Euston Square and Paddington along the New Road, +Portland Place, and Regent Street to Pall Mall, or up the City Road +to the Bank. As a general rule, however, the railways, railway cars, +and all about them are ill-managed. They are monopolies, and the +public, through the press, has no restraining power upon them as it +has in England. A parcel sent by express over a distance of forty +miles will not be delivered within twenty-four hours. I once made my +plaint on this subject at the bar or office of an hotel, and was told +that no remonstrance was of avail. "It is a monopoly," the man told +me, "and if we say anything, we are told that if we do not like it +we need not use it." In railway matters and postal matters time and +punctuality are not valued in the States as they are with us, and the +public seem to acknowledge that they must put up with defects,--that +they must grin and bear them in America, as the public no doubt do in +Austria where such affairs are managed by a government bureau. + +In the beginning of this chapter I spoke of the population of +New York, and I cannot end it without remarking that out of that +population more than one-eighth is composed of Germans. It is, I +believe, computed that there are about 120,000 Germans in the city, +and that only two other German cities in the world, Vienna and +Berlin, have a larger German population than New York. The Germans +are good citizens and thriving men, and are to be found prospering +all over the northern and western parts of the Union. It seems that +they are excellently well adapted to colonization, though they have +in no instance become the dominant people in a colony, or carried +with them their own language or their own laws. The French have +done so in Algeria, in some of the West India islands, and quite as +essentially into Lower Canada, where their language and laws still +prevail. And yet it is, I think, beyond doubt that the French are not +good colonists, as are the Germans. + +Of the ultimate destiny of New York as one of the ruling commercial +cities of the world, it is, I think, impossible to doubt. Whether or +no it will ever equal London in population I will not pretend to say. +Even should it do so, should its numbers so increase as to enable +it to say that it had done so, the question could not very well be +settled. When it comes to pass that an assemblage of men in one +so-called city have to be counted by millions, there arises the +impossibility of defining the limits of that city, and of saying who +belong to it and who do not. An arbitrary line may be drawn, but that +arbitrary line, though perhaps false when drawn as including too +much, soon becomes more false as including too little. Ealing, Acton, +Fulham, Putney, Norwood, Sydenham, Blackheath, Woolwich, Greenwich, +Stratford, Highgate, and Hampstead, are, in truth, component parts of +London, and very shortly Brighton will be as much so. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. + + +As New York is the most populous State of the Union, having the +largest representation in Congress,--on which account it has been +called the Empire State,--I propose to mention, as shortly as may be, +the nature of its separate Constitution as a State. Of course it will +be understood that the constitutions of the different States are by +no means the same. They have been arranged according to the judgment +of the different people concerned, and have been altered from time to +time to suit such altered judgment. But as the States together form +one nation, and on such matters as foreign affairs, war, customs, +and post-office regulations, are bound together as much as are the +English counties, it is, of course, necessary that the constitution +of each should in most matters assimilate itself to those of the +others. These constitutions are very much alike. A Governor, with +two houses of legislature, generally called the Senate and the House +of Representatives, exists in each State. In the State of New York +the lower house is called the Assembly. In most States the Governor +is elected annually; but in some States for two years, as in New +York. In Pennsylvania he is elected for three years. The House of +Representatives or the Assembly is, I think, always elected for one +session only; but as, in many of the States, the Legislature only +sits once in two years, the election recurs of course at the same +interval. The franchise in all the States is nearly universal, but +in no State is it perfectly so. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, +and other officers are elected by vote of the people as well as the +members of the Legislature. Of course it will be understood that each +State makes laws for itself,--that they are in nowise dependent on +the Congress assembled at Washington for their laws,--unless for laws +which refer to matters between the United States as a nation and +other nations, or between one State and another. Each State declares +with what punishment crimes shall be visited; what taxes shall be +levied for the use of the State; what laws shall be passed as to +education; what shall be the State judiciary. With reference to the +judiciary, however, it must be understood, that the United States +as a nation have separate national law courts before which come all +cases litigated between State and State, and all cases which do not +belong in every respect to any one individual State. In a subsequent +chapter I will endeavour to explain this more fully. In endeavouring +to understand the constitution of the United States it is essentially +necessary that we should remember that we have always to deal with +two different political arrangements,--that which refers to the +nation as a whole, and that which belongs to each State as a separate +governing power in itself. What is law in one State is not law in +another. Nevertheless there is a very great likeness throughout these +various constitutions; and any political student who shall have +thoroughly mastered one, will not have much to learn in mastering the +others. + +This State, now called New York, was first settled by the Dutch in +1614, on Manhattan Island. They established a government in 1629, +under the name of the New Netherlands. In 1664 Charles II. granted +the province to his brother, James II., then Duke of York, and +possession was taken of the country on his behalf by one Colonel +Nichols. In 1673 it was recaptured by the Dutch, but they could not +hold it, and the Duke of York again took possession by patent. A +legislative body was first assembled during the reign of Charles II., +in 1683; from which it will be seen that parliamentary representation +was introduced into the American colonies at a very early date. The +declaration of independence was made by the revolted colonies in +1776, and in 1777 the first constitution was adopted by the State of +New York. In 1822 this was changed for another; and the one of which +I now purport to state some of the details was brought into action +in 1847. In this constitution there is a provision that it shall +be overhauled and remodelled, if needs be, once in twenty years. +Article XIII. Sec. 2.--"At the general election to be held in 1866, +and in each twentieth year thereafter, the question, 'Shall there +be a convention to revise the Constitution and amend the same?' +shall be decided by the electors qualified to vote for members of +the Legislature." So that the New Yorkers cannot be twitted with +the presumption of finality in reference to their legislative +arrangements. + +The present constitution begins with declaring the inviolability +of trial by jury and of habeas corpus,--"unless when, in cases of +rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require its suspension." +It does not say by whom it may be suspended, or who is to judge of +the public safety, but, at any rate, it may be presumed that such +suspension was supposed to come from the powers of the State which +enacted the law. At the present moment the habeas corpus is suspended +in New York, and this suspension has proceeded not from the powers of +the State, but from the Federal Government, without the sanction even +of the Federal Congress. + +"Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments +on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and +no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech +or of the press." Art. I. Sec. 8. But at the present moment liberty +of speech and of the press is utterly abrogated in the State of New +York, as it is in other States. I mention this not as a reproach +against either the State or the Federal Government, but to show how +vain all laws are for the protection of such rights. If they be not +protected by the feelings of the people,--if the people are at any +time, or from any cause, willing to abandon such privileges, no +written laws will preserve them. + +In Art. I. Sec. 14, there is a proviso that no land--land, that is, +used for agricultural purposes--shall be let on lease for a longer +period than twelve years. "No lease or grant of agricultural land for +a longer period than twelve years hereafter made, in which shall be +reserved any rent or service of any kind, shall be valid." I do not +understand the intended virtue of this proviso, but it shows very +clearly how different are the practices with reference to land in +England and America. Farmers in the States almost always are the +owners of the land which they farm, and such tenures as those, by +which the occupiers of land generally hold their farms with us, are +almost unknown. There is no such relation as that of landlord and +tenant as regards agricultural holdings. + +Every male citizen of New York may vote who is twenty-one, who has +been a citizen for ten days, who has lived in the State for a year, +and for four months in the county in which he votes. He can vote for +all "officers that now are, or hereafter may be, elective by the +people." Art. II. Sec. 1. "But," the section goes on to say, "no man +of colour, unless he shall have been for three years a citizen of the +State, and for one year next preceding any election shall have been +possessed of a freehold estate of the value of 250 dollars (£50), +and shall have been actually rated, and paid a tax thereon, shall be +entitled to vote at such election." This is the only embargo with +which universal suffrage is laden in the State of New York. + +The third article provides for the election of the Senate and the +Assembly. The Senate consists of thirty-two members. And it may here +be remarked that large as is the State of New York, and great as is +its population, its Senate is less numerous than that of many other +States. In Massachusetts, for instance, there are forty senators, +though the population of Massachusetts is barely one third that of +New York. In Virginia there are fifty senators, whereas the free +population is not one third of that of New York. As a consequence the +Senate of New York is said to be filled with men of a higher class +than are generally found in the Senates of other States. Then follows +in the article a list of the districts which are to return the +Senators. These districts consist of one, two, three, or in one case +four counties, according to the population. + +The article does not give the number of members of the Lower House, +nor does it even state what amount of population shall be held as +entitled to a member. It merely provides for the division of the +State into districts which shall contain an equal number, not of +population, but of voters. The House of Assembly does consist of 128 +members. + +It is then stipulated that every member of both houses shall receive +three dollars a day, or twelve shillings, for their services during +the sitting of the legislature; but this sum is never to exceed 300 +dollars, or sixty pounds in one year, unless an extra Session be +called. There is also an allowance for the travelling expenses of +members. It is, I presume, generally known that the members of the +Congress at Washington are all paid, and that the same is the case +with reference to the legislatures of all the States. + +No member of the New York legislature can also be a member of the +Washington Congress, or hold any civil or military office under the +general States Government. + +A majority of each House must be present, or as the article says, +"shall constitute a quorum to do business." Each House is to keep a +journal of its proceedings. The doors are to be open,--except when +the public welfare shall require secresy. A singular proviso this in +a country boasting so much of freedom! For no speech or debate in +either House shall the legislature be called in question in any other +place. The legislature assembles on the first Tuesday in January, and +sits for about three months. Its seat is at Albany. + +The executive power, (Art. IV.) is to be vested in a Governor and a +Lieutenant-Governor, both of whom shall be chosen for two years. The +Governor must be a citizen of the United States, must be thirty years +of age, and have lived for the last four years in the State. He is +to be commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces of the +State,--as is the President of those of the Union. I see that this +is also the case in inland States, which one would say can have +no navies. And with reference to some States it is enacted that +the Governor is commander-in-chief of the army, navy, and militia, +showing that some army over and beyond the militia may be kept by the +State. In Tennessee, which is an inland State, it is enacted that the +Governor shall be "commander-in-chief of the army and navy of this +State, and of the militia, except when they shall be called into the +service of the United States." In Ohio the same is the case, except +that there is no mention of militia. In New York there is no proviso +with reference to the service of the United States. I mention this +as it bears with some strength on the question of the right of +secession, and indicates the jealousy of the individual States +with reference to the Federal Government. The Governor can convene +extra Sessions of one House or of both. He makes a message to the +legislature when it meets,--a sort of Queen's speech; and he receives +for his services a compensation, to be established by law. In New +York this amounts to £800 a year. In some States this is as low as +£200 and £300. In Virginia it is £1000. In California £1200. + +The Governor can pardon, except in cases of treason. He has also a +veto upon all bills sent up by the legislature. If he exercise this +veto he returns the bill to the legislature with his reasons for so +doing. If the bill on reconsideration by the Houses be again passed +by a majority of two thirds in each House, it becomes law in spite +of the Governor's veto. The veto of the President at Washington is +of the same nature. Such are the powers of the Governor. But though +they are very full, the Governor of each State does not practically +exercise any great political power, nor is he, even politically, a +great man. You might live in a State during the whole term of his +government and hardly hear of him. There is vested in him by the +language of the constitution a much wider power than that intrusted +to the Governors of our colonies. But in our colonies everybody +talks, and thinks, and knows about the Governor. As far as the limits +of the colony the Governor is a great man. But this is not the case +with reference to the Governors in the different States. + +The next article provides that the Governor's ministers, viz., the +Secretary of State, the Comptroller, Treasurer, and Attorney-General, +shall be chosen every two years at a general election. In +this respect the State constitution differs from that of the +national constitution. The President at Washington names his own +ministers,--subject to the approbation of the Senate. He makes +many other appointments with the same limitation. As regards these +nominations in general, the Senate, I believe, is not slow to +interfere; but with reference to the ministers it is understood that +the names sent in by the President shall stand. Of the Secretary +of State, Comptroller, &c., belonging to the different States, and +who are elected by the people, in a general way one never hears. No +doubt they attend their offices and take their pay, but they are not +political personages. + +The next article, No. VI., refers to the Judiciary, and is very +complicated. After considerable study I have failed to understand it. +The judges are elected by vote, and remain in office for, I believe, +a term of eight years. In Sect. 20 of this article it is provided +that--"No judicial officer, except Justices of the Peace, shall +receive to his own use any fees or perquisites of office." How +pleasantly this enactment must sound in the ears of the justices of +the peace. + +Article VII. refers to fiscal matters, and is more especially +interesting as showing how greatly the State of New York has depended +on its canals for its wealth. These canals are the property of the +State; and by this article it seems to be provided that they shall +not only maintain themselves, but maintain to a considerable extent +the State expenditure also, and stand in lieu of taxation. It is +provided, Section 6, that the "legislature shall not sell, lease, or +otherwise dispose of any of the canals of the State; but that they +shall remain the property of the State, and under its management for +ever." But in spite of its canals the State does not seem to be doing +very well, for I see that in 1860, its income was 4,780,000 dollars, +and its expenditure 5,100,000, whereas its debt was 32,500,000 +dollars. Of all the States, Pennsylvania is the most indebted, +Virginia is the second on the list, and New York the third. New +Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Delaware, and Texas, owe no State +debts. All the other State ships have taken in ballast. + +The militia is supposed to consist of all men capable of bearing +arms, under forty-five years of age. But no one need be enrolled, who +from scruples of conscience is averse to bearing arms. At the present +moment such scruples do not seem to be very general. Then follows, +in Article XI., a detailed enactment as to the choosing of militia +officers. It may be perhaps sufficient to say that the privates +are to choose the captains and the subalterns; the captains and +subalterns are to choose the field officers; and the field officers +the brigadier-generals and inspectors of brigade. The Governor, +however, with the consent of the Senate shall nominate all +major-generals. Now that real soldiers have unfortunately become +necessary the above plan has not been found to work well. + +Such is the Constitution of the State of New York, which has been +intended to work and does work quite separately from that of the +United States. It will be seen that the purport has been to make it +as widely democratic as possible,--to provide that all power of all +description shall come directly from the people, and that such power +shall return to the people at short intervals. The Senate and the +Governor each remain for two years, but not for the same two years. +If a new Senate commence its work in 1861, a new Governor will come +in in 1862. But, nevertheless, there is in the form of Government +as thus established an absence of that close and immediate +responsibility which attends our ministers. When a man has been +voted in, it seems that responsibility is over for the period of +the required service. He has been chosen, and the country which has +chosen him is to trust that he will do his best. I do not know that +this matters much with reference to the legislature or governments of +the different States, for their State legislatures and governments +are but puny powers; but in the legislature and government at +Washington it does matter very much. But I shall have another +opportunity of speaking on that subject. + +Nothing has struck me so much in America as the fact that these State +legislatures are puny powers. The absence of any tidings whatever +of their doings across the water is a proof of this. Who has heard +of the legislature of New York or of Massachusetts? It is boasted +here that their insignificance is a sign of the well-being of the +people;--that the smallness of the power necessary for carrying on +the machine shows how beautifully the machine is organised, and how +well it works. "It is better to have little governors than great +governors," an American said to me once. "It is our glory that we +know how to live without having great men over us to rule us." That +glory, if ever it were a glory, has come to an end. It seems to me +that all these troubles have come upon the States because they have +not placed high men in high places. The less of laws and the less of +control the better, providing a people can go right with few laws and +little control. One may say that no laws and no control would be best +of all,--provided that none were needed. But this is not exactly the +position of the American people. + +The two professions of law-making and of governing have become +unfashionable, low in estimation, and of no repute in the States. +The municipal powers of the cities have not fallen into the hands of +the leading men. The word politician has come to bear the meaning of +political adventurer and almost of political blackleg. If A calls B +a politician A intends to vilify B by so calling him. Whether or no +the best citizens of a State will ever be induced to serve in the +State legislature by a nobler consideration than that of pay, or by a +higher tone of political morals than that now existing, I cannot say. +It seems to me that some great decrease in the numbers of the State +legislators should be a first step towards such a consummation. There +are not many men in each State who can afford to give up two or three +months of the year to the State service for nothing; but it may be +presumed that in each State there are a few. Those who are induced +to devote their time by the payment of £60, can hardly be the men +most fitted for the purpose of legislation. It certainly has seemed +to me that the members of the State legislatures and of the State +governments are not held in that respect and treated with that +confidence to which, in the eyes of an Englishman, such functionaries +should be held as entitled. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +BOSTON. + + +From New York we returned to Boston by Hartford, the capital, or one +of the capitals of Connecticut. This proud little State is composed +of two old provinces, of which Hartford and Newhaven were the two +metropolitan towns. Indeed there was a third colony called Saybrook, +which was joined to Hartford. As neither of the two could of course +give way when Hartford and Newhaven were made into one, the houses +of legislature and the seat of government are changed about, year by +year. Connecticut is a very proud little State, and has a pleasant +legend of its own stanchness in the old colonial days. In 1662 the +colonies were united, and a charter was given to them by Charles II. +But some years later, in 1686, when the bad days of James II. had +come, this charter was considered to be too liberal, and order was +given that it should be suspended. One Sir Edmund Andross had been +appointed governor of all New England, and sent word from Boston to +Connecticut that the charter itself should be given up to him. This +the men of Connecticut refused to do. Whereupon Sir Edmund with a +military following presented himself at their assembly, declared +their governing powers to be dissolved, and after much palaver +caused the charter itself to be laid upon the table before him. The +discussion had been long, having lasted through the day into the +night, and the room had been lighted with candles. On a sudden each +light disappeared, and Sir Edmund with his followers were in the +dark. As a matter of course, when the light was restored the charter +was gone, and Sir Edmund, the governor-general, was baffled, as all +governors-general and all Sir Edmunds always are in such cases. The +charter was gone, a gallant Captain Wadsworth having carried it off +and hidden it in an oak tree. The charter was renewed when William +III. came to the throne, and now hangs triumphantly in the State +House at Hartford. The charter oak has, alas! succumbed to the +weather, but was standing a few years since. The men of Hartford are +very proud of their charter, and regard it as the parent of their +existing liberties quite as much as though no national revolution of +their own had intervened. + +And indeed the Northern States of the Union, especially those of New +England, refer all their liberties to the old charters which they +held from the mother-country. They rebelled, as they themselves would +seem to say, and set themselves up as a separate people, not because +the mother-country had refused to them by law sufficient liberty and +sufficient self-control, but because the mother-country infringed the +liberties and powers of self-control which she herself had given. The +mother-country, so these States declare, had acted the part of Sir +Edmund Andross, had endeavoured to take away their charters. So they +also put out the lights, and took themselves to an oak tree of their +own,--which is still standing, though winds from the infernal regions +are now battering its branches. Long may it stand! + +Whether the mother-country did or did not infringe the charters +she had given, I will not here inquire. As to the nature of those +alleged infringements, are they not written down to the number of +twenty-seven in the Declaration of Independence? I have taken the +liberty of appending this Declaration to the end of my book, and the +twenty-seven paragraphs may all be seen. They mostly begin with He. +"He" has done this, and "He" has done that. The "He" is poor George +III., whose twenty-seven mortal sins against his transatlantic +colonies are thus recapitulated. It would avail nothing to argue now +whether those deeds were sins or virtues; nor would it have availed +then. The child had grown up and was strong, and chose to go alone +into the world. The young bird was fledged, and flew away. Poor +George III. with his cackling was certainly not efficacious in +restraining such a flight. But it is gratifying to see how this new +people, when they had it in their power to change all their laws, to +throw themselves upon any Utopian theory that the folly of a wild +philanthropy could devise, to discard as abominable every vestige of +English rule and English power,--it is gratifying to see that when +they could have done all this, they did not do so, but preferred to +cling to things English. Their old colonial limits were still to +be the borders of their States. Their old charters were still to +be regarded as the sources from whence their State powers had come. +The old laws were to remain in force. The precedents of the English +courts were to be held as legal precedents in the courts of the +new nation,--and are now so held. It was still to be England,--but +England without a King making his last struggle for political power. +This was the idea of the people, and this was their feeling; and that +idea has been carried out, and that feeling has remained. + +In the constitution of the State of New York nothing is said about +the religion of the people. It was regarded as a subject with +which the constitution had no concern whatever. But as soon as we +come among the stricter people of New England we find that the +constitution-makers have not been able absolutely to ignore the +subject. In Connecticut it is enjoined that as it is the duty of all +men to worship the Supreme Being, and their right to render that +worship in the mode most consistent with their consciences, no person +shall be by law compelled to join or be classed with any religious +association. The line of argument is hardly logical, the conclusion +not being in accordance with, or hanging on the first of the two +premises. But nevertheless the meaning is clear. In a free country +no man shall be made to worship after any special fashion; but it +is decreed by the constitution that every man is bound by duty to +worship after some fashion. The article then goes on to say how they +who do worship are to be taxed for the support of their peculiar +church. I am not quite clear whether the New Yorkers have not managed +this difficulty with greater success. When we come to the old Bay +State,--to Massachusetts,--we find the Christian religion spoken of +in the Constitution as that which in some one of its forms should +receive the adherence of every good citizen. + +Hartford is a pleasant little town, with English-looking houses, and +an English-looking country around it. Here, as everywhere through the +States, one is struck by the size and comfort of the residences. I +sojourned there at the house of a friend, and could find no limit to +the number of spacious sitting-rooms which it contained. The modest +dining-room and drawing-room which suffice with us for men of seven +or eight hundred a year would be regarded as very mean accommodation +by persons of similar incomes in the States. + +I found that Hartford was all alive with trade, and that wages were +high, because there are there two factories for the manufacture of +arms. Colt's pistols come from Hartford, as do also Sharpe's rifles. +Wherever arms can be prepared, or gunpowder; where clothes or +blankets fit for soldiers can be made, or tents or standards, or +things appertaining in any way to warfare, there trade was still +brisk. No being is more costly in his requirements than a soldier, +and no soldier so costly as the American. He must eat and drink of +the best, and have good boots and warm bedding, and good shelter. +There were during the Christmas of 1861 above half a million of +soldiers so to be provided,--the President, in his message made in +December to Congress, declared the number to be above six hundred +thousand--and therefore in such places as Hartford trade was very +brisk. I went over the rifle factory, and was shown everything, but +I do not know that I brought away much with me that was worth any +reader's attention. The best of rifles, I have no doubt, were being +made with the greatest rapidity, and all were sent to the army as +soon as finished. I saw some murderous-looking weapons, with swords +attached to them instead of bayonets, but have since been told +by soldiers that the old-fashioned bayonet is thought to be more +serviceable. + +Immediately on my arrival in Boston I heard that Mr. Emerson was +going to lecture at the Tremont Hall on the subject of the war, and +I resolved to go and hear him. I was acquainted with Mr. Emerson, +and by reputation knew him well. Among us in England he is regarded +as transcendental, and perhaps even as mystic in his philosophy. His +"Representative Men" is the work by which he is best known on our +side of the water, and I have heard some readers declare that they +could not quite understand Mr. Emerson's "Representative Men." For +myself, I confess that I had broken down over some portions of that +book. Since I had become acquainted with him I had read others of +his writings, especially his book on England, and had found that he +improved greatly on acquaintance. I think that he has confined his +mysticism to the book above named. In conversation he is very clear, +and by no means above the small practical things of the world. He +would, I fancy, know as well what interest he ought to receive for +his money as though he were no philosopher; and I am inclined to +think that if he held land he would make his hay while the sun shone, +as might any common farmer. Before I had met Mr. Emerson, when my +idea of him was formed simply on the "Representative Men," I should +have thought that a lecture from him on the war would have taken +his hearers all among the clouds. As it was, I still had my doubts, +and was inclined to fear that a subject which could only be handled +usefully at such a time before a large audience by a combination of +common sense, high principles, and eloquence, would hardly be safe in +Mr. Emerson's hands. I did not doubt the high principles, but feared +much that there would be a lack of common sense. So many have talked +on that subject, and have shown so great a lack of common sense! As +to the eloquence, that might be there, or might not. + +Mr. Emerson is a Massachusetts man, very well known in Boston, and +a great crowd was collected to hear him. I suppose there were some +three thousand persons in the room. I confess that when he took his +place before us my prejudices were against him. The matter in hand +required no philosophy. It required common sense, and the very best +of common sense. It demanded that he should be impassioned, for of +what interest can any address be on a matter of public politics +without passion? But it demanded that the passion should be winnowed, +and free from all rhodomontade. I fancied what might be said on +such a subject as to that overlauded star-spangled banner, and how +the star-spangled flag would look when wrapped in a mist of mystic +Platonism. + +But from the beginning to the end there was nothing mystic--no +Platonism; and, if I remember rightly, the star-spangled banner +was altogether omitted. To the national eagle he did allude. "Your +American eagle," he said, "is very well. Protect it here and abroad. +But beware of the American peacock." He gave an account of the war +from the beginning, showing how it had arisen, and how it had been +conducted; and he did so with admirable simplicity and truth. He +thought the North were right about the war; and as I thought so +also, I was not called upon to disagree with him. He was terse and +perspicuous in his sentences, practical in his advice, and, above all +things, true in what he said to his audience of themselves. They who +know America will understand how hard it is for a public man in the +States to practise such truth in his addresses. Fluid compliments and +high-flown national eulogium are expected. In this instance none were +forthcoming. The North had risen with patriotism to make this effort, +and it was now warned that in doing so it was simply doing its +national duty. And then came the subject of slavery. I had been told +that Mr. Emerson was an abolitionist, and knew that I must disagree +with him on that head, if on no other. To me it has always seemed +that to mix up the question of general abolition with this war must +be the work of a man too ignorant to understand the real subject of +the war, or too false to his country to regard it. Throughout the +whole lecture I was waiting for Mr. Emerson's abolition doctrine, +but no abolition doctrine came. The words abolition and compensation +were mentioned, and then there was an end of the subject. If Mr. +Emerson be an abolitionist he expressed his views very mildly on that +occasion. On the whole the lecture was excellent, and that little +advice about the peacock was in itself worth an hour's attention. + +That practice of lecturing is "quite an institution" in the States. +So it is in England, my readers will say. But in England it is done +in a different way, with a different object and with much less of +result. With us, if I am not mistaken, lectures are mostly given +gratuitously by the lecturer. They are got up here and there with +some philanthropical object, and in the hope that an hour at the +disposal of young men and women may be rescued from idleness. The +subjects chosen are social, literary, philanthropic, romantic, +geographical, scientific, religious,--anything rather than political. +The lecture-rooms are not usually filled to overflowing, and there is +often a question whether the real good achieved is worth the trouble +taken. The most popular lectures are given by big people, whose +presence is likely to be attractive; and the whole thing, I fear we +must confess, is not pre-eminently successful. In the Northern States +of America the matter stands on a very different footing. Lectures +there are more popular than either theatres or concerts. Enormous +halls are built for them. Tickets for long courses are taken with +avidity. Very large sums are paid to popular lecturers, so that the +profession is lucrative,--more so, I am given to understand, than +is the cognate profession of literature. The whole thing is done in +great style. Music is introduced. The lecturer stands on a large +raised platform, on which sit around him the bald and hoary-headed +and superlatively wise. Ladies come in large numbers; especially +those who aspire to soar above the frivolities of the world. Politics +is the subject most popular, and most general. The men and women of +Boston could no more do without their lectures, than those of Paris +could without their theatres. It is the decorous diversion of the +best ordered of her citizens. The fast young men go to clubs, and the +fast young women to dances, as fast young men and women do in other +places that are wicked; but lecturing is the favourite diversion of +the steady-minded Bostonian. After all, I do not know that the result +is very good. It does not seem that much will be gained by such +lectures on either side of the Atlantic,--except that respectable +killing of an evening which might otherwise be killed less +respectably. It is but an industrious idleness, an attempt at a royal +road to information, that habit of attending lectures. Let any man or +woman say what he has brought away from any such attendance. It is +attractive, that idea of being studious without any of the labour +of study; but I fear it is illusive. If an evening can be so passed +without ennui, I believe that that may be regarded as the best result +to be gained. But then it so often happens that the evening is not +passed without ennui! Of course in saying this, I am not alluding +to lectures given in special places as a course of special study. +Medical lectures, no doubt, are a necessary part of medical +education. As many as two or three thousand often attend these +popular lectures in Boston, but I do not know whether on that account +the popular subjects are much better understood. Nevertheless I +resolved to hear more, hoping that I might in that way teach myself +to understand what were the popular politics in New England. Whether +or no I may have learned this in any other way I do not perhaps know; +but at any rate I did not learn it in this way. + +The next lecture which I attended was also given in the Tremont Hall, +and on this occasion also the subject of the war was to be treated. +The special treachery of the rebels was, I think, the matter to be +taken in hand. On this occasion also the room was full, and my hopes +of a pleasant hour ran high. For some fifteen minutes I listened, and +I am bound to say that the gentleman discoursed in excellent English. +He was master of that wonderful fluency which is peculiarly the gift +of an American. He went on from one sentence to another with rhythmic +tones and unerring pronunciation. He never faltered, never repeated +his words, never fell into those vile half-muttered hems and haws +by which an Englishman in such a position so generally betrays his +timidity. But during the whole time of my remaining in the room he +did not give expression to a single thought. He went on from one soft +platitude to another, and uttered words from which I would defy any +one of his audience to carry away with them anything. And yet it +seemed to me that his audience was satisfied. I was not satisfied, +and managed to escape out of the room. + +The next lecturer to whom I listened was Mr. Everett. Mr. Everett's +reputation as an orator is very great, and I was especially anxious +to hear him. I had long since known that his power of delivery was +very marvellous; that his tones, elocution, and action were all +great; and that he was able to command the minds and sympathies +of his audience in a remarkable manner. His subject also was the +war;--or rather the causes of the war, and its qualification. Had the +North given to the South cause of provocation? Had the South been +fair and honest in its dealings to the North? Had any compromise been +possible by which the war might have been avoided, and the rights and +dignity of the North preserved? Seeing that Mr. Everett is a Northern +man and was lecturing to a Boston audience, one knew well how these +questions would be answered, but the manner of the answering would be +everything. This lecture was given at Roxboro', one of the suburbs +of Boston. So I went out to Roxboro' with a party, and found myself +honoured by being placed on the platform among the bald-headed ones +and the superlatively wise. This privilege is naturally gratifying, +but it entails on him who is so gratified the inconvenience of +sitting at the lecturer's back, whereas it is perhaps better for the +listener to be before his face. + +I could not but be amused by one little scenic incident. When we all +went upon the platform, some one proposed that the clergymen should +lead the way out of the waiting-room in which we bald-headed ones and +superlatively wise were assembled. But to this the manager of the +affair demurred. He wanted the clergymen for a purpose, he said. And +so the profane ones led the way, and the clergymen, of whom there +might be some six or seven, clustered in around the lecturer at last. +Early in his discourse Mr. Everett told us what it was that the +country needed at this period of her trial. Patriotism, courage, the +bravery of the men, the good wishes of the women, the self-denial +of all,--"and," continued the lecturer, turning to his immediate +neighbours, "the prayers of these holy men whom I see around me." It +had not been for nothing that the clergymen were detained. + +Mr. Everett lectures without any book or paper before him, and +continues from first to last as though the words came from him on the +spur of the moment. It is known, however, that it is his practice +to prepare his orations with great care and commit them entirely to +memory, as does an actor. Indeed he repeats the same lecture over and +over again, I am told, without the change of a word or of an action. +I did not like Mr. Everett's lecture. I did not like what he said, +or the seeming spirit in which it was framed. But I am bound to +admit that his power of oratory is very wonderful. Those among his +countrymen who have criticised his manner in my hearing have said +that he is too florid, that there is an affectation in the motion +of his hands, and that the intended pathos of his voice sometimes +approaches too near the precipice over which the fall is so deep and +rapid, and at the bottom of which lies absolute ridicule. Judging for +myself, I did not find it so. My position for seeing was not good, +but my ear was not offended. Critics also should bear in mind that +an orator does not speak chiefly to them or for their approval. He +who writes, or speaks, or sings for thousands, must write, speak, or +sing as those thousands would have him. That to a dainty connoisseur +will be false music, which to the general ear shall be accounted as +the perfection of harmony. An eloquence altogether suited to the +fastidious and hypercritical, would probably fail to carry off the +hearts and interest the sympathies of the young and eager. As regards +manners, tone, and choice of words, I think that the oratory of Mr. +Everett places him very high. His skill in his work is perfect. He +never falls back upon a word. He never repeats himself. His voice is +always perfectly under command. As for hesitation or timidity, the +days for those failings have long passed by with him. When he makes +a point, he makes it well, and drives it home to the intelligence of +every one before him. Even that appeal to the holy men around him +sounded well,--or would have done so had I not been present at that +little arrangement in the anteroom. On the audience at large it was +manifestly effective. + +But nevertheless the lecture gave me but a poor idea of Mr. Everett +as a politician, though it made me regard him highly as an orator. +It was impossible not to perceive that he was anxious to utter the +sentiments of the audience rather than his own;--that he was making +himself an echo, a powerful and harmonious echo of what he conceived +to be public opinion in Boston at that moment;--that he was neither +leading nor teaching the people before him, but allowing himself to +be led by them, so that he might best play his present part for their +delectation. He was neither bold nor honest, as Emerson had been, and +I could not but feel that every tyro of a politician before him would +thus recognize his want of boldness and of honesty. As a statesman, +or as a critic of statecraft and of other statesmen, he is wanting +in backbone. For many years Mr. Everett has been not even inimical +to southern politics and southern courses, nor was he among those +who, during the last eight years previous to Mr. Lincoln's election, +fought the battle for northern principles. I do not say that on this +account he is now false to advocate the war. But he cannot carry +men with him when, at his age, he advocates it by arguments opposed +to the tenour of his long political life. His abuse of the South +and of southern ideas was as virulent as might be that of a young +lad now beginning his political career, or of one who had through +life advocated abolition principles. He heaped reproaches on poor +Virginia, whose position as the chief of the border States has given +to her hardly the possibility of avoiding a Scylla of ruin on the +one side, or a Charybdis of rebellion on the other. When he spoke as +he did of Virginia, ridiculing the idea of her sacred soil, even I, +Englishman as I am, could not but think of Washington, of Jefferson, +of Randolph, and of Madison. He should not have spoken of Virginia +as he did speak; for no man could have known better Virginia's +difficulties. But Virginia was at a discount in Boston, and Mr. +Everett was speaking to a Boston audience. And then he referred to +England and to Europe. Mr. Everett has been minister to England, and +knows the people. He is a student of history, and must, I think, +know that England's career has not been unhappy or unprosperous. +But England also was at a discount in Boston, and Mr. Everett was +speaking to a Boston audience. They are sending us their advice +across the water, said Mr. Everett. And what is their advice to +us? that we should come down from the high place we have built for +ourselves, and be even as they are. They screech at us from the low +depths in which they are wallowing in their misery, and call on us to +join them in their wretchedness. I am not quoting Mr. Everett's very +words, for I have not them by me; but I am not making them stronger, +nor so strong as he made them. As I thought of Mr. Everett's +reputation, and of his years of study,--of his long political life +and unsurpassed sources of information,--I could not but grieve +heartily when I heard such words fall from him. I could not but +ask myself whether it were impossible that under the present +circumstances of her constitution this great nation of America should +produce an honest, high-minded statesman. When Lincoln and Hamlin, +the existing President and Vice-President of the States, were in 1860 +as yet but the candidates of the republican party, Bell and Everett +also were the candidates of the old whig, conservative party. Their +express theory was this,--that the question of slavery should +not be touched. Their purpose was to crush agitation and restore +harmony by an impartial balance between the North and South: a fine +purpose,--the finest of all purposes, had it been practicable. But +such a course of compromise was now at a discount in Boston, and +Mr. Everett was speaking to a Boston audience. As an orator, Mr. +Everett's excellence is, I think, not to be questioned; but as a +politician I cannot give him a high rank. + +After that I heard Mr. Wendell Phillips. Of him, too, as an orator +all the world of Massachusetts speaks with great admiration, and I +have no doubt so speaks with justice. He is, however, known as the +hottest and most impassioned advocate of abolition. Not many months +since the cause of abolition, as advocated by him, was so unpopular +in Boston, that Mr. Phillips was compelled to address his audience +surrounded by a guard of policemen. Of this gentleman, I may at any +rate say that he is consistent, devoted, and disinterested. He is an +abolitionist by profession, and seeks to find in every turn of the +tide of politics some stream on which he may bring himself nearer +to his object. In the old days, previous to the selection of Mr. +Lincoln, in days so old that they are now nearly eighteen months +past, Mr. Phillips was an anti-Union man. He advocated strongly the +disseverance of the Union, so that the country to which he belonged +might have hands clean from the taint of slavery. He had probably +acknowledged to himself, that while the North and South were bound +together no hope existed of emancipation, but that if the North stood +alone the South would become too weak to foster and keep alive the +"social institution." In which, if such were his opinions, I am +inclined to agree with him. But now he is all for the Union, thinking +that a victorious North can compel the immediate emancipation of +southern slaves. As to which I beg to say that I am bold to differ +from Mr. Phillips altogether. + +It soon became evident to me that Mr. Phillips was unwell, and +lecturing at a disadvantage. His manner was clearly that of an +accustomed orator, but his voice was weak, and he was not up to +the effect which he attempted to make. His hearers were impatient, +repeatedly calling upon him to speak out, and on that account I tried +hard to feel kindly towards him and his lecture. But I must confess +that I failed. To me it seemed that the doctrine he preached was one +of rapine, bloodshed, and social destruction. He would call upon the +Government and upon Congress to enfranchise the slaves at once,--now +during the war,--so that the Southern power might be destroyed by +a concurrence of misfortunes. And he would do so at once, on the +spur of the moment, fearing lest the South should be before him, +and themselves emancipate their own bondsmen. I have sometimes +thought that there is no being so venomous, so bloodthirsty as a +professed philanthropist; and that when the philanthropist's ardour +lies negro-wards, it then assumes the deepest die of venom and +bloodthirstiness. There are four millions of slaves in the southern +States, none of whom have any capacity for self-maintenance or +self-control. Four millions of slaves, with the necessities of +children, with the passions of men, and the ignorance of savages! +And Mr. Phillips would emancipate these at a blow; would, were it +possible for him to do so, set them loose upon the soil to tear +their masters, destroy each other, and make such a hell upon the +earth as has never even yet come from the uncontrolled passions +and unsatisfied wants of men. But Congress cannot do this. All +the members of Congress put together cannot, according to the +constitution of the United States, emancipate a single slave in South +Carolina; not if they were all unanimous. No emancipation in a Slave +State can come otherwise than by the legislative enactment of that +State. But it was then thought that in this coming winter of 1860-61 +the action of Congress might be set aside. The North possessed an +enormous army under the control of the President. The South was in +rebellion, and the President could pronounce, and the army perhaps +enforce, the confiscation of all property held in slaves. If any who +held them were not disloyal, the question of compensation might be +settled afterwards. How those four million slaves should live, and +how white men should live among them, in some States or parts of +States not equal to the blacks in number;--as to that Mr. Phillips +did not give us his opinion. + +And Mr. Phillips also could not keep his tongue away from the +abominations of Englishmen and the miraculous powers of his own +countrymen. It was on this occasion that he told us more than +once how Yankees carried brains in their fingers, whereas "common +people"--alluding by that name to Europeans--had them only, if at +all, inside their brain-pans. And then he informed us that Lord +Palmerston had always hated America. Among the Radicals there might +be one or two who understood and valued the institutions of America, +but it was a well-known fact that Lord Palmerston was hostile to +the country. Nothing but hidden enmity,--enmity hidden or not +hidden,--could be expected from England. That the people of Boston, +or of Massachusetts, or of the North generally, should feel sore +against England is to me intelligible. I know how the minds of men +are moved in masses to certain feelings, and that it ever must be so. +Men in common talk are not bound to weigh their words, to think, and +speculate on their results, and be sure of the premises on which +their thoughts are founded. But it is different with a man who rises +before two or three thousand of his countrymen to teach and instruct +them. After that I heard no more political lectures in Boston. + +Of course I visited Bunker's Hill, and went to Lexington and Concord. +From the top of the monument on Bunker's Hill there is a fine view of +Boston Harbour, and seen from thence the harbour is picturesque. The +mouth is crowded with islands and jutting necks and promontories; +and though the shores are in no place rich enough to make the +scenery grand, the general effect is good. The monument, however, +is so constructed that one can hardly get a view through the +windows at the top of it, and there is no outside gallery round it. +Immediately below the monument is a marble figure of Major Warren, +who fell there,--not from the top of the monument, as some one +was led to believe when informed that on that spot the Major had +fallen. Bunker's Hill, which is little more than a mound, is at +Charleston,--a dull, populous, respectable, and very unattractive +suburb of Boston. + +Bunker's Hill has obtained a considerable name, and is accounted +great in the annals of American history. In England we have all +heard of Bunker's Hill, and some of us dislike the sound as much as +Frenchmen do that of Waterloo. In the States men talk of Bunker's +Hill as we may, perhaps, talk of Agincourt and such favourite fields. +But, after all, little was done at Bunker's Hill, and, as far as +I can learn, no victory was gained there by either party. The road +from Boston to the town of Concord, on which stands the village of +Lexington, is the true scene of the earliest and greatest deeds of +the men of Boston. The monument at Bunker's Hill stands high and +commands attention, while those at Lexington and Concord are very +lowly and command no attention. But it is of that road and what was +done on it that Massachusetts should be proud. When the colonists +first began to feel that they were oppressed, and a half resolve was +made to resist that oppression by force, they began to collect a +few arms and some gunpowder at Concord, a small town about eighteen +miles from Boston. Of this preparation the English Governor received +tidings, and determined to send a party of soldiers to seize the +arms. This he endeavoured to do secretly; but he was too closely +watched, and word was sent down over the waters by which Boston +was then surrounded that the colonists might be prepared for the +soldiers. At that time Boston Neck, as it was and is still called, +was the only connection between the town and the main land, and +the road over Boston Neck did not lead to Concord. Boats therefore +were necessarily used, and there was some difficulty in getting the +soldiers to the nearest point. They made their way, however, to +the road, and continued their route as far as Lexington without +interruption. Here, however, they were attacked, and the first blood +of that war was shed. They shot three or four of the--rebels, I +suppose I should in strict language call them, and then proceeded +on to Concord. But at Concord they were stopped and repulsed, and +along the road back from Concord to Lexington they were driven with +slaughter and dismay. And thus the rebellion was commenced which led +to the establishment of a people which, let us Englishmen say and +think what we may of them at this present moment, has made itself one +of the five great nations of the earth, and has enabled us to boast +that the two out of the five who enjoy the greatest liberty and +the widest prosperity, speak the English language and are known by +English names. For all that has come and is like to come, I say +again, long may that honour remain. I could not but feel that that +road from Boston to Concord deserves a name in the world's history +greater, perhaps, than has yet been given to it. + +Concord is at present to be noted as the residence of Mr. Emerson and +of Mr. Hawthorne, two of those many men of letters of whose presence +Boston and its neighbourhood have reason to be proud. Of Mr. Emerson +I have already spoken. The author of the "Scarlet Letter" I regard +as certainly the first of American novelists. I know what men will +say of Mr. Cooper,--and I also am an admirer of Cooper's novels. But +I cannot think that Mr. Cooper's powers were equal to those of Mr. +Hawthorne, though his mode of thought may have been more genial, and +his choice of subjects more attractive in their day. In point of +imagination, which, after all, is the novelist's greatest gift, I +hardly know any living author who can be accounted superior to Mr. +Hawthorne. + +Very much has, undoubtedly, been done in Boston to carry out +that theory of Colonel Newcome's--_Emollit mores_, by which the +Colonel meant to signify his opinion that a competent knowledge of +reading, writing, and arithmetic, with a taste for enjoying those +accomplishments, goes very far towards the making of a man, and will +by no means mar a gentleman. In Boston nearly every man, woman, and +child has had his or her manners so far softened; and though they may +still occasionally be somewhat rough to the outer touch, the inward +effect is plainly visible. With us, especially among our agricultural +population, the absence of that inner softening is as visible. + +I went to see a public library in the city, which, if not founded by +Mr. Bates whose name is so well known in London as connected with the +house of Messrs. Baring, has been greatly enriched by him. It is by +his money that it has been enabled to do its work. In this library +there is a certain number of thousands of volumes--a great many +volumes, as there are in most public libraries. There are books of +all classes, from ponderous unreadable folios, of which learned men +know the title-pages, down to the lightest literature. Novels are by +no means eschewed,--are rather, if I understood aright, considered +as one of the staples of the library. From this library any book, +excepting such rare volumes as in all libraries are considered holy, +is given out to any inhabitant of Boston, without any payment, on +presentation of a simple request on a prepared form. In point of +fact, it is a gratuitous circulating library open to all Boston, rich +or poor, young or old. The books seemed in general to be confided +to young children, who came as messengers from their fathers and +mothers, or brothers and sisters. No question whatever is asked, +if the applicant is known or the place of his residence undoubted. +If there be no such knowledge, or there be any doubt as to the +residence, the applicant is questioned, the object being to confine +the use of the library to the _bonâ fide_ inhabitants of the city. +Practically the books are given to those who ask for them, whoever +they may be. Boston contains over 200,000 inhabitants, and all those +200,000 are entitled to them. Some twenty men and women are kept +employed from morning to night in carrying on this circulating +library; and there is, moreover, attached to the establishment a +large reading-room supplied with papers and magazines, open to the +public of Boston on the same terms. + +Of course I asked whether a great many of the books were not lost, +stolen, and destroyed; and of course I was told that there were no +losses, no thefts, and no destruction. As to thefts, the librarian +did not seem to think that any instance of such an occurrence could +be found. Among the poorer classes a book might sometimes be lost +when they were changing their lodgings, but anything so lost was +more than replaced by the fines. A book is taken out for a week, +and if not brought back at the end of that week, when the loan can +be renewed if the reader wishes, a fine, I think of two cents, is +incurred. The children, when too late with the books, bring in the +two cents as a matter of course, and the sum so collected fully +replaces all losses. It was all _couleur de rose_; the librarianesses +looked very pretty and learned, and, if I remember aright, mostly +wore spectacles; the head librarian was enthusiastic; the nice +instructive books were properly dogs-eared; my own productions were +in enormous demand; the call for books over the counter was brisk, +and the reading-room was full of readers. + +It has, I dare say, occurred to other travellers to remark that the +proceedings at such institutions, when visited by them on their +travels, are always rose coloured. It is natural that the bright side +should be shown to the visitor. It may be that many books are called +for and returned unread, that many of those taken out are so taken by +persons who ought to pay for their novels at circulating libraries, +that the librarian and librarianesses get very tired of their long +hours of attendance,--for I found that they were very long;--and +that many idlers warm themselves in that reading-room: nevertheless +the fact remains,--the library is public to all the men and women in +Boston, and books are given out without payment to all who may choose +to ask for them. Why should not the great Mr. Mudie emulate Mr. +Bates, and open a library in London on the same system? + +The librarian took me into one special room, of which he himself kept +the key, to show me a present which the library had received from the +English Government. The room was filled with volumes of two sizes, +all bound alike, containing descriptions and drawings of all the +patents taken out in England. According to this librarian such a work +would be invaluable as to American patents; but he conceived that the +subject had become too confused to render any such an undertaking +possible. "I never allow a single volume to be used for a moment +without the presence of myself or one of my assistants," said the +librarian; and then he explained to me, when I asked him why he was +so particular, that the drawings would, as a matter of course, be cut +out and stolen if he omitted his care. "But they may be copied," I +said. "Yes; but if Jones merely copies one, Smith may come after him +and copy it also. Jones will probably desire to hinder Smith from +having any evidence of such a patent." As to the ordinary borrowing +and returning of books, the poorest labourer's child in Boston might +be trusted as honest; but when a question of trade came up, of +commercial competition, then the librarian was bound to bethink +himself that his countrymen are very smart. "I hope," said the +librarian, "you will let them know in England how grateful we are for +their present." And I hereby execute that librarian's commission. + +I shall always look back to social life in Boston with great +pleasure. I met there many men and women whom to know is a +distinction, and with whom to be intimate is a great delight. It was +a Puritan city, in which strict old Roundhead sentiments and laws +used to prevail; but now-a-days ginger is hot in the mouth there, and +in spite of the war there were cakes and ale. There was a law passed +in Massachusetts in the old days that any girl should be fined and +imprisoned who allowed a young man to kiss her. That law has now, I +think, fallen into abeyance, and such matters are regulated in Boston +much as they are in other large towns further eastward. It still, +I conceive, calls itself a Puritan city, but it has divested its +Puritanism of austerity, and clings rather to the politics and public +bearing of its old fathers than to their social manners and pristine +severity of intercourse. The young girls are, no doubt, much more +comfortable under the new dispensation,--and the elderly men also, +as I fancy. Sunday, as regards the outer streets, is sabbatical. But +Sunday evenings within doors I always found to be what my friends in +that country call "quite a good time." It is not the thing in Boston +to smoke in the streets during the day; but the wisest, the sagest, +and the most holy,--even those holy men whom the lecturer saw around +him,--seldom refuse a cigar in the dining-room as soon as the ladies +have gone. Perhaps even the wicked weed would make its appearance +before that sad eclipse, thereby postponing, or perhaps absolutely +annihilating, the melancholy period of widowhood to both parties, +and would light itself under the very eyes of those who in sterner +cities will lend no countenance to such lightings. Ah me, it was very +pleasant! I confess I like this abandonment of the stricter rules of +the more decorous world. I fear that there is within me an aptitude +to the milder debaucheries which makes such deviations pleasant. I +like to drink and I like to smoke, but I do not like to turn women +out of the room. Then comes the question whether one can have all +that one likes together. In some small circles in New England I found +people simple enough to fancy that they could. In Massachusetts the +Maine Liquor Law is still the law of the land, but, like that other +law to which I have alluded, it has fallen very much out of use. At +any rate it had not reached the houses of the gentlemen with whom I +had the pleasure of making acquaintance. But here I must guard myself +from being misunderstood. I saw but one drunken man through all New +England, and he was very respectable. He was, however, so uncommonly +drunk that he might be allowed to count for two or three. The +Puritans of Boston are, of course, simple in their habits and simple +in their expenses. Champagne and canvas-back ducks I found to be the +provisions most in vogue among those who desired to adhere closely to +the manners of their forefathers. Upon the whole I found the ways of +life which had been brought over in the "Mayflower" from the stern +sects of England, and preserved through the revolutionary war for +liberty, to be very pleasant ways, and I made up my mind that a +Yankee Puritan can be an uncommonly pleasant fellow. I wish that some +of them did not dine so early; for when a man sits down at half-past +two, that keeping up of the after-dinner recreations till bedtime +becomes hard work. + +In Boston the houses are very spacious and excellent, and they are +always furnished with those luxuries which it is so difficult to +introduce into an old house. They have hot and cold water pipes +into every room, and baths attached to the bed-chambers. It is not +only that comfort is increased by such arrangements, but that much +labour is saved. In an old English house it will occupy a servant +the best part of the day to carry water up and down for a large +family. Everything also is spacious, commodious, and well lighted. +I certainly think that in house building the Americans have gone +beyond us, for even our new houses are not commodious as are theirs. +One practice which they have in their cities would hardly suit our +limited London spaces. When the body of the house is built, they +throw out the dining-room behind. It stands alone, as it were, with +no other chamber above it, and removed from the rest of the house. +It is consequently behind the double drawing-rooms which form the +ground-floor, and is approached from them, and also from the back of +the hall. The second entrance to the dining-room is thus near the top +of the kitchen stairs, which no doubt is its proper position. The +whole of the upper part of the house is thus kept for the private +uses of the family. To me this plan of building recommended itself as +being very commodious. + +I found the spirit for the war quite as hot at Boston now (in +November), if not hotter than it was when I was there ten weeks +earlier; and I found also, to my grief, that the feeling against +England was as strong. I can easily understand how difficult it must +have been, and still must be, to Englishmen at home to understand +this, and see how it has come to pass. It has not arisen, as I think, +from the old jealousy of England. It has not sprung from that source +which for years has induced certain newspapers, especially the "New +York Herald" to vilify England. I do not think that the men of New +England have ever been, as regards this matter, in the same boat with +the "New York Herald." But when this war between the North and South +first broke out, even before there was as yet a war, the Northern men +had taught themselves to expect what they called British sympathy, +meaning British encouragement. They regarded, and properly regarded, +the action of the South as a rebellion, and said among themselves +that so staid and conservative a nation as Great Britain would surely +countenance them in quelling rebels. If not,--should it come to pass +that Great Britain should show no such countenance and sympathy for +Northern law, if Great Britain did not respond to her friend as +she was expected to respond, then it would appear that Cotton was +king, at least in British eyes. The war did come, and Great Britain +regarded the two parties as belligerents, standing, as far as she was +concerned, on equal grounds. This it was that first gave rise to that +fretful anger against England which has gone so far towards ruining +the northern cause. We know how such passions are swelled by being +ventilated, and how they are communicated from mind to mind till they +become national. Politicians--American politicians I here mean--have +their own future careers ever before their eyes, and are driven +to make capital where they can. Hence it is that such men as Mr. +Seward in the cabinet, and Mr. Everett out of it, can reconcile it +to themselves to speak as they have done of England. It was but the +other day that Mr. Everett spoke in one of his orations of the hope +that still existed that the flag of the United States might still +float over the whole continent of North America. What would he say of +an English statesman who should speak of putting up the Union Jack +on the State House in Boston? Such words tell for the moment on the +hearers, and help to gain some slight popularity; but they tell for +more than a moment on those who read them and remember them. + +And then came the capture of Messrs. Slidell and Mason. I was at +Boston when those men were taken out of the "Trent" by the "San +Jacinto," and brought to Fort Warren in Boston Harbour. Captain +Wilkes was the officer who had made the capture, and he immediately +was recognized as a hero. He was invited to banquets and fêted. +Speeches were made to him as speeches are commonly made to high +officers who come home, after many perils, victorious from the wars. +His health was drunk with great applause, and thanks were voted to +him by one of the Houses of Congress. It was said that a sword was +to be given to him, but I do not think that the gift was consummated. +Should it not have been a policeman's truncheon? Had he at the +best done anything beyond a policeman's work? Of Captain Wilkes +no one would complain for doing policeman's duty. If his country +were satisfied with the manner in which he did it, England, if she +quarrelled at all, would not quarrel with him. It may now and again +become the duty of a brave officer to do work of so low a calibre. It +is a pity that an ambitious sailor should find himself told off for +so mean a task, but the world would know that it is not his fault. +No one could blame Captain Wilkes for acting policeman on the seas. +But who ever before heard of giving a man glory for achievements so +little glorious? How Captain Wilkes must have blushed when those +speeches were made to him, when that talk about the sword came up, +when the thanks arrived to him from Congress! An officer receives +his country's thanks when he has been in great peril, and has borne +himself gallantly through his danger; when he has endured the brunt +of war, and come through it with victory; when he has exposed himself +on behalf of his country and singed his epaulets with an enemy's +fire. Captain Wilkes tapped a merchantman on the shoulder in the high +seas, and told him that his passengers were wanted. In doing this he +showed no lack of spirit, for it might be his duty; but where was his +spirit when he submitted to be thanked for such work? + +And then there arose a clamour of justification among the lawyers; +judges and ex-judges flew to Wheaton, Phillimore, and Lord Stowell. +Before twenty-four hours were over, every man and every woman in +Boston were armed with precedents. Then there was the burning of the +"Caroline." England had improperly burned the "Caroline" on Lake +Erie, or rather in one of the American ports on Lake Erie, and had +then begged pardon. If the States had been wrong, they would beg +pardon; but whether wrong or right, they would not give up Slidell +and Mason. But the lawyers soon waxed stronger. The men were +manifestly ambassadors, and as such contraband of war. Wilkes was +quite right, only he should have seized the vessel also. He was quite +right, for though Slidell and Mason might not be ambassadors, they +were undoubtedly carrying despatches. In a few hours there began to +be a doubt whether the men could be ambassadors, because if called +ambassadors, then the power that sent the embassy must be presumed to +be recognized. That Captain Wilkes had taken no despatches was true; +but the Captain suggested a way out of this difficulty by declaring +that he had regarded the two men themselves as an incarnated +embodiment of despatches. At any rate, they were clearly contraband +of war. They were going to do an injury to the North. It was pretty +to hear the charming women of Boston, as they became learned in the +law of nations: "Wheaton is quite clear about it," one young girl +said to me. It was the first I had ever heard of Wheaton, and so +far was obliged to knock under. All the world, ladies and lawyers, +expressed the utmost confidence in the justice of the seizure, but +it was clear that all the world was in a state of the profoundest +nervous anxiety on the subject. To me it seemed to be the most +suicidal act that any party in a life-and-death struggle ever +committed. All Americans on both sides had felt, from the beginning +of the war, that any assistance given by England to one or the other +would turn the scale. The Government of Mr. Lincoln must have learned +by this time that England was at least true in her neutrality; that +no desire for cotton would compel her to give aid to the South as +long as she herself was not ill-treated by the North. But it seemed +as though Mr. Seward, the President's prime minister, had no better +work on hand than that of showing in every way his indifference as to +courtesy with England. Insults offered to England would, he seemed to +think, strengthen his hands. He would let England know that he did +not care for her. When our minister, Lord Lyons, appealed to him +regarding the suspension of the habeas corpus, Mr. Seward not only +answered him with insolence, but instantly published his answer +in the papers. He instituted a system of passports, especially +constructed so as to incommode Englishmen proceeding from the States +across the Atlantic. He resolved to make every Englishman in America +feel himself in some way punished because England had not assisted +the North. And now came the arrest of Slidell and Mason out of +an English mail-steamer; and Mr. Seward took care to let it be +understood that, happen what might, those two men should not be given +up. + +Nothing during all this time astonished me so much as the estimation +in which Mr. Seward was then held by his own party. It is, perhaps, +the worst defect in the Constitution of the States, that no +incapacity on the part of a minister, no amount of condemnation +expressed against him by the people or by Congress, can put him out +of office during the term of the existing Presidency. The President +can dismiss him; but it generally happens that the President is +brought in on a "platform," which has already nominated for him his +Cabinet as thoroughly as they have nominated him. Mr. Seward ran Mr. +Lincoln very hard for the position of candidate for the Presidency +on the Republican interest. On the second voting of the Republican +delegates at the Convention at Chicago, Mr. Seward polled 184 to Mr. +Lincoln's 181. But as a clear half of the total number of votes was +necessary--that is 233 out of 465--there was necessarily a third +polling, and Mr. Lincoln won the day. On that occasion Mr. Chase and +Mr. Cameron, both of whom became members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, +were also candidates for the White House on the Republican side. +I mention this here to show, that though the President can in fact +dismiss his Ministers, he is in a great manner bound to them, and +that a Minister in Mr. Seward's position is hardly to be dismissed. +But from the 1st of November, 1861, till the day on which I left +the States, I do not think that I heard a good word spoken of Mr. +Seward as a Minister even by one of his own party. The Radical +or Abolitionist Republicans all abused him. The Conservative or +Anti-abolition Republicans, to whose party he would consider himself +as belonging, spoke of him as a mistake. He had been prominent as +Senator from New York, and had been Governor of the State of New +York, but had none of the aptitudes of a statesman. He was there, and +it was a pity. He was not so bad as Mr. Cameron, the Minister for +War; that was the best his own party could say for him, even in his +own State of New York. As to the Democrats, their language respecting +him was as harsh as any that I have heard used towards the Southern +leaders. He seemed to have no friend, no one who trusted him;--and +yet he was the President's chief minister, and seemed to have in +his own hands the power of mismanaging all foreign relations as he +pleased. But, in truth, the States of America, great as they are, and +much as they have done, have not produced Statesmen. That theory of +governing by the little men rather than by the great, has not been +found to answer, and such follies as those of Mr. Seward have been +the consequence. + +At Boston, and indeed elsewhere, I found that there was even +then,--at the time of the capture of Mason and Slidell,--no true +conception of the neutrality of England with reference to the two +parties. When any argument was made, showing that England who had +carried those messengers from the South, would undoubtedly have also +carried messengers from the North, the answer always was--"But the +Southerners are all rebels. Will England regard us who are by treaty +her friend, as she does a people that is in rebellion against its +own government?" That was the old story over again, and as it was +a very long story, it was hardly of use to go back through all its +details. But the fact was that unless there had been such absolute +neutrality--such equality between the parties in the eyes of +England--even Captain Wilkes would not have thought of stopping +the "Trent," or the Government at Washington of justifying such +a proceeding. And it must be remembered that the Government at +Washington had justified that proceeding. The Secretary of the Navy +had distinctly done so in his official report; and that report had +been submitted to the President and published by his order. It was +because England was neutral between the North and South that Captain +Wilkes claimed to have the right of seizing those two men. It had +been the President's intention, some month or so before this affair, +to send Mr. Everett and other gentlemen over to England with objects +as regards the North, similar to those which had caused the sending +of Slidell and Mason with reference to the South. What would Mr. +Everett have thought had he been refused a passage from Dover to +Calais, because the carrying of him would have been towards the South +a breach of neutrality? It would never have occurred to him that he +could become subject to such stoppage. How should we have been abused +for Southern sympathies had we so acted! We, forsooth, who carry +passengers about the world, from China and Australia, round to Chili +and Peru, who have the charge of the world's passengers and letters, +and as a nation incur out of our pocket annually a loss of some +half-million of pounds sterling for the privilege of doing so, are +to inquire the business of every American traveller before we let +him on board, and be stopped in our work if we take anybody on one +side whose journeyings may be conceived by the other side to be to +them prejudicial! Not on such terms will Englishmen be willing to +spread civilization across the ocean! I do not pretend to understand +Wheaton and Phillimore, or even to have read a single word of any +international law. I have refused to read any such, knowing that it +would only confuse and mislead me. But I have my common sense to +guide me. Two men living in one street, quarrel and shy brickbats at +each other, and make the whole street very uncomfortable. Not only is +no one to interfere with them, but they are to have the privilege of +deciding that their brickbats have the right of way, rather than the +ordinary intercourse of the neighbourhood! If that be national law, +national law must be changed. It might do for some centuries back, +but it cannot do now. Up to this period my sympathies had been +with the North. I thought, and still think, that the North had no +alternative, that the war had been forced upon them, and that they +had gone about their work with patriotic energy. But this stopping of +an English mail-steamer was too much for me. + +What will they do in England? was now the question. But for any +knowledge as to that, I had to wait till I reached Washington. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL. + + +The two places of most general interest in the vicinity of Boston +are Cambridge and Lowell. Cambridge is to Massachusetts, and, I may +almost say, is to all the northern States, what Cambridge and Oxford +are to England. It is the seat of the University which gives the +highest education to be attained by the highest classes in that +country. Lowell also is in little to Massachusetts and to New England +what Manchester is to us in so great a degree. It is the largest and +most prosperous cotton-manufacturing town in the States. + +Cambridge is not above three or four miles from Boston. Indeed, the +town of Cambridge properly so called begins where Boston ceases. The +Harvard College--that is its name, taken from one of its original +founders--is reached by horse-cars in twenty minutes from the city. +An Englishman feels inclined to regard the place as a suburb of +Boston; but if he so expresses himself, he will not find favour in +the eyes of the men of Cambridge. + +The University is not so large as I had expected to find it. It +consists of Harvard College, as the undergraduates' department, and +of professional schools of law, medicine, divinity, and science. +In the few words that I will say about it I will confine myself to +Harvard College proper, conceiving that the professional schools +connected with it have not in themselves any special interest. The +average number of undergraduates does not exceed 450, and these +are divided into four classes. The average number of degrees taken +annually by bachelors of art is something under 100. Four years' +residence is required for a degree, and at the end of that period +a degree is given as a matter of course if the candidate's conduct +has been satisfactory. When a young man has pursued his studies for +that period, going through the required examinations and lectures, +he is not subjected to any final examination as is the case with a +candidate for a degree at Oxford and Cambridge. It is, perhaps, in +this respect that the greatest difference exists between the English +Universities and Harvard College. With us a young man may, I take +it, still go through his three or four years with a small amount of +study. But his doing so does not insure him his degree. If he have +utterly wasted his time he is plucked, and late but heavy punishment +comes upon him. At Cambridge in Massachusetts the daily work of +the men is made more obligatory; but if this be gone through with +such diligence as to enable the student to hold his own during the +four years, he has his degree as a matter of course. There are no +degrees conferring special honour. A man cannot go out "in honours" +as he does with us. There are no "firsts" or "double firsts;" no +"wranglers;" no "senior opts" or "junior opts." Nor are there prizes +of fellowships and livings to be obtained. It is, I think, evident +from this that the greatest incentives to high excellence are wanting +at Harvard College. There is neither the reward of honour nor of +money. There is none of that great competition which exists at our +Cambridge for the high place of Senior Wrangler; and, consequently, +the degree of excellence attained is no doubt lower than with us. +But I conceive that the general level of the University education is +higher there than with us; that a young man is more sure of getting +his education, and that a smaller percentage of men leaves Harvard +College utterly uneducated than goes in that condition out of Oxford +or Cambridge. The education at Harvard College is more diversified in +its nature, and study is more absolutely the business of the place +than it is at our Universities. + +The expense of education at Harvard College is not much lower than +at our colleges; with us there are, no doubt, more men who are +absolutely extravagant than at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The actual +authorized expenditure in accordance with the rules is only £50 per +annum, _i.e._ 249 dollars; but this does not, by any means, include +everything. Some of the richer young men may spend as much as £300 +per annum, but the largest number vary their expenditure from £100 +to £180 per annum; and I take it the same thing may be said of our +Universities. There are many young men at Harvard College of very +small means. They will live on £70 per annum, and will earn a great +portion of that by teaching in the vacations. There are thirty-six +scholarships attached to the University varying in value from £20 to +£60 per annum; and there is also a beneficiary fund for supplying +poor scholars with assistance during their collegiate education. Many +are thus brought up at Cambridge who have no means of their own, and +I think I may say that the consideration in which they are held among +their brother students is in no degree affected by their position. +I doubt whether we can say so much of the sizars and bible clerks at +our Universities. + +At Harvard College there is, of course, none of that old-fashioned, +time-honoured, delicious, mediæval life which lends so much grace and +beauty to our colleges. There are no gates, no porter's lodges, no +butteries, no halls, no battels, and no common rooms. There are no +proctors, no bulldogs, no bursers, no deans, no morning and evening +chapel, no quads, no surplices, no caps and gowns. I have already +said that there are no examinations for degrees and no honours; and I +can easily conceive that in the absence of all these essentials many +an Englishman will ask what right Harvard College has to call itself +a University. + +I have said that there are no honours,--and in our sense there are +none. But I should give offence to my American friends if I did not +explain that there are prizes given--I think all in money, and that +they vary from 50 to 10 dollars. These are called _deturs_. The +degrees are given on Commencement Day, at which occasion certain +of the expectant graduates are selected to take parts in a public +literary exhibition. To be so selected seems to be tantamount to +taking a degree in honours. There is also a dinner on Commencement +Day,--at which, however, "no wine or other intoxicating drink shall +be served." + +It is required that every student shall attend some place of +Christian worship on Sundays; but he, or his parents for him, may +elect what denomination of church he shall attend. There is a +University chapel on the University grounds which belongs, if I +remember right, to the Episcopalian Church. The young men for the +most part live in College, having rooms in the College buildings; +but they do not board in those rooms. There are establishments in +the town under the patronage of the University, at which dinner, +breakfast, and supper are provided; and the young men frequent one +of these houses or another as they, or their friends for them, may +arrange. Every young man not belonging to a family resident within a +hundred miles of Cambridge, and whose parents are desirous to obtain +the protection thus provided, is placed, as regards his pecuniary +management, under the care of a patron, and this patron acts by him +as a father does in England by a boy at school. He pays out his money +for him and keeps him out of debt. The arrangement will not recommend +itself to young men at Oxford quite so powerfully as it may do to +the fathers of some young men who have been there. The rules with +regard to the lodging and boarding-houses are very stringent. Any +festive entertainment is to be reported to the President. No wine or +spirituous liquors may be used, &c. It is not a picturesque system, +this; but it has its advantages. + +There is a handsome library attached to the College, which the young +men can use; but it is not as extensive as I had expected. The +University is not well off for funds by which to increase it. The +new museum in the College is also a handsome building. The edifices +used for the undergraduates' chambers and for the lecture-rooms are +by no means handsome. They are very ugly red-brick houses standing +here and there without order. There are seven such, and they are +called Brattle House, College House, Divinity Hall, Hollis Hall, +Holsworthy Hall, Massachusetts Hall, and Stoughton Hall. It is almost +astonishing that buildings so ugly should have been erected for such +a purpose. These, together with the library, the museum, and the +chapel, stand on a large green, which might be made pretty enough if +it were kept well mown like the gardens of our Cambridge colleges; +but it is much neglected. Here, again, the want of funds--the res +angusta domi--must be pleaded as an excuse. On the same green, but at +some little distance from any other building, stands the President's +pleasant house. + +The immediate direction of the College is of course mainly in +the hands of the President, who is supreme. But for the general +management of the Institution there is a Corporation, of which he is +one. It is stated in the laws of the University that the Corporation +of the University and its Overseers constitute the Government of the +University. The Corporation consists of the President, five Fellows, +so called, and a Treasurer. These Fellows are chosen, as vacancies +occur, by themselves, subject to the concurrence of the Overseers. +But these Fellows are in nowise like to the Fellows of our colleges, +having no salaries attached to their offices. The Board of Overseers +consists of the State Governor, other State officers, the President +and Treasurer of Harvard College, and thirty other persons,--men of +note, chosen by vote. The Faculty of the College, in which is vested +the immediate care and government of the undergraduates, is composed +of the President and the Professors. The Professors answer to +the tutors of our colleges, and upon them the education of the +place depends. I cannot complete this short notice of Harvard +College without saying that it is happy in the possession of that +distinguished natural philosopher, Professor Agassiz. M. Agassiz +has collected at Cambridge a museum of such things as natural +philosophers delight to show, which I am told is all but invaluable. +As my ignorance on all such matters is of a depth which the Professor +can hardly imagine, and which it would have shocked him to behold, I +did not visit the museum. Taking the University of Harvard College as +a whole, I should say that it is most remarkable in this,--that it +does really give to its pupils that education which it professes to +give. Of our own Universities other good things may be said, but that +one special good thing cannot always be said. + +Cambridge boasts itself as the residence of four or five men well +known to fame on the American and also on the European side of the +ocean. President Felton's* name is very familiar to us, and wherever +Greek scholarship is held in repute, that is known. So also is the +name of Professor Agassiz, of whom I have spoken. Russell Lowell is +one of the Professors of the College,--that Russell Lowell who sang +of Birdo'fredum Sawin, and whose Biglow Papers were edited with such +an ardour of love by our Tom Brown. Birdo'fredum is worthy of all +the ardour. Mr. Dana is also a Cambridge man,--he who was "two years +before the mast," and who since that has written to us of Cuba. +But Mr. Dana, though residing at Cambridge, is not of Cambridge, +and, though a literary man, he does not belong to literature. He +is,--could he help it?--a special attorney. I must not, however, +degrade him, for in the States barristers and attorneys are all one. +I cannot but think that he could help it, and that he should not +give up to law what was meant for mankind. I fear, however, that +successful law has caught him in her intolerant clutches, and that +literature, who surely would be the nobler mistress, must wear the +willow. Last and greatest is the poet-laureat of the West; for Mr. +Longfellow also lives at Cambridge. + + *Since these words were written President Felton has died. I, + as I returned on my way homewards, had the melancholy privilege + of being present at his funeral. I feel bound to record here + the great kindness with which Mr. Felton assisted me in obtaining + such information as I needed respecting the Institution over + which he presided. + +I am not at all aware whether the nature of the manufacturing +corporation of Lowell is generally understood by Englishmen. I +confess that until I made personal acquaintance with the plan, I +was absolutely ignorant on the subject. I knew that Lowell was a +manufacturing town at which cotton is made into calico, and at which +calico is printed,--as is the case at Manchester; but I conceived +this was done at Lowell, as it is done at Manchester, by individual +enterprise,--that I or any one else could open a mill at Lowell, and +that the manufacturers there were ordinary traders, as they are at +other manufacturing towns. But this is by no means the case. + +That which most surprises an English visitor on going through the +mills at Lowell is the personal appearance of the men and women who +work at them. As there are twice as many women as there are men, it +is to them that the attention is chiefly called. They are not only +better dressed, cleaner, and better mounted in every respect than +the girls employed at manufactories in England, but they are so +infinitely superior as to make a stranger immediately perceive that +some very strong cause must have created the difference. We all +know the class of young women whom we generally see serving behind +counters in the shops of our larger cities. They are neat, well +dressed, careful, especially about their hair, composed in their +manner, and sometimes a little supercilious in the propriety of their +demeanour. It is exactly the same class of young women that one sees +in the factories at Lowell. They are not sallow, nor dirty, nor +ragged, nor rough. They have about them no signs of want, or of low +culture. Many of us also know the appearance of those girls who work +in the factories in England; and I think it will be allowed that a +second glance at them is not wanting to show that they are in every +respect inferior to the young women who attend our shops. The matter, +indeed, requires no argument. Any young woman at a shop would be +insulted by being asked whether she had worked at a factory. The +difference with regard to the men at Lowell is quite as strong, +though not so striking. Working men do not show their status in the +world by their outward appearance as readily as women; and, as I have +said before, the number of the women greatly exceeded that of the +men. + +One would of course be disposed to say that the superior condition of +the workers must have been occasioned by superior wages; and this, to +a certain extent, has been the cause. But the higher payment is not +the chief cause. Women's wages, including all that they receive at +the Lowell factories, average about 14_s._ a week, which is, I take +it, fully a third more than women can earn in Manchester, or did +earn before the loss of the American cotton began to tell upon them. +But if wages at Manchester were raised to the Lowell standard, the +Manchester women would not be clothed, fed, cared for, and educated +like the Lowell women. The fact is, that the workmen and the +workwomen at Lowell are not exposed to the chances of an open +labour market. They are taken in, as it were, to a philanthropical +manufacturing college, and then looked after and regulated more as +girls and lads at a great seminary, than as hands by whose industry +profit is to be made out of capital. This is all very nice and pretty +at Lowell, but I am afraid it could not be done at Manchester. + +There are at present twelve different manufactories at Lowell, each +of which has what is called a separate corporation. The Merrimack +manufacturing company was incorporated in 1822, and thus Lowell was +commenced. The Lowell machine-shop was incorporated in 1845, and +since that no new establishment has been added. In 1821 a certain +Boston manufacturing company, which had mills at Waltham, near +Boston, was attracted by the water-power of the river Merrimack, +on which the present town of Lowell is situated. A canal, called +the Pawtucket Canal, had been made for purposes of navigation from +one reach of the river to another, with the object of avoiding the +Pawtucket Falls; and this canal, with the adjacent water-power of +the river, was purchased for the Boston Company. The place was then +called Lowell, after one of the partners in that company. + +It must be understood that water-power alone is used for preparing +the cotton and working the spindles and looms of the cotton mills. +Steam is applied in the two establishments in which the cottons are +printed, for the purposes of printing, but I think nowhere else. +When the mills are at full work, about two-and-a-half million yards +of cotton goods are made every week, and nearly a million pounds +of cotton are consumed per week (_i.e._ 842,000 lbs.), but the +consumption of coal is only 30,000 tons in the year. This will give +some idea of the value of the water-power. The Pawtucket Canal was, +as I say, bought, and Lowell was commenced. The town was incorporated +in 1826, and the railway between it and Boston was opened in 1835, +under the superintendence of Mr. Jackson, the gentleman by whom the +purchase of the canal had in the first instance been made. Lowell now +contains about 40,000 inhabitants. + +The following extract is taken from the hand-book to Lowell:--"Mr. +F. C. Lowell had in his travels abroad observed the effect of large +manufacturing establishments on the character of the people, and in +the establishment at Waltham the founders looked for a remedy for +these defects. They thought that education and good morals would even +enhance the profit, and that they could compete with Great Britain by +introducing a more cultivated class of operatives. For this purpose +they built boarding-houses, which, under the direct supervision of +the agent, were kept by discreet matrons"--I can answer for the +discreet matrons at Lowell--"mostly widows, no boarders being allowed +except operatives. Agents and overseers of high moral character were +selected; regulations were adopted at the mills and boarding-houses, +by which only respectable girls were employed. The mills were nicely +painted and swept,"--I can also answer for the painting and sweeping +at Lowell,--"trees set out in the yards and along the streets, habits +of neatness and cleanliness encouraged; and the result justified +the expenditure. At Lowell the same policy has been adopted and +extended; more spacious mills and elegant boarding-houses have been +erected;"--as to the elegance, it may be a matter of taste, but +as to the comfort there is no question,--"the same care as to the +classes employed; more capital has been expended for cleanliness and +decoration; a hospital has been established for the sick, where, +for a small price, they have an experienced physician and skilful +nurses. An institute, with an extensive library, for the use of +the mechanics, has been endowed. The agents have stood forward in +the support of schools, churches, lectures, and lyceums, and their +influence contributed highly to the elevation of the moral and +intellectual character of the operatives. Talent has been encouraged, +brought forward, and recommended."--For some considerable time +the young women wrote, edited, and published a newspaper among +themselves, called the Lowell Offering.--"And Lowell has supplied +agents and mechanics for the later manufacturing places who have +given tone to society, and extended the beneficial influence of +Lowell through the United States. Girls from the country, with a +true Yankee spirit of independence, and confident in their own +powers, pass a few years here, and then return to get married with +a dower secured by their exertions, with more enlarged ideas and +extended means of information, and their places are supplied by +younger relatives. A larger proportion of the female population +of New England has been employed at some time in manufacturing +establishments, and they are not on this account less good wives, +mothers, or educators of families." Then the account goes on to tell +how the health of the girls has been improved by their attendance at +the mills, how they put money into the savings-banks, and buy railway +shares and farms; how there are thirty churches in Lowell, a library, +banks, and insurance offices; how there is a cemetery, and a park, +and how everything is beautiful, philanthropic, profitable, and +magnificent. + +Thus Lowell is the realization of a commercial Utopia. Of all the +statements made in the little book which I have quoted I cannot point +out one which is exaggerated, much less false. I should not call the +place elegant; in other respects I am disposed to stand by the book. +Before I had made any inquiry into the cause of the apparent comfort, +it struck me at once that some great effort at excellence was being +made. I went into one of the discreet matrons' residences; and +perhaps may give but an indifferent idea of her discretion when I say +that she allowed me to go into the bedrooms. If you want to ascertain +the inner ways or habits of life of any man, woman, or child, see, +if it be practicable to do so, his or her bedroom. You will learn +more by a minute's glance round that holy of holies, than by any +conversation. Looking-glasses and such like, suspended dresses, +and toilet-belongings, if taken without notice, cannot lie or even +exaggerate. The discreet matron at first showed me rooms only +prepared for use, for at the period of my visit Lowell was by no +means full; but she soon became more intimate with me, and I went +through the upper part of the house. My report must be altogether +in her favour and in that of Lowell. Everything was cleanly, +well-ordered, and feminine. There was not a bed on which any woman +need have hesitated to lay herself if occasion required it. I fear +that this cannot be said of the lodgings of the manufacturing classes +at Manchester. The boarders all take their meals together. As a rule, +they have meat twice a-day. Hot meat for dinner is with them as +much a matter of course, or probably more so, than with any English +man or woman who may read this book. For in the States of America +regulations on this matter are much more rigid than with us. Cold +meat is rarely seen, and to live a day without meat would be as great +a privation as to pass a night without bed. + +The rules for the guidance of these boarding-houses are very rigid. +The houses themselves belong to the corporations or different +manufacturing establishments, and the tenants are altogether in the +power of the managers. None but operatives are to be taken in. The +tenants are answerable for improper conduct. The doors are to be +closed at ten o'clock. Any boarders who do not attend divine worship +are to be reported to the managers. The yards and walks are to +be kept clean, and snow removed at once; and the inmates must be +vaccinated, &c., &c., &c. It is expressly stated by the Hamilton +Company,--and I believe by all the companies,--that no one shall +be employed who is habitually absent from public worship on Sunday, +or who is known to be guilty of immorality. It is stated that the +average wages of the women are two dollars, or eight shillings, a +week, besides their board. I found when I was there that from three +dollars to three-and-a-half a week were paid to the women, of which +they paid one dollar and twenty-five cents for their board. As this +would not fully cover the expense of their keep, twenty-five cents a +week for each was also paid to the boarding-house keepers by the mill +agents. This substantially came to the same thing, as it left the two +dollars a week, or eight shillings, with the girls over and above +their cost of living. The board included washing, lights, food, bed, +and attendance,--leaving a surplus of eight shillings a week for +clothes and saving. Now let me ask any one acquainted with Manchester +and its operatives, whether that is not Utopia realized. Factory +girls, for whom every comfort of life is secured, with £21 a year +over for saving and dress! One sees the failing, however, at a +moment. It is Utopia. Any Lady Bountiful can tutor three or four +peasants and make them luxuriously comfortable. But no Lady Bountiful +can give luxurious comfort to half-a-dozen parishes. Lowell is now +nearly forty years old, and contains but 40,000 inhabitants. From +the very nature of its corporations it cannot spread itself. Chicago, +which has grown out of nothing in a much shorter period, and which +has no factories, has now 120,000 inhabitants. Lowell is a very +wonderful place and shows what philanthropy can do; but I fear it +also shows what philanthropy cannot do. + +There are, however, other establishments, conducted on the same +principle as those at Lowell, which have had the same amount, +or rather the same sort, of success. Lawrence is now a town of +about 15,000 inhabitants, and Manchester of about 24,000,--if I +remember rightly;--and at those places the mills are also owned by +corporations and conducted as are those at Lowell. But it seems +to me that as New England takes her place in the world as a great +manufacturing country--which place she undoubtedly will take sooner +or later--she must abandon the hot-house method of providing for her +operatives with which she has commenced her work. In the first place, +Lowell is not open as a manufacturing town to the capitalists even +of New England at large. Stock may, I presume, be bought in the +corporations, but no interloper can establish a mill there. It is a +close manufacturing community, bolstered up on all sides, and has +none of that capacity for providing employment for a thickly-growing +population which belongs to such places as Manchester and Leeds. +That it should under its present system have been made in any degree +profitable reflects great credit on the managers; but the profit +does not reach an amount which in America can be considered as +remunerative. The total capital invested by the twelve corporations +is thirteen million and a half of dollars, or about two million seven +hundred thousand pounds. In only one of the corporations, that of +the Merrimack Company, does the profit amount to 12 per cent. In one, +that of the Boott Company, it falls below 7 per cent. The average +profit of the various establishments is something below 9 per cent. +I am of course speaking of Lowell as it was previous to the war. +American capitalists are not, as a rule, contented with so low a rate +of interest as this. + +The States in these matters have had a great advantage over England. +They have been able to begin at the beginning. Manufactories have +grown up among us as our cities grew;--from the necessities and +chances of the times. When labour was wanted it was obtained in the +ordinary way; and so when houses were built they were built in the +ordinary way. We had not the experience, and the results either for +good or bad, of other nations to guide us. The Americans, in seeing +and resolving to adopt our commercial successes, have resolved also, +if possible, to avoid the evils which have attended those successes. +It would be very desirable that all our factory girls should read and +write, wear clean clothes, have decent beds, and eat hot meat every +day. But that is now impossible. Gradually, with very up-hill work, +but still I trust with sure work, much will be done to improve their +position and render their life respectable; but in England we can +have no Lowells. In our thickly populated island any commercial +Utopia is out of the question. Nor can, as I think, Lowell be taken +as a type of the future manufacturing towns of New England. When New +England employs millions in her factories, instead of thousands,--the +hands employed at Lowell, when the mills are at full work, are about +11,000,--she must cease to provide for them their beds and meals, +their church-going proprieties and orderly modes of life. In such +an attempt she has all the experience of the world against her. But +nevertheless I think she will have done much good. The tone which she +will have given will not altogether lose its influence. Employment +in a factory is now considered reputable by a farmer and his +children, and this idea will remain. Factory work is regarded as more +respectable than domestic service, and this prestige will not wear +itself altogether out. Those now employed have a strong conception of +the dignity of their own social position, and their successors will +inherit much of this, even though they may find themselves excluded +from the advantages of the present Utopia. The thing has begun +well, but it can only be regarded as a beginning. Steam, it may be +presumed, will become the motive power of cotton mills in New England +as it is with us; and when it is so, the amount of work to be done +at any one place will not be checked by any such limit as that which +now prevails at Lowell. Water-power is very cheap, but it cannot +be extended; and it would seem that no place can become large as a +manufacturing town which has to depend chiefly upon water. It is not +improbable that steam may be brought into general use at Lowell, and +that Lowell may spread itself. If it should spread itself widely, it +will lose its Utopian characteristics. + +One cannot but be greatly struck by the spirit of philanthropy +in which the system of Lowell was at first instituted. It may be +presumed that men who put their money into such an undertaking did so +with the object of commercial profit to themselves; but in this case +that was not their first object. I think it may be taken for granted +that when Messrs. Jackson and Lowell went about their task, their +grand idea was to place factory work upon a respectable footing,--to +give employment in mills which should not be unhealthy, degrading, +demoralizing, or hard in its circumstances. Throughout the northern +States of America the same feeling is to be seen. Good and thoughtful +men have been active to spread education, to maintain health, to make +work compatible with comfort and personal dignity, and to divest the +ordinary lot of man of the sting of that curse which was supposed to +be uttered when our first father was ordered to eat his bread in the +sweat of his brow. One is driven to contrast this feeling, of which +on all sides one sees such ample testimony, with that sharp desire +for profit, that anxiety to do a stroke of trade at every turn, that +acknowledged necessity of being smart, which we must own is quite +as general as the nobler propensity. I believe that both phases of +commercial activity may be attributed to the same characteristic. Men +in trade in America are not more covetous than tradesmen in England, +nor probably are they more generous or philanthropical. But that +which they do, they are more anxious to do thoroughly and quickly. +They desire that every turn taken shall be a great turn,--or at any +rate that it shall be as great as possible. They go ahead either for +bad or good with all the energy they have. In the institutions at +Lowell I think we may allow that the good has very much prevailed. + +I went over two of the mills, those of the Merrimack corporation, and +of the Massachusetts. At the former the printing establishment only +was at work; the cotton mills were closed. I hardly know whether it +will interest any one to learn that something under half-a-million +yards of calico are here printed annually. At the Lowell bleachery +fifteen million yards are dyed annually. The Merrimack cotton-mills +were stopped, and so had the other mills at Lowell been stopped, till +some short time before my visit. Trade had been bad, and there had of +course been a lack of cotton. I was assured that no severe suffering +had been created by this stoppage. The greater number of hands had +returned into the country,--to the farms from whence they had come; +and though a discontinuance of work and wages had of course produced +hardship, there had been no actual privation,--no hunger and want. +Those of the workpeople who had no homes out of Lowell to which to +betake themselves, and no means at Lowell of living, had received +relief before real suffering had begun. I was assured, with something +of a smile of contempt at the question, that there had been nothing +like hunger. But, as I said before, visitors always see a great deal +of rose colour, and should endeavour to allay the brilliancy of the +tint with the proper amount of human shading. But do not let any +visitor mix in the browns with too heavy a hand! + +At the Massachusetts cotton-mills they were working with about +two-thirds of their full number of hands, and this, I was told, was +about the average of the number now employed throughout Lowell. +Working at this rate they had now on hand a supply of cotton to last +them for six months. Their stocks had been increased lately, and on +asking from whence, I was informed that that last received had come +to them from Liverpool. There is, I believe, no doubt but that a +considerable quantity of cotton has been shipped back from England to +the States since the civil war began. I asked the gentleman, to whose +care at Lowell I was consigned, whether he expected to get cotton +from the South,--for at that time Beaufort in South Carolina had just +been taken by the naval expedition. He had, he said, a political +expectation of a supply of cotton, but not a commercial expectation. +That at least was the gist of his reply, and I found it to be both +intelligent and intelligible. The Massachusetts mills, when at full +work, employ 1300 females and 400 males, and turn out 540,000 yards +of calico per week. + +On my return from Lowell in the smoking car, an old man came and +squeezed in next to me. The place was terribly crowded, and as the +old man was thin and clean and quiet I willingly made room for him, +so as to avoid the contiguity of a neighbour who might be neither +thin, nor clean, nor quiet. He began talking to me in whispers +about the war, and I was suspicious that he was a Southerner and +a Secessionist. Under such circumstances his company might not be +agreeable, unless he could be induced to hold his tongue. At last he +said, "I come from Canada, you know, and you,--you're an Englishman, +and therefore I can speak to you openly;" and he gave me an +affectionate grip on the knee with his old skinny hand. I suppose I +do look more like an Englishman than an American, but I was surprised +at his knowing me with such certainty. "There is no mistaking you," +he said, "with your round face and your red cheeks. They don't look +like that here," and he gave me another grip. I felt quite fond of +the old man, and offered him a cigar. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN. + + +We all know that the subject which appears above as the title of +this chapter is a very favourite subject in America. It is, I hope, +a very favourite subject in England also, and I am inclined to +think has been so for many years past. The rights of women, as +contradistinguished from the wrongs of women, has perhaps been the +most precious of the legacies left to us by the feudal ages. How +amidst the rough darkness of old Teuton rule women began to receive +that respect which is now their dearest right, is one of the most +interesting studies of history. It came, I take it, chiefly from +their own conduct. The women of the old classic races seem to have +enjoyed but a small amount of respect or of rights, and to have +deserved as little. It may have been very well for one Cæsar to have +said that his wife should be above suspicion; but his wife was put +away, and therefore either did not have her rights, or else had +justly forfeited them. The daughter of the next Cæsar lived in Rome +the life of a Messalina, and did not on that account seem to have +lost her "position in society," till she absolutely declined to throw +any veil whatever over her propensities. But as the Roman empire +fell, chivalry began. For a time even chivalry afforded but a dull +time to the women. During the musical period of the troubadours, +ladies, I fancy, had but little to amuse them save the music. But +that was the beginning, and from that time downwards the rights of +women have progressed very favourably. It may be that they have not +yet all that should belong to them. If that be the case, let the men +lose no time in making up the difference. But it seems to me that +the women who are now making their claims may perhaps hardly know +when they are well off. It will be an ill movement if they insist on +throwing away any of the advantages they have won. As for the women +in America especially, I must confess that I think they have a "good +time." I make them my compliments on their sagacity, intelligence, +and attractions, but I utterly refuse to them any sympathy for +supposed wrongs. _O fortunatas sua si bona nôrint!_ Whether or no, +were I an American married man and father of a family, I should not +go in for the rights of man--that is altogether another question. + +This question of the rights of women divides itself into two +heads,--one of which is very important, worthy of much consideration, +capable perhaps of much philanthropic action, and at any rate +affording matter for grave discussion. This is the question of +women's work; how far the work of the world, which is now borne +chiefly by men, should be thrown open to women further than is now +done. The other seems to me to be worthy of no consideration, to be +capable of no action, to admit of no grave discussion. This refers to +the political rights of women; how far the political working of the +world, which is now entirely in the hands of men, should be divided +between them and women. The first question is being debated on our +side of the Atlantic as keenly perhaps as on the American side. As to +that other question, I do not know that much has ever been said about +it in Europe. + +"You are doing nothing in England towards the employment of females," +a lady said to me in one of the States soon after my arrival in +America. "Pardon me," I answered, "I think we are doing much, perhaps +too much. At any rate we are doing something." I then explained to +her how Miss Faithfull had instituted a printing establishment in +London; how all the work in that concern was done by females, except +such heavy tasks as those for which women could not be fitted, and I +handed to her one of Miss Faithfull's cards. "Ah," said my American +friend, "poor creatures! I have no doubt their very flesh will be +worked off their bones." I thought this a little unjust on her part; +but nevertheless it occurred to me as an answer not unfit to be made +by some other lady,--by some woman who had not already advocated the +increased employment of women. Let Miss Faithfull look to that. Not +that she will work the flesh off her young women's bones, or allow +such terrible consequences to take place in Coram-street; not that +she or that those connected with her in that enterprise will do aught +but good to those employed therein. It will not even be said of her +individually, or of her partners, that they have worked the flesh +off women's bones; but may it not come to this, that when the tasks +now done by men have been shifted to the shoulders of women, women +themselves will so complain. May it not go further, and come even to +this, that women will have cause for such complaint. I do not think +that such a result will come, because I do not think that the object +desired by those who are active in the matter will be attained. Men, +as a general rule among civilized nations, have elected to earn their +own bread and the bread of the women also, and from this resolve on +their part I do not think that they will be beaten off. + +We know that Mrs. Dall, an American lady, has taken up this subject, +and has written a book on it, in which great good sense and honesty +of purpose are shown. Mrs. Dall is a strong advocate for the +increased employment of women, and I, with great deference, disagree +with her. I allude to her book now because she has pointed out, +I think very strongly, the great reason why women do not engage +themselves advantageously in trade pursuits. She by no means +overpraises her own sex, and openly declares that young women will +not consent to place themselves in fair competition with men. They +will not undergo the labour and servitude of long study at their +trades. They will not give themselves up to an apprenticeship. They +will not enter upon their tasks as though they were to be the tasks +of their lives. They may have the same physical and mental aptitudes +for learning a trade as men, but they have not the same devotion to +the pursuit, and will not bind themselves to it thoroughly as men +do. In all which I quite agree with Mrs. Dall; and the English of it +is,--that the young women want to get married. + +God forbid that they should not so want. Indeed God has forbidden in +a very express way that there should be any lack of such a desire +on the part of women. There has of late years arisen a feeling +among masses of the best of our English ladies that this feminine +propensity should be checked. We are told that unmarried women may +be respectable, which we always knew; that they may be useful, which +we also acknowledge,--thinking still that if married they would be +more useful; and that they may be happy, which we trust,--feeling +confident however that they might in another position be more happy. +But the question is not only as to the respectability, usefulness, +and happiness of womankind, but as to that of men also. If women can +do without marriage, can men do so? And if not, how are the men to +get wives if the women elect to remain single? + +It will be thought that I am treating the subject as though it were +simply jocose, but I beg to assure my reader that such is not my +intention. It certainly is the fact that that disinclination to an +apprenticeship and unwillingness to bear the long training for a +trade, of which Mrs. Dall complains on the part of young women, +arise from the fact, that they have other hopes with which such +apprenticeships would jar; and it is also certain that if such +disinclination be overcome on the part of any great number, it must +be overcome by the destruction or banishment of such hopes. The +question is, whether would good or evil result from such a change? It +is often said that whatever difficulty a woman may have in getting a +husband, no man need encounter difficulty in finding a wife. But in +spite of this seeming fact, I think it must be allowed that if women +are withdrawn from the marriage market, men must be withdrawn from it +also to the same extent. + +In any broad view of this matter we are bound to look, not on any +individual case, and the possible remedies for such cases, but on the +position in the world occupied by women in general; on the general +happiness and welfare of the aggregate feminine world, and perhaps +also a little on the general happiness and welfare of the aggregate +male world. When ladies and gentlemen advocate the right of women to +employment, they are taking very different ground from that on which +stand those less extensive philanthropists who exert themselves +for the benefit of distressed needlewomen, for instance, or for +the alleviation of the more bitter misery of governesses. The two +questions are in fact absolutely antagonistic to each other. The +rights-of-women advocate is doing his best to create that position +for women, from the possible misfortunes of which the friend of the +needlewomen is struggling to relieve them. The one is endeavouring +to throw work from off the shoulders of men on to the shoulders of +women, and the other is striving to lessen the burden which women +are already bearing. Of course it is good to relieve distress in +individual cases. That Song of the Shirt, which I regard as poetry of +the immortal kind, has done an amount of good infinitely wider than +poor Hood ever ventured to hope. Of all such efforts I would speak +not only with respect, but with loving admiration. But of those whose +efforts are made to spread work more widely among women, to call upon +them to make for us our watches, to print our books, to sit at our +desks as clerks, and to add up our accounts; much as I may respect +the individual operators in such a movement, I can express no +admiration for their judgment. + +I have seen women with ropes round their necks drawing a harrow over +ploughed ground. No one will, I suppose, say that they approve of +that. But it would not have shocked me to see men drawing a harrow. I +should have thought it slow, unprofitable work, but my feelings would +not have been hurt. There must, therefore, be some limit; but if we +men teach ourselves to believe that work is good for women, where is +the limit to be drawn, and who shall draw it? It is true that there +is now no actually defined limit. There is much work that is commonly +open to both sexes. Personal domestic attendance is so, and the +attendance in shops. The use of the needle is shared between men and +women, and few, I take it, know where the sempstress ends and where +the tailor begins. In many trades a woman can be, and very often +is, the owner and manager of the business. Painting is as much open +to women as to men; as also is literature. There can be no defined +limit; but nevertheless there is at present a quasi limit, which the +rights-of-women advocates wish to move, and so to move that women +shall do more work and not less. A woman now could not well be a +cab-driver in London; but are these advocates sure that no woman will +be a cab-driver when success has attended their efforts? And would +they like to see a woman driving a cab? For my part I confess I do +not like to see a woman acting as road-keeper on a French railway. +I have seen a woman acting as ostler at a public stage in Ireland. +I knew the circumstances,--how her husband had become ill and +incapable, and how she had been allowed to earn the wages; but +nevertheless the sight was to me disagreeable, and seemed, as far as +it went, to degrade the sex. Chivalry has been very active in raising +women from the hard and hardening tasks of the world, and through +this action they have become soft, tender, and virtuous. It seems to +me that they of whom I am now speaking are desirous of undoing what +chivalry has done. + +The argument used is of course plain enough. It is said that women +are left destitute in the world,--destitute unless they can be +self-dependent, and that to women should be given the same open +access to wages that men possess, in order that they may be as +self-dependent as men. Why should a young woman, for whom no father +is able to provide, not enjoy those means of provision which are +open to a young man so circumstanced? But I think the answer is very +simple. The young man under the happiest circumstances which may +befall him is bound to earn his bread. The young woman is only so +bound when happy circumstances do not befall her. Should we endeavour +to make the recurrence of unhappy circumstances more general or less +so? What does any tradesman, any professional man, any mechanic wish +for his children? Is it not this, that his sons shall go forth and +earn their bread, and that his daughters shall remain with him till +they are married? Is not that the mother's wish? Is it not notorious +that such is the wish of us all as to our daughters? In advocating +the rights of women it is of other men's girls that we think, never +of our own. + +But, nevertheless, what shall we do for those women who must earn +their bread by their own work? Whatever we do, do not let us wilfully +increase their number. By opening trades to women, by making them +printers, watchmakers, accountants, or what not, we shall not simply +relieve those who must now earn their bread by some such work or else +starve. It will not be within our power to stop ourselves exactly +at a certain point; to arrange that those women who under existing +circumstances may now be in want, shall be thus placed beyond want; +but that no others shall be affected. Men, I fear, will be too +willing to relieve themselves of some portion of their present +burden, should the world's altered ways enable them to do so. At +present a lawyer's clerk may earn perhaps his two guineas a week, and +he with his wife lives on that in fair comfort. But if his wife, as +well as he, has been brought up as a lawyer's clerk, he will look to +her also for some amount of wages. I doubt whether the two guineas +would be much increased, but I do not doubt at all that the woman's +position would be injured. + +It seems to me that in discussing this subject, philanthropists fail +to take hold of the right end of the argument. Money returns from +work are very good, and work itself is good, as bringing such returns +and occupying both body and mind; but the world's work is very hard, +and workmen are too often overdriven. The question seems to me to +be this,--of all this work have the men got on their own backs too +heavy a share for them to bear, and should they seek relief by +throwing more of it upon women? It is the rights of man that we are +in fact debating. These watches are weary to make, and this type is +troublesome to set. We have battles to fight and speeches to make, +and our hands altogether are too full. The women are idle,--many +of them. They shall make the watches for us and set the type; and +when they have done that, why should they not make nails as they do +sometimes in Worcestershire, or clean horses, or drive the cabs? They +have had an easy time of it for these years past, but we'll change +that. And then it would come to pass that with ropes round their +necks the women would be drawing harrows across the fields. + +I don't think this will come to pass. The women generally do know +when they are well off, and are not particularly anxious to accept +the philanthropy proffered to them;--as Mrs. Dall says, they do not +wish to bind themselves as apprentices to independent money-making. +This cry has been louder in America than with us, but even in America +it has not been efficacious for much. There is in the States, no +doubt, a sort of hankering after increased influence, a desire for +that prominence of position which men attain by loud voices and +brazen foreheads, a desire in the female heart to be up and doing +something, if the female heart only knew what; but even in the States +it has hardly advanced beyond a few feminine lectures. In many +branches of work women are less employed than in England. They are +not so frequent behind counters in the shops, and are rarely seen +as servants in hotels. The fires in such houses are lighted and the +rooms swept by men. But the American girls may say they do not desire +to light fires and sweep rooms. They are ambitious of the higher +classes of work. But those higher branches of work require study, +apprenticeship, a devotion of youth; and that they will not give. It +is very well for a young man to bind himself for four years, and to +think of marrying four years after that apprenticeship is over. But +such a prospectus will not do for a girl. While the sun shines the +hay must be made, and her sun shines earlier in the day than that of +him who is to be her husband. Let him go through the apprenticeship +and the work, and she will have sufficient on her hands if she looks +well after his household. Under nature's teaching she is aware of +this, and will not bind herself to any other apprenticeship, let Mrs. +Dall preach as she may. + +I remember seeing, either at New York or Boston, a wooden figure of a +neat young woman, as large as life, standing at a desk with a ledger +before her, and looking as though the beau ideal of human bliss were +realized in her employment. Under the figure there was some notice +respecting female accountants. Nothing could be nicer than the lady's +figure, more flowing than the broad lines of her drapery, or more +attractive than her auburn ringlets. There she stood at work, earning +her bread without any impediment to the natural operation of her +female charms, and adjusting the accounts of some great firm with as +much facility as grace. I wonder whether he who designed that figure +had ever sat or stood at a desk for six hours,--whether he knew the +dull hum of the brain which comes from long attention to another +man's figures; whether he had ever soiled his own fingers with the +everlasting work of office hours, or worn his sleeves threadbare as +he leaned, weary in body and mind, upon his desk? Work is a grand +thing,--the grandest thing we have; but work is not picturesque, +graceful, and in itself alluring. It sucks the sap out of men's +bones, and bends their backs, and sometimes breaks their hearts; but +though it be so, I for one would not wish to throw any heavier share +of it on to a woman's shoulders. It was pretty to see those young +women with spectacles at the Boston library, but when I heard that +they were there from eight in the morning till nine at night, I +pitied them their loss of all the softness of home, and felt that +they would not willingly be there if necessity were less stern. + +Say that by advocating the rights of women, philanthropists succeed +in apportioning more work to their share, will they eat more, wear +better clothes, lie softer, and have altogether more of the fruits of +work than they do now? That some would do so there can be no doubt, +but as little that some would have less. If on the whole they would +not have more, for what good result is the movement made? The first +question is, whether at the present time they have less than their +proper share. There are, unquestionably, terrible cases of female +want, and so there are also of want among men. Alas! do we not +all feel that it must be so, let the philanthropists be ever so +energetic? And if a woman be left destitute, without the assistance +of father, brother, or husband, it would be hard if no means of +earning subsistence were open to her. But the object now sought is +not that of relieving such distress. It has a much wider tendency, +or at any rate a wider desire. The idea is that women will ennoble +themselves by making themselves independent, by working for their own +bread instead of eating bread earned by men. It is in that that these +new philosophers seem to me to err so greatly. Humanity and chivalry +have succeeded after a long struggle in teaching the man to work +for the woman; and now the woman rebels against such teaching,--not +because she likes the work, but because she desires the influence +which attends it. But in this I wrong the woman,--even the American +woman. It is not she who desires it, but her philanthropical +philosophical friends who desire it for her. + +If work were more equally divided between the sexes some women would, +of course, receive more of the good things of the world. But women +generally would not do so. The tendency then would be to force young +women out upon their own exertions. Fathers would soon learn to think +that their daughters should be no more dependent on them than their +sons; men would expect their wives to work at their own trades; +brothers would be taught to think it hard that their sisters should +lean on them; and thus women, driven upon their own resources, would +hardly fare better than they do at present. + +After all it is a question of money, and a contest for that power and +influence which money gives. At present men have the position of the +Lower House of Parliament. They have to do the harder work, but they +hold the purse. Even in England there has grown up a feeling that the +old law of the land gives a married man too much power over the joint +pecuniary resources of him and his wife, and in America this feeling +is much stronger, and the old law has been modified. Why should a +married woman be able to possess nothing? And if such be the law of +the land, is it worth a woman's while to marry and put herself in +such a position? Those are the questions asked by the friends of the +rights of women. But the young women do marry, and the men pour their +earnings into their wives' laps. + +If little has as yet been done in extending the rights of women by +giving them a greater share of the work of the world, still less has +been done towards giving them their portion of political influence. +In the States there are many men of mark, and women of mark also, who +think that women should have votes for public elections. Mr. Wendell +Phillips, the Boston lecturer who advocates abolition, is an apostle +in this cause also; and while I was at Boston I read the provisions +of a will lately left by a millionaire, in which he bequeathed some +very large sums of money to be expended in agitation on this subject. +A woman is subject to the law; why then should she not help to make +the law? A child is subject to the law, and does not help to make it; +but the child lacks that discretion which the woman enjoys equally +with the man. That I take it is the amount of the argument in favour +of the political rights of women. The logic of this is so conclusive, +that I am prepared to acknowledge that it admits of no answer. I will +only say that the mutual good relations between men and women, which +are so indispensable to our happiness, require that men and women +should not take to voting at the same time and on the same result. If +it be decided that women shall have political power, let them have +it all to themselves for a season. If that be so resolved, I think +we may safely leave it to them to name the time at which they will +begin. + +I confess that in the States I have sometimes been driven to +think that chivalry has been carried too far;--that there is an +attempt to make women think more of the rights of their womanhood +than is needful. There are ladies' doors at hotels, and ladies' +drawing-rooms, ladies' sides on the ferry-boats, ladies' windows at +the post office for the delivery of letters;--which, by-the-by, is +an atrocious institution, as anybody may learn who will look at the +advertisements called personal in some of the New York papers. Why +should not young ladies have their letters sent to their houses, +instead of getting them at a private window? The post-office clerks +can tell stories about those ladies' windows. But at every turn it +is necessary to make separate provision for ladies. From all this +it comes to pass that the baker's daughter looks down from a great +height on her papa, and by no means thinks her brother good enough +for her associate. Nature, the great restorer, comes in and teaches +her to fall in love with the butcher's son. Thus the evil is +mitigated; but I cannot but wish that the young woman should not see +herself denominated a lady so often, and should receive fewer lessons +as to the extent of her privileges. I would save her if I could from +working at the oven; I would give to her bread and meat earned by +her father's care and her brother's sweat; but when she has received +these good things, I would have her proud of the one and by no means +ashamed of the other. + +Let women say what they will of their rights, or men who think +themselves generous say what they will for them, the question has all +been settled both for them and for us men by a higher power. They are +the nursing mothers of mankind, and in that law their fate is written +with all its joys and all its privileges. It is for men to make those +joys as lasting and those privileges as perfect as may be. That women +should have their rights no man will deny. To my thinking neither +increase of work nor increase of political influence are among them. +The best right a woman has is the right to a husband, and that is +the right to which I would recommend every young woman here and in +the States to turn her best attention. On the whole, I think that +my doctrine will be more acceptable than that of Mrs. Dall or Mr. +Wendell Phillips. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +EDUCATION AND RELIGION. + + +The one matter in which, as far as my judgment goes, the people of +the United States have excelled us Englishmen, so as to justify them +in taking to themselves praise which we cannot take to ourselves or +refuse to them, is the matter of Education. In saying this I do not +think that I am proclaiming anything disgraceful to England, though +I am proclaiming much that is creditable to America. To the Americans +of the States was given the good fortune of beginning at the +beginning. The French at the time of their revolution endeavoured to +reorganize everything, and to begin the world again with new habits +and grand theories; but the French as a people were too old for such +a change, and the theories fell to the ground. But in the States, +after their revolution, an Anglo-Saxon people had an opportunity of +making a new State, with all the experience of the world before +them; and to this matter of education they were from the first aware +that they must look for their success. They did so; and unrivalled +population, wealth, and intelligence have been the results; and with +these, looking at the whole masses of the people,--I think I am +justified in saying,--unrivalled comfort and happiness. It is not +that you, my reader, to whom in this matter of education fortune and +your parents have probably been bountiful, would have been more happy +in New York than in London. It is not that I, who, at any rate, can +read and write, have cause to wish that I had been an American. But +it is this:--if you and I can count up in a day all those on whom our +eyes may rest, and learn the circumstances of their lives, we shall +be driven to conclude that nine-tenths of that number would have +had a better life as Americans than they can have in their spheres +as Englishmen. The States are at a discount with us now, in the +beginning of this year of grace 1862; and Englishmen were not very +willing to admit the above statement, even when the States were not +at a discount. But I do not think that a man can travel through the +States with his eyes open and not admit the fact. Many things will +conspire to induce him to shut his eyes and admit no conclusion +favourable to the Americans. Men and women will sometimes be impudent +to him;--the better his coat, the greater the impudence. He will be +pelted with the braggadocio of equality. The corns of his Old-World +conservatism will be trampled on hourly by the purposely vicious +herd of uncouth democracy. The fact that he is paymaster will go +for nothing, and will fail to insure civility. I shall never forget +my agony as I saw and heard my desk fall from a porter's hand on +a railway station, as he tossed it from him seven yards off on to +the hard pavement. I heard its poor weak intestines rattle in their +death-struggle, and knowing that it was smashed I forgot my position +on American soil and remonstrated. "It's my desk, and you have +utterly destroyed it," I said. "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the porter. +"You've destroyed my property," I rejoined, "and it's no laughing +matter." And then all the crowd laughed. "Guess you'd better get it +glued," said one. So I gathered up the broken article and retired +mournfully and crestfallen into a coach. This was very sad, and +for the moment I deplored the ill-luck which had brought me to so +savage a country. Such and such like are the incidents which make +an Englishman in the States unhappy, and rouse his gall against +the institutions of the country;--these things and the continued +appliance of the irritating ointment of American braggadocio with +which his sores are kept open. But though I was badly off on that +railway platform,--worse off than I should have been in England,--all +that crowd of porters round me were better off than our English +porters. They had a "good time" of it. And this, O my English brother +who hast travelled through the States and returned disgusted, is the +fact throughout. Those men whose familiarity was so disgusting to you +are having a good time of it. "They might be a little more civil," +you say, "and yet read and write just as well." True; but they are +arguing in their minds that civility to you will be taken by you for +subservience, or for an acknowledgment of superiority; and looking at +your habits of life,--yours and mine together,--I am not quite sure +that they are altogether wrong. Have you ever realized to yourself +as a fact that the porter who carries your box has not made himself +inferior to you by the very act of carrying that box? If not, that is +the very lesson which the man wishes to teach you. + +If a man can forget his own miseries in his journeyings, and think of +the people he comes to see rather than of himself, I think he will +find himself driven to admit that education has made life for the +million in the Northern States better than life for the million is +with us. They have begun at the beginning, and have so managed that +every one may learn to read and write,--have so managed that almost +every one does learn to read and write. With us this cannot now be +done. Population had come upon us in masses too thick for management +before we had as yet acknowledged that it would be a good thing that +these masses should be educated. Prejudices, too, had sprung up, and +habits, and strong sectional feelings, all antagonistic to a great +national system of education. We are, I suppose, now doing all that +we can do; but comparatively it is little. I think I saw some time +since that the cost for gratuitous education, or education in part +gratuitous, which had fallen upon the nation had already amounted to +the sum of £800,000; and I think also that I read in the document +which revealed to me this fact, a very strong opinion that Government +could not at present go much further. But if this matter were +regarded in England as it is regarded in Massachusetts,--or rather, +had it from some prosperous beginning been put upon a similar +footing, £800,000 would not have been esteemed a great expenditure +for free education simply in the city of London. In 1857 the public +schools of Boston cost £70,000, and these schools were devoted to a +population of about 180,000 souls. Taking the population of London at +two-and-a-half millions, the whole sum now devoted to England would, +if expended in the metropolis, make education there even cheaper than +it is in Boston. In Boston during 1857 there were above 24,000 pupils +at these public schools, giving more than one-eighth of the whole +population. But I fear it would not be practicable for us to spend +£800,000 on the gratuitous education of London. Rich as we are, we +should not know where to raise the money. In Boston it is raised by +a separate tax. It is a thing understood, acknowledged, and made +easy by being habitual,--as is our national debt. I do not know that +Boston is peculiarly blessed, but I quote the instance as I have +a record of its schools before me. At the three high schools in +Boston, at which the average of pupils is 526, about £13 per head is +paid for free education. The average price per annum of a child's +schooling throughout these schools in Boston is about £3 per annum. +To the higher schools any boy or girl may attain without any expense, +and the education is probably as good as can be given, and as far +advanced. The only question is, whether it is not advanced further +than may be necessary. Here, as at New York, I was almost startled +by the amount of knowledge around me, and listened, as I might have +done, to an examination in theology among young Brahmins. When a +young lad explained in my hearing all the properties of the different +levers as exemplified by the bones of the human body, I bowed my +head before him in unaffected humility. We, at our English schools, +never got beyond the use of those bones which he described with such +accurate scientific knowledge. In one of the girls' schools they were +reading Milton, and when we entered were discussing the nature of the +pool in which the Devil is described as wallowing. The question had +been raised by one of the girls. A pool, so called, was supposed to +contain but a small amount of water, and how could the Devil, being +so large, get into it? Then came the origin of the word pool,--from +"palus," a marsh, as we were told, some dictionary attesting to the +fact,--and such a marsh might cover a large expanse. The "Palus +Mæotis" was then quoted. And so we went on till Satan's theory of +political liberty, + + "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven," + +was thoroughly discussed and understood. These girls of sixteen and +seventeen got up one after another and gave their opinions on the +subject,--how far the Devil was right and how far he was manifestly +wrong. I was attended by one of the directors or guardians of the +schools, and the teacher, I thought, was a little embarrassed by her +position. But the girls themselves were as easy in their demeanour as +though they were stitching handkerchiefs at home. + +It is impossible to refrain from telling all this, and from making a +little innocent fun out of the super-excellencies of these schools; +but the total result on my mind was very greatly in their favour. +And indeed the testimony came in both ways. Not only was I called on +to form an opinion of what the men and women would become from the +education which was given to the boys and girls, but also to say what +must have been the education of the boys and girls from what I saw of +the men and women. Of course it will be understood that I am not here +speaking of those I met in society, or of their children, but of the +working people,--of that class who find that a gratuitous education +for their children is needful, if any considerable amount of +education is to be given. The result is to be seen daily in the whole +intercourse of life. The coachman who drives you, the man who mends +your window, the boy who brings home your purchases, the girl who +stitches your wife's dress,--they all carry with them sure signs of +education, and show it in every word they utter. + +It will of course be understood that this is, in the separate States, +a matter of State law; indeed I may go further and say that it is in +most of the States a matter of State constitution. It is by no means +a matter of Federal constitution. The United States as a nation takes +no heed of the education of its people. All that is left to the +judgment of the separate States. In most of the thirteen original +States provision is made in the written constitution for the general +education of the people; but this is not done in all. I find that it +was more frequently done in the Northern or Freesoil States than in +those which admitted slavery,--as might have been expected. In the +constitutions of South Carolina and Virginia I find no allusion +to the public provision for education, but in those of North +Carolina and Georgia it is enjoined. The forty-first section of +the constitution for North Carolina enjoins that "schools shall +be established by the legislature for the convenient instruction +of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, +as may enable them to instruct _at low prices_;" showing that the +intention here was to assist education, and not provide it altogether +gratuitously. I think that provision for public education is enjoined +in the constitutions of all the States admitted into the Union since +the first federal knot was tied, except in that of Illinois. Vermont +was the first so admitted, in 1791, and Vermont declares that "a +competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town +for the convenient instruction of youth." Ohio was the second, in +1802, and Ohio enjoins that "the general assembly shall make such +provisions by taxation or otherwise as, with the income arising from +the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of +common schools throughout the State; but no religious or other sect +or sects shall ever have any exclusive right or control of any part +of the school funds of this State." In Indiana, admitted in 1816, it +is required that "the general assembly shall provide by law for a +general and uniform system of common schools." Illinois was admitted +next, in 1818; but the constitution of Illinois is silent on the +subject of education. It enjoins, however, in lieu of this, that +no person shall fight a duel or send a challenge! If he do he +is not only to be punished, but to be deprived for ever of the +power of holding any office of honour or profit in the State. I +have no reason, however, for supposing that education is neglected +in Illinois, or that duelling has been abolished. In Maine it is +demanded that the towns--the whole country is divided into what are +called towns--shall make suitable provision at their own expense for +the support and maintenance of public schools. + +Some of these constitutional enactments are most magniloquently +worded, but not always with precise grammatical correctness. That +for the famous Bay State of Massachusetts runs as follows:--"Wisdom +and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body +of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights +and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities +and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, +and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty +of the legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of +this commonwealth, to cherish the interest of literature and the +sciences, and of all seminaries of them, especially the University +at Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools in the towns; to +encourage private societies and public institutions, by rewards, +and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, +commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; +to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general +benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, +honesty and punctuality in all their dealings; sincerity, good +humour, and all social affections and generous sentiments among +the people." I must confess, that had the words of that little +constitutional enactment been made known to me before I had seen +its practical results, I should not have put much faith in it. Of +all the public schools I have ever seen,--by public schools I mean +schools for the people at large maintained at public cost,--those +of Massachusetts are, I think, the best. But of all the educational +enactments which I ever read, that of the same State is, I should +say, the worst. In Texas now, of which as a State the people of +Massachusetts do not think much, they have done it better. "A general +diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the +rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the +legislature of this State to make suitable provision for the support +and maintenance of public schools." So say the Texians; but then the +Texians had the advantage of a later experience than any which fell +in the way of the constitution-makers of Massachusetts. + +There is something of the magniloquence of the French style,--of +the liberty, equality, and fraternity mode of eloquence,--in the +preambles of most of these constitutions, which, but for their +success, would have seemed to have prophesied loudly of failure. +Those of New York and Pennsylvania are the least so, and that of +Massachusetts by far the most violently magniloquent. They generally +commence by thanking God for the present civil and religious liberty +of the people, and by declaring that all men are born free and equal. +New York and Pennsylvania, however, refrain from any such very +general remarks. + +I am well aware that all these constitutional enactments are not +likely to obtain much credit in England. It is not only that grand +phrases fail to convince us, but that they carry to our senses almost +an assurance of their own inefficiency. When we hear that a people +have declared their intention of being henceforward better than their +neighbours, and going upon a new theory that shall lead them direct +to a terrestrial paradise, we button up our pockets and lock up +our spoons. And that is what we have done very much as regards the +Americans. We have walked with them and talked with them, and bought +with them and sold with them; but we have mistrusted them as to their +internal habits and modes of life, thinking that their philanthropy +was pretentious and that their theories were vague. Many cities in +the States are but skeletons of towns, the streets being there, and +the houses numbered,--but not one house built out of ten that have +been so counted up. We have regarded their institutions as we regard +those cities, and have been specially willing so to consider them +because of the fine language in which they have been paraded before +us. They have been regarded as the skeletons of philanthropical +systems, to which blood and flesh and muscle, and even skin, +are wanting. But it is at least but fair to inquire how far the +promise made has been carried out. The elaborate wordings of the +constitutions made by the French politicians in the days of their +great revolution have always been to us no more than so many written +grimaces; but we should not have continued so to regard them had the +political liberty which they promised followed upon the promises so +magniloquently made. As regards education in the States,--at any rate +in the northern and western States,--I think that the assurances put +forth in the various written constitutions have been kept. If this +be so, an American citizen, let him be ever so arrogant, ever so +impudent if you will, is at any rate a civilized being, and on the +road to that cultivation which will sooner or later divest him of his +arrogance. _Emollit mores._ We quote here our old friend the Colonel +again. If a gentleman be compelled to confine his classical allusions +to one quotation, he cannot do better than hang by that. + +But has education been so general, and has it had the desired result? +In the city of Boston, as I have said, I found that in 1857 about +one-eighth of the whole population were then on the books of the free +public schools as pupils, and that about one-ninth of the population +formed the average daily attendance. To these numbers of course must +be added all pupils of the richer classes,--those for whose education +their parents chose to pay. As nearly as I can learn, the average +duration of each pupil's schooling is six years, and if this be +figured out statistically, I think it will show that education +in Boston reaches a very large majority--I must almost say the +whole--of the population. That the education given in other towns of +Massachusetts is not so good as that given in Boston I do not doubt, +but I have reason to believe that it is quite as general. + +I have spoken of one of the schools of New York. In that city the +public schools are apportioned to the wards, and are so arranged +that in each ward of the city there are public schools of different +standing for the gratuitous use of the children. The population of +the city of New York in 1857 was about 650,000, and in that year it +is stated that there were 135,000 pupils in the schools. By this it +would appear that one person in five throughout the city was then +under process of education,--which statement, however, I cannot +receive with implicit credence. It is, however, also stated that the +daily attendances averaged something less than 50,000 a day--and this +latter statement probably implies some mistake in the former one. +Taking the two together for what they are worth, they show, I think, +that school teaching is not only brought within the reach of the +population generally, but is used by almost all classes. At New +York there are separate free schools for coloured children. At +Philadelphia I did not see the schools, but I was assured that the +arrangements there were equal to those at New York and Boston. Indeed +I was told that they were infinitely better;--but then I was so told +by a Philadelphian. In the State of Connecticut the public schools +are certainly equal to those in any part of the Union. As far as I +could learn, education--what we should call advanced education--is +brought within the reach of all classes in the northern and western +States of America,--and, I would wish to add here, to those of the +Canadas also. + +So much for the schools, and now for the results. I do not know that +anything impresses a visitor more strongly with the amount of books +sold in the States, than the practice of selling them as it has been +adopted in the railway cars. Personally the traveller will find the +system very disagreeable,--as is everything connected with these +cars. A young man enters during the journey,--for the trade is +carried out while the cars are travelling, as is also a very brisk +trade in lollipops, sugar-candy, apples, and ham sandwiches,--the +young tradesman enters the car firstly with a pile of magazines or +of novels bound like magazines. These are chiefly the "Atlantic," +published at Boston, "Harper's Magazine," published at New York, and +a cheap series of novels published at Philadelphia. As he walks along +he flings one at every passenger. An Englishman, when he is first +introduced to this manner of trade, becomes much astonished. He is +probably reading, and on a sudden he finds a fat, fluffy magazine, +very unattractive in its exterior, dropped on to the page he is +perusing. I thought at first that it was a present from some crazed +philanthropist, who was thus endeavouring to disseminate literature. +But I was soon undeceived. The bookseller, having gone down the whole +car and the next, returned, and beginning again where he had begun +before, picked up either his magazine or else the price of it. Then, +in some half-hour, he came again, with an armful or basket of books, +and distributed them in the same way. They were generally novels, but +not always. I do not think that any endeavour is made to assimilate +the book to the expected customer. The object is to bring the book +and the man together, and in this way a very large sale is effected. +The same thing is done with illustrated newspapers. The sale of +political newspapers goes on so quickly in these cars that no such +enforced distribution is necessary. I should say that the average +consumption of newspapers by an American must amount to about three a +day. At Washington I begged the keeper of my lodgings to let me have +a paper regularly,--one American newspaper being much the same to me +as another,--and my host supplied me daily with four. + +But the numbers of the popular books of the day, printed and sold, +afford the most conclusive proof of the extent to which education is +carried in the States. The readers of Tennyson, Thackeray, Dickens, +Bulwer, Collins, Hughes, and--Martin Tupper, are to be counted by +tens of thousands in the States, to the thousands by which they +may be counted in our own islands. I do not doubt that I had fully +fifteen copies of the "Silver Cord" thrown at my head in different +railway cars on the continent of America. Nor is the taste by any +means confined to the literature of England. Longfellow, Curtis, +Holmes, Hawthorne, Lowell, Emerson,--and Mrs. Stowe, are almost as +popular as their English rivals. I do not say whether or no the +literature is well chosen, but there it is. It is printed, sold, and +read. The disposal of ten thousand copies of a work is no large sale +in America of a book published at a dollar; but in England it is a +large sale of a book brought out at five shillings. + +I do not remember that I ever examined the rooms of an American +without finding books or magazines in them. I do not speak here of +the houses of my friends, as of course the same remark would apply as +strongly in England, but of the houses of persons presumed to earn +their bread by the labour of their hands. The opportunity for such +examination does not come daily; but when it has been in my power I +have made it, and have always found signs of education. Men and women +of the classes to which I allude talk of reading and writing as of +arts belonging to them as a matter of course, quite as much as are +the arts of eating and drinking. A porter or a farmer's servant in +the States is not proud of reading and writing. It is to him quite a +matter of course. The coachmen on their boxes and the boots as they +sit in the halls of the hotels, have newspapers constantly in their +hands. The young women have them also, and the children. The fact +comes home to one at every turn, and at every hour, that the people +are an educated people. The whole of this question between North and +South is as well understood by the servants as by their masters, is +discussed as vehemently by the private soldiers as by the officers. +The politics of the country and the nature of its constitution are +familiar to every labourer. The very wording of the Declaration of +Independence is in the memory of every lad of sixteen. Boys and girls +of a younger age than that know why Slidell and Mason were arrested, +and will tell you why they should have been given up, or why they +should have been held in durance. The question of the war with +England is debated by every native paviour and hodman of New York. + +I know what Englishmen will say in answer to this. They will declare +that they do not want their paviours and hodmen to talk politics; +that they are as well pleased that their coachmen and cooks should +not always have a newspaper in their hands; that private soldiers +will fight as well, and obey better, if they are not trained to +discuss the causes which have brought them into the field. An English +gentleman will think that his gardener will be a better gardener +without than with any excessive political ardour; and the English +lady will prefer that her housemaid shall not have a very pronounced +opinion of her own as to the capabilities of the cabinet ministers. +But I would submit to all Englishmen and Englishwomen who may look at +these pages whether such an opinion or feeling on their part bears +much, or even at all, upon the subject. I am not saying that the man +who is driven in the coach is better off because his coachman reads +the paper, but that the coachman himself who reads the paper is +better off than the coachman who does not and cannot. I think that +we are too apt, in considering the ways and habits of any people, +to judge of them by the effect of those ways and habits on us, +rather than by their effects on the owners of them. When we go among +garlic-eaters, we condemn them because they are offensive to us; +but to judge of them properly we should ascertain whether or no +the garlic be offensive to them. If we could imagine a nation of +vegetarians hearing for the first time of our habits as flesh-eaters, +we should feel sure that they would be struck with horror at our +blood-stained banquets; but when they came to argue with us, we +should bid them inquire whether we flesh-eaters did not live longer +and do more than the vegetarians. When we express a dislike to the +shoeboy reading his newspaper, I fear we do so because we fear that +the shoeboy is coming near our own heels. I know there is among us a +strong feeling that the lower classes are better without politics, as +there is also that they are better without crinoline and artificial +flowers; but if politics and crinoline and artificial flowers are +good at all, they are good for all who can honestly come by them and +honestly use them. The political coachman is perhaps less valuable +to his master as a coachman than he would be without his politics, +but he with his politics is more valuable to himself. For myself, I +do not like the Americans of the lower orders. I am not comfortable +among them. They tread on my corns and offend me. They make my +daily life unpleasant. But I do respect them. I acknowledge their +intelligence and personal dignity. I know that they are men and women +worthy to be so called; I see that they are living as human beings in +possession of reasoning faculties; and I perceive that they owe this +to the progress that education has made among them. + +After all, what is wanted in this world? Is it not that men should +eat and drink, and read and write, and say their prayers? Does not +that include everything, providing that they eat and drink enough, +read and write without restraint, and say their prayers without +hypocrisy? When we talk of the advances of civilization, do we mean +anything but this, that men who now eat and drink badly shall eat and +drink well, and that those who cannot read and write now shall learn +to do so,--the prayers following, as prayers will follow upon such +learning? Civilization does not consist in the eschewing of garlic +or the keeping clean of a man's finger-nails. It may lead to such +delicacies, and probably will do so. But the man who thinks that +civilization cannot exist without them imagines that the church +cannot stand without the spire. In the States of America men do eat +and drink, and do read and write. + +But as to saying their prayers? That, as far as I can see, has come +also, though perhaps not in a manner altogether satisfactory, or to +a degree which should be held to be sufficient. Englishmen of strong +religious feeling will often be startled in America by the freedom +with which religious subjects are discussed, and the ease with which +the matter is treated; but he will very rarely be shocked by that +utter absence of all knowledge on the subject,--that total darkness, +which is still so common among the lower orders in our own country. +It is not a common thing to meet an American who belongs to no +denomination of Christian worship, and who cannot tell you why he +belongs to that which he has chosen. + +"But," it will be said, "all the intelligence and education of this +people have not saved them from falling out among themselves and +their friends, and running into troubles by which they will be +ruined. Their political arrangements have been so bad, that in spite +of all their reading and writing they must go to the wall." I venture +to express an opinion that they will by no means go to the wall, and +that they will be saved from such a destiny, if in no other way, then +by their education. Of their political arrangements, as I mean before +long to rush into that perilous subject, I will say nothing here. But +no political convulsions, should such arise,--no revolution in the +constitution, should such be necessary,--will have any wide effect +on the social position of the people to their serious detriment. +They have the great qualities of the Anglo-Saxon race,--industry, +intelligence, and self-confidence; and if these qualities will no +longer suffice to keep such a people on their legs, the world must be +coming to an end. + +I have said that it is not a common thing to meet an American who +belongs to no denomination of Christian worship. This I think is +so; but I would not wish to be taken as saying that religion on +that account stands on a satisfactory footing in the States. Of all +subjects of discussion, this is the most difficult. It is one as +to which most of us feel that to some extent we must trust to our +prejudices rather than our judgments. It is a matter on which we +do not dare to rely implicitly on our own reasoning faculties, and +therefore throw ourselves on the opinions of those whom we believe +to have been better men and deeper thinkers than ourselves. For +myself, I love the name of State and Church, and believe that much +of our English well-being has depended on it. I have made up my +mind to think that union good, and not to be turned away from that +conviction. Nevertheless I am not prepared to argue the matter. One +does not always carry one's proofs at one's finger-ends. + +But I feel very strongly that much of that which is evil in the +structure of American politics is owing to the absence of any +national religion, and that something also of social evil has sprung +from the same cause. It is not that men do not say their prayers. For +aught I know, they may do so as frequently and as fervently, or more +frequently and more fervently, than we do; but there is a rowdiness, +if I may be allowed to use such a word, in their manner of doing so +which robs religion of that reverence which is, if not its essence, +at any rate its chief protection. It is a part of their system that +religion shall be perfectly free, and that no man shall be in any +way constrained in that matter. Consequently, the question of a +man's religion is regarded in a free-and-easy way. It is well, +for instance, that a young lad should go somewhere on a Sunday; +but a sermon is a sermon, and it does not much concern the lad's +father whether his son hear the discourse of a freethinker in the +music-hall, or the eloquent but lengthy outpouring of a preacher in a +Methodist chapel. Everybody is bound to have a religion, but it does +not much matter what it is. + +The difficulty in which the first fathers of the Revolution found +themselves on this question, is shown by the constitutions of the +different States. There can be no doubt that the inhabitants of +the New England States were, as things went, a strictly religious +community. They had no idea of throwing over the worship of God, as +the French had attempted to do at their Revolution. They intended +that the new nation should be pre-eminently composed of a God-fearing +people; but they intended also that they should be a people free in +everything,--free to choose their own forms of worship. They intended +that the nation should be a Protestant people; but they intended also +that no man's conscience should be coerced in the matter of his own +religion. It was hard to reconcile these two things, and to explain +to the citizens that it behoved them to worship God,--even under +penalties for omission; but that it was at the same time open to them +to select any form of worship that they pleased, however that form +might differ from the practices of the majority. In Connecticut it is +declared that it is the duty of all men to worship the Supreme Being, +the Creator and Preserver of the universe, but that it is their right +to render that worship in the mode most consistent with the dictates +of their consciences. And then a few lines further down the article +skips the great difficulty in a manner somewhat disingenuous, and +declares that each and every society of Christians in the State shall +have and enjoy the same and equal privileges. But it does not say +whether a Jew shall be divested of those privileges, or, if he be +divested, how that treatment of him is to be reconciled with the +assurance that it is every man's right to worship the Supreme Being +in the mode most consistent with the dictates of his own conscience. + +In Rhode Island they were more honest. It is there declared that +every man shall be free to worship God according to the dictates of +his own conscience, and to profess and by argument to maintain his +opinion in matters of religion; and that the same shall in nowise +diminish, enlarge, or affect his civil capacity. Here it is simply +presumed that every man will worship a God, and no allusion is made +even to Christianity. + +In Massachusetts they are again hardly honest. "It is the right," +says the constitution, "as well as the duty of all men in society +publicly and at stated seasons to worship the Supreme Being, the +great Creator and Preserver of the universe." And then it goes on to +say that every man may do so in what form he pleases; but further +down it declares that "every denomination of Christians, demeaning +themselves peaceably and as good subjects of the commonwealth, shall +be equally under the protection of the law." But what about those who +are not Christians? In New Hampshire it is exactly the same. It is +enacted that--"Every individual has a natural and unalienable right +to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience and +reason." And that--"Every denomination of Christians, demeaning +themselves quietly and as good citizens of the State, shall be +equally under the protection of the law." From all which it is, I +think, manifest that the men who framed these documents, desirous +above all things of cutting themselves and their people loose +from every kind of trammel, still felt the necessity of enforcing +religion,--of making it to a certain extent a matter of State duty. +In the first constitution of North Carolina it is enjoined,--"That +no person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the +Protestant religion, shall be capable of holding any office or place +of trust or profit." But this was altered in the year 1836, and +the words "Christian religion" were substituted for "Protestant +religion." + +In New England the Congregationalists are, I think, the dominant +sect. In Massachusetts, and I believe in the other New England +States, a man is presumed to be a Congregationalist if he do not +declare himself to be anything else; as with us the Church of England +counts all who do not specially have themselves counted elsewhere. +The Congregationalist, as far as I can learn, is very near to a +Presbyterian. In New England I think the Unitarians would rank next +in number; but a Unitarian in America is not the same as a Unitarian +with us. Here, if I understand the nature of his creed, a Unitarian +does not recognize the divinity of our Saviour. In America he does +do so, but throws over the doctrine of the Trinity. The Protestant +Episcopalians muster strong in all the great cities, and I fancy that +they would be regarded as taking the lead of the other religious +denominations in New York. Their tendency is to high-church +doctrines. I wish they had not found it necessary to alter the forms +of our prayer-book in so many little matters, as to which there was +no national expediency for such changes. But it was probably thought +necessary that a new people should show their independence in all +things. The Roman Catholics have a very strong party--as a matter +of course--seeing how great has been the immigration from Ireland; +but here, as in Ireland--and as indeed is the case all the world +over--the Roman Catholics are the hewers of wood and drawers of +water. The Germans, who have latterly flocked into the States in +such swarms that they have almost Germanized certain States, have of +course their own churches. In every town there are places of worship +for Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Anabaptists, and every +denomination of Christianity; and the meeting-houses prepared for +these sects are not, as with us, hideous buildings contrived to +inspire disgust by the enormity of their ugliness, nor are they +called Salem, Ebenezer, and Sion, nor do the ministers within them +look in any way like the Deputy-Shepherd. The churches belonging to +those sects are often handsome. This is especially the case in New +York; and the pastors are not unfrequently among the best educated +and most agreeable men whom the traveller will meet. They are for the +most part well paid; and are enabled by their outward position to +hold that place in the world's ranks which should always belong to +a clergyman. I have not been able to obtain information from which +I can state with anything like correctness what may be the average +income of ministers of the Gospel in the northern States, but that +it is much higher than the average income of our parish clergymen, +admits, I think, of no doubt. The stipends of clergymen in the +American towns are higher than those paid in the country. The +opposite to this, I think as a rule, is the case with us. + +I have said that religion in the States is rowdy. By that I mean to +imply that it seems to me to be divested of that reverential order +and strictness of rule which, according to our ideas, should be +attached to matters of religion. One hardly knows where the affairs +of this world end, or where those of the next begin. When the holy +men were had in at the lecture, were they doing stage-work or +church-work? On hearing sermons, one is often driven to ask oneself +whether the discourse from the pulpit be in its nature political or +religious. I heard an Episcopalian Protestant clergyman talk of the +scoffing nations of Europe,--because at that moment he was angry with +England and France about Slidell and Mason. I have heard a chapter of +the Bible read in Congress at the desire of a member, and very badly +read. After which the chapter itself and the reading of it became the +subject of a debate, partly jocose and partly acrimonious. It is a +common thing for a clergyman to change his profession and follow any +other pursuit. I know two or three gentlemen who were once in that +line of life, but have since gone into other trades. There is, I +think, an unexpressed determination on the part of the people to +abandon all reverence, and to regard religion from an altogether +worldly point of view. They are willing to have religion, as they are +willing to have laws; but they choose to make it for themselves. They +do not object to pay for it, but they like to have the handling of +the article for which they pay. As the descendants of Puritans and +other godly Protestants, they will submit to religious teaching, but +as Republicans they will have no priestcraft. The French at their +Revolution had the latter feeling without the former, and were +therefore consistent with themselves in abolishing all worship. The +Americans desire to do the same thing politically, but infidelity +has had no charms for them. They say their prayers, and then seem to +apologize for doing so, as though it were hardly the act of a free +and enlightened citizen, justified in ruling himself as he pleases. +All this to me is rowdy. I know no other word by which I can so well +describe it. + +Nevertheless the nation is religious in its tendencies, and prone +to acknowledge the goodness of God in all things. A man there is +expected to belong to some church, and is not, I think, well looked +on if he profess that he belongs to none. He may be a Swedenborgian, +a Quaker, a Muggletonian;--anything will do. But it is expected of +him that he shall place himself under some flag, and do his share +in supporting the flag to which he belongs. This duty is, I think, +generally fulfilled. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +FROM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. + + +From Boston, on the 27th of November, my wife returned to England, +leaving me to prosecute my journey southward to Washington by myself. +I shall never forget the political feeling which prevailed in Boston +at that time, or the discussions on the subject of Slidell and Mason, +in which I felt myself bound to take a part. Up to that period I +confess that my sympathies had been strongly with the northern side +in the general question; and so they were still, as far as I could +divest the matter of its English bearings. I had always thought, and +do think, that a war for the suppression of the southern rebellion +could not have been avoided by the North without an absolute loss +of its political prestige. Mr. Lincoln was elected President of the +United States in the autumn of 1860, and any steps taken by him or +his party towards a peaceable solution of the difficulties which +broke out immediately on his election, must have been taken before he +entered upon his office. South Carolina threatened secession as soon +as Mr. Lincoln's election was known, while yet there were four months +left of Mr. Buchanan's Government. That Mr. Buchanan might, during +those four months, have prevented secession, few men, I think, will +doubt when the history of the time shall be written. But instead of +doing so he consummated secession. Mr. Buchanan is a northern man, +a Pennsylvanian; but he was opposed to the party which had brought +in Mr. Lincoln, having thriven as a politician by his adherence +to southern principles. Now, when the struggle came, he could not +forget his party in his duty as President. General Jackson's position +was much the same when Mr. Calhoun, on the question of the tariff, +endeavoured to produce secession in South Carolina thirty years ago, +in 1832,--excepting in this, that Jackson was himself a southern man. +But Jackson had a strong conception of the position which he held +as President of the United States. He put his foot on secession and +crushed it, forcing Mr. Calhoun, as senator from South Carolina, to +vote for that compromise as to the tariff which the Government of +the day proposed. South Carolina was as eager in 1832 for secession +as she was in 1859-1860; but the Government was in the hands of a +strong man and an honest one. Mr. Calhoun would have been hung had +he carried out his threats. But Mr. Buchanan had neither the power +nor the honesty of General Jackson, and thus secession was in fact +consummated during his Presidency. + +But Mr. Lincoln's party, it is said--and I believe truly said--might +have prevented secession by making overtures to the South, or +accepting overtures from the South, before Mr. Lincoln himself had +been inaugurated. That is to say,--if Mr. Lincoln and the band of +politicians who with him had pushed their way to the top of their +party, and were about to fill the offices of State, chose to throw +overboard the political convictions which had bound them together and +insured their success,--if they could bring themselves to adopt on +the subject of slavery the ideas of their opponents,--then the war +might have been avoided, and secession also avoided. I do believe +that had Mr. Lincoln at that time submitted himself to a compromise +in favour of the Democrats, promising the support of the Government +to certain acts which would in fact have been in favour of slavery, +South Carolina would again have been foiled for the time. For it must +be understood, that though South Carolina and the Gulf States might +have accepted certain compromises, they would not have been satisfied +in so accepting them. They desired secession, and nothing short of +secession would, in truth, have been acceptable to them. But in doing +so Mr. Lincoln would have been the most dishonest politician even in +America. The North would have been in arms against him; and any true +spirit of agreement between the cotton-growing slave States and the +manufacturing States of the North, or the agricultural States of the +West, would have been as far off and as improbable as it is now. Mr. +Crittenden, who proffered his compromise to the Senate in December, +1860, was at that time one of the two senators from Kentucky, a slave +State. He now sits in the Lower House of Congress as a member from +the same State. Kentucky is one of those border States which has +found it impossible to secede, and almost equally impossible to +remain in the Union. It is one of the States into which it was most +probable that the war would be carried;--Virginia, Kentucky, and +Missouri being the three States which have suffered the most in this +way. Of Mr. Crittenden's own family, some have gone with secession +and some with the Union. His name had been honourably connected with +American politics for nearly forty years, and it is not surprising +that he should have desired a compromise. His terms were in fact +these,--a return to the Missouri compromise, under which the Union +pledged itself that no slavery should exist north of 36.30 degrees +N. lat. unless where it had so existed prior to the date of that +compromise; a pledge that Congress would not interfere with slavery +in the individual States,--which under the constitution it cannot do; +and a pledge that the Fugitive Slave Law should be carried out by +the northern States. Such a compromise might seem to make very small +demand on the forbearance of the Republican party, which was now +dominant. The repeal of the Missouri compromise had been to them a +loss, and it might be said that its re-enactment would be a gain. +But since that compromise had been repealed, vast territories +south of the line in question had been added to the Union, and the +re-enactment of that compromise would hand those vast regions over +to absolute slavery, as had been done with Texas. This might be all +very well for Mr. Crittenden in the slave State of Kentucky--for Mr. +Crittenden, although a slave-owner, desired to perpetuate the Union; +but it would not have been well for New England or for the West. As +for the second proposition, it is well understood that under the +constitution Congress cannot interfere in any way in the question of +slavery in the individual States. Congress has no more constitutional +power to abolish slavery in Maryland than she has to introduce it +into Massachusetts. No such pledge, therefore, was necessary on +either side. But such a pledge given by the North and West would have +acted as an additional tie upon them, binding them to the finality +of a constitutional enactment to which, as was of course well known, +they strongly object. There was no question of Congress interfering +with slavery, with the purport of extending its area by special +enactment, and therefore by such a pledge the North and West could +gain nothing; but the South would in prestige have gained much. + +But that third proposition as to the Fugitive Slave Law and the +faithful execution of that law by the northern and western States +would, if acceded to by Mr. Lincoln's party, have amounted to an +unconditional surrender of everything. What! Massachusetts and +Connecticut carry out the Fugitive Slave Law! Ohio carry out the +Fugitive Slave Law after the "Dred Scot" decision and all its +consequences! Mr. Crittenden might as well have asked Connecticut, +Massachusetts, and Ohio to introduce slavery within their own lands. +The Fugitive Slave Law was then, as it is now, the law of the land; +it was the law of the United States as voted by Congress and passed +by the President, and acted on by the Supreme Judge of the United +States' Court. But it was a law to which no free State had submitted +itself, or would submit itself. "What!" the English reader will +say,--"sundry States in the Union refuse to obey the laws of the +Union,--refuse to submit to the constitutional action of their own +Congress!" Yes. Such has been the position of this country! To such +a dead lock has it been brought by the attempted but impossible +amalgamation of North and South. Mr. Crittenden's compromise was +moonshine. It was utterly out of the question that the free States +should bind themselves to the rendition of escaped slaves,--or that +Mr. Lincoln, who had just been brought in by their voices, should +agree to any compromise which should attempt so to bind them. Lord +Palmerston might as well attempt to re-enact the Corn Laws. + +Then comes the question whether Mr. Lincoln or his Government could +have prevented the war after he had entered upon his office in March, +1861? I do not suppose that any one thinks that he could have avoided +secession and avoided the war also;--that by any ordinary effort of +Government he could have secured the adhesion of the Gulf States to +the Union after the first shot had been fired at Fort Sumter. The +general opinion in England is, I take it, this,--that secession then +was manifestly necessary, and that all the bloodshed and money-shed, +and all this destruction of commerce and of agriculture might have +been prevented by a graceful adhesion to an indisputable fact. But +there are some facts, even some indisputable facts, to which a +graceful adherence is not possible. Could King Bomba have welcomed +Garibaldi to Naples? Can the Pope shake hands with Victor Emmanuel? +Could the English have surrendered to their rebel colonists peaceable +possession of the colonies? The indisputability of a fact is not very +easily settled while the circumstances are in course of action by +which the fact is to be decided. The men of the northern States have +not believed in the necessity of secession, but have believed it to +be their duty to enforce the adherence of these States to the Union. +The American Governments have been much given to compromises, but had +Mr. Lincoln attempted any compromise by which any one southern State +could have been let out of the Union, he would have been impeached. +In all probability the whole constitution would have gone to ruin, +and the presidency would have been at an end. At any rate, his +presidency would have been at an end. When secession, or in other +words rebellion, was once commenced, he had no alternative but the +use of coercive measures for putting it down;--that is, he had no +alternative but war. It is not to be supposed that he or his ministry +contemplated such a war as has existed,--with 600,000 men in arms on +one side, each man with his whole belongings maintained at a cost of +£150 per annum, or ninety millions sterling per annum for the army. +Nor did we, when we resolved to put down the French revolution, think +of such a national debt as we now owe. These things grow by degrees, +and the mind also grows in becoming used to them; but I cannot see +that there was any moment at which Mr. Lincoln could have stayed his +hand and cried Peace! It is easy to say now that acquiescence in +secession would have been better than war, but there has been no +moment when he could have said so with any avail. It was incumbent on +him to put down rebellion, or to be put down by it. So it was with us +in America in 1776. + +I do not think that we in England have quite sufficiently taken all +this into consideration. We have been in the habit of exclaiming very +loudly against the war, execrating its cruelty and anathematizing its +results, as though the cruelty were all superfluous and the results +unnecessary. But I do not remember to have seen any statement as to +what the northern States should have done,--what they should have +done, that is, as regards the South, or when they should have done +it. It seems to me that we have decided as regards them that civil +war is a very bad thing, and that therefore civil war should be +avoided. But bad things cannot always be avoided. It is this feeling +on our part that has produced so much irritation in them against +us,--reproducing, of course, irritation on our part against them. +They cannot understand that we should not wish them to be successful +in putting down a rebellion; nor can we understand why they should be +outrageous against us for standing aloof, and keeping our hands, if +it be only possible, out of the fire. + +When Slidell and Mason were arrested, my opinions were not changed, +but my feelings were altered. I seemed to acknowledge to myself that +the treatment to which England had been subjected, and the manner in +which that treatment was discussed, made it necessary that I should +regard the question as it existed between England and the States, +rather than in its reference to the North and South. I had always +felt that as regarded the action of our Government we had been sans +reproche; that in arranging our conduct we had thought neither of +money nor political influence, but simply of the justice of the +case,--promising to abstain from all interference and keeping that +promise faithfully. It had been quite clear to me that the men of the +North, and the women also, had failed to appreciate this, looking, as +men in a quarrel always do look, for special favour on their side. +Everything that England did was wrong. If a private merchant, at his +own risk, took a cargo of rifles to some southern port, that act to +northern eyes was an act of English interference,--of favour shown to +the South by England as a nation; but twenty shiploads of rifles sent +from England to the North merely signified a brisk trade and a desire +for profit. The "James Adger," a northern man-of-war, was refitted +at Southampton as a matter of course. There was no blame to England +for that. But the "Nashville," belonging to the Confederates, should +not have been allowed into English waters! It was useless to speak +of neutrality. No Northerner would understand that a rebel could +have any mutual right. The South had no claim in his eyes as a +belligerent, though the North claimed all those rights which he could +only enjoy by the fact of there being a recognized war between him +and his enemy the South. The North was learning to hate England, +and day by day the feeling grew upon me that, much as I wished to +espouse the cause of the North, I should have to espouse the cause +of my own country. Then Slidell and Mason were arrested, and I began +to calculate how long I might remain in the country. "There is no +danger. We are quite right," the lawyers said. "There are Vattel +and Puffendorff and Stowell and Phillimore and Wheaton," said the +ladies. "Ambassadors are contraband all the world over,--more so than +gunpowder; and if taken in a neutral bottom, &c." I wonder why ships +are always called bottoms when spoken of with legal technicality? But +neither the lawyers nor the ladies convinced me. I know that there +are matters which will be read not in accordance with any written +law, but in accordance with the bias of the reader's mind. Such laws +are made to be strained any way. I knew how it would be. All the +legal acumen of New England declared the seizure of Slidell and Mason +to be right. The legal acumen of Old England has declared it to be +wrong; and I have no doubt that the ladies of Old England can prove +it to be wrong out of Vattel, Puffendorff, Stowell, Phillimore, and +Wheaton. + +"But there's Grotius," I said, to an elderly female at New York, +who had quoted to me some half-dozen writers on international law, +thinking thereby that I should trump her last card. "I've looked into +Grotius too," said she, "and as far as I can see," &c. &c. &c. So +I had to fall back again on the convictions to which instinct and +common sense had brought me. I never doubted for a moment that those +convictions would be supported by English lawyers. + +I left Boston with a sad feeling at my heart that a quarrel was +imminent between England and the States, and that any such quarrel +must be destructive to the cause of the North. I had never believed +that the States of New England and the Gulf States would again become +parts of one nation, but I had thought that the terms of separation +would be dictated by the North, and not by the South. I had felt +assured that South Carolina and the Gulf States, across from +the Atlantic to Texas, would succeed in forming themselves into +a separate confederation; but I had still hoped that Maryland, +Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri might be saved to the grander empire +of the North, and that thus a great blow to slavery might be the +consequence of this civil war. But such ascendancy could only fall to +the North by reason of their command of the sea. The northern ports +were all open, and the southern ports were all closed. But if this +should be reversed. If by England's action the southern ports should +be opened, and the northern ports closed, the North could have no +fair expectation of success. The ascendancy in that case would all be +with the South. Up to that moment,--the Christmas of 1861,--Maryland +was kept in subjection by the guns which General Dix had planted +over the city of Baltimore. Two-thirds of Virginia were in active +rebellion, coerced originally into that position by her dependence +for the sale of her slaves on the cotton States. Kentucky was +doubtful, and divided. When the federal troops prevailed, Kentucky +was loyal; when the Confederate troops prevailed, Kentucky was +rebellious. The condition in Missouri was much the same. Those four +States, by two of which the capital, with its district of Columbia, +is surrounded, might be gained, or might be lost. And these four +States are susceptible of white labour,--as much so as Ohio and +Illinois,--are rich in fertility, and rich also in all associations +which must be dear to Americans. Without Virginia, Maryland, and +Kentucky, without the Potomac, the Chesapeake, and Mount Vernon, +the North would indeed be shorn of its glory! But it seemed to be +in the power of the North to say under what terms secession should +take place, and where should be the line. A senator from South +Carolina could never again sit in the same chamber with one from +Massachusetts; but there need be no such bar against the border +States. So much might at any rate be gained, and might stand +hereafter as the product of all that money spent on 600,000 soldiers. +But if the Northerners should now elect to throw themselves into +a quarrel with England, if in the gratification of a shameless +braggadocio they should insist on doing what they liked, not only +with their own, but with the property of all others also, it +certainly did seem as though utter ruin must await their cause. With +England, or one might say with Europe, against them, secession must +be accomplished, not on northern terms, but on terms dictated by the +South. The choice was then for them to make; and just at that time it +seemed as though they were resolved to throw away every good card out +of their hand. Such had been the ministerial wisdom of Mr. Seward. +I remember hearing the matter discussed in easy terms by one of the +United States senators. "Remember, Mr. Trollope," he said to me, "we +don't want a war with England. If the choice is given to us, we had +rather not fight England. Fighting is a bad thing. But remember this +also, Mr. Trollope--that if the matter is pressed on us, we have +no great objection. We had rather not, but we don't care much one +way or the other." What one individual may say to another is not of +much moment, but this senator was expressing the feelings of his +constituents, who were the legislature of the State from whence he +came. He was expressing the general idea on the subject of a large +body of Americans. It was not that he and his State had really no +objection to the war. Such a war loomed terribly large before the +minds of them all. They knew it to be fraught with the saddest +consequences. It was so regarded in the mind of that senator. But the +braggadocio could not be omitted. Had he omitted it, he would have +been untrue to his constituency. + +When I left Boston for Washington nothing was as yet known of what +the English Government or the English lawyers might say. This was in +the first week in December, and the expected voice from England could +not be heard till the end of the second week. It was a period of +great suspense, and of great sorrow also to the more sober-minded +Americans. To me the idea of such a war was terrible. It seemed that +in these days all the hopes of our youth were being shattered. That +poetic turning of the sword into a sickle, which gladdened our hearts +ten or twelve years since, had been clean banished from men's minds. +To belong to a peace-party was to be either a fanatic, an idiot, or +a driveller. The arts of war had become everything. Armstrong guns, +themselves indestructible, but capable of destroying everything +within sight, and most things out of sight, were the only recognized +results of man's inventive faculties. To build bigger, stronger, and +more ships than the French was England's glory. To hit a speck with +a rifle bullet at 800 yards' distance was an Englishman's first duty. +The proper use for a young man's leisure hours was the practice of +drilling. All this had come upon us with very quick steps, since the +beginning of the Russian war. But if fighting must needs be done, one +did not feel special grief at fighting a Russian. That the Indian +mutiny should be put down was a matter of course. That those Chinese +rascals should be forced into the harness of civilization was a good +thing. That England should be as strong as France,--or perhaps, if +possible, a little stronger,--recommended itself to an Englishman's +mind as a State necessity. But a war with the States of America! In +thinking of it I began to believe that the world was going backwards. +Over sixty millions sterling of stock--railway stock and such +like--are held in America by Englishmen, and the chances would be +that before such a war could be finished the whole of that would be +confiscated. Family connections between the States and the British +isles are almost as close as between one of those islands and +another. The commercial intercourse between the two countries has +given bread to millions of Englishmen, and a break in it would rob +millions of their bread. These people speak our language, use our +prayers, read our books, are ruled by our laws, dress themselves in +our image, are warm with our blood. They have all our virtues; and +their vices are our own too, loudly as we call out against them. They +are our sons and our daughters, the source of our greatest pride, and +as we grow old they should be the staff of our age. Such a war as we +should now wage with the States would be an unloosing of hell upon +all that is best upon the world's surface. If in such a war we beat +the Americans, they with their proud stomachs would never forgive +us. If they should be victors, we should never forgive ourselves. I +certainly could not bring myself to speak of it with the equanimity +of my friend the senator. + +I went through New York to Philadelphia and made a short visit to the +latter town. Philadelphia seems to me to have thrown off its Quaker +garb, and to present itself to the world in the garments ordinarily +assumed by large cities; by which I intend to express my opinion +that the Philadelphians are not in these latter days any better than +their neighbours. I am not sure whether in some respects they may not +perhaps be worse. Quakers,--Quakers absolutely in the very flesh of +close bonnets and brown knee-breeches,--are still to be seen there; +but they are not numerous, and would not strike the eye if one did +not specially look for a Quaker at Philadelphia. It is a large town, +with a very large hotel,--there are no doubt half-a-dozen large +hotels, but one of them is specially great,--with long straight +streets, good shops and markets, and decent comfortable-looking +houses. The houses of Philadelphia generally are not so large as +those of other great cities in the States. They are more modest than +those of New York, and less commodious than those of Boston. Their +most striking appendage is the marble steps at the front doors. Two +doors as a rule enjoy one set of steps, on the outer edges of which +there is generally no parapet or raised curb-stone. This, to my eye, +gave the houses an unfinished appearance,--as though the marble ran +short, and no further expenditure could be made. The frost came when +I was there, and then all these steps were covered up in wooden +cases. + +The city of Philadelphia lies between the two rivers, the Delaware +and the Schuylkill. Eight chief streets run from river to river, and +twenty-four cross-streets bisect the eight at right angles. The long +streets are, with the exception of Market Street, called by the names +of trees,--chesnut, walnut, pine, spruce, mulberry, vine, and so +on. The cross-streets are all called by their numbers. In the long +streets the numbers of the houses are not consecutive, but follow +the numbers of the cross streets; so that a person living in Chesnut +Street between Tenth Street and Eleventh Street, and ten doors from +Tenth Street, would live at No. 1010. The opposite house would be +No. 1011. It thus follows that the number of the house indicates the +exact block of houses in which it is situated. I do not like the +right-angled building of these towns, nor do I like the sound of +Twentieth Street and Thirtieth Street; but I must acknowledge that +the arrangement in Philadelphia has its convenience. In New York I +found it by no means an easy thing to arrive at the desired locality. + +They boast in Philadelphia that they have half a million inhabitants. +If this be taken as a true calculation, Philadelphia is in size the +fourth city in the world,--putting out of the question the cities of +China, as to which we have heard so much and believe so little. But +in making this calculation the citizens include the population of a +district on some sides ten miles distant from Philadelphia. It takes +in other towns connected with it by railway but separated by large +spaces of open country. American cities are very proud of their +population, but if they all counted in this way, there would soon +be no rural population left at all. There is a very fine bank at +Philadelphia,--and Philadelphia is a town somewhat celebrated in +its banking history. My remarks here, however, apply simply to the +external building, and not to its internal honesty and wisdom, or to +its commercial credit. + +In Philadelphia also stands the old house of Congress,--the house in +which the Congress of the United States was held previous to 1800, +when the Government, and the Congress with it, were moved to the +new city of Washington. I believe, however, that the first Congress, +properly so called, was assembled at New York in 1789, the date of +the inauguration of the first President. It was, however, here, in +this building at Philadelphia, that the independence of the Union was +declared in 1776, and that the constitution of the United States was +framed. + +Pennsylvania, with Philadelphia for its capital, was once the leading +State of the Union,--leading by a long distance. At the end of the +last century it beat all the other States in population, but has +since been surpassed by New York in all respects,--in population, +commerce, wealth, and general activity. Of course it is known that +Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn, the Quaker, by Charles +II. I cannot completely understand what was the meaning of such +grants,--how far they implied absolute possession in the territory, +or how far they confirmed simply the power of settling and governing +a colony. In this case a very considerable property was confirmed, as +the claim made by Penn's children after Penn's death was bought up by +the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for £130,000; which in those days +was a large price for almost any landed estate on the other side of +the Atlantic. + +Pennsylvania lies directly on the borders of slave land, being +immediately north of Maryland. Mason and Dixon's line, of which +we hear so often, and which was first established as the division +between slave soil and free soil, runs between Pennsylvania and +Maryland. The little State of Delaware, which lies between Maryland +and the Atlantic, is also tainted with slavery; but the stain is not +heavy nor indelible. In a population of a hundred and twelve thousand +there are not two thousand slaves, and of these the owners generally +would willingly rid themselves if they could. It is, however, a point +of honour with these owners, as it is also in Maryland, not to sell +their slaves; and a man who cannot sell his slaves must keep them. +Were he to enfranchise them and send them about their business, they +would come back upon his hands. Were he to enfranchise them and pay +them wages for work, they would get the wages but he would not get +the work. They would get the wages, but at the end of three months +they would still fall back upon his hands in debt and distress, +looking to him for aid and comfort as a child looks for it. It is +not easy to get rid of a slave in a slave State. That question of +enfranchising slaves is not one to be very readily solved. + +In Pennsylvania the right of voting is confined to free white men. In +New York the coloured free men have the right to vote, providing they +have a certain small property qualification, and have been citizens +for three years in the State;--whereas a white man need have been a +citizen but for ten days, and need have no property qualification; +from which it is seen that the position of the negro becomes worse, +or less like that of a white man, as the border of slave land is more +nearly reached. But in the teeth of this embargo on coloured men, the +constitution of Pennsylvania asserts broadly that all men are born +equally free and independent. One cannot conceive how two clauses +can have found their way into the same document so absolutely +contradictory to each other. The first clause says that white men +shall vote, and that black men shall not, which means that all +political action shall be confined to white men. The second clause +says that all men are born equally free and independent! + +In Philadelphia I for the first time came across live +secessionists,--secessionists who pronounced themselves to be such. I +will not say that I had met in other cities men who falsely declared +themselves true to the Union; but I had fancied, in regard to some, +that their words were a little stronger than their feelings. When +a man's bread,--and much more, when the bread of his wife and +children,--depends on his professing a certain line of political +conviction, it is very hard for him to deny his assent to the truth +of the argument. One feels that a man under such circumstances is +bound to be convinced, unless he be in a position which may make +a stanch adherence to opposite politics a matter of grave public +importance. In the North I had fancied that I could sometimes read a +secessionist tendency under a cloud of unionist protestations. But in +Philadelphia men did not seem to think it necessary to have recourse +to such a cloud. I generally found in mixed society, even there, that +the discussion of secession was not permitted; but in society that +was not mixed, I heard very strong opinions expressed on each side. +With the unionists nothing was so strong as the necessity of keeping +Slidell and Mason. When I suggested that the English Government would +probably require their surrender, I was talked down and ridiculed. +"Never that; come what may." Then, within half an hour, I would be +told by a secessionist that England must demand reparation if she +meant to retain any place among the great nations of the world; +but he also would declare that the men would not be surrendered. +"She must make the demand," the secessionist would say, "and then +there will be war; and after that we shall see whose ports will be +blockaded!" The Southerner has ever looked to England for some breach +of the blockade, quite as strongly as the North has looked to England +for sympathy and aid in keeping it. + +The railway from Philadelphia to Baltimore passes along the top of +Chesapeake Bay and across the Susquehanna river; at least the railway +cars do so. On one side of that river they are run on to a huge +ferryboat, and are again run off at the other side. Such an operation +would seem to be one of difficulty to us under any circumstances; +but as the Susquehanna is a tidal river, rising and falling a +considerable number of feet, the natural impediment in the way of +such an enterprise would, I think, have staggered us. We should have +built a bridge costing two or three millions sterling, on which no +conceivable amount of traffic would pay a fair dividend. Here, in +crossing the Susquehanna, the boat is so constructed that its deck +shall be level with the line of the railway at half tide, so that the +inclined plane from the shore down to the boat, or from the shore up +to the boat, shall never exceed half the amount of the rise or fall. +One would suppose that the most intricate machinery would have been +necessary for such an arrangement; but it was all rough and simple, +and apparently managed by two negroes. We should employ a small corps +of engineers to conduct such an operation, and men and women would +be detained in their carriages under all manner of threats as to the +peril of life and limb; but here everybody was expected to look out +for himself. The cars were dragged up the inclined plane by a hawser +attached to an engine, which hawser, had the stress broken it, as I +could not but fancy probable, would have flown back and cut to pieces +a lot of us who were standing in front of the car. But I do not +think that any such accident would have caused very much attention. +Life and limbs are not held to be so precious here as they are in +England. It may be a question whether with us they are not almost too +precious. Regarding railways in America generally, as to the relative +safety of which, when compared with our own, we have not in England a +high opinion, I must say that I never saw any accident or in any way +became conversant with one. It is said that large numbers of men and +women are slaughtered from time to time on different lines; but if it +be so, the newspapers make very light of such cases. I myself have +seen no such slaughter, nor have I even found myself in the vicinity +of a broken bone. Beyond the Susquehanna we passed over a creek of +Chesapeake Bay on a long bridge. The whole scenery here is very +pretty, and the view up the Susquehanna is fine. This is the bay +which divides the State of Maryland into two parts, and which is +blessed beyond all other bays by the possession of canvas-back ducks. +Nature has done a great deal for the State of Maryland, but in +nothing more than in sending thither these web-footed birds of +Paradise. + +Nature has done a great deal for Maryland; and Fortune also has +done much for it in these latter days in directing the war from +its territory. But for the peculiar position of Washington as the +capital, all that is now being done in Virginia would have been done +in Maryland, and I must say that the Marylanders did their best to +bring about such a result. Had the presence of the war been regarded +by the men of Baltimore as an unalloyed benefit, they could not have +made a greater struggle to bring it close to them. Nevertheless fate +has so far spared them. + +As the position of Maryland and the course of events as they took +place in Baltimore on the commencement of secession had considerable +influence both in the North and in the South, I will endeavour +to explain how that State was affected, and how the question was +affected by that State. Maryland, as I have said before, is a slave +State lying immediately south of Mason and Dixon's line. Small +portions both of Virginia and of Delaware do run north of Maryland, +but practically Maryland is the frontier State of the slave States. +It was therefore of much importance to know which way Maryland would +go in the event of secession among the slave States becoming general; +and of much also to ascertain whether it could secede if desirous of +doing so. I am inclined to think that as a State it was desirous of +following Virginia, though there are many in Maryland who deny this +very stoutly. But it was at once evident that if loyalty to the North +could not be had in Maryland of its own free will, adherence to +the North must be enforced upon Maryland. Otherwise the city of +Washington could not be maintained as the existing capital of the +nation. + +The question of the fidelity of the State to the Union was first +tried by the arrival at Baltimore of a certain Commissioner from +the State of Mississippi, who visited that city with the object of +inducing secession. It must be understood that Baltimore is the +commercial capital of Maryland, whereas Annapolis is the seat of +Government and the legislature--or is, in other terms, the political +capital. Baltimore is a city containing 230,000 inhabitants, and is +considered to have as strong and perhaps as violent a mob as any +city in the Union. Of the above number 30,000 are negroes and 2000 +are slaves. The Commissioner made his appeal, telling his tale of +southern grievances, declaring, among other things, that secession +was not intended to break up the Government but to perpetuate it, +and asked for the assistance and sympathy of Maryland. This was in +December, 1860. The Commissioner was answered by Governor Hicks, who +was placed in a somewhat difficult position. The existing legislature +of the State was presumed to be secessionist, but the legislature +was not sitting, nor in the ordinary course of things would that +legislature have been called on to sit again. The legislature of +Maryland is elected every other year, and in the ordinary course +sits only once in the two years. That session had been held, and the +existing legislature was therefore exempt from further work,--unless +specially summoned for an extraordinary session. To do this is within +the power of the Governor. But Governor Hicks, who seems to have been +mainly anxious to keep things quiet, and whose individual politics +did not come out strongly, was not inclined to issue the summons. +"Let us show moderation as well as firmness," he said; and that +was about all he did say to the Commissioner from Mississippi. +The Governor after that was directly called on to convene the +legislature; but this he refused to do, alleging that it would not +be safe to trust the discussion of such a subject as secession +to--"excited politicians, many of whom having nothing to lose from +the destruction of the Government, may hope to derive some gain +from the ruin of the State!" I quote these words, coming from the +head of the executive of the State and spoken with reference to the +legislature of the State, with the object of showing in what light +the political leaders of a State may be held in that very State to +which they belong! If we are to judge of these legislators from the +opinion expressed by Governor Hicks, they could hardly have been +fit for their places. That plan of governing by the little men has +certainly not answered. It need hardly be said that Governor Hicks, +having expressed such an opinion of his State's legislature, refused +to call them to an extraordinary session. + +On the 18th of April, 1860, Governor Hicks issued a proclamation to +the people of Maryland, begging them to be quiet, the chief object +of which, however, was that of promising that no troops should be +sent out from their State, unless with the object of guarding the +neighbouring city of Washington,--a promise which he had no means +of fulfilling, seeing that the President of the United States is +the Commander-in-Chief of the army of the nation and can summon the +militia of the several States. This proclamation by the Governor +to the State was immediately backed up by one from the Mayor of +Baltimore to the city, in which he congratulates the citizens on +the Governor's promise that none of their troops are to be sent to +another State; and then he tells them that they shall be preserved +from the horrors of civil war. + +But on the very next day the horrors of civil war began in Baltimore. +By this time President Lincoln was collecting troops at Washington +for the protection of the capital; and that army of the Potomac, +which has ever since occupied the Virginian side of the river, +was in course of construction. To join this, certain troops from +Massachusetts were sent down by the usual route, viâ New York, +Philadelphia, and Baltimore; but on their reaching Baltimore +by railway, the mob of that town refused to allow them to pass +through,--and a fight began. Nine citizens were killed and two +soldiers, and as many more were wounded. This, I think, was the first +blood spilt in the civil war; and the attack was first made by the +mob of the first slave city reached by the northern soldiers. This +goes far to show, not that the border States desired secession, but +that, when compelled to choose between secession and union,--when not +allowed by circumstances to remain neutral,--their sympathies were +with their sister slave States rather than with the North. + +Then there was a great running about of official men between +Baltimore and Washington, and the President was besieged with +entreaties that no troops should be sent through Baltimore. Now this +was hard enough upon President Lincoln, seeing that he was bound to +defend his capital, that he could get no troops from the South, and +that Baltimore is on the high road from Washington, both to the West +and to the North; but, nevertheless, he gave way. Had he not done +so, all Baltimore would have been in a blaze of rebellion, and the +scene of the coming contest must have been removed from Virginia to +Maryland, and Congress and the Government must have travelled from +Washington north to Philadelphia. "They shall not come through +Baltimore," said Mr. Lincoln. "But they shall come through the State +of Maryland. They shall be passed over Chesapeake Bay by water to +Annapolis, and shall come up by rail from thence." This arrangement +was as distasteful to the State of Maryland as the other; but +Annapolis is a small town without a mob, and the Marylanders had no +means of preventing the passage of the troops. Attempts were made to +refuse the use of the Annapolis branch railway, but General Butler +had the arranging of that. General Butler was a lawyer from Boston, +and by no means inclined to indulge the scruples of the Marylanders +who had so roughly treated his fellow-citizens from Massachusetts. +The troops did therefore pass through Annapolis, much to the disgust +of the State. On the 27th of April Governor Hicks, having now had a +sufficiency of individual responsibility, summoned the legislature +of which he had expressed so bad an opinion; but on this occasion +he omitted to repeat that opinion, and submitted his views in very +proper terms to the wisdom of the senators and representatives. He +entertained, as he said, an honest conviction that the safety of +Maryland lay in preserving a neutral position between the North and +the South. Certainly, Governor Hicks, if it were only possible! The +legislature again went to work to prevent, if it might be prevented, +the passage of troops through their State; but luckily for them, +they failed. The President was bound to defend Washington, and the +Marylanders were denied their wish of having their own fields made +the fighting ground of the civil war. + +That which appears to me to be the most remarkable feature in all +this is the antagonism between United States law and individual State +feeling. Through the whole proceeding the Governor and the State of +Maryland seemed to have considered it legal and reasonable to oppose +the constitutional power of the President and his Government. It is +argued in all the speeches and written documents that were produced +in Maryland at the time, that Maryland was true to the Union; and yet +she put herself in opposition to the constitutional military power of +the President! Certain commissioners went from the State legislature +to Washington, in May, and from their report, it appears that the +President had expressed himself of opinion that Maryland might do +this or that, as long "as she had not taken and was not about to take +a hostile attitude to the Federal Government!" From which we are to +gather that a denial of that military power given to the President +by the constitution was not considered as an attitude hostile to +the Federal Government. At any rate, it was direct disobedience +of federal law. I cannot but revert from this to the condition +of the fugitive slave law. Federal law, and indeed the original +constitution, plainly declare that fugitive slaves shall be given +up by the free-soil States. Massachusetts proclaims herself to be +specially a federal, law-loving State. But every man in Massachusetts +knows that no judge, no sheriff, no magistrate, no policeman in that +State would at this time, or then, when that civil war was beginning, +have lent a hand in any way to the rendition of a fugitive slave. The +Federal law requires the State to give up the fugitive, but the State +law does not require judge, sheriff, magistrate, or policeman to +engage in such work, and no judge, sheriff, or magistrate will do so; +consequently that Federal law is dead in Massachusetts, as it is also +in every free-soil State,--dead, except inasmuch as there was life +in it to create ill-blood as long as the North and South remained +together, and would be life in it for the same effect if they should +again be brought under the same flag. + +On the 10th May the Maryland legislature, having received the +report of their Commissioners above-mentioned, passed the following +resolution:-- + +"Whereas the war against the Confederate States is unconstitutional +and repugnant to civilization, and will result in a bloody and +shameful overthrow of our constitution, and whilst recognizing the +obligations of Maryland to the Union, we sympathize with the South in +the struggle for their rights; for the sake of humanity we are for +peace and reconciliation, and solemnly protest against this war, and +will take no part in it. + +"Resolved,--That Maryland implores the President, in the name of +God, to cease this unholy war, at least until Congress assembles"--a +period of above six months. "That Maryland desires and consents to +the recognition of the independence of the Confederate States. The +military occupation of Maryland is unconstitutional, and she protests +against it, though the violent interference with the transit of the +Federal troops is discountenanced. That the vindication of her rights +be left to time and reason, and that a convention under existing +circumstances is inexpedient." + +From which it is plain that Maryland would have seceded as +effectually as Georgia seceded, had she not been prevented by +the interposition of Washington between her and the Confederate +States,--the happy intervention, seeing that she has thus been saved +from becoming the battle-ground of the contest. But the legislature +had to pay for its rashness. On the 13th of September thirteen of +its members were arrested, as were also two editors of newspapers +presumed to be secessionists. A member of Congress was also arrested +at the same time, and a candidate for Governor Hicks's place, who +belonged to the secessionist party. Previously, in the last days of +June and beginning of July, the chief of the police at Baltimore +and the members of the Board of Police had been arrested by General +Banks, who then held Baltimore in his power. + +I should be sorry to be construed as saying that republican +institutions, or what may more properly be called democratic +institutions, have been broken down in the States of America. I am +far from thinking that they have broken down. Taking them and their +work as a whole, I think that they have shown, and still show, +vitality of the best order. But the written constitution of the +United States and of the several States, as bearing upon each other, +are not equal to the requirements made upon them. That, I think, +is the conclusion to which a spectator should come. It is in that +doctrine of finality that our friends have broken down,--a doctrine +not expressed in their constitutions, and indeed expressly denied in +the constitution of the United States, which provides the mode in +which amendments shall be made--but appearing plainly enough in every +word of self-gratulation which comes from them. Political finality +has ever proved a delusion,--as has the idea of finality in all +human institutions. I do not doubt but that the republican form of +government will remain and make progress in North America; but such +prolonged existence and progress must be based on an acknowledgment +of the necessity for change, and must in part depend on the +facilities for change which shall be afforded. + +I have described the condition of Baltimore as it was early in May, +1861. I reached that city just seven months later, and its condition +was considerably altered. There was no question then whether troops +should pass through Baltimore, or by an awkward round through +Annapolis, or not pass at all through Maryland. General Dix, who +had succeeded General Banks, was holding the city in his grip, and +martial law prevailed. In such times as those, it was bootless to +inquire as to that promise that no troops should pass southward +through Baltimore. What have such assurances ever been worth in such +days! Baltimore was now a military depot in the hands of the northern +army, and General Dix was not a man to stand any trifling. He did me +the honour to take me to the top of Federal Hill, a suburb of the +city, on which he had raised great earthworks and planted mighty +cannons, and built tents and barracks for his soldiery, and to show +me how instantaneously he could destroy the town from his exalted +position. "This hill was made for the very purpose," said General +Dix; and no doubt he thought so. Generals, when they have fine +positions and big guns and prostrate people lying under their thumbs, +are inclined to think that God's providence has specially ordained +them and their points of vantage. It is a good thing in the mind of +a general so circumstanced that 200,000 men should be made subject +to a dozen big guns. I confess that to me, having had no military +education, the matter appeared in a different light, and I could +not work up my enthusiasm to a pitch which would have been suitable +to the General's courtesy. That hill, on which many of the poor of +Baltimore had lived, was desecrated in my eyes by those columbiads. +The neat earthworks were ugly, as looked upon by me; and though I +regarded General Dix as energetic, and no doubt skilful in the work +assigned to him, I could not sympathize with his exultation. + +Previously to the days of secession Baltimore had been guarded by +Fort MacHenry, which lies on a spit of land running out into the bay +just below the town. Hither I went with General Dix, and he explained +to me how the cannon had heretofore been pointed solely towards the +sea; that, however, now was all changed, and the mouths of his bombs +and great artillery were turned all the other way. The commandant of +the fort was with us, and other officers, and they all spoke of this +martial tenure as a great blessing. Hearing them, one could hardly +fail to suppose that they had lived their forty, fifty, or sixty +years of life in full reliance on the powers of a military despotism. +But not the less were they American republicans, who, twelve months +since, would have dilated on the all-sufficiency of their republican +institutions, and on the absence of any military restraint in their +country, with that peculiar pride which characterizes the citizens +of the States. There are, however, some lessons which may be learned +with singular rapidity! + +Such was the state of Baltimore when I visited that city. I found, +nevertheless, that cakes and ale still prevailed there. I am inclined +to think that cakes and ale prevail most freely in times that are +perilous, and when sources of sorrow abound. I have seen more +reckless joviality in a town stricken by pestilence than I ever +encountered elsewhere. There was General Dix seated on Federal Hill +with his cannon; and there, beneath his artillery, were gentlemen +hotly professing themselves to be secessionists, men whose sons and +brothers were in the southern army, and women--alas! whose brothers +would be in one army, and their sons in another. That was the part of +it which was most heart-rending in this border land. In New England +and New York men's minds at any rate were bent all in the same +direction,--as doubtless they were also in Georgia and Alabama. But +here fathers were divided from sons, and mothers from daughters. +Terrible tales were told of threats uttered by one member of a family +against another. Old ties of friendship were broken up. Society had +so divided itself, that one side could hold no terms of courtesy with +the other. "When this is over," one gentleman said to me, "every man +in Baltimore will have a quarrel to the death on his hands with some +friend whom he used to love." The complaints made on both sides were +eager and open-mouthed against the other. + +Late in the autumn an election for a new legislature of the State +had taken place, and the members returned were all supposed to be +unionist. That they were prepared to support the Government is +certain. But no known or presumed secessionist was allowed to vote +without first taking the oath of allegiance. The election therefore, +even if the numbers were true, cannot be looked upon as a free +election. Voters were stopped at the poll and not allowed to +vote unless they would take an oath which would, on their parts, +undoubtedly have been false. It was also declared in Baltimore that +men engaged to promote the northern party were permitted to vote five +or six times over, and the enormous number of votes polled on the +Government side gave some colouring to the statement. At any rate an +election carried under General Dix's guns cannot be regarded as an +open election. It was out of the question that any election taken +under such circumstances should be worth anything as expressing +the minds of the people. Red and white had been declared to be the +colours of the Confederates, and red and white had of course become +the favourite colours of the Baltimore ladies. Then it was given +out that red and white would not be allowed in the streets. Ladies +wearing red and white were requested to return home. Children +decorated with red and white ribbons were stripped of their bits of +finery,--much to their infantine disgust and dismay. Ladies would put +red and white ornaments in their windows, and the police would insist +on the withdrawal of the colours. Such was the condition of Baltimore +during the past winter. Nevertheless cakes and ale abounded; and +though there was deep grief in the city, and wailing in the recesses +of many houses, and a feeling that the good times were gone, never +to return within the days of many of them, still there existed an +excitement and a consciousness of the importance of the crisis which +was not altogether unsatisfactory. Men and women can endure to +be ruined, to be torn from their friends, to be overwhelmed with +avalanches of misfortune, better than they can endure to be dull. + +Baltimore is, or at any rate was, an aspiring city, proud of its +commerce and proud of its society. It has regarded itself as the New +York of the South, and to some extent has forced others so to regard +it also. In many respects it is more like an English town than most +of its transatlantic brethren, and the ways of its inhabitants are +English. In old days a pack of fox-hounds was kept here,--or indeed +in days that are not yet very old, for I was told of their doings by +a gentleman who had long been a member of the hunt. The country looks +as a hunting country should look, whereas no man that ever crossed a +field after a pack of hounds would feel the slightest wish to attempt +that process in New England or New York. There is in Baltimore +an old inn with an old sign, standing at the corner of Eutaw and +Franklin Streets, just such as may still be seen in the towns of +Somersetshire, and before it are to be seen old wagons, covered and +soiled and battered, about to return from the city to the country, +just as the wagons do in our own agricultural counties. I have found +nothing so thoroughly English in any other part of the Union. + +But canvas-back ducks and terrapins are the great glories of +Baltimore. Of the nature of the former bird I believe all the world +knows something. It is a wild duck which obtains the peculiarity of +its flavour from the wild celery on which it feeds. This celery grows +on the Chesapeake Bay, and I believe on the Chesapeake Bay only. At +any rate Baltimore is the head-quarters of the canvas-backs, and it +is on the Chesapeake Bay that they are shot. I was kindly invited to +go down on a shooting-party; but when I learned that I should have to +ensconce myself alone for hours in a wet wooden box on the water's +edge, waiting there for the chance of a duck to come to me, I +declined. The fact of my never having as yet been successful in +shooting a bird of any kind conduced somewhat perhaps to my decision. +I must acknowledge that the canvas-back duck fully deserves all the +reputation it has acquired. As to the terrapin, I have not so much to +say. The terrapin is a small turtle, found on the shores of Maryland +and Virginia, out of which a very rich soup is made. It is cooked +with wines and spices, and is served in the shape of a hash, with +heaps of little bones mixed through it. It is held in great repute, +and the guest is expected as a matter of course to be helped twice. +The man who did not eat twice of terrapin would be held in small +repute, as the Londoner is held who at a city banquet does not +partake of both thick and thin turtle. I must, however, confess that +the terrapin for me had no surpassing charms. + +Maryland was so called from Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles +I., by which king in 1632 the territory was conceded to the Roman +Catholic Lord Baltimore. It was chiefly peopled by Roman Catholics, +but I do not think that there is now any such speciality attaching to +the State. There are in it two or three old Roman Catholic families, +but the people have come down from the North, and have no peculiar +religious tendencies. Some of Lord Baltimore's descendants remained +in the State up to the time of the revolution. From Baltimore I went +on to Washington. + + +END OF VOL. I. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORTH AMERICA, VOLUME I (OF 2)*** + + +******* This file should be named 1865-8.txt or 1865-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/1865 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a +href="http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></p> +<p class="noindent">Title: North America, Volume I (of 2)</p> +<p class="noindent">Author: Anthony Trollope</p> +<p class="noindent">Release Date: August, 1999 [eBook #1865]<br /> +Release Date of this revision: February 18, 2013</p> +<p class="noindent">Language: English</p> +<p class="noindent">Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p class="noindent">***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORTH AMERICA, VOLUME I (OF 2)***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Donald Lainson<br /> + and revised by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.<br /> + <br /> + HTML version prepared by<br /> + Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D.</h3> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td class="just"> + Editorial Note:<br /> + <br /> + Anthony Trollope travelled through the United States from + August, 1861, to May, 1862, visiting all the states that + did not secede except California. This book is partly a + journal of his travels and partly his description of + American customs and culture including industry, education, + government, military affairs, religion, transportation, and + even hotels. To an American of today it provides a revealing + and fascinating picture of life at the time.<br /> + <br /> + The book was first published in two volumes by Chapman & + Hall in 1862.<br /> + <br /> + Project Gutenberg has the other volume of this work.<br /> + <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1866/1866-h/1866-h.htm">Volume II</a>: see http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1866/1866-h/1866-h.htm + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>NORTH AMERICA</h1> + +<h4>by</h4> + +<h2>ANTHONY TROLLOPE</h2> +<p> </p> + +<h3>In Two Volumes</h3> +<p> </p> + +<h3>VOL. I</h3> + +<p> </p> +<hr class="narrow" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<p> </p> +<div class="center"> +<table class="med" style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="3"> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">I. </td> <td><a href="#c1">INTRODUCTION.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">II. </td> <td><a href="#c2">NEWPORT—RHODE ISLAND.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">III. </td> <td><a href="#c3">MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">IV. </td> <td><a href="#c4">LOWER CANADA.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">V. </td> <td><a href="#c5">UPPER CANADA.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VI. </td> <td><a href="#c6">THE CONNEXION OF THE CANADAS<br />WITH GREAT BRITAIN.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VII. </td> <td><a href="#c7">NIAGARA.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">VIII. </td> <td><a href="#c8">NORTH AND WEST.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">IX. </td> <td><a href="#c9">FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">X. </td> <td><a href="#c10">THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XI. </td> <td><a href="#c11">CERES AMERICANA.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XII. </td> <td><a href="#c12">BUFFALO TO NEW YORK.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XIII. </td> <td><a href="#c13">AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XIV. </td> <td><a href="#c14">NEW YORK.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XV. </td> <td><a href="#c15">THE CONSTITUTION OF THE<br />STATE OF NEW YORK.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XVI. </td> <td><a href="#c16">BOSTON.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XVII. </td> <td><a href="#c17">CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XVIII. </td><td><a href="#c18">THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XIX. </td> <td><a href="#c19">EDUCATION AND RELIGION.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right" valign="top">XX. </td> <td><a href="#c20">FROM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON.</a></td></tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<p> </p> +<hr class="narrow" /> +<p> </p> + + +<p><a id="c1"></a> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER I.</h3> +<h4>INTRODUCTION.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>It has been the ambition of my literary life to write a book about +the United States, and I had made up my mind to visit the country +with this object before the intestine troubles of the United States +Government had commenced. I have not allowed the division among the +States and the breaking out of civil war to interfere with my +intention; but I should not purposely have chosen this period either +for my book or for my visit. I say so much, in order that it may not +be supposed that it is my special purpose to write an account of the +struggle as far as it has yet been carried. My wish is to describe as +well as I can the present social and political state of the country. +This I should have attempted, with more personal satisfaction in the +work, had there been no disruption between the North and South; but I +have not allowed that disruption to deter me from an object which, if +it were delayed, might probably never be carried out. I am therefore +forced to take the subject in its present condition, and being so +forced I must write of the war, of the causes which have led to it, +and of its probable termination. But I wish it to be understood that +it was not my selected task to do so, and is not now my primary +object.</p> + +<p>Thirty years ago my mother wrote a book about the Americans, to which +I believe I may allude as a well known and successful work without +being guilty of any undue family conceit. That was essentially a +woman's book. She saw with a woman's keen eye, and described with a +woman's light but graphic pen, the social defects and absurdities +which our near relatives had adopted into their domestic life. All +that she told was worth the telling, and the telling, if done +successfully, was sure to produce a good result. I am satisfied that +it did so. But she did not regard it as a part of her work to dilate +on the nature and operation of those political arrangements which had +produced the social absurdities which she saw, or to explain that +though such absurdities were the natural result of those arrangements +in their newness, the defects would certainly pass away, while the +political arrangements, if good, would remain. Such a work is fitter +for a man than for a woman. I am very far from thinking that it is a +task which I can perform with satisfaction either to myself or to +others. It is a work which some man will do who has earned a right by +education, study, and success to rank himself among the political +sages of his age. But I may perhaps be able to add something to the +familiarity of Englishmen with Americans. The writings which have +been most popular in England on the subject of the United States have +hitherto dealt chiefly with social details; and though in most cases +true and useful, have created laughter on one side of the Atlantic, +and soreness on the other. If I could do anything to mitigate the +soreness, if I could in any small degree add to the good feeling +which should exist between two nations which ought to love each other +so well, and which do hang upon each other so constantly, I should +think that I had cause to be proud of my work.</p> + +<p>But it is very hard to write about any country a book that does not +represent the country described in a more or less ridiculous point of +view. It is hard at least to do so in such a book as I must write. A +De Tocqueville may do it. It may be done by any +philosophico-political or politico-statistical, or +statistico-scientific writer; but it can hardly be done by a man who +professes to use a light pen, and to manufacture his article for the +use of general readers. Such a writer may tell all that he sees of +the beautiful; but he must also tell, if not all that he sees of the +ludicrous, at any rate the most piquant part of it. How to do this +without being offensive is the problem which a man with such a task +before him has to solve. His first duty is owed to his readers, and +consists mainly in this: that he shall tell the truth, and shall so +tell that truth that what he has written may be readable. But a +second duty is due to those of whom he writes; and he does not +perform that duty well if he gives offence to those, as to whom, on +the summing up of the whole evidence for and against them in his own +mind, he intends to give a favourable verdict. There are of course +those against whom a writer does not intend to give a favourable +verdict;—people and places whom he desires to describe, on the peril +of his own judgment, as bad, ill-educated, ugly, and odious. In such +cases his course is straightforward enough. His judgment may be in +great peril, but his volume or chapter will be easily written. +Ridicule and censure run glibly from the pen, and form themselves +into sharp paragraphs which are pleasant to the reader. Whereas +eulogy is commonly dull, and too frequently sounds as though it were +false. There is much difficulty in expressing a verdict which is +intended to be favourable; but which, though favourable, shall not be +falsely eulogistic; and though true, not offensive.</p> + +<p>Who has ever travelled in foreign countries without meeting excellent +stories against the citizens of such countries? And how few can +travel without hearing such stories against themselves? It is +impossible for me to avoid telling of a very excellent gentleman whom +I met before I had been in the United States a week, and who asked me +whether lords in England ever spoke to men who were not lords. Nor +can I omit the opening address of another gentleman to my wife. "You +like our institutions, ma'am?" "Yes, indeed," said my wife,—not with +all that eagerness of assent which the occasion perhaps required. +"Ah," said he, "I never yet met the down-trodden subject of a despot +who did not hug his chains." The first gentleman was certainly +somewhat ignorant of our customs, and the second was rather abrupt in +his condemnation of the political principles of a person whom he only +first saw at that moment. It comes to me in the way of my trade to +repeat such incidents; but I can tell stories which are quite as good +against Englishmen. As for instance, when I was tapped on the back in +one of the galleries of Florence by a countryman of mine, and asked +to show him where stood the medical Venus. Nor is anything that one +can say of the inconveniences attendant upon travel in the United +States to be beaten by what foreigners might truly say of us. I shall +never forget the look of a Frenchman whom I found on a wet afternoon +in the best inn of a provincial town in the west of England. He was +seated on a horsehair-covered chair in the middle of a small dingy +ill-furnished private sitting-room. No eloquence of mine could make +intelligible to a Frenchman or an American the utter desolation of +such an apartment. The world as then seen by that Frenchman offered +him solace of no description. The air without was heavy, dull, and +thick. The street beyond the window was dark and narrow. The room +contained mahogany chairs covered with horsehair, a mahogany table +ricketty in its legs, and a mahogany sideboard ornamented with +inverted glasses and old cruet-stands. The Frenchman had come to the +house for shelter and food, and had been asked whether he was +commercial. Whereupon he shook his head. "Did he want a +sitting-room?" Yes, he did. "He was a leetle tired and vanted to +seet." Whereupon he was presumed to have ordered a private room, and +was shown up to the Eden I have described. I found him there at +death's door. Nothing that I can say with reference to the social +habits of the Americans can tell more against them than the story of +that Frenchman's fate tells against those of our country.</p> + +<p>From which remarks I would wish to be understood as deprecating +offence from my American friends, if in the course of my book should +be found aught which may seem to argue against the excellence of +their institutions, and the grace of their social life. Of this at +any rate I can assure them in sober earnestness that I admire what +they have done in the world and for the world with a true and hearty +admiration; and that whether or no all their institutions be at +present excellent, and their social life all graceful, my wishes are +that they should be so, and my convictions are that that improvement +will come for which there may perhaps even yet be some little room.</p> + +<p>And now touching this war which had broken out between the North and +South before I left England. I would wish to explain what my feelings +were; or rather what I believe the general feelings of England to +have been, before I found myself among the people by whom it was +being waged. It is very difficult for the people of any one nation to +realize the political relations of another, and to chew the cud and +digest the bearings of those external politics. But it is unjust in +the one to decide upon the political aspirations and doings of that +other without such understanding. Constantly as the name of France is +in our mouth, comparatively few Englishmen understand the way in +which France is governed;—that is, how far absolute despotism +prevails, and how far the power of the one ruler is tempered, or, as +it may be, hampered by the voices and influence of others. And as +regards England, how seldom is it that in common society a foreigner +is met who comprehends the nature of her political arrangements! To a +Frenchman,—I do not of course include great men who have made the +subject a study,—but to the ordinary intelligent Frenchman the thing +is altogether incomprehensible. Language, it may be said, has much to +do with that. But an American speaks English; and how often is an +American met, who has combined in his mind the idea of a monarch, so +called, with that of a republic, properly so named;—a combination of +ideas which I take to be necessary to the understanding of English +politics? The gentleman who scorned my wife for hugging her chains +had certainly not done so, and yet he conceived that he had studied +the subject. The matter is one most difficult of comprehension. How +many Englishmen have failed to understand accurately their own +constitution, or the true bearing of their own politics! But when +this knowledge has been attained, it has generally been filtered into +the mind slowly, and has come from the unconscious study of many +years. An Englishman handles a newspaper for a quarter of an hour +daily, and daily exchanges some few words in politics with those +around him, till drop by drop the pleasant springs of his liberty +creep into his mind and water his heart; and thus, earlier or later +in life according to the nature of his intelligence, he understands +why it is that he is at all points a free man. But if this be so of +our own politics; if it be so rare a thing to find a foreigner who +understands them in all their niceties, why is it that we are so +confident in our remarks on all the niceties of those of other +nations?</p> + +<p>I hope that I may not be misunderstood as saying that we should not +discuss foreign politics in our press, our parliament, our public +meetings, or our private houses. No man could be mad enough to preach +such a doctrine. As regards our Parliament, that is probably the best +British school of foreign politics, seeing that the subject is not +there often taken up by men who are absolutely ignorant, and that +mistakes when made are subject to a correction which is both rough +and ready. The press, though very liable to error, labours hard at +its vocation in teaching foreign politics, and spares no expense in +letting in daylight. If the light let in be sometimes moonshine, +excuse may easily be made. Where so much is attempted, there must +necessarily be some failure. But even the moonshine does good, if it +be not offensive moonshine. What I would deprecate is, that aptness +at reproach which we assume;—the readiness with scorn, the quiet +words of insult, the instant judgment and condemnation with which we +are so inclined to visit, not the great outward acts, but the smaller +inward politics of our neighbours.</p> + +<p>And do others spare us, will be the instant reply of all who may read +this. In my counter reply I make bold to place myself and my country +on very high ground, and to say that we, the older and therefore more +experienced people as regards the United States, and the better +governed as regards France, and the stronger as regards all the world +beyond, should not throw mud again even though mud be thrown at us. I +yield the path to a small chimney-sweeper as readily as to a lady; +and forbear from an interchange of courtesies with a Billingsgate +heroine, even though at heart I may have a proud consciousness that I +should not altogether go to the wall in such an encounter.</p> + +<p>I left England in August last—August 1861. At that time, and for +some months previous, I think that the general English feeling on the +American question was as follows. "This wide-spread nationality of +the United States, with its enormous territorial possessions and +increasing population, has fallen asunder, torn to pieces by the +weight of its own discordant parts,—as a congregation when its size +has become unwieldy will separate, and reform itself into two +wholesome wholes. It is well that this should be so, for the people +are not homogeneous, as a people should be who are called to live +together as one nation. They have attempted to combine free-soil +sentiments with the practice of slavery, and to make these two +antagonists live together in peace and unity under the same roof; +but, as we have long expected, they have failed. Now has come the +period for separation; and if the people would only see this, and act +in accordance with the circumstances which Providence and the +inevitable hand of the world's ruler has prepared for them, all would +be well. But they will not do this. They will go to war with each +other. The South will make her demands for secession with an +arrogance and instant pressure which exasperates the North; and the +North, forgetting that an equable temper in such matters is the most +powerful of all weapons, will not recognize the strength of its own +position. It allows itself to be exasperated, and goes to war for +that which if regained would only be injurious to it. Thus millions +on millions sterling will be spent. A heavy debt will be incurred; +and the North, which divided from the South might take its place +among the greatest of nations, will throw itself back for half a +century, and perhaps injure the splendour of its ultimate prospects. +If only they would be wise, throw down their arms, and agree to part! +But they will not."</p> + +<p>This was, I think, the general opinion when I left England. It would +not, however, be necessary to go back many months to reach the time +when Englishmen were saying how impossible it was that so great a +national power should ignore its own greatness, and destroy its own +power by an internecine separation. But in August last all that had +gone by, and we in England had realized the probability of actual +secession.</p> + +<p>To these feelings on the subject may be added another, which was +natural enough though perhaps not noble. "These western cocks have +crowed loudly," we said; "too loudly for the comfort of those who +live after all at no such great distance from them. It is well that +their combs should be clipped. Cocks who crow so very loudly are a +nuisance. It might have gone so far that the clipping would become a +work necessarily to be done from without. But it is ten times better +for all parties that it should be done from within; and as the cocks +are now clipping their own combs, in God's name let them do it and +the whole world will be the quieter." That, I say, was not a very +noble idea; but it was natural enough, and certainly has done +somewhat in mitigating that grief which the horrors of civil war and +the want of cotton have caused to us in England.</p> + +<p>Such certainly had been my belief as to the country. I speak here of +my opinion as to the ultimate success of secession and the folly of +the war,—repudiating any concurrence of my own in the ignoble but +natural sentiment alluded to in the last paragraph. I certainly did +think that the Northern States, if wise, would have let the Southern +States go. I had blamed Buchanan as a traitor for allowing the germ +of secession to make any growth;—and as I thought him a traitor +then, so do I think him a traitor now. But I had also blamed Lincoln, +or rather the government of which Mr. Lincoln in this matter is no +more than the exponent, for his efforts to avoid that which is +inevitable. In this I think that I—or as I believe I may say we, we +Englishmen—were wrong. I do not see how the North, treated as it was +and had been, could have submitted to secession without resistance. +We all remember what Shakespere says of the great armies which were +led out to fight for a piece of ground not large enough to cover the +bodies of those who would be slain in the battle; but I do not +remember that Shakespere says that the battle was on this account +necessarily unreasonable. It is the old point of honour, which, till +it had been made absurd by certain changes of circumstances, was +always grand and usually beneficent. These changes of circumstances +have altered the manner in which appeal may be made, but have not +altered the point of honour. Had the Southern States sought to obtain +secession by constitutional means, they might or might not have been +successful; but if successful there would have been no war. I do not +mean to brand all the Southern States with treason, nor do I intend +to say that having secession at heart they could have obtained it by +constitutional means. But I do intend to say that acting as they did, +demanding secession not constitutionally but in opposition to the +constitution, taking upon themselves the right of breaking up a +nationality of which they formed only a part, and doing that without +consent of the other part, opposition from the North and war was an +inevitable consequence.</p> + +<p>It is, I think, only necessary to look back to the revolution by +which the United States separated themselves from England to see +this. There is hardly to be met, here and there, an Englishman who +now regrets the loss of the revolted American colonies;—who now +thinks that civilization was retarded and the world injured by that +revolt; who now conceives that England should have expended more +treasure and more lives in the hope of retaining those colonies. It +is agreed that the revolt was a good thing; that those who were then +rebels became patriots by success, and that they deserved well of all +coming ages of mankind. But not the less absolutely necessary was it +that England should endeavour to hold her own. She was as the mother +bird when the young bird will fly alone. She suffered those pangs +which Nature calls upon mothers to endure.</p> + +<p>As was the necessity of British opposition to American independence, +so was the necessity of Northern opposition to Southern secession. I +do not say that in other respects the two cases were parallel. The +States separated from us because they would not endure taxation +without representation—in other words because they were old enough +and big enough to go alone. The South is seceding from the North +because the two are not homogeneous. They have different instincts, +different appetites, different morals, and a different culture. It is +well for one man to say that slavery has caused the separation; and +for another to say that slavery has not caused it. Each in so saying +speaks the truth. Slavery has caused it, seeing that slavery is the +great point on which the two have agreed to differ. But slavery has +not caused it, seeing that other points of difference are to be found +in every circumstance and feature of the two people. The North and +the South must ever be dissimilar. In the North labour will always be +honourable, and because honourable successful. In the South labour +has ever been servile,—at least in some sense, and therefore +dishonourable; and because dishonourable has not, to itself, been +successful. In the South, I say, labour ever has been dishonourable; +and I am driven to confess that I have not hitherto seen a sign of +any change in the Creator's fiat on this matter. That labour will be +honourable all the world over, as years advance and the millennium +draws nigh, I for one never doubt.</p> + +<p>So much for English opinion about America in August last. And now I +will venture to say a word or two as to American feeling respecting +this English opinion at that period. It will of course be remembered +by all my readers that at the beginning of the war Lord Russell, who +was then in the lower house, declared as Foreign Secretary of State +that England would regard the North and South as belligerents, and +would remain neutral as to both of them. This declaration gave +violent offence to the North, and has been taken as indicating +British sympathy with the cause of the seceders. I am not going to +explain—indeed it would be necessary that I should first +understand—the laws of nations with regard to blockaded ports, +privateering, ships and men and goods contraband of war, and all +those semi-nautical semi-military rules and axioms which it is +necessary that all Attorneys-General and such like should at the +present moment have at their fingers' end. But it must be evident to +the most ignorant in those matters, among which large crowd I +certainly include myself, that it was essentially necessary that Lord +John Russell should at that time declare openly what England intended +to do. It was essential that our seamen should know where they would +be protected and where not, and that the course to be taken by +England should be defined. Reticence in the matter was not within the +power of the British Government. It behoved the Foreign Secretary of +State to declare openly that England intended to side either with one +party or with the other, or else to remain neutral between them.</p> + +<p>I had heard this matter discussed by Americans before I left England, +and I have of course heard it discussed very frequently in America. +There can be no doubt that the front of the offence given by England +to the Northern States was this declaration of Lord John Russell's. +But it has been always made evident to me that the sin did not +consist in the fact of England's neutrality,—in the fact of her +regarding the two parties as belligerents,—but in the open +declaration made to the world by a Secretary of State that she did +intend so to regard them. If another proof were wanting, this would +afford another proof of the immense weight attached in America to all +the proceedings and to all the feelings of England on this matter. +The very anger of the North is a compliment paid by the North to +England. But not the less is that anger unreasonable. To those in +America who understand our constitution, it must be evident that our +Government cannot take official measures without a public avowal of +such measures. France can do so. Russia can do so. The Government of +the United States can do so, and could do so even before this +rupture. But the Government of England cannot do so. All men +connected with the Government in England have felt themselves from +time to time more or less hampered by the necessity of publicity. Our +statesmen have been forced to fight their battles with the plan of +their tactics open before their adversaries. But we, in England, are +inclined to believe, that the general result is good, and that +battles so fought and so won will be fought with the honestest blows, +and won with the surest results. Reticence in this matter was not +possible, and Lord John Russell in making the open avowal which gave +such offence to the Northern States only did that which, as a servant +of England, England required him to do.</p> + +<p>"What would you in England have thought," a gentleman of much weight +in Boston said to me, "if when you were in trouble in India, we had +openly declared that we regarded your opponents there as belligerents +on equal terms with yourselves?" I was forced to say that, as far as +I could see, there was no analogy between the two cases. In India an +army had mutinied, and that an army composed of a subdued, if not a +servile race. The analogy would have been fairer had it referred to +any sympathy shown by us to insurgent negroes. But, nevertheless, had +the army which mutinied in India been in possession of ports and +sea-board; had they held in their hands vast commercial cities and +great agricultural districts; had they owned ships and been masters +of a wide-spread trade, America could have done nothing better +towards us than have remained neutral in such a conflict, and have +regarded the parties as belligerents. The only question is whether +she would have done so well by us. "But," said my friend in answer to +all this, "we should not have proclaimed to the world that we +regarded you and them as standing on an equal footing." There again +appeared the true gist of the offence. A word from England such as +that spoken by Lord John Russell was of such weight to the South, +that the North could not endure to have it spoken. I did not say to +that gentleman,—but here I may say, that had such circumstances +arisen as those conjectured, and had America spoken such a word, +England would not have felt herself called upon to resent it.</p> + +<p>But the fairer analogy lies between Ireland and the Southern States. +The monster meetings and O'Connell's triumphs are not so long gone by +but that many of us can remember the first demand for secession made +by Ireland, and the line which was then taken by American sympathies. +It is not too much to say that America then believed that Ireland +would secure secession, and that the great trust of the Irish +repealers was in the moral aid which she did and would receive from +America. "But our Government proclaimed no sympathy with Ireland," +said my friend. No. The American Government is not called on to make +such proclamations; nor had Ireland ever taken upon herself the +nature and labours of a belligerent.</p> + +<p>That this anger on the part of the North is unreasonable I cannot +doubt. That it is unfortunate, grievous, and very bitter I am quite +sure. But I do not think that it is in any degree surprising. I am +inclined to think that did I belong to Boston as I do belong to +London, I should share in the feeling, and rave as loudly as all men +there have raved against the coldness of England. When men have on +hand such a job of work as the North has now undertaken they are +always guided by their feelings rather than their reason. What two +men ever had a quarrel in which each did not think that all the +world, if just, would espouse his own side of the dispute? The North +feels that it has been more than loyal to the South, and that the +South has taken advantage of that over-loyalty to betray the North. +"We have worked for them, and fought for them, and paid for them," +says the North. "By our labour we have raised their indolence to a +par with our energy. While we have worked like men, we have allowed +them to talk and bluster. We have warmed them in our bosom, and now +they turn against us and sting us. The world sees that this is so. +England, above all, must see it, and seeing it should speak out her +true opinion." The North is hot with such thoughts as these, and one +cannot wonder that she should be angry with her friend, when her +friend, with an expression of certain easy good wishes, bids her +fight out her own battles. The North has been unreasonable with +England;—but I believe that every reader of this page would have +been as unreasonable had that reader been born in Massachusetts.</p> + +<p>Mr. and Mrs. Jones are the dearly beloved friends of my family. My +wife and I have lived with Mrs. Jones on terms of intimacy which have +been quite endearing. Jones has had the run of my house with perfect +freedom, and in Mrs. Jones' drawing-room I have always had my own +arm-chair, and have been regaled with large breakfast-cups of tea, +quite as though I were at home. But of a sudden Jones and his wife +have fallen out, and there is for a while in Jones' Hall a cat and +dog life that may end—in one hardly dare to surmise what calamity. +Mrs. Jones begs that I will interfere with her husband, and Jones +entreats the good offices of my wife in moderating the hot temper of +his own. But we know better than that. If we interfere, the chances +are that my dear friends will make it up and turn upon us. I grieve +beyond measure in a general way at the temporary break up of the +Jones' Hall happiness. I express general wishes that it may be +temporary. But as for saying which is right or which is wrong,—as to +expressing special sympathy on either side in such a quarrel,—it is +out of the question. "My dear Jones, you must excuse me. Any news in +the City to-day? Sugars have fell; how are teas?" Of course Jones +thinks that I'm a brute; but what can I do?</p> + +<p>I have been somewhat surprised to find the trouble that has been +taken by American orators, statesmen, and logicians to prove that +this secession on the part of the South has been revolutionary;—that +is to say, that it has been undertaken and carried on not in +compliance with the constitution of the United States, but in +defiance of it. This has been done over and over again by some of the +greatest men of the North, and has been done most successfully. But +what then? Of course the movement has been revolutionary and +anti-constitutional. Nobody, no single Southerner, can really believe +that the Constitution of the United States as framed in 1787, or +altered since, intended to give to the separate States the power of +seceding as they pleased. It is surely useless going through long +arguments to prove this, seeing that it is absolutely proved by the +absence of any clause giving such licence to the separate States. +Such licence would have been destructive to the very idea of a great +nationality. Where would New England have been as a part of the +United States, if New York, which stretches from the Atlantic to the +borders of Canada, had been endowed with the power of cutting off the +six Northern States from the rest of the Union? No one will for a +moment doubt that the movement was revolutionary, and yet infinite +pains are taken to prove a fact that is patent to every one.</p> + +<p>It is revolutionary, but what then? Have the Northern States of the +American Union taken upon themselves in 1861 to proclaim their +opinion that revolution is a sin? Are they going back to the divine +right of any sovereignty? Are they going to tell the world that a +nation or a people is bound to remain in any political status, +because that status is the recognized form of government under which +such a people have lived? Is this to be the doctrine of United +States' citizens,—of all people? And is this the doctrine preached +now, of all times, when the King of Naples and the Italian dukes have +just been dismissed from their thrones with such enchanting +nonchalance, because their people have not chosen to keep them? Of +course the movement is revolutionary; and why not? It is agreed now +among all men and all nations that any people may change its form of +government to any other, if it wills to do so,—and if it can do so.</p> + +<p>There are two other points on which these Northern statesmen and +logicians also insist, and these two other points are at any rate +better worth an argument than that which touches the question of +revolution. It being settled that secession on the part of the +Southerners is revolution, it is argued, firstly, that no occasion +for revolution had been given by the North to the South; and, +secondly, that the South has been dishonest in its revolutionary +tactics. Men certainly should not raise a revolution for nothing; and +it may certainly be declared that whatever men do, they should do +honestly.</p> + +<p>But in that matter of the cause and ground for revolution, it is so +very easy for either party to put in a plea that shall be +satisfactory to itself! Mr. and Mrs. Jones each had a separate story. +Mr. Jones was sure that the right lay with him: but Mrs. Jones was no +less sure. No doubt the North had done much for the South;—had +earned money for it; had fed it;—and had moreover in a great measure +fostered all its bad habits. It had not only been generous to the +South, but over-indulgent. But also it had continually irritated the +South by meddling with that which the Southerners believed to be a +question absolutely private to themselves. The matter was illustrated +to me by a New Hampshire man who was conversant with black bears. At +the hotels in the New Hampshire mountains it is customary to find +black bears chained to poles. These bears are caught among the hills, +and are thus imprisoned for the amusement of the hotel guests. "Them +Southerners," said my friend, "are jist as one as that 'ere bear. We +feeds him and gives him a house and his belly is ollers full. But +then, jist becase he's a black bear, we're ollers a poking him with +sticks, and a' course the beast is kinder riled. He wants to be back +to the mountains. He wouldn't have his belly filled, but he'd have +his own way. It's jist so with them Southerners."</p> + +<p>It is of no use proving to any man or to any nation that they have +got all they should want, if they have not got all that they do want. +If a servant desires to go, it is of no avail to show him that he has +all he can desire in his present place. The Northerners say that they +have given no offence to the Southerners, and that therefore the +South is wrong to raise a revolution. The very fact that the North is +the North, is an offence to the South. As long as Mr. and Mrs. Jones +were one in heart and one in feeling, having the same hopes and the +same joys, it was well that they should remain together. But when it +is proved that they cannot so live without tearing out each other's +eyes, Sir Cresswell Cresswell, the revolutionary institution of +domestic life, interferes and separates them. This is the age of such +separations. I do not wonder that the North should use its logic to +show that it has received cause of offence but given none. But I do +think that such logic is thrown away. The matter is not one for +argument. The South has thought that it can do better without the +North than with it; and if it has the power to separate itself, it +must be conceded that it has the right.</p> + +<p>And then as to that question of honesty. Whatever men do they +certainly should do honestly. Speaking broadly one may say that the +rule applies to nations as strongly as to individuals, and should be +observed in politics as accurately as in other matters. We must, +however, confess that men who are scrupulous in their private +dealings do too constantly drop those scruples when they handle +public affairs,—and especially when they handle them at stirring +moments of great national changes. The name of Napoleon III. stands +fair now before Europe, and yet he filched the French empire with a +falsehood. The union of England and Ireland is a successful fact, but +nevertheless it can hardly be said that it was honestly achieved. I +heartily believe that the whole of Texas is improved in every sense +by having been taken from Mexico and added to the Southern States, +but I much doubt whether that annexation was accomplished with +absolute honesty. We all reverence the name of Cavour, but Cavour did +not consent to abandon Nice to France with clean hands. When men have +political ends to gain they regard their opponents as adversaries, +and then that old rule of war is brought to bear, Deceit or +valour,—either may be used against a foe. Would it were not so! The +rascally rule—rascally in reference to all political contests—is +becoming less universal than it was. But it still exists with +sufficient force to be urged as an excuse; and while it does exist it +seems almost needless to show that a certain amount of fraud has been +used by a certain party in a revolution. If the South be ultimately +successful, the fraud of which it may have been guilty will be +condoned by the world.</p> + +<p>The Southern or democratic party of the United States had, as all men +know, been in power for many years. Either Southern Presidents had +been elected, or Northern Presidents with Southern politics. The +South for many years had had the disposition of military matters, and +the power of distributing military appliances of all descriptions. It +is now alleged by the North that a conspiracy had long been hatching +in the South with the view of giving to the Southern States the power +of secession whenever they might think fit to secede; and it is +further alleged that President after President for years back has +unduly sent the military treasure of the nation away from the North +down to the South, in order that the South might be prepared when the +day should come. That a President with Southern instincts should +unduly favour the South, that he should strengthen the South, and +feel that arms and ammunition were stored there with better effect +than they could be stored in the North, is very probable. We all +understand what is the bias of a man's mind, and how strong that bias +may become when the man is not especially scrupulous. But I do not +believe that any President previous to Buchanan sent military +materials to the South with the self-acknowledged purpose of using +them against the Union. That Buchanan did so, or knowingly allowed +this to be done, I do believe, and I think that Buchanan was a +traitor to the country whose servant he was and whose pay he +received.</p> + +<p>And now, having said so much in the way of introduction, I will begin +my journey.</p> + + +<p><a id="c2"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER II.</h3> +<h4>NEWPORT—RHODE ISLAND.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>We—the we consisting of my wife and myself—left Liverpool for +Boston on the 24th August, 1861, in the "Arabia," one of Cunard's +North American mail packets. We had determined that my wife should +return alone at the beginning of winter, when I intended to go to a +part of the country in which, under the existing circumstances of the +war, a lady might not feel herself altogether comfortable. I proposed +staying in America over the winter, and returning in the spring; and +this programme I have carried out with sufficient exactness.</p> + +<p>The "Arabia" touched at Halifax; and as the touch extended from 11 +<span class="smallcaps">a.m.</span> to 6 +<span class="smallcaps">p.m.</span> we had an opportunity of seeing +a good deal of that +colony;—not quite sufficient to justify me at this critical age in +writing a chapter of travels in Nova Scotia, but enough perhaps to +warrant a paragraph. It chanced that a cousin of mine was then in +command of the troops there, so that we saw the fort with all the +honours. A dinner on shore was, I think, a greater treat to us even +than this. We also inspected sundry specimens of the gold which is +now being found for the first time in Nova Scotia,—as to the glory +and probable profits of which the Nova Scotians seemed to be fully +alive. But still, I think, the dinner on shore took rank with us as +the most memorable and meritorious of all that we did and saw at +Halifax. At seven o'clock on the morning but one after that, we were +landed at Boston.</p> + +<p>At Boston I found friends ready to receive us with open arms, though +they were friends we had never known before. I own that I felt myself +burdened with much nervous anxiety at my first introduction to men +and women in Boston. I knew what the feeling there was with reference +to England, and I knew also how impossible it is for an Englishman to +hold his tongue and submit to dispraise of England. As for going +among a people whose whole minds were filled with affairs of the war, +and saying nothing about the war,—I knew that no resolution to such +an effect could be carried out. If one could not trust oneself to +speak, one should have stayed at home in England. I will here state +that I always did speak out openly what I thought and felt, and that +though I encountered very strong—sometimes almost +fierce—opposition, I never was subjected to anything that was +personally disagreeable to me.</p> + +<p>In September we did not stay above a week in Boston, having been +fairly driven out of it by the mosquitoes. I had been told that I +should find nobody in Boston whom I cared to see, as everybody was +habitually out of town during the heat of the latter summer and early +autumn; but this was not so. The war and attendant turmoils of war +had made the season of vacation shorter than usual, and most of those +for whom I asked were back at their posts. I know no place at which +an Englishman may drop down suddenly among a pleasanter circle of +acquaintance, or find himself with a more clever set of men, than he +can do at Boston. I confess that in this respect I think that but few +towns are at present more fortunately circumstanced than the capital +of the Bay State, as Massachusetts is called, and that very few towns +make a better use of their advantages. Boston has a right to be proud +of what it has done for the world of letters. It is proud; but I have +not found that its pride was carried too far.</p> + +<p>Boston is not in itself a fine city, but it is a very pleasant city. +They say that the harbour is very grand and very beautiful. It +certainly is not so fine as that of Portland in a nautical point of +view, and as certainly it is not as beautiful. It is the entrance +from the sea into Boston of which people say so much; but I did not +think it quite worthy of all I had heard. In such matters, however, +much depends on the peculiar light in which scenery is seen. An +evening light is generally the best for all landscapes; and I did not +see the entrance to Boston harbour by an evening light. It was not +the beauty of the harbour of which I thought the most, but of the tea +that had been sunk there, and of all that came of that successful +speculation. Few towns now standing have a right to be more proud of +their antecedents than Boston.</p> + +<p>But as I have said, it is not specially interesting to the eye—what +new town, or even what simply adult town, can be so? There is an +Athenæum, and a State Hall, and a fashionable street,—Beacon Street, +very like Piccadilly as it runs along the Green Park,—and there is +the Green Park opposite to this Piccadilly, called Boston Common. +Beacon Street and Boston Common are very pleasant. Excellent houses +there are, and large churches, and enormous hotels; but of such +things as these a man can write nothing that is worth the reading. +The traveller who desires to tell his experience of North America +must write of people rather than of things.</p> + +<p>As I have said, I found myself instantly involved in discussions on +American politics, and the bearing of England upon those politics. +"What do you think, you in England—what do you all believe will be +the upshot of this war?" That was the question always asked in those +or other words. "Secession, certainly," I always said, but not +speaking quite with that abruptness. "And you believe, then, that the +South will beat the North?" I explained that I, personally, had never +so thought, and that I did not believe that to be the general idea. +Men's opinions in England, however, were too divided to enable me to +say that there was any prevailing conviction on the matter. My own +impression was, and is, that the North will, in a military point of +view, have the best of the contest,—will beat the South; but that +the Northerners will not prevent secession, let their success be what +it may. Should the North prevail after a two years' conflict, the +North will not admit the South to an equal participation of good +things with themselves, even though each separate rebellious State +should return suppliant, like a prodigal son, kneeling on the floor +of Congress, each with a separate rope of humiliation round its neck. +Such was my idea as expressed then, and I do not know that I have +since had much cause to change it.</p> + +<p>"We will never give it up," one gentleman said to me—and, indeed, +many have said the same,—"till the whole territory is again united +from the Bay to the Gulf! It is impossible that we should allow of +two nationalities within those limits." "And do you think it +possible," I asked, "that you should receive back into your bosom +this people which you now hate with so deep a hatred, and receive +them again into your arms as brothers on equal terms? Is it in +accordance with experience that a conquered people should be so +treated—and that, too, a people whose every habit of life is at +variance with the habits of their presumed conquerors? When you have +flogged them into a return of fraternal affection, are they to keep +their slaves or are they to abolish them?" "No," said my friend; "it +may not be practicable to put those rebellious States at once on an +equality with ourselves. For a time they will probably be treated as +the Territories are now treated." (The Territories are vast outlying +districts belonging to the Union, but not as yet endowed with State +governments, or a participation in the United States Congress.) "For +a time they must, perhaps, lose their full privileges; but the Union +will be anxious to readmit them at the earliest possible period." +"And as to the slaves?" I asked again. "Let them emigrate to Liberia: +back to their own country." I could not say that I thought much of +the solution of the difficulty. It would, I suggested, overtask even +the energy of America to send out an emigration of four million +souls, to provide for their wants in a new and uncultivated country, +and to provide after that for the terrible gap made in the labour +market of the Southern States. "The Israelites went back from +bondage," said my friend. But a way was opened for them by a miracle +across the sea, and food was sent to them from heaven, and they had +among them a Moses for a leader and a Joshua to fight their battles. +I could not but express my fear that the days of such immigrations +were over. This plan of sending back the negroes to Africa did not +reach me only from one or from two mouths; and it was suggested by +men whose opinions respecting their country have weight at home and +are entitled to weight abroad. I mention this merely to show how +insurmountable would be the difficulty of preventing secession, let +which side win that may.</p> + +<p>"We will never abandon the right to the mouth of the Mississippi." +That in all such arguments is a strong point with men of the Northern +States;—perhaps the point to which they all return with the greatest +firmness. It is that on which Mr. Everett insists in the last +paragraph of the oration which he made in New York on the 4th of +July, 1861. "The Missouri and the Mississippi rivers," he says, "with +their hundred tributaries give to the great central basin of our +continent its character and destiny. The outlet of this system lies +between the States of Tennessee and Missouri, of Mississippi and +Arkansas, and through the State of Louisiana. The ancient province so +called, the proudest monument of the mighty monarch whose name it +bears, passed from the jurisdiction of France to that of Spain in +1763. Spain coveted it; not that she might fill it with prosperous +colonies and rising States, but that it might stretch as a broad +waste barrier, infested with warlike tribes, between the +Anglo-American power and the silver mines of Mexico. With the +independence of the United States, the fear of a still more dangerous +neighbour grew upon Spain; and in the insane expectation of checking +the progress of the Union westward, she threatened, and at times +attempted, to close the mouth of the Mississippi on the rapidly +increasing trade of the West. The bare suggestion of such a policy +roused the population upon the banks of the Ohio, then +inconsiderable, as one man. Their confidence in Washington scarcely +restrained them from rushing to the seizure of New Orleans, when the +treaty of San Lorenzo El Real, in 1795, stipulated for them a +precarious right of navigating the noble river to the sea, with a +right of deposit at New Orleans. This subject was for years the +turning-point of the politics of the West; and it was perfectly well +understood that, sooner or later, she would be content with nothing +less than the sovereign control of the mighty stream from its +head-spring to its outlet in the Gulf. <i>And that is as true now as it +was then.</i>"</p> + +<p>This is well put. It describes with force the desires, ambition, and +necessities of a great nation, and it tells with historical truth the +story of the success of that nation. It was a great thing done when +the purchase of the whole of Louisiana was completed by the United +States,—that cession by France, however, having been made at the +instance of Napoleon, and not in consequence of any demand made by +the States. The district then called Louisiana included the present +State of that name, and the States of Missouri and +Arkansas;—included also the right to possess, if not the absolute +possession of, all that enormous expanse of country running from +thence back to the Pacific; a huge amount of territory of which the +most fertile portion is watered by the Mississippi and its vast +tributaries. That river and those tributaries are navigable through +the whole centre of the American continent up to Wisconsin and +Minnesota. To the United States the navigation of the Mississippi +was, we may say, indispensable; and to the States when no longer +united the navigation will be equally indispensable. But the days are +gone when any country, such as Spain was, can interfere to stop the +highways of the world with the all but avowed intention of arresting +the progress of civilization. It may be that the North and the South +can never again be friends as the component parts of one nation. Such +I take it is the belief of all politicians in Europe, and of many of +those who live across the water. But as separate nations they may yet +live together in amity, and share between them the great water-ways +which God has given them for their enrichment. The Rhine is free to +Prussia and to Holland. The Danube is not closed against Austria. It +will be said that the Danube has in fact been closed against Austria, +in spite of treaties to the contrary. But the faults of bad and weak +governments are made known as cautions to the world, and not as facts +to copy. The free use of the waters of a common river between two +nations is an affair for treaty; and it has not yet come to that that +treaties must necessarily be null and void through the falseness of +politicians.</p> + +<p>"And what will England do for cotton? Is it not the fact that Lord +John Russell with his professed neutrality intends to express +sympathy with the South, intends to pave the way for the advent of +Southern cotton?" "You ought to love us," so say men in Boston, +"because we have been with you in heart and spirit for long, long +years. But your trade has eaten into your souls, and you love +American cotton better than American loyalty and American +fellowship." This I found to be unfair, and in what politest language +I could use I said so. I had not any special knowledge of the minds +of English statesmen on this matter; but I knew as well as Americans +could do what our statesmen had said and done respecting it. That +cotton, if it came from the South, would be made very welcome in +Liverpool, of course, I knew. If private enterprise could bring it, +it might be brought. But the very declaration made by Lord John +Russell was the surest pledge that England as a nation would not +interfere, even to supply her own wants. It may easily be imagined +what eager words all this would bring about; but I never found that +eager words led to feelings which were personally hostile.</p> + +<p>All the world has heard of Newport in Rhode Island as being the +Brighton, and Tenby, and Scarborough of New England. And the glory of +Newport is by no means confined to New England, but is shared by New +York and Washington, and in ordinary years by the extreme South. It +is the habit of Americans to go to some watering place every +summer,—that is, to some place either of sea water or of inland +waters. This is done much in England; more in Ireland than in +England; but, I think, more in the States than even in Ireland. But +of all such summer haunts, Newport is supposed to be in many ways the +most captivating. In the first place it is certainly the most +fashionable, and in the next place it is said to be the most +beautiful. We decided on going to Newport,—led thither by the latter +reputation rather than the former. As we were still in the early part +of September we expected to find the place full, but in this we were +disappointed;—disappointed, I say, rather than gratified, although a +crowded house at such a place is certainly a nuisance. But a house +which is prepared to make up six hundred beds, and which is called on +to make up only twenty-five becomes, after a while, somewhat +melancholy. The natural depression of the landlord communicates +itself to his servants, and from the servants it descends to the +twenty-five guests, who wander about the long passages and deserted +balconies like the ghosts of those of the summer visitors, who cannot +rest quietly in their graves at home.</p> + +<p>In England we know nothing of hotels prepared for six hundred +visitors, all of whom are expected to live in common. Domestic +architects would be frightened at the dimensions which are needed, +and at the number of apartments which are required to be clustered +under one roof. We went to the Ocean Hotel at Newport, and fancied, +as we first entered the hall under a verandah as high as the house, +and made our way into the passage, that we had been taken to a +well-arranged barrack. "Have you rooms?" I asked, as a man always +does ask on first reaching his inn. "Rooms enough," the clerk said. +"We have only fifty here." But that fifty dwindled down to +twenty-five during the next day or two.</p> + +<p>We were a melancholy set, the ladies appearing to be afflicted in +this way worse than the gentlemen, on account of their enforced +abstinence from tobacco. What can twelve ladies do scattered about a +drawing-room, so-called, intended for the accommodation of two +hundred? The drawing-room at the Ocean Hotel, Newport, is not as big +as Westminster Hall, but would, I should think, make a very good +House of Commons for the British nation. Fancy the feelings of a lady +when she walks into such a room intending to spend her evening there, +and finds six or seven other ladies located on various sofas at +terrible distances,—all strangers to her. She has come to Newport +probably to enjoy herself; and as, in accordance with the customs of +the place, she has dined at two, she has nothing before her for the +evening but the society of that huge furnished cavern. Her husband, +if she have one, or her father, or her lover, has probably entered +the room with her. But a man has never the courage to endure such a +position long. He sidles out with some muttered excuse, and seeks +solace with a cigar. The lady, after half an hour of contemplation, +creeps silently near some companion in the desert, and suggests in a +whisper that Newport does not seem to be very full at present.</p> + +<p>We stayed there for a week, and were very melancholy; but in our +melancholy we still talked of the war. Americans are said to be given +to bragging, and it is a sin of which I cannot altogether acquit +them. But I have constantly been surprised at hearing the Northern +men speak of their own military achievements with anything but +self-praise. "We've been whipped, sir; and we shall be whipped again +before we've done; uncommon well whipped we shall be." "We began +cowardly, and were afraid to send our own regiments through one of +our own cities." This alluded to a demand that had been made on the +Government, that troops going to Washington should not be sent +through Baltimore, because of the strong feeling for rebellion which +was known to exist in that city. President Lincoln complied with this +request, thinking it well to avoid a collision between the mob and +the soldiers. "We began cowardly, and now we're going on cowardly, +and darn't attack them. Well; when we've been whipped often enough, +then we shall learn the trade." Now all this,—and I heard much of +such a nature,—could not be called boasting. But yet with it all +there was a substratum of confidence. I have heard northern gentlemen +complaining of the President, complaining of all his ministers one +after another, complaining of the contractors who were robbing the +army, of the commanders who did not know how to command the army, and +of the army itself which did not know how to obey; but I do not +remember that I have discussed the matter with any Northerner who +would admit a doubt as to ultimate success.</p> + +<p>We were certainly rather melancholy at Newport, and the empty house +may perhaps have given its tone to the discussions on the war. I +confess that I could not stand the drawing-room—the ladies' +drawing-room as such-like rooms are always called at the hotels,—and +that I basely deserted my wife. I could not stand it either here or +elsewhere, and it seemed to me that other husbands,—ay, and even +lovers,—were as hard pressed as myself. I protest that there is no +spot on the earth's surface so dear to me as my own drawing-room, or +rather my wife's drawing-room at home; that I am not a man given +hugely to clubs, but one rather rejoicing in the rustle of +petticoats. I like to have women in the same room with me. But at +these hotels I found myself driven away,—propelled as it were by +some unknown force,—to absent myself from the feminine haunts. +Anything was more palatable than them; even "liquoring up" at a nasty +bar, or smoking in a comfortless reading-room among a deluge of +American newspapers. And I protest also,—hoping as I do so that I +may say much in these volumes to prove the truth of such +protestation,—that this comes from no fault of the American women. +They are as lovely as our own women. Taken generally, they are better +instructed—though perhaps not better educated. They are seldom +troubled with <i>mauvaise honte</i>,—I do not say it in irony, but +begging that the words may be taken at their proper meaning. They can +always talk, and very often can talk well. But when assembled +together in these vast, cavernous, would-be luxurious, but in truth +horribly comfortless hotel drawing-rooms,—they are unapproachable. I +have seen lovers, whom I have known to be lovers, unable to remain +five minutes in the same cavern with their beloved ones.</p> + +<p>And then the music! There is always a piano in an hotel drawing-room, +on which, of course, some one of the forlorn ladies is generally +employed. I do not suppose that these pianos are in fact, as a rule, +louder and harsher, more violent and less musical, than other +instruments of the kind. They seem to be so, but that, I take it, +arises from the exceptional mental depression of those who have to +listen to them. Then the ladies, or probably some one lady, will +sing, and as she hears her own voice ring and echo through the lofty +corners and round the empty walls, she is surprised at her own force, +and with increased efforts sings louder and still louder. She is +tempted to fancy that she is suddenly gifted with some power of vocal +melody unknown to her before, and filled with the glory of her own +performance shouts till the whole house rings. At such moments she at +least is happy, if no one else is so. Looking at the general sadness +of her position, who can grudge her such happiness?</p> + +<p>And then the children,—babies, I should say if I were speaking of +English bairns of their age; but seeing that they are Americans, I +hardly dare to call them children. The actual age of these perfectly +civilized and highly educated beings may be from three to four. One +will often see five or six such seated at the long dinner-table of +the hotel, breakfasting and dining with their elders, and going +through the ceremony with all the gravity, and more than all the +decorum of their grandfathers. When I was three years old I had not +yet, as I imagine, been promoted beyond a silver spoon of my own +wherewith to eat my bread and milk in the nursery, and I feel assured +that I was under the immediate care of a nursemaid, as I gobbled up +my minced mutton mixed with potatoes and gravy. But at hotel life in +the States the adult infant lisps to the waiter for everything at +table, handles his fish with epicurean delicacy, is choice in his +selection of pickles, very particular that his beefsteak at breakfast +shall be hot, and is instant in his demand for fresh ice in his +water. But perhaps his, or in this case her, retreat from the room +when the meal is over, is the <i>chef d'œuvre</i> of the whole +performance. The little precocious, full-blown beauty of four +signifies that she has completed her meal,—or is "through" her +dinner, as she would express it,—by carefully extricating herself +from the napkin which has been tucked around her. Then the waiter, +ever attentive to her movements, draws back the chair on which she is +seated, and the young lady glides to the floor. A little girl in Old +England would scramble down, but little girls in New England never +scramble. Her father and mother, who are no more than her chief +ministers, walk before her out of the saloon, and then she—swims +after them. But swimming is not the proper word. Fishes in making +their way through the water assist, or rather impede, their motion +with no dorsal riggle. No animal taught to move directly by its +Creator adopts a gait so useless, and at the same time so graceless. +Many women, having received their lessons in walking from a less +eligible instructor, do move in this way, and such women this +unfortunate little lady has been instructed to copy. The peculiar +step to which I allude is to be seen often on the Boulevards in +Paris. It is to be seen more often in second rate French towns, and +among fourth rate French women. Of all signs in women betokening +vulgarity, bad taste, and aptitude to bad morals, it is the surest. +And this is the gait of going which American mothers,—some American +mothers I should say,—love to teach their daughters! As a comedy at +an hotel, it is very delightful, but in private life I should object +to it.</p> + +<p>To me Newport could never be a place charming by reason of its own +charms. That it is a very pleasant place when it is full of people +and the people are in spirits and happy, I do not doubt. But then the +visitors would bring, as far as I am concerned, the pleasantness with +them. The coast is not fine. To those who know the best portions of +the coast of Wales or Cornwall,—or better still, the western coast +of Ireland, of Clare and Kerry for instance,—it would not be in any +way remarkable. It is by no means equal to Dieppe or Biarritz, and +not to be talked of in the same breath with Spezzia. The hotels, too, +are all built away from the sea; so that one cannot sit and watch the +play of the waves from one's window. Nor are there pleasant rambling +paths down among the rocks, and from one short strand to another. +There is excellent bathing for those who like bathing on shelving +sand. I don't. The spot is about half a mile from the hotels, and to +this the bathers are carried in omnibuses. Till one o'clock ladies +bathe;—which operation, however, does not at all militate against +the bathing of men, but rather necessitates it as regards those men +who have ladies with them. For here ladies and gentlemen bathe in +decorous dresses, and are very polite to each other. I must say, that +I think the ladies have the best of it. My idea of sea-bathing for my +own gratification is not compatible with a full suit of clothing. I +own that my tastes are vulgar and perhaps indecent; but I love to +jump into the deep clear sea from off a rock, and I love to be +hampered by no outward impediments as I do so. For ordinary bathers, +for all ladies, and for men less savage in their instincts than I am, +the bathing at Newport is very good.</p> + +<p>The private houses—villa residences as they would be termed by an +auctioneer in England—are excellent. Many of them are, in fact, +large mansions, and are surrounded with grounds, which, as the shrubs +grow up, will be very beautiful. Some have large, well-kept lawns, +stretching down to the rocks, and these to my taste give the charm to +Newport. They extend about two miles along the coast. Should my lot +have made me a citizen of the United States, I should have had no +objection to become the possessor of one of these "villa residences," +but I do not think that I should have "gone in" for hotel life at +Newport.</p> + +<p>We hired saddle-horses, and rode out nearly the length of the island. +It was all very well, but there was little in it remarkable either as +regards cultivation or scenery. We found nothing that it would be +possible either to describe or remember. The Americans of the United +States have had time to build and populate vast cities, but they have +not yet had time to surround themselves with pretty scenery. Outlying +grand scenery is given by nature; but the prettiness of home scenery +is a work of art. It comes from the thorough draining of land, from +the planting and subsequent thinning of trees, from the controlling +of waters, and constant use of minute patches of broken land. In +another hundred years or so Rhode Island may be, perhaps, as pretty +as the Isle of Wight. The horses which we got were not good. They +were unhandy and badly mouthed, and that which my wife rode was +altogether ignorant of the art of walking. We hired them from an +Englishman, who had established himself at New York as a +riding-master for ladies, and who had come to Newport for the season +on the same business. He complained to me with much bitterness of the +saddle-horses which came in his way,—of course thinking that it was +the special business of a country to produce saddle-horses,—as I +think it the special business of a country to produce pens, ink, and +paper of good quality. According to him, riding has not yet become an +American art, and hence the awkwardness of American horses. "Lord +bless you, sir! they don't give an animal a chance of a mouth." In +this he alluded only, I presume, to saddle-horses. I know nothing of +the trotting-horses, but I should imagine that a fine mouth must be +an essential requisite for a trotting-match in harness. As regards +riding at Newport, we were not tempted to repeat the experiment. The +number of carriages which we saw there,—remembering as I did that +the place was comparatively empty,—and their general smartness, +surprised me very much. It seemed that every lady with a house of her +own had also her own carriage. These carriages were always open, and +the law of the land imperatively demands that the occupants shall +cover their knees with a worked worsted apron of brilliant colours. +These aprons at first, I confess, seemed tawdry; but the eye soon +becomes used to bright colours, in carriage aprons as well as in +architecture, and I soon learned to like them.</p> + +<p>Rhode Island, as the State is usually called, is the smallest State +in the Union. I may perhaps best show its disparity to other States +by saying that New York extends about 250 miles from north to south +and the same distance from east to west; whereas the State called +Rhode Island is about forty miles long by twenty broad, independently +of certain small islands. It would, in fact, not form a considerable +addition, if added on to many of the other States. Nevertheless, it +has all the same powers of self-government as are possessed by such +nationalities as the States of New York and Pennsylvania; and sends +two senators to the Senate at Washington, as do those enormous +States. Small as the State is, Rhode Island itself forms but a small +portion of it. The authorized and proper name of the State is +Providence Plantation and Rhode Island. Roger Williams was the first +founder of the colony, and he established himself on the mainland at +a spot which he called Providence. Here now stands the city of +Providence, the chief town of the State; and a thriving, comfortable +town it seems to be, full of banks, fed by railways and steamers, and +going ahead quite as quickly as Roger Williams could in his fondest +hopes have desired.</p> + +<p>Rhode Island, as I have said, has all the attributes of government in +common with her stouter and more famous sisters. She has a governor, +and an upper house, and a lower house of legislature; and she is +somewhat fantastic in the use of these constitutional powers, for she +calls on them to sit now in one town and now in another. Providence +is the capital of the State; but the Rhode Island parliament sits +sometimes at Providence and sometimes at Newport. At stated times +also it has to collect itself at Bristol, and at other stated times +at Kingston, and at others at East Greenwich. Of all legislative +assemblies it is the most peripatetic. Universal suffrage does not +absolutely prevail in this State, a certain property qualification +being necessary to confer a right to vote even for the State +Representatives. I should think it would be well for all parties if +the whole State could be swallowed up by Massachusetts or by +Connecticut, either of which lie conveniently for the feat; but I +presume that any suggestion of such a nature would be regarded as +treason by the men of Providence Plantation.</p> + +<p>We returned back to Boston by Attleborough, a town at which in +ordinary times the whole population is supported by the jewellers' +trade. It is a place with a speciality, upon which speciality it has +thriven well and become a town. But the speciality is one ill-adapted +for times of war; and we were assured that the trade was for the +present at an end. What man could now-a-days buy jewels, or even what +woman, seeing that everything would be required for the war? I do not +say that such abstinence from luxury has been begotten altogether by +a feeling of patriotism. The direct taxes which all Americans will +now be called on to pay, have had, and will have much to do with such +abstinence. In the mean time the poor jewellers of Attleborough have +gone altogether to the wall.</p> + + +<p><a id="c3"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER III.</h3> +<h4>MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>Perhaps I ought to assume that all the world in England knows that +that portion of the United States called New England consists of the +six States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, +Connecticut, and Rhode Island. This is especially the land of +Yankees, and none can properly be called Yankees but those who belong +to New England. I have named the States as nearly as may be in order +from the North downwards. Of Rhode Island, the smallest State in the +Union, I have already said what little I have to say. Of these six +States Boston may be called the capital. Not that it is so in any +civil or political sense;—it is simply the capital of Massachusetts. +But as it is the Athens of the Western world; as it was the cradle of +American freedom; as everybody of course knows that into Boston +harbour was thrown the tea which George III. would tax, and that at +Boston, on account of that and similar taxes, sprang up the new +revolution; and as it has grown in wealth, and fame, and size beyond +other towns in New England, it may be allowed to us to regard it as +the capital of these six Northern States, without guilt of <i>lèse +majesté</i> towards the other five. To me, I confess, this Northern +division of our once unruly colonies is, and always has been, the +dearest. I am no Puritan myself, and fancy that had I lived in the +days of the Puritans, I should have been anti-Puritan to the full +extent of my capabilities. But I should have been so through +ignorance and prejudice, and actuated by that love of existing rights +and wrongs which men call loyalty. If the Canadas were to rebel now, +I should be for putting down the Canadians with a strong hand; but +not the less have I an idea that it will become the Canadas to rebel +and assert their independence at some future period;—unless it be +conceded to them without such rebellion. Who, on looking back, can +now refuse to admire the political aspirations of the English +Puritans, or decline to acknowledge the beauty and fitness of what +they did? It was by them that these States of New England were +colonized. They came hither stating themselves to be pilgrims, and as +such they first placed their feet on that hallowed rock at Plymouth, +on the shore of Massachusetts. They came here driven by no thirst of +conquest, by no greed for gold, dreaming of no Western empire such as +Cortez had achieved and Raleigh had meditated. They desired to earn +their bread in the sweat of their brow, worshipping God according to +their own lights, living in harmony under their own laws, and feeling +that no master could claim a right to put a heel upon their necks. +And be it remembered that here in England, in those days, earthly +masters were still apt to put their heels on the necks of men. The +Star Chamber was gone, but Jeffreys had not yet reigned. What earthly +aspirations were ever higher than these, or more manly? And what +earthly efforts ever led to grander results?</p> + +<p>We determined to go to Portland, in Maine, from thence to the White +Mountains in New Hampshire—the American Alps, as they love to call +themselves,—and then on to Quebec and up through the two Canadas to +Niagara; and this route we followed. From Boston to Portland we +travelled by railroad,—the carriages on which are in America always +called cars. And here I beg, once for all, to enter my protest loudly +against the manner in which these conveyances are conducted. The one +grand fault—there are other smaller faults—but the one grand fault +is that they admit but one class. Two reasons for this are given. The +first is that the finances of the companies will not admit of a +divided accommodation; and the second is that the republican nature +of the people will not brook a superior or aristocratic +classification of travelling. As regards the first, I do not in the +least believe in it. If a more expensive manner of railway travelling +will pay in England, it would surely do so here. Were a better class +of carriages organized, as large a portion of the population would +use them in the United States as in any country in Europe. And it +seems to be evident that in arranging that there shall be only one +rate of travelling, the price is enhanced on poor travellers exactly +in proportion as it is made cheap to those who are not poor. For the +poorer classes, travelling in America is by no means cheap,—the +average rate being, as far as I can judge, fully three halfpence a +mile. It is manifest that dearer rates for one class would allow of +cheaper rates for the other; and that in this manner general +travelling would be encouraged and increased.</p> + +<p>But I do not believe that the question of expenditure has had +anything to do with it. I conceive it to be true that the railways +are afraid to put themselves at variance with the general feeling of +the people. If so the railways may be right. But then, on the other +hand, the general feeling of the people must in such case be wrong. +Such a feeling argues a total mistake as to the nature of that +liberty and equality for the security of which the people are so +anxious, and that mistake the very one which has made shipwreck so +many attempts at freedom in other countries. It argues that confusion +between social and political equality which has led astray multitudes +who have longed for liberty fervently, but who have not thought of it +carefully. If a first-class railway carriage should be held as +offensive, so should a first-class house, or a first-class horse, or +a first-class dinner. But first-class houses, first-class horses, and +first-class dinners are very rife in America. Of course it may be +said that the expenditure shown in these last-named objects is +private expenditure, and cannot be controlled; and that railway +travelling is of a public nature, and can be made subject to public +opinion. But the fault is in that public opinion which desires to +control matters of this nature. Such an arrangement partakes of all +the vice of a sumptuary law, and sumptuary laws are in their very +essence mistakes. It is well that a man should always have all for +which he is willing to pay. If he desires and obtains more than is +good for him, the punishment, and thus also the preventive, will come +from other sources.</p> + +<p>It will be said that the American cars are good enough for all +purposes. The seats are not very hard, and the room for sitting is +sufficient. Nevertheless I deny that they are good enough for all +purposes. They are very long, and to enter them and find a place +often requires a struggle and almost a fight. There is rarely any +person to tell a stranger which car he should enter. One never meets +an uncivil or unruly man, but the women of the lower ranks are not +courteous. American ladies love to lie at ease in their carriages, as +thoroughly as do our women in Hyde Park, and to those who are used to +such luxury, travelling by railroad in their own country must be +grievous. I would not wish to be thought a Sybarite myself, or to be +held as complaining because I have been compelled to give up my seat +to women with babies and bandboxes who have accepted the courtesy +with very scanty grace. I have borne worse things than these, and +have roughed it much in my days from want of means and other reasons. +Nor am I yet so old but what I can rough it still. Nevertheless I +like to see things as well done as is practicable, and railway +travelling in the States is not well done. I feel bound to say as +much as this, and now I have said it, once for all.</p> + +<p>Few cities, or localities for cities, have fairer natural advantages +than Portland—and I am bound to say that the people of Portland have +done much in turning them to account. This town is not the capital of +the State in a political point of view. Augusta, which is further to +the North, on the Kenebec river, is the seat of the State Government +for Maine. It is very generally the case that the States do not hold +their legislatures and carry on their Government at their chief +towns. Augusta and not Portland is the capital of Maine. Of the State +of New York, Albany is the capital, and not the city which bears the +State's name. And of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg and not Philadelphia is +the capital. I think the idea has been that old-fashioned notions +were bad in that they were old-fashioned; and that a new people, +bound by no prejudices, might certainly make improvement by choosing +for themselves new ways. If so the American politicians have not been +the first in the world who have thought that any change must be a +change for the better. The assigned reason is the centrical position +of the selected political capitals: but I have generally found the +real commercial capital to be easier of access than the smaller town +in which the two legislative houses are obliged to collect +themselves.</p> + +<p>What must be the natural excellence of the harbour of Portland will +be understood when it is borne in mind that the Great Eastern can +enter it at all times, and that it can lie along the wharves at any +hour of the tide. The wharves which have been prepared for her—and +of which I will say a word further by-and-by—are joined to and in +fact are a portion of the station of the Grand Trunk Railway, which +runs from Portland up to Canada. So that passengers landing at +Portland out of a vessel so large even as the Great Eastern can walk +at once on shore, and goods can be passed on to the railway without +any of the cost of removal. I will not say that there is no other +harbour in the world that would allow of this, but I do not know any +other that would do so.</p> + +<p>From Portland a line of railway, called as a whole by the name of the +Canada Grand Trunk line, runs across the State of Maine through the +Northern parts of New Hampshire and Vermont, to Montreal, a branch +striking from Richmond, a little within the limits of Canada, to +Quebec, and down the St. Lawrence to Rivière du Loup. The main line +is continued from Montreal, through Upper Canada to Toronto, and from +thence to Detroit in the State of Michigan. The total distance thus +traversed is in a direct line about 900 miles. From Detroit there is +railway communication through the immense North-Western States of +Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois, than which perhaps the surface of +the globe affords no finer districts for purposes of agriculture. The +produce of the two Canadas must be poured forth to the Eastern world, +and the men of the Eastern world must throng into these lands, by +means of this railroad,—and, as at present arranged, through the +harbour of Portland. At present the line has been opened, and they +who have opened are sorely suffering in pocket for what they have +done. The question of the railway is rather one applying to Canada +than to the State of Maine, and I will therefore leave it for the +present.</p> + +<p>But the Great Eastern has never been to Portland, and as far as I +know has no intention of going there. She was, I believe, built with +that object. At any rate it was proclaimed during her building that +such was her destiny, and the Portlanders believed it with a perfect +faith. They went to work and built wharves expressly for her; two +wharves prepared to fit her two gangways, or ways of exit and +entrance. They built a huge hotel to receive her passengers. They +prepared for her advent with a full conviction that a millennium of +trade was about to be wafted to their happy port. "Sir, the town has +expended two hundred thousand dollars in expectation of that ship, +and that ship has deceived us." So was the matter spoken of to me by +an intelligent Portlander. I explained to that intelligent gentleman +that two hundred thousand dollars would go a very little way towards +making up the loss which the ill-fortuned vessel had occasioned on +the other side of the water. He did not in words express +gratification at this information, but he looked it. The matter was +as it were a partnership without deed of contract between the +Portlanders and the shareholders of the vessel, and the Portlanders, +though they also have suffered their losses, have not had the worst +of it.</p> + +<p>But there are still good days in store for the town. Though the Great +Eastern has not gone there, other ships from Europe, more profitable +if less in size, must eventually find their way thither. At present +the Canada line of packets runs to Portland only during those months +in which it is shut out from the St. Lawrence and Quebec by ice. But +the St. Lawrence and Quebec cannot offer the advantages which +Portland enjoys, and that big hotel and those new wharves will not +have been built in vain.</p> + +<p>I have said that a good time is coming, but I would by no means wish +to signify that the present times in Portland are bad. So far from +it, that I doubt whether I ever saw a town with more evident signs of +prosperity. It has about it every mark of ample means, and no mark of +poverty. It contains about 27,000 people, and for that population +covers a very large space of ground. The streets are broad and well +built, the main streets not running in those absolutely straight +parallels which are so common in American towns, and are so +distressing to English eyes and English feelings. All these, except +the streets devoted exclusively to business, are shaded on both sides +by trees—generally, if I remember rightly, by the beautiful American +elm, whose drooping boughs have all the grace of the willow without +its fantastic melancholy. What the poorer streets of Portland may be +like I cannot say. I saw no poor street. But in no town of 30,000 +inhabitants did I ever see so many houses which must require an +expenditure of from six to eight hundred a year to maintain them.</p> + +<p>The place too is beautifully situated. It is on a long promontory, +which takes the shape of a peninsula;—for the neck which joins it to +the mainland is not above half a mile across. But though the town +thus stands out into the sea, it is not exposed and bleak. The +harbour again is surrounded by land, or so guarded and locked by +islands as to form a series of salt-water lakes running round the +town. Of those islands there are, of course, 365. Travellers who +write their travels are constantly called upon to record that number, +so that it may now be considered as a superlative in local +phraseology, signifying a very great many indeed. The town stands +between two hills, the suburbs or outskirts running up on to each of +them. The one looking out towards the sea is called Mountjoy—though +the obstinate Americans will write it Munjoy on their maps. From +thence the view out to the harbour and beyond the harbour to the +islands is, I may not say unequalled, or I shall be guilty of running +into superlatives myself; but it is, in its way, equal to anything I +have seen. Perhaps it is more like Cork harbour, as seen from certain +heights over Passage than anything else I can remember; but Portland +harbour, though equally landlocked, is larger; and then from Portland +harbour there is as it were a river outlet, running through delicious +islands, most unalluring to the navigator, but delicious to the eyes +of an uncommercial traveller. There are in all four outlets to the +sea, one of which appears to have been made expressly for the Great +Eastern. Then there is the hill looking inwards. If it has a name I +forget it. The view from this hill is also over the water on each +side, and though not so extensive is perhaps as pleasing as the +other.</p> + +<p>The ways of the people seemed to be quiet, smooth, orderly, and +republican. There is nothing to drink in Portland of course, for, +thanks to Mr. Neal Dow, the Father Mathew of the State of Maine, the +Maine Liquor Law is still in force in that State. There is nothing to +drink, I should say, in such orderly houses as that I selected. +"People do drink some in the town, they say," said my hostess to me; +"and liquor is to be got. But I never venture to sell any. An +ill-natured person might turn on me, and where should I be then?" I +did not press her, and she was good enough to put a bottle of porter +at my right hand at dinner, for which I observed she made no charge. +"But they advertise beer in the shop-windows," I said to a man who +was driving me—"Scotch ale, and bitter beer. A man can get drunk on +them." "Wa'al, yes. If he goes to work hard, and drinks a +bucket-full," said the driver, "perhaps he may." From which and other +things I gathered that the men of Maine drank pottle deep before Mr. +Neal Dow brought his exertions to a successful termination.</p> + +<p>The Maine Liquor Law still stands in Maine, and is the law of the +land throughout New England; but it is not actually put in force in +the other States. By this law no man may retail wine, spirits, or, in +truth, beer, except with a special license, which is given only to +those who are presumed to sell them as medicines. A man may have what +he likes in his own cellar for his own use—such at least is the +actual working of the law—but may not obtain it at hotels and +public-houses. This law, like all sumptuary laws, must fail. And it +is fast failing even in Maine. But it did appear to me from such +information as I could collect that the passing of it had done much +to hinder and repress a habit of hard drinking which was becoming +terribly common, not only in the towns of Maine, but among the +farmers and hired labourers in the country.</p> + +<p>But if the men and women of Portland may not drink they may eat, and +it is a place, I should say, in which good living on that side of the +question is very rife. It has an air of supreme plenty, as though the +agonies of an empty stomach were never known there. The faces of the +people tell of three regular meals of meat a day, and of digestive +powers in proportion. Oh happy Portlanders, if they only knew their +own good fortune! They get up early, and go to bed early. The women +are comely and sturdy, able to take care of themselves without any +fal-lal of chivalry; and the men are sedate, obliging, and +industrious. I saw the young girls in the streets, coming home from +their tea-parties at nine o'clock, many of them alone, and all with +some basket in their hands which betokened an evening not passed +absolutely in idleness. No fear there of unruly questions on the way, +or of insolence from the ill-conducted of the other sex! All was, or +seemed to be, orderly, sleek, and unobtrusive. Probably of all modes +of life that are allotted to man by his Creator, life such as this is +the most happy. One hint, however, for improvement I must give, even +to Portland! It would be well if they could make their streets of +some material harder than sand.</p> + +<p>I must not leave the town without desiring those who may visit it to +mount the Observatory. They will from thence get the best view of the +harbour and of the surrounding land; and, if they chance to do so +under the reign of the present keeper of the signals, they will find +a man there able and willing to tell them everything needful about +the State of Maine in general, and the harbour in particular. He will +come out in his shirt sleeves, and, like a true American, will not at +first be very smooth in his courtesy; but he will wax brighter in +conversation, and if not stroked the wrong way will turn out to be an +uncommonly pleasant fellow. Such I believe to be the case with most +of them.</p> + +<p>From Portland we made our way up to the White Mountains, which lay on +our route to Canada. Now I would ask any of my readers who are candid +enough to expose their own ignorance whether they ever heard, or at +any rate whether they know anything of the White Mountains. As +regards myself I confess that the name had reached my ears; that I +had an indefinite idea that they formed an intermediate stage between +the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghenies, and that they were inhabited +either by Mormons, Indians, or simply by black bears. That there was +a district in New England containing mountain scenery superior to +much that is yearly crowded by tourists in Europe, that this is to be +reached with ease by railways and stage-coaches, and that it is +dotted with huge hotels, almost as thickly as they lie in +Switzerland, I had no idea. Much of this scenery, I say, is superior +to the famed and classic lands of Europe. I know nothing, for +instance, on the Rhine equal to the view from Mount Willard, down the +mountain pass called the Notch.</p> + +<p>Let the visitor of these regions be as late in the year as he can, +taking care that he is not so late as to find the hotels closed. +October, no doubt, is the most beautiful month among these mountains, +but according to the present arrangement of matters here, the hotels +are shut up by the end of September. With us, August, September, and +October are the holiday months; whereas our rebel children across the +Atlantic love to disport themselves in July and August. The great +beauty of the autumn, or fall, is in the brilliant hues which are +then taken by the foliage. The autumnal tints are fine with us. They +are lovely and bright wherever foliage and vegetation form a part of +the beauty of scenery. But in no other land do they approach the +brilliancy of the fall in America. The bright rose colour, the rich +bronze which is almost purple in its richness, and the glorious +golden yellows must be seen to be understood. By me at any rate they +cannot be described. These begin to show themselves in September, and +perhaps I might name the latter half of that month as the best time +for visiting the White Mountains.</p> + +<p>I am not going to write a guide-book, feeling sure that Mr. Murray +will do New England, and Canada, including Niagara and the Hudson +river, with a peep into Boston and New York before many more seasons +have passed by. But I cannot forbear to tell my countrymen that any +enterprising individual with a hundred pounds to spend on his +holiday,—a hundred and twenty would make him more comfortable, in +regard to wine, washing, and other luxuries,—and an absence of two +months from his labours, may see as much and do as much here for the +money as he can see or do elsewhere. In some respects he may do more; +for he will learn more of American nature in such a journey than he +can ever learn of the nature of Frenchmen or Americans by such an +excursion among them. Some three weeks of the time, or perhaps a day +or two over, he must be at sea, and that portion of his trip will +cost him fifty pounds,—presuming that he chooses to go in the most +comfortable and costly way;—but his time on board ship will not be +lost. He will learn to know much of Americans there, and will perhaps +form acquaintances of which he will not altogether lose sight for +many a year. He will land at Boston, and staying a day or two there +will visit Cambridge, Lowell, and Bunker Hill; and, if he be that way +given, will remember that here live, and occasionally are to be seen +alive, men such as Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorne, and a host of +others whose names and fames have made Boston the throne of Western +Literature. He will then,—if he take my advice and follow my +track,—go by Portland up into the White Mountains. At Gorham, a +station on the Grand Trunk line, he will find an hotel as good as any +of its kind, and from thence he will take a light waggon, so called +in these countries;—and here let me presume that the traveller is +not alone; he has his wife or friend, or perhaps a pair of +sisters,—and in his waggon he will go up through primeval forests to +the Glen House. When there he will ascend Mount Washington on a pony. +That is <i>de rigueur</i>, and I do not, therefore, dare to recommend him +to omit the ascent. I did not gain much myself by my labour. He will +not stay at the Glen House, but will go on to—Jackson's I think they +call the next hotel; at which he will sleep. From thence he will take +his waggon on through the Notch to the Crawford House, sleeping there +again; and when here let him of all things remember to go up Mount +Willard. It is but a walk of two hours, up and down, if so much. When +reaching the top he will be startled to find that he looks down into +the ravine without an inch of fore-ground. He will come out suddenly +on a ledge of rock, from whence, as it seems, he might leap down at +once into the valley below. Then going on from the Crawford House he +will be driven through the woods of Cherry Mount, passing, I fear +without toll of custom, the house of my excellent friend Mr. +Plaistead, who keeps an hotel at Jefferson. "Sir," said Mr. +Plaistead, "I have everything here that a man ought to want; air, +sir, that ain't to be got better nowhere; trout, chickens, beef, +mutton, milk,—and all for a dollar a day. A top of that hill, sir, +there's a view that ain't to be beaten this side of the Atlantic, or +I believe the other. And an echo, sir!—We've an echo that comes back +to us six times, sir; floating on the light wind, and wafted about +from rock to rock till you would think the angels were talking to +you. If I could raise that echo, sir, every day at command I'd give a +thousand dollars for it. It would be worth all the money to a house +like this." And he waved his hand about from hill to hill, pointing +out in graceful curves the lines which the sounds would take. Had +destiny not called on Mr. Plaistead to keep an American hotel, he +might have been a poet.</p> + +<p>My traveller, however, unless time were plenty with him, would pass +Mr. Plaistead, merely lighting a friendly cigar, or perhaps breaking +the Maine Liquor Law if the weather be warm, and would return to +Gorham on the railway. All this mountain district is in New +Hampshire, and presuming him to be capable of going about the world +with his mouth, ears, and eyes open, he would learn much of the way +in which men are settling themselves in this still sparsely populated +country. Here young farmers go into the woods, as they are doing far +down west in the Territories, and buying some hundred acres at +perhaps six shillings an acre, fell and burn the trees and build +their huts, and take the first steps, as far as man's work is +concerned, towards accomplishing the will of the Creator in those +regions. For such pioneers of civilization there is still ample room +even in the long settled States of New Hampshire and Vermont.</p> + +<p>But to return to my traveller, whom having brought so far, I must +send on. Let him go on from Gorham to Quebec, and the heights of +Abraham, stopping at Sherbrooke that he might visit from thence the +lake of Memphra Magog. As to the manner of travelling over this +ground I shall say a little in the next chapter, when I come to the +progress of myself and my wife. From Quebec he will go up the St. +Lawrence to Montreal. He will visit Ottawa, the new capital, and +Toronto. He will cross the Lake to Niagara, resting probably at the +Clifton House on the Canada side. He will then pass on to Albany, +taking the Trenton falls on his way. From Albany he will go down the +Hudson to West-Point. He cannot stop at the Catskill Mountains, for +the hotel will be closed. And then he will take the river boat, and +in a few hours will find himself at New York. If he desires to go +into American city society, he will find New York agreeable; but in +that case he must exceed his two months. If he do not so desire, a +short sojourn at New York will show him all that there is to be seen, +and all that there is not to be seen in that great city. That the +Cunard line of steamers will bring him safely back to Liverpool in +about eleven days, I need not tell to any Englishman, or, as I +believe, to any American. So much, in the spirit of a guide, I +vouchsafe to all who are willing to take my counsel,—thereby +anticipating Murray, and leaving these few pages as a legacy to him +or to his collaborateurs.</p> + +<p>I cannot say that I like the hotels in those parts, or indeed the +mode of life at American hotels in general. In order that I may not +unjustly defame them, I will commence these observations by declaring +that they are cheap to those who choose to practise the economy which +they encourage, that the viands are profuse in quantity and wholesome +in quality, that the attendance is quick and unsparing, and that +travellers are never annoyed by that grasping greedy hunger and +thirst after francs and shillings which disgrace in Europe many +English and many continental inns. All this is, as must be admitted, +great praise; and yet I do not like the American hotels.</p> + +<p>One is in a free country and has come from a country in which one has +been brought up to hug one's chains,—so at least the English +traveller is constantly assured—and yet in an American inn one can +never do as one likes. A terrific gong sounds early in the morning, +breaking one's sweet slumbers, and then a second gong sounding some +thirty minutes later, makes you understand that you must proceed to +breakfast, whether you be dressed or no. You certainly can go on with +your toilet and obtain your meal after half an hour's delay. Nobody +actually scolds you for so doing, but the breakfast is, as they say +in this country, "through." You sit down alone, and the attendant +stands immediately over you. Probably there are two so standing. They +fill your cup the instant it is empty. They tender you fresh food +before that which has disappeared from your plate has been swallowed. +They begrudge you no amount that you can eat or drink; but they +begrudge you a single moment that you sit there neither eating nor +drinking. This is your fate if you're too late, and therefore as a +rule you are not late. In that case you form one of a long row of +eaters who proceed through their work with a solid energy that is +past all praise. It is wrong to say that Americans will not talk at +their meals. I never met but few who would not talk to me, at any +rate till I got to the far west; but I have rarely found that they +would address me first. Then the dinner comes early; at least it +always does so in New England, and the ceremony is much of the same +kind. You came there to eat, and the food is pressed on you almost +<i>ad nauseam</i>. But as far as one can see there is no drinking. In +these days, I am quite aware, that drinking has become improper, even +in England. We are apt at home to speak of wine as a thing tabooed, +wondering how our fathers lived and swilled. I believe that as a fact +we drink as much as they did; but nevertheless that is our theory. I +confess, however, that I like wine. It is very wicked, but it seems +to me that my dinner goes down better with a glass of sherry than +without it. As a rule I always did get it at hotels in America. But I +had no comfort with it. Sherry they do not understand at all. Of +course I am only speaking of hotels. Their claret they get +exclusively from Mr. Gladstone, and looking at the quality, have a +right to quarrel even with Mr. Gladstone's price. But it is not the +quality of the wine that I hereby intend to subject to ignominy, so +much as the want of any opportunity for drinking it. After dinner, if +all that I hear be true, the gentlemen occasionally drop into the +hotel bar and "liquor up." Or rather this is not done specially after +dinner, but without prejudice to the hour at any time that may be +found desirable. I also have "liquored up," but I cannot say that I +enjoy the process. I do not intend hereby to accuse Americans of +drinking much, but I maintain that what they do drink, they drink in +the most uncomfortable manner that the imagination can devise.</p> + +<p>The greatest luxury at an English inn is one's tea, one's fire, and +one's book. Such an arrangement is not practicable at an American +hotel. Tea, like breakfast, is a great meal, at which meat should be +eaten, generally with the addition of much jelly, jam, and sweet +preserve; but no person delays over his tea-cup. I love to have my +tea-cup emptied and filled with gradual pauses, so that time for +oblivion may accrue, and no exact record be taken. No such meal is +known at American hotels. It is possible to hire a separate room and +have one's meals served in it; but in doing so a man runs counter to +all the institutions of the country, and a woman does so equally. A +stranger does not wish to be viewed askance by all around him; and +the rule which holds that men at Rome should do as Romans do, if true +anywhere, is true in America. Therefore I say that in an American inn +one can never do as one pleases.</p> + +<p>In what I have here said I do not intend to speak of hotels in the +largest cities, such as Boston or New York. At them meals are served +in the public room separately, and pretty nearly at any or at all +hours of the day; but at them also the attendant stands over the +unfortunate eater, and drives him. The guest feels that he is +controlled by laws adapted to the usages of the Medes and Persians. +He is not the master on the occasion, but the slave; a slave well +treated and fattened up to the full endurance of humanity; but yet a +slave.</p> + +<p>From Gorham we went on to Island Pond, a station on the same Canada +Trunk Railway, on a Saturday evening, and were forced by the +circumstances of the line to pass a melancholy Sunday at the place. +The cars do not run on Sundays, and run but once a day on other days +over the whole line; so that in fact the impediment to travelling +spreads over two days. Island Pond is a lake with an island in it, +and the place which has taken the name is a small village, about ten +years old, standing in the midst of uncut forests, and has been +created by the railway. In ten years more there will no doubt be a +spreading town at Island Pond; the forests will recede, and men +rushing out from the crowded cities will find here food and space and +wealth. For myself I never remain long in such a spot without feeling +thankful that it has not been my mission to be a pioneer of +civilization.</p> + +<p>The farther that I got away from Boston the less strong did I find +the feeling of anger against England. There, as I have said before, +there was a bitter animosity against the mother country in that she +had shown no open sympathy with the North. In Maine and New Hampshire +I did not find this to be the case to any violent degree. Men spoke +of the war as openly as they did at Boston, and in speaking to me +generally connected England with the subject. But they did so simply +to ask questions as to England's policy. What will she do for cotton +when her operatives are really pressed? Will she break the blockade? +Will she insist on a right to trade with Charlestown and New Orleans? +I always answered that she would insist on no such right, if that +right were denied to others and the denial enforced. England, I took +upon myself to say, would not break a veritable blockade, let her be +driven to what shifts she might in providing for her operatives. "Ah; +that's what we fear," a very stanch patriot said to me, if words may +be taken as a proof of stanchness. "If England allies herself with +the Southerners, all our trouble is for nothing." It was impossible +not to feel that all that was said was complimentary to England. It +is her sympathy that the Northern men desire, to her co-operation +that they would willingly trust, on her honesty that they would +choose to depend. It is the same feeling whether it shows itself in +anger or in curiosity. An American whether he be embarked in +politics, in literature, or in commerce, desires English admiration, +English appreciation of his energy, and English encouragement. The +anger of Boston is but a sign of its affectionate friendliness. What +feeling is so hot as that of a friend when his dearest friend refuses +to share his quarrel or to sympathize in his wrongs? To my thinking +the men of Boston are wrong and unreasonable in their anger; but were +I a man of Boston I should be as wrong and as unreasonable as any of +them. All that, however, will come right. I will not believe it +possible that there should in very truth be a quarrel between England +and the Northern States.</p> + +<p>In the guidance of those who are not quite <i>au fait</i> at the details +of American Government, I will here in a few words describe the +outlines of State Government as it is arranged in New Hampshire. The +States in this respect are not all alike, the modes of election of +their officers and periods of service being different. Even the +franchise is different in different States. Universal suffrage is not +the rule throughout the United States; though it is I believe very +generally thought in England that such is the fact. I need hardly say +that the laws in the different States may be as various as the +different legislatures may choose to make them.</p> + +<p>In New Hampshire universal suffrage does prevail; which means that +any man may vote who lives in the State, supports himself, and +assists to support the poor by means of poor rates. A governor of the +State is elected for one year only, but it is customary or at any +rate not uncustomary to re-elect him for a second year. His salary is +a thousand dollars a year, or £200. It must be presumed therefore +that glory and not money is his object. To him is appended a council, +by whose opinions he must in a great degree be guided. His functions +are to the State what those of the President are to the country, and +for the short period of his reign he is as it were a Prime Minister +of the State with certain very limited regal attributes. He however +by no means enjoys the regal attribute of doing no wrong. In every +State there is an Assembly, consisting of two houses of elected +representatives; the Senate, or upper house, and the House of +Representatives so called. In New Hampshire this Assembly, or +Parliament, is styled The General Court of New Hampshire. It sits +annually; whereas the legislature in many States sits only every +other year. Both Houses are re-elected every year. This Assembly +passes laws with all the power vested in our Parliament, but such +laws apply of course only to the State in question. The Governor of +the State has a veto on all bills passed by the two Houses. But, +after receipt of his veto, any bill so stopped by the Governor can be +passed by a majority of two thirds in each House. The General Court +usually sits for about ten weeks. There are in the State eight +judges, three Supreme who sit at Concord, the capital, as a court of +appeal both in civil and criminal matters; and then five lesser +judges, who go circuit through the State. The salaries of these +lesser judges do not exceed from £250 to £300 a year; but they are, I +believe, allowed to practise as lawyers in any counties except those +in which they sit as judges,—being guided in this respect by the +same law as that which regulates the work of assistant barristers in +Ireland. The assistant barristers in Ireland are attached to the +counties as judges at Quarter Sessions, but they practise or may +practise as advocates in all counties except that to which they are +so attached. The judges in New Hampshire are appointed by the +Governor with the assistance of his Council. No judge in New +Hampshire can hold his seat after he has reached seventy years of +age.</p> + +<p>So much at the present moment with reference to the Government of New +Hampshire.</p> + + +<p><a id="c4"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER IV.</h3> +<h4>LOWER CANADA.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>The Grand Trunk Railway runs directly from Portland to Montreal, +which latter town is, in fact, the capital of Canada, though it never +has been so exclusively, and, as it seems, never is to be so, as +regards authority, government, and official name. In such matters +authority and government often say one thing while commerce says +another; but commerce always has the best of it and wins the game +whatever Government may decree. Albany in this way is the capital of +the State of New York, as authorized by the State Government; but New +York has made herself the capital of America, and will remain so. So +also Montreal has made herself the capital of Canada. The Grand Trunk +Railway runs from Portland to Montreal; but there is a branch from +Richmond, a township within the limits of Canada, to Quebec; so that +travellers to Quebec, as we were, are not obliged to reach that place +<i>viâ</i> Montreal.</p> + +<p>Quebec is the present seat of Canadian Government, its turn for that +honour having come round some two years ago; but it is about to be +deserted in favour of Ottawa, a town which is, in fact, still to be +built on the river of that name. The public edifices are, however, in +a state of forwardness; and if all goes well the Governor, the two +Councils, and the House of Representatives will be there before two +years are over whether there be any town to receive them or no. Who +can think of Ottawa without bidding his brothers to row, and +reminding them that the stream runs fast, that the rapids are near +and the daylight past? I asked, as a matter of course, whether Quebec +was much disgusted at the proposed change, and I was told that the +feeling was not now very strong. Had it been determined to make +Montreal the permanent seat of government Quebec and Toronto would +both have been up in arms.</p> + +<p>I must confess that in going from the States into Canada, an +Englishman is struck by the feeling that he is going from a richer +country into one that is poorer, and from a greater country into one +that is less. An Englishman going from a foreign land into a land +which is in one sense his own, of course finds much in the change to +gratify him. He is able to speak as the master, instead of speaking +as the visitor. His tongue becomes more free, and he is able to fall +back to his national habits and national expressions. He no longer +feels that he is admitted on sufferance, or that he must be careful +to respect laws which he does not quite understand. This feeling was +naturally strong in an Englishman in passing from the States into +Canada at the time of my visit. English policy at that moment was +violently abused by Americans, and was upheld as violently in Canada. +But, nevertheless, with all this, I could not enter Canada without +seeing, and hearing, and feeling that there was less of enterprise +around me there than in the States—less of general movement, and +less of commercial success. To say why this is so would require a +long and very difficult discussion, and one which I am not prepared +to hold. It may be that a dependent country, let the feeling of +dependence be ever so much modified by powers of self-governance, +cannot hold its own against countries which are in all respects their +own masters. Few, I believe, would now maintain that the Northern +States of America would have risen in commerce as they have risen, +had they still remained attached to England as colonies. If this be +so, that privilege of self-rule which they have acquired, has been +the cause of their success. It does not follow as a consequence that +the Canadas fighting their battle alone in the world could do as the +States have done. Climate, or size, or geographical position might +stand in their way. But I fear that it does follow, if not as a +logical conclusion at least as a natural result, that they never will +do so well unless some day they shall so fight their battle. It may +be argued that Canada has in fact the power of self-governance; that +she rules herself and makes her own laws as England does; that the +Sovereign of England has but a veto on those laws, and stands in +regard to Canada exactly as she does in regard to England. This is +so, I believe, by the letter of the Constitution, but is not so in +reality, and cannot, in truth, be so in any colony, even of Great +Britain. In England the political power of the Crown is nothing. The +Crown has no such power, and now-a-days makes no attempt at having +any. But the political power of the Crown, as it is felt in Canada, +is everything. The Crown has no such power in England because it must +change its ministers whenever called upon to do so by the House of +Commons. But the Colonial Minister in Downing Street is the Crown's +Prime Minister as regards the Colonies, and he is changed not as any +Colonial House of Assembly may wish, but in accordance with the will +of the British Commons. Both the Houses in Canada—that, namely, of +the Representatives, or Lower House, and of the Legislative Council, +or Upper House—are now elective, and are filled without direct +influence from the Crown. The power of self-government is as +thoroughly developed as perhaps may be possible in a colony. But +after all it is a dependent form of government, and as such may +perhaps not conduce to so thorough a development of the resources of +the country as might be achieved under a ruling power of its own, to +which the welfare of Canada itself would be the chief if not the only +object.</p> + +<p>I beg that it may not be considered from this that I would propose to +Canada to set up for itself at once and declare itself independent. +In the first place I do not wish to throw over Canada; and in the +next place I do not wish to throw over England. If such a separation +shall ever take place, I trust that it may be caused, not by Canadian +violence but by British generosity. Such a separation, however, never +can be good till Canada herself shall wish it. That she does not wish +it yet is certain. If Canada ever should wish it, and should ever +press for the accomplishment of such a wish, she must do so in +connection with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. If at any future time +there be formed such a separate political power, it must include the +whole of British North America.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, I return to my assertion, that in entering Canada +from the States one clearly comes from a richer to a poorer country. +When I have said so, I have heard no Canadian absolutely deny it; +though in refraining from denying it, they have usually expressed a +general conviction, that in settling himself for life, it is better +for a man to set up his staff in Canada than in the States. "I do not +know that we are richer," a Canadian says, "but on the whole we are +doing better and are happier." Now, I regard the golden rules against +the love of gold, the "<i>aurum irrepertum et sic melius situm</i>," and +the rest of it, as very excellent when applied to individuals. Such +teaching has not much effect, perhaps, in inducing men to abstain +from wealth,—but such effect as it may have will be good. Men and +women do, I suppose, learn to be happier when they learn to disregard +riches. But such a doctrine is absolutely false as regards a nation. +National wealth produces education and progress, and through them +produces plenty of food, good morals, and all else that is good. It +produces luxury also, and certain evils attendant on luxury. But I +think it may be clearly shown, and that it is universally +acknowledged, that national wealth produces individual well-being. If +this be so, the argument of my friend the Canadian is nought.</p> + +<p>To the feeling of a refined gentleman, or of a lady whose eye loves +to rest always on the beautiful, an agricultural population that +touches its hat, eats plain victuals, and goes to church is more +picturesque and delightful than the thronged crowd of a great city by +which a lady and gentleman is hustled without remorse, which never +touches its hat, and perhaps also never goes to church. And as we are +always tempted to approve of that which we like, and to think that +that which is good to us is good altogether, we—the refined +gentlemen and ladies of England I mean—are very apt to prefer the +hat-touchers to those who are not hat-touchers. In doing so we +intend, and wish, and strive to be philanthropical. We argue to +ourselves that the dear, excellent lower classes receive an immense +amount of consoling happiness from that ceremony of hat-touching, and +quite pity those who, unfortunately for themselves, know nothing +about it. I would ask any such lady or gentleman whether he or she +does not feel a certain amount of commiseration for the rudeness of +the town-bred artisan, who walks about with his hands in his pockets +as though he recognized a superior in no one.</p> + +<p>But that which is good and pleasant to us, is often not good and +pleasant altogether. Every man's chief object is himself; and the +philanthropist should endeavour to regard this question, not from his +own point of view, but from that which would be taken by the +individuals for whose happiness he is anxious. The honest, happy +rustic makes a very pretty picture; and I hope that honest rustics +are happy. But the man who earns two shillings a day in the country +would always prefer to earn five in the town. The man who finds +himself bound to touch his hat to the squire would be glad to +dispense with that ceremony, if circumstances would permit. A crowd +of greasy-coated town artisans with grimy hands and pale faces, is +not in itself delectable; but each of that crowd has probably more of +the goods of life than any rural labourer. He thinks more, reads +more, feels more, sees more, hears more, learns more, and lives more. +It is through great cities that the civilization of the world has +progressed, and the charms of life been advanced. Man in his rudest +state begins in the country, and in his most finished state may +retire there. But the battle of the world has to be fought in the +cities; and the country that shows the greatest city population is +ever the one that is going most ahead in the world's history.</p> + +<p>If this be so, I say that the argument of my Canadian friend was +nought. It may be that he does not desire crowded cities with dirty, +independent artisans; that to his view small farmers, living +sparingly but with content on the sweat of their brows, are surer +signs of a country's prosperity than hives of men and smoking +chimneys. He has, probably, all the upper classes of England with him +in so thinking, and as far as I know the upper classes of all Europe. +But the crowds themselves, the thick masses of which are composed +those populations which we count by millions, are against him. Up in +those regions which are watered by the great lakes, Lake Michigan, +Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and by the St. Lawrence, the +country is divided between Canada and the States. The cities in +Canada were settled long before those in the States. Quebec and +Montreal were important cities before any of the towns belonging to +the States had been founded. But taking the population of three of +each, including the three largest Canadian towns, we find they are as +follows:—In Canada, Quebec has 60,000; Montreal, 85,000; Toronto, +55,000. In the States, Chicago has 120,000; Detroit, 70,000; and +Buffalo, 80,000. If the population had been equal, it would have +shown a great superiority in the progress of those belonging to the +States, because the towns of Canada had so great a start. But the +numbers are by no means equal, showing instead a vast preponderance +in favour of the States. There can be no stronger proof that the +States are advancing faster than Canada,—and in fact doing better +than Canada. Quebec is a very picturesque town,—from its natural +advantages almost as much so as any town I know. Edinburgh, perhaps, +and Innspruck may beat it. But Quebec has very little to recommend it +beyond the beauty of its situation. Its public buildings and works of +art do not deserve a long narrative. It stands at the confluence of +the St. Lawrence and St. Charles rivers; the best part of the town is +built high upon the rock,—the rock which forms the celebrated plains +of Abram; and the view from thence down to the mountains which shut +in the St. Lawrence is magnificent. The best point of view is, I +think, from the esplanade, which is distant some five minutes' walk +from the hotels. When that has been seen by the light of the setting +sun, and seen again, if possible, by moonlight, the most considerable +lion of Quebec may be regarded as "done," and may be ticked off from +the list.</p> + +<p>The most considerable lion according to my taste. Lions which roar +merely by the force of association of ideas are not to me very +valuable beasts. To many the rock over which Wolfe climbed to the +plains of Abram, and on the summit of which he fell in the hour of +victory, gives to Quebec its chiefest charm. But I confess to being +somewhat dull in such matters. I can count up Wolfe, and realize his +glory, and put my hand as it were upon his monument, in my own room +at home as well as I can at Quebec. I do not say this boastingly or +with pride, but truly acknowledging a deficiency. I have never cared +to sit in chairs in which old kings have sat, or to have their crowns +upon my head.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, and as a matter of course, I went to see the rock, and +can only say, as so many have said before me, that it is very steep. +It is not a rock which I think it would be difficult for any +ordinarily active man to climb,—providing, of course, that he was +used to such work. But Wolfe took regiments of men up there at +night—and that in face of enemies who held the summits. One grieves +that he should have fallen there and have never tasted the sweet cup +of his own fame. For fame is sweet, and the praise of one's brother +men the sweetest draught which a man can drain. But now, and for +coming ages, Wolfe's name stands higher than it probably would have +done had he lived to enjoy his reward.</p> + +<p>But there is another very worthy lion near Quebec,—the Falls, +namely, of Montmorency. They are eight miles from the town, and the +road lies through the suburb of St. Roch, and the long straggling +French village of Beauport. These are in themselves very interesting, +as showing the quiet, orderly, unimpulsive manner in which the French +Canadians live. Such is their character, although there have been +such men as Papineau, and although there have been times in which +English rule has been unpopular with the French settlers. As far as I +could learn there is no such feeling now. These people are quiet, +contented; and as regards a sufficiency of the simple staples of +living, sufficiently well to do. They are thrifty;—but they do not +thrive. They do not advance, and push ahead, and become a bigger +people from year to year as settlers in a new country should do. They +do not even hold their own in comparison with those around them. But +has not this always been the case with colonists out of France; and +has it not always been the case with Roman Catholics when they have +been forced to measure themselves against Protestants? As to the +ultimate fate in the world of this people, one can hardly form a +speculation. There are, as nearly as I could learn, about 800,000 of +them in Lower Canada; but it seems that the wealth and commercial +enterprise of the country is passing out of their hands. Montreal, +and even Quebec are, I think, becoming less and less French every +day; but in the villages and on the small farms the French remain, +keeping up their language, their habits, and their religion. In the +cities they are becoming hewers of wood and drawers of water. I am +inclined to think that the same will ultimately be their fate in the +country. Surely one may declare as a fact that a Roman Catholic +population can never hold its ground against one that is Protestant. +I do not speak of numbers, for the Roman Catholics will increase and +multiply, and stick by their religion, although their religion +entails poverty and dependence; as they have done and still do in +Ireland. But in progress and wealth the Romanists have always gone to +the wall when the two have been made to compete together. And yet I +love their religion. There is something beautiful and almost divine +in the faith and obedience of a true son of the Holy Mother. I +sometimes fancy that I would fain be a Roman Catholic,—if I could; +as also I would often wish to be still a child, if that were +possible.</p> + +<p>All this is on the way to the Falls of Montmorency. These falls are +placed exactly at the mouth of the little river of the same name, so +that it may be said absolutely to fall into the St. Lawrence. The +people of the country, however, declare that the river into which the +waters of the Montmorency fall is not the St. Lawrence, but the +Charles. Without a map I do not know that I can explain this. The +river Charles appears to, and in fact does, run into the St. Lawrence +just below Quebec. But the waters do not mix. The thicker, browner +stream of the lesser river still keeps the north-eastern bank till it +comes to the island of Orleans, which lies in the river five or six +miles below Quebec. Here or hereabouts are the Falls of the +Montmorency, and then the great river is divided for twenty-five +miles by the Isle of Orleans. It is said that the waters of the +Charles and the St. Lawrence do not mix till they meet each other at +the foot of this island.</p> + +<p>I do not know that I am particularly happy at describing a waterfall, +and what little capacity I may have in this way I would wish to keep +for Niagara. One thing I can say very positively about Montmorency, +and one piece of advice I can give to those who visit the falls. The +place from which to see them is not the horrible little wooden +temple, which has been built immediately over them on that side which +lies nearest to Quebec. The stranger is put down at a gate through +which a path leads to this temple, and at which a woman demands from +him twenty-five cents for the privilege of entrance. Let him by all +means pay the twenty-five cents. Why should he attempt to see the +falls for nothing, seeing that this woman has a vested interest in +the showing of them? I declare that if I thought that I should hinder +this woman from her perquisites by what I write, I would leave it +unwritten, and let my readers pursue their course to the temple—to +their manifest injury. But they will pay the twenty-five cents. Then +let them cross over the bridge, eschewing the temple, and wander +round on the open field till they get the view of the falls, and the +view of Quebec also, from the other side. It is worth the twenty-five +cents, and the hire of the carriage also. Immediately over the falls +there was a suspension bridge, of which the supporting, or rather +non-supporting, pillars are still to be seen. But the bridge fell +down one day into the river; and, alas, alas! with the bridge fell +down an old woman, and a boy, and a cart,—a cart and horse,—and all +found a watery grave together in the spray. No attempt has been made +since that to renew the suspension bridge; but the present wooden +bridge has been built higher up, in lieu of it.</p> + +<p>Strangers naturally visit Quebec in summer or autumn, seeing that a +Canada winter is a season with which a man cannot trifle; but I +imagine that the mid-winter is the best time for seeing the Falls of +Montmorency. The water in its fall is dashed into spray, and that +spray becomes frozen, till a cone of ice is formed immediately under +the cataract, which gradually rises till the temporary glacier +reaches nearly half-way to the level of the higher river. Up this men +climb,—and ladies also, I am told,—and then descend with pleasant +rapidity on sledges of wood, sometimes not without an innocent tumble +in the descent. As we were at Quebec in September, we did not +experience the delights of this pastime.</p> + +<p>As I was too early for the ice cone under the Montmorency Falls, so +also was I too late to visit the Saguenay river which runs into the +St. Lawrence some hundred miles below Quebec. I presume that the +scenery of the Saguenay is the finest in Canada. During the summer +steamers run down the St. Lawrence and up the Saguenay, but I was too +late for them. An offer was made to us through the kindness of Sir +Edmund Head, who was then the Governor-General, of the use of a +steam-tug belonging to a gentleman who carries on a large commercial +enterprise at Chicoutimi, far up the Saguenay; but an acceptance of +this offer would have entailed some delay at Quebec, and as we were +anxious to get into the North Western States before the winter +commenced, we were obliged with great regret to decline the journey.</p> + +<p>I feel bound to say that a stranger regarding Quebec merely as a +town, finds very much of which he cannot but complain. The foot-paths +through the streets are almost entirely of wood, as indeed seems to +be general throughout Canada. Wood is of course the cheapest +material, and though it may not be altogether good for such a purpose +it would not create animadversion if it were kept in tolerable order. +But in Quebec the paths are intolerably bad. They are full of holes. +The boards are rotten and worn in some places to dirt. The nails have +gone, and the broken planks go up and down under the feet, and in the +dark they are absolutely dangerous. But if the paths are bad the +roadways are worse. The street through the lower town along the quays +is, I think, the most disgraceful thoroughfare I ever saw in any +town. I believe the whole of it, or at any rate a great portion, has +been paved with wood; but the boards have been worked into mud, and +the ground under the boards has been worked into holes, till the +street is more like the bottom of a filthy ditch than a roadway +through one of the most thickly populated parts of a city. Had Quebec +in Wolfe's time been as it is now, Wolfe would have stuck in the mud +between the river and the rock, before he reached the point which he +desired to climb. In the upper town the roads are not so bad as they +are below, but still they are very bad. I was told that this arose +from disputes among the municipal corporations. Everything in Canada +relating to roads, and a very great deal affecting the internal +government of the people, is done by these municipalities. It is made +a subject of great boast in Canada that the communal authorities do +carry on so large a part of the public business, and that they do it +generally so well, and at so cheap a rate. I have nothing to say +against this, and as a whole believe that the boast is true. I must +protest, however, that the streets of the greater cities,—for +Montreal is nearly as bad as Quebec,—prove the rule by a very sad +exception. The municipalities of which I speak extend, I believe, to +all Canada; the two provinces being divided into counties, and the +counties subdivided into townships to which, as a matter of course, +the municipalities are attached.</p> + +<p>From Quebec to Montreal there are two modes of travel. There are the +steamers up the St. Lawrence which, as all the world know is, or at +any rate hitherto has been, the high road of the Canadas; and there +is the Grand Trunk Railway. Passengers choosing the latter go towards +Portland as far as Richmond, and there join the main line of the +road, passing from Richmond on to Montreal. We learned while at +Quebec that it behoved us not to leave the colony till we had seen +the lake and mountains of Memphra-Magog, and as we were clearly +neglecting our duty with regard to the Saguenay, we felt bound to +make such amends as lay in our power, by deviating from our way to +the lake above named. In order to do this we were obliged to choose +the railway, and to go back beyond Richmond to the station at +Sherbrooke. Sherbrooke is a large village on the confines of Canada, +and as it is on the railway will no doubt become a large town. It is +very prettily situated on the meeting of two rivers; it has three or +four different churches, and intends to thrive. It possesses two +newspapers, of the prosperity of which I should be inclined to feel +less assured. The annual subscription to such a newspaper published +twice a week is ten shillings per annum. A sale of a thousand copies +is not considered bad. Such a sale would produce £500 a year, and +this would, if entirely devoted to that purpose, give a moderate +income to a gentleman qualified to conduct a newspaper. But the paper +and printing must cost something, and the capital invested should +receive its proper remuneration. And then,—such at least is the +general idea,—the getting together of news and the framing of +intelligence is a costly operation. I can only hope that all this is +paid for by the advertisements, for I must trust that the editors do +not receive less than the moderate sum above named. At Sherbrooke we +are still in Lower Canada. Indeed, as regards distance, we are when +there nearly as far removed from Upper Canada as at Quebec. But the +race of people here is very different. The French population had made +their way down into these townships before the English and American +war broke out, but had not done so in great numbers. The country was +then very unapproachable, being far to the south of the St. Lawrence, +and far also from any great line of internal communication towards +the Atlantic. But, nevertheless, many settlers made their way in here +from the States; men who preferred to live under British rule, and +perhaps doubted the stability of the new order of things. They or +their children have remained here since, and as the whole country has +been opened up by the railway many others have flocked in. Thus a +better class of people than the French hold possession of the larger +farms, and are on the whole doing well. I am told that many Americans +are now coming here, driven over the borders from Maine, New +Hampshire, and Vermont by fears of the war and the weight of +taxation. I do not think that fears of war or the paying of taxes +drive many individuals away from home. Men who would be so influenced +have not the amount of foresight which would induce them to avoid +such evils; or, at any rate, such fears would act slowly. Labourers, +however, will go where work is certain, where work is well paid, and +where the wages to be earned will give plenty in return. It may be +that work will become scarce in the States, as it has done with those +poor jewellers at Attleborough, of whom we spoke, and that food will +become dear. If this be so, labourers from the States will no doubt +find their way into Canada.</p> + +<p>From Sherbrooke we went with the mails on a pair-horse waggon to +Magog. Cross country mails are not interesting to the generality of +readers, but I have a professional liking for them myself. I have +spent the best part of my life in looking after and I hope in +improving such mails, and I always endeavour to do a stroke of work +when I come across them. I learned on this occasion that the +conveyance of mails with a pair of horses in Canada costs little more +than half what is paid for the same work in England with one horse, +and something less than what is paid in Ireland, also for one horse. +But in Canada the average pace is only five miles an hour. In Ireland +it is seven, and the time is accurately kept, which does not seem to +be the case in Canada. In England the pace is eight miles an hour. In +Canada and in Ireland these conveyances carry passengers; but in +England they are prohibited from doing so. In Canada the vehicles are +much better got up than they are in England, and the horses too look +better. Taking Ireland as a whole they are more respectable in +appearance there than in England. From all which it appears that pace +is the article that costs the highest price, and that appearance does +not go for much in the bill. In Canada the roads are very bad in +comparison with the English or Irish roads; but to make up for this, +the price of forage is very low.</p> + +<p>I have said that the cross mail conveyances in Canada did not seem to +be very closely bound as to time; but they are regulated by +clock-work in comparison with some of them in the United States. "Are +you going this morning?" I said to a mail-driver in Vermont. "I +thought you always started in the evening." "Wa'll; I guess I do. But +it rained some last night, so I jist stayed at home." I do not know +that I ever felt more shocked in my life, and I could hardly keep my +tongue off the man. The mails, however, would have paid no respect to +me in Vermont, and I was obliged to walk away crestfallen.</p> + +<p>We went with the mails from Sherbrooke to a village called Magog at +the outlet of the lake, and from thence by a steamer up the lake to a +solitary hotel called the Mountain House, which is built at the foot +of the mountain on the shore, and which is surrounded on every side +by thick forest. There is no road within two miles of the house. The +lake therefore is the only highway, and that is frozen up for four +months in the year. When frozen, however, it is still a road, for it +is passable for sledges. I have seldom been in a house that seemed so +remote from the world, and so little within reach of doctors, +parsons, or butchers. Bakers in this country are not required, as all +persons make their own bread. But in spite of its position the hotel +is well kept, and on the whole we were more comfortable there than at +any other inn in Lower Canada. The Mountain House is but five miles +from the borders of Vermont, in which State the head of the lake +lies. The steamer which brought us runs on to Newport,—or rather +from Newport to Magog and back again. And Newport is in Vermont.</p> + +<p>The one thing to be done at the Mountain House is the ascent of the +mountain called the Owl's Head. The world there offers nothing else +of active enterprise to the traveller, unless fishing be considered +an active enterprise. I am not capable of fishing, therefore we +resolved on going up the Owl's Head. To dine in the middle of the day +is absolutely imperative at these hotels, and thus we were driven to +select either the morning or the afternoon. Evening lights we +declared were the best for all views, and therefore we decided on the +afternoon. It is but two miles; but then, as we were told more than +once by those who had spoken to us on the subject, those two miles +are not like other miles. "I doubt if the lady can do it," one man +said to me. I asked if ladies did not sometimes go up. "Yes; young +women do, at times," he said. After that my wife resolved that she +would see the top of the Owl's Head, or die in the attempt, and so we +started. They never think of sending a guide with one in these +places, whereas in Europe a traveller is not allowed to go a step +without one. When I asked for one to show us the way up Mount +Washington, I was told that there were no idle boys about that place. +The path was indicated to us, and off we started with high hopes.</p> + +<p>I have been up many mountains, and have climbed some that were +perhaps somewhat dangerous in their ascent. In climbing the Owl's +Head there is no danger. One is closed in by thick trees the whole +way. But I doubt if I ever went up a steeper ascent. It was very hard +work, but we were not beaten. We reached the top, and there sitting +down thoroughly enjoyed our victory. It was then half-past five +o'clock, and the sun was not yet absolutely sinking. It did not seem +to give us any warning that we should especially require its aid, and +as the prospect below us was very lovely we remained there for a +quarter of an hour. The ascent of the Owl's Head is certainly a thing +to do, and I still think, in spite of our following misfortune, that +it is a thing to do late in the afternoon. The view down upon the +lakes and the forests around, and on the wooded hills below, is +wonderfully lovely. I never was on a mountain which gave me a more +perfect command of all the country round. But as we arose to descend +we saw a little cloud coming towards us from over Newport.</p> + +<p>The little cloud came on with speed, and we had hardly freed +ourselves from the rocks of the summit before we were surrounded by +rain. As the rain became thicker, we were surrounded by darkness +also, or if not by darkness by so dim a light that it became a task +to find our path. I still thought that the daylight had not gone, and +that as we descended and so escaped from the cloud we should find +light enough to guide us. But it was not so. The rain soon became a +matter of indifference, and so also did the mud and briars beneath +our feet. Even the steepness of the way was almost forgotten as we +endeavoured to thread our path through the forest before it should +become impossible to discern the track. A dog had followed us up, and +though the beast would not stay with us so as to be our guide, he +returned ever and anon and made us aware of his presence by dashing +by us. I may confess now that I became much frightened. We were wet +through, and a night out in the forest would have been unpleasant to +us. At last I did utterly lose the track. It had become quite dark, +so dark that we could hardly see each other. We had succeeded in +getting down the steepest and worst part of the mountain, but we were +still among dense forest-trees, and up to our knees in mud. But the +people at the Mountain House were Christians, and men with lanterns +were sent hallooing after us through the dark night. When we were +thus found we were not many yards from the path, but unfortunately on +the wrong side of a stream. Through that we waded and then made our +way in safety to the inn. In spite of which misadventure I advise all +travellers in Lower Canada to go up the Owl's Head.</p> + +<p>On the following day we crossed the lake to Georgeville, and drove +round another lake called the Massawhippi back to Sherbrooke. This +was all very well, for it showed us a part of the country which is +comparatively well tilled, and has been long settled; but the +Massawhippi itself is not worth a visit. The route by which we +returned occupies a longer time than the other, and is more costly as +it must be made in a hired vehicle. The people here are quiet, +orderly, and I should say a little slow. It is manifest that a strong +feeling against the Northern States has lately sprung up. This is +much to be deprecated, but I cannot but say that it is natural. It is +not that the Canadians have any special Secession feelings, or that +they have entered with peculiar warmth into the questions of American +politics; but they have been vexed and acerbated by the braggadocio +of the Northern States. They constantly hear that they are to be +invaded, and translated into citizens of the Union: that British rule +is to be swept off the Continent, and that the star-spangled banner +is to be waved over them in pity. The star-spangled banner is in fact +a fine flag, and has waved to some purpose; but those who live near +it, and not under it, fancy that they hear too much of it. At the +present moment the loyalty of both the Canadas to Great Britain is +beyond all question. From all that I can hear I doubt whether this +feeling in the Provinces was ever so strong, and under such +circumstances American abuse of England and American braggadocio is +more than usually distasteful. All this abuse and all this +braggadocio comes to Canada from the Northern States, and therefore +the Southern cause is at the present moment the more popular with +them.</p> + +<p>I have said that the Canadians hereabouts are somewhat slow. As we +were driving back to Sherbrooke it became necessary that we should +rest for an hour or so in the middle of the day, and for this purpose +we stopped at a village inn. It was a large house, in which there +appeared to be three public sitting-rooms of ample size, one of which +was occupied as the bar. In this there were congregated some six or +seven men, seated in arm-chairs round a stove, and among these I +placed myself. No one spoke a word either to me or to any one else. +No one smoked, and no one read, nor did they even whittle sticks. I +asked a question first of one and then of another, and was answered +with monosyllables. So I gave up any hope in that direction, and sat +staring at the big stove in the middle of the room, as the others +did. Presently another stranger entered, having arrived in a waggon +as I had done. He entered the room and sat down, addressing no one, +and addressed by no one. After a while, however, he spoke. "Will +there be any chance of dinner here?" he said. "I guess there'll be +dinner by-and-by," answered the landlord, and then there was silence +for another ten minutes, during which the stranger stared at the +stove. "Is that dinner any way ready?" he asked again. "I guess it +is," said the landlord. And then the stranger went out to see after +his dinner himself. When we started at the end of an hour nobody said +anything to us. The driver "hitched" on the horses, as they call it, +and we started on our way, having been charged nothing for our +accommodation. That some profit arose from the horse provender is to +be hoped.</p> + +<p>On the following day we reached Montreal, which, as I have said +before, is the commercial capital of the two Provinces. This question +of the capitals is at the present moment a subject of great interest +in Canada, but as I shall be driven to say something on the matter +when I report myself as being at Ottawa, I will refrain now. There +are two special public affairs at the present moment to interest a +traveller in Canada. The first I have named, and the second is the +Grand Trunk Railway. I have already stated what is the course of this +line. It runs from the Western State of Michigan to Portland on the +Atlantic in the State of Maine, sweeping the whole length of Canada +in its route. It was originally made by three Companies. The Atlantic +and St. Lawrence constructed it from Portland to Island Pond on the +borders of the States. The St. Lawrence and Atlantic took it from the +South Eastern side of the river at Montreal to the same point, viz., +Island Pond. And the Grand Trunk Company have made it from Detroit to +Montreal, crossing the river there with a stupendous tubular bridge, +and have also made the branch connecting the main line with Quebec +and Rivière du Loup. This latter company is now incorporated with the +St. Lawrence and Atlantic, but has only leased the portion of the +line running through the States. This they have done, guaranteeing +the shareholders an interest of six per cent. There never was a +grander enterprise set on foot. I will not say there never was one +more unfortunate, for is there not the Great Eastern, which by the +weight and constancy of its failures demands for itself a proud +pre-eminence of misfortune? But surely the Grand Trunk comes next to +it. I presume it to be quite out of the question that the +shareholders should get any interest whatever on their shares for +years. The company when I was at Montreal had not paid the interest +due to the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Company for the last year, and +there was a doubt whether the lease would not be broken. No party +that had advanced money to the undertaking was able to recover what +had been advanced. I believe that one firm in London had lent nearly +a million to the Company and is now willing to accept half the sum so +lent in quittance of the whole debt. In 1860 the line could not carry +the freight that offered, not having or being able to obtain the +necessary rolling stock; and on all sides I heard men discussing +whether the line would be kept open for traffic. The Government of +Canada advanced to the Company three millions of money, with an +understanding that neither interest nor principal should be demanded +till all other debts were paid, and all shareholders in receipt of +six per cent. interest. But the three millions were clogged with +conditions which, though they have been of service to the country, +have been so expensive to the Company that it is hardly more solvent +with it than it would have been without it. As it is, the whole +property seems to be involved in ruin; and yet the line is one of the +grandest commercial conceptions that was ever carried out on the face +of the globe, and in the process of a few years will do more to make +bread cheap in England than any other single enterprise that exists.</p> + +<p>I do not know that blame is to be attached to any one. I at least +attach no such blame. Probably it might be easy now to show that the +road might have been made with sufficient accommodation for ordinary +purposes without some of the more costly details. The great tubular +bridge on which was expended £1,300,000 might, I should think, have +been dispensed with. The Detroit end of the line might have been left +for later time. As it stands now, however, it is a wonderful +operation carried to a successful issue as far as the public are +concerned, and one can only grieve that it should be so absolute a +failure to those who have placed their money in it. There are schemes +which seem to be too big for men to work out with any ordinary regard +to profit and loss. The Great Eastern is one, and this is another. +The national advantage arising from such enterprises is immense; but +the wonder is that men should be found willing to embark their money +where the risk is so great, and the return even hoped for is so +small.</p> + +<p>While I was in Canada some gentlemen were there from the Lower +Provinces—Nova Scotia, that is, and New Brunswick—agitating the +subject of another great line of railway from Quebec to Halifax. The +project is one in favour of which very much may be said. In a +national point of view an Englishman or a Canadian cannot but regret +that there should be no winter mode of exit from, or entrance to, +Canada, except through the United States. The St. Lawrence is blocked +up for four or five months in winter, and the steamers which run to +Quebec in the summer run to Portland during the season of ice. There +is at present no mode of public conveyance between the Canadas and +the Lower Provinces, and an immense district of country on the +borders of Lower Canada, through New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia +is now absolutely closed against civilization, which by such a +railway would be opened up to the light of day. We all know how much +the want of such a road was felt when our troops were being forwarded +to Canada during the last winter. It was necessary they should reach +their destination without delay; and as the river was closed, and the +passing of troops through the States was of course out of the +question, that long overland journey across Nova Scotia and New +Brunswick became a necessity. It would certainly be a very great +thing for British interests if a direct line could be made from such +a port as Halifax, a port which is open throughout the whole year, up +into the Canadas. If these Colonies belonged to France or to any +other despotic Government, the thing would be done. But the Colonies +do not belong to any despotic Government.</p> + +<p>Such a line would in fact be a continuance of the Grand Trunk; and +who that looks at the present state of the finances of the Grand +Trunk can think it to be on the cards that private enterprise should +come forward with more money,—with more millions? The idea is that +England will advance the money, and that the English House of Commons +will guarantee the interest, with some counter-guarantee from the +Colonies that this interest shall be duly paid. But it would seem +that if such Colonial guarantee is to go for anything, the Colonies +might raise the money in the money market without the intervention of +the British House of Commons.</p> + +<p>Montreal is an exceedingly good commercial town, and business there +is brisk. It has now 85,000 inhabitants. Having said that of it, I do +not know what more there is left to say. Yes; one word there is to +say of Sir William Logan the creator of the Geological Museum there +and the head of all matters geological throughout the Province. While +he was explaining to me with admirable perspicuity the result of +investigations into which he had poured his whole heart, I stood by +understanding almost nothing, but envying everything. That I +understood almost nothing, I know he perceived. That, ever and anon, +with all his graciousness became apparent. But I wonder whether he +perceived also that I did envy everything. I have listened to +geologists by the hour before—have had to listen to them, desirous +simply of escape. I have listened and understood absolutely nothing, +and have only wished myself away. But I could have listened to Sir +William Logan for the whole day, if time allowed. I found even in +that hour that some ideas found their way through to me, and I began +to fancy that even I could become a geologist at Montreal.</p> + +<p>Over and beyond Sir William Logan there is at Montreal for strangers +the drive round the mountain, not very exciting; and there is the +tubular bridge over the St. Lawrence. This, it must be understood, is +not made in one tube, as is that over the Menai Straits, but is +divided into, I think, thirteen tubes. To the eye there appear to be +twenty-five tubes; but each of the six side tubes is supported by a +pier in the middle. A great part of the expense of the bridge was +incurred in sinking the shafts for these piers.</p> + + +<p><a id="c5"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER V.</h3> +<h4>UPPER CANADA.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>Ottawa is in Upper Canada, but crossing the suspension bridge from +Ottawa into Hull the traveller is in Lower Canada. It is therefore +exactly in the confines, and has been chosen as the site of the new +Government capital very much for this reason. Other reasons have, no +doubt, had a share in the decision. At the time when the choice was +made Ottawa was not large enough to create the jealousy of the more +populous towns. Though not on the main line of railway, it was +connected with it by a branch railway, and it is also connected with +the St. Lawrence by water communication. And then it stands nobly on +a magnificent river, with high overhanging rock, and a natural +grandeur of position which has perhaps gone far in recommending it to +those whose voice in the matter has been potential. Having the world +of Canada from whence to choose the site of a new town, the choosers +have certainly chosen well. It is another question whether or no a +new town should have been deemed necessary.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it may be well to explain the circumstances under which it +was thought expedient thus to establish a new Canadian capital. In +1841 when Lord Sydenham was Governor General of the Provinces, the +two Canadas, separate till then, were united under one Government. At +that time the people of Lower or French Canada, and the people of +Upper or English Canada differed much more in their habits and +language than they do now. I do not know that the English have become +in any way Gallicized, but the French have been very materially +Anglicized. But while this has been in progress, national jealousy +has been at work; and even yet that national jealousy is not at an +end. While the two provinces were divided, there were, of course, two +capitals, and two seats of Government. These were at Quebec for Lower +Canada, and at Toronto for Upper Canada, both which towns are +centrically situated as regards the respective provinces. When the +union was effected, it was deemed expedient that there should be but +one capital; and the small town of Kingstown was selected, which is +situated on the lower end of Lake Ontario in the Upper Province. But +Kingstown was found to be inconvenient, lacking space and +accommodation for those who had to follow the Government, and the +Governor removed it and himself to Montreal. Montreal is in the Lower +Province, but is very central to both the provinces; and it is, +moreover, the chief town in Canada. This would have done very well, +but for an unforeseen misfortune.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered by most readers that in 1837 took place the +Mackenzie-Papineau rebellion, of which those who were then old enough +to be politicians heard so much in England. I am not going back to +recount the history of the period, otherwise than to say that the +English Canadians at that time, in withstanding and combating the +rebels, did considerable injury to the property of certain French +Canadians, and that when the rebellion had blown over and those in +fault had been pardoned, a question arose whether or no the +Government should make good the losses of those French Canadians who +had been injured. The English Canadians protested that it would be +monstrous that they should be taxed to repair damages suffered by +rebels, and made necessary in the suppression of rebellion. The +French Canadians declared that the rebellion had been only a just +assertion of their rights, that if there had been crime on the part +of those who took up arms that crime had been condoned, and that the +damages had not fallen exclusively or even chiefly on those who had +done so. I will give no opinion on the merits of the question, but +simply say that blood ran very hot when it was discussed. At last the +Houses of the Provincial Parliament, then assembled at Montreal, +decreed that the losses should be made good by the public treasury; +and the English mob in Montreal, when this decree became known, was +roused to great wrath by a decision which seemed to be condemnatory +of English loyalty. It pelted Lord Elgin, the Governor General, with +rotten eggs, and burned down the Parliament House. Hence, there +arose, not unnaturally, a strong feeling of anger on the part of the +local Government against Montreal; and moreover there was no longer a +House in which the Parliament could be held in that town. For these +conjoint reasons it was decided to move the seat of Government again, +and it was resolved that the Governor and the Parliament should sit +alternately at Toronto in Upper Canada, and at Quebec in Lower +Canada, remaining four years at each place. They went at first to +Toronto for two years only, having agreed that they should be there +on this occasion only for the remainder of the term of the then +Parliament. After that they were at Quebec for four years; then at +Toronto for four; and now are again at Quebec. But this arrangement +has been found very inconvenient. In the first place there is a great +national expenditure incurred in moving old records, and in keeping +double records, in moving the library, and as I have been informed +even the pictures. The Government clerks also are called on to move +as the Government moves; and though an allowance is made to them from +the national purse to cover their loss, the arrangement has +nevertheless been felt by them to be a grievance, as may be well +understood. The accommodation also for the ministers of the +Government, and for members of the two Houses has been insufficient. +Hotels, lodgings, and furnished houses could not be provided to the +extent required, seeing that they would be left nearly empty for +every alternate space of four years. Indeed it needs but little +argument to prove that the plan adopted must have been a thoroughly +uncomfortable plan, and the wonder is that it should have been +adopted. Lower Canada had undertaken to make all her leading citizens +wretched, providing Upper Canada would treat hers with equal +severity. This has now gone on for some twelve years, and as the +system was found to be an unendurable nuisance it has been at last +admitted that some steps must be taken towards selecting one capital +for the country.</p> + +<p>I should here, in justice to the Canadians, state a remark made to me +on this matter by one of the present leading politicians of the +colony. I cannot think that the migratory scheme was good; but he +defended it, asserting that it had done very much to amalgamate the +people of the two provinces; that it had brought Lower Canadians into +Upper Canada, and Upper Canadians into Lower Canada, teaching English +to those who spoke only French before, and making each pleasantly +acquainted with the other. I have no doubt that something,—perhaps +much,—has been done in this way; but valuable as the result may have +been, I cannot think it worth the cost of the means employed. The +best answer to the above argument consists in the undoubted fact that +a migratory Government would never have been established for such a +reason. It was so established because Montreal, the central town, had +given offence, and because the jealousy of the provinces against each +other would not admit of the Government being placed entirely at +Quebec, or entirely at Toronto.</p> + +<p>But it was necessary that some step should be taken; and as it was +found to be unlikely that any resolution should be reached by the +joint provinces themselves, it was loyally and wisely determined to +refer the matter to the Queen. That Her Majesty has constitutionally +the power to call the Parliament of Canada at any town of Canada +which she may select, admits, I conceive, of no doubt. It is, I +imagine, within her prerogative to call the Parliament of England +where she may please within that realm, though her lieges would be +somewhat startled if it were called otherwhere than in London. It was +therefore well done to ask Her Majesty to act as arbiter in the +matter. But there are not wanting those in Canada who say that in +referring the matter to the Queen it was in truth referring it to +those by whom very many of the Canadians were least willing to be +guided in the matter; to the Governor General namely, and the +Colonial Secretary. Many indeed in Canada now declare that the +decision simply placed the matter in the hands of the Governor +General.</p> + +<p>Be that as it may, I do not think that any unbiassed traveller will +doubt that the best possible selection has been made, presuming +always, as we may presume in the discussion, that Montreal could not +be selected. I take for granted that the rejection of Montreal was +regarded as a <i>sine quâ non</i> in the decision. To me it appears +grievous that this should have been so. It is a great thing for any +country to have a large, leading, world-known city, and I think that +the Government should combine with the commerce of the country in +carrying out this object. But commerce can do a great deal more for +Government than Government can do for commerce. Government has +selected Ottawa as the capital of Canada; but commerce has already +made Montreal the capital, and Montreal will be the chief city of +Canada, let Government do what it may to foster the other town. The +idea of spiting a town because there has been a row in it seems to me +to be preposterous. The row was not the work of those who have made +Montreal rich and respectable. Montreal is more centrical than +Ottawa,—nay, it is as nearly centrical as any town can be. It is +easier to get to Montreal from Toronto than to Ottawa;—and if from +Toronto, then from all that distant portion of Upper Canada, back of +Toronto. To all Lower Canada Montreal is, as a matter of course, much +easier of access than Ottawa. But having said so much in favour of +Montreal, I will again admit that, putting aside Montreal, the best +possible selection has been made.</p> + +<p>When Ottawa was named, no time was lost in setting to work to prepare +for the new migration. In 1859 the Parliament was removed to Quebec, +with the understanding that it should remain there till the new +buildings should be completed. These buildings were absolutely +commenced in April 1860, and it was, and I believe still is, expected +that they will be completed in 1863. I am now writing in the winter +of 1861; and, as is necessary in Canadian winters, the works are +suspended. But unfortunately they were suspended in the early part of +October,—on the 1st of October,—whereas they might have been +continued, as far as the season is concerned, up to the end of +November. We reached Ottawa on the 3rd of October, and more than a +thousand men had then been just dismissed. All the money in hand had +been expended, and the Government,—so it was said,—could give no +more money till Parliament should meet again. This was most +unfortunate. In the first place the suspension was against the +contract as made with the contractors for the building; in the next +place there was the delay; and then, worst of all, the question again +became agitated whether the colonial legislature were really in +earnest with reference to Ottawa. Many men of mark in the colony were +still anxious—I believe are still anxious,—to put an end to the +Ottawa scheme, and think that there still exists for them a chance of +success. And very many men who are not of mark are thus united, and a +feeling of doubt on the subject has been created. £225,000 has +already been spent on these buildings, and I have no doubt myself +that they will be duly completed, and duly used.</p> + +<p>We went up to the new town by boat, taking the course of the river +Ottawa. We passed St. Ann's, but no one at St. Ann's seemed to know +anything of the brothers who were to rest there on their weary oars. +At Maxwellstown I could hear nothing of Annie Laurie or of her +trysting place on the braes, and the turnpike man at Tara could tell +me nothing of the site of the hall, and had never even heard of the +harp. When I go down South I shall expect to find that the negro +melodies have not yet reached "Old Virginie." This boat conveyance +from Montreal to Ottawa is not all that could be wished in +convenience, for it is allied too closely with railway travelling. +Those who use it leave Montreal by a railway; after nine miles, they +are changed into a steamboat. Then they encounter another railway, +and at last reach Ottawa in a second steamboat. But the river is +seen, and a better idea of the country is obtained than can be had +solely from the railway cars. The scenery is by no means grand, nor +is it strikingly picturesque; but it is in its way interesting. For a +long portion of the river the old primeval forests come down close to +the water's edge, and in the fall of the year the brilliant colouring +is very lovely. It should not be imagined,—as I think it often is +imagined,—that these forests are made up of splendid trees, or that +splendid trees are even common. When timber grows on undrained +ground, and when it is uncared for, it does not seem to approach +nearer to its perfection than wheat and grass do under similar +circumstances. Seen from a little distance the colour and effect is +good, but the trees themselves have shallow roots and grow up tall, +narrow, and shapeless. It necessarily is so with all timber that is +not thinned in its growth. When fine forest trees are found, and are +left standing alone by any cultivator who may have taste enough to +wish for such adornment, they almost invariably die. They are robbed +of the sickly shelter by which they have been surrounded; the hot sun +strikes the uncovered fibres of the roots, and the poor solitary +invalid languishes and at last dies.</p> + +<p>As one ascends the river, which by its breadth forms itself into +lakes, one is shown Indian villages clustering down upon the bank. +Some years ago these Indians were rich, for the price of furs, in +which they dealt, was high; but furs have become cheaper, and the +beavers with which they used to trade are almost valueless. That a +change in the fashion of hats should have assisted to polish these +poor fellows off the face of creation must, one may suppose, be very +unintelligible to them; but nevertheless it is probably a subject of +deep speculation. If the reading world were to take to sermons again +and eschew their novels, Messrs. Thackeray, Dickens, and some others +would look about them and inquire into the causes of such a change +with considerable acuteness. They might not, perhaps, hit the truth, +and these Indians are much in that predicament. It is said that very +few pure-blooded Indians are now to be found in their villages, but I +doubt whether this is not erroneous. The children of the Indians are +now fed upon baked bread, and on cooked meat, and are brought up in +houses. They are nursed somewhat as the children of the white men are +nursed; and these practices no doubt have done much towards altering +their appearance. The negroes who have been bred in the States, and +whose fathers have been so bred before them, differ both in colour +and form from their brothers who have been born and nurtured in +Africa.</p> + +<p>I said in the last chapter that the city of Ottawa was still to be +built; but I must explain, lest I should draw down on my head the +wrath of the Ottawaites, that the place already contains a population +of 15,000 inhabitants. As, however, it is being prepared for four +times that number—for eight times that number let us hope—and as it +straggles over a vast extent of ground, it gives one the idea of a +city in an active course of preparation. In England we know nothing +about unbuilt cities. With us four or five blocks of streets together +never assume that ugly, unfledged appearance which belongs to the +half-finished carcase of a house, as they do so often on the other +side of the Atlantic. Ottawa is preparing for itself broad streets, +and grand thoroughfares. The buildings already extend over a length +considerably exceeding two miles, and half a dozen hotels have been +opened, which, if I were writing a guide-book in a complimentary +tone, it would be my duty to describe as first-rate. But the +half-dozen first-rate hotels, though open, as yet enjoy but a +moderate amount of custom. All this justifies me, I think, in saying +that the city has as yet to get itself built. The manner in which +this is being done justifies me also in saying that the Ottawaites +are going about their task with a worthy zeal.</p> + +<p>To me I confess that the nature of the situation has great +charms,—regarding it as the site for a town. It is not on a plain, +and from the form of the rock overhanging the river, and of the hill +that falls from thence down to the water, it has been found +impracticable to lay out the place in right-angled parallelograms. A +right-angled parallelogramical city, such as are Philadelphia and the +new portion of New York, is from its very nature odious to me. I know +that much may be said in its favour—that drainage and gas-pipes come +easier to such a shape, and that ground can be better economized. +Nevertheless I prefer a street that is forced to twist itself about. +I enjoy the narrowness of Temple Bar, and the misshapen curvature of +Pickett Street. The disreputable dinginess of Holywell Street is dear +to me, and I love to thread my way up by the Olympic into Covent +Garden. Fifth Avenue in New York is as grand as paint and glass can +make it; but I would not live in a palace in Fifth Avenue if the +corporation of the city would pay my baker's and butcher's bills.</p> + +<p>The town of Ottawa lies between two waterfalls. The upper one, or +Rideau Fall, is formed by the confluence of a small river with the +larger one; and the lower fall—designated as lower because it is at +the foot of the hill, though it is higher up the Ottawa river—is +called the Chaudière, from its resemblance to a boiling kettle. This +is on the Ottawa river itself. The Rideau fall is divided into two +branches, thus forming an island in the middle as is the case at +Niagara. It is pretty enough, and worth visiting, even were it +further from the town than it is; but by those who have hunted out +many cataracts in their travels it will not be considered very +remarkable. The Chaudière fall I did think very remarkable. It is of +trifling depth, being formed by fractures in the rocky bed of the +river; but the waters have so cut the rock as to create beautiful +forms in the rush which they make in their descent. Strangers are +told to look at these falls from the suspension bridge; and it is +well that they should do so. But in so looking at them they obtain +but a very small part of their effect. On the Ottawa side of the +bridge is a brewery, which brewery is surrounded by a huge +timber-yard. This timber-yard I found to be very muddy, and the +passing and repassing through it is a work of trouble; but +nevertheless let the traveller by all means make his way through the +mud, and scramble over the timber, and cross the plank bridges which +traverse the streams of the sawmills, and thus take himself to the +outer edge of the woodwork over the water. If he will then seat +himself, about the hour of sunset, he will see the Chaudière fall +aright.</p> + +<p>But the glory of Ottawa will be—and, indeed, already is—the set of +public buildings which is now being erected on the rock which guards +as it were the town from the river. How much of the excellence of +these buildings may be due to the taste of Sir Edmund Head, the late +Governor, I do not know. That he has greatly interested himself in +the subject is well known: and as the style of the different +buildings is so much alike as to make one whole, though the designs +of different architects were selected, and these different architects +employed, I imagine that considerable alterations must have been made +in the original drawings. There are three buildings, forming three +sides of a quadrangle; but they are not joined, the vacant spaces at +the corner being of considerable extent. The fourth side of the +quadrangle opens upon one of the principal streets of the town. The +centre building is intended for the Houses of Parliament, and the two +side buildings for the Government offices. Of the first Messrs. +Fuller and Jones are the architects, and of the latter Messrs. Stent +and Laver. I did not have the pleasure of meeting any of these +gentlemen; but I take upon myself to say that as regards purity of +art and manliness of conception their joint work is entitled to the +very highest praise. How far the buildings may be well arranged for +the required purposes, how far they may be economical in +construction, or specially adapted to the severe climate of the +country, I cannot say; but I have no hesitation in risking my +reputation for judgment in giving my warmest commendation to them as +regards beauty of outline and truthful nobility of detail.</p> + +<p>I will not attempt to describe them, for I should interest no one in +doing so, and should certainly fail in my attempt to make any reader +understand me. I know no modern Gothic purer of its kind, or less +sullied with fictitious ornamentation. Our own Houses of Parliament +are very fine, but it is, I believe, generally felt that the +ornamentation is too minute; and, moreover, it may be questioned +whether perpendicular Gothic is capable of the highest nobility which +architecture can achieve. I do not pretend to say that these Canadian +public buildings will reach that highest nobility. They must be +finished before any final judgment can be pronounced; but I do feel +very certain that that final judgment will be greatly in their +favour. The total frontage of the quadrangle, including the side +buildings, is 1,200 feet; that of the centre buildings is 475. As I +have said before, £225,000 has already been expended, and it is +estimated that the total cost, including the arrangement and +decoration of the ground behind the building and in the quadrangle, +will be half a million.</p> + +<p>The buildings front upon what will, I suppose, be the principal +street of Ottawa, and they stand upon a rock looking immediately down +upon the river. In this way they are blessed with a site peculiarly +happy. Indeed I cannot at this moment remember any so much so. The +castle of Edinburgh stands very well; but then, like many other +castles, it stands on a summit by itself, and can only be approached +by a steep ascent. These buildings at Ottawa, though they look down +from a grand eminence immediately on the river, are approached from +the town without any ascent. The rock, though it falls almost +precipitously down to the water, is covered with trees and shrubs, +and then the river that runs beneath is rapid, bright, and +picturesque in the irregularity of all its lines. The view from the +back of the library, up to the Chaudière falls, and to the saw-mills +by which they are surrounded, is very lovely. So that I will say +again, that I know no site for such a set of buildings so happy as +regards both beauty and grandeur. It is intended that the library, of +which the walls were only ten feet above the ground when I was there, +shall be an octagonal building, in shape and outward character like +the chapter-house of a cathedral. This structure will, I presume, be +surrounded by gravel walks and green sward. Of the library there is a +large model showing all the details of the architecture; and if that +model be ultimately followed, this building alone will be worthy of a +visit from English tourists. To me it was very wonderful to find such +an edifice in the course of erection on the banks of a wild river, +almost at the back of Canada. But if ever I visit Canada again it +will be to see those buildings when completed.</p> + +<p>And now, like all friendly critics, having bestowed my modicum of +praise, I must proceed to find fault. I cannot bring myself to +administer my sugar-plum without adding to it some bitter morsel by +way of antidote. The building to the left of the quadrangle as it is +entered is deficient in length, and on that account appears mean to +the eye. The two side buildings are brought up close to the street, +so that each has a frontage immediately on the street. Such being the +case they should be of equal length, or nearly so. Had the centre of +one fronted the centre of the other, a difference of length might +have been allowed; but in this case the side front of the smaller one +would not have reached the street. As it is, the space between the +main building and the smaller wing is disproportionably large, and +the very distance at which it stands will, I fear, give to it that +appearance of meanness of which I have spoken. The clerk of the +works, who explained to me with much courtesy the plan of the +buildings, stated that the design of this wing was capable of +elongation, and had been expressly prepared with that object. If this +be so, I trust that the defect will be remedied.</p> + +<p>The great trade of Canada is lumbering; and lumbering consists in +cutting down pine trees up in the far distant forests, in hewing or +sawing them into shape for market, and getting them down the rivers +to Quebec, from whence they are exported to Europe, and chiefly to +England. Timber in Canada is called lumber; those engaged in the +trade are called lumberers, and the business itself is called +lumbering. After a lapse of time it must no doubt become monotonous +to those engaged in it, and the name is not engaging; but there is +much about it that is very picturesque. A saw-mill worked by water +power is almost always a pretty object, and stacks of new cut timber +are pleasant to the smell, and group themselves not amiss on the +water's edge. If I had the time, and were a year or two younger, I +should love well to go up lumbering into the woods. The men for this +purpose are hired in the fall of the year, and are sent up hundreds +of miles away to the pine forests in strong gangs. Everything is +there found for them. They make log huts for their shelter, and food +of the best and the strongest is taken up for their diet. But no +strong drink of any kind is allowed, nor is any within reach of the +men. There are no publics, no shebeen houses, no grog-shops. Sobriety +is an enforced virtue; and so much is this considered by the masters, +and understood by the men, that very little contraband work is done +in the way of taking up spirits to these settlements. It may be said +that the work up in the forests is done with the assistance of no +stronger drink than tea; and it is very hard work. There cannot be +much work that is harder; and it is done amidst the snows and forests +of a Canadian winter. A convict in Bermuda cannot get through his +daily eight hours of light labour without an allowance of rum; but a +Canadian lumberer can manage to do his daily task on tea without +milk. These men, however, are by no means teetotallers. When they +come back to the towns they break out, and reward themselves for +their long enforced moderation. The wages I found to be very various, +running from thirteen or fourteen dollars a month to twenty-eight or +thirty, according to the nature of the work. The men who cut down the +trees receive more than those who hew them when down, and these again +more than the under class who make the roads and clear the ground. +These money wages, however, are in addition to their diet. The +operation requiring the most skill is that of marking the trees for +the axe. The largest only are worth cutting, and form and soundness +must also be considered.</p> + +<p>But if I were about to visit a party of lumberers in the forest, I +should not be disposed to pass a whole winter with them. Even of a +very good thing one may have too much. I would go up in the spring, +when the rafts are being formed in the small tributary streams, and I +would come down upon one of them, shooting the rapids of the rivers +as soon as the first freshets had left the way open. A freshet in the +rivers is the rush of waters occasioned by melting snow and ice. The +first freshets take down the winter waters of the nearer lakes and +rivers. Then the streams become for a time navigable, and the rafts +go down. After that comes the second freshet, occasioned by the +melting of far-off snow and ice up in the great northern lakes which +are little known. These rafts are of immense construction, such as +those which we have seen on the Rhone and Rhine, and often contain +timber to the value of two, three, and four thousand pounds. At the +rapids the large rafts are, as it were, unyoked, and divided into +small portions, which go down separately. The excitement and motion +of such transit must, I should say, be very joyous. I was told that +the Prince of Wales desired to go down a rapid on a raft, but that +the men in charge would not undertake to say that there was no +possible danger. Whereupon those who accompanied the prince requested +his Royal Highness to forbear. I fear that in these careful days +crowned heads and their heirs must often find themselves in the +position of Sancho at the banquet. The sailor prince who came after +his brother was allowed to go down a rapid, and got, as I was told, +rather a rough bump as he did so.</p> + +<p>Ottawa is a great place for these timber rafts. Indeed, it may, I +think, be called the head-quarters of timber for the world. Nearly +all the best pine wood comes down the Ottawa and its tributaries. The +other rivers by which timber is brought down to the St. Lawrence are +chiefly the St. Maurice, the Madawaska, and the Saguenay; but the +Ottawa and its tributaries water 75,000 square miles; whereas the +other three rivers with their tributaries water only 53,000. The +timber from the Ottawa and St. Maurice finds its way down the St. +Lawrence to Quebec, where, however, it loses the whole of its +picturesque character. The Saguenay and the Madawaska fall into the +St. Lawrence below Quebec.</p> + +<p>From Ottawa we went by rail to Prescott, which is surely one of the +most wretched little places to be found in any country. Immediately +opposite to it, on the other side of the St. Lawrence, is the +thriving town of Ogdensburgh. But Ogdensburgh is in the United +States. Had we been able to learn at Ottawa any facts as to the hours +of the river steamers and railways we might have saved time and have +avoided Prescott; but this was out of the question. Had I asked the +exact hour at which I might reach Calcutta by the quickest route, an +accurate reply would not have been more out of the question. I was +much struck at Prescott—and indeed all through Canada, though more +in the upper than in the lower province—by the sturdy roughness, +some would call it insolence, of those of the lower classes of the +people with whom I was brought into contact. If the words "lower +classes" give offence to any reader, I beg to apologize;—to +apologize and to assert that I am one of the last of men to apply +such a term in a sense of reproach to those who earn their bread by +the labour of their hands. But it is hard to find terms which will be +understood; and that term, whether it give offence or no, will be +understood. Of course such a complaint as that I now make is very +common as made against the States. Men in the States with horned +hands and fustian coats are very often most unnecessarily insolent in +asserting their independence. What I now mean to say is that +precisely the same fault is to be found in Canada. I know well what +the men mean when they offend in this manner. And when I think on the +subject with deliberation, at my own desk, I can not only excuse, but +almost approve them. But when one personally encounters their +corduroy braggadocio; when the man to whose services one is entitled +answers one with determined insolence; when one is bidden to follow +"that young lady," meaning the chambermaid, or desired, with a toss +of the head, to wait for the "gentleman who is coming," meaning the +boots, the heart is sickened, and the English traveller pines for the +civility,—for the servility, if my American friends choose to call +it so,—of a well-ordered servant. But the whole scene is easily +construed, and turned into English. A man is asked by a stranger some +question about his employment, and he replies in a tone which seems +to imply anger, insolence, and a dishonest intention to evade the +service for which he is paid. Or if there be no question of service +or payment, the man's manner will be the same, and the stranger feels +that he is slapped in the face and insulted. The translation of it is +this. The man questioned, who is aware that as regards coat, hat, +boots, and outward cleanliness he is below him by whom he is +questioned, unconsciously feels himself called upon to assert his +political equality. It is his shibboleth that he is politically equal +to the best, that he is independent, and that his labour, though it +earn him but a dollar a day by porterage, places him as a citizen on +an equal rank with the most wealthy fellow-man that may employ or +accost him. But being so inferior in that coat, hat and boots matter, +he is forced to assert his equality by some effort. As he improves in +externals he will diminish the roughness of his claim. As long as the +man makes his claim with any roughness, so long does he acknowledge +within himself some feeling of external inferiority. When that has +gone,—when the American has polished himself up by education and +general well being to a feeling of external equality with gentlemen, +he shows, I think, no more of that outward braggadocio of +independence than a Frenchman.</p> + +<p>But the blow at the moment of the stroke is very galling. I confess +that I have occasionally all but broken down beneath it. But when it +is thought of afterwards it admits of full excuse. No effort that a +man can make is better than a true effort at independence. But this +insolence is a false effort, it will be said. It should rather be +called a false accompaniment to a life-long true effort. The man +probably is not dishonest, does not desire to shirk any service which +is due from him,—is not even inclined to insolence. Accept his first +declaration of equality for that which it is intended to represent, +and the man afterwards will be found obliging and communicative. If +occasion offer he will sit down in the room with you and will talk +with you on any subject that he may choose; but having once +ascertained that you show no resentment for this assertion of +equality, he will do pretty nearly all that he is asked. He will at +any rate do as much in that way as an Englishman. I say thus much on +this subject now especially, because I was quite as much struck by +the feeling in Canada as I was within the States.</p> + +<p>From Prescott we went on by the Grand Trunk Railway to Toronto, and +stayed there for a few days. Toronto is the capital of the province +of Upper Canada, and I presume will in some degree remain so in spite +of Ottawa and its pretensions. That is, the law courts will still be +held there. I do not know that it will enjoy any other supremacy, +unless it be that of trade and population. Some few years ago Toronto +was advancing with rapid strides, and was bidding fair to rival +Quebec, or even perhaps Montreal. Hamilton, also, another town of +Upper Canada, was going a head in the true American style; but then +reverses came in trade, and the towns were checked for a while. +Toronto, with a neighbouring suburb which is a part of it, as +Southwark is of London, contains now over 50,000 inhabitants. The +streets are all parallelogramical, and there is not a single +curvature to rest the eye. It is built down close upon Lake Ontario; +and as it is also on the Grand Trunk Railway it has all the aid which +facility of traffic can give it.</p> + +<p>The two sights of Toronto are the Osgoode Hall and the University. +The Osgoode Hall is to Upper Canada what the Four Courts are to +Ireland. The law courts are all held there. Exteriorly little can be +said for Osgoode Hall, whereas the exterior of the Four Courts in +Dublin is very fine; but as an interior the temple of Themis at +Toronto beats hollow that which the goddess owns in Dublin. In Dublin +the Courts themselves are shabby, and the space under the dome is not +so fine as the exterior seems to promise that it should be. In +Toronto the Courts themselves are, I think, the most commodious that +I ever saw, and the passages, vestibules, and hall are very handsome. +In Upper Canada the common law judges and those in Chancery are +divided as they are in England; but it is, as I was told, the opinion +of Canadian lawyers that the work may be thrown together. Appeal is +allowed in criminal cases; but as far as I could learn such power of +appeal is held to be both troublesome and useless. In Lower Canada +the old French laws are still administered.</p> + +<p>But the University is the glory of Toronto. This is a Gothic building +and will take rank after, but next to the buildings at Ottawa. It +will be the second piece of noble architecture in Canada, and as far +as I know on the American continent. It is, I believe, intended to be +purely Norman, though I doubt whether the received types of Norman +architecture have not been departed from in many of the windows. Be +this as it may the College is a manly, noble structure, free from +false decoration, and infinitely creditable to those who projected +it. I was informed by the head of the College that it has been open +only two years, and here also I fancy that the colony has been much +indebted to the taste of the late Governor, Sir Edmund Head.</p> + +<p>Toronto as a city is not generally attractive to a traveller. The +country around it is flat; and, though it stands on a lake, that lake +has no attributes of beauty. Large inland seas such as are these +great Northern lakes of America never have such attributes. +Picturesque mountains rise from narrow valleys, such as form the beds +of lakes in Switzerland, Scotland, and Northern Italy. But from such +broad waters as those of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and Lake Michigan, +the shores shelve very gradually, and have none of the materials of +lovely scenery.</p> + +<p>The streets in Toronto are framed with wood, or rather planked, as +are those of Montreal and Quebec; but they are kept in better order. +I should say that the planks are first used at Toronto, then sent +down by the lake to Montreal, and when all but rotted out there, are +again floated off by the St. Lawrence to be used in the thoroughfares +of the old French capital. But if the streets of Toronto are better +than those of the other towns, the roads round it are worse. I had +the honour of meeting two distinguished members of the Provincial +Parliament at dinner some few miles out of town, and, returning back +a short while after they had left our host's house, was glad to be of +use in picking them up from a ditch into which their carriage had +been upset. To me it appeared all but miraculous that any carriage +should make its way over that road without such misadventure. I may +perhaps be allowed to hope that the discomfiture of those worthy +legislators may lead to some improvement in the thoroughfare.</p> + +<p>I had on a previous occasion gone down the St. Lawrence, through the +thousand isles, and over the rapids in one of those large summer +steamboats which ply upon the lake and river. I cannot say that I was +much struck by the scenery, and therefore did not encroach upon my +time by making the journey again. Such an opinion will be regarded as +heresy by many who think much of the thousand islands. I do not +believe that they would be expressly noted by any traveller who was +not expressly bidden to admire them.</p> + +<p>From Toronto we went across to Niagara, re-entering the States at +Lewiston in New York.</p> + + +<p><a id="c6"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER VI.</h3> +<h4>THE CONNEXION OF THE CANADAS<br />WITH GREAT BRITAIN.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>When the American war began troops were sent out to Canada, and when +I was in the Provinces more troops were then expected. The matter was +much talked of, as a matter of course, in Canada; and it had been +discussed in England before I left. I had seen much said about it in +the English papers since, and it also had become the subject of very +hot question among the politicians of the Northern States. The +measure had at that time given more umbrage to the North than +anything else done or said by England from the beginning of the war +up to that time, except the declaration made by Lord John Russell in +the House of Commons as to the neutrality to be preserved by England +between the two belligerents. The argument used by the Northern +States was this. If France collects men and material of war in the +neighbourhood of England, England considers herself injured, calls +for an explanation, and talks of invasion. Therefore as England is +now collecting men and material of war in our neighbourhood, we will +consider ourselves injured. It does not suit us to ask for an +explanation, because it is not our habit to interfere with other +nations. We will not pretend to say that we think we are to be +invaded. But as we clearly are injured, we will express our anger at +that injury, and when the opportunity shall come will take advantage +of having that new grievance.</p> + +<p>As we all know, a very large increase of force was sent when we were +still in doubt as to the termination of the Trent affair, and +imagined that war was imminent. But the sending of that large force +did not anger the Americans, as the first despatch of troops to +Canada had angered them. Things had so turned out that measures of +military precaution were acknowledged by them to be necessary. I +cannot, however, but think that Mr. Seward might have spared that +offer to send British troops across Maine; and so, also, have all his +countrymen thought by whom I have heard the matter discussed.</p> + +<p>As to any attempt at invasion of Canada by the Americans, or idea of +punishing the alleged injuries suffered by the States from Great +Britain by the annexation of those provinces, I do not believe that +any sane-minded citizens of the States believe in the possibility of +such retaliation. Some years since the Americans thought that Canada +might shine in the Union firmament as a new star, but that delusion +is, I think, over. Such annexation if ever made, must have been made +not only against the arms of England but must also have been made in +accordance with the wishes of the people so annexed. It was then +believed that the Canadians were not averse to such a change, and +there may possibly have then been among them the remnant of such a +wish. There is certainly no such desire now, not even a remnant of +such a desire; and the truth on this matter is, I think, generally +acknowledged. The feeling in Canada is one of strong aversion to the +United States Government, and of predilection for self-government +under the English Crown. A fainéant Governor and the prestige of +British power is now the political aspiration of the Canadians in +general; and I think that this is understood in the States. Moreover +the States have a job of work on hand which, as they themselves are +well aware, is taxing all their energies. Such being the case I do +not think that England needs to fear any invasion of Canada, +authorized by the States Government.</p> + +<p>This feeling of a grievance on the part of the States was a manifest +absurdity. The new reinforcement of the garrisons in Canada did not, +when I was in Canada, amount as I believe to more than 2,000 men. But +had it amounted to 20,000 the States would have had no just ground +for complaint. Of all nationalities that in modern days have risen to +power, they above all others have shown that they would do what they +liked with their own, indifferent to foreign councils, and deaf to +foreign remonstrance. "Do you go your way, and let us go ours. We +will trouble you with no question, nor do you trouble us." Such has +been their national policy, and it has obtained for them great +respect. They have resisted the temptation of putting their fingers +into the caldron of foreign policy; and foreign politicians, +acknowledging their reserve in this respect, have not been offended +at the bristles with which their Noli me tangere has been proclaimed. +Their intelligence has been appreciated, and their conduct has been +respected. But if this has been their line of policy, they must be +entirely out of court in raising any question as to the position of +British troops on British soil.</p> + +<p>"It shows us that you doubt us," an American says, with an air of +injured honour—or did say, before that Trent affair. "And it is done +to express sympathy with the South. The Southerners understand it, +and we understand it also. We know where your hearts are—nay, your +very souls. They are among the slave-begotten cotton bales of the +rebel South." Then comes the whole of the long argument, in which it +seems so easy to an Englishman to prove that England in the whole of +this sad matter has been true and loyal to her friend. She could not +interfere when the husband and wife would quarrel. She could only +grieve, and wish that things might come right and smooth for both +parties. But the argument though so easy is never effectual.</p> + +<p>It seems to me foolish in an American to quarrel with England for +sending soldiers to Canada; but I cannot say that I thought it was +well done to send them at the beginning of the war. The English +Government did not, I presume, take this step with reference to any +possible invasion of Canada by the Government of the States. We are +fortifying Portsmouth, and Portland, and Plymouth, because we would +fain be safe against the French army acting under a French Emperor. +But we sent 2,000 troops to Canada, if I understand the matter +rightly, to guard our provinces against the filibustering energies of +a mass of unemployed American soldiers, when those soldiers should +come to be disbanded. When this war shall be over—a war during which +not much, if any, under a million of American citizens will have been +under arms—it will not be easy for all who survive to return to +their old homes and old occupations. Nor does a disbanded soldier +always make a good husbandman, notwithstanding the great examples of +Cincinnatus and Bird-o'-freedom Sawin. It may be that a considerable +amount of filibustering energy will be afloat, and that the then +Government of those who neighbour us in Canada will have other +matters in hand more important to them than the controlling of these +unruly spirits. That, as I take it, was the evil against which we of +Great Britain and of Canada desired to guard ourselves.</p> + +<p>But I doubt whether 2,000 or 10,000 British soldiers would be any +effective guard against such inroads, and I doubt more strongly +whether any such external guarding will be necessary. If the +Canadians were prepared to fraternize with filibusters from the +States, neither three nor ten thousand soldiers would avail against +such a feeling over a frontier stretching from the State of Maine to +the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Erie. If such a feeling did exist, +if the Canadians wished the change, in God's name let them go. It is +for their sakes and not for our own that we would have them bound to +us. But the Canadians are averse to such a change with a degree of +feeling that amounts to national intensity. Their sympathies are with +the Southern States, not because they care for cotton, not because +they are anti-abolitionists, not because they admire the hearty pluck +of those who are endeavouring to work out for themselves a new +revolution. They sympathize with the South from strong dislike to the +aggression, the braggadocio, and the insolence they have felt upon +their own borders. They dislike Mr. Seward's weak and vulgar joke +with the Duke of Newcastle. They dislike Mr. Everett's flattering +hints to his countrymen as to the one nation that is to occupy the +whole continent. They dislike the Monroe doctrine. They wonder at the +meekness with which England has endured the vauntings of the Northern +States, and are endued with no such meekness of their own. They +would, I believe, be well prepared to meet and give an account of any +filibusters who might visit them; and I am not sure that it is wisely +done on our part to show any intention of taking the work out of +their hands.</p> + +<p>But I am led to this opinion in no degree by a feeling that Great +Britain ought to grudge the cost of the soldiers. If Canada will be +safer with them, in heaven's name let her have them. It has been +argued in many places, not only with regard to Canada, but as to all +our self-governed colonies, that military service should not be given +at British expense and with British men to any colony which has its +own representative government, and which levies its own taxes. "While +Great Britain absolutely held the reins of government, and did as it +pleased with the affairs of its dependencies," such politicians say, +"it was just and right that she should pay the bill. As long as her +government of a colony was paternal, so long was it right that the +mother country should put herself in the place of a father, and enjoy +a father's undoubted prerogative of putting his hand into his +breeches pocket to provide for all the wants of his child. But when +the adult son set up for himself in business, having received +education from the parent, and having had his apprentice fees duly +paid, then that son should settle his own bills, and look no longer +to the paternal pocket." Such is the law of the world all over, from +little birds whose young fly away when fledged, upwards to men and +nations. Let the father work for the child while he is a child, but +when the child has become a man let him lean no longer on his +father's staff.</p> + +<p>The argument is, I think, very good; but it proves, not that we are +relieved from the necessity of assisting our colonies with payments +made out of British taxes, but that we are still bound to give such +assistance; and that we shall continue to be so bound as long as we +allow these colonies to adhere to us, or as they allow us to adhere +to them. In fact the young bird is not yet fully fledged. That +illustration of the father and the child is a just one, but in order +to make it just it should be followed throughout. When the son is in +fact established on his own bottom, then the father expects that he +will live without assistance. But when the son does so live he is +freed from all paternal control. The father, while he expects to be +obeyed, continues to fill the paternal office of paymaster,—of +paymaster, at any rate, to some extent. And so, I think, it must be +with our colonies. The Canadas at present are not independent, and +have not political power of their own apart from the political power +of Great Britain. England has declared herself neutral as regards the +Northern and Southern States, and by that neutrality the Canadas are +bound; and yet the Canadas were not consulted in the matter. Should +England go to war with France, Canada must close her ports against +French vessels. If England chooses to send her troops to Canadian +barracks, Canada cannot refuse to accept them. If England should send +to Canada an unpopular Governor, Canada has no power to reject his +services. As long as Canada is a colony, so called, she cannot be +independent, and should not be expected to walk alone. It is exactly +the same with the colonies of Australia, with New Zealand, with the +Cape of Good Hope, and with Jamaica. While England enjoys the +prestige of her colonies, while she boasts that such large and now +populous territories are her dependencies, she must and should be +content to pay some portion of the bill. Surely it is absurd on our +part to quarrel with Caffre warfare, with New Zealand fighting, and +the rest of it. Such complaints remind one of an ancient +paterfamilias, who insists on having his children and his +grandchildren under the old paternal roof, and then grumbles because +the butcher's bill is high. Those who will keep large households and +bountiful tables should not be afraid of facing the butcher's bill, +or unhappy at the tonnage of the coal. It is a grand thing, that +power of keeping a large table; but it ceases to be grand when the +items heaped upon it cause inward groans and outward moodiness.</p> + +<p>Why should the colonies remain true to us as children are true to +their parents, if we grudge them the assistance which is due to a +child? They raise their own taxes, it is said, and administer them. +True; and it is well that the growing son should do something for +himself. While the father does all for him the son's labour belongs +to the father. Then comes a middle state in which the son does much +for himself, but not all. In that middle state now stand our +prosperous colonies. Then comes the time when the son shall stand +alone by his own strength; and to that period of manly self-respected +strength let us all hope that those colonies are advancing. It is +very hard for a mother country to know when such a time has come; and +hard also for the child-colony to recognize justly the period of its +own maturity. Whether or no such severance may ever take place +without a quarrel, without weakness on one side and pride on the +other, is a problem in the world's history yet to be solved. The most +successful child that ever yet has gone off from a successful parent +and taken its own path into the world, is without doubt the nation of +the United States. Their present troubles are the result and the +proofs of their success. The people that were too great to be +dependent on any nation have now spread till they are themselves too +great for a single nationality. No one now thinks that that daughter +should have remained longer subject to her mother. But the severance +was not made in amity, and the shrill notes of the old family quarrel +are still sometimes heard across the waters.</p> + +<p>From all this the question arises whether that problem may ever be +solved with reference to the Canadas. That it will never be their +destiny to join themselves to the States of the Union, I feel fully +convinced. In the first place it is becoming evident from the present +circumstances of the Union,—if it had never been made evident by +history before,—that different people with different habits living +at long distances from each other cannot well be brought together on +equal terms under one Government. That noble ambition of the +Americans that all the continent north of the isthmus should be +united under one flag, has already been thrown from its saddle. The +North and South are virtually separated, and the day will come in +which the West also will secede. As population increases and trades +arise peculiar to those different climates, the interests of the +people will differ, and a new secession will take place beneficial +alike to both parties. If this be so, if even there be any tendency +this way, it affords the strongest argument against the probability +of any future annexation of the Canadas. And then, in the second +place, the feeling of Canada is not American, but British. If ever +she be separated from Great Britain, she will be separated as the +States were separated. She will desire to stand alone, and to enter +herself as one among the nations of the earth.</p> + +<p>She will desire to stand alone;—alone, that is without dependence +either on England or on the States. But she is so circumstanced +geographically that she can never stand alone without amalgamation +with our other North American provinces. She has an outlet to the sea +at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but it is only a summer outlet. Her +winter outlet is by railway through the States, and no other winter +outlet is possible for her except through the sister provinces. +Before Canada can be nationally great, the line of railway which now +runs for some hundred miles below Quebec to Rivière du Loup, must be +continued on through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to the port of +Halifax.</p> + +<p>When I was in Canada I heard the question discussed of a Federal +Government between the provinces of the two Canadas, New Brunswick +and Nova Scotia. To these were added, or not added, according to the +opinion of those who spoke, the smaller outlying colonies of +Newfoundland and Prince Edward's Island. If a scheme for such a +Government were projected in Downing Street, all would no doubt be +included, and a clean sweep would be made without difficulty. But the +project as made in the colonies appears in different guises as it +comes either from Canada or from one of the other provinces. The +Canadian idea would be that the two Canadas should form two States of +such a confederation, and the other provinces a third State. But this +slight participation in power would hardly suit the views of New +Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In speaking of such a Federal Government +as this, I shall of course be understood as meaning a confederation +acting in connection with a British Governor, and dependent upon +Great Britain as far as the different colonies are now dependent.</p> + +<p>I cannot but think that such a confederation might be formed with +great advantage to all the colonies and to Great Britain. At present +the Canadas are in effect almost more distant from Nova Scotia and +New Brunswick than they are from England. The intercourse between +them is very slight—so slight that it may almost be said that there +is no intercourse. A few men of science or of political importance +may from time to time make their way from one colony into the other, +but even this is not common. Beyond that they seldom see each other. +Though New Brunswick borders both with Lower Canada and with Nova +Scotia, thus making one whole of the three colonies, there is neither +railroad nor stage conveyance running from one to the other. And yet +their interests should be similar. From geographical position their +modes of life must be alike, and a close conjunction between them is +essentially necessary to give British North America any political +importance in the world. There can be no such conjunction, no +amalgamation of interests, until a railway shall have been made +joining the Canada Grand Trunk Line with the two outlying colonies. +Upper Canada can feed all England with wheat, and could do so without +any aid of railway through the States, if a railway were made from +Quebec to Halifax. But then comes the question of the cost. The +Canada Grand Trunk is at the present moment at the lowest ebb of +commercial misfortune, and with such a fact patent to the world what +company will come forward with funds for making four or five hundred +miles of railway, through a district of which one half is not yet +prepared for population? It would be, I imagine, out of the question +that such a speculation should for many years give any fair +commercial interest on the money to be expended. But nevertheless to +the colonies,—that is, to the enormous regions of British North +America,—such a railroad would be invaluable. Under such +circumstances it is for the Home Government and the colonies between +them to see how such a measure may be carried out. As a national +expenditure to be defrayed in the course of years by the territories +interested, the sum of money required would be very small.</p> + +<p>But how would this affect England? And how would England be affected +by a union of the British North American colonies under one Federal +Government? Before this question can be answered, he who prepares to +answer it must consider what interest England has in her colonies, +and for what purpose she holds them. Does she hold them for profit, +or for glory, or for power; or does she hold them in order that she +may carry out the duty which has devolved upon her of extending +civilization, freedom, and well-being through the new uprising +nations of the world? Does she hold them, in fact, for her own +benefit, or does she hold them for theirs? I know nothing of the +ethics of the Colonial Office, and not much perhaps of those of the +House of Commons; but looking at what Great Britain has hitherto done +in the way of colonization, I cannot but think that the national +ambition looks to the welfare of the colonists, and not to home +aggrandisement. That the two may run together is most probable. +Indeed there can be no glory to a people so great or so readily +recognized by mankind at large as that of spreading civilization from +East to West, and from North to South. But the one object should be +the prosperity of the colonists; and not profit, nor glory, nor even +power to the parent country.</p> + +<p>There is no virtue of which more has been said and sung than +patriotism, and none which when pure and true has led to finer +results. Dulce et decorum est pro patriâ mori. To live for one's +country also is a very beautiful and proper thing. But if we examine +closely much patriotism, that is so called, we shall find it going +hand in hand with a good deal that is selfish, and with not a little +that is devilish. It was some fine fury of patriotic feeling which +enabled the national poet to put into the mouth of every Englishman +that horrible prayer with regard to our enemies, which we sing when +we wish to do honour to our sovereign. It did not seem to him that it +might be well to pray that their hearts should be softened, and our +own hearts softened also. National success was all that a patriotic +poet could desire, and therefore in our national hymn have we gone on +imploring the Lord to arise and scatter our enemies; to confound +their politics, whether they be good or ill; and to expose their +knavish tricks,—such knavish tricks being taken for granted. And +then with a steady confidence we used to declare how certain we were +that we should achieve all that was desirable, not exactly by +trusting to our prayer to heaven, but by relying almost exclusively +on George the Third or George the Fourth. Now I have always thought +that that was rather a poor patriotism. Luckily for us our national +conduct has not squared itself with our national anthem. Any +patriotism must be poor which desires glory or even profit for a few +at the expense of many, even though the few be brothers and the many +aliens. As a rule patriotism is a virtue only because man's aptitude +for good is so finite, that he cannot see and comprehend a wider +humanity. He can hardly bring himself to understand that salvation +should be extended to Jew and Gentile alike. The word philanthropy +has become odious, and I would fain not use it; but the thing itself +is as much higher than patriotism, as heaven is above the earth.</p> + +<p>A wish that British North America should ever be severed from +England, or that the Australian colonies should ever be so severed, +will by many Englishmen be deemed unpatriotic. But I think that such +severance is to be wished if it be the case that the colonies +standing alone would become more prosperous than they are under +British rule. We have before us an example in the United States of +the prosperity which has attended such a rupture of old ties. I will +not now contest the point with those who say that the present moment +of an American civil war is ill chosen for vaunting that prosperity. +There stand the cities which the people have built, and their power +is attested by the world-wide importance of their present contest. +And if the States have so risen since they left their parent's +apron-string, why should not British North America rise as high? That +the time has as yet come for such rising I do not think; but that it +will soon come I do most heartily hope. The making of the railway of +which I have spoken, and the amalgamation of the provinces would +greatly tend to such an event. If, therefore, England desires to keep +these colonies in a state of dependency; if it be more essential to +her to maintain her own power with regard to them than to increase +their influence; if her main object be to keep the colonies and not +to improve the colonies, then I should say that an amalgamation of +the Canadas with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick should not be regarded +with favour by statesmen in Downing Street. But if, as I would fain +hope, and do partly believe, such ideas of national power as these +are now out of vogue with British statesmen, then I think that such +an amalgamation should receive all the support which Downing Street +can give it.</p> + +<p>The United States severed themselves from Great Britain with a great +struggle and after heartburnings and bloodshed. Whether Great Britain +will ever allow any colony of hers to depart from out of her nest, to +secede and start for herself, without any struggle or heartburnings, +with all furtherance for such purpose which an old and powerful +country can give to a new nationality then first taking its own place +in the world's arena, is a problem yet to be solved. There is, I +think, no more beautiful sight than that of a mother, still in all +the glory of womanhood, preparing the wedding trousseau for her +daughter. The child hitherto has been obedient and submissive. She +has been one of a household in which she has held no command. She has +sat at table as a child, fitting herself in all things to the behests +of others. But the day of her power and her glory, and also of her +cares and solicitude is at hand. She is to go forth, and do as she +best may in the world under that teaching which her old home has +given her. The hour of separation has come; and the mother, smiling +through her tears, sends her forth decked with a bounteous hand and +furnished with full stores, so that all may be well with her as she +enters on her new duties. So is it that England should send forth her +daughters. They should not escape from her arms with shrill screams +and bleeding wounds, with ill-omened words which live so long, though +the speakers of them lie cold in their graves.</p> + +<p>But this sending forth of a child-nation to take its own political +status in the world has never yet been done by Great Britain. I +cannot remember that such has ever been done by any great power with +reference to its dependency;—by any power that was powerful enough +to keep such dependency within its grasp. But a man thinking on these +matters cannot but hope that a time will come when such amicable +severance may be effected. Great Britain cannot think that through +all coming ages she is to be the mistress of the vast continent of +Australia, lying on the other side of the globe's surface; that she +is to be the mistress of all South Africa, as civilization shall +extend northward; that the enormous territories of British North +America are to be subject for ever to a veto from Downing Street. If +the history of past empires does not teach her that this may not be +so, at least the history of the United States might so teach her. +"But we have learned a lesson from those United States," the patriot +will argue who dares to hope that the glory and extent of the British +Empire may remain unimpaired <i>in sæcula +sæculorum</i>. "Since that day +we have given political rights to our colonies, and have satisfied +the political longings of their inhabitants. We do not tax their tea +and stamps, but leave it to them to tax themselves as they may +please." True. But in political aspirations the giving of an inch has +ever created the desire for an ell. If the Australian colonies, even +now,—with their scanty population and still young civilization, +chafe against imperial interference, will they submit to it when they +feel within their veins all the full blood of political manhood? What +is the cry even of the Canadians—of the Canadians who are thoroughly +loyal to England? Send us a fainéant Governor, a King Log, who will +not presume to interfere with us; a Governor who will spend his money +and live like a gentleman and care little or nothing for politics. +That is the Canadian <i>beau idéal</i> of a Governor. They are to govern +themselves; and he who comes to them from England is to sit among +them as the silent representative of England's protection. If that be +true—and I do not think that any who know the Canadas will deny +it—must it not be presumed that they will soon also desire a +fainéant minister in Downing Street? Of course they will so desire. +Men do not become milder in their aspirations for political power, +the more that political power is extended to them. Nor would it be +well that they should be so humble in their desires. Nations devoid +of political power have never risen high in the world's esteem. Even +when they have been commercially successful, commerce has not brought +to them the greatness which it has always given when joined with a +strong political existence. The Greeks are commercially rich and +active; but "Greece" and "Greek" are bye-words now for all that is +mean. Cuba is a colony, and putting aside the cities of the States, +the Havana is the richest town on the other side of the Atlantic and +commercially the greatest; but the political villainy of Cuba, her +daily importation of slaves, her breaches of treaty, and the bribery +of her all but royal Governor are known to all men. But Canada is not +dishonest; Canada is no bye-word for anything evil; Canada eats her +own bread in the sweat of her brow, and fears a bad word from no man. +True. But why does New York with its suburbs boast a million of +inhabitants, while Montreal has 85,000? Why has that babe in years, +Chicago, 120,000, while Toronto has not half the number? I do not say +that Montreal and Toronto should have gone ahead abreast with New +York and Chicago. In such races one must be first, and one last. But +I do say that the Canadian towns will have no equal chance, till they +are actuated by that feeling of political independence which has +created the growth of the towns in the United States.</p> + +<p>I do not think that the time has yet come in which Great Britain +should desire the Canadians to start for themselves. There is the +making of that railroad to be effected, and something done towards +the union of those provinces. Canada could no more stand alone +without New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, than could those latter +colonies without Canada. But I think it would be well to be prepared +for such a coming day; and that it would at any rate be well to bring +home to ourselves and realize the idea of such secession on the part +of our colonies, when the time shall have come at which such +secession may be carried out with profit and security to them. Great +Britain, should she ever send forth her child alone into the world, +must of course guarantee her security. Such guarantees are given by +treaties; and in the wording of them it is presumed that such +treaties will last for ever. It will be argued that in starting +British North America as a political power on its own bottom, we +should bind ourself to all the expense of its defence, while we +should give up all right to any interference in its concerns; and +that from a state of things so unprofitable as this there would be no +prospect of deliverance. But such treaties, let them be worded how +they will, do not last for ever. For a time, no doubt, Great Britain +would be so hampered—if indeed she would feel herself hampered by +extending her name and prestige to a country bound to her by ties +such as those which would then exist between her and this new nation. +Such treaties are not everlasting, nor can they be made to last even +for ages. Those who word them seem to think that powers and dynasties +will never pass away. But they do pass away, and the balance of power +will not keep itself fixed for ever on the same pivot. The time may +come—that it may not come soon we will all desire—but the time may +come when the name and prestige of what we call British North America +will be as serviceable to Great Britain as those of Great Britain are +now serviceable to her colonies.</p> + +<p>But what shall be the new form of government for the new kingdom? +That is a speculation very interesting to a politician; though one +which to follow out at great length in these early days would be +rather premature. That it should be a kingdom—that the political +arrangement should be one of which a crowned hereditary king should +form a part, nineteen out of every twenty Englishmen would desire; +and, as I fancy, so would also nineteen out of every twenty +Canadians. A king for the United States when they first established +themselves was impossible. A total rupture from the Old World and all +its habits was necessary for them. The name of a king, or monarch, or +sovereign had become horrible to their ears. Even to this day they +have not learned the difference between arbitrary power retained in +the hand of one man, such as that now held by the Emperor over the +French, and such hereditary headship in the State as that which +belongs to the Crown in Great Britain. And this was necessary, seeing +that their division from us was effected by strife, and carried out +with war and bitter animosities. In those days also there was a +remnant, though but a small remnant, of the power of tyranny left +within the scope of the British Crown. That small remnant has been +removed; and to me it seems that no form of existing government—no +form of government that ever did exist, gives or has given so large a +measure of individual freedom to all who live under it as a +constitutional monarchy in which the Crown is divested of direct +political power.</p> + +<p>I will venture then to suggest a king for this new nation; and seeing +that we are rich in princes there need be no difficulty in the +selection. Would it not be beautiful to see a new nation established +under such auspices, and to establish a people to whom their +independence had been given,—to whom it had been freely surrendered +as soon as they were capable of holding the position assigned to +them?</p> + + +<p><a id="c7"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER VII.</h3> +<h4>NIAGARA.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>Of all the sights on this earth of ours which tourists travel to +see,—at least of all those which I have seen,—I am inclined to +give the palm to the Falls of Niagara. In the catalogue of such sights I +intend to include all buildings, pictures, statues, and wonders of +art made by men's hands, and also all beauties of nature prepared by +the Creator for the delight of his creatures. This is a long word; +but as far as my taste and judgment go, it is justified. I know no +other one thing so beautiful, so glorious, and so powerful. I would +not by this be understood as saying that a traveller wishing to do +the best with his time should first of all places seek Niagara. In +visiting Florence he may learn almost all that modern art can teach. +At Rome he will be brought to understand the cold hearts, correct +eyes, and cruel ambition of the old Latin race. In Switzerland he +will surround himself with a flood of grandeur and loveliness, and +fill himself, if he be capable of such filling, with a flood of +romance. The Tropics will unfold to him all that vegetation in its +greatest richness can produce. In Paris he will find the supreme of +polish, the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of varnish according to the world's +capability of varnishing. And in London he will find the supreme of +power, the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of work according to the world's +capability of working. Any one of such journeys may be more valuable +to a man,—nay, any one such journey must be more valuable to a +man,—than a visit to Niagara. At Niagara there is that fall of +waters alone. But that fall is more graceful than Giotto's tower, +more noble than the Apollo. The peaks of the Alps are not so +astounding in their solitude. The valleys of the Blue Mountains in +Jamaica are less green. The finished glaze of life in Paris is less +invariable; and the full tide of trade round the Bank of England is +not so inexorably powerful.</p> + +<p>I came across an artist at Niagara who was attempting to draw the +spray of the waters. "You have a difficult subject," said I. "All +subjects are difficult," he replied, "to a man who desires to do +well." "But yours, I fear, is impossible," I said. "You have no right +to say so till I have finished my picture," he replied. I +acknowledged the justice of his rebuke, regretted that I could not +remain till the completion of his work should enable me to revoke my +words, and passed on. Then I began to reflect whether I did not +intend to try a task as difficult in describing the falls, and +whether I felt any of that proud self-confidence which kept him happy +at any rate while his task was in hand. I will not say that it is as +difficult to describe aright that rush of waters, as it is to paint +it well. But I doubt whether it is not quite as difficult to write a +description that shall interest the reader, as it is to paint a +picture of them that shall be pleasant to the beholder. My friend the +artist was at any rate not afraid to make the attempt, and I also +will try my hand.</p> + +<p>That the waters of Lake Erie have come down in their courses from the +broad basins of Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, and Lake Huron; that +these waters fall into Lake Ontario by the short and rapid river of +Niagara, and that the Falls of Niagara are made by a sudden break in +the level of this rapid river, is probably known to all who will read +this book. All the waters of these huge northern inland seas run over +that breach in the rocky bottom of the stream; and thence it comes +that the flow is unceasing in its grandeur, and that no eye can +perceive a difference in the weight, or sound, or violence of the +fall, whether it be visited in the drought of autumn, amidst the +storms of winter, or after the melting of the upper worlds of ice in +the days of the early summer. How many cataracts does the habitual +tourist visit at which the waters fail him? But at Niagara the waters +never fail. There it thunders over its ledge in a volume that never +ceases and is never diminished;—as it has done from times previous +to the life of man, and as it will do till tens of thousands of years +shall see the rocky bed of the river worn away, back to the upper +lake.</p> + +<p>This stream divides Canada from the States, the western or +farthermost bank belonging to the British Crown, and the eastern or +nearer bank being in the State of New York. In visiting Niagara it +always becomes a question on which side the visitor shall take up his +quarters. On the Canada side there is no town, but there is a large +hotel, beautifully placed immediately opposite to the falls, and this +is generally thought to be the best locality for tourists. In the +State of New York is the town called Niagara Falls, and here there +are two large hotels, which, as to their immediate site, are not so +well placed as that in Canada. I first visited Niagara some three +years since. I stayed then at the Clifton House on the Canada side, +and have since sworn by that position. But the Clifton House was +closed for the season when I was last there, and on that account we +went to the Cataract House in the town on the other side. I now think +that I should set up my staff on the American side if I went again. +My advice on the subject to any party starting for Niagara would +depend upon their habits, or on their nationality. I would send +Americans to the Canadian side, because they dislike walking; but +English people I would locate on the American side, seeing that they +are generally accustomed to the frequent use of their own legs. The +two sides are not very easily approached, one from the other. +Immediately below the falls there is a ferry, which may be traversed +at the expense of a shilling; but the labour of getting up and down +from the ferry is considerable, and the passage becomes wearisome. +There is also a bridge, but it is two miles down the river, making a +walk or drive of four miles necessary, and the toll for passing is +four shillings or a dollar in a carriage, and one shilling on foot. +As the greater variety of prospect can be had on the American side, +as the island between the two falls is approachable from the American +side and not from the Canadian, and as it is in this island that +visitors will best love to linger and learn to measure in their minds +the vast triumph of waters before them, I recommend such of my +readers as can trust a little,—it need be but a little,—to their +own legs to select their hotel at Niagara Falls town.</p> + +<p>It has been said that it matters much from what point the falls are +first seen, but to this I demur. It matters, I think, very little, or +not at all. Let the visitor first see it all, and learn the +whereabouts of every point, so as to understand his own position and +that of the waters; and then having done that in the way of business +let him proceed to enjoyment. I doubt whether it be not the best to +do this with all sight seeing. I am quite sure that it is the way in +which acquaintance may be best and most pleasantly made with a new +picture.</p> + +<p>The falls are, as I have said, made by a sudden breach in the level +of the river. All cataracts are, I presume, made by such breaches; +but generally the waters do not fall precipitously as they do at +Niagara, and never elsewhere, as far as the world yet knows, has a +breach so sudden been made in a river carrying in its channel such or +any approach to such a body of water. Up above the falls, for more +than a mile, the waters leap and burst over rapids, as though +conscious of the destiny that awaits them. Here the river is very +broad, and comparatively shallow, but from shore to shore it frets +itself into little torrents, and begins to assume the majesty of its +power. Looking at it even here, in the expanse which forms itself +over the greater fall, one feels sure that no strongest swimmer could +have a chance of saving himself, if fate had cast him in even among +those petty whirlpools. The waters, though so broken in their +descent, are deliciously green. This colour as seen early in the +morning, or just as the sun has set, is so bright as to give to the +place one of its chiefest charms.</p> + +<p>This will be best seen from the further end of the island,—Goat +Island, as it is called,—which, as the reader will understand, +divides the river immediately above the falls. Indeed the island is a +part of that precipitously broken ledge over which the river tumbles; +and no doubt in process of time will be worn away and covered with +water. The time, however, will be very long. In the meanwhile it is +perhaps a mile round, and is covered thickly with timber. At the +upper end of the island the waters are divided, and coming down in +two courses, each over its own rapids, form two separate falls. The +bridge by which the island is entered is a hundred yards or more +above the smaller fall. The waters here have been turned by the +island, and make their leap into the body of the river below at a +right angle with it,—about two hundred yards below the greater fall. +Taken alone this smaller cataract would, I imagine, be the heaviest +fall of water known, but taken in conjunction with the other it is +terribly shorn of its majesty. The waters here are not green as they +are at the larger cataract, and though the ledge has been hollowed +and bowed by them so as to form a curve, that curve does not deepen +itself into a vast abyss as it does at the horseshoe up above. This +smaller fall is again divided, and the visitor passing down a flight +of steps and over a frail wooden bridge finds himself on a smaller +island in the midst of it.</p> + +<p>But we will go at once on to the glory, and the thunder, and the +majesty, and the wrath of that upper hell of waters. We are still, +let the reader remember, on Goat Island, still in the States, and on +what is called the American side of the main body of the river. +Advancing beyond the path leading down to the lesser fall, we come to +that point of the island at which the waters of the main river begin +to descend. From hence across to the Canadian side the cataract +continues itself in one unabated line. But the line is very far from +being direct or straight. After stretching for some little way from +the shore, to a point in the river which is reached by a wooden +bridge at the end of which stands a tower upon the rock,—after +stretching to this, the line of the ledge bends inwards against the +flood,—in, and in, and in till one is led to think that the depth of +that horseshoe is immeasurable. It has been cut with no stinting +hand. A monstrous cantle has been worn back out of the centre of the +rock, so that the fury of the waters converges, and the spectator as +he gazes into the hollow with wishful eyes fancies that he can hardly +trace out the centre of the abyss.</p> + +<p>Go down to the end of that wooden bridge, seat yourself on the rail, +and there sit till all the outer world is lost to you. There is no +grander spot about Niagara than this. The waters are absolutely +around you. If you have that power of eye-control which is so +necessary to the full enjoyment of scenery you will see nothing but +the water. You will certainly hear nothing else; and the sound, I beg +you to remember, is not an ear-cracking, agonizing crash and clang of +noises; but is melodious, and soft withal, though loud as thunder. It +fills your ears, and as it were envelopes them, but at the same time +you can speak to your neighbour without an effort. But at this place, +and in these moments, the less of speaking I should say the better. +There is no grander spot than this. Here, seated on the rail of the +bridge, you will not see the whole depth of the fall. In looking at +the grandest works of nature, and of art too, I fancy, it is never +well to see all. There should be something left to the imagination, +and much should be half concealed in mystery. The greatest charm of a +mountain range is the wild feeling that there must be strange unknown +desolate worlds in those far-off valleys beyond. And so here, at +Niagara, that converging rush of waters may fall down, down at once +into a hell of rivers for what the eye can see. It is glorious to +watch them in their first curve over the rocks. They come green as a +bank of emeralds; but with a fitful flying colour, as though +conscious that in one moment more they would be dashed into spray and +rise into air, pale as driven snow. The vapour rises high into the +air, and is gathered there, visible always as a permanent white cloud +over the cataract; but the bulk of the spray which fills the lower +hollow of that horse-shoe is like a tumult of snow. This you will not +fully see from your seat on the rail. The head of it rises ever and +anon out of that caldron below, but the caldron itself will be +invisible. It is ever so far down,—far as your own imagination can +sink it. But your eyes will rest full upon the curve of the waters. +The shape you will be looking at is that of a horse-shoe, but of a +horse-shoe miraculously deep from toe to heel;—and this depth +becomes greater as you sit there. That which at first was only great +and beautiful, becomes gigantic and sublime till the mind is at loss +to find an epithet for its own use. To realize Niagara you must sit +there till you see nothing else than that which you have come to see. +You will hear nothing else, and think of nothing else. At length you +will be at one with the tumbling river before you. You will find +yourself among the waters as though you belonged to them. The cool +liquid green will run through your veins, and the voice of the +cataract will be the expression of your own heart. You will fall as +the bright waters fall, rushing down into your new world with no +hesitation and with no dismay; and you will rise again as the spray +rises, bright, beautiful, and pure. Then you will flow away in your +course to the uncompassed, distant, and eternal ocean.</p> + +<p>When this state has been reached and has passed away you may get off +your rail and mount the tower. I do not quite approve of that tower, +seeing that it has about it a gingerbread air, and reminds one of +those well-arranged scenes of romance in which one is told that on +the left you turn to the lady's bower, price sixpence; and on the +right ascend to the knight's bed, price sixpence more, with a view of +the hermit's tomb thrown in. But nevertheless the tower is worth +mounting, and no money is charged for the use of it. It is not very +high, and there is a balcony at the top on which some half dozen +persons may stand at ease. Here the mystery is lost, but the whole +fall is seen. It is not even at this spot brought so fully before +your eye,—made to show itself in so complete and entire a shape, as +it will do when you come to stand near to it on the opposite or +Canadian shore. But I think that it shows itself more beautifully. +And the form of the cataract is such, that, here in Goat Island, on +the American side, no spray will reach you, although you are +absolutely over the waters. But on the Canadian side, the road as it +approaches the fall is wet and rotten with spray, and you, as you +stand close upon the edge, will be wet also. The rainbows as they are +seen through the rising cloud—for the sun's rays as seen through +these waters show themselves in a bow as they do when seen through +rain,—are pretty enough, and are greatly loved. For myself I do not +care for this prettiness at Niagara. It is there, but I forget +it,—and do not mind how soon it is forgotten.</p> + +<p>But we are still on the tower; and here I must declare that though I +forgive the tower, I cannot forgive the horrid obelisk which has +latterly been built opposite to it, on the Canadian side, up above +the fall; built apparently,—for I did not go to it,—with some +camera obscura intention for which the projector deserves to be put +in Coventry by all good Christian men and women. At such a place as +Niagara tasteless buildings, run up in wrong places with a view to +money making, are perhaps necessary evils. It may be that they are +not evils at all;—that they give more pleasure than pain, seeing +that they tend to the enjoyment of the multitude. But there are +edifices of this description which cry aloud to the gods by the force +of their own ugliness and malposition. As to such it may be said that +there should somewhere exist a power capable of crushing them in +their birth. This new obelisk or picture-building at Niagara is one +of such.</p> + +<p>And now we will cross the water, and with this object will return by +the bridge out of Goat Island on the main land of the American side. +But as we do so let me say that one of the great charms of Niagara +consists in this,—that over and above that one great object of +wonder and beauty, there is so much little loveliness;—loveliness +especially of water I mean. There are little rivulets running here +and there over little falls, with pendent boughs above them, and +stones shining under their shallow depths. As the visitor stands and +looks through the trees the rapids glitter before him, and then hide +themselves behind islands. They glitter and sparkle in far distances +under the bright foliage till the remembrance is lost, and one knows +not which way they run. And then the river below, with its +whirlpool;—but we shall come to that by-and-by, and to the mad +voyage which was made down the rapids by that mad captain who ran the +gauntlet of the waters at the risk of his own life, with fifty to one +against him, in order that he might save another man's property from +the Sheriff.</p> + +<p>The readiest way across to Canada is by the ferry; and on the +American side this is very pleasantly done. You go into a little +house, pay 20 cents, take a seat on a wooden car of wonderful shape, +and on the touch of a spring find yourself travelling down an +inclined plane of terrible declivity and at a very fast rate. You +catch a glance of the river below you, and recognize the fact that if +the rope by which you are held should break, you would go down at a +very fast rate indeed,—and find your final resting place in the +river. As I have gone down some dozen times and have come to no such +grief, I will not presume that you will be less lucky. Below there is +a boat generally ready. If it be not there, the place is not chosen +amiss for a rest of ten minutes, for the lesser fall is close at +hand, and the larger one is in full view. Looking at the rapidity of +the river you will think that the passage must be dangerous and +difficult. But no accidents ever happen, and the lad who takes you +over seems to do it with sufficient ease. The walk up the hill on the +other side is another thing. It is very steep, and for those who have +not good locomotive power of their own, will be found to be +disagreeable. In the full season, however, carriages are generally +waiting there. In so short a distance I have always been ashamed to +trust to other legs than my own, but I have observed that Americans +are always dragged up. I have seen single young men of from eighteen +to twenty-five, from whose outward appearance no story of idle +luxurious life can be read, carried about alone in carriages over +distances which would be counted as nothing by any healthy English +lady of fifty. None but the old and invalids should require the +assistance of carriages in seeing Niagara, but the trade in carriages +is to all appearance the most brisk trade there.</p> + +<p>Having mounted the hill on the Canada side you will walk on towards +the falls. As I have said before, you will from this side look +directly into the full circle of the upper cataract, while you will +have before you at your left hand the whole expanse of the lesser +fall. For those who desire to see all at a glance, who wish to +comprise the whole with their eyes, and to leave nothing to be +guessed, nothing to be surmised, this, no doubt, is the best point of +view.</p> + +<p>You will be covered with spray as you walk up to the ledge of rocks, +but I do not think that the spray will hurt you. If a man gets wet +through going to his daily work, cold, catarrh, cough, and all their +attendant evils may be expected; but these maladies usually spare the +tourist. Change of air, plenty of air, excellence of air, and +increased exercise make these things powerless. I should therefore +bid you disregard the spray. If, however, you are yourself of a +different opinion, you may hire a suit of oil-cloth clothes for, I +believe, a quarter of a dollar. They are nasty of course, and have +this further disadvantage, that you become much more wet having them +on than you would be without them.</p> + +<p>Here, on this side, you walk on to the very edge of the cataract, +and, if your tread be steady and your legs firm, you dip your foot +into the water exactly at the spot where the thin outside margin of +the current reaches the rocky edge and jumps to join the mass of the +fall. The bed of white foam beneath is certainly seen better here +than elsewhere, and the green curve of the water is as bright here as +when seen from the wooden rail across. But nevertheless I say again +that that wooden rail is the one point from whence Niagara may be +best seen aright.</p> + +<p>Close to the cataract, exactly at the spot from whence in former days +the Table Rock used to project from the land over the boiling caldron +below, there is now a shaft down which you will descend to the level +of the river, and pass between the rock and the torrent. This Table +Rock broke away from the cliff and fell, as up the whole course of +the river the seceding rocks have split and fallen from time to time +through countless years, and will continue to do till the bed of the +upper lake is reached. You will descend this shaft, taking to +yourself or not taking to yourself a suit of oil-clothes as you may +think best. I have gone with and without the suit, and again +recommend that they be left behind. I am inclined to think that the +ordinary payment should be made for their use, as otherwise it will +appear to those whose trade it is to prepare them that you are +injuring them in their vested rights.</p> + +<p>Some three years since I visited Niagara on my way back to England +from Bermuda, and in a volume of travels which I then published I +endeavoured to explain the impression made upon me by this passage +between the rock and the waterfall. An author should not quote +himself; but as I feel myself bound, in writing a chapter specially +about Niagara, to give some account of this strange position, I will +venture to repeat my own words.</p> + +<p>In the spot to which I allude the visitor stands on a broad safe +path, made of shingles, between the rock over which the water rushes +and the rushing water. He will go in so far that the spray rising +back from the bed of the torrent does not incommode him. With this +exception, the further he can go in the better; but circumstances +will clearly show him the spot to which he should advance. Unless the +water be driven in by a very strong wind, five yards make the +difference between a comparatively dry coat and an absolutely wet +one. And then let him stand with his back to the entrance, thus +hiding the last glimmer of the expiring day. So standing he will look +up among the falling waters, or down into the deep misty pit, from +which they reascend in almost as palpable a bulk. The rock will be at +his right hand, high and hard, and dark and straight, like the wall +of some huge cavern, such as children enter in their dreams. For the +first five minutes he will be looking but at the waters of a +cataract,—at the waters, indeed, of such a cataract as we know no +other, and at their interior curves which elsewhere we cannot see. +But by-and-by all this will change. He will no longer be on a shingly +path beneath a waterfall; but that feeling of a cavern wall will grow +upon him, of a cavern deep, below roaring seas, in which the waves +are there, though they do not enter in upon him; or rather not the +waves, but the very bowels of the ocean. He will feel as though the +floods surrounded him, coming and going with their wild sounds, and +he will hardly recognize that though among them he is not in them. +And they, as they fall with a continual roar, not hurting the ear, +but musical withal, will seem to move as the vast ocean waters may +perhaps move in their internal currents. He will lose the sense of +one continued descent, and think that they are passing round him in +their appointed courses. The broken spray that rises from the depth +below, rises so strongly, so palpably, so rapidly, that the motion in +every direction will seem equal. And, as he looks on, strange colours +will show themselves through the mist; the shades of grey will become +green or blue, with ever and anon a flash of white; and then, when +some gust of wind blows in with greater violence, the sea-girt cavern +will become all dark and black. Oh, my friend, let there be no one +there to speak to thee then; no, not even a brother. As you stand +there speak only to the waters.</p> + +<p>Two miles below the falls the river is crossed by a suspension bridge +of marvellous construction. It affords two thoroughfares, one above +the other. The lower road is for carriages and horses, and the upper +one bears a railway belonging to the Great Western Canada line. The +view from hence both up and down the river is very beautiful, for the +bridge is built immediately over the first of a series of rapids. One +mile below the bridge these rapids end in a broad basin called the +whirlpool, and, issuing out of this, the current turns to the right +through a narrow channel overhung by cliffs and trees, and then makes +its way down to Lake Ontario with comparative tranquillity.</p> + +<p>But I will beg you to take notice of those rapids from the bridge and +to ask yourself what chance of life would remain to any ship, craft, +or boat required by destiny to undergo navigation beneath the bridge +and down into that whirlpool. Heretofore all men would have said that +no chance of life could remain to so ill-starred a bark. The +navigation, however, has been effected. But men used to the river +still say that the chances would be fifty to one against any vessel +which should attempt to repeat the experiment.</p> + +<p>The story of that wondrous voyage was as follows. A small steamer +called the Maid of the Mist was built upon the river, between the +falls and the rapids, and was used for taking adventurous tourists up +amidst the spray, as near to the cataract as was possible. The Maid +of the Mist plied in this way for a year or two, and was, I believe, +much patronized during the season. But in the early part of last +summer an evil time had come. Either the Maid got into debt, or her +owner had embarked in other and less profitable speculations. At any +rate he became subject to the law, and tidings reached him that the +Sheriff would seize the Maid. On most occasions the Sheriff is bound +to keep such intentions secret, seeing that property is moveable, and +that an insolvent debtor will not always await the officers of +justice. But with the poor Maid there was no need of such secresy. +There was but a mile or so of water on which she could ply, and she +was forbidden by the nature of her properties to make any way upon +land. The Sheriff's prey therefore was easy and the poor Maid was +doomed.</p> + +<p>In any country in the world but America such would have been the +case, but an American would steam down Phlegethon to save his +property from the Sheriff; he would steam down Phlegethon or get some +one else to do it for him. Whether or no in this case the captain of +the boat was the proprietor, or whether, as I was told, he was paid +for the job, I do not know; but he determined to run the rapids, and +he procured two others to accompany him in the risk. He got up his +steam, and took the Maid up amidst the spray according to his custom. +Then suddenly turning on his course, he with one of his companions +fixed himself at the wheel, while the other remained at his engine. I +wish I could look into the mind of that man and understand what his +thoughts were at that moment; what were his thoughts and what his +beliefs. As to one of the men I was told that he was carried down, +not knowing what he was about to do, but I am inclined to believe +that all the three were joined together in the attempt.</p> + +<p>I was told by a man who saw the boat pass under the bridge, that she +made one long leap down as she came thither, that her funnel was at +once knocked flat on the deck by the force of the blow, that the +waters covered her from stem to stern, and that then she rose again +and skimmed into the whirlpool a mile below. When there she rode with +comparative ease upon the waters, and took the sharp turn round into +the river below without a struggle. The feat was done, and the Maid +was rescued from the Sheriff. It is said that she was sold below at +the mouth of the river, and carried from thence over Lake Ontario and +down the St. Lawrence to Quebec.</p> + + +<p><a id="c8"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER VIII.</h3> +<h4>NORTH AND WEST.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>From Niagara we determined to proceed north-west; as far to the +north-west as we could go with any reasonable hope of finding +American citizens in a state of political civilization, and perhaps +guided also in some measure by our hopes as to hotel accommodation. +Looking to these two matters we resolved to get across to the +Mississippi, and to go up that river as far as the town of St. Paul +and the falls of St. Anthony, which are some twelve miles above the +town; then to descend the river as far as the States of Iowa on the +west and Illinois on the east; and to return eastwards through +Chicago and the large cities on the southern shores of Lake Erie, +from whence we would go across to Albany, the capital of New York +State, and down the Hudson to New York, the capital of the Western +world. For such a journey, in which scenery was one great object, we +were rather late, as we did not leave Niagara till the 10th of +October; but though the winters are extremely cold through all this +portion of the American continent—15, 20, and even 25 degrees below +zero being an ordinary state of the atmosphere in latitudes equal to +those of Florence, Nice, and Turin—nevertheless the autumns are +mild, the noon day being always warm, and the colours of the foliage +are then in all their glory. I was also very anxious to ascertain, if +it might be in my power to do so, with what spirit or true feeling as +to the matter, the work of recruiting for the now enormous army of +the States was going on in those remote regions. That men should be +on fire in Boston and New York, in Philadelphia, and along the +borders of secession, I could understand. I could understand also +that they should be on fire throughout the cotton, sugar, and rice +plantations of the South. But I could hardly understand that this +political fervour should have communicated itself to the far-off +farmers who had thinly spread themselves over the enormous +wheat-growing districts of the North-West. St. Paul, the capital of +Minnesota, is 900 miles directly north of St. Louis, the most +northern point to which slavery extends in the Western States of the +Union, and the farming lands of Minnesota stretch away again for some +hundreds of miles north and west of St. Paul. Could it be that those +scanty and far-off pioneers of agriculture, those frontier farmers +who are nearly one half German and nearly the other half Irish, would +desert their clearings and ruin their chances of progress in the +world for distant wars of which the causes must, as I thought, be to +them unintelligible? I had been told that distance had but lent +enchantment to the view, and that the war was even more popular in +the remote and newly settled States than in those which have been +longer known as great political bodies. So I resolved that I would go +and see.</p> + +<p>It may be as well to explain here that that great political Union +hitherto called the United States of America may be more properly +divided into three than into two distinct interests. In England we +have long heard of North and South as pitted against each other, and +we have always understood that the southern politicians or democrats +have prevailed over the northern politicians or republicans, because +they were assisted in their views by northern men of mark who have +held southern principles;—that is, by northern men who have been +willing to obtain political power by joining themselves to the +southern party. That as far as I can understand has been the general +idea in England, and in a broad way it has been true. But as years +have advanced and as the States have extended themselves westward, a +third large party has been formed, which sometimes rejoices to call +itself The Great West; and though at the present time the West and +the North are joined together against the South, the interests of the +North and the West are not, I think, more closely interwoven than are +those of the West and South; and when the final settlement of this +question shall be made, there will doubtless be great difficulty in +satisfying the different aspirations and feelings of two great free +soil populations. The North, I think, will ultimately perceive that +it will gain much by the secession of the South; but it will be very +difficult to make the West believe that secession will suit its +views.</p> + +<p>I will attempt in a rough way to divide the States, as they seem to +divide themselves, into these three parties. As to the majority of +them there is no difficulty in locating them; but this cannot be done +with absolute certainty as to some few that lie on the borders.</p> + +<p>New England consists of six States, of which all of course belong to +the North. They are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, +Rhode Island, and Connecticut; the six States which should be most +dear to England, and in which the political success of the United +States as a nation is to my eyes the most apparent. But even in them +there was till quite of late a strong section so opposed to the +republican party as to give a material aid to the South. This, I +think, was particularly so in New Hampshire, from whence President +Pierce came. He had been one of the senators from New Hampshire; and +yet to him, as President, is affixed the disgrace,—whether truly +affixed or not I do not say,—of having first used his power in +secretly organizing those arrangements which led to secession and +assisted at its birth. In Massachusetts also itself there was a +strong democratic party, of which Massachusetts now seems to be +somewhat ashamed. Then, to make up the North, must be added the two +great States of New York and Pennsylvania, and the small State of New +Jersey. The West will not agree even to this absolutely, seeing that +they claim all territory west of the Alleghenies, and that a portion +of Pennsylvania, and some part also of New York lie westward of that +range; but in endeavouring to make these divisions ordinarily +intelligible I may say that the North consists of the nine States +above named. But the North will also claim Maryland and Delaware, and +the eastern half of Virginia. The North will claim them though they +are attached to the South by joint participation in the great social +institution of slavery, for Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia are +slave States;—and I think that the North will ultimately make good +its claim. Maryland and Delaware lie, as it were, behind the capital, +and Eastern Virginia is close upon the capital. And these regions are +not tropical in their climate or influences. They are and have been +slave States; but will probably rid themselves of that taint and +become a portion of the free North.</p> + +<p>The southern or slave States, properly so called, are easily defined. +They are Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, +Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The South will also +claim Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, Delaware, and +Maryland, and will endeavour to prove its right to the claim by the +fact of the social institution being the law of the land in those +States. Of Delaware, Maryland, and Eastern Virginia, I have already +spoken. Western Virginia is, I think, so little tainted with slavery, +that, as she stands even at present, she properly belongs to the +West. As I now write the struggle is going on in Kentucky and +Missouri. In Missouri the slave population is barely more than a +tenth of the whole, while in South Carolina and Mississippi it is +more than half. And, therefore, I venture to count Missouri among the +western States, although slavery is still the law of the land within +its borders. It is surrounded on three sides by free States of the +West, and its soil, let us hope, must become free. Kentucky I must +leave as doubtful, though I am inclined to believe that slavery will +be abolished there also. Kentucky at any rate will never throw in its +lot with the southern States. As to Tennessee, it seceded heart and +soul, and I fear that it must be accounted as southern, although the +northern army has now, in May 1862, possessed itself of the greater +part of the State.</p> + +<p>To the great West remains an enormous territory, of which, however, +the population is as yet but scanty; though perhaps no portion of the +world has increased so fast in population as have these western +States. The list is as follows: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, +Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas,—to which I would add Missouri, +and probably the western half of Virginia. We have then to account +for the two already admitted States on the Pacific, California and +Oregon, and also for the unadmitted Territories, Dacotah, Nebraska, +Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Neveda. I should be +refining too much for my present very general purpose, if I were to +attempt to marshal these huge but thinly populated regions in either +rank. Of California and Oregon it may probably be said that it is +their ambition to form themselves into a separate division;—a +division which may be called the further West.</p> + +<p>I know that all statistical statements are tedious, and I believe +that but few readers believe them. I will, however, venture to give +the populations of these States in the order I have named them, +seeing that power in America depends almost entirely on population. +The census of 1860 gave the following +<span class="nowrap">results:—</span></p> + + +<p>In the North.</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"> + <tr> + <td>Maine + </td> + <td class="dollar">619,000 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>New Hampshire + </td> + <td class="dollar">326,872 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Vermont + </td> + <td class="dollar">325,827 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Massachusetts + </td> + <td class="dollar">1,231,494 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Rhode Island + </td> + <td class="dollar">174,621 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Connecticut + </td> + <td class="dollar">460,670 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>New York + </td> + <td class="dollar">3,851,563 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Pennsylvania + </td> + <td class="dollar">2,916,018 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>New Jersey + </td> + <td class="dollar"><span class="u"> 676,034</span> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> Total + </td> + <td class="dollar">10,582,099 + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<p>In the South—the population of which must be divided into free and +slave.</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + <td class="center"><span class="smallcaps"> free.</span> + </td> + <td class="center"><span class="smallcaps"> slave.</span> + </td> + <td class="center"><span class="smallcaps"> total.</span> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Texas + </td> + <td class="dollar">415,999 + </td> + <td class="dollar">184,956 + </td> + <td class="dollar">600,955 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Louisiana + </td> + <td class="dollar">354,245 + </td> + <td class="dollar">312,186 + </td> + <td class="dollar">666,431 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Arkansas + </td> + <td class="dollar">331,710 + </td> + <td class="dollar">109,065 + </td> + <td class="dollar">440,775 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Mississippi + </td> + <td class="dollar">407,051 + </td> + <td class="dollar">479,607 + </td> + <td class="dollar">886,658 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Alabama + </td> + <td class="dollar">520,444 + </td> + <td class="dollar">435,473 + </td> + <td class="dollar">955,917 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Florida + </td> + <td class="dollar">81,885 + </td> + <td class="dollar">63,809 + </td> + <td class="dollar">145,694 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Georgia + </td> + <td class="dollar">615,366 + </td> + <td class="dollar">467,461 + </td> + <td class="dollar">1,082,827 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>South Carolina + </td> + <td class="dollar">308,186 + </td> + <td class="dollar">407,185 + </td> + <td class="dollar">715,371 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>North Carolina + </td> + <td class="dollar">679,965 + </td> + <td class="dollar">328,377 + </td> + <td class="dollar">1,008,342 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Tennessee + </td> + <td class="dollar"><span class="u"> 859,578</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar"><span class="u"> 287,112</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar"><span class="u">1,146,690</span> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> Total + </td> + <td class="dollar"> 4,574,429 + </td> + <td class="dollar"> 3,075,231 + </td> + <td class="dollar"> 7,649,660 + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<p>In the West.</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"> + <tr> + <td>Ohio + </td> + <td class="dollar">2,377,917 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Indiana + </td> + <td class="dollar">1,350,802 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Illinois + </td> + <td class="dollar">1,691,238 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Michigan + </td> + <td class="dollar">754,291 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Wisconsin + </td> + <td class="dollar">763,485 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Minnesota + </td> + <td class="dollar">172,796 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Iowa + </td> + <td class="dollar">682,002 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Kansas + </td> + <td class="dollar">143,645 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Missouri + </td> + <td class="dollar">*<span class="u">1,204,214</span> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> Total + </td> + <td class="dollar">9,140,390<br /> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"><tr><td> +*Of which number, in Missouri, 115,619 are slaves. +</td></tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<p>In the doubtful States.</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + <td class="center"><span class="smallcaps"> free.</span> + </td> + <td class="center"><span class="smallcaps"> slave.</span> + </td> + <td class="center"><span class="smallcaps"> total.</span> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Maryland + </td> + <td class="dollar">646,183 + </td> + <td class="dollar">85,382 + </td> + <td class="dollar">731,565 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Delaware + </td> + <td class="dollar">110,548 + </td> + <td class="dollar">1,805 + </td> + <td class="dollar">112,353 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Virginia + </td> + <td class="dollar">1,097,373 + </td> + <td class="dollar">495,826 + </td> + <td class="dollar">1,593,199 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Kentucky + </td> + <td class="dollar"><span class="u"> 920,077</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar"><span class="u">225,490</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar"><span class="u">1,145,567</span> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> Total + </td> + <td class="dollar"> 2,774,181 + </td> + <td class="dollar"> 808,503 + </td> + <td class="dollar"> 3,582,684 + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<p>To these must be added to make up the population of the United +States, as it stood in 1860.</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"> + <tr> + <td> + <span class="nowrap">The separate district of Columbia, </span><br /> + <span class="ind4"><span class="nowrap">in which is included Washington,</span></span><br /> + <span class="ind4"><span class="nowrap">the seat of the Federal Government</span></span> + </td> + <td class="dollar">75,321 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>California + </td> + <td class="dollar">384,770 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Oregon + </td> + <td class="dollar">52,566 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>The Territories of + </td> + <td class="dollar"> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="ind4">Dacotah</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar">4,839 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="ind4">Nebraska</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar">28,892 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="ind4">Washington</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar">11,624 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="ind4">Utah</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar">49,000 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="ind4">New Mexico</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar">93,024 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="ind4">Colorado</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar">34,197 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="ind4">Neveda</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar"><span class="u"> 6,857</span> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="ind8">Total</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar"> 741,090 + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<p>And thus the total population may be given as +<span class="nowrap">follows:—</span></p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"> + <tr> + <td>North + </td> + <td class="dollar">10,582,099 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>South + </td> + <td class="dollar">7,649,660 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>West + </td> + <td class="dollar">9,140,390 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Doubtful + </td> + <td class="dollar">3,582,684 + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="nowrap">Outlying States and Territories</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar"><span class="u"> 741,090</span> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="ind4">Total</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar"> 31,695,923 + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<p>Each of the three interests would consider itself wronged by the +division above made, but the South would probably be the loudest in +asserting its grievance. The South claims all the slave States, and +would point to secession in Virginia to justify such claim,—and +would point also to Maryland and Baltimore, declaring that secession +would be as strong there as at New Orleans, if secession were +practicable. Maryland and Baltimore lie behind Washington, and are +under the heels of the northern troops, so that secession is not +practicable; but the South would say that they have seceded in heart. +In this the South would have some show of reason for its assertion; +but, nevertheless, I shall best convey a true idea of the position of +these States by classing them as doubtful. When secession shall have +been accomplished,—if ever it be accomplished,—it will hardly be +possible that they should adhere to the South.</p> + +<p>It will be seen by the above tables that the population of the West +is nearly equal to that of the North, and that therefore western +power is almost as great as northern. It is almost as great already, +and as population in the West increases faster than it does in the +North, the two will soon be equalized. They are already sufficiently +on a par to enable them to fight on equal terms, and they will be +prepared for fighting—political fighting, if no other—as soon as +they have established their supremacy over a common enemy.</p> + +<p>Whilst I am on the subject of population, I should explain—though +the point is not one which concerns the present argument—that the +numbers given, as they regard the South, include both the whites and +the blacks, the free men and the slaves. The political power of the +South is of course in the hands of the white race only, and the total +white population should therefore be taken as the number indicating +the southern power. The political power of the South, however, as +contrasted with that of the North, has, since the commencement of the +Union, been much increased by the slave population. The slaves have +been taken into account in determining the number of representatives +which should be sent to Congress by each State. That number depends +on the population, but it was decided in 1787, that in counting up +the number of representatives to which each State should be held to +be entitled, five slaves should represent three white men. A Southern +population, therefore, of five thousand free men and five thousand +slaves would claim as many representatives as a Northern population +of eight thousand free men, although the voting would be confined to +the free population. This has ever since been the law of the United +States.</p> + +<p>The western power is nearly equal to that of the North, and this +fact, somewhat exaggerated in terms, is a frequent boast in the +mouths of western men. "We ran Fremont for President," they say, "and +had it not been for northern men with southern principles, we should +have put him in the White House instead of the traitor Buchanan. If +that had been done, there would have been no secession." How things +might have gone had Fremont been elected in lieu of Buchanan, I will +not pretend to say; but the nature of the argument shows the +difference that exists between northern and western feeling. At the +time that I was in the West, General Fremont was the great topic of +public interest. Every newspaper was discussing his conduct, his +ability as a soldier, his energy, and his fate. At that time General +Maclellan was in command at Washington on the Potomac, it being +understood that he held his power directly under the President,—free +from the exercise of control on the part of the veteran General +Scott, though at that time General Scott had not actually resigned +his position as head of the army. And General Fremont, who some five +years before had been "run" for President by the Western States, held +another command of nearly equal independence in Missouri. He had been +put over General Lyon in the western command, and directly after this +General Lyon had fallen in battle at Springfield, in the first action +in which the opposing armies were engaged in the West. General +Fremont at once proceeded to carry matters with a very high hand. On +the 30th of August, 1861, he issued a proclamation by which he +declared martial law at St. Louis, the city at which he held his head +quarters, and indeed throughout the State of Missouri generally. In +this proclamation he declared his intention of exercising a severity +beyond that ever threatened, as I believe, in modern warfare. He +defines the region presumed to be held by his army of occupation, +drawing his lines across the State, and then declares "that all +persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within those +lines shall be tried by Court Martial, and if found guilty will be +shot." He then goes on to say that he will confiscate all the +property of persons in the State who shall have taken up arms against +the Union, or who shall have taken part with the enemies of the +Union, and that he will make free all slaves belonging to such +persons. This proclamation was not approved at Washington, and was +modified by the order of the President. It was understood also that +he issued orders for military expenditure, which were not recognized +at Washington, and men began to understand that the army in the West +was gradually assuming that irresponsible military position, which in +disturbed countries and in times of civil war has so frequently +resulted in a military dictatorship. Then there arose a clamour for +the removal of General Fremont. A semi-official account of his +proceedings, which had reached Washington from an officer under his +command, was made public; and also the correspondence which took +place on the subject between the President and General Fremont's +wife. The officer in question was thereupon placed under arrest, but +immediately released by orders from Washington. He then made official +complaint of his General, sending forward a list of charges in which +Fremont was accused of rashness, incompetency, want of fidelity of +the interests of the Government, and disobedience to orders from head +quarters. After a while the Secretary of War himself proceeded from +Washington to the quarters of General Fremont at St. Louis, and +remained there for a day or two, making or pretending to make inquiry +into the matter. But when he returned he left the General still in +command. During the whole month of October the papers were occupied +in declaring in the morning that General Fremont had been recalled +from his command, and in the evening that he was to remain. In the +mean time they who befriended his cause, and this included the whole +West, were hoping from day to day that he would settle the matter for +himself and silence his accusers, by some great military success. +General Price held the command opposed to him, and men said that +Fremont would sweep General Price and his army down the valley of the +Mississippi into the sea. But General Price would not be so swept, +and it began to appear that a guerilla warfare would prevail; that +General Price, if driven southwards, would reappear behind the backs +of his pursuers, and that General Fremont would not accomplish all +that was expected of him with that rapidity for which his friends had +given him credit. So the newspapers still went on waging the war, and +every morning General Fremont was recalled, and every evening they +who had recalled him were shown up as having known nothing of the +matter.</p> + +<p>"Never mind; he is a pioneer man, and will do a'most anything he puts +his hand to," his friends in the West still said. "He understands the +frontier." Understanding the frontier is a great thing in Western +America, across which the vanguard of civilization continues to march +on in advance from year to year. "And it's he that is bound to sweep +slavery from off the face of this Continent. He's the man, and he's +about the only man." I am not qualified to write the life of General +Fremont, and can at present only make this slight reference to the +details of his romantic career. That it has been full of romance, and +that the man himself is indued with a singular energy and a high +romantic idea of what may be done by power and will, there is no +doubt. Five times he has crossed the continent of North America from +Missouri to Oregon and California, enduring great hardships in the +service of advancing civilization and knowledge. That he has +considerable talent, immense energy, and strong self-confidence, I +believe. He is a frontier man; one of those who care nothing for +danger, and who would dare anything with the hope of accomplishing a +great career. But I have never heard that he has shown any practical +knowledge of high military matters. It may be doubted whether a man +of this stamp is well fitted to hold the command of a nation's army +for great national purposes. May it not even be presumed that a man +of this class is of all men the least fitted for such a work? The +officer required should be a man with two specialities—a speciality +for military tactics, and a speciality for national duty. The army in +the West was far removed from head quarters in Washington, and it was +peculiarly desirable that the General commanding it should be one +possessing a strong idea of obedience to the control of his own +Government. Those frontier capabilities, that self-dependent energy +for which his friends gave Fremont,—and probably justly gave +him,—such unlimited credit are exactly the qualities which are most +dangerous in such a position.</p> + +<p>I have endeavoured to explain the circumstances of the Western +command in Missouri, as they existed at the time when I was in the +North-Western States, in order that the double action of the North +and West may be understood. I, of course, was not in the secret of +any official persons, but I could not but feel sure that the +Government in Washington would have been glad to have removed Fremont +at once from the command, had they not feared that by doing so they +would have created a schism, as it were, in their own camp, and have +done much to break up the integrity or oneness of Northern loyalty. +The western people almost to a man desired abolition. The States +there were sending out their tens of thousands of young men into the +army with a prodigality as to their only source of wealth which they +hardly recognized themselves, because this to them was a fight +against slavery. The western population has been increased to a +wonderful degree by a German infusion;—so much so that the western +towns appear to have been peopled with Germans. I found regiments of +volunteers consisting wholly of Germans. And the Germans are all +abolitionists. To all the men of the West the name of Fremont is +dear. He is their hero, and their Hercules. He is to cleanse the +stables of the southern king, and turn the waters of emancipation +through the foul stalls of slavery. And, therefore, though the +Cabinet in Washington would have been glad for many reasons to have +removed Fremont in October last, it was at first scared from +committing itself to so strong a measure. At last, however, the +charges made against him were too fully substantiated to allow of +their being set on one side, and early in November, 1861, he was +superseded. I shall be obliged to allude again to General Fremont's +career as I go on with my narrative.</p> + +<p>At this time the North was looking for a victory on the Potomac; but +they were no longer looking for it with that impatience which in the +summer had led to the disgrace at Bull's Run. They had recognized the +fact that their troops must be equipped, drilled, and instructed; and +they had also recognized the perhaps greater fact, that their enemies +were neither weak, cowardly, nor badly officered. I have always +thought that the tone and manner with which the North bore the defeat +at Bull's Run was creditable to it. It was never denied, never +explained away, never set down as trifling. "We have been whipped!" +was what all Northerners said,—"We've got an almighty whipping, and +here we are." I have heard many Englishmen complain of this, saying +that the matter was taken almost as a joke,—that no disgrace was +felt, and the licking was owned by a people who ought never to have +allowed that they had been licked. To all this, however, I demur. +Their only chance of speedy success consisted in their seeing and +recognizing the truth. Had they confessed the whipping and then sat +down with their hands in their pockets,—had they done as second-rate +boys at school will do,—declare that they had been licked, and then +feel that all the trouble is over,—they would indeed have been open +to reproach. The old mother across the water would in such case have +disowned her son. But they did the very reverse of this. "I have been +whipped," Jonathan said, and he immediately went into training under +a new system for another fight.</p> + +<p>And so all through September and October the great armies on the +Potomac rested comparatively in quiet, the Northern forces drawing to +themselves immense levies. The general confidence in Maclellan was +then very great, and the cautious measures by which he endeavoured to +bring his vast untrained body of men under discipline were such as +did at that time recommend themselves to most military critics. Early +in September the northern party obtained a considerable advantage by +taking the fort at Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina, situated on one +of those long banks which lie along the shores of the Southern +States; but towards the end of October they experienced a +considerable reverse in an attack which was made on the Secessionists +by General Stone, and in which Colonel Baker was killed. Colonel +Baker had been senator for Oregon, and was well known as an orator. +Taking all things together, however, nothing material had been done +up to the end of October; and at that time northern men were +waiting—not perhaps impatiently, considering the great hopes, and +perhaps great fears which filled their hearts, but with eager +expectation for some event of which they might talk with pride.</p> + +<p>The man to whom they had trusted all their hopes was young for so +great a command. I think that at this time (October 1861) General +Maclellan was not yet thirty-five. He had served early in life in the +Mexican war, having come originally from Pennsylvania, and having +been educated at the military college at West Point. During our war +with Russia he was sent to the Crimea by his own Government in +conjunction with two other officers of the United States army, that +they might learn all that was to be learned there as to military +tactics, and report especially as to the manner in which +fortifications were made and attacked. I have been informed that a +very able report was sent in by them to the Government, on their +return, and that this was drawn up by Maclellan. But in America a man +is not only a soldier or always a soldier; nor is he always a +clergyman if once a clergyman. He takes a spell at anything suitable +that may be going. And in this way Maclellan was for some years +engaged on the Central Illinois Railway, and was for a considerable +time the head manager of that concern. We all know with what +suddenness he rose to the highest command in the army immediately +after the defeat at Bull's Run.</p> + +<p>I have endeavoured to describe what were the feelings of the West in +the autumn of 1861 with regard to the war. The excitement and +eagerness there were very great, and they were perhaps as great in +the North. But in the North the matter seemed to me to be regarded +from a different point of view. As a rule, the men of the North are +not abolitionists. It is quite certain that they were not so before +secession began. They hate slavery as we in England hate it; but they +are aware, as also are we, that the disposition of four million of +black men and women forms a question which cannot be solved by the +chivalry of any modern Orlando. The property invested in these four +million slaves forms the entire wealth of the South. If they could be +wafted by a philanthropic breeze back to the shores of Africa,—a +breeze of which the philanthropy would certainly not be appreciated +by those so wafted—the South would be a wilderness. The subject is +one as full of difficulty as any with which politicians of these days +are tormented. The Northerners fully appreciate this, and as a rule +are not abolitionists in the western sense of the word. To them the +war is recommended by precisely those feelings which animated us when +we fought for our colonies,—when we strove to put down American +independence. Secession is rebellion against the Government: and is +all the more bitter to the North because that rebellion broke out at +the first moment of northern ascendancy. "We submitted," the North +says, "to southern Presidents, and southern statesmen, and southern +councils, because we obeyed the vote of the people. But as to +you—the voice of the people is nothing in your estimation! At the +first moment in which the popular vote places at Washington a +President with northern feelings, you rebel. We submitted in your +days; and by heaven, you shall submit in ours! We submitted loyally; +through love of the law and the Constitution. You have disregarded +the law, and thrown over the Constitution. But you shall be made to +submit, as a child is made to submit to its governor."</p> + +<p>It must also be remembered that on commercial questions the North and +the West are divided. The Morrill tariff is as odious to the West as +it is to the South. The South and West are both agricultural +productive regions, desirous of sending cotton and corn to foreign +countries and of receiving back foreign manufactures on the best +terms. But the North is a manufacturing country—a poor manufacturing +country as regards excellence of manufacture—and therefore the more +anxious to foster its own growth by protective laws. The Morrill +tariff is very injurious to the West, and is odious there. I might +add that its folly has already been so far recognized even in the +North, as to make it very generally odious there also.</p> + +<p>So much I have said endeavouring to make it understood how far the +North and West were united in feeling against the South in the autumn +of 1861, and how far there existed between them a diversity of +interests.</p> + + +<p><a id="c9"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER IX.</h3> +<h4>FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>From Niagara we went by the Canada Great Western Railway to Detroit, +the big city of Michigan. It is an American institution that the +States should have a commercial capital, or what I call their big +city, as well as a political capital, which may as a rule be called +the State's central city. The object in choosing the political +capital is average nearness of approach from the various confines of +the State; but commerce submits to no such Procrustean laws in +selecting her capitals, and consequently she has placed Detroit on +the borders of Michigan, on the shore of the neck of water which +joins Lake Huron to Lake Erie through which all the trade must flow +which comes down from Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron, on its way +to the eastern States and to Europe. We had thought of going from +Buffalo across Lake Erie to Detroit; but we found that the better +class of steamers had been taken off the waters for the winter. And +we also found that navigation among these lakes is a mistake whenever +the necessary journey can be taken by railway. Their waters are by no +means smooth; and then there is nothing to be seen. I do not know +whether others may have a feeling, almost instinctive, that lake +navigation must be pleasant,—that lakes must of necessity be +beautiful. I have such a feeling; but not now so strongly as +formerly. Such an idea should be kept for use in Europe, and never +brought over to America with other travelling gear. The lakes in +America are cold, cumbrous, uncouth, and uninteresting—intended by +nature for the conveyance of cereal produce, but not for the comfort +of travelling men and women. So we gave up our plan of traversing the +lake, and passing back into Canada by the suspension bridge at +Niagara, we reached the Detroit river at Windsor by the Great Western +line, and passed thence by the ferry into the city of Detroit.</p> + +<p>In making this journey at night we introduced ourselves to the +thoroughly American institution of sleeping-cars;—that is, of cars +in which beds are made up for travellers. The traveller may have a +whole bed, or half a bed, or no bed at all as he pleases, paying a +dollar or half a dollar extra should he choose the partial or full +fruition of a couch. I confess I have always taken a delight in +seeing these beds made up, and consider that the operations of the +change are generally as well executed as the manœuvres of any +pantomime at Drury Lane. The work is usually done by negroes or +coloured men; and the domestic negroes of America are always +light-handed and adroit. The nature of an American car is no doubt +known to all men. It looks as far removed from all bedroom +accommodation, as the baker's barrow does from the steam-engine into +which it is to be converted by Harlequin's wand. But the negro goes +to work much more quietly than the Harlequin, and for every four +seats in the railway car he builds up four beds, almost as quickly as +the hero of the pantomime goes through his performance. The great +glory of the Americans is in their wondrous contrivances,—in their +patent remedies for the usually troublous operations of life. In +their huge hotels all the bell-ropes of each house ring on one bell +only, but a patent indicator discloses a number, and the whereabouts +of the ringer is shown. One fire heats every room, passage, hall, and +cupboard,—and does it so effectually that the inhabitants are all +but stifled. Soda-water bottles open themselves without any trouble +of wire or strings. Men and women go up and down stairs without +motive power of their own. Hot and cold water are laid on to all the +chambers;—though it sometimes happens that the water from both taps +is boiling, and that when once turned on it cannot be turned off +again by any human energy. Everything is done by a new and wonderful +patent contrivance; and of all their wonderful contrivances that of +their railroad beds is by no means the least. For every four seats +the negro builds up four beds,—that is, four half-beds or +accommodation for four persons. Two are supposed to be below on the +level of the ordinary four seats, and two up above on shelves which +are let down from the roof. Mattresses slip out from one nook and +pillows from another. Blankets are added, and the bed is ready. Any +over particular individual—an islander, for instance, who hugs his +chains—will generally prefer to pay the dollar for the double +accommodation. Looking at the bed in the light of a bed,—taking as +it were an abstract view of it,—or comparing it with some other bed +or beds with which the occupant may have acquaintance, I cannot say +that it is in all respects perfect. But distances are long in +America; and he who declines to travel by night will lose very much +time. He who does so travel will find the railway bed a great relief. +I must confess that the feeling of dirt on the following morning is +rather oppressive.</p> + +<p>From Windsor on the Canada side we passed over to Detroit in the +State of Michigan by a steam ferry. But ferries in England and +ferries in America are very different. Here on this Detroit ferry, +some hundred of passengers who were going forward from the other side +without delay, at once sat down to breakfast. I may as well explain +the way in which disposition is made of one's luggage as one takes +these long journeys. The traveller when he starts has his baggage +checked. He abandons his trunk—generally a box studded with nails, +as long as a coffin and as high as a linen chest,—and in return for +this he receives an iron ticket with a number on it. As he approaches +the end of his first instalment of travel, and while the engine is +still working its hardest, a man comes up to him, bearing with him +suspended on a circular bar an infinite variety of other checks. The +traveller confides to this man his wishes; and if he be going further +without delay, surrenders his check and receives a counter-check in +return. Then while the train is still in motion, the new destiny of +the trunk is imparted to it. But another man, with another set of +checks, also comes the way, walking leisurely through the train as he +performs his work. This is the minister of the hotel-omnibus +institution. His business is with those who do not travel beyond the +next terminus. To him, if such be your intention, you make your +confidence, giving up your tallies and taking other tallies, by way +of receipt; and your luggage is afterwards found by you in the hall +of your hotel. There is undoubtedly very much of comfort in this; and +the mind of the traveller is lost in amazement as he thinks of the +futile efforts with which he would struggle to regain his luggage +were there no such arrangement. Enormous piles of boxes are disclosed +on the platform at all the larger stations, the numbers of which are +roared forth with quick voice by some two or three railway denizens +at once. A modest English voyager with six or seven small packages, +would stand no chance of getting anything if he were left to his own +devices. As it is I am bound to say that the thing is well done. I +have had my desk with all my money in it lost for a day, and my black +leather bag was on one occasion sent back over the line. They, +however, were recovered; and on the whole I feel grateful to the +check system of the American railways. And then, too, one never hears +of extra luggage. Of weight they are quite regardless. On two or +three occasions an overwrought official has muttered between his +teeth that ten packages were a great many, and that some of those +"light fixings" might have been made up into one. And when I came to +understand that the number of every check was entered in a book, and +re-entered at every change, I did whisper to my wife that she ought +to do without a bonnet-box. The ten, however, went on, and were +always duly protected. I must add, however, that articles requiring +tender treatment will sometimes reappear a little the worse from the +hardships of their journey.</p> + +<p>I have not much to say of Detroit; not much, that is, beyond what I +have to say of all the North. It is a large well-built half-finished +city, lying on a convenient water way, and spreading itself out with +promises of a wide and still wider prosperity. It has about it +perhaps as little of intrinsic interest as any of those large western +towns which I visited. It is not so pleasant as Milwaukee, nor so +picturesque as St. Paul, nor so grand as Chicago, nor so civilized as +Cleveland, nor so busy as Buffalo. Indeed Detroit is neither pleasant +nor picturesque at all. I will not say that it is uncivilized, but it +has a harsh, crude, unprepossessing appearance. It has some 70,000 +inhabitants, and good accommodation for shipping. It was doing an +enormous business before the war began, and when these troublous +times are over will no doubt again go ahead. I do not, however, think +it well to recommend any Englishman to make a special visit to +Detroit, who may be wholly uncommercial in his views and travel in +search of that which is either beautiful or interesting.</p> + +<p>From Detroit we continued our course westward across the State of +Michigan through a country that was absolutely wild till the railway +pierced it. Very much of it is still absolutely wild. For miles upon +miles the road passes the untouched forest, showing that even in +Michigan the great work of civilization has hardly more than been +commenced. As one thinks of the all but countless population which is +before long to be fed from these regions, of the cities which will +grow here, and of the amount of government which in due time will be +required, one can hardly fail to feel that the division of the United +States into separate nationalities is merely a part of the ordained +work of creation, as arranged for the well-being of mankind. The +States already boast of thirty millions of inhabitants,—not of +unnoticed and unnoticeable beings, requiring little, knowing little, +and doing little, such as are the Eastern hordes which may be counted +by tens of millions; but of men and women who talk loudly and are +ambitious, who eat beef, who read and write, and understand the +dignity of manhood. But these thirty millions are as nothing to the +crowds which will grow sleek and talk loudly, and become aggressive +on these wheat and meat producing levels. The country is as yet but +touched by the pioneering hand of population. In the old countries +agriculture, following on the heels of pastoral patriarchal life, +preceded the birth of cities. But in this young world the cities have +come first. The new Jasons, blessed with the experience of the old +world adventurers, have gone forth in search of their golden fleeces +armed with all that the science and skill of the East had as yet +produced, and in settling up their new Colchis have begun by the +erection of first-class hotels and the fabrication of railroads. Let +the old world bid them God speed in their work. Only it would be well +if they could be brought to acknowledge from whence they have learned +all that they know.</p> + +<p>Our route lay right across the State to a place called Grand Haven on +Lake Michigan, from whence we were to take boat for Milwaukee, a town +in Wisconsin on the opposite or western shore of the lake. Michigan +is sometimes called the Peninsular State from the fact that the main +part of its territory is surrounded by Lakes Michigan and Huron, by +the little Lake St. Clair, and by Lake Erie. It juts out to the +northward from the main land of Indiana and Ohio, and is +circumnavigable on the east, north, and west. These particulars +refer, however, to a part of the State only, for a portion of it lies +on the other side of Lake Michigan, between that and Lake Superior. I +doubt whether any large inland territory in the world is blessed with +such facilities of water carriage.</p> + +<p>On arriving at Grand Haven we found that there had been a storm on +the lake, and that the passengers from the trains of the preceding +day were still remaining there, waiting to be carried over to +Milwaukee. The water, however,—or the sea as they all call it,—was +still very high, and the captain declared his intention of remaining +there that night. Whereupon all our fellow-travellers huddled +themselves into the great lake steam-boat, and proceeded to carry on +life there as though they were quite at home. The men took themselves +to the bar-room and smoked cigars and talked about the war with their +feet upon the counter, and the women got themselves into +rocking-chairs in the saloon and sat there listless and silent, but +not more listless and silent than they usually are in the big +drawing-rooms of the big hotels. There was supper there, precisely at +six o'clock, beefsteaks, and tea, and apple jam, and hot cakes, and +light fixings, to all which luxuries an American deems himself +entitled, let him have to seek his meal where he may. And I was soon +informed with considerable energy, that let the boat be kept there as +long as it might by stress of weather, the beefsteaks and apple jam, +light fixings and heavy fixings, must be supplied at the cost of the +owners of the ship. "Your first supper you pay for," my informant +told me, "because you eat that on your own account. What you consume +after that comes of their doing, because they don't start; and if +it's three meals a day for a week, it's their look out." It occurred +to me that under such circumstances a captain would be very apt to +sail either in foul weather or in fair.</p> + +<p>It was a bright moonlight night, moonlight such as we rarely have in +England, and I started off by myself for a walk, that I might see of +what nature were the environs of Grand Haven. A more melancholy place +I never beheld. The town of Grand Haven itself is placed on the +opposite side of a creek, and was to be reached by a ferry. On our +side, to which the railway came and from which the boat was to sail, +there was nothing to be seen but sandhills which stretched away for +miles along the shore of the lake. There were great sand mountains, +and sand valleys, on the surface of which were scattered the debris +of dead trees, scattered logs white with age, and boughs half buried +beneath the sand. Grand Haven itself is but a poor place, not having +succeeded in catching much of the commerce which comes across the +lake from Wisconsin, and which takes itself on eastwards by the +railway. Altogether it is a dreary place, such as might break a man's +heart, should he find that inexorable fate required him there to +pitch his tent.</p> + +<p>On my return I went down into the bar-room of the steamer, put my +feet upon the counter, lit my cigar, and struck into the debate then +proceeding on the subject of the war. I was getting West, and General +Fremont was the hero of the hour. "He's a frontier man, and that's +what we want. I guess he'll about go through. Yes, sir." "As for +relieving General Fre-mont,"—with the accent always strongly on the +"mont,"—"I guess you may as well talk of relieving the whole West. +They won't meddle with Fre-mont. They are beginning to know in +Washington what stuff he's made of." "Why, sir, there are 50,000 men +in these States who will follow Fre-mont, who would not stir a foot +after any other man." From which, and the like of it in many other +places, I began to understand how difficult was the task which the +statesmen in Washington had in hand.</p> + +<p>I received no pecuniary advantage whatever from that law as to the +steam-boat meals which my new friend had revealed to me. For my one +supper of course I paid, looking forward to any amount of subsequent +gratuitous provisions. But in the course of the night the ship +sailed, and we found ourselves at Milwaukee in time for breakfast on +the following morning.</p> + +<p>Milwaukee is a pleasant town, a very pleasant town, containing 45,000 +inhabitants. How many of my readers can boast that they know anything +of Milwaukee, or even have heard of it? To me its name was unknown +until I saw it on huge railway placards stuck up in the smoking-rooms +and lounging halls of all American hotels. It is the big town of +Wisconsin, whereas Madison is the capital. It stands immediately on +the western shore of Lake Michigan, and is very pleasant. Why it +should be so, and why Detroit should be the contrary, I can hardly +tell; only I think that the same verdict would be given by any +English tourist. It must be always borne in mind that 10,000 or +40,000 inhabitants in an American town, and especially in any new +western town, is a number which means much more than would be implied +by any similar number as to an old town in Europe. Such a population +in America consumes double the amount of beef which it would in +England, wears double the amount of clothes, and demands double as +much of the comforts of life. If a census could be taken of the +watches it would be found, I take it, that the American population +possessed among them nearly double as many as would the English; and +I fear also that it would be found that many more of the Americans +were readers and writers by habit. In any large town in England it is +probable that a higher excellence of education would be found than in +Milwaukee, and also a style of life into which more of refinement and +more of luxury had found its way. But the general level of these +things, of material and intellectual well being—of beef, that is, +and book learning—is no doubt infinitely higher in a new American +than in an old European town. Such an animal as a beggar is as much +unknown as a mastodon. Men out of work and in want are almost +unknown. I do not say that there are none of the hardships of +life—and to them I will come by-and-by; but want is not known as a +hardship in these towns, nor is that dense ignorance in which so +large a proportion of our town populations is still steeped. And then +the town of 40,000 inhabitants is spread over a surface which would +suffice in England for a city of four times the size. Our towns in +England,—and the towns, indeed, of Europe generally,—have been +built as they have been wanted. No aspiring ambition as to hundreds +of thousands of people warmed the bosoms of their first founders. Two +or three dozen men required habitations in the same locality, and +clustered them together closely. Many such have failed and died out +of the world's notice. Others have thriven, and houses have been +packed on to houses till London and Manchester, Dublin and Glasgow +have been produced. Poor men have built, or have had built for them, +wretched lanes; and rich men have erected grand palaces. From the +nature of their beginnings such has, of necessity, been the manner of +their creation. But in America, and especially in Western America, +there has been no such necessity and there is no such result. The +founders of cities have had the experience of the world before them. +They have known of sanitary laws as they began. That sewerage, and +water, and gas, and good air would be needed for a thriving community +has been to them as much a matter of fact as are the well understood +combinations between timber and nails, and bricks and mortar. They +have known that water carriage is almost a necessity for commercial +success, and have chosen their sites accordingly. Broad streets cost +as little, while land by the foot is not as yet of value to be +regarded, as those which are narrow; and therefore the sites of towns +have been prepared with noble avenues, and imposing streets. A city +at its commencement is laid out with an intention that it shall be +populous. The houses are not all built at once, but there are the +places allocated for them. The streets are not made, but there are +the spaces. Many an abortive attempt at municipal greatness has so +been made and then all but abandoned. There are wretched villages +with huge straggling parallel ways which will never grow into towns. +They are the failures,—failures in which the pioneers of +civilization, frontier men as they call themselves, have lost their +tens of thousands of dollars. But when the success comes; when the +happy hit has been made, and the ways of commerce have been truly +foreseen with a cunning eye, then a great and prosperous city springs +up, ready made, as it were, from the earth. Such a town is Milwaukee, +now containing 45,000 inhabitants, but with room apparently for +double that number; with room for four times that number, were men +packed as closely there as they are with us.</p> + +<p>In the principal business streets of all these towns one sees vast +buildings. They are usually called blocks, and are often so +denominated in large letters on their front, as Portland Block, +Devereux Block, Buel's Block. Such a block may face to two, three, or +even four streets, and, as I presume, has generally been a matter of +one special speculation. It may be divided into separate houses, or +kept for a single purpose, such as that of an hotel, or grouped into +shops below, and into various sets of chambers above. I have had +occasion in various towns to mount the stairs within these blocks, +and have generally found some portion of them vacant;—have sometimes +found the greater portion of them vacant. Men build on an enormous +scale, three times, ten times as much as is wanted. The only measure +of size is an increase on what men have built before. Monroe P. +Jones, the speculator, is very probably ruined, and then begins the +world again, nothing daunted. But Jones's block remains, and gives to +the city in its aggregate a certain amount of wealth. Or the block +becomes at once of service and finds tenants. In which case Jones +probably sells it and immediately builds two others twice as big. +That Monroe P. Jones will encounter ruin is almost a matter of +course; but then he is none the worse for being ruined. It hardly +makes him unhappy. He is greedy of dollars with a terrible +covetousness; but he is greedy in order that he may speculate more +widely. He would sooner have built Jones' tenth block, with a +prospect of completing a twentieth, than settle himself down at rest +for life as the owner of a Chatsworth or a Woburn. As for his +children he has no desire of leaving them money. Let the girls marry. +And for the boys,—for them it will be good to begin as he begun. If +they cannot build blocks for themselves, let them earn their bread in +the blocks of other men. So Monroe P. Jones, with his million of +dollars accomplished, advances on to a new frontier, goes to work +again on a new city, and loses it all. As an individual I differ very +much from Monroe P. Jones. The first block accomplished, with an +adequate rent accruing to me as the builder, I fancy that I should +never try a second. But Jones is undoubtedly the man for the West. It +is that love of money to come, joined to a strong disregard for money +made, which constitutes the vigorous frontier mind, the true +pioneering organization. Monroe P. Jones would be a great man to all +posterity, if only he had a poet to sing of his valour.</p> + +<p>It may be imagined how large in proportion to its inhabitants will be +a town which spreads itself in this way. There are great houses left +untenanted, and great gaps left unfilled. But if the place be +successful,—if it promise success, it will be seen at once that +there is life all through it. Omnibuses, or street cars working on +rails run hither and thither. The shops that have been opened are +well filled. The great hotels are thronged. The quays are crowded +with vessels, and a general feeling of progress pervades the place. +It is easy to perceive whether or no an American town is going ahead. +The days of my visit to Milwaukee were days of civil war and national +trouble, but in spite of civil war and national trouble Milwaukee +looked healthy.</p> + +<p>I have said that there was but little poverty,—little to be seen of +real want in these thriving towns, but that they who laboured in them +had nevertheless their own hardships. This is so. I would not have +any man believe that he can take himself to the Western States of +America,—to those States of which I am now speaking,—Michigan, +Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, or Illinois, and there by industry escape +the ills to which flesh is heir. The labouring Irish in these towns +eat meat seven days a week, but I have met many a labouring Irishman +among them who has wished himself back in his old cabin. Industry is +a good thing, and there is no bread so sweet as that which is eaten +in the sweat of a man's brow; but labour carried to excess wearies +the mind as well as body, and the sweat that is ever running makes +the bread bitter. There is, I think, no task-master over free labour +so exacting as an American. He knows nothing of hours, and seems to +have that idea of a man which a lady always has of a horse. He thinks +that he will go for ever. I wish those masons in London who strike +for nine hours' work with ten hours' pay could be driven to the +labour market of Western America for a spell. And moreover, which +astonished me, I have seen men driven and hurried,—as it were forced +forward at their work, in a manner which to an English workman would +be intolerable. This surprised me much, as it was at variance with +our,—or perhaps I should say with my,—preconceived ideas as to +American freedom. I had fancied that an American citizen would not +submit to be driven;—that the spirit of the country if not the +spirit of the individual would have made it impossible. I thought +that the shoe would have pinched quite on the other foot. But I found +that such driving did exist; and American masters in the West with +whom I had an opportunity of discussing the subject all admitted it. +"Those men 'll never half move unless they're driven," a foreman said +to me once as we stood together over some twenty men who were at +their work. "They kinder look for it, and don't well know how to get +along when they miss it." It was not his business at this moment to +drive;—nor was he driving. He was standing at some little distance +from the scene with me, and speculating on the sight before him. I +thought the men were working at their best; but their movements did +not satisfy his practised eye, and he saw at a glance that there was +no one immediately over them.</p> + +<p>But there is worse even than this. Wages in these regions are what we +should call high. An agricultural labourer will earn perhaps fifteen +dollars a month and his board; and a town labourer will earn a dollar +a day. A dollar may be taken as representing four shillings, though +it is in fact more. Food in these parts is much cheaper than in +England, and therefore the wages must be considered as very good. In +making, however, a just calculation it must be borne in mind that +clothing is dearer than in England and that much more of it is +necessary. The wages nevertheless are high, and will enable the +labourer to save money,—if only he can get them paid. The complaint +that wages are held back and not even ultimately paid is very common. +There is no fixed rule for satisfying all such claims once a week; +and thus debts to labourers are contracted and when contracted are +ignored. With us there is a feeling that it is pitiful, mean almost +beyond expression, to wrong a labourer of his hire. We have men who +go in debt to tradesmen perhaps without a thought of paying +them;—but when we speak of such a one who has descended into the +lowest mire of insolvency, we say that he has not paid his +washerwoman. Out there in the West the washerwoman is as fair game as +the tailor, the domestic servant as the wine merchant. If a man be +honest he will not willingly take either goods or labour without +payment; and it may be hard to prove that he who takes the latter is +more dishonest than he who takes the former; but with us there is a +prejudice in favour of one's washerwoman by which the western mind is +not weakened. "They certainly have to be smart to get it," a +gentleman said to me whom I taxed on the subject. "You see on the +frontier a man is bound to be smart. If he ain't smart he'd better go +back East;—perhaps as far as Europe. He'll do there." I had got my +answer, and my friend had turned the question. But the fact was +admitted by him as it had been by many others.</p> + +<p>Why this should be so, is a question, to answer which thoroughly +would require a volume in itself. As to the driving, why should men +submit to it, seeing that labour is abundant, and that in all newly +settled countries the labourer is the true hero of the age? In answer +to this is to be alleged the fact that hired labour is chiefly done +by fresh comers, by Irish and Germans, who have not as yet among them +any combination sufficient to protect them from such usage. The men +over them are new as masters,—masters who are rough themselves, who +themselves have been roughly driven, and who have not learned to be +gracious to those below them. It is a part of their contract that +very hard work shall be exacted; and the driving resolves itself into +this,—that the master looking after his own interest is constantly +accusing his labourer of a breach of his part of the contract. The +men no doubt do become used to it, and slacken probably in their +endeavours when the tongue of the master or foreman is not heard. But +as to that matter of non-payment of wages, the men must live; and +here as elsewhere the master who omits to pay once, will hardly find +labourers in future. The matter would remedy itself elsewhere, and +does it not do so here? This of course is so, and it is not to be +understood that labour as a rule is defrauded of its hire. But the +relation of the master and the man admits of such fraud here much +more frequently than in England. In England the labourer who did not +get his wages on the Saturday could not go on for the next week. To +him under such circumstances the world would be coming to an end. But +in the Western States, the labourer does not live so completely from +hand to mouth. He is rarely paid by the week, is accustomed to give +some credit, and till hard pressed by bad circumstances generally has +something by him. They do save money, and are thus fattened up to a +state which admits of victimization. I cannot owe money to the little +village cobbler who mends my shoes, because he demands and receives +his payment when his job is done. But to my friend in Regent Street I +extend my custom on a different system; and when I make my start for +continental life, I have with him a matter of unsettled business to a +considerable extent. The American labourer is in the condition of the +Regent Street boot-maker;—excepting in this respect, that he gives +his credit under compulsion. "But does not the law set him right? Is +there no law against debtors?" The laws against debtors are plain +enough as they are written down, but seem to be anything but plain +when called into action. They are perfectly understood, and +operations are carried on with the express purpose of evading them. +If you proceed against a man, you find that his property is in the +hands of some one else. You work in fact for Jones who lives in the +next street to you; but when you quarrel with Jones about your wages, +you find that according to law you have been working for Smith in +another State. In all countries such dodges are probably practicable. +But men will or will not have recourse to such dodges according to +the light in which they are regarded by the community. In the Western +States such dodges do not appear to be regarded as disgraceful. "It +behoves a frontier man to be smart, sir."</p> + +<p>Honesty is the best policy. That is a doctrine which has been widely +preached, and which has recommended itself to many minds as being one +of absolute truth. It is not very ennobling in its sentiment, seeing +that it advocates a special virtue, not on the ground that that +virtue is in itself a thing beautiful, but on account of the +immediate reward which will be its consequence. Smith is enjoined not +to cheat Jones, because he will, in the long run, make more money by +dealing with Jones on the square. This is not teaching of the highest +order; but it is teaching well adapted to human circumstances, and +has obtained for itself a wide credit. One is driven, however, to +doubt whether even this teaching is not too high for the frontier +man. Is it possible that a frontier man should be scrupulous and at +the same time successful? Hitherto those who have allowed scruples to +stand in their way have not succeeded; and they who have succeeded +and made for themselves great names,—who have been the pioneers of +civilization,—have not allowed ideas of exact honesty to stand in +their way. From General Jason down to General Fremont there have been +men of great aspirations but of slight scruples. They have been +ambitious of power and desirous of progress, but somewhat regardless +how power and progress shall be attained. Clive and Warren Hastings +were great frontier men, but we cannot imagine that they had ever +realized the doctrine that honesty is the best policy. Cortez, and +even Columbus, the prince of frontier men, are in the same category. +The names of such heroes is legion. But with none of them has +absolute honesty been a favourite virtue. "It behoves a frontier man +to be smart, sir." Such, in that or other language, has been the +prevailing idea. Such is the prevailing idea. And one feels driven to +ask oneself whether such must not be the prevailing idea with those +who leave the world and its rules behind them, and go forth with the +resolve that the world and its rules shall follow them.</p> + +<p>Of filibustering, annexation, and polishing savages off the face of +creation there has been a great deal, and who can deny that humanity +has been the gainer? It seems to those who look widely back over +history, that all such works have been carried on in obedience to +God's laws. When Jacob by Rebecca's aid cheated his elder brother he +was very smart; but we cannot but suppose that a better race was by +this smartness put in possession of the patriarchal sceptre. Esau was +polished off, and readers of Scripture wonder why heaven with its +thunder did not open over the heads of Rebecca and her son. But Jacob +with all his fraud was the chosen one. Perhaps the day may come when +scrupulous honesty may be the best policy even on the frontier. I can +only say that hitherto that day seems to be as distant as ever. I do +not pretend to solve the problem, but simply record my opinion that +under circumstances as they still exist I should not willingly select +a frontier life for my children.</p> + +<p>I have said that all great frontier men have been unscrupulous. There +is, however, an exception in history which may perhaps serve to prove +the rule. The Puritans who colonized New England were frontier men, +and were, I think, in general scrupulously honest. They had their +faults. They were stern, austere men, tyrannical at the backbone when +power came in their way,—as are all pioneers;—hard upon vices for +which they who made the laws had themselves no minds; but they were +not dishonest.</p> + +<p>At Milwaukee I went up to see the Wisconsin volunteers, who were then +encamped on open ground in the close vicinity of the town. Of +Wisconsin I had heard before,—and have heard the same opinion +repeated since,—that it was more backward in its volunteering than +its neighbour States in the West. Wisconsin has 760,000 inhabitants, +and its tenth thousand of volunteers was not then made up; whereas +Indiana with less than double its number had already sent out +thirty-six thousand. Iowa, with a hundred thousand less of +inhabitants, had then made up fifteen thousand. But nevertheless to +me it seemed that Wisconsin was quite alive to its presumed duty in +that respect. Wisconsin with its three quarters of a million of +people is as large as England. Every acre of it may be made +productive, but as yet it is not half cleared. Of such a country its +young men are its heart's blood. Ten thousand men fit to bear arms +carried away from such a land to the horrors of civil war is a sight +as full of sadness as any on which the eye can rest. Ah me, when will +they return, and with what altered hopes! It is, I fear, easier to +turn the sickle into the sword, than to recast the sword back again +into the sickle!</p> + +<p>We found a completed regiment at Wisconsin consisting entirely of +Germans. A thousand Germans had been collected in that State and +brought together in one regiment, and I was informed by an officer on +the ground that there are many Germans in sundry other of the +Wisconsin regiments. It may be well to mention here that the number +of Germans through all these western States is very great. Their +number and well-being were to me astonishing. That they form a great +portion of the population of New York, making the German quarter of +that city the third largest German town in the world, I have long +known; but I had no previous idea of their expansion westward. In +Detroit nearly every third shop bore a German name, and the same +remark was to be made at Milwaukee;—and on all hands I heard praises +of their morals, of their thrift, and of their new patriotism. I was +continually told how far they exceeded the Irish settlers. To me in +all parts of the world an Irishman is dear. When handled tenderly he +becomes a creature most loveable. But with all my judgment in the +Irishman's favour, and with my prejudices leaning the same way, I +feel myself bound to state what I heard and what I saw as to the +Germans.</p> + +<p>But this regiment of Germans, and another not completed regiment, +called from the State generally, were as yet without arms, +accoutrements, or clothing. There was the raw material of the +regiment, but there was nothing else. Winter was coming on,—winter +in which the mercury is commonly 20 degrees below zero,—and the men +were in tents with no provision against the cold. These tents held +each two men, and were just large enough for two to lie. The canvas +of which they were made seemed to me to be thin, but was I think +always double. At this camp there was a house in which the men took +their meals, but I visited other camps in which there was no such +accommodation. I saw the German regiment called to its supper by tuck +of drum, and the men marched in gallantly, armed each with a knife +and spoon. I managed to make my way in at the door after them, and +can testify to the excellence of the provisions of which their supper +consisted. A poor diet never enters into any combination of +circumstances contemplated by an American. Let him be where he will, +animal food is, with him, the first necessary of life, and he is +always provided accordingly. As to those Wisconsin men whom I saw, it +was probable that they might be marched off, down south to +Washington, or to the doubtful glories of the western campaign under +Fremont before the winter commenced. The same might have been said of +any special regiment. But taking the whole mass of men who were +collected under canvas at the end of the autumn of 1861, and who were +so collected without arms or military clothing, and without +protection from the weather, it did seem that the task taken in hand +by the Commissariat of the Northern army was one not devoid of +difficulty.</p> + +<p>The view from Milwaukee over Lake Michigan is very pleasing. One +looks upon a vast expanse of water to which the eye finds no bounds, +and therefore there are none of the common attributes of lake beauty; +but the colour of the lake is bright, and within a walk of the city +the traveller comes to the bluffs or low round-topped hills from +which he can look down upon the shores. These bluffs form the beauty +of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and relieve the eye after the flat level +of Michigan. Round Detroit there is no rising ground, and therefore, +perhaps, it is that Detroit is uninteresting.</p> + +<p>I have said that those who are called on to labour in these States +have their own hardships, and I have endeavoured to explain what are +the sufferings to which the town labourer is subject. To escape from +this is the labourer's great ambition, and his mode of doing so +consists almost universally in the purchase of land. He saves up +money in order that he may buy a section of an allotment, and thus +become his own master. All his savings are made with a view to this +independence. Seated on his own land he will have to work probably +harder than ever, but he will work for himself. No taskmaster can +then stand over him and wound his pride with harsh words. He will be +his own master; will eat the food which he himself has grown, and +live in the cabin which his own hands have built. This is the object +of his life; and to secure this position he is content to work late +and early and to undergo the indignities of previous servitude. The +Government price for land is about five shillings an acre—one dollar +and a quarter—and the settler may get it for this price if he be +contented to take it not only untouched as regards clearing, but also +far removed from any completed road. The traffic in these lands has +been the great speculating business of western men. Five or six years +ago, when the rage for such purchases was at its height, land was +becoming a scarce article in the market! Individuals or companies +bought it up with the object of reselling it at a profit; and many no +doubt did make money. Railway companies were, in fact, companies +combined for the purchase of land. They purchased land, looking to +increase the value of it five-fold by the opening of a railroad. It +may easily be understood that a railway, which could not be in itself +remunerative, might in this way become a lucrative speculation. No +settler could dare to place himself absolutely at a distance from any +thoroughfare. At first the margins of nature's highways, the +navigable rivers and lakes, were cleared. But as the railway system +grew and expanded itself, it became manifest that lands might be +rendered quickly available which were not so circumstanced by nature, +A company which had purchased an enormous territory from the United +States Government at five shillings an acre might well repay itself +all the cost of a railway through that territory, even though the +receipts of the railway should do no more than maintain the current +expenses. It is in this way that the thousands of miles of American +railroads have been opened; and here again must be seen the immense +advantages which the States as a new country have enjoyed. With us +the purchase of valuable land for railways, together with the legal +expenses which those compulsory purchases entailed, have been so +great that with all our traffic railways are not remunerative. But in +the States the railways have created the value of the land. The +States have been able to begin at the right end, and to arrange that +the districts which are benefited shall themselves pay for the +benefit they receive.</p> + +<p>The Government price of land is 125 cents, or about five shillings an +acre; and even this need not be paid at once if the settler purchase +directly from the Government. He must begin by making certain +improvements on the selected land,—clearing and cultivating some +small portion, building a hut, and probably sinking a well. When this +has been done,—when he has thus given a pledge of his intentions by +depositing on the land the value of a certain amount of labour, he +cannot be removed. He cannot be removed for a term of years, and then +if he pays the price of the land it becomes his own with an +indefeasible title. Many such settlements are made on the purchase of +warrants for land. Soldiers returning from the Mexican wars were +donated with warrants for land,—the amount being 160 acres, or the +quarter of a section. The localities of such lands were not +specified, but the privilege granted was that of occupying any +quarter-section not hitherto tenanted. It will of course be +understood that lands favourably situated would be tenanted. Those +contiguous to railways were of course so occupied, seeing that the +lines were not made till the lands were in the hands of the +companies. It may therefore be understood of what nature would be the +traffic in these warrants. The owner of a single warrant might find +it of no value to him. To go back utterly into the woods, away from +river or road, and there to commence with 160 acres of forest, or +even of prairie, would be a hopeless task even to an American +settler. Some mode of transport for his produce must be found before +his produce would be of value,—before indeed he could find the means +of living. But a company buying up a large aggregate of such warrants +would possess the means of making such allotments valuable and of +reselling them at greatly increased prices.</p> + +<p>The primary settler, therefore,—who, however, will not usually have +been the primary owner,—goes to work upon his land amidst all the +wildness of nature. He levels and burns the first trees, and raises +his first crop of corn amidst stumps still standing four or five feet +above the soil; but he does not do so till some mode of conveyance +has been found for him. So much I have said hoping to explain the +mode in which the frontier speculator paves the way for the frontier +agriculturist. But the permanent farmer very generally comes on the +land as the third owner. The first settler is a rough fellow, and +seems to be so wedded to his rough life that he leaves his land after +his first wild work is done, and goes again further off to some +untouched allotment. He finds that he can sell his improvements at a +profitable rate and takes the price. He is a preparer of farms rather +than a farmer. He has no love for the soil which his hand has first +turned. He regards it merely as an investment; and when things about +him are beginning to wear an aspect of comfort,—when his property +has become valuable, he sells it, packs up his wife and little ones, +and goes again into the woods. The western American has no love for +his own soil, or his own house. The matter with him is simply one of +dollars. To keep a farm which he could sell at an advantage from any +feeling of affection,—from what we should call an association of +ideas,—would be to him as ridiculous as the keeping of a family pig +would be in an English farmer's establishment. The pig is a part of +the farmer's stock in trade, and must go the way of all pigs. And so +is it with house and land in the life of the frontier man in the +western States.</p> + +<p>But yet this man has his romance, his high poetic feeling, and above +all his manly dignity. Visit him, and you will find him without coat +or waistcoat, unshorn, in ragged blue trousers and old flannel shirt, +too often bearing on his lantern jaws the signs of ague and sickness; +but he will stand upright before you and speak to you with all the +ease of a lettered gentleman in his own library. All the odious +incivility of the republican servant has been banished. He is his own +master, standing on his own threshold, and finds no need to assert +his equality by rudeness. He is delighted to see you, and bids you +sit down on his battered bench without dreaming of any such apology +as an English cottier offers to a Lady Bountiful when she calls. He +has worked out his independence, and shows it in every easy movement +of his body. He tells you of it unconsciously in every tone of his +voice. You will always find in his cabin some newspaper, some book, +some token of advance in education. When he questions you about the +old country he astonishes you by the extent of his knowledge. I defy +you not to feel that he is superior to the race from whence he has +sprung in England or in Ireland. To me I confess that the manliness +of such a man is very charming. He is dirty and perhaps squalid. His +children are sick and he is without comforts. His wife is pale, and +you think you see shortness of life written in the faces of all the +family. But over and above it all there is an independence which sits +gracefully on their shoulders, and teaches you at the first glance +that the man has a right to assume himself to be your equal. It is +for this position that the labourer works, bearing hard words and the +indignity of tyranny,—suffering also too often the dishonest +ill-usage which his superior power enables the master to inflict.</p> + +<p>"I have lived very rough," I heard a poor woman say, whose husband +had ill-used and deserted her. "I have known what it is to be hungry +and cold, and to work hard till my bones have ached. I only wish that +I might have the same chance again. If I could have ten acres cleared +two miles away from any living being, I could be happy with my +children. I find a kind of comfort when I am at work from daybreak to +sundown, and know that it is all my own." I believe that life in the +backwoods has an allurement to those who have been used to it, that +dwellers in cities can hardly comprehend.</p> + +<p>From Milwaukee we went across Wisconsin and reached the Mississippi +at La Crosse. From hence, according to agreement, we were to start by +steamer at once up the river. But we were delayed again, as had +happened to us before on Lake Michigan at Grand Haven.</p> + + +<p><a id="c10"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER X.</h3> +<h4>THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>It had been promised to us that we should start from La Crosse by the +river steamer immediately on our arrival there; but on reaching La +Crosse we found that the vessel destined to take us up the river had +not yet come down. She was bringing a regiment from Minnesota, and +under such circumstances some pardon might be extended to +irregularities. This plea was made by one of the boat clerks in a +very humble tone, and was fully accepted by us. The wonder was that +at such a period all means of public conveyance were not put +absolutely out of gear. One might surmise that when regiments were +constantly being moved for the purposes of civil war, when the whole +North had but the one object of collecting together a sufficient +number of men to crush the South, ordinary travelling for ordinary +purposes would be difficult, slow, and subject to sudden stoppages. +Such, however, was not the case either in the northern or western +States. The trains ran much as usual, and those connected with the +boats and railways were just as anxious as ever to secure passengers. +The boat clerk at La Crosse apologised amply for the delay, and we +sat ourselves down with patience to await the arrival of the second +Minnesota regiment on its way to Washington.</p> + +<p>During the four hours that we were kept waiting we were harboured on +board a small steamer, and at about eleven the terribly harsh whistle +that is made by the Mississippi boats informed us that the regiment +was arriving. It came up to the quay in two steamers, 750 being +brought in that which was to take us back, and 250 in a smaller one. +The moon was very bright, and great flaming torches were lit on the +vessel's side, so that all the operations of the men were visible. +The two steamers had run close up, thrusting us away from the quay in +their passage, but doing it so gently that we did not even feel the +motion. These large boats—and their size may be understood from the +fact that one of them had just brought down 750 men,—are moved so +easily and so gently that they come gliding in among each other +without hesitation and without pause. On English waters we do not +willingly run ships against each other; and when we do so +unwillingly, they bump and crush and crash upon each other, and +timbers fly while men are swearing. But here there was neither +crashing nor swearing, and the boats noiselessly pressed against each +other as though they were cased in muslin and crinoline.</p> + +<p>I got out upon the quay and stood close by the plank, watching each +man as he left the vessel and walked across towards the railway. +Those whom I had previously seen in tents were not equipped, but +these men were in uniform and each bore his musket. Taking them all +together they were as fine a set of men as I ever saw collected. No +man could doubt on seeing them that they bore on their countenances +the signs of higher breeding and better education than would be seen +in a thousand men enlisted in England. I do not mean to argue from +this that Americans are better than English. I do not mean to argue +here that they are even better educated. My assertion goes to show +that the men generally were taken from a higher level in the +community than that which fills our own ranks. It was a matter of +regret to me, here and on many subsequent occasions, to see men bound +for three years to serve as common soldiers, who were so manifestly +fitted for a better and more useful life. To me it is always a source +of sorrow to see a man enlisted. I feel that the individual recruit +is doing badly with himself—carrying himself and the strength and +intelligence which belongs to him to a bad market. I know that there +must be soldiers; but as to every separate soldier I regret that he +should be one of them. And the higher is the class from which such +soldiers are drawn, the greater the intelligence of the men so to be +employed, the deeper with me is that feeling of regret. But this +strikes one much less in an old country than in a country that is +new. In the old countries population is thick, and food sometimes +scarce. Men can be spared, and any employment may be serviceable, +even though that employment be in itself so unproductive as that of +fighting battles or preparing for them. But in the western States of +America every arm that can guide a plough is of incalculable value. +Minnesota was admitted as a State about three years before this time, +and its whole population is not much above 150,000. Of this number +perhaps 40,000 may be working men. And now this infant State with its +huge territory and scanty population is called upon to send its +heart's blood out to the war.</p> + +<p>And it has sent its heart's best blood. Forth they came—fine, +stalwart, well-grown fellows, looking to my eye as though they had as +yet but faintly recognised the necessary severity of military +discipline. To them hitherto the war had seemed to be an arena on +which each might do something for his country, which that country +would recognise. To themselves as yet—and to me also—they were a +band of heroes, to be reduced by the compressing power of military +discipline to the lower level, but more necessary position of a +regiment of soldiers. Ah me! how terrible to them has been the +breaking up of that delusion! When a poor yokel in England is +enlisted with a shilling and a promise of unlimited beer and glory, +one pities and if possible would save him. But with him the mode of +life to which he goes may not be much inferior to that he leaves. It +may be that for him soldiering is the best trade possible in his +circumstances. It may keep him from the hen-roosts, and perhaps from +his neighbours' pantries; and discipline may be good for him. +Population is thick with us, and there are many whom it may be well +to collect and make available under the strictest surveillance. But +of these men whom I saw entering on their career upon the banks of +the Mississippi, many were fathers of families, many were owners of +lands, many were educated men capable of high aspirations,—all were +serviceable members of their State. There were probably there not +three or four of whom it would be well that the State should be rid. +As soldiers fit, or capable of being made fit for the duties they had +undertaken, I could find but one fault with them. Their average age +was too high. There were men among them with grizzled beards, and +many who had counted thirty, thirty-five, and forty years. They had, +I believe, devoted themselves with a true spirit of patriotism. No +doubt each had some ulterior hope as to himself,—as has every mortal +patriot. Regulus when he returned hopeless to Carthage, trusted that +some Horace would tell his story. Each of these men from Minnesota +looked probably forward to his reward; but the reward desired was of +a high class.</p> + +<p>The first great misery to be endured by these regiments will be the +military lesson of obedience which they must learn before they can be +of any service. It always seemed to me when I came near them that +they had not as yet recognized the necessary austerity of an +officer's duty. Their idea of a captain was the stage idea of a +leader of dramatic banditti, a man to be followed and obeyed as a +leader, but to be obeyed with that free and easy obedience which is +accorded to the reigning chief of the forty thieves. "Wa'll Captain," +I have heard a private say to his officer, as he sat on one seat in a +railway-car with his feet upon the back of another. And the captain +has looked as though he did not like it. The captain did not like it, +but the poor private was being fast carried to that destiny which he +would like still less. From the first I have had faith in the +northern army; but from the first I have felt that the suffering to +be endured by these free and independent volunteers would be very +great. A man to be available as a private soldier must be compressed +and belted in till he be a machine.</p> + +<p>As soon as the men had left the vessel we walked over the side of it +and took possession. "I am afraid your cabin won't be ready for a +quarter of an hour," said the clerk. "Such a body of men as that will +leave some dirt after them." I assured him of course that our +expectations under such circumstances were very limited, and that I +was fully aware that the boat and the boat's company were taken up +with matters of greater moment than the carriage of ordinary +passengers. But to this he demurred altogether. "The regiments were +very little to them, but occasioned much trouble. Everything, +however, should be square in fifteen minutes." At the expiration of +the time named the key of our state-room was given to us, and we +found the appurtenances as clean as though no soldier had ever put +his foot upon the vessel.</p> + +<p>From La Crosse to St. Paul, the distance up the river is something +over 200 miles, and from St. Paul down to Dubuque, in Iowa, to which +we went on our return, the distance is 450 miles. We were therefore +for a considerable time on board these boats; more so than such a +journey may generally make necessary, as we were delayed at first by +the soldiers, and afterwards by accidents, such as the breaking of a +paddle-wheel, and other causes to which navigation on the Upper +Mississippi seems to be liable. On the whole we slept on board four +nights, and lived on board as many days. I cannot say that the life +was comfortable, though I do not know that it could be made more so +by any care on the part of the boat-owners. My first complaint would +be against the great heat of the cabins. The Americans as a rule live +in an atmosphere which is almost unbearable by an Englishman. To this +cause, I am convinced, is to be attributed their thin faces, their +pale skins, their unenergetic temperament,—unenergetic as regards +physical motion,—and their early old age. The winters are long and +cold in America, and mechanical ingenuity is far extended. These two +facts together have created a system of stoves, hot-air pipes, steam +chambers, and heating apparatus so extensive that from autumn till +the end of spring all inhabited rooms are filled with the atmosphere +of a hot oven. An Englishman fancies that he is to be baked, and for +a while finds it almost impossible to exist in the air prepared for +him. How the heat is engendered on board the river steamers I do not +know, but it is engendered to so great a degree that the +sitting-cabins are unendurable. The patient is therefore driven out +at all hours into the outside balconies of the boat, or on to the top +roof,—for it is a roof rather than a deck,—and there as he passes +through the air at the rate of twenty miles an hour, finds himself +chilled to the very bones. That is my first complaint. But as the +boats are made for Americans, and as Americans like hot air, I do not +put it forward with any idea that a change ought to be effected. My +second complaint is equally unreasonable, and is quite as incapable +of a remedy as the first. Nine-tenths of the travellers carry +children with them. They are not tourists engaged on pleasure +excursions, but men and women intent on the business of life. They +are moving up and down, looking for fortune, and in search of new +homes. Of course they carry with them all their household goods. Do +not let any critic say that I grudge these young travellers their +right to locomotion. Neither their right to locomotion is grudged by +me, nor any of those privileges which are accorded in America to the +rising generation. The habits of their country and the choice of +their parents give to them full dominion over all hours and over all +places, and it would ill become a foreigner to make such habits and +such choice a ground of serious complaint. But nevertheless the +uncontrolled energies of twenty children round one's legs do not +convey comfort or happiness, when the passing events are producing +noise and storm rather than peace and sunshine. I must protest that +American babies are an unhappy race. They eat and drink just as they +please; they are never punished; they are never banished, snubbed, +and kept in the back ground as children are kept with us; and yet +they are wretched and uncomfortable. My heart has bled for them as I +have heard them squalling by the hour together in agonies of +discontent and dyspepsia. Can it be, I wonder, that children are +happier when they are made to obey orders and are sent to bed at six +o'clock, than when allowed to regulate their own conduct; that bread +and milk are more favourable to laughter and soft childish ways than +beef-steaks and pickles three times a day; that an occasional +whipping, even, will conduce to rosy cheeks? It is an idea which I +should never dare to broach to an American mother; but I must confess +that after my travels on the western continent my opinions have a +tendency in that direction. Beef-steaks and pickles certainly produce +smart little men and women. Let that be taken for granted. But rosy +laughter and winning childish ways are, I fancy, the produce of bread +and milk. But there was a third reason why travelling on these boats +was not as pleasant as I had expected. I could not get my +fellow-travellers to talk to me. It must be understood that our +fellow-travellers were not generally of that class which we +Englishmen, in our pride, designate as gentlemen and ladies. They +were people, as I have said, in search of new homes and new fortunes. +But I protest that as such they would have been in those parts much +more agreeable as companions to me than any gentlemen or any ladies, +if only they would have talked to me. I do not accuse them of any +incivility. If addressed, they answered me. If application was made +by me for any special information, trouble was taken to give it me. +But I found no aptitude, no wish for conversation; nay, even a +disinclination to converse. In the western States I do not think that +I was ever addressed first by an American sitting next to me at +table. Indeed I never held any conversation at a public table in the +West. I have sat in the same room with men for hours, and have not +had a word spoken to me. I have done my very best to break through +this ice, and have always failed. A western American man is not a +talking man. He will sit for hours over a stove with his cigar in his +mouth, and his hat over his eyes, chewing the cud of reflection. A +dozen will sit together in the same way, and there shall not be a +dozen words spoken between them in an hour. With the women one's +chance of conversation is still worse. It seemed as though the cares +of the world had been too much for them, and that all talking +excepting as to business,—demands for instance on the servants for +pickles for their children,—had gone by the board. They were +generally hard, dry, and melancholy. I am speaking of course of aged +females,—from five and twenty perhaps to thirty, who had long since +given up the amusements and levities of life. I very soon abandoned +any attempt at drawing a word from these ancient mothers of families; +but not the less did I ponder in my mind over the circumstances of +their lives. Had things gone with them so sadly, was the struggle for +independence so hard, that all the softness of existence had been +trodden out of them? In the cities too it was much the same. It +seemed to me that a future mother of a family in those parts had left +all laughter behind her when she put out her finger for the wedding +ring.</p> + +<p>For these reasons I must say that life on board these steam-boats was +not as pleasant as I had hoped to find it, but for our discomfort in +this respect we found great atonement in the scenery through which we +passed. I protest that of all the river scenery that I know, that of +the Upper Mississippi is by far the finest and the most continued. +One thinks of course of the Rhine; but, according to my idea of +beauty, the Rhine is nothing to the Upper Mississippi. For miles upon +miles, for hundreds of miles, the course of the river runs through +low hills, which are there called bluffs. These bluffs rise in every +imaginable form, looking sometimes like large straggling unwieldy +castles, and then throwing themselves into sloping lawns which +stretch back away from the river till the eye is lost in their twists +and turnings. Landscape beauty, as I take it, consists mainly in four +attributes: in water, in broken land, in scattered timber,—timber +scattered as opposed to continuous forest timber,—and in the +accident of colour. In all these particulars the banks of the Upper +Mississippi can hardly be beaten. There are no high mountains; but +high mountains themselves are grand rather than beautiful. There are +no high mountains, but there is a succession of hills which group +themselves for ever without monotony. It is perhaps the +ever-variegated forms of these bluffs which chiefly constitute the +wonderful loveliness of this river. The idea constantly occurs that +some point on every hillside would form the most charming site ever +yet chosen for a noble residence. I have passed up and down rivers +clothed to the edge with continuous forest. This at first is grand +enough, but the eye and feeling soon become weary. Here the trees are +scattered so that the eye passes through them, and ever and again a +long lawn sweeps back into the country, and up the steep side of a +hill, making the traveller long to stay there and linger through the +oaks, and climb the bluffs, and lie about on the bold but easy +summits. The boat, however, steams quickly up against the current, +and the happy valleys are left behind, one quickly after another. The +river is very various in its breadth, and is constantly divided by +islands. It is never so broad that the beauty of the banks is lost in +the distance or injured by it. It is rapid, but has not the +beautifully bright colour of some European rivers,—of the Rhine for +instance, and the Rhone. But what is wanting in the colour of the +water is more than compensated by the wonderful hues and lustre of +the shores. We visited the river in October, and I must presume that +they who seek it solely for the sake of scenery should go there in +that month. It was not only that the foliage of the trees was bright +with every imaginable colour, but that the grass was bronzed, and +that the rocks were golden. And this beauty did not last only for a +while and then cease. On the Rhine there are lovely spots and special +morsels of scenery with which the traveller becomes duly enraptured. +But on the Upper Mississippi there are no special morsels. The +position of the sun in the heavens will, as it always does, make much +difference in the degree of beauty. The hour before and the half-hour +after sunset are always the loveliest for such scenes. But of the +shores themselves one may declare that they are lovely throughout +those 400 miles which run immediately south from St. Paul.</p> + +<p>About half-way between La Crosse and St. Paul we came upon Lake +Pepin, and continued our course up the lake for perhaps fifty or +sixty miles. This expanse of water is narrow for a lake, and by those +who know the lower courses of great rivers, would hardly be dignified +by that name. But, nevertheless, the breadth here lessens the beauty. +There are the same bluffs, the same scattered woodlands, and the same +colours. But they are either at a distance, or else they are to be +seen on one side only. The more that I see of the beauty of scenery, +and the more I consider its elements, the stronger becomes my +conviction that size has but little to do with it, and rather +detracts from it than adds to it. Distance gives one of its greatest +charms, but it does so by concealing rather than displaying an +expanse of surface. The beauty of distance arises from the +romance,—the feeling of mystery which it creates. It is like the +beauty of woman which allures the more the more that it is veiled. +But open, uncovered land and water, mountains which simply rise to +great heights with long unbroken slopes, wide expanses of lake, and +forests which are monotonous in their continued thickness, are never +lovely to me. A landscape should always be partly veiled, and display +only half its charms.</p> + +<p>To my taste the finest stretch of the river was that immediately +above Lake Pepin; but then, at this point, we had all the glory of +the setting sun. It was like fairy land, so bright were the golden +hues, so fantastic were the shapes of the hills, so broken and +twisted the course of the waters! But the noisy steamer went groaning +up the narrow passages with almost unabated speed, and left the fairy +land behind all too quickly. Then the bell would ring for tea, and +the children with the beef-steaks, the pickled onions, and the light +fixings would all come over again. The care-laden mothers would tuck +the bibs under the chins of their tyrant children, and some embryo +senator of four years old would listen with concentrated attention, +while the negro servant recapitulated to him the delicacies of the +supper-table, in order that he might make his choice with due +consideration. "Beef-steak," the embryo four-year old senator would +lisp, "and stewed potato, and buttered toast, and corn cake, and +coffee,—and—and—and—; mother, mind you get me the pickles."</p> + +<p>St. Paul enjoys the double privilege of being the commercial and +political capital of Minnesota. The same is the case with Boston in +Massachusetts, but I do not remember another instance in which it is +so. It is built on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, though the +bulk of the State lies to the west of the river. It is noticeable as +the spot up to which the river is navigable. Immediately above St. +Paul there are narrow rapids up which no boat can pass. North of +this, continuous navigation does not go; but from St. Paul down to +New Orleans, and the Gulf of Mexico, it is uninterrupted. The +distance to St. Louis in Missouri, a town built below the confluence +of the three rivers, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois, is 900 +miles; and then the navigable waters down to the gulf wash a southern +country of still greater extent. No river on the face of the globe +forms a highway for the produce of so wide an extent of agricultural +land. The Mississippi with its tributaries carried to market, before +the war, the produce of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, +Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, +Mississippi, and Louisiana. This country is larger than England, +Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain +together, and is undoubtedly composed of much more fertile land. The +States named comprise the great centre valley of the continent, and +are the farming lands and garden grounds of the western world. He who +has not seen corn on the ground in Illinois or Minnesota, does not +know to what extent the fertility of land may go, or how great may be +the weight of cereal crops. And for all this the Mississippi was the +high road to market. When the crop of 1861 was garnered this high +road was stopped by the war. What suffering this entailed on the +South, I will not here stop to say, but on the West the effect was +terrible. Corn was in such plenty, Indian corn that is, or maize, +that it was not worth the farmer's while to prepare it for market. +When I was in Illinois the second quality of Indian corn when shelled +was not worth more than from eight to ten cents a bushel. But the +shelling and preparation are laborious, and in some instances it was +found better to burn it for fuel than to sell it. Respecting the +export of corn from the West, I must say a further word or two in the +next chapter; but it seemed to be indispensable that I should point +out here how great to the United States is the need of the +Mississippi. Nor is it for corn and wheat only that its waters are +needed. Timber, lead, iron, coal, pork, all find, or should find, +their exit to the world at large by this road. There are towns on it, +and on its tributaries, already holding more than one hundred and +fifty thousand inhabitants. The number of Cincinnati exceeds that, as +also does the number of St. Louis. Under these circumstances it is +not wonderful that the States should wish to keep in their own hands +the navigation of this river.</p> + +<p>It is not wonderful. But it will not, I think, be admitted by the +politicians of the world, that the navigation of the Mississippi need +be closed against the West, even though the southern States should +succeed in raising themselves to the power and dignity of a separate +nationality. If the waters of the Danube be not open to Austria, it +is through the fault of Austria. That the subject will be one of +trouble no man can doubt; and of course it would be well for the +North to avoid that, or any other trouble. In the meantime the +importance of this right of way must be admitted; and it must be +admitted also that whatever may be the ultimate resolve of the North, +it will be very difficult to reconcile the West to a divided dominion +of the Mississippi.</p> + +<p>St. Paul contains about fourteen thousand inhabitants, and, like all +other American towns, is spread over a surface of ground adapted to +the accommodation of a very extended population. As it is belted on +one side by the river, and on the other by the bluffs which accompany +the course of the river, the site is pretty, and almost romantic. +Here also we found a great hotel,—a huge square building, such as we +in England might perhaps place near to a railway terminus, in such a +city as Glasgow or Manchester; but on which no living Englishman +would expend his money in a town even five times as big again as St. +Paul. Everything was sufficiently good, and much more than +sufficiently plentiful. The whole thing went on exactly as hotels do +down in Massachusetts, or the State of New York. Look at the map, and +see where St. Paul is. Its distance from all known civilization,—all +civilization that has succeeded in obtaining acquaintance with the +world at large, is very great. Even American travellers do not go up +there in great numbers, excepting those who intend to settle there. A +stray sportsman or two, American or English, as the case may be, +makes his way into Minnesota for the sake of shooting, and pushes on +up through St. Paul to the Red River. Some few adventurous spirits +visit the Indian settlements, and pass over into the unsettled +regions of Dacotah and Washington territory. But there is no throng +of travelling. Nevertheless, an hotel has been built there capable of +holding three hundred guests, and other hotels exist in the +neighbourhood, one of which is even larger than that at St. Paul. Who +can come to them, and create even a hope that such an enterprise may +be remunerative? In America it is seldom more than hope, for one +always hears that such enterprises fail.</p> + +<p>When I was there the war was in hand, and it was hardly to be +expected that any hotel should succeed. The landlord told me that he +held it at the present time for a very low rent, and that he could +just manage to keep it open without loss. The war which hindered +people from travelling, and in that way injured the innkeepers, also +hindered people from housekeeping, and reduced them to the necessity +of boarding out,—by which the innkeepers were, of course, benefited. +At St. Paul I found that the majority of the guests were inhabitants +of the town, boarding at the hotel, and thus dispensing with the +cares of a separate establishment. I do not know what was charged for +such accommodation at St. Paul, but I have come across large houses +at which a single man could get all that he required for a dollar a +day. Now Americans are great consumers, especially at hotels, and all +that a man requires includes three hot meals with a choice from about +two dozen dishes at each.</p> + +<p>From St. Paul there are two waterfalls to be seen, which we, of +course, visited. We crossed the river at Fort Snelling, a ricketty, +ill-conditioned building, standing at the confluence of the Minnesota +and Mississippi rivers, built there to repress the Indians. It is, I +take it, very necessary, especially at the present moment, as the +Indians seem to require repressing. They have learned that the +attention of the federal government has been called to the war, and +have become bold in consequence. When I was at St. Paul I heard of a +party of Englishmen who had been robbed of everything they possessed, +and was informed that the farmers in the distant parts of the State +were by no means secure. The Indians are more to be pitied than the +farmers. They are turning against enemies who will neither forgive +nor forget any injuries done. When the war is over they will be +improved, and polished, and annexed, till no Indian will hold an acre +of land in Minnesota. At present Fort Snelling is the nucleus of a +recruiting camp. On the point between the bluffs of the two rivers +there is a plain, immediately in front of the fort, and there we saw +the newly-joined Minnesota recruits going through their first +military exercises. They were in detachments of twenties, and were +rude enough at their goose step. The matter which struck me most in +looking at them was the difference of condition which I observed in +the men. There were the country lads, fresh from the farms, such as +we see following the recruiting sergeant through English towns; but +there were also men in black coats and black trousers, with thin +boots, and trimmed beards,—beards which had been trimmed till very +lately; and some of them with beards which showed that they were no +longer young. It was inexpressibly melancholy to see such men as +these twisting and turning about at the corporal's word, each +handling some stick in his hand in lieu of weapon. Of course they +were more awkward than the boys, even though they were twice more +assiduous in their efforts. Of course they were sad, and wretched. I +saw men there that were very wretched,—all but heart-broken, if one +might judge from their faces. They should not have been there +handling sticks, and moving their unaccustomed legs in cramped paces. +They were as razors, for which no better purpose could be found than +the cutting of blocks. When such attempts are made the block is not +cut, but the razor is spoilt. Most unfit for the commencement of a +soldier's life were some that I saw there, but I do not doubt that +they had been attracted to the work by the one idea of doing +something for their country in its trouble.</p> + +<p>From Fort Snelling we went on to the Falls of Minnehaha. Minnehaha, +laughing water. Such I believe is the interpretation. The name in +this case is more imposing than the fall. It is a pretty little +cascade, and might do for a picnic in fine weather, but it is not a +waterfall of which a man can make much when found so far away from +home. Going on from Minnehaha we came to Minneapolis, at which place +there is a fine suspension bridge across the river, just above the +falls of St. Anthony and leading to the town of that name. Till I got +there I could hardly believe that in these days there should be a +living village called Minneapolis by living men. I presume I should +describe it as a town, for it has a municipality, and a post-office, +and, of course, a large hotel. The interest of the place however is +in the saw-mills. On the opposite side of the water, at St. Anthony, +is another very large hotel,—and also a smaller one. The smaller one +may be about the size of the first-class hotels at Cheltenham or +Leamington. They were both closed, and there seemed to be but little +prospect that either would be opened till the war should be over. The +saw-mills, however, were at full work, and to my eyes were extremely +picturesque. I had been told that the beauty of the falls had been +destroyed by the mills. Indeed all who had spoken to me about St. +Anthony had said so. But I did not agree with them. Here, as at +Ottawa, the charm in fact consists, not in an uninterrupted shoot of +water, but in a succession of rapids over a bed of broken rocks. +Among these rocks logs of loose timber are caught, which have escaped +from their proper courses, and here they lie, heaped up in some +places, and constructing themselves into bridges in others, till the +freshets of the spring carry them off. The timber is generally +brought down in logs to St. Anthony, is sawn there, and then sent +down the Mississippi in large rafts. These rafts on other rivers are +I think generally made of unsawn timber. Such logs as have escaped in +the manner above described are recognized on their passage down the +river by their marks, and are made up separately, the original owners +receiving the value,—or not receiving it as the case may be. "There +is quite a trade going on with the loose lumber," my informant told +me. And from his tone I was led to suppose that he regarded the trade +as sufficiently lucrative if not peculiarly honest.</p> + +<p>There is very much in the mode of life adopted by the settlers in +these regions which creates admiration. The people are all +intelligent. They are energetic and speculative, conceiving grand +ideas, and carrying them out almost with the rapidity of magic. A +suspension bridge half a mile long is erected, while in England we +should be fastening together a few planks for a foot passage. +Progress, mental as well as material, is the demand of the people +generally. Everybody understands everything, and everybody intends +sooner or later to do everything. All this is very grand;—but then +there is a terrible drawback. One hears on every side of +intelligence, but one hears also on every side of dishonesty. Talk to +whom you will, of whom you will, and you will hear some tale of +successful or unsuccessful swindling. It seems to be the recognized +rule of commerce in the Far West that men shall go into the world's +markets prepared to cheat and to be cheated. It may be said that as +long as this is acknowledged and understood on all sides, no harm +will be done. It is equally fair for all. When I was a child there +used to be certain games at which it was agreed in beginning either +that there should be cheating or that there should not. It may be +said that out there in the western States, men agree to play the +cheating game; and that the cheating game has more of interest in it +than the other. Unfortunately, however, they who agree to play this +game on a large scale, do not keep outsiders altogether out of the +play-ground. Indeed outsiders become very welcome to them;—and then +it is not pleasant to hear the tone in which such outsiders speak of +the peculiarities of the sport to which they have been introduced. +When a beginner in trade finds himself furnished with a barrel of +wooden nutmegs, the joke is not so good to him as to the experienced +merchant who supplies him. This dealing in wooden nutmegs, this +selling of things which do not exist, and buying of goods for which +no price is ever to be given, is an institution which is much +honoured in the West. We call it swindling;—and so do they. But it +seemed to me that in the western States the word hardly seemed to +leave the same impress on the mind that it does elsewhere.</p> + +<p>On our return down the river we passed La Crosse, at which we had +embarked, and went down as far as Dubuque in Iowa. On our way down we +came to grief and broke one of our paddle-wheels to pieces. We had no +special accident. We struck against nothing above or below water. But +the wheel went to pieces, and we lay-to on the river side for the +greater part of a day while the necessary repairs were being made. +Delay in travelling is usually an annoyance, because it causes the +unsettlement of a settled purpose. But the loss of the day did us no +harm, and our accident had happened at a very pretty spot. I climbed +up to the top of the nearest bluff, and walked back till I came to +the open country, and also went up and down the river banks, visiting +the cabins of two settlers who live there by supplying wood to the +river steamers. One of these was close to the spot at which we were +lying; and yet though most of our passengers came on shore, I was the +only one who spoke to the inmates of the cabin. These people must +live there almost in desolation from one year's end to another. Once +in a fortnight or so they go up to a market town in their small +boats, but beyond that they can have little intercourse with their +fellow-creatures. Nevertheless none of these dwellers by the river +side came out to speak to the men and women who were lounging about +from eleven in the morning till four in the afternoon; nor did one of +the passengers except myself knock at the door or enter the cabin, or +exchange a word with those who lived there.</p> + +<p>I spoke to the master of the house, whom I met outside, and he at +once asked me to come in and sit down. I found his father there and +his mother, his wife, his brother, and two young children. The wife, +who was cooking, was a very pretty, pale young woman, who, however, +could have circulated round her stove more conveniently had her +crinoline been of less dimensions. She bade me welcome very prettily, +and went on with her cooking, talking the while, as though she were +in the habit of entertaining guests in that way daily. The old woman +sat in a corner knitting—as old women always do. The old man lounged +with a grandchild on his knee, and the master of the house threw +himself on the floor while the other child crawled over him. There +was no stiffness or uneasiness in their manners, nor was there +anything approaching to that republican roughness which so often +operates upon a poor, well-intending Englishman like a slap on the +cheek. I sat there for about an hour, and when I had discussed with +them English politics and the bearing of English politics upon the +American war, they told me of their own affairs. Food was very +plenty, but life was very hard. Take the year through, each man could +not earn above half a dollar a day by cutting wood. This, however, +they owned, did not take up all their time. Working on favourable +wood on favourable days they could each earn two dollars a day; but +these favourable circumstances did not come together very often. They +did not deal with the boats themselves, and the profits were eaten up +by the middleman. He, the middleman, had a good thing of it, because +he could cheat the captains of the boats in the measurement of the +wood. The chopper was obliged to supply a genuine cord of logs,—true +measure. But the man who took it off in the barge to the steamer +could so pack it that fifteen true cords would make twenty-two false +cords. "It cuts up into a fine trade, you see, sir," said the young +man, as he stroked back the little girl's hair from her forehead. +"But the captains of course must find it out," said I. This he +acknowledged, but argued that the captains on this account insisted +on buying the wood so much cheaper, and that the loss all came upon +the chopper. I tried to teach him that the remedy lay in his own +hands, and the three men listened to me quite patiently while I +explained to them how they should carry on their own trade. But the +young father had the last word. "I guess we don't get above the fifty +cents a day any way." He knew at least where the shoe pinched him. He +was a handsome, manly, noble-looking fellow, tall and thin, with +black hair and bright eyes. But he had the hollow look about his +jaws, and so had his wife, and so had his brother. They all owned to +fever and ague. They had a touch of it most years, and sometimes +pretty sharply. "It was a coarse place to live in," the old woman +said, "but there was no one to meddle with them, and she guessed that +it suited." They had books and newspapers, tidy delf, and clean glass +upon their shelves, and undoubtedly provisions in plenty. Whether +fever and ague yearly, and cords of wood stretched from fifteen to +twenty-two are more than a set-off for these good things, I will +leave every one to decide according to his own taste.</p> + +<p>In another cabin I found women and children only, and one of the +children was in the last stage of illness. But nevertheless the woman +of the house seemed glad to see me, and talked cheerfully as long as +I would remain. She inquired what had happened to the vessel, but it +had never occurred to her to go out and see. Her cabin was neat and +well furnished, and there also I saw newspapers and Harper's +everlasting magazine. She said it was a coarse, desolate place for +living, but that she could raise almost anything in her garden.</p> + +<p>I could not then understand, nor can I now understand, why none of +the numerous passengers out of the boat should have entered those +cabins except myself, and why the inmates of the cabins should not +have come out to speak to any one. Had they been surly, morose +people, made silent by the specialties of their life, it would have +been explicable; but they were delighted to talk and to listen. The +fact, I take it, is, that the people are all harsh to each other. +They do not care to go out of their way to speak to any one unless +something is to be gained. They say that two Englishmen meeting in +the desert would not speak unless they were introduced. The further I +travel, the less true do I find this of Englishmen, and the more true +of other people.</p> + + +<p><a id="c11"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER XI.</h3> +<h4>CERES AMERICANA.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>We stopped at the Julien House, Dubuque. Dubuque is a city in Iowa on +the western shore of the Mississippi, and as the names both of the +town and of the hotel sounded French in my ears, I asked for an +explanation. I was then told that Julien Dubuque, a Canadian +Frenchman, had been buried on one of the bluffs of the river within +the precincts of the present town, that he had been the first white +settler in Iowa, and had been the only man who had ever prevailed +upon the Indians to work. Among them he had become a great +"Medicine," and seems for a while to have had absolute power over +them. He died I think in 1800, and was buried on one of the hills +over the river. "He was a bold bad man," my informant told me, "and +committed every sin under heaven. But he made the Indians work."</p> + +<p>Lead mines are the glory of Dubuque, and very large sums of money +have been made from them. I was taken out to see one of them, and to +go down it; but we found, not altogether to my sorrow, that the works +had been stopped on account of the water. No effort has been made in +any of these mines to subdue the water, nor has steam been applied to +the working of them. The lodes have been so rich with lead that the +speculators have been content to take out the metal that was easily +reached, and to go off in search of fresh ground when disturbed by +water. "And are wages here paid pretty punctually?" I asked. "Well; a +man has to be smart, you know." And then my friend went on to +acknowledge that it would be better for the country if smartness were +not so essential.</p> + +<p>Iowa has a population of 674,000 souls, and in October 1861 had +already mustered eighteen regiments of 1000 men each. Such a +population would give probably 170,000 men capable of bearing arms, +and therefore the number of soldiers sent had already amounted to +more than a decimation of the available strength of the State. When +we were at Dubuque nothing was talked of but the army. It seemed that +mines, coal-pits, and corn-fields, were all of no account in +comparison with the war. How many regiments could be squeezed out of +the State, was the one question which filled all minds; and the +general desire was that such regiments should be sent to the Western +army, to swell the triumph which was still expected for General +Fremont, and to assist in sweeping slavery out into the Gulf of +Mexico. The patriotism of the West has been quite as keen as that of +the North, and has produced results as memorable; but it has sprung +from a different source, and been conducted and animated by a +different sentiment. National greatness and support of the law have +been the ideas of the North; national greatness and abolition of +slavery have been those of the West. How they are to agree as to +terms when between them they have crushed the South,—that is the +difficulty.</p> + +<p>At Dubuque in Iowa, I ate the best apple that I ever encountered. I +make that statement with the purpose of doing justice to the +Americans on a matter which is to them one of considerable +importance. Americans as a rule do not believe in English apples. +They declare that there are none, and receive accounts of Devonshire +cyder with manifest incredulity. "But at any rate there are no apples +in England equal to ours." That is an assertion to which an +Englishman is called upon to give an absolute assent; and I hereby +give it. Apples so excellent as some which were given to us at +Dubuque, I have never eaten in England. There is a great jealousy +respecting all the fruits of the earth. "Your peaches are fine to +look at," was said to me, "but they have no flavour." This was the +assertion of a lady, and I made no answer. My idea had been that +American peaches had no flavour; that French peaches had none; that +those of Italy had none; that little as there might be of which +England could boast with truth, she might at any rate boast of her +peaches without fear of contradiction. Indeed my idea had been that +good peaches were to be got in England only. I am beginning to doubt +whether my belief on the matter has not been the product of insular +ignorance, and idolatrous self-worship. It may be that a peach should +be a combination of an apple and a turnip. "My great objection to +your country, sir," said another, "is that you have got no +vegetables." Had he told me that we had got no seaboard, or no coals, +he would not have surprised me more. No vegetables in England! I +could not restrain myself altogether, and replied by a confession +"that we 'raised' no squash." Squash is the pulp of the pumpkin, and +is much used in the States, both as a vegetable and for pies. No +vegetables in England! Did my surprise arise from the insular +ignorance and idolatrous self-worship of a Britisher, or was my +American friend labouring under a delusion? Is Covent Garden well +supplied with vegetables, or is it not? Do we cultivate our kitchen +gardens with success, or am I under a delusion on that subject? Do I +dream, or is it true that out of my own little patches at home I have +enough for all domestic purposes of peas, beans, broccoli, +cauliflower, celery, beet-root, onions, carrots, parsnips, turnips, +seakale, asparagus, French beans, artichokes, vegetable marrow, +cucumbers, tomatoes, endive, lettuce, as well as herbs of many kinds, +cabbages throughout the year, and potatoes? No vegetables! Had the +gentleman told me that England did not suit him because we had +nothing but vegetables, I should have been less surprised.</p> + +<p>From Dubuque, on the western shore of the river, we passed over to +Dunleath in Illinois, and went on from thence by railway to Dixon. I +was induced to visit this not very flourishing town by a desire to +see the rolling prairie of Illinois, and to learn by eyesight +something of the crops of corn or Indian maize which are produced +upon the land. Had that gentleman told me that we knew nothing of +producing corn in England he would have been nearer the mark; for of +corn in the profusion in which it is grown here we do not know much. +Better land than the prairies of Illinois for cereal crops the +world's surface probably cannot show. And here there has been no +necessity for the long previous labour of banishing the forest. +Enormous prairies stretch across the State, into which the plough can +be put at once. The earth is rich with the vegetation of thousands of +years, and the farmer's return is given to him without delay. The +land bursts with its own produce, and the plenty is such that it +creates wasteful carelessness in the gathering of the crop. It is not +worth a man's while to handle less than large quantities. Up in +Minnesota I had been grieved by the loose manner in which wheat was +treated. I have seen bags of it upset, and left upon the ground. The +labour of collecting it was more than it was worth. There wheat is +the chief crop, and as the lands become cleared and cultivation +spreads itself, the amount coming down the Mississippi will be +increased almost to infinity. The price of wheat in Europe will soon +depend, not upon the value of the wheat in the country which grows +it, but on the power and cheapness of the modes which may exist for +transporting it. I have not been able to obtain the exact prices with +reference to the carriage of wheat from St. Paul, the capital of +Minnesota, to Liverpool, but I have done so as regards Indian corn +from the State of Illinois. The following statement will show what +proportion the value of the article at the place of its growth bears +to the cost of the carriage; and it shows also how enormous an effect +on the price of corn in England would follow any serious decrease in +the cost of carriage.</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"> + <tr> + <td>A bushel of Indian corn at Bloomington<br /> + <span class="ind4">in Illinois cost in October, 1861</span> + </td> + <td class="dollar">10 + </td> + <td class="center" valign="bottom">cents. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Freight to Chicago + </td> + <td class="dollar">10 + </td> + <td class="center" valign="bottom">" + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Storeage + </td> + <td class="dollar">2 + </td> + <td class="center" valign="bottom">" + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Freight from Chicago to Buffalo + </td> + <td class="dollar">22 + </td> + <td class="center" valign="bottom">" + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Elevating, and canal freight to New York + </td> + <td class="dollar">19 + </td> + <td class="center" valign="bottom">" + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Transfer in New York and insurance + </td> + <td class="dollar">3 + </td> + <td class="center" valign="bottom">" + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>Ocean freight + </td> + <td class="dollar"><span class="u">23</span> + </td> + <td class="center" valign="bottom"><span class="u"> " </span> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><span class="nowrap">Cost of a bushel of Indian corn at Liverpool </span> + </td> + <td class="dollar">89 + </td> + <td class="center" valign="bottom">cents. + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<p>Thus corn which in Liverpool costs 3<i>s.</i> 10<i>d.</i>, has been sold by the +farmer who produced it for 5<i>d.</i>! It is probable that no great +reduction can be expected in the cost of ocean transit; but it will +be seen by the above figures that out of the Liverpool price of 3<i>s.</i> +10<i>d.</i> or 89 cents, considerably more than half is paid for carriage +across the United States. All or nearly all this transit is by water, +and there can, I think, be no doubt but that a few years will see it +reduced by fifty per cent. In October last the Mississippi was +closed, the railways had not rolling stock sufficient for their work, +the crops of the two last years had been excessive, and there existed +the necessity of sending out the corn before the internal navigation +had been closed by frost. The parties who had the transit in their +hands put their heads together and were able to demand any prices +that they pleased. It will be seen that the cost of carrying a bushel +of corn from Chicago to Buffalo, by the lakes, was within one cent of +the cost of bringing it from New York to Liverpool. These temporary +causes for high prices of transit will cease, a more perfect system +of competition between the railways and the water transit will be +organized, and the result must necessarily be both an increase of +price to the producer and a decrease of price to the consumer. It +certainly seems that the produce of cereal crops in the valleys of +the Mississippi and its tributaries increases at a faster rate than +population increases. Wheat and corn are sown by the thousand acres +in a piece. I heard of one farmer who had 10,000 acres of corn. +Thirty years ago grain and flour were sent westward out of the State +of New York to supply the wants of those who had emigrated into the +prairies, and now we find that it will be the destiny of those +prairies to feed the universe. Chicago is the main point of +exportation north-westward from Illinois, and at the present time +sends out from its granaries more cereal produce than any other town +in the world. The bulk of this passes, in the shape of grain or +flour, from Chicago to Buffalo, which latter place is as it were a +gateway leading from the lakes or big waters to the canals or small +waters. I give below the amount of grain and flour in bushels +received into Buffalo for transit in the month of October during four +consecutive years.</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"> + <tr> + <td class="center">October, + </td> + <td class="dollar">1858 + </td> + <td class="dollar">4,429,055 + </td> + <td class="center"> bushels. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="center">" + </td> + <td class="dollar">1859 + </td> + <td class="dollar">5,523,448 + </td> + <td class="center">" + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="center">" + </td> + <td class="dollar">1860 + </td> + <td class="dollar">6,500,864 + </td> + <td class="center">" + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="center">" + </td> + <td class="dollar">1861 + </td> + <td class="dollar"> 12,483,797 + </td> + <td class="center">" + </td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<p>In 1860, from the opening to the close of navigation, 30,837,632 +bushels of grain and flour passed through Buffalo. In 1861 the amount +received up to the 31st of October was 51,969,142 bushels. As the +navigation would be closed during the month of November, the above +figures may be taken as representing not quite the whole amount +transported for the year. It may be presumed the 52,000,000 of +bushels, as quoted above, will swell itself to 60,000,000. I confess +that to my own mind statistical amounts do not bring home any +enduring idea. Fifty million bushels of corn and flour simply seems +to mean a great deal. It is a powerful form of superlative, and soon +vanishes away, as do other superlatives in this age of strong words. +I was at Chicago and at Buffalo in October 1861. I went down to the +granaries, and climbed up into the elevators. I saw the wheat running +in rivers from one vessel into another, and from the railroad vans up +into the huge bins on the top stores of the warehouses;—for these +rivers of food run up hill as easily as they do down. I saw the corn +measured by the forty bushel measure with as much ease as we measure +an ounce of cheese, and with greater rapidity. I ascertained that the +work went on, week day and Sunday, day and night incessantly; rivers +of wheat and rivers of maize ever running. I saw the men bathed in +corn as they distributed it in its flow. I saw bins by the score +laden with wheat, in each of which bins there was space for a +comfortable residence. I breathed the flour, and drank the flour, and +felt myself to be enveloped in a world of breadstuff. And then I +believed, understood, and brought it home to myself as a fact, that +here in the corn lands of Michigan, and amidst the bluffs of +Wisconsin, and on the high table plains of Minnesota, and the +prairies of Illinois, had God prepared the food for the increasing +millions of the Eastern world, as also for the coming millions of the +Western.</p> + +<p>I do not find many minds constituted like my own, and therefore I +venture to publish the above figures. I believe them to be true in +the main, and they will show, if credited, that the increase during +the last four years has gone on with more than fabulous rapidity. For +myself I own that those figures would have done nothing unless I had +visited the spot myself. A man cannot, perhaps, count up the results +of such a work by a quick glance of his eye, nor communicate with +precision to another the conviction which his own short experience +has made so strong within himself;—but to himself seeing is +believing. To me it was so at Chicago and at Buffalo. I began then to +know what it was for a country to overflow with milk and honey, to +burst with its own fruits, and be smothered by its own riches. From +St. Paul down the Mississippi by the shores of Wisconsin and +Iowa,—by the ports on Lake Pepin,—by La Crosse, from which one +railway runs eastward,—by Prairie du Chien the terminus of a +second,—by Dunleath, Fulton, and Rock Island from whence three other +lines run eastward, all through that wonderful State of Illinois—the +farmers' glory,—along the ports of the great lakes,—through +Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and further Pennsylvania, up to Buffalo, the +great gate of the western Ceres, the loud cry was this—"How shall we +rid ourselves of our corn and wheat?" The result has been the passage +of 60,000,000 bushels of breadstuffs through that gate in one year! +Let those who are susceptible of statistics ponder that. For them who +are not I can only give this advice:—Let them go to Buffalo next +October, and look for themselves.</p> + +<p>In regarding the above figures and the increase shown between the +years 1860 and 1861, it must of course be borne in mind that during +the latter autumn no corn or wheat was carried into the Southern +States, and that none was exported from New Orleans or the mouth of +the Mississippi. The States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana +have for some time past received much of their supplies from the +north-western lands, and the cutting off of this current of +consumption has tended to swell the amount of grain which has been +forced into the narrow channel of Buffalo. There has been no southern +exit allowed, and the southern appetite has been deprived of its +food. But taking this item for all that it is worth,—or taking it, +as it generally will be taken, for much more than it can be +worth,—the result left will be materially the same. The grand +markets to which the western States look and have looked are those of +New England, New York, and Europe. Already corn and wheat are not the +common crops of New England. Boston, and Hartford, and Lowell are fed +from the great western States. The State of New York, which, thirty +years ago, was famous chiefly for its cereal produce, is now fed from +these States. New York city would be starved if it depended on its +own State; and it will soon be as true that England would be starved +if it depended on itself. It was but the other day that we were +talking of free trade in corn as a thing desirable, but as yet +doubtful;—but the other day that Lord Derby who may be Prime +Minister to-morrow, and Mr. Disraeli who may be Chancellor of the +Exchequer to-morrow, were stoutly of opinion that the corn laws might +be and should be maintained;—but the other day that the same opinion +was held with confidence by Sir Robert Peel, who, however, when the +day for the change came, was not ashamed to become the instrument +used by the people for their repeal. Events in these days march so +quickly that they leave men behind, and our dear old Protectionists +at home will have grown sleek upon American flour before they have +realized the fact that they are no longer fed from their own furrows.</p> + +<p>I have given figures merely as regards the trade of Buffalo; but it +must not be presumed that Buffalo is the only outlet from the great +corn lands of Northern America. In the first place no grain of the +produce of Canada finds its way to Buffalo. Its exit is by the St. +Lawrence, or by the Grand Trunk Railway, as I have stated when +speaking of Canada. And then there is the passage for large vessels +from the Upper Lakes, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie, +through the Welland Canal, into Lake Ontario, and out by the St. +Lawrence. There is also the direct communication from Lake Erie, by +the New York and Erie railway to New York. I have more especially +alluded to the trade of Buffalo, because I have been enabled to +obtain a reliable return of the quantity of grain and flour which +passes through that town, and because Buffalo and Chicago are the two +spots which are becoming most famous in the cereal history of the +western States.</p> + +<p>Everybody has a map of North America. A reference to such a map will +show the peculiar position of Chicago. It is at the south or head of +Lake Michigan, and to it converge railways from Wisconsin, Iowa, +Illinois, and Indiana. At Chicago is found the nearest water carriage +which can be obtained for the produce of a large portion of these +States. From Chicago there is direct water conveyance round through +the lakes to Buffalo at the foot of Lake Erie. At Milwaukee, higher +up on the lake, certain lines of railway come in, joining the lake to +the Upper Mississippi, and to the wheat-lands of Minnesota. Thence +the passage is round by Detroit which is the port for the produce of +the greatest part of Michigan, and still it all goes on towards +Buffalo. Then on Lake Erie there are the ports of Toledo, Cleveland, +and Erie. At the bottom of Lake Erie, there is this city of corn, at +which the grain and flour are transhipped into the canal boats and +into the railway cars for New York; and there is also the Welland +Canal, through which large vessels pass from the upper lakes, without +transhipment of their cargo.</p> + +<p>I have said above that corn—meaning maize or Indian corn—was to be +bought at Bloomington in Illinois for 10 cents or fivepence a bushel. +I found this also to be the case at Dixon—and also that corn of +inferior quality might be bought for fourpence; but I found also that +it was not worth the farmers' while to shell it and sell it at such +prices. I was assured that farmers were burning their Indian corn in +some places, finding it more available to them as fuel, than it was +for the market. The labour of detaching a bushel of corn from the +hulls or cobs is considerable, as is also the task of carrying it to +market. I have known potatoes in Ireland so cheap that they would not +pay for digging and carrying away for purposes of sale. There was +then a glut of potatoes in Ireland; and in the same way there was in +the autumn of 1861 a glut of corn in the western States. The best +qualities would fetch a price, though still a low price; but corn +that was not of the best quality was all but worthless. It did for +fuel, and was burnt. The fact was that the produce had re-created +itself quicker than mankind had multiplied. The ingenuity of man had +not worked quick enough for its disposal. The earth had given forth +her increase so abundantly that the lap of created humanity could not +stretch itself to hold it. At Dixon in 1861 corn cost fourpence a +bushel. In Ireland in 1848, it was sold for a penny a pound, a pound +being accounted sufficient to sustain life for a day,—and we all +felt that at that price food was brought into the country cheaper +than it had ever been brought before.</p> + +<p>Dixon is not a town of much apparent prosperity. It is one of those +places at which great beginnings have been made, but as to which the +deities presiding over new towns have not been propitious. Much of it +has been burnt down, and more of it has never been built up. It had a +straggling, ill-conditioned, uncommercial aspect, very different from +the look of Detroit, Milwaukee, or St. Paul. There was, however, a +great hotel there, as usual, and a grand bridge over the Rock River, +a tributary of the Mississippi which runs by or through the town. I +found that life might be maintained on very cheap terms at Dixon. To +me as a passing traveller the charges at the hotel were, I take it, +the same as elsewhere. But I learned from an inmate there that he +with his wife and horse were fed and cared for and attended for two +dollars or 8<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i> a day. This included a private sitting-room, +coals, light, and all the wants of life—as my informant told +me—except tobacco and whiskey. Feeding at such a house means a +succession of promiscuous hot meals as often as the digestion of the +patient can face them. Now I do not know any locality where a man can +keep himself and his wife, with all material comforts, and the luxury +of a horse and carriage, on cheaper terms than that. Whether or no it +might be worth a man's while to live at all at such a place as Dixon +is altogether another question.</p> + +<p>We went there because it is surrounded by the prairie, and out into +the prairie we had ourselves driven. We found some difficulty in +getting away from the corn, though we had selected this spot as one +at which the open rolling prairie was specially attainable. As long +as I could see a corn-field or a tree I was not satisfied. Nor indeed +was I satisfied at last. To have been thoroughly on the prairie and +in the prairie I should have been a day's journey from tilled land. +But I doubt whether that could now be done in the State of Illinois. +I got out into various patches and brought away specimens of +corn;—ears bearing sixteen rows of grain, with forty grains in each +row; each ear bearing a meal for a hungry man.</p> + +<p>At last we did find ourselves on the prairie, amidst the waving +grass, with the land rolling on before us in a succession of gentle +sweeps, never rising so as to impede the view, or apparently changing +in its general level,—but yet without the monotony of flatness. We +were on the prairie, but still I felt no satisfaction. It was private +property—divided among holders and pastured over by private cattle. +Salisbury plain is as wild, and Dartmoor almost wilder. Deer they +told me were to be had within reach of Dixon; but for the buffalo one +has to go much further afield than Illinois. The farmer may rejoice +in Illinois, but the hunter and the trapper must cross the big rivers +and pass away into the western territories before he can find lands +wild enough for his purposes. My visit to the corn-fields of Illinois +was in its way successful; but I felt as I turned my face eastward +towards Chicago that I had no right to boast that I had as yet made +acquaintance with a prairie.</p> + +<p>All minds were turned to the war, at Dixon as elsewhere. In Illinois +the men boasted that as regards the war, they were the leading State +of the Union. But the same boast was made in Indiana, and also in +Massachusetts; and probably in half the States of the North and West. +They, the Illinoisians, call their country the war nest of the West. +The population of the State is 1,700,000, and it had undertaken to +furnish sixty volunteer regiments of 1000 men each. And let it be +borne in mind that these regiments, when furnished, are really +full,—absolutely containing the thousand men when they are sent away +from the parent States. The number of souls above named will give +420,000 working men, and if out of these 60,000 are sent to the war, +the State, which is almost purely agricultural, will have given more +than one man in eight. When I was in Illinois, over forty regiments +had already been sent—forty-six if I remember rightly,—and there +existed no doubt whatever as to the remaining number. From the next +State of Indiana, with a population of 1,350,000, giving something +less than 350,000 working men, thirty-six regiments had been sent. I +fear that I am mentioning these numbers usque ad nauseam; but I wish +to impress upon English readers the magnitude of the effort made by +the States in mustering and equipping an army within six or seven +months of the first acknowledgment that such an army would be +necessary. The Americans have complained bitterly of the want of +English sympathy, and I think they have been weak in making that +complaint. But I would not wish that they should hereafter have the +power of complaining of a want of English justice. There can be no +doubt that a genuine feeling of patriotism was aroused throughout +North and West, and that men rushed into the ranks actuated by that +feeling—men for whom war and army life, a camp and fifteen dollars a +month, would not of themselves have had any attraction. It came to +that, that young men were ashamed not to go into the army. This +feeling of course produced coercion, and the movement was in that way +tyrannical. There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular +feeling among a democratic people. During the period of enlistment +this tyranny was very strong. But the existence of such a tyranny +proves the passion and patriotism of the people. It got the better of +the love of money, of the love of children, and of the love of +progress. Wives who with their bairns were absolutely dependent on +their husbands' labours, would wish their husbands to be at the war. +Not to conduce, in some special way, towards the war,—to have +neither father there, nor brother, nor son,—not to have lectured, or +preached, or written for the war,—to have made no sacrifice for the +war, to have had no special and individual interest in the war, was +disgraceful. One sees at a glance the tyranny of all this in such a +country as the States. One can understand how quickly adverse stories +would spread themselves as to the opinion of any man who chose to +remain tranquil at such a time. One shudders at the absolute absence +of true liberty which such a passion throughout a democratic country +must engender. But he who has observed all this must acknowledge that +that passion did exist. Dollars, children, progress, education, and +political rivalry all gave way to the one strong national desire for +the thrashing and crushing of those who had rebelled against the +authority of the Stars and Stripes.</p> + +<p>When we were at Dixon they were getting up the Dement regiment. The +attempt at the time did not seem to be prosperous, and the few men +who had been collected had about them a forlorn, ill-conditioned +look. But then, as I was told, Dixon had already been decimated and +re-decimated by former recruiting colonels. Colonel Dement, from whom +the regiment was to be named, and whose military career was only now +about to commence, had come late into the field. I did not afterwards +ascertain what had been his success, but I hardly doubt that he did +ultimately scrape together his thousand men. "Why don't you go?" I +said to a burly Irishman who was driving me. "I'm not a sound man, +yer honour," said the Irishman. "I'm deficient in me liver." Taking +the Irishmen, however, throughout the Union, they had not been found +deficient in any of the necessaries for a career of war. I do not +think that any men have done better than the Irish in the American +army.</p> + +<p>From Dixon we went to Chicago. Chicago is in many respects the most +remarkable city among all the remarkable cities of the Union. Its +growth has been the fastest and its success the most assured. +Twenty-five years ago there was no Chicago, and now it contains +120,000 inhabitants. Cincinnati on the Ohio, and St. Louis at the +junction of the Missouri and Mississippi, are larger towns; but they +have not grown large so quickly nor do they now promise so excessive +a development of commerce. Chicago may be called the metropolis of +American corn—the favourite city haunt of the American Ceres. The +goddess seats herself there amidst the dust of her full barns, and +proclaims herself a goddess ruling over things political and +philosophical as well as agricultural. Not furrows only are in her +thoughts, but free trade also, and brotherly love. And within her own +bosom there is a boast that even yet she will be stronger than Mars. +In Chicago there are great streets, and rows of houses fit to be the +residences of a new Corn Exchange nobility. They look out on the wide +lake which is now the highway for breadstuffs, and the merchant, as +he shaves at his window, sees his rapid ventures as they pass away, +one after the other, towards the East.</p> + +<p>I went over one great grain store in Chicago possessed by gentlemen +of the name of Sturgess and Buckenham. It was a world in itself,—and +the dustiest of all the worlds. It contained, when I was there, half +a million bushels of wheat—or a very great many, as I might say in +other language. But it was not as a storehouse that this great +building was so remarkable, but as a channel or a river course for +the flooding freshets of corn. It is so built that both railway vans +and vessels come immediately under its claws, as I may call the great +trunks of the elevators. Out of the railway vans the corn and wheat +is clawed up into the building, and down similar trunks it is at once +again poured out into the vessels. I shall be at Buffalo in a page or +two, and then I will endeavour to explain more minutely how this is +done. At Chicago the corn is bought and does change hands, and much +of it, therefore, is stored there for some space of time,—shorter or +longer as the case may be. When I was at Chicago, the only limit to +the rapidity of its transit was set by the amount of boat +accommodation. There were not bottoms enough to take the corn away +from Chicago, nor indeed on the railway was there a sufficiency of +rolling stock or locomotive power to bring it into Chicago. As I said +before, the country was bursting with its own produce and smothered +in its own fruits.</p> + +<p>At Chicago the hotel was bigger than other hotels, and grander. There +were pipes without end for cold water which ran hot, and for hot +water which would not run at all. The post-office also was grander +and bigger than other post-offices;—though the postmaster confessed +to me that that matter of the delivery of letters was one which could +not be compassed. Just at that moment it was being done as a private +speculation; but it did not pay, and would be discontinued. The +theatre too was large, handsome, and convenient; but on the night of +my attendance it seemed to lack an audience. A good comic actor it +did not lack, and I never laughed more heartily in my life. There was +something wrong too just at that time—I could not make out what—in +the constitution of Illinois, and the present moment had been +selected for voting a new constitution. To us in England such a +necessity would be considered a matter of importance, but it did not +seem to be much thought of here. "Some slight alteration probably," I +suggested. "No," said my informant—one of the judges of their +courts—"it is to be a thorough radical change of the whole +constitution. They are voting the delegates to-day." I went to see +them vote the delegates; but unfortunately got into a wrong place—by +invitation—and was turned out, not without some slight tumult. I +trust that the new constitution was carried through successfully.</p> + +<p>From these little details it may perhaps be understood how a town +like Chicago goes on and prospers, in spite of all the drawbacks +which are incident to newness. Men in those regions do not mind +failures, and when they have failed, instantly begin again. They make +their plans on a large scale, and they who come after them fill up +what has been wanting at first. Those taps of hot and cold water will +be made to run by the next owner of the hotel, if not by the present +owner. In another ten years the letters, I do not doubt, will all be +delivered. Long before that time the theatre will probably be full. +The new constitution is no doubt already at work; and if found +deficient, another will succeed to it without any trouble to the +State or any talk on the subject through the Union. Chicago was +intended as a town of export for corn, and, therefore, the corn +stores have received the first attention. When I was there, they were +in perfect working order.</p> + +<p>From Chicago we went on to Cleveland, a town in the State of Ohio on +Lake Erie, again travelling by the sleeping cars. I found that these +cars were universally mentioned with great horror and disgust by +Americans of the upper class. They always declared that they would +not travel in them on any account. Noise and dirt were the two +objections. They are very noisy, but to us belonged the happy power +of sleeping down noise. I invariably slept all through the night, and +knew nothing about the noise. They are also very dirty,—extremely +dirty,—dirty so as to cause much annoyance. But then they are not +quite so dirty as the day cars. If dirt is to be a bar against +travelling in America, men and women must stay at home. For myself I +don't much care for dirt, having a strong reliance on soap and water +and scrubbing brushes. No one regards poisons who carries antidotes +in which he has perfect faith.</p> + +<p>Cleveland is another pleasant town,—pleasant as Milwaukee and +Portland. The streets are handsome, and are shaded by grand avenues +of trees. One of these streets is over a mile in length, and +throughout the whole of it, there are trees on each side—not little +paltry trees as are to be seen on the boulevards of Paris, but +spreading elms,—the beautiful American elm which not only spreads, +but droops also, and makes more of its foliage than any other tree +extant. And there is a square in Cleveland, well sized, as large as +Russell Square I should say, with open paths across it, and +containing one or two handsome buildings. I cannot but think that all +men and women in London would be great gainers if the iron rails of +the squares were thrown down, and the grassy enclosures thrown open +to the public. Of course the edges of the turf would be worn, and the +paths would not keep their exact shapes. But the prison look would be +banished, and the sombre sadness of the squares would be relieved.</p> + +<p>I was particularly struck by the size and comfort of the houses at +Cleveland. All down that street of which I have spoken, they do not +stand continuously together, but are detached and separate; houses +which in England would require some fifteen or eighteen hundred a +year for their maintenance. In the States, however, men commonly +expend upon house rent a much greater proportion of their income than +they do in England. With us it is, I believe, thought that a man +should certainly not apportion more than a seventh of his spending +income to his house rent,—some say not more than a tenth. But in +many cities of the States a man is thought to live well within bounds +if he so expends a fourth. There can be no doubt as to Americans +living in better houses than Englishmen,—making the comparison of +course between men of equal incomes. But the Englishman has many more +incidental expenses than the American. He spends more on wine, on +entertainments, on horses, and on amusements. He has a more numerous +establishment, and keeps up the adjuncts and outskirts of his +residence with a more finished neatness.</p> + +<p>These houses in Cleveland were very good,—as indeed they are in most +Northern towns; but some of them have been erected with an amount of +bad taste that is almost incredible. It is not uncommon to see in +front of a square brick house a wooden quasi-Greek portico, with a +pediment and Ionic columns, equally high with the house itself. +Wooden columns with Greek capitals attached to the doorways, and +wooden pediments over the windows, are very frequent. As a rule these +are attached to houses which, without such ornamentation, would be +simple, unpretentious, square, roomy residences. An Ionic or +Corinthian capital stuck on to a log of wood called a column, and +then fixed promiscuously to the outside of an ordinary house, is to +my eye the vilest of architectural pretences. Little turrets are +better than this; or even brown battlements made of mortar. Except in +America I do not remember to have seen these vicious bits of white +timber,—timber painted white,—plastered on to the fronts and sides +of red-brick houses.</p> + +<p>Again we went on by rail,—to Buffalo. I have travelled some +thousands of miles by railway in the States, taking long journeys by +night and longer journeys by day; but I do not remember that while +doing so I ever made acquaintance with an American. To an American +lady in a railway car I should no more think of speaking than I +should to an unknown female in the next pew to me at a London church. +It is hard to understand from whence come the laws which govern +societies in this respect; but there are different laws in different +societies, which soon obtain recognition for themselves. American +ladies are much given to talking, and are generally free from all +<i>mauvaise honte</i>. They are collected in manner, well instructed, and +resolved to have their share of the social advantages of the world. +In this phase of life they come out more strongly than English women. +But on a railway journey, be it ever so long, they are never seen +speaking to a stranger. English women, however, on English railways +are generally willing to converse. They will do so if they be on a +journey; but will not open their mouths if they be simply passing +backwards and forwards between their homes and some neighbouring +town. We soon learn the rules on these subjects;—but who make the +rules? If you cross the Atlantic with an American lady you invariably +fall in love with her before the journey is over. Travel with the +same woman in a railway car for twelve hours, and you will have +written her down in your own mind in quite other language than that +of love.</p> + +<p>And now for Buffalo, and the elevators. I trust I have made it +understood that corn comes into Buffalo, not only from Chicago, of +which I have spoken specially, but from all the ports round the +lakes: Racine, Milwaukee, Grandhaven, Port Sarnia, Detroit, Toledo, +Cleveland, and many others. At these ports the produce is generally +bought and sold; but at Buffalo it is merely passed through a +gateway. It is taken from vessels of a size fitted for the lakes, and +placed in other vessels fitted for the canal. This is the Erie Canal, +which connects the lakes with the Hudson River and with New York. The +produce which passes through the Welland Canal—the canal which +connects Lake Erie and the upper lakes with Lake Ontario and the St. +Lawrence—is not transhipped, seeing that the Welland Canal, which is +less than thirty miles in length, gives a passage to vessels of 500 +tons. As I have before said, 60,000,000 bushels of breadstuff were +thus pushed through Buffalo in the open months of the year 1861. +These open months run from the middle of April to the middle of +November; but the busy period is that of the last two months,—the +time that is which intervenes between the full ripening of the corn +and the coming of the ice.</p> + +<p>An elevator is as ugly a monster as has been yet produced. In +uncouthness of form it outdoes those obsolete old brutes who used to +roam about the semi-aqueous world, and live a most uncomfortable life +with their great hungering stomachs and huge unsatisfied maws. The +elevator itself consists of a big moveable trunk,—moveable as is +that of an elephant, but not pliable, and less graceful even than an +elephant's. This is attached to a huge granary or barn; but in order +to give altitude within the barn for the necessary moving up and down +of this trunk,—seeing that it cannot be curled gracefully to its +purposes as the elephant's is curled,—there is an awkward box +erected on the roof of the barn, giving some twenty feet of +additional height, up into which the elevator can be thrust. It will +be understood, then, that this big moveable trunk, the head of which, +when it is at rest, is thrust up into the box on the roof, is made to +slant down in an oblique direction from the building to the river. +For the elevator is an amphibious institution, and flourishes only on +the banks of navigable waters. When its head is ensconced within its +box, and the beast of prey is thus nearly hidden within the building, +the unsuspicious vessel is brought up within reach of the creature's +trunk, and down it comes, like a mosquito's proboscis, right through +the deck, in at the open aperture of the hole, and so into the very +vitals and bowels of the ship. When there, it goes to work upon its +food with a greed and an avidity that is disgusting to a beholder of +any taste or imagination. And now I must explain the anatomical +arrangement by which the elevator still devours and continues to +devour, till the corn within its reach has all been swallowed, +masticated, and digested. Its long trunk, as seen slanting down from +out of the building across the wharf and into the ship, is a mere +wooden pipe; but this pipe is divided within. It has two departments; +and as the grain-bearing troughs pass up the one on a pliable band, +they pass empty down the other. The system therefore is that of an +ordinary dredging machine; only that corn, and not mud is taken away, +and that the buckets or troughs are hidden from sight. Below, within +the stomach of the poor bark, three or four labourers are at work, +helping to feed the elevator. They shovel the corn up towards its +maw, so that at every swallow he should take in all that he can hold. +Thus the troughs, as they ascend, are kept full, and when they reach +the upper building they empty themselves into a shoot, over which a +porter stands guard, moderating the shoot by a door, which the weight +of his finger can open and close. Through this doorway the corn runs +into a measure, and is weighed. By measures of forty bushels each, +the tale is kept. There stands the apparatus, with the figures +plainly marked, over against the porter's eye; and as the sum mounts +nearly up to forty bushels he closes the door till the grains run +thinly through, hardly a handful at a time, so that the balance is +exactly struck. Then the teller standing by marks down his figure, +and the record is made. The exact porter touches the string of +another door, and the forty bushels of corn run out at the bottom of +the measure, disappear down another shoot, slanting also towards the +water, and deposit themselves in the canal-boat. The transit of the +bushels of corn from the larger vessel to the smaller will have taken +less than a minute, and the cost of that transit will have been—a +farthing.</p> + +<p>But I have spoken of the rivers of wheat, and I must explain what are +those rivers. In the working of the elevator, which I have just +attempted to describe, the two vessels were supposed to be lying at +the same wharf, on the same side of the building, in the same water, +the smaller vessel inside the larger one. When this is the case the +corn runs direct from the weighing measure into the shoot that +communicates with the canal boat. But there is not room or time for +confining the work to one side of the building. There is water on +both sides, and the corn or wheat is elevated on the one side, and +re-shipped on the other. To effect this the corn is carried across +the breadth of the building; but, nevertheless, it is never handled +or moved in its direction on trucks or carriages requiring the use of +men's muscles for its motion. Across the floor of the building are +two gutters, or channels, and through these small troughs on a +pliable band circulate very quickly. They which run one way, in one +channel, are laden; they which return by the other channel are empty. +The corn pours itself into these, and they again pour it into the +shoot which commands the other water. And thus rivers of corn are +running through these buildings night and day. The secret of all the +motion and arrangement consists of course in the elevation. The corn +is lifted up; and when lifted up can move itself and arrange itself, +and weigh itself, and load itself.</p> + +<p>I should have stated that all this wheat which passes through Buffalo +comes loose, in bulk. Nothing is known of sacks or bags. To any +spectator at Buffalo this becomes immediately a matter of course; but +this should be explained, as we in England are not accustomed to see +wheat travelling in this open, unguarded, and plebeian manner. Wheat +with us is aristocratic, and travels always in its private carriage.</p> + +<p>Over and beyond the elevators there is nothing specially worthy of +remark at Buffalo. It is a fine city, like all other American cities +of its class. The streets are broad, the "blocks" are high, and cars +on tram-ways run all day, and nearly all night as well.</p> + + +<p><a id="c12"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER XII.</h3> +<h4>BUFFALO TO NEW YORK.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>We had now before us only two points of interest before we should +reach New York,—the Falls of Trenton, and West Point on the Hudson +River. We were too late in the year to get up to Lake George, which +lies in the State of New York, north of Albany, and is, in fact, the +southern continuation of Lake Champlain. Lake George, I know, is very +lovely, and I would fain have seen it; but visitors to it must have +some hotel accommodation, and the hotel was closed when we were near +enough to visit it. I was in its close neighbourhood three years +since in June; but then the hotel was not yet opened. A visitor to +Lake George must be very exact in his time. July and August are the +months,—with perhaps the grace of a week in September.</p> + +<p>The hotel at Trenton was also closed, as I was told. But even if +there were no hotel at Trenton, it can be visited without difficulty. +It is within a carriage drive of Utica, and there is moreover a +direct railway from Utica, with a station at the Trenton Falls. Utica +is a town on the line of railway from Buffalo to New York viâ Albany, +and is like all the other towns we had visited. There are broad +streets, and avenues of trees, and large shops, and excellent houses. +A general air of fat prosperity pervades them all, and is strong at +Utica as elsewhere.</p> + +<p>I remember to have been told thirty years ago that a traveller might +go far and wide in search of the picturesque, without finding a spot +more romantic in its loveliness than Trenton Falls. The name of the +river is Canada Creek West; but as that is hardly euphonious, the +course of the water which forms the falls has been called after the +town or parish. This course is nearly two miles in length, and along +the space of these two miles it is impossible to say where the +greatest beauty exists. To see Trenton aright one must be careful not +to have too much water. A sufficiency is no doubt desirable, and it +may be that at the close of summer, before any of the autumnal rains +have fallen, there may occasionally be an insufficiency. But if there +be too much, the passage up the rocks along the river is impossible. +The way on which the tourist should walk becomes the bed of the +stream, and the great charm of the place cannot be enjoyed. That +charm consists in descending into the ravine of the river, down +amidst the rocks through which it has cut its channel, and in walking +up the bed against the stream, in climbing the sides of the various +falls, and sticking close to the river till an envious block is +reached, which comes sheer down into the water, and prevents further +progress. This is nearly two miles above the steps by which the +descent is made; and not a foot of this distance but is wildly +beautiful. When the river is very low there is a pathway even beyond +that block; but when this is the case there can hardly be enough of +water to make the fall satisfactory.</p> + +<p>There is no one special cataract at Trenton which is in itself either +wonderful or pre-eminently beautiful. It is the position, form, +colour, and rapidity of the river which give the charm. It runs +through a deep ravine, at the bottom of which the water has cut for +itself a channel through the rocks, the sides of which rise sometimes +with the sharpness of the walls of a stone sarcophagus. They are +rounded too towards the bed, as I have seen the bottom of a +sarcophagus. Along the side of the right bank of the river there is a +passage, which when the freshets come is altogether covered. This +passage is sometimes very narrow, but in the narrowest parts an iron +chain is affixed into the rock. It is slippery and wet, and it is +well for ladies when visiting the place to be provided with outside +india-rubber shoes, which keep a hold upon the stone. If I remember +rightly there are two actual cataracts, one not far above the steps +by which the descent is made into the channel, and the other close +under a summer-house, near to which the visitors reascend into the +wood. But these cataracts, though by no means despicable as +cataracts, leave comparatively a slight impression. They tumble down +with sufficient violence, and the usual fantastic disposition of +their forces; but simply as cataracts, within a day's journey of +Niagara, they would be nothing. Up beyond the summer-house the +passage along the river can be continued for another mile, but it is +rough, and the climbing in some places rather difficult for ladies. +Every man, however, who has the use of his legs, should do it, for +the succession of rapids, and the twistings of the channels, and the +forms of the rocks are as wild and beautiful as the imagination can +desire. The banks of the river are closely wooded on each side; and +though this circumstance does not at first seem to add much to the +beauty, seeing that the ravine is so deep that the absence of wood +above would hardly be noticed, still there are broken clefts ever and +anon through which the colours of the foliage show themselves, and +straggling boughs and rough roots break through the rocks here and +there, and add to the wildness and charm of the whole.</p> + +<p>The walk back from the summer-house through the wood is very lovely; +but it would be a disappointing walk to visitors who had been +prevented by a flood in the river from coming up the channel, for it +indicates plainly how requisite it is that the river should be seen +from below and not from above. The best view of the larger fall +itself is that seen from the wood. And here again I would point out +that any male visitor should walk the channel of the river up and +down. The descent is too slippery and difficult for bipeds laden with +petticoats. We found a small hotel open at Trenton, at which we got a +comfortable dinner, and then in the evening were driven back to +Utica.</p> + +<p>Albany is the capital of the State of New York, and our road from +Trenton to West Point lay through that town; but these political +State capitals have no interest in themselves. The State legislature +was not sitting, and we went on, merely remarking that the manner in +which the railway cars are made to run backward and forward through +the crowded streets of the town must cause a frequent loss of human +life. One is led to suppose that children in Albany can hardly have a +chance of coming to maturity. Such accidents do not become the +subject of long-continued and strong comment in the States as they do +with us; but, nevertheless, I should have thought that such a state +of things as we saw there would have given rise to some remark on the +part of the philanthropists. I cannot myself say that I saw anybody +killed, and therefore should not be justified in making more than +this passing remark on the subject.</p> + +<p>When first the Americans of the Northern States began to talk much of +their country, their claims as to fine scenery were confined to +Niagara and the Hudson River. Of Niagara, I have spoken, and all the +world has acknowledged that no claim made on that head can be +regarded as exaggerated. As to the Hudson, I am not prepared to say +so much generally, though there is one spot upon it which cannot be +beaten for sweetness. I have been up and down the Hudson by water, +and confess that the entire river is pretty. But there is much of it +that is not pre-eminently pretty among rivers. As a whole it cannot +be named with the Upper Mississippi, with the Rhine, with the +Moselle, or with the Upper Rhone. The palisades just out of New York +are pretty, and the whole passage through the mountains from West +Point up to Catskill and Hudson is interesting. But the glory of the +Hudson is at West Point itself; and thither on this occasion we went +direct by railway, and there we remained for two days. The Catskill +mountains should be seen by a detour off from the river. We did not +visit them because, here again, the hotel was closed. I will leave +them therefore for the new handbook which Mr. Murray will soon bring +out.</p> + +<p>Of West Point there is something to be said independently of its +scenery. It is the Sandhurst of the States. Here is their military +school, from which officers are drafted to their regiments, and the +tuition for military purposes is, I imagine, of a high order. It +must, of course, be borne in mind that West Point, even as at present +arranged, is fitted to the wants of the old army, and not to that of +the army now required. It can go but a little way to supply officers +for 500,000 men; but would do much towards supplying them for 40,000. +At the time of my visit to West Point the regular army of the +northern States had not even then swelled itself to the latter +number.</p> + +<p>I found that there were 220 students at West Point; that about forty +graduate every year, each of whom receives a commission in the army; +that about 120 pupils are admitted every year; and that in the course +of every year about eighty either resign, or are called upon to leave +on account of some deficiency, or fail in their final examination. +The result is simply this, that one third of those who enter +succeeds, and that two thirds fail. The number of failures seemed to +me to be terribly large,—so large as to give great ground of +hesitation to a parent in accepting a nomination for the college. I +especially inquired into the particulars of these dismissals and +resignations, and was assured that the majority of them take place in +the first year of the pupillage. It is soon seen whether or no a lad +has the mental and physical capacities necessary for the education +and future life required of him, and care is taken that those shall +be removed early as to whom it may be determined that the necessary +capacity is clearly wanting. If this is done,—and I do not doubt +it,—the evil is much mitigated. The effect otherwise would be very +injurious. The lads remain till they are perhaps one and twenty, and +have then acquired aptitudes for military life, but no other +aptitudes. At that age the education cannot be commenced anew, and, +moreover, at that age the disgrace of failure is very injurious. The +period of education used to be five years, but has now been reduced +to four. This was done in order that a double class might be +graduated in 1861 to supply the wants of the war. I believe it is +considered that but for such necessity as that, the fifth year of +education can be ill spared.</p> + +<p>The discipline, to our English ideas, is very strict. In the first +place no kind of beer, wine, or spirits is allowed at West Point. The +law upon this point may be said to be very vehement, for it debars +even the visitors at the hotel from the solace of a glass of beer. +The hotel is within the bounds of the College, and as the lads might +become purchasers at the bar, there is no bar allowed. Any breach of +this law leads to instant expulsion; or, I should say rather, any +detection of such breach. The officer who showed us over the College +assured me that the presence of a glass of wine in a young man's room +would secure his exclusion, even though there should be no evidence +that he had tasted it. He was very firm as to this; but a little bird +of West Point, whose information, though not official or probably +accurate in words, seemed to me to be worthy of reliance in general, +told me that eyes were wont to wink when such glasses of wine made +themselves unnecessarily visible. Let us fancy an English mess of +young men from seventeen to twenty-one, at which a mug of beer would +be felony, and a glass of wine high treason! But the whole management +of the young with the Americans differs much from that in vogue with +us. We do not require so much at so early an age, either in +knowledge, in morals, or even in manliness. In America, if a lad be +under control, as at West Point, he is called upon for an amount of +labour, and a degree of conduct, which would be considered quite +transcendental and out of the question in England. But if he be not +under control, if at the age of eighteen he be living at home, or be +from his circumstances exempt from professorial power, he is a +full-fledged man with his pipe apparatus and his bar acquaintances.</p> + +<p>And then I was told at West Point how needful and yet how painful it +was that all should be removed who were in any way deficient in +credit to the establishment. "Our rules are very exact," my informant +told me; "but the carrying out of our rules is a task not always very +easy." As to this also I had already heard something from that little +bird of West Point, but of course I wisely assented to my informant, +remarking that discipline in such an establishment was essentially +necessary. The little bird had told me that discipline at West Point +had been rendered terribly difficult by political interference. "A +young man will be dismissed by the unanimous voice of the Board, and +will be sent away. And then, after a week or two, he will be sent +back, with an order from Washington, that another trial shall be +given him. The lad will march back into the college with all the +honours of a victory, and will be conscious of a triumph over the +superintendent and his officers." "And is that common?" I asked. "Not +at the present moment," I was told. "But it was common before the +war. While Mr. Buchanan, and Mr. Pierce, and Mr. Polk were +Presidents, no officer or board of officers then at West Point was +able to dismiss a lad whose father was a Southerner, and who had +friends among the Government."</p> + +<p>Not only was this true of West Point, but the same allegation is true +as to all matters of patronage throughout the United States. During +the three or four last Presidencies, and I believe back to the time +of Jackson, there has been an organized system of dishonesty in the +management of all beneficial places under the control of the +Government. I doubt whether any despotic court of Europe has been so +corrupt in the distribution of places,—that is in the selection of +public officers,—as has been the assemblage of statesmen at +Washington. And this is the evil which the country is now expiating +with its blood and treasure. It has allowed its knaves to stand in +the high places; and now it finds that knavish works have brought +about evil results. But of this I shall be constrained to say +something further hereafter.</p> + +<p>We went into all the schools of the College, and made ourselves fully +aware that the amount of learning imparted was far above our +comprehension. It always occurs to me in looking through the new +schools of the present day, that I ought to be thankful to persons +who know so much for condescending to speak to me at all in plain +English. I said a word to the gentleman who was with me about horses, +seeing a lot of lads going to their riding lesson. But he was down +upon me, and crushed me instantly beneath the weight of my own +ignorance. He walked me up to the image of a horse, which he took to +pieces bit by bit, taking off skin, muscle, flesh, nerves and bones, +till the animal was a heap of atoms, and assured me that the anatomy +of the horse throughout was one of the necessary studies of the +place. We afterwards went to see the riding. The horses themselves +were poor enough. This was accounted for by the fact that such of +them as had been found fit for military service had been taken for +the use of the army.</p> + +<p>There is a gallery in the College in which are hung sketches and +pictures by former students. I was greatly struck with the merit of +many of these. There were some copies from well-known works of art of +very high excellence, when the age is taken into account of those by +whom they were done. I don't know how far the art of drawing, as +taught generally and with no special tendency to military +instruction, may be necessary for military training; but if it be +necessary I should imagine that more is done in that direction at +West Point than at Sandhurst. I found, however, that much of that in +the gallery which was good had been done by lads who had not obtained +their degree, and who had shown an aptitude for drawing, but had not +shown any aptitude for other pursuits necessary to their intended +career.</p> + +<p>And then we were taken to the chapel, and there saw, displayed as +trophies, two of our own dear old English flags. I have seen many a +banner hung up in token of past victory, and many a flag taken on the +field of battle mouldering by degrees into dust on some chapel's +wall,—but they have not been the flags of England. Till this day I +had never seen our own colours in any position but one of +self-assertion and independent power. From the tone used by the +gentleman who showed them to me, I could gather that he would have +passed them by had he not foreseen that he could not do so without my +notice. "I don't know that we are right to put them there," he said. +"Quite right," was my reply, "as long as the world does such things." +In private life it is vulgar to triumph over one's friends, and +malicious to triumph over one's enemies. We have not got so far yet +in public life, but I hope we are advancing toward it. In the mean +time I did not begrudge the Americans our two flags. If we keep flags +and cannons taken from our enemies, and show them about as signs of +our own prowess after those enemies have become friends, why should +not others do so as regards us? It clearly would not be well for the +world that we should always beat other nations and never be beaten. I +did not begrudge that chapel our two flags. But nevertheless the +sight of them made me sick in the stomach and uncomfortable. As an +Englishman I do not want to be ascendant over any one. But it makes +me very ill when any one tries to be ascendant over me. I wish we +could send back with our compliments all the trophies that we hold, +carriage paid, and get back in return those two flags and any other +flag or two of our own that may be doing similar duty about the +world. I take it that the parcel sent away would be somewhat more +bulky than that which would reach us in return.</p> + +<p>The discipline at West Point seemed, as I have said, to be very +severe; but it seemed also that that severity could not in all cases +be maintained. The hours of study also were long, being nearly +continuous throughout the day. "English lads of that age could not do +it," I said; thus confessing that English lads must have in them less +power of sustained work than those of America. "They must do it +here," said my informant, "or else leave us." And then he took us off +to one of the young gentleman's quarters, in order that we might see +the nature of their rooms. We found the young gentleman fast asleep +on his bed, and felt uncommonly grieved that we should have thus +intruded on him. As the hour was one of those allocated by my +informant in the distribution of the day to private study, I could +not but take the present occupation of the embryo warrior as an +indication that the amount of labour required might be occasionally +too much even for an American youth. "The heat makes one so +uncommonly drowsy," said the young man. I was not the least surprised +at the exclamation. The air of the apartment had been warmed up to +such a pitch by the hot-pipe apparatus of the building that prolonged +life to me would, I should have thought, be out of the question in +such an atmosphere. "Do you always have it as hot as this?" I asked. +The young man swore that it was so, and with considerable energy +expressed his opinion that all his health and spirits and vitality +were being baked out of him. He seemed to have a strong opinion on +the matter, for which I respected him; but it had never occurred to +him, and did not then occur to him, that anything could be done to +moderate that deathly flow of hot air which came up to him from the +neighbouring infernal regions. He was pale in the face, and all the +lads there were pale. American lads and lasses are all pale. Men at +thirty and women at twenty-five have had all semblance of youth baked +out of them. Infants even are not rosy, and the only shades known on +the cheeks of children are those composed of brown, yellow, and +white. All this comes of those damnable hot-air pipes with which +every tenement in America is infested. "We cannot do without them," +they say. "Our cold is so intense that we must heat our houses +throughout. Open fire-places in a few rooms would not keep our toes +and fingers from the frost." There is much in this. The assertion is +no doubt true, and thereby a great difficulty is created. It is no +doubt quite within the power of American ingenuity to moderate the +heat of these stoves, and to produce such an atmosphere as may be +most conducive to health. In hospitals no doubt this will be done; +perhaps is done at present,—though even in hospitals I have thought +the air hotter than it should be. But hot-air-drinking is like +dram-drinking. There is the machine within the house capable of +supplying any quantity, and those who consume it unconsciously +increase their draughts, and take their drams stronger and stronger, +till a breath of fresh air is felt to be a blast direct from Boreas.</p> + +<p>West Point is at all points a military colony, and as such belongs +exclusively to the Federal Government as separate from the Government +of any individual State. It is the purchased property of the United +States as a whole, and is devoted to the necessities of a military +college. No man could take a house there, or succeed in getting even +permanent lodgings, unless he belonged to or were employed by the +establishment. There is no intercourse by road between West Point and +other towns or villages on the river side, and any such intercourse +even by water is looked upon with jealousy by the authorities. The +wish is that West Point should be isolated and kept apart for +military instruction to the exclusion of all other purposes +whatever,—especially love-making purposes. The coming over from the +other side of the water of young ladies by the ferry is regarded as a +great hindrance. They will come, and then the military students will +talk to them. We all know to what such talking leads! A lad when I +was there had been tempted to get out of barracks in plain clothes, +in order that he might call on a young lady at the hotel;—and was in +consequence obliged to abandon his commission and retire from the +Academy. Will that young lady ever again sleep quietly in her bed? I +should hope not. An opinion was expressed to me that there should be +no hotel in such a place;—that there should be no ferry, no roads, +no means by which the attention of the students should be +distracted;—that these military Rasselases should live in a happy +military valley from which might be excluded both strong drinks and +female charms,—those two poisons from which youthful military ardour +is supposed to suffer so much.</p> + +<p>It always seems to me that such training begins at the wrong end. I +will not say that nothing should be done to keep lads of eighteen +from strong drinks. I will not even say that there should not be some +line of moderation with reference to feminine allurements. But as a +rule the restraint should come from the sense, good feeling, and +education of him who is restrained. There is no embargo on the +beer-shops either at Harrow or at Oxford,—and certainly none upon +the young ladies. Occasional damage may accrue from habits early +depraved, or a heart too early and too easily susceptible; but the +injury so done is not, I think, equal to that inflicted by a +Draconian code of morals, which will probably be evaded, and will +certainly create a desire for its evasion.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, I feel assured that West Point, taken as a whole, is an +excellent military academy, and that young men have gone forth from +it, and will go forth from it, fit for officers as far as training +can make men fit. The fault, if fault there be, is that which is to +be found in so many of the institutions of the United States; and is +one so allied to a virtue that no foreigner has a right to wonder +that it is regarded in the light of a virtue by all Americans. There +has been an attempt to make the place too perfect. In the desire to +have the establishment self-sufficient at all points, more has been +attempted than human nature can achieve. The lad is taken to West +Point, and it is presumed that from the moment of his reception, he +shall expend every energy of his mind and body in making himself a +soldier. At fifteen he is not to be a boy, at twenty he is not to be +a young man. He is to be a gentleman, a soldier, and an officer. I +believe that those who leave the College for the army are gentlemen, +soldiers, and officers, and therefore the result is good. But they +are also young men; and it seems that they have become so, not in +accordance with their training, but in spite of it.</p> + +<p>But I have another complaint to make against the authorities of West +Point, which they will not be able to answer so easily as that +already preferred. What right can they have to take the very +prettiest spot on the Hudson—the prettiest spot on the +continent—one of the prettiest spots which Nature, with all her +vagaries, ever formed—and shut it up from all the world for purposes +of war? Would not any plain, however ugly, do for military exercises? +Cannot broadsword, goose-step, and double quick time be instilled +into young hands and legs in any field of thirty, forty, or fifty +acres? I wonder whether these lads appreciate the fact that they are +studying fourteen hours a day amidst the sweetest river, rock, and +mountain scenery that the imagination can conceive. Of course it will +be said that the world at large is not excluded from West Point, that +the ferry to the place is open, and that there is even a hotel there, +closed against no man or woman who will consent to become a +teetotaller for the period of his visit. I must admit that this is +so; but still one feels that one is only admitted as a guest. I want +to go and live at West Point, and why should I be prevented? The +Government had a right to buy it of course, but Government should not +buy up the prettiest spots on a country's surface. If I were an +American I should make a grievance of this; but Americans will suffer +things from their Government which no Englishmen would endure.</p> + +<p>It is one of the peculiarities of West Point that every thing there +is in good taste. The Point itself consists of a bluff of land so +formed that the river Hudson is forced to run round three sides of +it. It is consequently a peninsula, and as the surrounding country is +mountainous on both sides of the river, it may be imagined that the +site is good. The views both up and down the river are lovely, and +the mountains behind break themselves so as to make the landscape +perfect. But this is not all. At West Point there is much of +buildings, much of military arrangement in the way of cannons, forts, +and artillery yards. All these things are so contrived as to group +themselves well into pictures. There is no picture of architectural +grandeur; but everything stands well and where it should stand, and +the eye is not hurt at any spot. I regard West Point as a delightful +place, and was much gratified by the kindness I received there.</p> + +<p>From West Point we went direct to New York.</p> + + +<p><a id="c13"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER XIII.</h3> +<h4>AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>I think it may be received as a fact that the Northern States, taken +together, sent a full tenth of their able-bodied men into the ranks +of the army in the course of the summer and autumn of 1861. The +South, no doubt, sent a much larger proportion; but the effect of +such a drain upon the South would not be the same, because the slaves +were left at home to perform the agricultural work of the country. I +very much doubt whether any other nation ever made such an effort in +so short a time. To a people who can do this it may well be granted +that they are in earnest; and I do not think it should be lightly +decided by any foreigner that they are wrong. The strong and +unanimous impulse of a great people is seldom wrong. And let it be +borne in mind that in this case both people may be right,—the people +both of North and South. Each may have been guided by a just and +noble feeling; though each was brought to its present condition by +bad government and dishonest statesmen.</p> + +<p>There can be no doubt that, since the commencement of the war, the +American feeling against England has been very bitter. All Americans +to whom I spoke on the subject admitted that it was so. I, as an +Englishman, felt strongly the injustice of this feeling, and lost no +opportunity of showing or endeavouring to show that the line of +conduct pursued by England towards the States was the only line which +was compatible with her own policy and just interests, and also with +the dignity of the States' Government. I heard much of the tender +sympathy of Russia. Russia sent a flourishing general message, saying +that she wished the North might win, and ending with some good +general advice, proposing peace. It was such a message as strong +nations send to those which are weaker. Had England ventured on such +counsel the diplomatic paper would probably have been returned to +her. It is, I think, manifest that an absolute and disinterested +neutrality has been the only course which could preserve England from +deserved rebuke,—a neutrality on which her commercial necessity for +importing cotton or exporting her own manufactures should have no +effect. That our Government would preserve such a neutrality I have +always insisted, and I believe it has been done with a pure and +strict disregard to any selfish views on the part of Great Britain. +So far I think England may feel that she has done well in this +matter. But I must confess that I have not been so proud of the tone +of all our people at home as I have been of the decisions of our +statesmen. It seems to me that some of us never tire in abusing the +Americans, and calling them names for having allowed themselves to be +driven into this civil war. We tell them that they are fools and +idiots; we speak of their doings as though there had been some plain +course by which the war might have been avoided; and we throw it in +their teeth that they have no capability for war. We tell them of the +debt which they are creating, and point out to them that they can +never pay it. We laugh at their attempt to sustain loyalty, and speak +of them as a steady father of a family is wont to speak of some +unthrifty prodigal who is throwing away his estate and hurrying from +one ruinous debauchery to another. And, alas! we too frequently allow +to escape from us some expression of that satisfaction which one +rival tradesman has in the downfall of another. "Here you are with +all your boasting," is what we say. "You were going to whip all +creation the other day; and it has come to this! Brag is a good dog, +but Holdfast is a better. Pray remember that, if ever you find +yourselves on your legs again." That little advice about the two dogs +is very well, and was not altogether inapplicable. But this is not +the time in which it should be given. Putting aside slight +asperities, we will all own that the people of the States have been +and are our friends, and that as friends we cannot spare them. For +one Englishman who brings home to his own heart a feeling of +cordiality for France—a belief in the affection of our French +alliance—there are ten who do so with reference to the States. Now, +in these days of their trouble, I think that we might have borne with +them more tenderly.</p> + +<p>And how was it possible that they should have avoided this war? I +will not now go into the cause of it, or discuss the course which it +has taken, but will simply take up the fact of the rebellion. The +South rebelled against the North, and such being the case, was it +possible that the North should yield without a war? It may very +likely be well that Hungary should be severed from Austria, or Poland +from Russia, or Venice from Austria. Taking Englishmen in a lump, +they think that such separation would be well. The subject people do +not speak the language of those that govern them, or enjoy kindred +interests. But yet when military efforts are made by those who govern +Hungary, Poland, and Venice to prevent such separation, we do not say +that Russia and Austria are fools. We are not surprised that they +should take up arms against the rebels, but would be very much +surprised indeed if they did not do so. We know that nothing but +weakness would prevent their doing so. But if Austria and Russia +insist on tying to themselves a people who do not speak their +language or live in accordance with their habits, and are not +considered unreasonable in so insisting, how much more thoroughly +would they carry with them the sympathy of their neighbours in +preventing any secession by integral parts of their own +nationalities? Would England let Ireland walk off by herself if she +wished it? In 1843 she did wish it. Three-fourths of the Irish +population would have voted for such a separation; but England would +have prevented such secession <i>vi et armis</i> had Ireland driven her to +the necessity of such prevention.</p> + +<p>I will put it to any reader of history whether, since government +commenced, it has not been regarded as the first duty of government +to prevent a separation of the territories governed, and whether also +it has not been regarded as a point of honour with all nationalities +to preserve uninjured each its own greatness and its own power? I +trust that I may not be thought to argue that all governments or even +all nationalities should succeed in such endeavours. Few kings have +fallen in my day in whose fate I have not rejoiced; none, I take it, +except that poor citizen King of the French. And I can rejoice that +England lost her American colonies, and shall rejoice when Spain has +been deprived of Cuba. But I hold that citizen King of the French in +small esteem, seeing that he made no fight, and I know that England +was bound to struggle when the Boston people threw her tea into the +water. Spain keeps a tighter hand on Cuba than we thought she would +some ten years since, and therefore she stands higher in the world's +respect.</p> + +<p>It may be well that the South should be divided from the North. I am +inclined to think that it would be well—at any rate for the North; +but the South must have been aware that such division could only be +effected in two ways: either by agreement,—in which case the +proposition must have been brought forward by the South and discussed +by the North,—or by violence. They chose the latter way, as being +the readier and the surer, as most seceding nations have done. +O'Connell, when struggling for the secession of Ireland, chose the +other, and nothing came of it. The South chose violence, and prepared +for it secretly and with great adroitness. If that be not rebellion +there never has been rebellion since history began; and if civil war +was ever justified in one portion of a nation by turbulence in +another, it has now been justified in the northern States of America.</p> + +<p>What was the North to do; this foolish North, which has been so +liberally told by us that she has taken up arms for nothing, that she +is fighting for nothing, and will ruin herself for nothing? When was +she to take the first step towards peace? Surely every Englishman +will remember that when the earliest tidings of the coming quarrel +reached us on the election of Mr. Lincoln, we all declared that any +division was impossible;—it was a mere madness to speak of it. The +States, which were so great in their unity, would never consent to +break up all their prestige and all their power by a separation! +Would it have been well for the North then to say, "If the South wish +it we will certainly separate?" After that, when Mr. Lincoln assumed +the power to which he had been elected, and declared with sufficient +manliness, and sufficient dignity also, that he would make no war +upon the South, but would collect the customs and carry on the +government, did we turn round and advise him that he was wrong? No. +The idea in England then was that his message was, if anything, too +mild. "If he means to be President of the whole Union," England said, +"he must come out with something stronger than that." Then came Mr. +Seward's speech, which was, in truth, weak enough. Mr. Seward had ran +Mr. Lincoln very hard for the President's chair on the republican +interest, and was—most unfortunately, as I think—made Secretary of +State by Mr. Lincoln, or by his party. The Secretary of State holds +the highest office in the United States Government under the +President. He cannot be compared to our Prime Minister, seeing that +the President himself exercises political power, and is responsible +for its exercise. Mr. Seward's speech simply amounted to a +declaration that separation was a thing of which the Union would +neither hear, speak, nor, if possible, think. Things looked very like +it; but no; they could never come to that! The world was too good, +and especially the American world. Mr. Seward had no specific against +secession; but let every free man strike his breast, look up to +heaven, determine to be good, and all would go right. A great deal +had been expected from Mr. Seward, and when this speech came out, we +in England were a little disappointed, and nobody presumed even then +that the North would let the South go.</p> + +<p>It will be argued by those who have gone into the details of American +politics that an acceptance of the Crittenden compromise at this +point would have saved the war. What is or was the Crittenden +compromise I will endeavour to explain hereafter; but the terms and +meaning of that compromise can have no bearing on the subject. The +republican party who were in power disapproved of that compromise, +and could not model their course upon it. The republican party may +have been right or may have been wrong; but surely it will not be +argued that any political party elected to power by a majority should +follow the policy of a minority, lest that minority should rebel. I +can conceive of no government more lowly placed than one which +deserts the policy of the majority which supports it, fearing either +the tongues or arms of a minority.</p> + +<p>As the next scene in the play, the State of South Carolina bombarded +Fort Sumter. Was that to be the moment for a peaceable separation? +Let us suppose that O'Connell had marched down to the Pigeon House at +Dublin, and had taken it—in 1843, let us say—would that have been +an argument to us for allowing Ireland to set up for herself? Is that +the way of men's minds, or of the minds of nations? The powers of the +President were defined by law, as agreed upon among all the States of +the Union, and against that power and against that law, South +Carolina raised her hand, and the other States joined her in +rebellion. When circumstances had come to that, it was no longer +possible that the North should shun the war. To my thinking the +rights of rebellion are holy. Where would the world have been, or +where would the world hope to be, without rebellion? But let +rebellion look the truth in the face, and not blanch from its own +consequences. She has to judge her own opportunities and to decide on +her own fitness. Success is the test of her judgment. But rebellion +can never be successful except by overcoming the power against which +she raises herself. She has no right to expect bloodless triumphs; +and if she be not the stronger in the encounter which she creates, +she must bear the penalty of her rashness. Rebellion is justified by +being better served than constituted authority, but cannot be +justified otherwise. Now and again it may happen that rebellion's +cause is so good that constituted authority will fall to the ground +at the first glance of her sword. This was so the other day in +Naples, when Garibaldi blew away the king's armies with a breath. But +this is not so often. Rebellion knows that it must fight, and the +legalized power against which rebels rise must of necessity fight +also.</p> + +<p>I cannot see at what point the North first sinned; nor do I think +that had the North yielded, England would have honoured her for her +meekness. Had she yielded without striking a blow she would have been +told that she had suffered the Union to drop asunder by her +supineness. She would have been twitted with cowardice, and told that +she was no match for Southern energy. It would then have seemed to +those who sat in judgment on her that she might have righted +everything by that one blow from which she had abstained. But having +struck that one blow, and having found that it did not suffice, could +she then withdraw, give way, and own herself beaten? Has it been so +usually with Anglo-Saxon pluck? In such case as that would there have +been no mention of those two dogs, Brag and Holdfast? The man of the +northern States knows that he has bragged,—bragged as loudly as his +English forefathers. In that matter of bragging the British lion and +the Star-spangled banner may abstain from throwing mud at each other. +And now the northern man wishes to show that he can hold fast also. +Looking at all this I cannot see that peace has been possible to the +North.</p> + +<p>As to the question of secession and rebellion being one and the same +thing, the point to me does not seem to bear an argument. The +confederation of States had a common army, a common policy, a common +capital, a common government, and a common debt. If one might secede, +any or all might secede, and where then would be their property, +their debt, and their servants? A confederation with such a license +attached to it would have been simply playing at national power. If +New York had seceded—a State which stretches from the Atlantic to +British North America—it would have cut New England off from the +rest of the Union. Was it legally within the power of New York to +place the six States of New England in such a position? And why +should it be assumed that so suicidal a power of destroying a +nationality should be inherent in every portion of the nation? The +States are bound together by a written compact, but that compact +gives each State no such power. Surely such a power would have been +specified had it been intended that it should be given. But there are +axioms in politics as in mathematics, which recommend themselves to +the mind at once, and require no argument for their proof. Men who +are not argumentative perceive at once that they are true. A part +cannot be greater than the whole.</p> + +<p>I think it is plain that the remnant of the Union was bound to take +up arms against those States which had illegally torn themselves off +from her; and if so, she could only do so with such weapons as were +at her hand. The United States' army had never been numerous or well +appointed; and of such officers and equipments as it possessed, the +more valuable part was in the hands of the Southerners. It was clear +enough that she was ill-provided, and that in going to war she was +undertaking a work as to which she had still to learn many of the +rudiments. But Englishmen should be the last to twit her with such +ignorance. It is not yet ten years since we were all boasting that +swords and guns were useless things, and that military expenditure +might be cut down to any minimum figure that an economizing +Chancellor of the Exchequer could name. Since that we have +extemporized two, if not three armies. There are our volunteers at +home; and the army which holds India can hardly be considered as one +with that which is to maintain our prestige in Europe and the West. +We made some natural blunders in the Crimea, but in making those +blunders we taught ourselves the trade. It is the misfortune of the +northern States that they must learn these lessons in fighting their +own countrymen. In the course of our history we have suffered the +same calamity more than once. The Roundheads, who beat the Cavaliers +and created English liberty, made themselves soldiers on the bodies +of their countrymen. But England was not ruined by that civil war; +nor was she ruined by those which preceded it. From out of these she +came forth stronger than she entered them,—stronger, better, and +more fit for a great destiny in the history of nations. The northern +States had nearly five hundred thousand men under arms when the +winter of 1861 commenced, and for that enormous multitude all +commissariat requirements were well supplied. Camps and barracks +sprang up through the country as though by magic. Clothing was +obtained with a rapidity that has, I think, never been equalled. The +country had not been prepared for the fabrication of arms, and yet +arms were put into the men's hands almost as quickly as the regiments +could be mustered. The eighteen millions of the northern States lent +themselves to the effort as one man. Each State gave the best it had +to give. Newspapers were as rabid against each other as ever, but no +newspaper could live which did not support the war. "The South has +rebelled against the law, and the law shall be supported." This has +been the cry and the heartfelt feeling of all men; and it is a +feeling which cannot but inspire respect.</p> + +<p>We have heard much of the tyranny of the present Government of the +United States, and of the tyranny also of the people. They have both +been very tyrannical. The "habeas corpus" has been suspended by the +word of one man. Arrests have been made on men who have been hardly +suspected of more than secession principles. Arrests have, I believe, +been made in cases which have been destitute even of any fair ground +for such suspicion. Newspapers have been stopped for advocating views +opposed to the feelings of the North, as freely as newspapers were +ever stopped in France for opposing the Emperor. A man has not been +safe in the streets who was known to be a Secessionist. It must be at +once admitted that opinion in the northern States was not free when I +was there. But has opinion ever been free anywhere on all subjects? +In the best-built strongholds of freedom have there not always been +questions on which opinion has not been free; and must it not always +be so? When the decision of a people on any matter has become, so to +say, unanimous,—when it has shown itself to be so general as to be +clearly the expression of the nation's voice as a single +chorus,—that decision becomes holy, and may not be touched. Could +any newspaper be produced in England which advocated the overthrow of +the Queen? And why may not the passion for the Union be as strong +with the northern States, as the passion for the Crown is strong with +us? The Crown with us is in no danger, and therefore the matter is at +rest. But I think we must admit that in any nation, let it be ever so +free, there may be points on which opinion must be held under +restraint. And as to those summary arrests, and the suspension of the +"habeas corpus," is there not something to be said for the States' +Government on that head also? Military arrests are very dreadful, and +the soul of a nation's liberty is that personal freedom from +arbitrary interference which is signified to the world by those two +unintelligible Latin words. A man's body shall not be kept in duress +at any man's will; but shall be brought up into open court, with +uttermost speed, in order that the law may say whether or no it +should be kept in duress. That I take it is the meaning of "habeas +corpus," and it is easy to see that the suspension of that privilege +destroys all freedom, and places the liberty of every individual at +the mercy of him who has the power to suspend it. Nothing can be +worse than this; and such suspension, if extended over any long +period of years, will certainly make a nation weak, mean-spirited, +and poor. But in a period of civil war, or even of a widely-extended +civil commotion, things cannot work in their accustomed grooves. A +lady does not willingly get out of her bedroom-window with nothing on +but her nightgown; but when her house is on fire she is very thankful +for an opportunity of doing so. It is not long since the "habeas +corpus" was suspended in parts of Ireland, and absurd arrests were +made almost daily when that suspension first took effect. It was +grievous that there should be necessity for such a step, and it is +very grievous now that such necessity should be felt in the northern +States. But I do not think that it becomes Englishmen to bear hardly +upon Americans generally for what has been done in that matter. Mr. +Seward, in an official letter to the British Minister at +Washington—which letter, through official dishonesty, found its way +to the press—claimed for the President the right of suspending the +"habeas corpus" in the States whenever it might seem good to him to +do so. If this be in accordance with the law of the land, which I +think must be doubted, the law of the land is not favourable to +freedom. For myself, I conceive that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward have +been wrong in their law, and that no such right is given to the +President by the Constitution of the United States. This I will +attempt to prove in some subsequent chapter. But I think it must be +felt by all who have given any thought to the constitution of the +States, that let what may be the letter of the law, the Presidents of +the United States have had no such power. It is because the States +have been no longer united that Mr. Lincoln has had the power, +whether it be given to him by the law or no.</p> + +<p>And then as to the debt; it seems to me very singular that we in +England should suppose that a great commercial people would be ruined +by a national debt. As regards ourselves, I have always looked on our +national debt as the ballast in our ship. We have a great deal of +ballast, but then the ship is very big. The States also are taking in +ballast at a rather rapid rate;—and we too took it in quickly when +we were about it. But I cannot understand why their ship should not +carry, without shipwreck, that which our ship has carried without +damage, and, as I believe, with positive advantage to its sailing. +The ballast, if carried honestly, will not, I think, bring the vessel +to grief. The fear is lest the ballast should be thrown overboard.</p> + +<p>So much I have said, wishing to plead the cause of the northern +States before the bar of English opinion, and thinking that there is +ground for a plea in their favour. But yet I cannot say that their +bitterness against Englishmen has been justified, or that their tone +towards England has been dignified. Their complaint is that they have +received no sympathy from England; but it seems to me that a great +nation should not require an expression of sympathy during its +struggle. Sympathy is for the weak rather than for the strong. When I +hear two powerful men contending together in argument, I do not +sympathize with him who has the best of it; but I watch the precision +of his logic, and acknowledge the effects of his rhetoric. There has +been a whining weakness in the complaints made by Americans against +England, which has done more to lower them as a people in my judgment +than any other part of their conduct during the present crisis. When +we were at war with Russia, the feeling of the States was strongly +against us. All their wishes were with our enemies. When the Indian +mutiny was at its worst, the feeling of France was equally adverse to +us. The joy expressed by the French newspapers was almost ecstatic. +But I do not think that on either occasion we bemoaned ourselves +sadly on the want of sympathy shown by our friends. On each occasion +we took the opinion expressed for what it was worth, and managed to +live it down. We listened to what was said, and let it pass by. When +in each case we had been successful, there was an end of our friends' +croakings.</p> + +<p>But in the northern States of America the bitterness against England +has amounted almost to a passion. The players, those chroniclers of +the time, have had no hits so sure as those which have been aimed at +Englishmen as cowards, fools, and liars. No paper has dared to say +that England has been true in her American policy. The name of an +Englishman has been made a byword for reproach. In private +intercourse private amenities have remained. I, at any rate, may +boast that such has been the case as regards myself. But even in +private life I have been unable to keep down the feeling that I have +always been walking over smothered ashes.</p> + +<p>It may be that, when the civil war in America is over, all this will +pass by, and there will be nothing left of international bitterness +but its memory. It is sincerely to be hoped that this may be +so;—that even the memory of the existing feeling may fade away and +become unreal. I for one cannot think that two nations, situated as +are the States and England, should permanently quarrel and avoid each +other. But words have been spoken which will, I fear, long sound in +men's ears, and thoughts have sprung up which will not easily allow +themselves to be extinguished.</p> + + +<p><a id="c14"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER XIV.</h3> +<h4>NEW YORK.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>Speaking of New York as a traveller I have two faults to find with +it. In the first place there is nothing to see; and in the second +place there is no mode of getting about to see anything. Nevertheless +New York is a most interesting city. It is the third biggest city in +the known world;—for those Chinese congregations of unwinged ants +are not cities in the known world. In no other city is there a +population so mixed and cosmopolitan in their modes of life. And yet +in no other city that I have seen are there such strong and +ever-visible characteristics of the social and political bearings of +the nation to which it belongs. New York appears to me as infinitely +more American than Boston, Chicago, or Washington. It has no peculiar +attribute of its own, as have those three cities; Boston in its +literature and accomplished intelligence, Chicago in its internal +trade, and Washington in its congressional and State politics. New +York has its literary aspirations, its commercial grandeur, +and,—heaven knows,—it has its politics also. But these do not +strike the visitor as being specially characteristic of the city. +That it is pre-eminently American is its glory or its disgrace,—as +men of different ways of thinking may decide upon it. Free +institutions, general education, and the ascendancy of dollars are +the words written on every paving-stone along Fifth Avenue, down +Broadway, and up Wall Street. Every man can vote, and values the +privilege. Every man can read, and uses the privilege. Every man +worships the dollar, and is down before his shrine from morning to +night.</p> + +<p>As regards voting and reading no American will be angry with me for +saying so much of him; and no Englishman, whatever may be his ideas +as to the franchise in his own country, will conceive that I have +said aught to the dishonour of an American. But as to that +dollar-worshipping, it will of course seem that I am abusing the New +Yorkers. We all know what a wretchedly wicked thing money is! How it +stands between us and heaven! How it hardens our hearts, and makes +vulgar our thoughts! Dives has ever gone to the devil, while Lazarus +has been laid up in heavenly lavender. The hand that employs itself +in compelling gold to enter the service of man has always been +stigmatized as the ravisher of things sacred. The world is agreed +about that, and therefore the New Yorker is in a bad way. There are +very few citizens in any town known to me which under this +dispensation are in a good way, but the New Yorker is in about the +worst way of all. Other men, the world over, worship regularly at the +shrine with matins and vespers, nones and complines, and whatever +other daily services may be known to the religious houses; but the +New Yorker is always on his knees.</p> + +<p>That is the amount of the charge which I bring against New York; and +now having laid on my paint thickly, I shall proceed, like an +unskilful artist, to scrape a great deal of it off again. New York +has been a leading commercial city in the world for not more than +fifty or sixty years. As far as I can learn, its population at the +close of the last century did not exceed 60,000, and ten years later +it had not reached 100,000. In 1860 it had reached nearly 800,000 in +the city of New York itself. To this number must be added the numbers +of Brooklyn, Williamsburgh, and the city of New Jersey, in order that +a true conception may be had of the population of this American +metropolis, seeing that those places are as much a part of New York +as Southwark is of London. By this the total will be swelled to +considerably above a million. It will no doubt be admitted that this +growth has been very fast, and that New York may well be proud of it. +Increase of population is, I take it, the only trustworthy sign of a +nation's success or of a city's success. We boast that London has +beaten the other cities of the world, and think that that boast is +enough to cover all the social sins for which London has to confess +her guilt. New York beginning with 60,000 sixty years since has now a +million souls;—a million mouths, all of which eat a sufficiency of +bread, all of which speak <i>ore rotundo</i>, and almost all of which can +read. And this has come of its love of dollars.</p> + +<p>For myself I do not believe that Dives is so black as he is painted, +or that his peril is so imminent. To reconcile such an opinion with +holy writ might place me in some difficulty were I a clergyman. +Clergymen in these days are surrounded by difficulties of this +nature, finding it necessary to explain away many old-established +teachings which narrowed the Christian Church, and to open the door +wide enough to satisfy the aspirations and natural hopes of +instructed men. The brethren of Dives are now so many and so +intelligent that they will no longer consent to be damned without +looking closely into the matter themselves. I will leave them to +settle the matter with the Church, merely assuring them of my +sympathies in their little difficulties in any case in which mere +money causes the hitch.</p> + +<p>To eat his bread in the sweat of his brow was man's curse in Adam's +day, but is certainly man's blessing in our day. And what is eating +one's bread in the sweat of one's brow but making money? I will +believe no man who tells me that he would not sooner earn two loaves +than one;—and if two, then two hundred. I will believe no man who +tells me that he would sooner earn one dollar a day than two;—and if +two, then two hundred. That is, in the very nature of the +argument,—<i>cœteris paribus</i>. When a man tells me that he would +prefer one honest loaf to two that are dishonest, I will, in all +possible cases, believe him. So also a man may prefer one quiet loaf +to two that are unquiet. But under circumstances that are the same, +and to a man who is sane, a whole loaf is better than half, and two +loaves are better than one. The preachers have preached well, but on +this matter they have preached in vain. Dives has never believed that +he will be damned because he is Dives. He has never even believed +that the temptations incident to his position have been more than a +fair counterpoise, or even so much as a fair counterpoise, to his +opportunities for doing good. All men who work desire to prosper by +their work, and they so desire by the nature given to them from God. +Wealth and progress must go on hand in hand together, let the +accidents which occasionally divide them for a time happen as often +as they may. The progress of the Americans has been caused by their +aptitude for money-making, and that continual kneeling at the shrine +of the coined goddess has carried them across from New York to San +Francisco. Men who kneel at that shrine are called on to have ready +wits, and quick hands, and not a little aptitude for self-denial. The +New Yorker has been true to his dollar, because his dollar has been +true to him.</p> + +<p>But not on this account can I, nor on this account will any +Englishman, reconcile himself to the savour of dollars which pervades +the atmosphere of New York. The <i>ars celare artem</i> is wanting. The +making of money is the work of man; but he need not take his work to +bed with him, and have it ever by his side at table, amidst his +family, in church, while he disports himself, as he declares his +passion to the girl of his heart, in the moments of his softest +bliss, and at the periods of his most solemn ceremonies. That many do +so elsewhere than in New York,—in London, for instance, in Paris, +among the mountains of Switzerland, and the steppes of Russia, I do +not doubt. But there is generally a veil thrown over the object of +the worshipper's idolatry. In New York one's ear is constantly filled +with the fanatic's voice as he prays, one's eyes are always on the +familiar altar. The frankincense from the temple is ever in one's +nostrils. I have never walked down Fifth Avenue alone without +thinking of money. I have never walked there with a companion without +talking of it. I fancy that every man there, in order to maintain the +spirit of the place, should bear on his forehead a label stating how +many dollars he is worth, and that every label should be expected to +assert a falsehood.</p> + +<p>I do not think that New York has been less generous in the use of its +money than other cities, or that the men of New York generally are +so. Perhaps I might go farther and say that in no city has more been +achieved for humanity by the munificence of its richest citizens than +in New York. Its hospitals, asylums, and institutions for the relief +of all ailments to which flesh is heir, are very numerous, and beyond +praise in the excellence of their arrangements. And this has been +achieved in a great degree by private liberality. Men in America are +not as a rule anxious to leave large fortunes to their children. The +millionaire when making his will very generally gives back a +considerable portion of the wealth which he has made to the city in +which he made it. The rich citizen is always anxious that the poor +citizen shall be relieved. It is a point of honour with him to raise +the character of his municipality, and to provide that the deaf and +dumb, the blind, the mad, the idiots, the old, and the incurable +shall have such alleviation in their misfortune as skill and kindness +can afford.</p> + +<p>Nor is the New Yorker a hugger-mugger with his money. He does not +hide up his dollars in old stockings and keep rolls of gold in hidden +pots. He does not even invest it where it will not grow but only +produce small though sure fruit. He builds houses, he speculates +largely, he spreads himself in trade to the extent of his wings,—and +not seldom somewhat further. He scatters his wealth broadcast over +strange fields, trusting that it may grow with an increase of an +hundred-fold, but bold to bear the loss should the strange field +prove itself barren. His regret at losing his money is by no means +commensurate with his desire to make it. In this there is a living +spirit which to me divests the dollar-worshipping idolatry of +something of its ugliness. The hand when closed on the gold is +instantly reopened. The idolator is anxious to get, but he is anxious +also to spend. He is energetic to the last, and has no comfort with +his stock unless it breeds with transatlantic rapidity of +procreation.</p> + +<p>So much I say, being anxious to scrape off some of that daub of black +paint with which I have smeared the face of my New Yorker; but not +desiring to scrape it all off. For myself, I do not love to live +amidst the clink of gold, and never have "a good time," as the +Americans say, when the price of shares and percentages come up in +conversation. That state of men's minds here which I have endeavoured +to explain tends, I think, to make New York disagreeable. A stranger +there who has no great interest in percentages soon finds himself +anxious to escape. By degrees he perceives that he is out of his +element, and had better go away. He calls at the bank, and when he +shows himself ignorant as to the price at which his sovereigns should +be done, he is conscious that he is ridiculous. He is like a man who +goes out hunting for the first time at forty years of age. He feels +himself to be in the wrong place, and is anxious to get out of it. +Such was my experience of New York, at each of the visits that I paid +to it.</p> + +<p>But yet, I say again, no other American city is so intensely American +as New York. It is generally considered that the inhabitants of New +England, the Yankees properly so called, have the American +characteristics of physiognomy in the fullest degree. The lantern +jaws, the thin and lithe body, the dry face on which there has been +no tint of the rose since the baby's long-clothes were first +abandoned, the harsh, thick hair, the thin lips, the intelligent +eyes, the sharp voice with the nasal twang—not altogether harsh, +though sharp and nasal,—all these traits are supposed to belong +especially to the Yankee. Perhaps it was so once, but at present they +are, I think, more universally common in New York than in any other +part of the States. Go to Wall Street, the front of the Astor House, +and the regions about Trinity Church, and you will find them in their +fullest perfection.</p> + +<p>What circumstances of blood or food, of early habit or subsequent +education, have created for the latter-day American his present +physiognomy? It is as completely marked, as much his own, as is that +of any race under the sun that has bred in and in for centuries. But +the American owns a more mixed blood than any other race known. The +chief stock is English, which is itself so mixed that no man can +trace its ramifications. With this are mingled the bloods of Ireland, +Holland, France, Sweden, and Germany. All this has been done within +but a few years, so that the American may be said to have no claim to +any national type of face. Nevertheless, no man has a type of face so +clearly national as the American. He is acknowledged by it all over +the continent of Europe, and on his own side of the water is +gratified by knowing that he is never mistaken for his English +visitor. I think it comes from the hot-air pipes and from dollar +worship. In the Jesuit his mode of dealing with things divine has +given a peculiar cast of countenance; and why should not the American +be similarly moulded by his special aspirations? As to the hot-air +pipes, there can, I think, be no doubt that to them is to be charged +the murder of all rosy cheeks throughout the States. If the effect +was to be noticed simply in the dry faces of the men about Wall +Street, I should be very indifferent to the matter. But the young +ladies of Fifth Avenue are in the same category. The very pith and +marrow of life is baked out of their young bones by the hot-air +chambers to which they are accustomed. Hot air is the great destroyer +of American beauty.</p> + +<p>In saying that there is very little to be seen in New York, I have +also said that there is no way of seeing that little. My assertion +amounts to this,—that there are no cabs. To the reading world at +large this may not seem to be much, but let the reading world go to +New York, and it will find out how much the deficiency means. In +London, in Paris, in Florence, in Rome, in the Havana, or at Grand +Cairo, the cab-driver or attendant does not merely drive the cab or +belabour the donkey, but he is the visitor's easiest and cheapest +guide. In London, the Tower, Westminster Abbey, and Madame Tussaud, +are found by the stranger without difficulty, and almost without a +thought, because the cab-driver knows the whereabouts and the way. +Space is moreover annihilated, and the huge distances of the English +metropolis are brought within the scope of mortal power. But in New +York there is no such institution.</p> + +<p>In New York there are street omnibuses as we have,—there are street +cars such as last year we declined to have,—and there are very +excellent public carriages; but none of these give you the +accommodation of a cab, nor can all of them combined do so. The +omnibuses, though clean and excellent, were to me very +unintelligible. They have no conductor to them. To know their +different lines and usages a man should have made a scientific study +of the city. To those going up and down Broadway I became accustomed, +but in them I was never quite at my ease. The money has to be paid +through a little hole behind the driver's back, and should, as I +learned at last, be paid immediately on entrance. But in getting up +to do this I always stumbled about, and it would happen that when +with considerable difficulty I had settled my own account, two or +three ladies would enter, and would hand me, without a word, some +coins with which I had no life-long familiarity in order that I might +go through the same ceremony on their account. The change I would +usually drop into the straw, and then there would arise trouble and +unhappiness. Before I became aware of that law as to instant payment, +bells used to be rung at me which made me uneasy. I knew I was not +behaving as a citizen should behave, but could not compass the exact +points of my delinquency. And then when I desired to escape, the door +being strapped up tight, I would halloo vainly at the driver through +the little hole; whereas, had I known my duty, I should have rung a +bell, or pulled a strap, according to the nature of the omnibus in +question. In a month or two all these things may possibly be +learned;—but the visitor requires his facilities for locomotion at +the first moment of his entrance into the city. I heard it asserted +by a lecturer in Boston, Mr. Wendell Phillips, whose name is there a +household word, that citizens of the United States carried brains in +their fingers as well as in their heads, whereas "common people," by +which Mr. Phillips intended to designate the remnant of mankind +beyond the United States, were blessed with no such extended cerebral +development. Having once learned this fact from Mr. Phillips, I +understood why it was that a New York omnibus should be so +disagreeable to me, and at the same time so suitable to the wants of +the New Yorkers.</p> + +<p>And then there are street cars—very long omnibuses—which run on +rails but are dragged by horses. They are capable of holding forty +passengers each, and as far as my experience goes carry an average +load of sixty. The fare of the omnibus is six cents or three pence. +That of the street car five cents or two pence halfpenny. They run +along the different avenues, taking the length of the city. In the +upper or new part of the town their course is simple enough, but as +they descend to the Bowery, Peckslip, and Pearl Street, nothing can +be conceived more difficult or devious than their courses. The +Broadway omnibus, on the other hand, is a straightforward honest +vehicle in the lower part of the town, becoming, however, dangerous +and miscellaneous when it ascends to Union Square and the vicinities +of fashionable life.</p> + +<p>The street cars are manned with conductors, and therefore are free +from many of the perils of the omnibus, but they have perils of their +own. They are always quite full. By that I mean that every seat is +crowded, that there is a double row of men and women standing down +the centre, and that the driver's platform in front is full, and also +the conductor's platform behind. That is the normal condition of a +street car in the Third Avenue. You, as a stranger in the middle of +the car, wish to be put down at, let us say, 89th Street. In the map +of New York now before me the cross streets running from east to west +are numbered up northwards as far as 154th Street. It is quite +useless for you to give the number as you enter. Even an American +conductor, with brains all over him, and an anxious desire to +accommodate, as is the case with all these men, cannot remember. You +are left therefore in misery to calculate the number of the street as +you move along, vainly endeavouring through the misty glass to +decipher the small numbers which after a day or two you perceive to +be written on the lamp posts.</p> + +<p>But I soon gave up all attempts at keeping a seat in one of these +cars. It became my practice to sit down on the outside iron rail +behind, and as the conductor generally sat in my lap I was in a +measure protected. As for the inside of these vehicles, the women of +New York were, I must confess, too much for me. I would no sooner +place myself on a seat, than I would be called on by a mute, +unexpressive, but still impressive stare into my face, to surrender +my place. From cowardice if not from gallantry I would always obey; +and as this led to discomfort and an irritated spirit, I preferred +nursing the conductor on the hard bar in the rear.</p> + +<p>And here if I seem to say a word against women in America, I beg that +it may be understood that I say that word only against a certain +class; and even as to that class I admit that they are respectable, +intelligent, and, as I believe, industrious. Their manners, however, +are to me more odious than those of any other human beings that I +ever met elsewhere. Nor can I go on with that which I have to say +without carrying my apology further, lest perchance I should be +misunderstood by some American women whom I would not only exclude +from my censure, but would include in the very warmest eulogium which +words of mine could express as to those of the female sex whom I love +and admire the most. I have known, do know, and mean to continue to +know as far as in me may lie, American ladies as bright, as +beautiful, as graceful, as sweet, as mortal limits for brightness, +beauty, grace, and sweetness will permit. They belong to the +aristocracy of the land, by whatever means they may have become +aristocrats. In America one does not inquire as to their birth, their +training, or their old names. The fact of their aristocratic power +comes out in every word and look. It is not only so with those who +have travelled or with those who are rich. I have found female +aristocrats with families and slender means, who have as yet made no +grand tour across the ocean. These women are charming beyond +expression. It is not only their beauty. Had he been speaking of +such, Wendell Phillips would have been right in saying that they have +brains all over them. So much for those who are bright and beautiful, +who are graceful and sweet! And now a word as to those who to me are +neither bright nor beautiful, and who can be to none either graceful +or sweet.</p> + +<p>It is a hard task that of speaking ill of any woman, but it seems to +me that he who takes upon himself to praise incurs the duty of +dispraising also where dispraise is, or to him seems to be, deserved. +The trade of a novelist is very much that of describing the softness, +sweetness, and loving dispositions of women; and this he does, +copying as best he can from nature. But if he only sings of that +which is sweet, whereas that which is not sweet too frequently +presents itself, his song will in the end be untrue and ridiculous. +Women are entitled to much observance from men, but they are entitled +to no observance which is incompatible with truth. Women, by the +conventional laws of society, are allowed to exact much from men, but +they are allowed to exact nothing for which they should not make some +adequate return. It is well that a man should kneel in spirit before +the grace and weakness of a woman, but it is not well that he should +kneel either in spirit or body if there be neither grace nor +weakness. A man should yield everything to a woman for a word, for a +smile,—to one look of entreaty. But if there be no look of entreaty, +no word, no smile, I do not see that he is called upon to yield much.</p> + +<p>The happy privileges with which women are at present blessed have +come to them from the spirit of chivalry. That spirit has taught men +to endure in order that women may be at their ease; and has generally +taught women to accept the ease bestowed on them with grace and +thankfulness. But in America the spirit of chivalry has sunk deeper +among men than it has among women. It must be borne in mind that in +that country material well-being and education are more extended than +with us; and that, therefore, men there have learned to be chivalrous +who with us have hardly progressed so far. The conduct of men to +women throughout the States is always gracious. They have learned the +lesson. But it seems to me that the women have not advanced as far as +the men have done. They have acquired a sufficient perception of the +privileges which chivalry gives them, but no perception of that +return which chivalry demands from them. Women of the class to which +I allude are always talking of their rights, but seem to have a most +indifferent idea of their duties. They have no scruple at demanding +from men everything that a man can be called on to relinquish in a +woman's behalf, but they do so without any of that grace which turns +the demand made into a favour conferred.</p> + +<p>I have seen much of this in various cities of America, but much more +of it in New York than elsewhere. I have heard young Americans +complain of it, swearing that they must change the whole tenor of +their habits towards women. I have heard American ladies speak of it +with loathing and disgust. For myself, I have entertained on sundry +occasions that sort of feeling for an American woman which the close +vicinity of an unclean animal produces. I have spoken of this with +reference to street cars, because in no position of life does an +unfortunate man become more liable to these anti-feminine atrocities +than in the centre of one of these vehicles. The woman, as she +enters, drags after her a misshapen, dirty mass of battered wirework, +which she calls her crinoline, and which adds as much to her grace +and comfort as a log of wood does to a donkey when tied to the +animal's leg in a paddock. Of this she takes much heed, not managing +it so that it may be conveyed up the carriage with some decency, but +striking it about against men's legs, and heaving it with violence +over people's knees. The touch of a real woman's dress is in itself +delicate; but these blows from a harpy's fins are loathsome. If there +be two of them they talk loudly together, having a theory that +modesty has been put out of court by women's rights. But, though not +modest, the woman I describe is ferocious in her propriety. She +ignores the whole world around her, and as she sits with raised chin +and face flattened by affectation, she pretends to declare aloud that +she is positively not aware that any man is even near her. She speaks +as though to her, in her womanhood, the neighbourhood of men was the +same as that of dogs or cats. They are there, but she does not hear +them, see them, or even acknowledge them by any courtesy of motion. +But her own face always gives her the lie. In her assumption of +indifference she displays her nasty consciousness, and in each +attempt at a would-be propriety is guilty of an immodesty. Who does +not know the timid retiring face of the young girl who when alone +among men unknown to her feels that it becomes her to keep herself +secluded? As many men as there are around her, so many knights has +such a one, ready bucklered for her service, should occasion require +such services. Should it not, she passes on unmolested,—but not, as +she herself will wrongly think, unheeded. But as to her of whom I am +speaking, we may say that every twist of her body, and every tone of +her voice is an unsuccessful falsehood. She looks square at you in +the face, and you rise to give her your seat. You rise from a +deference to your own old convictions, and from that courtesy which +you have ever paid to a woman's dress, let it be worn with ever such +hideous deformities. She takes the place from which you have moved +without a word or a bow. She twists herself round, banging your shins +with her wires, while her chin is still raised, and her face is still +flattened, and she directs her friend's attention to another seated +man, as though that place were also vacant, and necessarily at her +disposal. Perhaps the man opposite has his own ideas about chivalry. +I have seen such a thing, and have rejoiced to see it.</p> + +<p>You will meet these women daily, hourly,—everywhere in the streets. +Now and again you will find them in society, making themselves even +more odious there than elsewhere. Who they are, whence they come, and +why they are so unlike that other race of women of which I have +spoken, you will settle for yourself. Do we not all say of our chance +acquaintances after half an hour's conversation,—nay, after half an +hour spent in the same room without conversation,—that this woman is +a lady, and that that other woman is not? They jostle each other even +among us, but never seem to mix. They are closely allied; but neither +imbues the other with her attributes. Both shall be equally +well-born, or both shall be equally ill-born; but still it is so. The +contrast exists in England; but in America it is much stronger. In +England women become ladylike or vulgar. In the States they are +either charming or odious.</p> + +<p>See that female walking down Broadway. She is not exactly such a one +as her I have attempted to describe on her entrance into the street +car; for this lady is well-dressed, if fine clothes will make +well-dressing. The machinery of her hoops is not battered, and +altogether she is a personage much more distinguished in all her +expenditures. But yet she is a copy of the other woman. Look at the +train which she drags behind her over the dirty pavement, where dogs +have been, and chewers of tobacco, and everything concerned with +filth except a scavenger. At every hundred yards some unhappy man +treads upon the silken swab which she trails behind her,—loosening +it dreadfully at the girth one would say; and then see the style of +face and the expression of features with which she accepts the +sinner's half-muttered apology. The world, she supposes, owes her +everything because of her silken train,—even room enough in a +crowded thoroughfare to drag it along unmolested. But, according to +her theory, she owes the world nothing in return. She is a woman with +perhaps a hundred dollars on her back, and having done the world the +honour of wearing them in the world's presence, expects to be repaid +by the world's homage and chivalry. But chivalry owes her +nothing,—nothing, though she walk about beneath a hundred times a +hundred dollars,—nothing even though she be a woman. Let every woman +learn this,—that chivalry owes her nothing unless she also +acknowledge her debt to chivalry. She must acknowledge it and pay it; +and then chivalry will not be backward in making good her claims upon +it.</p> + +<p>All this has come of the street cars. But as it was necessary that I +should say it somewhere, it is as well said on that subject as on any +other. And now to continue with the street cars. They run, as I have +said, the length of the town, taking parallel lines. They will take +you from the Astor House, near the bottom of the town, for miles and +miles northward,—half way up the Hudson river,—for, I believe, five +pence. They are very slow, averaging about five miles an hour; but +they are very sure. For regular inhabitants, who have to travel five +or six miles perhaps to their daily work, they are excellent. I have +nothing really to say against the street cars. But they do not fill +the place of cabs.</p> + +<p>There are, however, public carriages, roomy vehicles dragged by two +horses, clean and nice, and very well suited to ladies visiting the +city. But they have none of the attributes of the cab. As a rule they +are not to be found standing about. They are very slow. They are very +dear. A dollar an hour is the regular charge; but one cannot regulate +one's motion by the hour. Going out to dinner and back costs two +dollars, over a distance which in London would cost two shillings. As +a rule, the cost is four times that of a cab; and the rapidity half +that of a cab. Under these circumstances I think I am justified in +saying that there is no mode of getting about in New York to see +anything.</p> + +<p>And now as to the other charge against New York, of there being +nothing to see. How should there be anything there to see of general +interest? In other large cities, cities as large in name as New York, +there are works of art, fine buildings, ruins, ancient churches, +picturesque costumes, and the tombs of celebrated men. But in New +York there are none of these things. Art has not yet grown up there. +One or two fine figures by Crawford are in the town,—especially that +of the sorrowing Indian at the rooms of the Historical Society; but +art is a luxury in a city which follows but slowly on the heels of +wealth and civilization. Of fine buildings,—which indeed are +comprised in art,—there are none deserving special praise or remark. +It might well have been that New York should ere this have graced +herself with something grand in architecture; but she has not done +so. Some good architectural effect there is, and much architectural +comfort. Of ruins of course there can be none; none at least of such +ruins as travellers admire, though perhaps some of that sort which +disgraces rather than decorates. Churches there are plenty, but none +that are ancient. The costume is the same as our own; and I need +hardly say that it is not picturesque. And the time for the tombs of +celebrated men has not yet come. A great man's ashes are hardly of +value till they have all but ceased to exist.</p> + +<p>The visitor to New York must seek his gratification and obtain his +instruction from the habits and manners of men. The American, though +he dresses like an Englishman, and eats roast beef with a silver +fork,—or sometimes with a steel knife,—as does an Englishman, is +not like an Englishman in his mind, in his aspirations, in his +tastes, or in his politics. In his mind he is quicker, more +universally intelligent, more ambitious of general knowledge, less +indulgent of stupidity and ignorance in others, harder, sharper, +brighter with the surface brightness of steel, than is an Englishman; +but he is more brittle, less enduring, less malleable, and I think +less capable of impressions. The mind of the Englishman has more +imagination, but that of the American more incision. The American is +a great observer, but he observes things material rather than things +social or picturesque. He is a constant and ready speculator; but all +speculations, even those which come of philosophy, are with him more +or less material. In his aspirations the American is more constant +than an Englishman,—or I should rather say he is more constant in +aspiring. Every citizen of the United States intends to do something. +Every one thinks himself capable of some effort. But in his +aspirations he is more limited than an Englishman. The ambitious +American never soars so high as the ambitious Englishman. He does not +even see up to so great a height; and when he has raised himself +somewhat above the crowd becomes sooner dizzy with his own altitude. +An American of mark, though always anxious to show his mark, is +always fearful of a fall. In his tastes the American imitates the +Frenchman. Who shall dare to say that he is wrong, seeing that in +general matters of design and luxury the French have won for +themselves the foremost name? I will not say that the American is +wrong, but I cannot avoid thinking that he is so. I detest what is +called French taste; but the world is against me. When I complained +to a landlord of an hotel out in the West that his furniture was +useless; that I could not write at a marble table whose outside rim +was curved into fantastic shapes; that a gold clock in my bedroom +which did not go would give me no aid in washing myself; that a +heavy, immoveable curtain shut out the light; and that papier-mache +chairs with small fluffy velvet seats were bad to sit on,—he +answered me completely by telling me that his house had been +furnished not in accordance with the taste of England, but with that +of France. I acknowledged the rebuke, gave up my pursuits of +literature and cleanliness, and hurried out of the house as quickly +as I could. All America is now furnishing itself by the rules which +guided that hotel-keeper. I do not merely allude to actual household +furniture,—to chairs, tables, and detestable gilt clocks. The taste +of America is becoming French in its conversation, French in its +comforts and French in its discomforts, French in its eating, and +French in its dress, French in its manners, and will become French in +its art. There are those who will say that English taste is taking +the same direction. I do not think so. I strongly hope that it is not +so. And therefore I say that an Englishman and an American differ in +their tastes.</p> + +<p>But of all differences between an Englishman and an American that in +politics is the strongest, and the most essential. I cannot here, in +one paragraph, define that difference with sufficient clearness to +make my definition satisfactory; but I trust that some idea of that +difference may be conveyed by the general tenor of my book. The +American and the Englishman are both Republicans. The governments of +the States and of England are probably the two purest republican +governments in the world. I do not, of course, here mean to say that +the governments are more pure than others, but that the systems are +more absolutely republican. And yet no men can be much further +asunder in politics than the Englishman and the American. The +American of the present day puts a ballot-box into the hands of every +citizen and takes his stand upon that and that only. It is the duty +of an American citizen to vote, and when he has voted he need trouble +himself no further till the time for voting shall come round again. +The candidate for whom he has voted represents his will, if he have +voted with the majority, and in that case he has no right to look for +further influence. If he have voted with the minority, he has no +right to look for any influence at all. In either case he has done +his political work, and may go about his business till the next year +or the next two or four years shall have come round. The Englishman, +on the other hand, will have no ballot-box, and is by no means +inclined to depend exclusively upon voters or upon voting. As far as +voting can show it, he desires to get the sense of the country; but +he does not think that that sense will be shown by universal +suffrage. He thinks that property amounting to a thousand pounds will +show more of that sense than property amounting to a hundred; but he +will not on that account go to work and apportion votes to wealth. He +thinks that the educated can show more of that sense than the +uneducated; but he does not therefore lay down any rule about +reading, writing, and arithmetic, or apportion votes to learning. He +prefers that all these opinions of his shall bring themselves out and +operate by their own intrinsic weight. Nor does he at all confine +himself to voting in his anxiety to get the sense of the country. He +takes it in any way that it will show itself, uses it for what it is +worth,—or perhaps for more than it is worth,—and welds it into that +gigantic lever by which the political action of the country is moved. +Every man in Great Britain, whether he possess any actual vote or no, +can do that which is tantamount to voting every day of his life, by +the mere expression of his opinion. Public opinion in America has +hitherto been nothing, unless it has managed to express itself by a +majority of ballot-boxes. Public opinion in England is everything, +let votes go as they may. Let the people want a measure, and there is +no doubt of their obtaining it. Only the people must want it;—as +they did want Catholic emancipation, reform, and corn-law +repeal;—and as they would want war if it were brought home to them +that their country was insulted.</p> + +<p>In attempting to describe this difference in the political action of +the two countries, I am very far from taking all praise for England +or throwing any reproach on the States. The political action of the +States is undoubtedly the more logical and the clearer. That indeed +of England is so illogical and so little clear that it would be quite +impossible for any other nation to assume it, merely by resolving to +do so. Whereas the political action of the States might be assumed by +any nation to-morrow, and all its strength might be carried across +the water in a few written rules as are the prescriptions of a +physician or the regulations of an infirmary. With us the thing has +grown of habit, has been fostered by tradition, has crept up uncared +for and in some parts unnoticed. It can be written in no book, can be +described in no words, can be copied by no statesmen, and I almost +believe can be understood by no people but that to whose peculiar +uses it has been adapted.</p> + +<p>In speaking as I have here done of American taste and American +politics I must allude to a special class of Americans who are to be +met more generally in New York than elsewhere,—men who are educated, +who have generally travelled, who are almost always agreeable, but +who as regards their politics are to me the most objectionable of all +men. As regards taste they are objectionable to me also. But that is +a small thing; and as they are quite as likely to be right as I am I +will say nothing against their taste. But in politics it seems to me +that these men have fallen into the bitterest and perhaps into the +basest of errors. Of the man who begins his life with mean political +ideas, having sucked them in with his mother's milk, there may be +some hope. The evil is at any rate the fault of his forefathers +rather than of himself. But who can have hope of him who, having been +thrown by birth and fortune into the running river of free political +activity, has allowed himself to be drifted into the stagnant level +of general political servility? There are very many such Americans. +They call themselves republicans, and sneer at the idea of a limited +monarchy, but they declare that there is no republic so safe, so +equal for all men, so purely democratic as that now existing in +France. Under the French empire all men are equal. There is no +aristocracy; no oligarchy; no overshadowing of the little by the +great. One superior is admitted;—admitted on earth, as a superior is +also admitted in heaven. Under him everything is level, and—provided +he be not impeded—everything is free. He knows how to rule, and the +nation, allowing him the privilege of doing so, can go along its +course safely;—can eat, drink, and be merry. If few men can rise +high, so also can few men fall low. Political equality is the one +thing desirable in a commonwealth, and by this arrangement political +equality is obtained. Such is the modern creed of many an educated +republican of the States.</p> + +<p>To me it seems that such a political state is about the vilest to +which a man can descend. It amounts to a tacit abandonment of the +struggle which men are making for political truth and political +beneficence, in order that bread and meat may be eaten in peace +during the score of years or so that are at the moment passing over +us. The politicians of this class have decided for themselves that +the <i>summum bonum</i> is to be found in bread and the circus games. If +they be free to eat, free to rest, free to sleep, free to drink +little cups of coffee while the world passes before them on a +boulevard, they have that freedom which they covet. But equality is +necessary as well as freedom. There must be no towering trees in this +parterre to overshadow the clipped shrubs, and destroy the uniformity +of a growth which should never mount more than two feet above the +earth. The equality of this politician would forbid any to rise above +him instead of inviting all to rise up to him. It is the equality of +fear and of selfishness, and not the equality of courage and +philanthropy. And brotherhood too must be invoked,—fraternity as we +may better call it in the jargon of the school. Such politicians tell +one much of fraternity, and define it too. It consists in a general +raising of the hat to all mankind; in a daily walk that never hurries +itself into a jostling trot, inconvenient to passengers on the +pavement;—in a placid voice, a soft smile, and a small cup of coffee +on a boulevard. It means all this, but I could never find that it +meant any more. There is a nation for which one is almost driven to +think that such political aspirations as these are suitable; but that +nation is certainly not the States of America.</p> + +<p>And yet one finds many American gentlemen who have allowed themselves +to be drifted into such a theory. They have begun the world as +republican citizens, and as such they must go on. But in their +travels and their studies, and in the luxury of their life, they have +learned to dislike the rowdiness of their country's politics. They +want things to be soft and easy;—as republican as you please, but +with as little noise as possible. The President is there for four +years. Why not elect him for eight, for twelve, or for life?—for +eternity if it were possible to find one who could continue to live? +It is to this way of thinking that Americans are driven, when the +polish of Europe has made the roughness of their own elections odious +to them.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen any of our great institootions, sir?" That of course +is a question which is put to every Englishman who has visited New +York, and the Englishman who intends to say that he has seen New +York, should visit many of them. I went to schools, hospitals, +lunatic asylums, institutes for deaf and dumb, water works, +historical societies, telegraph offices, and large commercial +establishments. I rather think that I did my work in a thorough and +conscientious manner, and I owe much gratitude to those who guided me +on such occasions. Perhaps I ought to describe all these +institutions; but were I to do so, I fear that I should inflict fifty +or sixty very dull pages on my readers. If I could make all that I +saw as clear and intelligible to others as it was made to me who saw +it, I might do some good. But I know that I should fail. I marvelled +much at the developed intelligence of a room full of deaf and dumb +pupils, and was greatly astonished at the performance of one special +girl, who seemed to be brighter and quicker, and more rapidly easy +with her pen than girls generally are who can hear and talk; but I +cannot convey my enthusiasm to others. On such a subject a writer may +be correct, may be exhaustive, may be statistically great; but he can +hardly be entertaining, and the chances are that he will not be +instructive.</p> + +<p>In all such matters, however, New York is preeminently great. All +through the States suffering humanity receives so much attention that +humanity can hardly be said to suffer. The daily recurring boast of +"our glorious institootions, sir," always provokes the ridicule of an +Englishman. The words have become ridiculous, and it would, I think, +be well for the nation if the term "Institution" could be excluded +from its vocabulary. But, in truth, they are glorious. The country in +this respects boasts, but it has done that which justifies a boast. +The arrangements for supplying New York with water are magnificent. +The drainage of the new part of the city is excellent. The hospitals +are almost alluring. The lunatic asylum which I saw was +perfect,—though I did not feel obliged to the resident physician for +introducing me to all the worst patients as countrymen of my own. "An +English lady, Mr. Trollope. I'll introduce you. Quite a hopeless +case. Two old women. They've been here fifty years. They're English. +Another gentleman from England, Mr. Trollope. A very interesting +case! Confirmed inebriety."</p> + +<p>And as to the schools, it is almost impossible to mention them with +too high a praise. I am speaking here specially of New York, though I +might say the same of Boston, or of all New England. I do not know +any contrast that would be more surprising to an Englishman, up to +that moment ignorant of the matter, than that which he would find by +visiting first of all a free school in London, and then a free school +in New York. If he would also learn the number of children that are +educated gratuitously in each of the two cities, and also the number +in each which altogether lack education, he would, if susceptible of +statistics, be surprised also at that. But seeing and hearing are +always more effective than mere figures. The female pupil at a free +school in London is, as a rule, either a ragged pauper, or a charity +girl, if not degraded at least stigmatized by the badges and dress of +the Charity. We Englishmen know well the type of each, and have a +fairly correct idea of the amount of education which is imparted to +them. We see the result afterwards when the same girls become our +servants, and the wives of our grooms and porters. The female pupil +at a free school in New York is neither a pauper nor a charity girl. +She is dressed with the utmost decency. She is perfectly cleanly. In +speaking to her, you cannot in any degree guess whether her father +has a dollar a day, or three thousand dollars a year. Nor will you be +enabled to guess by the manner in which her associates treat her. As +regards her own manner to you, it is always the same as though her +father were in all respects your equal. As to the amount of her +knowledge, I fairly confess that it is terrific. When, in the first +room which I visited, a slight slim creature was had up before me to +explain to me the properties of the hypothenuse I fairly confess +that, as regards education, I backed down, and that I resolved to +confine my criticisms to manner, dress, and general behaviour. In the +next room I was more at my ease, finding that ancient Roman history +was on the tapis. "Why did the Romans run away with the Sabine +women?" asked the mistress, herself a young woman of about +three-and-twenty. "Because they were pretty," simpered out a little +girl with a cherry mouth. The answer did not give complete +satisfaction; and then followed a somewhat abstruse explanation on +the subject of population. It was all done with good faith and a +serious intent, and showed what it was intended to show,—that the +girls there educated had in truth reached the consideration of +important subjects, and that they were leagues beyond that terrible +repetition of A B C, to which, I fear, that most of our free +metropolitan schools are still necessarily confined. You and I, +reader, were we called on to superintend the education of girls of +sixteen, might not select as favourite points either the hypothenuse, +or the ancient methods of populating young colonies. There may be, +and to us on the European side of the Atlantic there will be, a +certain amount of absurdity in the transatlantic idea that all +knowledge is knowledge, and that it should be imparted if it be not +knowledge of evil. But as to the general result, no fair-minded man +or woman can have a doubt. That the lads and girls in these schools +are excellently educated comes home as a fact to the mind of any one +who will look into the subject. That girl could not have got as far +as the hypothenuse without a competent and abiding knowledge of much +that is very far beyond the outside limits of what such girls know +with us. It was at least manifest in the other examination that the +girls knew as well as I did who were the Romans, and who were the +Sabine women. That all this is of use, was shown in the very gestures +and bearings of the girl. <i>Emollit mores</i>, as Colonel Newcombe used +to say. That young woman whom I had watched while she cooked her +husband's dinner upon the banks of the Mississippi, had doubtless +learned all about the Sabine women, and I feel assured that she +cooked her husband's dinner all the better for that knowledge,—and +faced the hardships of the world with a better front than she would +have done had she been ignorant on the subject.</p> + +<p>In order to make a comparison between the schools of London and those +of New York, I have called them both free schools. They are in fact +more free in New York than they are in London, because in New York +every boy and girl, let his parentage be what it may, can attend +these schools without any payment. Thus an education as good as the +American mind can compass, prepared with every care, carried on by +highly paid tutors, under ample surveillance, provided with all that +is most excellent in the way of rooms, desks, books, charts, maps, +and implements, is brought actually within the reach of everybody. I +need not point out to Englishmen how different is the nature of +schools in London. It must not, however, be supposed that these are +charity schools. Such is not their nature. Let us say what we may as +to the beauty of charity as a virtue, the recipient of charity in its +customary sense among us is ever more or less degraded by the +position. In the States that has been fully understood, and the +schools to which I allude are carefully preserved from any such +taint. Throughout the States a separate tax is levied for the +maintenance of these schools, and as the tax-payer supports them, he +is of course entitled to the advantage which they confer. The child +of the non-tax-payer is also entitled, and to him the boon, if +strictly analysed, will come in the shape of a charity. But under the +system as it is arranged, this is not analysed. It is understood that +the school is open to all in the ward to which it belongs, and no +inquiry is made whether the pupil's parent has or has not paid +anything towards the school's support. I found this theory carried +out so far that at the deaf and dumb school, where some of the poorer +children are wholly provided by the institution, care is taken to +clothe them in dresses of different colours and different make, in +order that nothing may attach to them which has the appearance of a +badge. Political economists will see something of evil in this. But +philanthropists will see very much that is good.</p> + +<p>It is not without a purpose that I have given this somewhat glowing +account of a girls' school in New York so soon after my little +picture of New York women, as they behave themselves in the streets +and street cars. It will, of course, be said that those women of whom +I have spoken, by no means in terms of admiration, are the very girls +whose education has been so excellent. This of course is so; but I +beg to remark that I have by no means said that an excellent school +education will produce all female excellences. The fact, I take it, +is this,—that seeing how high in the scale these girls have been +raised, one is anxious that they should be raised higher. One is +surprised at their pert vulgarity and hideous airs, not because they +are so low in our general estimation but because they are so high. +Women of the same class in London are humble enough, and therefore +rarely offend us who are squeamish. They show by their gestures that +they hardly think themselves good enough to sit by us; they apologise +for their presence; they conceive it to be their duty to be lowly in +their gestures. The question is which is best, the crouching and +crawling or the impudent unattractive self-composure. Not, my reader, +which action on her part may the better conduce to my comfort or to +yours! That is by no means the question. Which is the better for the +woman herself? That I take it is the point to be decided. That there +is something better than either we shall all agree;—but to my +thinking the crouching and crawling is the lowest type of all.</p> + +<p>At that school I saw some five or six hundred girls collected in one +room, and heard them sing. The singing was very pretty, and it was +all very nice; but I own that I was rather startled, and to tell the +truth somewhat abashed, when I was invited to "say a few words to +them." No idea of such a suggestion had dawned upon me, and I felt +myself quite at a loss. To be called up before five hundred men is +bad enough, but how much worse before that number of girls! What +could I say but that they were all very pretty? As far as I can +remember I did say that and nothing else. Very pretty they were, and +neatly dressed, and attractive; but among them all there was not a +pair of rosy cheeks. How should there be, when every room in the +building was heated up to the condition of an oven by those damnable +hot-air pipes!</p> + +<p>In England a taste for very large shops has come up during the last +twenty years. A firm is not doing a good business, or at any rate a +distinguished business, unless he can assert in his trade card that +he occupies at least half a dozen houses—Nos. 105, 106, 107, 108, +109, and 110. The old way of paying for what you want over the +counter is gone; and when you buy a yard of tape or a new +carriage,—for either of which articles you will probably visit the +same establishment,—you go through about the same amount of ceremony +as when you sell a thousand pounds out of the stocks in propriâ +personâ. But all this is still further exaggerated in New York. Mr. +Stewart's store there is perhaps the handsomest institution in the +city, and his hall of audience for new carpets is a magnificent +saloon. "You have nothing like that in England," my friend said to me +as he walked me through it in triumph. "I wish we had nothing +approaching to it," I answered. For I confess to a liking for the +old-fashioned private shops. Harper's establishment for the +manufacture and sale of books is also very wonderful. Everything is +done on the premises, down to the very colouring of the paper which +lines the covers, and places the gilding on their backs. The firm +prints, engraves, electroplates, sews, binds, publishes, and sells +wholesale and retail. I have no doubt that the authors have rooms in +the attics where the other slight initiatory step is taken towards +the production of literature.</p> + +<p>New York is built upon an island, which is I believe about ten miles +long, counting from the southern point at the Battery up to +Carmansville, to which place the city is presumed to extend +northwards. This island is called Manhattan,—a name which I have +always thought would have been more graceful for the city than that +of New York. It is formed by the Sound or East river, which divides +the continent from Long Island, by the Hudson river which runs into +the Sound or rather joins it at the city foot, and by a small stream +called the Haarlem river which runs out of the Hudson and meanders +away into the Sound at the north of the city, thus cutting the city +off from the main land. The breadth of the island does not much +exceed two miles, and therefore the city is long, and not capable of +extension in point of breadth. In its old days it clustered itself +round about the Point, and stretched itself up from there along the +quays of the two waters. The streets down in this part of the town +are devious enough, twisting themselves about with delightful +irregularity; but as the city grew there came the taste for +parallelograms, and the upper streets are rectangular and numbered. +Broadway, the street of New York with which the world is generally +best acquainted, begins at the southern point of the town and goes +northward through it. For some two miles and a half it walks away in +a straight line, and then it turns to the left towards the Hudson, +and becomes in fact a continuation of another street called the +Bowery, which comes up in a devious course from the south-east +extremity of the island. From that time Broadway never again takes a +straight course, but crosses the various Avenues in an oblique +direction till it becomes the Bloomingdale road, and under that name +takes itself out of town. There are eleven so-called Avenues, which +descend in absolutely straight lines from the northern, and at +present unsettled, extremity of the new town, making their way +southward till they lose themselves among the old streets. These are +called First Avenue, Second Avenue, and so on. The town had already +progressed two miles up northwards from the Battery before it had +caught the parallelogrammic fever from Philadelphia, for at about +that distance we find "First Street." First Street runs across the +Avenues from water to water, and then Second Street. I will not name +them all, seeing that they go up to 154th Street! They do so at least +on the map, and I believe on the lamp-posts. But the houses are not +yet built in order beyond 50th or 60th Street. The other hundred +streets, each of two miles long, with the Avenues which are mostly +unoccupied for four or five miles, is the ground over which the young +New Yorkers are to spread themselves. I do not in the least doubt +that they will occupy it all, and that 154th Street will find itself +too narrow a boundary for the population.</p> + +<p>I have said that there was some good architectural effect in New +York, and I alluded chiefly to that of the Fifth Avenue. The Fifth +Avenue is the Belgrave Square, the Park Lane, and the Pall Mall of +New York. It is certainly a very fine street. The houses in it are +magnificent, not having that aristocratic look which some of our +detached London residences enjoy, or the palatial appearance of an +old-fashioned hotel in Paris, but an air of comfortable luxury and +commercial wealth which is not excelled by the best houses of any +other town that I know. They are houses, not hotels or palaces; but +they are very roomy houses, with every luxury that complete finish +can give them. Many of them cover large spaces of ground, and their +rent will sometimes go up as high as £800 and £1000 a year. Generally +the best of these houses are owned by those who live in them, and +rent is not therefore paid. But this is not always the case, and the +sums named above may be taken as expressing their value. In England a +man should have a very large income indeed who could afford to pay +£1000 a year for his house in London. Such a one would as a matter of +course have an establishment in the country, and be an Earl or a Duke +or a millionaire. But it is different in New York. The resident there +shows his wealth chiefly by his house, and though he may probably +have a villa at Newport or a box somewhere up the Hudson he has no +second establishment. Such a house therefore will not represent a +total expenditure of above £4,000 a year.</p> + +<p>There are churches on each side of Fifth Avenue,—perhaps five or six +within sight at one time,—which add much to the beauty of the +street. They are well-built, and in fairly good taste. These, added +to the general well-being and splendid comfort of the place, give it +an effect better than the architecture of the individual houses would +seem to warrant. I own that I have enjoyed the vista as I have walked +up and down Fifth Avenue, and have felt that the city had a right to +be proud of its wealth. But the greatness and beauty and glory of +wealth have on such occasions been all in all with me. I know no +great man, no celebrated statesman, no philanthropist of peculiar +note who has lived in Fifth Avenue. That gentleman on the right made +a million of dollars by inventing a shirt-collar; this one on the +left electrified the world by a lotion; as to the gentleman at the +corner there,—there are rumours about him and the Cuban slave-trade; +but my informant by no means knows that they are true. Such are the +aristocracy of Fifth Avenue. I can only say that if I could make a +million dollars by a lotion, I should certainly be right to live in +such a house as one of those.</p> + +<p>The suburbs of New York are, by the nature of the localities, divided +from the city by water. New Jersey and Hoboken are on the other side +of the Hudson, and in another State. Williamsburgh and Brooklyn are +in Long Island, which is a part of the State of New York. But these +places are as easily reached as Lambeth is reached from Westminster. +Steam ferries ply every three or four minutes, and into these boats +coaches, carts, and waggons of any size or weight are driven. In fact +they make no other stoppage to the commerce than that occasioned by +the payment of a few cents. Such payment no doubt is a stoppage, and +therefore it is that New Jersey, Brooklyn, and Williamsburgh are, at +any rate in appearance, very dull and uninviting. They are, however, +very populous. Many of the quieter citizens prefer to live there; and +I am told that the Brooklyn tea-parties consider themselves to be, in +æsthetic feeling, very much ahead of anything of the kind in the more +opulent centres of the city. In beauty of scenery Staten Island is +very much the prettiest of the suburbs of New York. The view from the +hill side in Staten Island down upon New York harbour is very lovely. +It is the only really good view of that magnificent harbour which I +have been able to find. As for appreciating such beauty when one is +entering a port from sea, or leaving it for sea, I do not believe in +any such power. The ship creeps up or creeps out while the mind is +engaged on other matters. The passenger is uneasy either with hopes +or fears; and then the grease of the engines offends one's nostrils. +But it is worth the tourist's while to look down upon New York +harbour from the hill side in Staten Island. When I was there Fort +Lafayette looked black in the centre of the channel, and we knew that +it was crowded with the victims of secession. Fort Tomkins was being +built, to guard the pass,—worthy of a name of richer sound; and Fort +something else was bristling with new cannon. Fort Hamilton, on Long +Island, opposite, was frowning at us; and immediately around us a +regiment of volunteers was receiving regimental stocks and boots from +the hands of its officers. Everything was bristling with war; and one +could not but think that not in this way had New York raised herself +so quickly to her present greatness.</p> + +<p>But the glory of New York is the Central Park;—its glory in the mind +of all New Yorkers of the present day. The first question asked of +you is whether you have seen the Central Park, and the second is as +to what you think of it. It does not do to say simply that it is +fine, grand, beautiful, and miraculous. You must swear by cock and +pie that it is more fine, more grand, more beautiful, more miraculous +than anything else of the kind anywhere. Here you encounter, in its +most annoying form, that necessity for eulogium which presses you +everywhere. For, in truth, taken as it is at present, the Central +Park is not fine, nor grand, nor beautiful. As to the miracle, let +that pass. It is perhaps as miraculous as some other great latter-day +miracles.</p> + +<p>But the Central Park is a very great fact, and affords a strong +additional proof of the sense and energy of the people. It is very +large, being over three miles long, and about three quarters of a +mile in breadth. When it was found that New York was extending +itself, and becoming one of the largest cities of the world, a space +was selected between Fifth and Seventh Avenues, immediately outside +the limits of the city as then built, but nearly in the centre of the +city as it is intended to be built. The ground around it became at +once of great value; and I do not doubt that the present fashion of +the Fifth Avenue about Twentieth Street will in course of time move +itself up to the Fifth Avenue as it looks, or will look, over the +Park at Seventieth, Eightieth, and Ninetieth Streets. The great +waterworks of the city bring the Croton River, whence New York is +supplied, by an aqueduct over the Haarlem river into an enormous +reservoir just above the Park; and hence it has come to pass that +there will be water not only for sanitary and useful purposes, but +also for ornament. At present the Park, to English eyes, seems to be +all road. The trees are not grown up, and the new embankments, and +new lakes, and new ditches, and new paths give to the place anything +but a picturesque appearance. The Central Park is good for what it +will be, rather than for what it is. The summer heat is so very great +that I doubt much whether the people of New York will ever enjoy such +verdure as our parks show. But there will be a pleasant assemblage of +walks and water-works, with fresh air, and fine shrubs and flowers, +immediately within the reach of the citizens. All that art and energy +can do will be done, and the Central Park doubtless will become one +of the great glories of New York. When I was expected to declare that +St. James's Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens, +altogether, were nothing to it, I confess that I could only remain +mute.</p> + +<p>Those who desire to learn what are the secrets of society in New +York, I would refer to the Potiphar Papers. The Potiphar Papers are +perhaps not as well known in England as they deserve to be. They were +published, I think, as much as seven or eight years ago; but are +probably as true now as they were then. What I saw of society in New +York was quiet and pleasant enough; but doubtless I did not climb +into that circle in which Mrs. Potiphar held so distinguished a +position. It may be true that gentlemen habitually throw fragments of +their supper and remnants of their wine on to their host's carpets; +but if so I did not see it.</p> + +<p>As I progress in my work I feel that duty will call upon me to write +a separate chapter on hotels in general, and I will not, therefore, +here say much about those in New York. I am inclined to think that +few towns in the world, if any, afford on the whole better +accommodation, but there are many in which the accommodation is +cheaper. Of the railways also I ought to say something. The fact +respecting them which is most remarkable is that of their being +continued into the centre of the town through the streets. The cars +are not dragged through the city by locomotive engines, but by +horses; the pace therefore is slow, but the convenience to travellers +in being brought nearer to the centre of trade must be much felt. It +is as though passengers from Liverpool and passengers from Bristol +were carried on from Euston Square and Paddington along the New Road, +Portland Place, and Regent Street to Pall Mall, or up the City Road +to the Bank. As a general rule, however, the railways, railway cars, +and all about them are ill-managed. They are monopolies, and the +public, through the press, has no restraining power upon them as it +has in England. A parcel sent by express over a distance of forty +miles will not be delivered within twenty-four hours. I once made my +plaint on this subject at the bar or office of an hotel, and was told +that no remonstrance was of avail. "It is a monopoly," the man told +me, "and if we say anything, we are told that if we do not like it we +need not use it." In railway matters and postal matters time and +punctuality are not valued in the States as they are with us, and the +public seem to acknowledge that they must put up with defects,—that +they must grin and bear them in America, as the public no doubt do in +Austria where such affairs are managed by a government bureau.</p> + +<p>In the beginning of this chapter I spoke of the population of New +York, and I cannot end it without remarking that out of that +population more than one-eighth is composed of Germans. It is, I +believe, computed that there are about 120,000 Germans in the city, +and that only two other German cities in the world, Vienna and +Berlin, have a larger German population than New York. The Germans +are good citizens and thriving men, and are to be found prospering +all over the northern and western parts of the Union. It seems that +they are excellently well adapted to colonization, though they have +in no instance become the dominant people in a colony, or carried +with them their own language or their own laws. The French have done +so in Algeria, in some of the West India islands, and quite as +essentially into Lower Canada, where their language and laws still +prevail. And yet it is, I think, beyond doubt that the French are not +good colonists, as are the Germans.</p> + +<p>Of the ultimate destiny of New York as one of the ruling commercial +cities of the world, it is, I think, impossible to doubt. Whether or +no it will ever equal London in population I will not pretend to say. +Even should it do so, should its numbers so increase as to enable it +to say that it had done so, the question could not very well be +settled. When it comes to pass that an assemblage of men in one +so-called city have to be counted by millions, there arises the +impossibility of defining the limits of that city, and of saying who +belong to it and who do not. An arbitrary line may be drawn, but that +arbitrary line, though perhaps false when drawn as including too +much, soon becomes more false as including too little. Ealing, Acton, +Fulham, Putney, Norwood, Sydenham, Blackheath, Woolwich, Greenwich, +Stratford, Highgate, and Hampstead, are, in truth, component parts of +London, and very shortly Brighton will be as much so.</p> + + +<p><a id="c15"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER XV.</h3> +<h4>THE CONSTITUTION OF<br />THE STATE OF NEW YORK.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>As New York is the most populous State of the Union, having the +largest representation in Congress,—on which account it has been +called the Empire State,—I propose to mention, as shortly as may be, +the nature of its separate Constitution as a State. Of course it will +be understood that the constitutions of the different States are by +no means the same. They have been arranged according to the judgment +of the different people concerned, and have been altered from time to +time to suit such altered judgment. But as the States together form +one nation, and on such matters as foreign affairs, war, customs, and +post-office regulations, are bound together as much as are the +English counties, it is, of course, necessary that the constitution +of each should in most matters assimilate itself to those of the +others. These constitutions are very much alike. A Governor, with two +houses of legislature, generally called the Senate and the House of +Representatives, exists in each State. In the State of New York the +lower house is called the Assembly. In most States the Governor is +elected annually; but in some States for two years, as in New York. +In Pennsylvania he is elected for three years. The House of +Representatives or the Assembly is, I think, always elected for one +session only; but as, in many of the States, the Legislature only +sits once in two years, the election recurs of course at the same +interval. The franchise in all the States is nearly universal, but in +no State is it perfectly so. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and +other officers are elected by vote of the people as well as the +members of the Legislature. Of course it will be understood that each +State makes laws for itself,—that they are in nowise dependent on +the Congress assembled at Washington for their laws,—unless for laws +which refer to matters between the United States as a nation and +other nations, or between one State and another. Each State declares +with what punishment crimes shall be visited; what taxes shall be +levied for the use of the State; what laws shall be passed as to +education; what shall be the State judiciary. With reference to the +judiciary, however, it must be understood, that the United States as +a nation have separate national law courts before which come all +cases litigated between State and State, and all cases which do not +belong in every respect to any one individual State. In a subsequent +chapter I will endeavour to explain this more fully. In endeavouring +to understand the constitution of the United States it is essentially +necessary that we should remember that we have always to deal with +two different political arrangements,—that which refers to the +nation as a whole, and that which belongs to each State as a separate +governing power in itself. What is law in one State is not law in +another. Nevertheless there is a very great likeness throughout these +various constitutions; and any political student who shall have +thoroughly mastered one, will not have much to learn in mastering the +others.</p> + +<p>This State, now called New York, was first settled by the Dutch in +1614, on Manhattan Island. They established a government in 1629, +under the name of the New Netherlands. In 1664 Charles II. granted +the province to his brother, James II., then Duke of York, and +possession was taken of the country on his behalf by one Colonel +Nichols. In 1673 it was recaptured by the Dutch, but they could not +hold it, and the Duke of York again took possession by patent. A +legislative body was first assembled during the reign of Charles II., +in 1683; from which it will be seen that parliamentary representation +was introduced into the American colonies at a very early date. The +declaration of independence was made by the revolted colonies in +1776, and in 1777 the first constitution was adopted by the State of +New York. In 1822 this was changed for another; and the one of which +I now purport to state some of the details was brought into action in +1847. In this constitution there is a provision that it shall be +overhauled and remodelled, if needs be, once in twenty years. Article +XIII. Sec. 2.—"At the general election to be held in 1866, and in +each twentieth year thereafter, the question, 'Shall there be a +convention to revise the Constitution and amend the same?' shall be +decided by the electors qualified to vote for members of the +Legislature." So that the New Yorkers cannot be twitted with the +presumption of finality in reference to their legislative +arrangements.</p> + +<p>The present constitution begins with declaring the inviolability of +trial by jury and of habeas corpus,—"unless when, in cases of +rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require its suspension." +It does not say by whom it may be suspended, or who is to judge of +the public safety, but, at any rate, it may be presumed that such +suspension was supposed to come from the powers of the State which +enacted the law. At the present moment the habeas corpus is suspended +in New York, and this suspension has proceeded not from the powers of +the State, but from the Federal Government, without the sanction even +of the Federal Congress.</p> + +<p>"Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments on +all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and no +law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or +of the press." Art. I. Sec. 8. But at the present moment liberty of +speech and of the press is utterly abrogated in the State of New +York, as it is in other States. I mention this not as a reproach +against either the State or the Federal Government, but to show how +vain all laws are for the protection of such rights. If they be not +protected by the feelings of the people,—if the people are at any +time, or from any cause, willing to abandon such privileges, no +written laws will preserve them.</p> + +<p>In Art. I. Sec. 14, there is a proviso that no land—land, that is, +used for agricultural purposes—shall be let on lease for a longer +period than twelve years. "No lease or grant of agricultural land for +a longer period than twelve years hereafter made, in which shall be +reserved any rent or service of any kind, shall be valid." I do not +understand the intended virtue of this proviso, but it shows very +clearly how different are the practices with reference to land in +England and America. Farmers in the States almost always are the +owners of the land which they farm, and such tenures as those, by +which the occupiers of land generally hold their farms with us, are +almost unknown. There is no such relation as that of landlord and +tenant as regards agricultural holdings.</p> + +<p>Every male citizen of New York may vote who is twenty-one, who has +been a citizen for ten days, who has lived in the State for a year, +and for four months in the county in which he votes. He can vote for +all "officers that now are, or hereafter may be, elective by the +people." Art. II. Sec. 1. "But," the section goes on to say, "no man +of colour, unless he shall have been for three years a citizen of the +State, and for one year next preceding any election shall have been +possessed of a freehold estate of the value of 250 dollars (£50), and +shall have been actually rated, and paid a tax thereon, shall be +entitled to vote at such election." This is the only embargo with +which universal suffrage is laden in the State of New York.</p> + +<p>The third article provides for the election of the Senate and the +Assembly. The Senate consists of thirty-two members. And it may here +be remarked that large as is the State of New York, and great as is +its population, its Senate is less numerous than that of many other +States. In Massachusetts, for instance, there are forty senators, +though the population of Massachusetts is barely one third that of +New York. In Virginia there are fifty senators, whereas the free +population is not one third of that of New York. As a consequence the +Senate of New York is said to be filled with men of a higher class +than are generally found in the Senates of other States. Then follows +in the article a list of the districts which are to return the +Senators. These districts consist of one, two, three, or in one case +four counties, according to the population.</p> + +<p>The article does not give the number of members of the Lower House, +nor does it even state what amount of population shall be held as +entitled to a member. It merely provides for the division of the +State into districts which shall contain an equal number, not of +population, but of voters. The House of Assembly does consist of 128 +members.</p> + +<p>It is then stipulated that every member of both houses shall receive +three dollars a day, or twelve shillings, for their services during +the sitting of the legislature; but this sum is never to exceed 300 +dollars, or sixty pounds in one year, unless an extra Session be +called. There is also an allowance for the travelling expenses of +members. It is, I presume, generally known that the members of the +Congress at Washington are all paid, and that the same is the case +with reference to the legislatures of all the States.</p> + +<p>No member of the New York legislature can also be a member of the +Washington Congress, or hold any civil or military office under the +general States Government.</p> + +<p>A majority of each House must be present, or as the article says, +"shall constitute a quorum to do business." Each House is to keep a +journal of its proceedings. The doors are to be open,—except when +the public welfare shall require secresy. A singular proviso this in +a country boasting so much of freedom! For no speech or debate in +either House shall the legislature be called in question in any other +place. The legislature assembles on the first Tuesday in January, and +sits for about three months. Its seat is at Albany.</p> + +<p>The executive power, (Art. IV.) is to be vested in a Governor and a +Lieutenant-Governor, both of whom shall be chosen for two years. The +Governor must be a citizen of the United States, must be thirty years +of age, and have lived for the last four years in the State. He is to +be commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces of the +State,—as is the President of those of the Union. I see that this is +also the case in inland States, which one would say can have no +navies. And with reference to some States it is enacted that the +Governor is commander-in-chief of the army, navy, and militia, +showing that some army over and beyond the militia may be kept by the +State. In Tennessee, which is an inland State, it is enacted that the +Governor shall be "commander-in-chief of the army and navy of this +State, and of the militia, except when they shall be called into the +service of the United States." In Ohio the same is the case, except +that there is no mention of militia. In New York there is no proviso +with reference to the service of the United States. I mention this as +it bears with some strength on the question of the right of +secession, and indicates the jealousy of the individual States with +reference to the Federal Government. The Governor can convene extra +Sessions of one House or of both. He makes a message to the +legislature when it meets,—a sort of Queen's speech; and he receives +for his services a compensation, to be established by law. In New +York this amounts to £800 a year. In some States this is as low as +£200 and £300. In Virginia it is £1000. In California £1200.</p> + +<p>The Governor can pardon, except in cases of treason. He has also a +veto upon all bills sent up by the legislature. If he exercise this +veto he returns the bill to the legislature with his reasons for so +doing. If the bill on reconsideration by the Houses be again passed +by a majority of two thirds in each House, it becomes law in spite of +the Governor's veto. The veto of the President at Washington is of +the same nature. Such are the powers of the Governor. But though they +are very full, the Governor of each State does not practically +exercise any great political power, nor is he, even politically, a +great man. You might live in a State during the whole term of his +government and hardly hear of him. There is vested in him by the +language of the constitution a much wider power than that intrusted +to the Governors of our colonies. But in our colonies everybody +talks, and thinks, and knows about the Governor. As far as the limits +of the colony the Governor is a great man. But this is not the case +with reference to the Governors in the different States.</p> + +<p>The next article provides that the Governor's ministers, viz., the +Secretary of State, the Comptroller, Treasurer, and Attorney-General, +shall be chosen every two years at a general election. In this +respect the State constitution differs from that of the national +constitution. The President at Washington names his own +ministers,—subject to the approbation of the Senate. He makes many +other appointments with the same limitation. As regards these +nominations in general, the Senate, I believe, is not slow to +interfere; but with reference to the ministers it is understood that +the names sent in by the President shall stand. Of the Secretary of +State, Comptroller, &c., belonging to the different States, and who +are elected by the people, in a general way one never hears. No doubt +they attend their offices and take their pay, but they are not +political personages.</p> + +<p>The next article, No. VI., refers to the Judiciary, and is very +complicated. After considerable study I have failed to understand it. +The judges are elected by vote, and remain in office for, I believe, +a term of eight years. In Sect. 20 of this article it is provided +that—"No judicial officer, except Justices of the Peace, shall +receive to his own use any fees or perquisites of office." How +pleasantly this enactment must sound in the ears of the justices of +the peace.</p> + +<p>Article VII. refers to fiscal matters, and is more especially +interesting as showing how greatly the State of New York has depended +on its canals for its wealth. These canals are the property of the +State; and by this article it seems to be provided that they shall +not only maintain themselves, but maintain to a considerable extent +the State expenditure also, and stand in lieu of taxation. It is +provided, Section 6, that the "legislature shall not sell, lease, or +otherwise dispose of any of the canals of the State; but that they +shall remain the property of the State, and under its management for +ever." But in spite of its canals the State does not seem to be doing +very well, for I see that in 1860, its income was 4,780,000 dollars, +and its expenditure 5,100,000, whereas its debt was 32,500,000 +dollars. Of all the States, Pennsylvania is the most indebted, +Virginia is the second on the list, and New York the third. New +Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Delaware, and Texas, owe no State +debts. All the other State ships have taken in ballast.</p> + +<p>The militia is supposed to consist of all men capable of bearing +arms, under forty-five years of age. But no one need be enrolled, who +from scruples of conscience is averse to bearing arms. At the present +moment such scruples do not seem to be very general. Then follows, in +Article XI., a detailed enactment as to the choosing of militia +officers. It may be perhaps sufficient to say that the privates are +to choose the captains and the subalterns; the captains and +subalterns are to choose the field officers; and the field officers +the brigadier-generals and inspectors of brigade. The Governor, +however, with the consent of the Senate shall nominate all +major-generals. Now that real soldiers have unfortunately become +necessary the above plan has not been found to work well.</p> + +<p>Such is the Constitution of the State of New York, which has been +intended to work and does work quite separately from that of the +United States. It will be seen that the purport has been to make it +as widely democratic as possible,—to provide that all power of all +description shall come directly from the people, and that such power +shall return to the people at short intervals. The Senate and the +Governor each remain for two years, but not for the same two years. +If a new Senate commence its work in 1861, a new Governor will come +in in 1862. But, nevertheless, there is in the form of Government as +thus established an absence of that close and immediate +responsibility which attends our ministers. When a man has been voted +in, it seems that responsibility is over for the period of the +required service. He has been chosen, and the country which has +chosen him is to trust that he will do his best. I do not know that +this matters much with reference to the legislature or governments of +the different States, for their State legislatures and governments +are but puny powers; but in the legislature and government at +Washington it does matter very much. But I shall have another +opportunity of speaking on that subject.</p> + +<p>Nothing has struck me so much in America as the fact that these State +legislatures are puny powers. The absence of any tidings whatever of +their doings across the water is a proof of this. Who has heard of +the legislature of New York or of Massachusetts? It is boasted here +that their insignificance is a sign of the well-being of the +people;—that the smallness of the power necessary for carrying on +the machine shows how beautifully the machine is organised, and how +well it works. "It is better to have little governors than great +governors," an American said to me once. "It is our glory that we +know how to live without having great men over us to rule us." That +glory, if ever it were a glory, has come to an end. It seems to me +that all these troubles have come upon the States because they have +not placed high men in high places. The less of laws and the less of +control the better, providing a people can go right with few laws and +little control. One may say that no laws and no control would be best +of all,—provided that none were needed. But this is not exactly the +position of the American people.</p> + +<p>The two professions of law-making and of governing have become +unfashionable, low in estimation, and of no repute in the States. The +municipal powers of the cities have not fallen into the hands of the +leading men. The word politician has come to bear the meaning of +political adventurer and almost of political blackleg. If A calls B a +politician A intends to vilify B by so calling him. Whether or no the +best citizens of a State will ever be induced to serve in the State +legislature by a nobler consideration than that of pay, or by a +higher tone of political morals than that now existing, I cannot say. +It seems to me that some great decrease in the numbers of the State +legislators should be a first step towards such a consummation. There +are not many men in each State who can afford to give up two or three +months of the year to the State service for nothing; but it may be +presumed that in each State there are a few. Those who are induced to +devote their time by the payment of £60, can hardly be the men most +fitted for the purpose of legislation. It certainly has seemed to me +that the members of the State legislatures and of the State +governments are not held in that respect and treated with that +confidence to which, in the eyes of an Englishman, such functionaries +should be held as entitled.</p> + + +<p><a id="c16"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER XVI.</h3> +<h4>BOSTON.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>From New York we returned to Boston by Hartford, the capital, or one +of the capitals of Connecticut. This proud little State is composed +of two old provinces, of which Hartford and Newhaven were the two +metropolitan towns. Indeed there was a third colony called Saybrook, +which was joined to Hartford. As neither of the two could of course +give way when Hartford and Newhaven were made into one, the houses of +legislature and the seat of government are changed about, year by +year. Connecticut is a very proud little State, and has a pleasant +legend of its own stanchness in the old colonial days. In 1662 the +colonies were united, and a charter was given to them by Charles II. +But some years later, in 1686, when the bad days of James II. had +come, this charter was considered to be too liberal, and order was +given that it should be suspended. One Sir Edmund Andross had been +appointed governor of all New England, and sent word from Boston to +Connecticut that the charter itself should be given up to him. This +the men of Connecticut refused to do. Whereupon Sir Edmund with a +military following presented himself at their assembly, declared +their governing powers to be dissolved, and after much palaver caused +the charter itself to be laid upon the table before him. The +discussion had been long, having lasted through the day into the +night, and the room had been lighted with candles. On a sudden each +light disappeared, and Sir Edmund with his followers were in the +dark. As a matter of course, when the light was restored the charter +was gone, and Sir Edmund, the governor-general, was baffled, as all +governors-general and all Sir Edmunds always are in such cases. The +charter was gone, a gallant Captain Wadsworth having carried it off +and hidden it in an oak tree. The charter was renewed when William +III. came to the throne, and now hangs triumphantly in the State +House at Hartford. The charter oak has, alas! succumbed to the +weather, but was standing a few years since. The men of Hartford are +very proud of their charter, and regard it as the parent of their +existing liberties quite as much as though no national revolution of +their own had intervened.</p> + +<p>And indeed the Northern States of the Union, especially those of New +England, refer all their liberties to the old charters which they +held from the mother-country. They rebelled, as they themselves would +seem to say, and set themselves up as a separate people, not because +the mother-country had refused to them by law sufficient liberty and +sufficient self-control, but because the mother-country infringed the +liberties and powers of self-control which she herself had given. The +mother-country, so these States declare, had acted the part of Sir +Edmund Andross, had endeavoured to take away their charters. So they +also put out the lights, and took themselves to an oak tree of their +own,—which is still standing, though winds from the infernal regions +are now battering its branches. Long may it stand!</p> + +<p>Whether the mother-country did or did not infringe the charters she +had given, I will not here inquire. As to the nature of those alleged +infringements, are they not written down to the number of +twenty-seven in the Declaration of Independence? I have taken the +liberty of appending this Declaration to the end of my book, and the +twenty-seven paragraphs may all be seen. They mostly begin with He. +"He" has done this, and "He" has done that. The "He" is poor George +III., whose twenty-seven mortal sins against his transatlantic +colonies are thus recapitulated. It would avail nothing to argue now +whether those deeds were sins or virtues; nor would it have availed +then. The child had grown up and was strong, and chose to go alone +into the world. The young bird was fledged, and flew away. Poor +George III. with his cackling was certainly not efficacious in +restraining such a flight. But it is gratifying to see how this new +people, when they had it in their power to change all their laws, to +throw themselves upon any Utopian theory that the folly of a wild +philanthropy could devise, to discard as abominable every vestige of +English rule and English power,—it is gratifying to see that when +they could have done all this, they did not do so, but preferred to +cling to things English. Their old colonial limits were still to be +the borders of their States. Their old charters were still to be +regarded as the sources from whence their State powers had come. The +old laws were to remain in force. The precedents of the English +courts were to be held as legal precedents in the courts of the new +nation,—and are now so held. It was still to be England,—but +England without a King making his last struggle for political power. +This was the idea of the people, and this was their feeling; and that +idea has been carried out, and that feeling has remained.</p> + +<p>In the constitution of the State of New York nothing is said about +the religion of the people. It was regarded as a subject with which +the constitution had no concern whatever. But as soon as we come +among the stricter people of New England we find that the +constitution-makers have not been able absolutely to ignore the +subject. In Connecticut it is enjoined that as it is the duty of all +men to worship the Supreme Being, and their right to render that +worship in the mode most consistent with their consciences, no person +shall be by law compelled to join or be classed with any religious +association. The line of argument is hardly logical, the conclusion +not being in accordance with, or hanging on the first of the two +premises. But nevertheless the meaning is clear. In a free country no +man shall be made to worship after any special fashion; but it is +decreed by the constitution that every man is bound by duty to +worship after some fashion. The article then goes on to say how they +who do worship are to be taxed for the support of their peculiar +church. I am not quite clear whether the New Yorkers have not managed +this difficulty with greater success. When we come to the old Bay +State,—to Massachusetts,—we find the Christian religion spoken of +in the Constitution as that which in some one of its forms should +receive the adherence of every good citizen.</p> + +<p>Hartford is a pleasant little town, with English-looking houses, and +an English-looking country around it. Here, as everywhere through the +States, one is struck by the size and comfort of the residences. I +sojourned there at the house of a friend, and could find no limit to +the number of spacious sitting-rooms which it contained. The modest +dining-room and drawing-room which suffice with us for men of seven +or eight hundred a year would be regarded as very mean accommodation +by persons of similar incomes in the States.</p> + +<p>I found that Hartford was all alive with trade, and that wages were +high, because there are there two factories for the manufacture of +arms. Colt's pistols come from Hartford, as do also Sharpe's rifles. +Wherever arms can be prepared, or gunpowder; where clothes or +blankets fit for soldiers can be made, or tents or standards, or +things appertaining in any way to warfare, there trade was still +brisk. No being is more costly in his requirements than a soldier, +and no soldier so costly as the American. He must eat and drink of +the best, and have good boots and warm bedding, and good shelter. +There were during the Christmas of 1861 above half a million of +soldiers so to be provided,—the President, in his message made in +December to Congress, declared the number to be above six hundred +thousand—and therefore in such places as Hartford trade was very +brisk. I went over the rifle factory, and was shown everything, but I +do not know that I brought away much with me that was worth any +reader's attention. The best of rifles, I have no doubt, were being +made with the greatest rapidity, and all were sent to the army as +soon as finished. I saw some murderous-looking weapons, with swords +attached to them instead of bayonets, but have since been told by +soldiers that the old-fashioned bayonet is thought to be more +serviceable.</p> + +<p>Immediately on my arrival in Boston I heard that Mr. Emerson was +going to lecture at the Tremont Hall on the subject of the war, and I +resolved to go and hear him. I was acquainted with Mr. Emerson, and +by reputation knew him well. Among us in England he is regarded as +transcendental, and perhaps even as mystic in his philosophy. His +"Representative Men" is the work by which he is best known on our +side of the water, and I have heard some readers declare that they +could not quite understand Mr. Emerson's "Representative Men." For +myself, I confess that I had broken down over some portions of that +book. Since I had become acquainted with him I had read others of his +writings, especially his book on England, and had found that he +improved greatly on acquaintance. I think that he has confined his +mysticism to the book above named. In conversation he is very clear, +and by no means above the small practical things of the world. He +would, I fancy, know as well what interest he ought to receive for +his money as though he were no philosopher; and I am inclined to +think that if he held land he would make his hay while the sun shone, +as might any common farmer. Before I had met Mr. Emerson, when my +idea of him was formed simply on the "Representative Men," I should +have thought that a lecture from him on the war would have taken his +hearers all among the clouds. As it was, I still had my doubts, and +was inclined to fear that a subject which could only be handled +usefully at such a time before a large audience by a combination of +common sense, high principles, and eloquence, would hardly be safe in +Mr. Emerson's hands. I did not doubt the high principles, but feared +much that there would be a lack of common sense. So many have talked +on that subject, and have shown so great a lack of common sense! As +to the eloquence, that might be there, or might not.</p> + +<p>Mr. Emerson is a Massachusetts man, very well known in Boston, and a +great crowd was collected to hear him. I suppose there were some +three thousand persons in the room. I confess that when he took his +place before us my prejudices were against him. The matter in hand +required no philosophy. It required common sense, and the very best +of common sense. It demanded that he should be impassioned, for of +what interest can any address be on a matter of public politics +without passion? But it demanded that the passion should be winnowed, +and free from all rhodomontade. I fancied what might be said on such +a subject as to that overlauded star-spangled banner, and how the +star-spangled flag would look when wrapped in a mist of mystic +Platonism.</p> + +<p>But from the beginning to the end there was nothing mystic—no +Platonism; and, if I remember rightly, the star-spangled banner was +altogether omitted. To the national eagle he did allude. "Your +American eagle," he said, "is very well. Protect it here and abroad. +But beware of the American peacock." He gave an account of the war +from the beginning, showing how it had arisen, and how it had been +conducted; and he did so with admirable simplicity and truth. He +thought the North were right about the war; and as I thought so also, +I was not called upon to disagree with him. He was terse and +perspicuous in his sentences, practical in his advice, and, above all +things, true in what he said to his audience of themselves. They who +know America will understand how hard it is for a public man in the +States to practise such truth in his addresses. Fluid compliments and +high-flown national eulogium are expected. In this instance none were +forthcoming. The North had risen with patriotism to make this effort, +and it was now warned that in doing so it was simply doing its +national duty. And then came the subject of slavery. I had been told +that Mr. Emerson was an abolitionist, and knew that I must disagree +with him on that head, if on no other. To me it has always seemed +that to mix up the question of general abolition with this war must +be the work of a man too ignorant to understand the real subject of +the war, or too false to his country to regard it. Throughout the +whole lecture I was waiting for Mr. Emerson's abolition doctrine, but +no abolition doctrine came. The words abolition and compensation were +mentioned, and then there was an end of the subject. If Mr. Emerson +be an abolitionist he expressed his views very mildly on that +occasion. On the whole the lecture was excellent, and that little +advice about the peacock was in itself worth an hour's attention.</p> + +<p>That practice of lecturing is "quite an institution" in the States. +So it is in England, my readers will say. But in England it is done +in a different way, with a different object and with much less of +result. With us, if I am not mistaken, lectures are mostly given +gratuitously by the lecturer. They are got up here and there with +some philanthropical object, and in the hope that an hour at the +disposal of young men and women may be rescued from idleness. The +subjects chosen are social, literary, philanthropic, romantic, +geographical, scientific, religious,—anything rather than political. +The lecture-rooms are not usually filled to overflowing, and there is +often a question whether the real good achieved is worth the trouble +taken. The most popular lectures are given by big people, whose +presence is likely to be attractive; and the whole thing, I fear we +must confess, is not pre-eminently successful. In the Northern States +of America the matter stands on a very different footing. Lectures +there are more popular than either theatres or concerts. Enormous +halls are built for them. Tickets for long courses are taken with +avidity. Very large sums are paid to popular lecturers, so that the +profession is lucrative,—more so, I am given to understand, than is +the cognate profession of literature. The whole thing is done in +great style. Music is introduced. The lecturer stands on a large +raised platform, on which sit around him the bald and hoary-headed +and superlatively wise. Ladies come in large numbers; especially +those who aspire to soar above the frivolities of the world. Politics +is the subject most popular, and most general. The men and women of +Boston could no more do without their lectures, than those of Paris +could without their theatres. It is the decorous diversion of the +best ordered of her citizens. The fast young men go to clubs, and the +fast young women to dances, as fast young men and women do in other +places that are wicked; but lecturing is the favourite diversion of +the steady-minded Bostonian. After all, I do not know that the result +is very good. It does not seem that much will be gained by such +lectures on either side of the Atlantic,—except that respectable +killing of an evening which might otherwise be killed less +respectably. It is but an industrious idleness, an attempt at a royal +road to information, that habit of attending lectures. Let any man or +woman say what he has brought away from any such attendance. It is +attractive, that idea of being studious without any of the labour of +study; but I fear it is illusive. If an evening can be so passed +without ennui, I believe that that may be regarded as the best result +to be gained. But then it so often happens that the evening is not +passed without ennui! Of course in saying this, I am not alluding to +lectures given in special places as a course of special study. +Medical lectures, no doubt, are a necessary part of medical +education. As many as two or three thousand often attend these +popular lectures in Boston, but I do not know whether on that account +the popular subjects are much better understood. Nevertheless I +resolved to hear more, hoping that I might in that way teach myself +to understand what were the popular politics in New England. Whether +or no I may have learned this in any other way I do not perhaps know; +but at any rate I did not learn it in this way.</p> + +<p>The next lecture which I attended was also given in the Tremont Hall, +and on this occasion also the subject of the war was to be treated. +The special treachery of the rebels was, I think, the matter to be +taken in hand. On this occasion also the room was full, and my hopes +of a pleasant hour ran high. For some fifteen minutes I listened, and +I am bound to say that the gentleman discoursed in excellent English. +He was master of that wonderful fluency which is peculiarly the gift +of an American. He went on from one sentence to another with rhythmic +tones and unerring pronunciation. He never faltered, never repeated +his words, never fell into those vile half-muttered hems and haws by +which an Englishman in such a position so generally betrays his +timidity. But during the whole time of my remaining in the room he +did not give expression to a single thought. He went on from one soft +platitude to another, and uttered words from which I would defy any +one of his audience to carry away with them anything. And yet it +seemed to me that his audience was satisfied. I was not satisfied, +and managed to escape out of the room.</p> + +<p>The next lecturer to whom I listened was Mr. Everett. Mr. Everett's +reputation as an orator is very great, and I was especially anxious +to hear him. I had long since known that his power of delivery was +very marvellous; that his tones, elocution, and action were all +great; and that he was able to command the minds and sympathies of +his audience in a remarkable manner. His subject also was the +war;—or rather the causes of the war, and its qualification. Had the +North given to the South cause of provocation? Had the South been +fair and honest in its dealings to the North? Had any compromise been +possible by which the war might have been avoided, and the rights and +dignity of the North preserved? Seeing that Mr. Everett is a Northern +man and was lecturing to a Boston audience, one knew well how these +questions would be answered, but the manner of the answering would be +everything. This lecture was given at Roxboro', one of the suburbs of +Boston. So I went out to Roxboro' with a party, and found myself +honoured by being placed on the platform among the bald-headed ones +and the superlatively wise. This privilege is naturally gratifying, +but it entails on him who is so gratified the inconvenience of +sitting at the lecturer's back, whereas it is perhaps better for the +listener to be before his face.</p> + +<p>I could not but be amused by one little scenic incident. When we all +went upon the platform, some one proposed that the clergymen should +lead the way out of the waiting-room in which we bald-headed ones and +superlatively wise were assembled. But to this the manager of the +affair demurred. He wanted the clergymen for a purpose, he said. And +so the profane ones led the way, and the clergymen, of whom there +might be some six or seven, clustered in around the lecturer at last. +Early in his discourse Mr. Everett told us what it was that the +country needed at this period of her trial. Patriotism, courage, the +bravery of the men, the good wishes of the women, the self-denial of +all,—"and," continued the lecturer, turning to his immediate +neighbours, "the prayers of these holy men whom I see around me." It +had not been for nothing that the clergymen were detained.</p> + +<p>Mr. Everett lectures without any book or paper before him, and +continues from first to last as though the words came from him on the +spur of the moment. It is known, however, that it is his practice to +prepare his orations with great care and commit them entirely to +memory, as does an actor. Indeed he repeats the same lecture over and +over again, I am told, without the change of a word or of an action. +I did not like Mr. Everett's lecture. I did not like what he said, or +the seeming spirit in which it was framed. But I am bound to admit +that his power of oratory is very wonderful. Those among his +countrymen who have criticised his manner in my hearing have said +that he is too florid, that there is an affectation in the motion of +his hands, and that the intended pathos of his voice sometimes +approaches too near the precipice over which the fall is so deep and +rapid, and at the bottom of which lies absolute ridicule. Judging for +myself, I did not find it so. My position for seeing was not good, +but my ear was not offended. Critics also should bear in mind that an +orator does not speak chiefly to them or for their approval. He who +writes, or speaks, or sings for thousands, must write, speak, or sing +as those thousands would have him. That to a dainty connoisseur will +be false music, which to the general ear shall be accounted as the +perfection of harmony. An eloquence altogether suited to the +fastidious and hypercritical, would probably fail to carry off the +hearts and interest the sympathies of the young and eager. As regards +manners, tone, and choice of words, I think that the oratory of Mr. +Everett places him very high. His skill in his work is perfect. He +never falls back upon a word. He never repeats himself. His voice is +always perfectly under command. As for hesitation or timidity, the +days for those failings have long passed by with him. When he makes a +point, he makes it well, and drives it home to the intelligence of +every one before him. Even that appeal to the holy men around him +sounded well,—or would have done so had I not been present at that +little arrangement in the anteroom. On the audience at large it was +manifestly effective.</p> + +<p>But nevertheless the lecture gave me but a poor idea of Mr. Everett +as a politician, though it made me regard him highly as an orator. It +was impossible not to perceive that he was anxious to utter the +sentiments of the audience rather than his own;—that he was making +himself an echo, a powerful and harmonious echo of what he conceived +to be public opinion in Boston at that moment;—that he was neither +leading nor teaching the people before him, but allowing himself to +be led by them, so that he might best play his present part for their +delectation. He was neither bold nor honest, as Emerson had been, and +I could not but feel that every tyro of a politician before him would +thus recognize his want of boldness and of honesty. As a statesman, +or as a critic of statecraft and of other statesmen, he is wanting in +backbone. For many years Mr. Everett has been not even inimical to +southern politics and southern courses, nor was he among those who, +during the last eight years previous to Mr. Lincoln's election, +fought the battle for northern principles. I do not say that on this +account he is now false to advocate the war. But he cannot carry men +with him when, at his age, he advocates it by arguments opposed to +the tenour of his long political life. His abuse of the South and of +southern ideas was as virulent as might be that of a young lad now +beginning his political career, or of one who had through life +advocated abolition principles. He heaped reproaches on poor +Virginia, whose position as the chief of the border States has given +to her hardly the possibility of avoiding a Scylla of ruin on the one +side, or a Charybdis of rebellion on the other. When he spoke as he +did of Virginia, ridiculing the idea of her sacred soil, even I, +Englishman as I am, could not but think of Washington, of Jefferson, +of Randolph, and of Madison. He should not have spoken of Virginia as +he did speak; for no man could have known better Virginia's +difficulties. But Virginia was at a discount in Boston, and Mr. +Everett was speaking to a Boston audience. And then he referred to +England and to Europe. Mr. Everett has been minister to England, and +knows the people. He is a student of history, and must, I think, know +that England's career has not been unhappy or unprosperous. But +England also was at a discount in Boston, and Mr. Everett was +speaking to a Boston audience. They are sending us their advice +across the water, said Mr. Everett. And what is their advice to us? +that we should come down from the high place we have built for +ourselves, and be even as they are. They screech at us from the low +depths in which they are wallowing in their misery, and call on us to +join them in their wretchedness. I am not quoting Mr. Everett's very +words, for I have not them by me; but I am not making them stronger, +nor so strong as he made them. As I thought of Mr. Everett's +reputation, and of his years of study,—of his long political life +and unsurpassed sources of information,—I could not but grieve +heartily when I heard such words fall from him. I could not but ask +myself whether it were impossible that under the present +circumstances of her constitution this great nation of America should +produce an honest, high-minded statesman. When Lincoln and Hamlin, +the existing President and Vice-President of the States, were in 1860 +as yet but the candidates of the republican party, Bell and Everett +also were the candidates of the old whig, conservative party. Their +express theory was this,—that the question of slavery should not be +touched. Their purpose was to crush agitation and restore harmony by +an impartial balance between the North and South: a fine +purpose,—the finest of all purposes, had it been practicable. But +such a course of compromise was now at a discount in Boston, and Mr. +Everett was speaking to a Boston audience. As an orator, Mr. +Everett's excellence is, I think, not to be questioned; but as a +politician I cannot give him a high rank.</p> + +<p>After that I heard Mr. Wendell Phillips. Of him, too, as an orator +all the world of Massachusetts speaks with great admiration, and I +have no doubt so speaks with justice. He is, however, known as the +hottest and most impassioned advocate of abolition. Not many months +since the cause of abolition, as advocated by him, was so unpopular +in Boston, that Mr. Phillips was compelled to address his audience +surrounded by a guard of policemen. Of this gentleman, I may at any +rate say that he is consistent, devoted, and disinterested. He is an +abolitionist by profession, and seeks to find in every turn of the +tide of politics some stream on which he may bring himself nearer to +his object. In the old days, previous to the selection of Mr. +Lincoln, in days so old that they are now nearly eighteen months +past, Mr. Phillips was an anti-Union man. He advocated strongly the +disseverance of the Union, so that the country to which he belonged +might have hands clean from the taint of slavery. He had probably +acknowledged to himself, that while the North and South were bound +together no hope existed of emancipation, but that if the North stood +alone the South would become too weak to foster and keep alive the +"social institution." In which, if such were his opinions, I am +inclined to agree with him. But now he is all for the Union, thinking +that a victorious North can compel the immediate emancipation of +southern slaves. As to which I beg to say that I am bold to differ +from Mr. Phillips altogether.</p> + +<p>It soon became evident to me that Mr. Phillips was unwell, and +lecturing at a disadvantage. His manner was clearly that of an +accustomed orator, but his voice was weak, and he was not up to the +effect which he attempted to make. His hearers were impatient, +repeatedly calling upon him to speak out, and on that account I tried +hard to feel kindly towards him and his lecture. But I must confess +that I failed. To me it seemed that the doctrine he preached was one +of rapine, bloodshed, and social destruction. He would call upon the +Government and upon Congress to enfranchise the slaves at once,—now +during the war,—so that the Southern power might be destroyed by a +concurrence of misfortunes. And he would do so at once, on the spur +of the moment, fearing lest the South should be before him, and +themselves emancipate their own bondsmen. I have sometimes thought +that there is no being so venomous, so bloodthirsty as a professed +philanthropist; and that when the philanthropist's ardour lies +negro-wards, it then assumes the deepest die of venom and +bloodthirstiness. There are four millions of slaves in the southern +States, none of whom have any capacity for self-maintenance or +self-control. Four millions of slaves, with the necessities of +children, with the passions of men, and the ignorance of savages! And +Mr. Phillips would emancipate these at a blow; would, were it +possible for him to do so, set them loose upon the soil to tear their +masters, destroy each other, and make such a hell upon the earth as +has never even yet come from the uncontrolled passions and +unsatisfied wants of men. But Congress cannot do this. All the +members of Congress put together cannot, according to the +constitution of the United States, emancipate a single slave in South +Carolina; not if they were all unanimous. No emancipation in a Slave +State can come otherwise than by the legislative enactment of that +State. But it was then thought that in this coming winter of 1860-61 +the action of Congress might be set aside. The North possessed an +enormous army under the control of the President. The South was in +rebellion, and the President could pronounce, and the army perhaps +enforce, the confiscation of all property held in slaves. If any who +held them were not disloyal, the question of compensation might be +settled afterwards. How those four million slaves should live, and +how white men should live among them, in some States or parts of +States not equal to the blacks in number;—as to that Mr. Phillips +did not give us his opinion.</p> + +<p>And Mr. Phillips also could not keep his tongue away from the +abominations of Englishmen and the miraculous powers of his own +countrymen. It was on this occasion that he told us more than once +how Yankees carried brains in their fingers, whereas "common +people"—alluding by that name to Europeans—had them only, if at +all, inside their brain-pans. And then he informed us that Lord +Palmerston had always hated America. Among the Radicals there might +be one or two who understood and valued the institutions of America, +but it was a well-known fact that Lord Palmerston was hostile to the +country. Nothing but hidden enmity,—enmity hidden or not +hidden,—could be expected from England. That the people of Boston, +or of Massachusetts, or of the North generally, should feel sore +against England is to me intelligible. I know how the minds of men +are moved in masses to certain feelings, and that it ever must be so. +Men in common talk are not bound to weigh their words, to think, and +speculate on their results, and be sure of the premises on which +their thoughts are founded. But it is different with a man who rises +before two or three thousand of his countrymen to teach and instruct +them. After that I heard no more political lectures in Boston.</p> + +<p>Of course I visited Bunker's Hill, and went to Lexington and Concord. +From the top of the monument on Bunker's Hill there is a fine view of +Boston Harbour, and seen from thence the harbour is picturesque. The +mouth is crowded with islands and jutting necks and promontories; and +though the shores are in no place rich enough to make the scenery +grand, the general effect is good. The monument, however, is so +constructed that one can hardly get a view through the windows at the +top of it, and there is no outside gallery round it. Immediately +below the monument is a marble figure of Major Warren, who fell +there,—not from the top of the monument, as some one was led to +believe when informed that on that spot the Major had fallen. +Bunker's Hill, which is little more than a mound, is at +Charleston,—a dull, populous, respectable, and very unattractive +suburb of Boston.</p> + +<p>Bunker's Hill has obtained a considerable name, and is accounted +great in the annals of American history. In England we have all heard +of Bunker's Hill, and some of us dislike the sound as much as +Frenchmen do that of Waterloo. In the States men talk of Bunker's +Hill as we may, perhaps, talk of Agincourt and such favourite fields. +But, after all, little was done at Bunker's Hill, and, as far as I +can learn, no victory was gained there by either party. The road from +Boston to the town of Concord, on which stands the village of +Lexington, is the true scene of the earliest and greatest deeds of +the men of Boston. The monument at Bunker's Hill stands high and +commands attention, while those at Lexington and Concord are very +lowly and command no attention. But it is of that road and what was +done on it that Massachusetts should be proud. When the colonists +first began to feel that they were oppressed, and a half resolve was +made to resist that oppression by force, they began to collect a few +arms and some gunpowder at Concord, a small town about eighteen miles +from Boston. Of this preparation the English Governor received +tidings, and determined to send a party of soldiers to seize the +arms. This he endeavoured to do secretly; but he was too closely +watched, and word was sent down over the waters by which Boston was +then surrounded that the colonists might be prepared for the +soldiers. At that time Boston Neck, as it was and is still called, +was the only connection between the town and the main land, and the +road over Boston Neck did not lead to Concord. Boats therefore were +necessarily used, and there was some difficulty in getting the +soldiers to the nearest point. They made their way, however, to the +road, and continued their route as far as Lexington without +interruption. Here, however, they were attacked, and the first blood +of that war was shed. They shot three or four of the—rebels, I +suppose I should in strict language call them, and then proceeded on +to Concord. But at Concord they were stopped and repulsed, and along +the road back from Concord to Lexington they were driven with +slaughter and dismay. And thus the rebellion was commenced which led +to the establishment of a people which, let us Englishmen say and +think what we may of them at this present moment, has made itself one +of the five great nations of the earth, and has enabled us to boast +that the two out of the five who enjoy the greatest liberty and the +widest prosperity, speak the English language and are known by +English names. For all that has come and is like to come, I say +again, long may that honour remain. I could not but feel that that +road from Boston to Concord deserves a name in the world's history +greater, perhaps, than has yet been given to it.</p> + +<p>Concord is at present to be noted as the residence of Mr. Emerson and +of Mr. Hawthorne, two of those many men of letters of whose presence +Boston and its neighbourhood have reason to be proud. Of Mr. Emerson +I have already spoken. The author of the "Scarlet Letter" I regard as +certainly the first of American novelists. I know what men will say +of Mr. Cooper,—and I also am an admirer of Cooper's novels. But I +cannot think that Mr. Cooper's powers were equal to those of Mr. +Hawthorne, though his mode of thought may have been more genial, and +his choice of subjects more attractive in their day. In point of +imagination, which, after all, is the novelist's greatest gift, I +hardly know any living author who can be accounted superior to Mr. +Hawthorne.</p> + +<p>Very much has, undoubtedly, been done in Boston to carry out that +theory of Colonel Newcome's—<i>Emollit mores</i>, by which the Colonel +meant to signify his opinion that a competent knowledge of reading, +writing, and arithmetic, with a taste for enjoying those +accomplishments, goes very far towards the making of a man, and will +by no means mar a gentleman. In Boston nearly every man, woman, and +child has had his or her manners so far softened; and though they may +still occasionally be somewhat rough to the outer touch, the inward +effect is plainly visible. With us, especially among our agricultural +population, the absence of that inner softening is as visible.</p> + +<p>I went to see a public library in the city, which, if not founded by +Mr. Bates whose name is so well known in London as connected with the +house of Messrs. Baring, has been greatly enriched by him. It is by +his money that it has been enabled to do its work. In this library +there is a certain number of thousands of volumes—a great many +volumes, as there are in most public libraries. There are books of +all classes, from ponderous unreadable folios, of which learned men +know the title-pages, down to the lightest literature. Novels are by +no means eschewed,—are rather, if I understood aright, considered as +one of the staples of the library. From this library any book, +excepting such rare volumes as in all libraries are considered holy, +is given out to any inhabitant of Boston, without any payment, on +presentation of a simple request on a prepared form. In point of +fact, it is a gratuitous circulating library open to all Boston, rich +or poor, young or old. The books seemed in general to be confided to +young children, who came as messengers from their fathers and +mothers, or brothers and sisters. No question whatever is asked, if +the applicant is known or the place of his residence undoubted. If +there be no such knowledge, or there be any doubt as to the +residence, the applicant is questioned, the object being to confine +the use of the library to the <i>bonâ fide</i> inhabitants of the city. +Practically the books are given to those who ask for them, whoever +they may be. Boston contains over 200,000 inhabitants, and all those +200,000 are entitled to them. Some twenty men and women are kept +employed from morning to night in carrying on this circulating +library; and there is, moreover, attached to the establishment a +large reading-room supplied with papers and magazines, open to the +public of Boston on the same terms.</p> + +<p>Of course I asked whether a great many of the books were not lost, +stolen, and destroyed; and of course I was told that there were no +losses, no thefts, and no destruction. As to thefts, the librarian +did not seem to think that any instance of such an occurrence could +be found. Among the poorer classes a book might sometimes be lost +when they were changing their lodgings, but anything so lost was more +than replaced by the fines. A book is taken out for a week, and if +not brought back at the end of that week, when the loan can be +renewed if the reader wishes, a fine, I think of two cents, is +incurred. The children, when too late with the books, bring in the +two cents as a matter of course, and the sum so collected fully +replaces all losses. It was all <i>couleur de rose</i>; the librarianesses +looked very pretty and learned, and, if I remember aright, mostly +wore spectacles; the head librarian was enthusiastic; the nice +instructive books were properly dogs-eared; my own productions were +in enormous demand; the call for books over the counter was brisk, +and the reading-room was full of readers.</p> + +<p>It has, I dare say, occurred to other travellers to remark that the +proceedings at such institutions, when visited by them on their +travels, are always rose coloured. It is natural that the bright side +should be shown to the visitor. It may be that many books are called +for and returned unread, that many of those taken out are so taken by +persons who ought to pay for their novels at circulating libraries, +that the librarian and librarianesses get very tired of their long +hours of attendance,—for I found that they were very long;—and that +many idlers warm themselves in that reading-room: nevertheless the +fact remains,—the library is public to all the men and women in +Boston, and books are given out without payment to all who may choose +to ask for them. Why should not the great Mr. Mudie emulate Mr. +Bates, and open a library in London on the same system?</p> + +<p>The librarian took me into one special room, of which he himself kept +the key, to show me a present which the library had received from the +English Government. The room was filled with volumes of two sizes, +all bound alike, containing descriptions and drawings of all the +patents taken out in England. According to this librarian such a work +would be invaluable as to American patents; but he conceived that the +subject had become too confused to render any such an undertaking +possible. "I never allow a single volume to be used for a moment +without the presence of myself or one of my assistants," said the +librarian; and then he explained to me, when I asked him why he was +so particular, that the drawings would, as a matter of course, be cut +out and stolen if he omitted his care. "But they may be copied," I +said. "Yes; but if Jones merely copies one, Smith may come after him +and copy it also. Jones will probably desire to hinder Smith from +having any evidence of such a patent." As to the ordinary borrowing +and returning of books, the poorest labourer's child in Boston might +be trusted as honest; but when a question of trade came up, of +commercial competition, then the librarian was bound to bethink +himself that his countrymen are very smart. "I hope," said the +librarian, "you will let them know in England how grateful we are for +their present." And I hereby execute that librarian's commission.</p> + +<p>I shall always look back to social life in Boston with great +pleasure. I met there many men and women whom to know is a +distinction, and with whom to be intimate is a great delight. It was +a Puritan city, in which strict old Roundhead sentiments and laws +used to prevail; but now-a-days ginger is hot in the mouth there, and +in spite of the war there were cakes and ale. There was a law passed +in Massachusetts in the old days that any girl should be fined and +imprisoned who allowed a young man to kiss her. That law has now, I +think, fallen into abeyance, and such matters are regulated in Boston +much as they are in other large towns further eastward. It still, I +conceive, calls itself a Puritan city, but it has divested its +Puritanism of austerity, and clings rather to the politics and public +bearing of its old fathers than to their social manners and pristine +severity of intercourse. The young girls are, no doubt, much more +comfortable under the new dispensation,—and the elderly men also, as +I fancy. Sunday, as regards the outer streets, is sabbatical. But +Sunday evenings within doors I always found to be what my friends in +that country call "quite a good time." It is not the thing in Boston +to smoke in the streets during the day; but the wisest, the sagest, +and the most holy,—even those holy men whom the lecturer saw around +him,—seldom refuse a cigar in the dining-room as soon as the ladies +have gone. Perhaps even the wicked weed would make its appearance +before that sad eclipse, thereby postponing, or perhaps absolutely +annihilating, the melancholy period of widowhood to both parties, and +would light itself under the very eyes of those who in sterner cities +will lend no countenance to such lightings. Ah me, it was very +pleasant! I confess I like this abandonment of the stricter rules of +the more decorous world. I fear that there is within me an aptitude +to the milder debaucheries which makes such deviations pleasant. I +like to drink and I like to smoke, but I do not like to turn women +out of the room. Then comes the question whether one can have all +that one likes together. In some small circles in New England I found +people simple enough to fancy that they could. In Massachusetts the +Maine Liquor Law is still the law of the land, but, like that other +law to which I have alluded, it has fallen very much out of use. At +any rate it had not reached the houses of the gentlemen with whom I +had the pleasure of making acquaintance. But here I must guard myself +from being misunderstood. I saw but one drunken man through all New +England, and he was very respectable. He was, however, so uncommonly +drunk that he might be allowed to count for two or three. The +Puritans of Boston are, of course, simple in their habits and simple +in their expenses. Champagne and canvas-back ducks I found to be the +provisions most in vogue among those who desired to adhere closely to +the manners of their forefathers. Upon the whole I found the ways of +life which had been brought over in the "Mayflower" from the stern +sects of England, and preserved through the revolutionary war for +liberty, to be very pleasant ways, and I made up my mind that a +Yankee Puritan can be an uncommonly pleasant fellow. I wish that some +of them did not dine so early; for when a man sits down at half-past +two, that keeping up of the after-dinner recreations till bedtime +becomes hard work.</p> + +<p>In Boston the houses are very spacious and excellent, and they are +always furnished with those luxuries which it is so difficult to +introduce into an old house. They have hot and cold water pipes into +every room, and baths attached to the bed-chambers. It is not only +that comfort is increased by such arrangements, but that much labour +is saved. In an old English house it will occupy a servant the best +part of the day to carry water up and down for a large family. +Everything also is spacious, commodious, and well lighted. I +certainly think that in house building the Americans have gone beyond +us, for even our new houses are not commodious as are theirs. One +practice which they have in their cities would hardly suit our +limited London spaces. When the body of the house is built, they +throw out the dining-room behind. It stands alone, as it were, with +no other chamber above it, and removed from the rest of the house. It +is consequently behind the double drawing-rooms which form the +ground-floor, and is approached from them, and also from the back of +the hall. The second entrance to the dining-room is thus near the top +of the kitchen stairs, which no doubt is its proper position. The +whole of the upper part of the house is thus kept for the private +uses of the family. To me this plan of building recommended itself as +being very commodious.</p> + +<p>I found the spirit for the war quite as hot at Boston now (in +November), if not hotter than it was when I was there ten weeks +earlier; and I found also, to my grief, that the feeling against +England was as strong. I can easily understand how difficult it must +have been, and still must be, to Englishmen at home to understand +this, and see how it has come to pass. It has not arisen, as I think, +from the old jealousy of England. It has not sprung from that source +which for years has induced certain newspapers, especially the "New +York Herald" to vilify England. I do not think that the men of New +England have ever been, as regards this matter, in the same boat with +the "New York Herald." But when this war between the North and South +first broke out, even before there was as yet a war, the Northern men +had taught themselves to expect what they called British sympathy, +meaning British encouragement. They regarded, and properly regarded, +the action of the South as a rebellion, and said among themselves +that so staid and conservative a nation as Great Britain would surely +countenance them in quelling rebels. If not,—should it come to pass +that Great Britain should show no such countenance and sympathy for +Northern law, if Great Britain did not respond to her friend as she +was expected to respond, then it would appear that Cotton was king, +at least in British eyes. The war did come, and Great Britain +regarded the two parties as belligerents, standing, as far as she was +concerned, on equal grounds. This it was that first gave rise to that +fretful anger against England which has gone so far towards ruining +the northern cause. We know how such passions are swelled by being +ventilated, and how they are communicated from mind to mind till they +become national. Politicians—American politicians I here mean—have +their own future careers ever before their eyes, and are driven to +make capital where they can. Hence it is that such men as Mr. Seward +in the cabinet, and Mr. Everett out of it, can reconcile it to +themselves to speak as they have done of England. It was but the +other day that Mr. Everett spoke in one of his orations of the hope +that still existed that the flag of the United States might still +float over the whole continent of North America. What would he say of +an English statesman who should speak of putting up the Union Jack on +the State House in Boston? Such words tell for the moment on the +hearers, and help to gain some slight popularity; but they tell for +more than a moment on those who read them and remember them.</p> + +<p>And then came the capture of Messrs. Slidell and Mason. I was at +Boston when those men were taken out of the "Trent" by the "San +Jacinto," and brought to Fort Warren in Boston Harbour. Captain +Wilkes was the officer who had made the capture, and he immediately +was recognized as a hero. He was invited to banquets and fêted. +Speeches were made to him as speeches are commonly made to high +officers who come home, after many perils, victorious from the wars. +His health was drunk with great applause, and thanks were voted to +him by one of the Houses of Congress. It was said that a sword was to +be given to him, but I do not think that the gift was consummated. +Should it not have been a policeman's truncheon? Had he at the best +done anything beyond a policeman's work? Of Captain Wilkes no one +would complain for doing policeman's duty. If his country were +satisfied with the manner in which he did it, England, if she +quarrelled at all, would not quarrel with him. It may now and again +become the duty of a brave officer to do work of so low a calibre. It +is a pity that an ambitious sailor should find himself told off for +so mean a task, but the world would know that it is not his fault. No +one could blame Captain Wilkes for acting policeman on the seas. But +who ever before heard of giving a man glory for achievements so +little glorious? How Captain Wilkes must have blushed when those +speeches were made to him, when that talk about the sword came up, +when the thanks arrived to him from Congress! An officer receives his +country's thanks when he has been in great peril, and has borne +himself gallantly through his danger; when he has endured the brunt +of war, and come through it with victory; when he has exposed himself +on behalf of his country and singed his epaulets with an enemy's +fire. Captain Wilkes tapped a merchantman on the shoulder in the high +seas, and told him that his passengers were wanted. In doing this he +showed no lack of spirit, for it might be his duty; but where was his +spirit when he submitted to be thanked for such work?</p> + +<p>And then there arose a clamour of justification among the lawyers; +judges and ex-judges flew to Wheaton, Phillimore, and Lord Stowell. +Before twenty-four hours were over, every man and every woman in +Boston were armed with precedents. Then there was the burning of the +"Caroline." England had improperly burned the "Caroline" on Lake +Erie, or rather in one of the American ports on Lake Erie, and had +then begged pardon. If the States had been wrong, they would beg +pardon; but whether wrong or right, they would not give up Slidell +and Mason. But the lawyers soon waxed stronger. The men were +manifestly ambassadors, and as such contraband of war. Wilkes was +quite right, only he should have seized the vessel also. He was quite +right, for though Slidell and Mason might not be ambassadors, they +were undoubtedly carrying despatches. In a few hours there began to +be a doubt whether the men could be ambassadors, because if called +ambassadors, then the power that sent the embassy must be presumed to +be recognized. That Captain Wilkes had taken no despatches was true; +but the Captain suggested a way out of this difficulty by declaring +that he had regarded the two men themselves as an incarnated +embodiment of despatches. At any rate, they were clearly contraband +of war. They were going to do an injury to the North. It was pretty +to hear the charming women of Boston, as they became learned in the +law of nations: "Wheaton is quite clear about it," one young girl +said to me. It was the first I had ever heard of Wheaton, and so far +was obliged to knock under. All the world, ladies and lawyers, +expressed the utmost confidence in the justice of the seizure, but it +was clear that all the world was in a state of the profoundest +nervous anxiety on the subject. To me it seemed to be the most +suicidal act that any party in a life-and-death struggle ever +committed. All Americans on both sides had felt, from the beginning +of the war, that any assistance given by England to one or the other +would turn the scale. The Government of Mr. Lincoln must have learned +by this time that England was at least true in her neutrality; that +no desire for cotton would compel her to give aid to the South as +long as she herself was not ill-treated by the North. But it seemed +as though Mr. Seward, the President's prime minister, had no better +work on hand than that of showing in every way his indifference as to +courtesy with England. Insults offered to England would, he seemed to +think, strengthen his hands. He would let England know that he did +not care for her. When our minister, Lord Lyons, appealed to him +regarding the suspension of the habeas corpus, Mr. Seward not only +answered him with insolence, but instantly published his answer in +the papers. He instituted a system of passports, especially +constructed so as to incommode Englishmen proceeding from the States +across the Atlantic. He resolved to make every Englishman in America +feel himself in some way punished because England had not assisted +the North. And now came the arrest of Slidell and Mason out of an +English mail-steamer; and Mr. Seward took care to let it be +understood that, happen what might, those two men should not be given +up.</p> + +<p>Nothing during all this time astonished me so much as the estimation +in which Mr. Seward was then held by his own party. It is, perhaps, +the worst defect in the Constitution of the States, that no +incapacity on the part of a minister, no amount of condemnation +expressed against him by the people or by Congress, can put him out +of office during the term of the existing Presidency. The President +can dismiss him; but it generally happens that the President is +brought in on a "platform," which has already nominated for him his +Cabinet as thoroughly as they have nominated him. Mr. Seward ran Mr. +Lincoln very hard for the position of candidate for the Presidency on +the Republican interest. On the second voting of the Republican +delegates at the Convention at Chicago, Mr. Seward polled 184 to Mr. +Lincoln's 181. But as a clear half of the total number of votes was +necessary—that is 233 out of 465—there was necessarily a third +polling, and Mr. Lincoln won the day. On that occasion Mr. Chase and +Mr. Cameron, both of whom became members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, +were also candidates for the White House on the Republican side. I +mention this here to show, that though the President can in fact +dismiss his Ministers, he is in a great manner bound to them, and +that a Minister in Mr. Seward's position is hardly to be dismissed. +But from the 1st of November, 1861, till the day on which I left the +States, I do not think that I heard a good word spoken of Mr. Seward +as a Minister even by one of his own party. The Radical or +Abolitionist Republicans all abused him. The Conservative or +Anti-abolition Republicans, to whose party he would consider himself +as belonging, spoke of him as a mistake. He had been prominent as +Senator from New York, and had been Governor of the State of New +York, but had none of the aptitudes of a statesman. He was there, and +it was a pity. He was not so bad as Mr. Cameron, the Minister for +War; that was the best his own party could say for him, even in his +own State of New York. As to the Democrats, their language respecting +him was as harsh as any that I have heard used towards the Southern +leaders. He seemed to have no friend, no one who trusted him;—and +yet he was the President's chief minister, and seemed to have in his +own hands the power of mismanaging all foreign relations as he +pleased. But, in truth, the States of America, great as they are, and +much as they have done, have not produced Statesmen. That theory of +governing by the little men rather than by the great, has not been +found to answer, and such follies as those of Mr. Seward have been +the consequence.</p> + +<p>At Boston, and indeed elsewhere, I found that there was even +then,—at the time of the capture of Mason and Slidell,—no true +conception of the neutrality of England with reference to the two +parties. When any argument was made, showing that England who had +carried those messengers from the South, would undoubtedly have also +carried messengers from the North, the answer always was—"But the +Southerners are all rebels. Will England regard us who are by treaty +her friend, as she does a people that is in rebellion against its own +government?" That was the old story over again, and as it was a very +long story, it was hardly of use to go back through all its details. +But the fact was that unless there had been such absolute +neutrality—such equality between the parties in the eyes of +England—even Captain Wilkes would not have thought of stopping the +"Trent," or the Government at Washington of justifying such a +proceeding. And it must be remembered that the Government at +Washington had justified that proceeding. The Secretary of the Navy +had distinctly done so in his official report; and that report had +been submitted to the President and published by his order. It was +because England was neutral between the North and South that Captain +Wilkes claimed to have the right of seizing those two men. It had +been the President's intention, some month or so before this affair, +to send Mr. Everett and other gentlemen over to England with objects +as regards the North, similar to those which had caused the sending +of Slidell and Mason with reference to the South. What would Mr. +Everett have thought had he been refused a passage from Dover to +Calais, because the carrying of him would have been towards the South +a breach of neutrality? It would never have occurred to him that he +could become subject to such stoppage. How should we have been abused +for Southern sympathies had we so acted! We, forsooth, who carry +passengers about the world, from China and Australia, round to Chili +and Peru, who have the charge of the world's passengers and letters, +and as a nation incur out of our pocket annually a loss of some +half-million of pounds sterling for the privilege of doing so, are to +inquire the business of every American traveller before we let him on +board, and be stopped in our work if we take anybody on one side +whose journeyings may be conceived by the other side to be to them +prejudicial! Not on such terms will Englishmen be willing to spread +civilization across the ocean! I do not pretend to understand Wheaton +and Phillimore, or even to have read a single word of any +international law. I have refused to read any such, knowing that it +would only confuse and mislead me. But I have my common sense to +guide me. Two men living in one street, quarrel and shy brickbats at +each other, and make the whole street very uncomfortable. Not only is +no one to interfere with them, but they are to have the privilege of +deciding that their brickbats have the right of way, rather than the +ordinary intercourse of the neighbourhood! If that be national law, +national law must be changed. It might do for some centuries back, +but it cannot do now. Up to this period my sympathies had been with +the North. I thought, and still think, that the North had no +alternative, that the war had been forced upon them, and that they +had gone about their work with patriotic energy. But this stopping of +an English mail-steamer was too much for me.</p> + +<p>What will they do in England? was now the question. But for any +knowledge as to that, I had to wait till I reached Washington.</p> + + +<p><a id="c17"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER XVII.</h3> +<h4>CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>The two places of most general interest in the vicinity of Boston are +Cambridge and Lowell. Cambridge is to Massachusetts, and, I may +almost say, is to all the northern States, what Cambridge and Oxford +are to England. It is the seat of the University which gives the +highest education to be attained by the highest classes in that +country. Lowell also is in little to Massachusetts and to New England +what Manchester is to us in so great a degree. It is the largest and +most prosperous cotton-manufacturing town in the States.</p> + +<p>Cambridge is not above three or four miles from Boston. Indeed, the +town of Cambridge properly so called begins where Boston ceases. The +Harvard College—that is its name, taken from one of its original +founders—is reached by horse-cars in twenty minutes from the city. +An Englishman feels inclined to regard the place as a suburb of +Boston; but if he so expresses himself, he will not find favour in +the eyes of the men of Cambridge.</p> + +<p>The University is not so large as I had expected to find it. It +consists of Harvard College, as the undergraduates' department, and +of professional schools of law, medicine, divinity, and science. In +the few words that I will say about it I will confine myself to +Harvard College proper, conceiving that the professional schools +connected with it have not in themselves any special interest. The +average number of undergraduates does not exceed 450, and these are +divided into four classes. The average number of degrees taken +annually by bachelors of art is something under 100. Four years' +residence is required for a degree, and at the end of that period a +degree is given as a matter of course if the candidate's conduct has +been satisfactory. When a young man has pursued his studies for that +period, going through the required examinations and lectures, he is +not subjected to any final examination as is the case with a +candidate for a degree at Oxford and Cambridge. It is, perhaps, in +this respect that the greatest difference exists between the English +Universities and Harvard College. With us a young man may, I take it, +still go through his three or four years with a small amount of +study. But his doing so does not insure him his degree. If he have +utterly wasted his time he is plucked, and late but heavy punishment +comes upon him. At Cambridge in Massachusetts the daily work of the +men is made more obligatory; but if this be gone through with such +diligence as to enable the student to hold his own during the four +years, he has his degree as a matter of course. There are no degrees +conferring special honour. A man cannot go out "in honours" as he +does with us. There are no "firsts" or "double firsts;" no +"wranglers;" no "senior opts" or "junior opts." Nor are there prizes +of fellowships and livings to be obtained. It is, I think, evident +from this that the greatest incentives to high excellence are wanting +at Harvard College. There is neither the reward of honour nor of +money. There is none of that great competition which exists at our +Cambridge for the high place of Senior Wrangler; and, consequently, +the degree of excellence attained is no doubt lower than with us. But +I conceive that the general level of the University education is +higher there than with us; that a young man is more sure of getting +his education, and that a smaller percentage of men leaves Harvard +College utterly uneducated than goes in that condition out of Oxford +or Cambridge. The education at Harvard College is more diversified in +its nature, and study is more absolutely the business of the place +than it is at our Universities.</p> + +<p>The expense of education at Harvard College is not much lower than at +our colleges; with us there are, no doubt, more men who are +absolutely extravagant than at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The actual +authorized expenditure in accordance with the rules is only £50 per +annum, <i>i.e.</i> 249 dollars; but this does not, by any means, include +everything. Some of the richer young men may spend as much as £300 +per annum, but the largest number vary their expenditure from £100 to +£180 per annum; and I take it the same thing may be said of our +Universities. There are many young men at Harvard College of very +small means. They will live on £70 per annum, and will earn a great +portion of that by teaching in the vacations. There are thirty-six +scholarships attached to the University varying in value from £20 to +£60 per annum; and there is also a beneficiary fund for supplying +poor scholars with assistance during their collegiate education. Many +are thus brought up at Cambridge who have no means of their own, and +I think I may say that the consideration in which they are held among +their brother students is in no degree affected by their position. I +doubt whether we can say so much of the sizars and bible clerks at +our Universities.</p> + +<p>At Harvard College there is, of course, none of that old-fashioned, +time-honoured, delicious, mediæval life which lends so much grace and +beauty to our colleges. There are no gates, no porter's lodges, no +butteries, no halls, no battels, and no common rooms. There are no +proctors, no bulldogs, no bursers, no deans, no morning and evening +chapel, no quads, no surplices, no caps and gowns. I have already +said that there are no examinations for degrees and no honours; and I +can easily conceive that in the absence of all these essentials many +an Englishman will ask what right Harvard College has to call itself +a University.</p> + +<p>I have said that there are no honours,—and in our sense there are +none. But I should give offence to my American friends if I did not +explain that there are prizes given—I think all in money, and that +they vary from 50 to 10 dollars. These are called <i>deturs</i>. The +degrees are given on Commencement Day, at which occasion certain of +the expectant graduates are selected to take parts in a public +literary exhibition. To be so selected seems to be tantamount to +taking a degree in honours. There is also a dinner on Commencement +Day,—at which, however, "no wine or other intoxicating drink shall +be served."</p> + +<p>It is required that every student shall attend some place of +Christian worship on Sundays; but he, or his parents for him, may +elect what denomination of church he shall attend. There is a +University chapel on the University grounds which belongs, if I +remember right, to the Episcopalian Church. The young men for the +most part live in College, having rooms in the College buildings; but +they do not board in those rooms. There are establishments in the +town under the patronage of the University, at which dinner, +breakfast, and supper are provided; and the young men frequent one of +these houses or another as they, or their friends for them, may +arrange. Every young man not belonging to a family resident within a +hundred miles of Cambridge, and whose parents are desirous to obtain +the protection thus provided, is placed, as regards his pecuniary +management, under the care of a patron, and this patron acts by him +as a father does in England by a boy at school. He pays out his money +for him and keeps him out of debt. The arrangement will not recommend +itself to young men at Oxford quite so powerfully as it may do to the +fathers of some young men who have been there. The rules with regard +to the lodging and boarding-houses are very stringent. Any festive +entertainment is to be reported to the President. No wine or +spirituous liquors may be used, &c. It is not a picturesque system, +this; but it has its advantages.</p> + +<p>There is a handsome library attached to the College, which the young +men can use; but it is not as extensive as I had expected. The +University is not well off for funds by which to increase it. The new +museum in the College is also a handsome building. The edifices used +for the undergraduates' chambers and for the lecture-rooms are by no +means handsome. They are very ugly red-brick houses standing here and +there without order. There are seven such, and they are called +Brattle House, College House, Divinity Hall, Hollis Hall, Holsworthy +Hall, Massachusetts Hall, and Stoughton Hall. It is almost +astonishing that buildings so ugly should have been erected for such +a purpose. These, together with the library, the museum, and the +chapel, stand on a large green, which might be made pretty enough if +it were kept well mown like the gardens of our Cambridge colleges; +but it is much neglected. Here, again, the want of funds—the res +angusta domi—must be pleaded as an excuse. On the same green, but at +some little distance from any other building, stands the President's +pleasant house.</p> + +<p>The immediate direction of the College is of course mainly in the +hands of the President, who is supreme. But for the general +management of the Institution there is a Corporation, of which he is +one. It is stated in the laws of the University that the Corporation +of the University and its Overseers constitute the Government of the +University. The Corporation consists of the President, five Fellows, +so called, and a Treasurer. These Fellows are chosen, as vacancies +occur, by themselves, subject to the concurrence of the Overseers. +But these Fellows are in nowise like to the Fellows of our colleges, +having no salaries attached to their offices. The Board of Overseers +consists of the State Governor, other State officers, the President +and Treasurer of Harvard College, and thirty other persons,—men of +note, chosen by vote. The Faculty of the College, in which is vested +the immediate care and government of the undergraduates, is composed +of the President and the Professors. The Professors answer to the +tutors of our colleges, and upon them the education of the place +depends. I cannot complete this short notice of Harvard College +without saying that it is happy in the possession of that +distinguished natural philosopher, Professor Agassiz. M. Agassiz has +collected at Cambridge a museum of such things as natural +philosophers delight to show, which I am told is all but invaluable. +As my ignorance on all such matters is of a depth which the Professor +can hardly imagine, and which it would have shocked him to behold, I +did not visit the museum. Taking the University of Harvard College as +a whole, I should say that it is most remarkable in this,—that it +does really give to its pupils that education which it professes to +give. Of our own Universities other good things may be said, but that +one special good thing cannot always be said.</p> + +<p>Cambridge boasts itself as the residence of four or five men well +known to fame on the American and also on the European side of the +ocean. President Felton's<a href="#fn01">*</a><a id="fnb01"></a> +name is very familiar to us, and wherever +Greek scholarship is held in repute, that is known. So also is the +name of Professor Agassiz, of whom I have spoken. Russell Lowell is +one of the Professors of the College,—that Russell Lowell who sang +of Birdo'fredum Sawin, and whose Biglow Papers were edited with such +an ardour of love by our Tom Brown. Birdo'fredum is worthy of all the +ardour. Mr. Dana is also a Cambridge man,—he who was "two years +before the mast," and who since that has written to us of Cuba. But +Mr. Dana, though residing at Cambridge, is not of Cambridge, and, +though a literary man, he does not belong to literature. He +is,—could he help it?—a special attorney. I must not, however, +degrade him, for in the States barristers and attorneys are all one. +I cannot but think that he could help it, and that he should not give +up to law what was meant for mankind. I fear, however, that +successful law has caught him in her intolerant clutches, and that +literature, who surely would be the nobler mistress, must wear the +willow. Last and greatest is the poet-laureat of the West; for Mr. +Longfellow also lives at Cambridge.</p> + + +<blockquote> +<p class="noindent"><a id="fn01"></a>*Since these +words were written President Felton has died. I, as I +returned on my way homewards, had the melancholy privilege of being +present at his funeral. I feel bound to record here the great +kindness with which Mr. Felton assisted me in obtaining such +information as I needed respecting the Institution over which he +presided.<a href="#fnb01"><span class="caption">[back]</span></a></p> +</blockquote> + + +<p>I am not at all aware whether the nature of the manufacturing +corporation of Lowell is generally understood by Englishmen. I +confess that until I made personal acquaintance with the plan, I was +absolutely ignorant on the subject. I knew that Lowell was a +manufacturing town at which cotton is made into calico, and at which +calico is printed,—as is the case at Manchester; but I conceived +this was done at Lowell, as it is done at Manchester, by individual +enterprise,—that I or any one else could open a mill at Lowell, and +that the manufacturers there were ordinary traders, as they are at +other manufacturing towns. But this is by no means the case.</p> + +<p>That which most surprises an English visitor on going through the +mills at Lowell is the personal appearance of the men and women who +work at them. As there are twice as many women as there are men, it +is to them that the attention is chiefly called. They are not only +better dressed, cleaner, and better mounted in every respect than the +girls employed at manufactories in England, but they are so +infinitely superior as to make a stranger immediately perceive that +some very strong cause must have created the difference. We all know +the class of young women whom we generally see serving behind +counters in the shops of our larger cities. They are neat, well +dressed, careful, especially about their hair, composed in their +manner, and sometimes a little supercilious in the propriety of their +demeanour. It is exactly the same class of young women that one sees +in the factories at Lowell. They are not sallow, nor dirty, nor +ragged, nor rough. They have about them no signs of want, or of low +culture. Many of us also know the appearance of those girls who work +in the factories in England; and I think it will be allowed that a +second glance at them is not wanting to show that they are in every +respect inferior to the young women who attend our shops. The matter, +indeed, requires no argument. Any young woman at a shop would be +insulted by being asked whether she had worked at a factory. The +difference with regard to the men at Lowell is quite as strong, +though not so striking. Working men do not show their status in the +world by their outward appearance as readily as women; and, as I have +said before, the number of the women greatly exceeded that of the +men.</p> + +<p>One would of course be disposed to say that the superior condition of +the workers must have been occasioned by superior wages; and this, to +a certain extent, has been the cause. But the higher payment is not +the chief cause. Women's wages, including all that they receive at +the Lowell factories, average about 14<i>s.</i> a week, which is, I take +it, fully a third more than women can earn in Manchester, or did earn +before the loss of the American cotton began to tell upon them. But +if wages at Manchester were raised to the Lowell standard, the +Manchester women would not be clothed, fed, cared for, and educated +like the Lowell women. The fact is, that the workmen and the +workwomen at Lowell are not exposed to the chances of an open labour +market. They are taken in, as it were, to a philanthropical +manufacturing college, and then looked after and regulated more as +girls and lads at a great seminary, than as hands by whose industry +profit is to be made out of capital. This is all very nice and pretty +at Lowell, but I am afraid it could not be done at Manchester.</p> + +<p>There are at present twelve different manufactories at Lowell, each +of which has what is called a separate corporation. The Merrimack +manufacturing company was incorporated in 1822, and thus Lowell was +commenced. The Lowell machine-shop was incorporated in 1845, and +since that no new establishment has been added. In 1821 a certain +Boston manufacturing company, which had mills at Waltham, near +Boston, was attracted by the water-power of the river Merrimack, on +which the present town of Lowell is situated. A canal, called the +Pawtucket Canal, had been made for purposes of navigation from one +reach of the river to another, with the object of avoiding the +Pawtucket Falls; and this canal, with the adjacent water-power of the +river, was purchased for the Boston Company. The place was then +called Lowell, after one of the partners in that company.</p> + +<p>It must be understood that water-power alone is used for preparing +the cotton and working the spindles and looms of the cotton mills. +Steam is applied in the two establishments in which the cottons are +printed, for the purposes of printing, but I think nowhere else. When +the mills are at full work, about two-and-a-half million yards of +cotton goods are made every week, and nearly a million pounds of +cotton are consumed per week (<i>i.e.</i> 842,000 lbs.), but the +consumption of coal is only 30,000 tons in the year. This will give +some idea of the value of the water-power. The Pawtucket Canal was, +as I say, bought, and Lowell was commenced. The town was incorporated +in 1826, and the railway between it and Boston was opened in 1835, +under the superintendence of Mr. Jackson, the gentleman by whom the +purchase of the canal had in the first instance been made. Lowell now +contains about 40,000 inhabitants.</p> + +<p>The following extract is taken from the hand-book to Lowell:—"Mr. F. +C. Lowell had in his travels abroad observed the effect of large +manufacturing establishments on the character of the people, and in +the establishment at Waltham the founders looked for a remedy for +these defects. They thought that education and good morals would even +enhance the profit, and that they could compete with Great Britain by +introducing a more cultivated class of operatives. For this purpose +they built boarding-houses, which, under the direct supervision of +the agent, were kept by discreet matrons"—I can answer for the +discreet matrons at Lowell—"mostly widows, no boarders being allowed +except operatives. Agents and overseers of high moral character were +selected; regulations were adopted at the mills and boarding-houses, +by which only respectable girls were employed. The mills were nicely +painted and swept,"—I can also answer for the painting and sweeping +at Lowell,—"trees set out in the yards and along the streets, habits +of neatness and cleanliness encouraged; and the result justified the +expenditure. At Lowell the same policy has been adopted and extended; +more spacious mills and elegant boarding-houses have been +erected;"—as to the elegance, it may be a matter of taste, but as to +the comfort there is no question,—"the same care as to the classes +employed; more capital has been expended for cleanliness and +decoration; a hospital has been established for the sick, where, for +a small price, they have an experienced physician and skilful nurses. +An institute, with an extensive library, for the use of the +mechanics, has been endowed. The agents have stood forward in the +support of schools, churches, lectures, and lyceums, and their +influence contributed highly to the elevation of the moral and +intellectual character of the operatives. Talent has been encouraged, +brought forward, and recommended."—For some considerable time the +young women wrote, edited, and published a newspaper among +themselves, called the Lowell Offering.—"And Lowell has supplied +agents and mechanics for the later manufacturing places who have +given tone to society, and extended the beneficial influence of +Lowell through the United States. Girls from the country, with a true +Yankee spirit of independence, and confident in their own powers, +pass a few years here, and then return to get married with a dower +secured by their exertions, with more enlarged ideas and extended +means of information, and their places are supplied by younger +relatives. A larger proportion of the female population of New +England has been employed at some time in manufacturing +establishments, and they are not on this account less good wives, +mothers, or educators of families." Then the account goes on to tell +how the health of the girls has been improved by their attendance at +the mills, how they put money into the savings-banks, and buy railway +shares and farms; how there are thirty churches in Lowell, a library, +banks, and insurance offices; how there is a cemetery, and a park, +and how everything is beautiful, philanthropic, profitable, and +magnificent.</p> + +<p>Thus Lowell is the realization of a commercial Utopia. Of all the +statements made in the little book which I have quoted I cannot point +out one which is exaggerated, much less false. I should not call the +place elegant; in other respects I am disposed to stand by the book. +Before I had made any inquiry into the cause of the apparent comfort, +it struck me at once that some great effort at excellence was being +made. I went into one of the discreet matrons' residences; and +perhaps may give but an indifferent idea of her discretion when I say +that she allowed me to go into the bedrooms. If you want to ascertain +the inner ways or habits of life of any man, woman, or child, see, if +it be practicable to do so, his or her bedroom. You will learn more +by a minute's glance round that holy of holies, than by any +conversation. Looking-glasses and such like, suspended dresses, and +toilet-belongings, if taken without notice, cannot lie or even +exaggerate. The discreet matron at first showed me rooms only +prepared for use, for at the period of my visit Lowell was by no +means full; but she soon became more intimate with me, and I went +through the upper part of the house. My report must be altogether in +her favour and in that of Lowell. Everything was cleanly, +well-ordered, and feminine. There was not a bed on which any woman +need have hesitated to lay herself if occasion required it. I fear +that this cannot be said of the lodgings of the manufacturing classes +at Manchester. The boarders all take their meals together. As a rule, +they have meat twice a-day. Hot meat for dinner is with them as much +a matter of course, or probably more so, than with any English man or +woman who may read this book. For in the States of America +regulations on this matter are much more rigid than with us. Cold +meat is rarely seen, and to live a day without meat would be as great +a privation as to pass a night without bed.</p> + +<p>The rules for the guidance of these boarding-houses are very rigid. +The houses themselves belong to the corporations or different +manufacturing establishments, and the tenants are altogether in the +power of the managers. None but operatives are to be taken in. The +tenants are answerable for improper conduct. The doors are to be +closed at ten o'clock. Any boarders who do not attend divine worship +are to be reported to the managers. The yards and walks are to be +kept clean, and snow removed at once; and the inmates must be +vaccinated, &c., &c., &c. It is expressly stated by the Hamilton +Company,—and I believe by all the companies,—that no one shall be +employed who is habitually absent from public worship on Sunday, or +who is known to be guilty of immorality. It is stated that the +average wages of the women are two dollars, or eight shillings, a +week, besides their board. I found when I was there that from three +dollars to three-and-a-half a week were paid to the women, of which +they paid one dollar and twenty-five cents for their board. As this +would not fully cover the expense of their keep, twenty-five cents a +week for each was also paid to the boarding-house keepers by the mill +agents. This substantially came to the same thing, as it left the two +dollars a week, or eight shillings, with the girls over and above +their cost of living. The board included washing, lights, food, bed, +and attendance,—leaving a surplus of eight shillings a week for +clothes and saving. Now let me ask any one acquainted with Manchester +and its operatives, whether that is not Utopia realized. Factory +girls, for whom every comfort of life is secured, with £21 a year +over for saving and dress! One sees the failing, however, at a +moment. It is Utopia. Any Lady Bountiful can tutor three or four +peasants and make them luxuriously comfortable. But no Lady Bountiful +can give luxurious comfort to half-a-dozen parishes. Lowell is now +nearly forty years old, and contains but 40,000 inhabitants. From the +very nature of its corporations it cannot spread itself. Chicago, +which has grown out of nothing in a much shorter period, and which +has no factories, has now 120,000 inhabitants. Lowell is a very +wonderful place and shows what philanthropy can do; but I fear it +also shows what philanthropy cannot do.</p> + +<p>There are, however, other establishments, conducted on the same +principle as those at Lowell, which have had the same amount, or +rather the same sort, of success. Lawrence is now a town of about +15,000 inhabitants, and Manchester of about 24,000,—if I remember +rightly;—and at those places the mills are also owned by +corporations and conducted as are those at Lowell. But it seems to me +that as New England takes her place in the world as a great +manufacturing country—which place she undoubtedly will take sooner +or later—she must abandon the hot-house method of providing for her +operatives with which she has commenced her work. In the first place, +Lowell is not open as a manufacturing town to the capitalists even of +New England at large. Stock may, I presume, be bought in the +corporations, but no interloper can establish a mill there. It is a +close manufacturing community, bolstered up on all sides, and has +none of that capacity for providing employment for a thickly-growing +population which belongs to such places as Manchester and Leeds. That +it should under its present system have been made in any degree +profitable reflects great credit on the managers; but the profit does +not reach an amount which in America can be considered as +remunerative. The total capital invested by the twelve corporations +is thirteen million and a half of dollars, or about two million seven +hundred thousand pounds. In only one of the corporations, that of the +Merrimack Company, does the profit amount to 12 per cent. In one, +that of the Boott Company, it falls below 7 per cent. The average +profit of the various establishments is something below 9 per cent. I +am of course speaking of Lowell as it was previous to the war. +American capitalists are not, as a rule, contented with so low a rate +of interest as this.</p> + +<p>The States in these matters have had a great advantage over England. +They have been able to begin at the beginning. Manufactories have +grown up among us as our cities grew;—from the necessities and +chances of the times. When labour was wanted it was obtained in the +ordinary way; and so when houses were built they were built in the +ordinary way. We had not the experience, and the results either for +good or bad, of other nations to guide us. The Americans, in seeing +and resolving to adopt our commercial successes, have resolved also, +if possible, to avoid the evils which have attended those successes. +It would be very desirable that all our factory girls should read and +write, wear clean clothes, have decent beds, and eat hot meat every +day. But that is now impossible. Gradually, with very up-hill work, +but still I trust with sure work, much will be done to improve their +position and render their life respectable; but in England we can +have no Lowells. In our thickly populated island any commercial +Utopia is out of the question. Nor can, as I think, Lowell be taken +as a type of the future manufacturing towns of New England. When New +England employs millions in her factories, instead of thousands,—the +hands employed at Lowell, when the mills are at full work, are about +11,000,—she must cease to provide for them their beds and meals, +their church-going proprieties and orderly modes of life. In such an +attempt she has all the experience of the world against her. But +nevertheless I think she will have done much good. The tone which she +will have given will not altogether lose its influence. Employment in +a factory is now considered reputable by a farmer and his children, +and this idea will remain. Factory work is regarded as more +respectable than domestic service, and this prestige will not wear +itself altogether out. Those now employed have a strong conception of +the dignity of their own social position, and their successors will +inherit much of this, even though they may find themselves excluded +from the advantages of the present Utopia. The thing has begun well, +but it can only be regarded as a beginning. Steam, it may be +presumed, will become the motive power of cotton mills in New England +as it is with us; and when it is so, the amount of work to be done at +any one place will not be checked by any such limit as that which now +prevails at Lowell. Water-power is very cheap, but it cannot be +extended; and it would seem that no place can become large as a +manufacturing town which has to depend chiefly upon water. It is not +improbable that steam may be brought into general use at Lowell, and +that Lowell may spread itself. If it should spread itself widely, it +will lose its Utopian characteristics.</p> + +<p>One cannot but be greatly struck by the spirit of philanthropy in +which the system of Lowell was at first instituted. It may be +presumed that men who put their money into such an undertaking did so +with the object of commercial profit to themselves; but in this case +that was not their first object. I think it may be taken for granted +that when Messrs. Jackson and Lowell went about their task, their +grand idea was to place factory work upon a respectable footing,—to +give employment in mills which should not be unhealthy, degrading, +demoralizing, or hard in its circumstances. Throughout the northern +States of America the same feeling is to be seen. Good and thoughtful +men have been active to spread education, to maintain health, to make +work compatible with comfort and personal dignity, and to divest the +ordinary lot of man of the sting of that curse which was supposed to +be uttered when our first father was ordered to eat his bread in the +sweat of his brow. One is driven to contrast this feeling, of which +on all sides one sees such ample testimony, with that sharp desire +for profit, that anxiety to do a stroke of trade at every turn, that +acknowledged necessity of being smart, which we must own is quite as +general as the nobler propensity. I believe that both phases of +commercial activity may be attributed to the same characteristic. Men +in trade in America are not more covetous than tradesmen in England, +nor probably are they more generous or philanthropical. But that +which they do, they are more anxious to do thoroughly and quickly. +They desire that every turn taken shall be a great turn,—or at any +rate that it shall be as great as possible. They go ahead either for +bad or good with all the energy they have. In the institutions at +Lowell I think we may allow that the good has very much prevailed.</p> + +<p>I went over two of the mills, those of the Merrimack corporation, and +of the Massachusetts. At the former the printing establishment only +was at work; the cotton mills were closed. I hardly know whether it +will interest any one to learn that something under half-a-million +yards of calico are here printed annually. At the Lowell bleachery +fifteen million yards are dyed annually. The Merrimack cotton-mills +were stopped, and so had the other mills at Lowell been stopped, till +some short time before my visit. Trade had been bad, and there had of +course been a lack of cotton. I was assured that no severe suffering +had been created by this stoppage. The greater number of hands had +returned into the country,—to the farms from whence they had come; +and though a discontinuance of work and wages had of course produced +hardship, there had been no actual privation,—no hunger and want. +Those of the workpeople who had no homes out of Lowell to which to +betake themselves, and no means at Lowell of living, had received +relief before real suffering had begun. I was assured, with something +of a smile of contempt at the question, that there had been nothing +like hunger. But, as I said before, visitors always see a great deal +of rose colour, and should endeavour to allay the brilliancy of the +tint with the proper amount of human shading. But do not let any +visitor mix in the browns with too heavy a hand!</p> + +<p>At the Massachusetts cotton-mills they were working with about +two-thirds of their full number of hands, and this, I was told, was +about the average of the number now employed throughout Lowell. +Working at this rate they had now on hand a supply of cotton to last +them for six months. Their stocks had been increased lately, and on +asking from whence, I was informed that that last received had come +to them from Liverpool. There is, I believe, no doubt but that a +considerable quantity of cotton has been shipped back from England to +the States since the civil war began. I asked the gentleman, to whose +care at Lowell I was consigned, whether he expected to get cotton +from the South,—for at that time Beaufort in South Carolina had just +been taken by the naval expedition. He had, he said, a political +expectation of a supply of cotton, but not a commercial expectation. +That at least was the gist of his reply, and I found it to be both +intelligent and intelligible. The Massachusetts mills, when at full +work, employ 1300 females and 400 males, and turn out 540,000 yards +of calico per week.</p> + +<p>On my return from Lowell in the smoking car, an old man came and +squeezed in next to me. The place was terribly crowded, and as the +old man was thin and clean and quiet I willingly made room for him, +so as to avoid the contiguity of a neighbour who might be neither +thin, nor clean, nor quiet. He began talking to me in whispers about +the war, and I was suspicious that he was a Southerner and a +Secessionist. Under such circumstances his company might not be +agreeable, unless he could be induced to hold his tongue. At last he +said, "I come from Canada, you know, and you,—you're an Englishman, +and therefore I can speak to you openly;" and he gave me an +affectionate grip on the knee with his old skinny hand. I suppose I +do look more like an Englishman than an American, but I was surprised +at his knowing me with such certainty. "There is no mistaking you," +he said, "with your round face and your red cheeks. They don't look +like that here," and he gave me another grip. I felt quite fond of +the old man, and offered him a cigar.</p> + + +<p><a id="c18"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII.</h3> +<h4>THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>We all know that the subject which appears above as the title of this +chapter is a very favourite subject in America. It is, I hope, a very +favourite subject in England also, and I am inclined to think has +been so for many years past. The rights of women, as +contradistinguished from the wrongs of women, has perhaps been the +most precious of the legacies left to us by the feudal ages. How +amidst the rough darkness of old Teuton rule women began to receive +that respect which is now their dearest right, is one of the most +interesting studies of history. It came, I take it, chiefly from +their own conduct. The women of the old classic races seem to have +enjoyed but a small amount of respect or of rights, and to have +deserved as little. It may have been very well for one Cæsar to have +said that his wife should be above suspicion; but his wife was put +away, and therefore either did not have her rights, or else had +justly forfeited them. The daughter of the next Cæsar lived in Rome +the life of a Messalina, and did not on that account seem to have +lost her "position in society," till she absolutely declined to throw +any veil whatever over her propensities. But as the Roman empire +fell, chivalry began. For a time even chivalry afforded but a dull +time to the women. During the musical period of the troubadours, +ladies, I fancy, had but little to amuse them save the music. But +that was the beginning, and from that time downwards the rights of +women have progressed very favourably. It may be that they have not +yet all that should belong to them. If that be the case, let the men +lose no time in making up the difference. But it seems to me that the +women who are now making their claims may perhaps hardly know when +they are well off. It will be an ill movement if they insist on +throwing away any of the advantages they have won. As for the women +in America especially, I must confess that I think they have a "good +time." I make them my compliments on their sagacity, intelligence, +and attractions, but I utterly refuse to them any sympathy for +supposed wrongs. <i>O fortunatas sua si bona nôrint!</i> Whether or no, +were I an American married man and father of a family, I should not +go in for the rights of man—that is altogether another question.</p> + +<p>This question of the rights of women divides itself into two +heads,—one of which is very important, worthy of much consideration, +capable perhaps of much philanthropic action, and at any rate +affording matter for grave discussion. This is the question of +women's work; how far the work of the world, which is now borne +chiefly by men, should be thrown open to women further than is now +done. The other seems to me to be worthy of no consideration, to be +capable of no action, to admit of no grave discussion. This refers to +the political rights of women; how far the political working of the +world, which is now entirely in the hands of men, should be divided +between them and women. The first question is being debated on our +side of the Atlantic as keenly perhaps as on the American side. As to +that other question, I do not know that much has ever been said about +it in Europe.</p> + +<p>"You are doing nothing in England towards the employment of females," +a lady said to me in one of the States soon after my arrival in +America. "Pardon me," I answered, "I think we are doing much, perhaps +too much. At any rate we are doing something." I then explained to +her how Miss Faithfull had instituted a printing establishment in +London; how all the work in that concern was done by females, except +such heavy tasks as those for which women could not be fitted, and I +handed to her one of Miss Faithfull's cards. "Ah," said my American +friend, "poor creatures! I have no doubt their very flesh will be +worked off their bones." I thought this a little unjust on her part; +but nevertheless it occurred to me as an answer not unfit to be made +by some other lady,—by some woman who had not already advocated the +increased employment of women. Let Miss Faithfull look to that. Not +that she will work the flesh off her young women's bones, or allow +such terrible consequences to take place in Coram-street; not that +she or that those connected with her in that enterprise will do aught +but good to those employed therein. It will not even be said of her +individually, or of her partners, that they have worked the flesh off +women's bones; but may it not come to this, that when the tasks now +done by men have been shifted to the shoulders of women, women +themselves will so complain. May it not go further, and come even to +this, that women will have cause for such complaint. I do not think +that such a result will come, because I do not think that the object +desired by those who are active in the matter will be attained. Men, +as a general rule among civilized nations, have elected to earn their +own bread and the bread of the women also, and from this resolve on +their part I do not think that they will be beaten off.</p> + +<p>We know that Mrs. Dall, an American lady, has taken up this subject, +and has written a book on it, in which great good sense and honesty +of purpose are shown. Mrs. Dall is a strong advocate for the +increased employment of women, and I, with great deference, disagree +with her. I allude to her book now because she has pointed out, I +think very strongly, the great reason why women do not engage +themselves advantageously in trade pursuits. She by no means +overpraises her own sex, and openly declares that young women will +not consent to place themselves in fair competition with men. They +will not undergo the labour and servitude of long study at their +trades. They will not give themselves up to an apprenticeship. They +will not enter upon their tasks as though they were to be the tasks +of their lives. They may have the same physical and mental aptitudes +for learning a trade as men, but they have not the same devotion to +the pursuit, and will not bind themselves to it thoroughly as men do. +In all which I quite agree with Mrs. Dall; and the English of it +is,—that the young women want to get married.</p> + +<p>God forbid that they should not so want. Indeed God has forbidden in +a very express way that there should be any lack of such a desire on +the part of women. There has of late years arisen a feeling among +masses of the best of our English ladies that this feminine +propensity should be checked. We are told that unmarried women may be +respectable, which we always knew; that they may be useful, which we +also acknowledge,—thinking still that if married they would be more +useful; and that they may be happy, which we trust,—feeling +confident however that they might in another position be more happy. +But the question is not only as to the respectability, usefulness, +and happiness of womankind, but as to that of men also. If women can +do without marriage, can men do so? And if not, how are the men to +get wives if the women elect to remain single?</p> + +<p>It will be thought that I am treating the subject as though it were +simply jocose, but I beg to assure my reader that such is not my +intention. It certainly is the fact that that disinclination to an +apprenticeship and unwillingness to bear the long training for a +trade, of which Mrs. Dall complains on the part of young women, arise +from the fact, that they have other hopes with which such +apprenticeships would jar; and it is also certain that if such +disinclination be overcome on the part of any great number, it must +be overcome by the destruction or banishment of such hopes. The +question is, whether would good or evil result from such a change? It +is often said that whatever difficulty a woman may have in getting a +husband, no man need encounter difficulty in finding a wife. But in +spite of this seeming fact, I think it must be allowed that if women +are withdrawn from the marriage market, men must be withdrawn from it +also to the same extent.</p> + +<p>In any broad view of this matter we are bound to look, not on any +individual case, and the possible remedies for such cases, but on the +position in the world occupied by women in general; on the general +happiness and welfare of the aggregate feminine world, and perhaps +also a little on the general happiness and welfare of the aggregate +male world. When ladies and gentlemen advocate the right of women to +employment, they are taking very different ground from that on which +stand those less extensive philanthropists who exert themselves for +the benefit of distressed needlewomen, for instance, or for the +alleviation of the more bitter misery of governesses. The two +questions are in fact absolutely antagonistic to each other. The +rights-of-women advocate is doing his best to create that position +for women, from the possible misfortunes of which the friend of the +needlewomen is struggling to relieve them. The one is endeavouring to +throw work from off the shoulders of men on to the shoulders of +women, and the other is striving to lessen the burden which women are +already bearing. Of course it is good to relieve distress in +individual cases. That Song of the Shirt, which I regard as poetry of +the immortal kind, has done an amount of good infinitely wider than +poor Hood ever ventured to hope. Of all such efforts I would speak +not only with respect, but with loving admiration. But of those whose +efforts are made to spread work more widely among women, to call upon +them to make for us our watches, to print our books, to sit at our +desks as clerks, and to add up our accounts; much as I may respect +the individual operators in such a movement, I can express no +admiration for their judgment.</p> + +<p>I have seen women with ropes round their necks drawing a harrow over +ploughed ground. No one will, I suppose, say that they approve of +that. But it would not have shocked me to see men drawing a harrow. I +should have thought it slow, unprofitable work, but my feelings would +not have been hurt. There must, therefore, be some limit; but if we +men teach ourselves to believe that work is good for women, where is +the limit to be drawn, and who shall draw it? It is true that there +is now no actually defined limit. There is much work that is commonly +open to both sexes. Personal domestic attendance is so, and the +attendance in shops. The use of the needle is shared between men and +women, and few, I take it, know where the sempstress ends and where +the tailor begins. In many trades a woman can be, and very often is, +the owner and manager of the business. Painting is as much open to +women as to men; as also is literature. There can be no defined +limit; but nevertheless there is at present a quasi limit, which the +rights-of-women advocates wish to move, and so to move that women +shall do more work and not less. A woman now could not well be a +cab-driver in London; but are these advocates sure that no woman will +be a cab-driver when success has attended their efforts? And would +they like to see a woman driving a cab? For my part I confess I do +not like to see a woman acting as road-keeper on a French railway. I +have seen a woman acting as ostler at a public stage in Ireland. I +knew the circumstances,—how her husband had become ill and +incapable, and how she had been allowed to earn the wages; but +nevertheless the sight was to me disagreeable, and seemed, as far as +it went, to degrade the sex. Chivalry has been very active in raising +women from the hard and hardening tasks of the world, and through +this action they have become soft, tender, and virtuous. It seems to +me that they of whom I am now speaking are desirous of undoing what +chivalry has done.</p> + +<p>The argument used is of course plain enough. It is said that women +are left destitute in the world,—destitute unless they can be +self-dependent, and that to women should be given the same open +access to wages that men possess, in order that they may be as +self-dependent as men. Why should a young woman, for whom no father +is able to provide, not enjoy those means of provision which are open +to a young man so circumstanced? But I think the answer is very +simple. The young man under the happiest circumstances which may +befall him is bound to earn his bread. The young woman is only so +bound when happy circumstances do not befall her. Should we endeavour +to make the recurrence of unhappy circumstances more general or less +so? What does any tradesman, any professional man, any mechanic wish +for his children? Is it not this, that his sons shall go forth and +earn their bread, and that his daughters shall remain with him till +they are married? Is not that the mother's wish? Is it not notorious +that such is the wish of us all as to our daughters? In advocating +the rights of women it is of other men's girls that we think, never +of our own.</p> + +<p>But, nevertheless, what shall we do for those women who must earn +their bread by their own work? Whatever we do, do not let us wilfully +increase their number. By opening trades to women, by making them +printers, watchmakers, accountants, or what not, we shall not simply +relieve those who must now earn their bread by some such work or else +starve. It will not be within our power to stop ourselves exactly at +a certain point; to arrange that those women who under existing +circumstances may now be in want, shall be thus placed beyond want; +but that no others shall be affected. Men, I fear, will be too +willing to relieve themselves of some portion of their present +burden, should the world's altered ways enable them to do so. At +present a lawyer's clerk may earn perhaps his two guineas a week, and +he with his wife lives on that in fair comfort. But if his wife, as +well as he, has been brought up as a lawyer's clerk, he will look to +her also for some amount of wages. I doubt whether the two guineas +would be much increased, but I do not doubt at all that the woman's +position would be injured.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that in discussing this subject, philanthropists fail +to take hold of the right end of the argument. Money returns from +work are very good, and work itself is good, as bringing such returns +and occupying both body and mind; but the world's work is very hard, +and workmen are too often overdriven. The question seems to me to be +this,—of all this work have the men got on their own backs too heavy +a share for them to bear, and should they seek relief by throwing +more of it upon women? It is the rights of man that we are in fact +debating. These watches are weary to make, and this type is +troublesome to set. We have battles to fight and speeches to make, +and our hands altogether are too full. The women are idle,—many of +them. They shall make the watches for us and set the type; and when +they have done that, why should they not make nails as they do +sometimes in Worcestershire, or clean horses, or drive the cabs? They +have had an easy time of it for these years past, but we'll change +that. And then it would come to pass that with ropes round their +necks the women would be drawing harrows across the fields.</p> + +<p>I don't think this will come to pass. The women generally do know +when they are well off, and are not particularly anxious to accept +the philanthropy proffered to them;—as Mrs. Dall says, they do not +wish to bind themselves as apprentices to independent money-making. +This cry has been louder in America than with us, but even in America +it has not been efficacious for much. There is in the States, no +doubt, a sort of hankering after increased influence, a desire for +that prominence of position which men attain by loud voices and +brazen foreheads, a desire in the female heart to be up and doing +something, if the female heart only knew what; but even in the States +it has hardly advanced beyond a few feminine lectures. In many +branches of work women are less employed than in England. They are +not so frequent behind counters in the shops, and are rarely seen as +servants in hotels. The fires in such houses are lighted and the +rooms swept by men. But the American girls may say they do not desire +to light fires and sweep rooms. They are ambitious of the higher +classes of work. But those higher branches of work require study, +apprenticeship, a devotion of youth; and that they will not give. It +is very well for a young man to bind himself for four years, and to +think of marrying four years after that apprenticeship is over. But +such a prospectus will not do for a girl. While the sun shines the +hay must be made, and her sun shines earlier in the day than that of +him who is to be her husband. Let him go through the apprenticeship +and the work, and she will have sufficient on her hands if she looks +well after his household. Under nature's teaching she is aware of +this, and will not bind herself to any other apprenticeship, let Mrs. +Dall preach as she may.</p> + +<p>I remember seeing, either at New York or Boston, a wooden figure of a +neat young woman, as large as life, standing at a desk with a ledger +before her, and looking as though the beau ideal of human bliss were +realized in her employment. Under the figure there was some notice +respecting female accountants. Nothing could be nicer than the lady's +figure, more flowing than the broad lines of her drapery, or more +attractive than her auburn ringlets. There she stood at work, earning +her bread without any impediment to the natural operation of her +female charms, and adjusting the accounts of some great firm with as +much facility as grace. I wonder whether he who designed that figure +had ever sat or stood at a desk for six hours,—whether he knew the +dull hum of the brain which comes from long attention to another +man's figures; whether he had ever soiled his own fingers with the +everlasting work of office hours, or worn his sleeves threadbare as +he leaned, weary in body and mind, upon his desk? Work is a grand +thing,—the grandest thing we have; but work is not picturesque, +graceful, and in itself alluring. It sucks the sap out of men's +bones, and bends their backs, and sometimes breaks their hearts; but +though it be so, I for one would not wish to throw any heavier share +of it on to a woman's shoulders. It was pretty to see those young +women with spectacles at the Boston library, but when I heard that +they were there from eight in the morning till nine at night, I +pitied them their loss of all the softness of home, and felt that +they would not willingly be there if necessity were less stern.</p> + +<p>Say that by advocating the rights of women, philanthropists succeed +in apportioning more work to their share, will they eat more, wear +better clothes, lie softer, and have altogether more of the fruits of +work than they do now? That some would do so there can be no doubt, +but as little that some would have less. If on the whole they would +not have more, for what good result is the movement made? The first +question is, whether at the present time they have less than their +proper share. There are, unquestionably, terrible cases of female +want, and so there are also of want among men. Alas! do we not all +feel that it must be so, let the philanthropists be ever so +energetic? And if a woman be left destitute, without the assistance +of father, brother, or husband, it would be hard if no means of +earning subsistence were open to her. But the object now sought is +not that of relieving such distress. It has a much wider tendency, or +at any rate a wider desire. The idea is that women will ennoble +themselves by making themselves independent, by working for their own +bread instead of eating bread earned by men. It is in that that these +new philosophers seem to me to err so greatly. Humanity and chivalry +have succeeded after a long struggle in teaching the man to work for +the woman; and now the woman rebels against such teaching,—not +because she likes the work, but because she desires the influence +which attends it. But in this I wrong the woman,—even the American +woman. It is not she who desires it, but her philanthropical +philosophical friends who desire it for her.</p> + +<p>If work were more equally divided between the sexes some women would, +of course, receive more of the good things of the world. But women +generally would not do so. The tendency then would be to force young +women out upon their own exertions. Fathers would soon learn to think +that their daughters should be no more dependent on them than their +sons; men would expect their wives to work at their own trades; +brothers would be taught to think it hard that their sisters should +lean on them; and thus women, driven upon their own resources, would +hardly fare better than they do at present.</p> + +<p>After all it is a question of money, and a contest for that power and +influence which money gives. At present men have the position of the +Lower House of Parliament. They have to do the harder work, but they +hold the purse. Even in England there has grown up a feeling that the +old law of the land gives a married man too much power over the joint +pecuniary resources of him and his wife, and in America this feeling +is much stronger, and the old law has been modified. Why should a +married woman be able to possess nothing? And if such be the law of +the land, is it worth a woman's while to marry and put herself in +such a position? Those are the questions asked by the friends of the +rights of women. But the young women do marry, and the men pour their +earnings into their wives' laps.</p> + +<p>If little has as yet been done in extending the rights of women by +giving them a greater share of the work of the world, still less has +been done towards giving them their portion of political influence. +In the States there are many men of mark, and women of mark also, who +think that women should have votes for public elections. Mr. Wendell +Phillips, the Boston lecturer who advocates abolition, is an apostle +in this cause also; and while I was at Boston I read the provisions +of a will lately left by a millionaire, in which he bequeathed some +very large sums of money to be expended in agitation on this subject. +A woman is subject to the law; why then should she not help to make +the law? A child is subject to the law, and does not help to make it; +but the child lacks that discretion which the woman enjoys equally +with the man. That I take it is the amount of the argument in favour +of the political rights of women. The logic of this is so conclusive, +that I am prepared to acknowledge that it admits of no answer. I will +only say that the mutual good relations between men and women, which +are so indispensable to our happiness, require that men and women +should not take to voting at the same time and on the same result. If +it be decided that women shall have political power, let them have it +all to themselves for a season. If that be so resolved, I think we +may safely leave it to them to name the time at which they will +begin.</p> + +<p>I confess that in the States I have sometimes been driven to think +that chivalry has been carried too far;—that there is an attempt to +make women think more of the rights of their womanhood than is +needful. There are ladies' doors at hotels, and ladies' +drawing-rooms, ladies' sides on the ferry-boats, ladies' windows at +the post office for the delivery of letters;—which, by-the-by, is an +atrocious institution, as anybody may learn who will look at the +advertisements called personal in some of the New York papers. Why +should not young ladies have their letters sent to their houses, +instead of getting them at a private window? The post-office clerks +can tell stories about those ladies' windows. But at every turn it is +necessary to make separate provision for ladies. From all this it +comes to pass that the baker's daughter looks down from a great +height on her papa, and by no means thinks her brother good enough +for her associate. Nature, the great restorer, comes in and teaches +her to fall in love with the butcher's son. Thus the evil is +mitigated; but I cannot but wish that the young woman should not see +herself denominated a lady so often, and should receive fewer lessons +as to the extent of her privileges. I would save her if I could from +working at the oven; I would give to her bread and meat earned by her +father's care and her brother's sweat; but when she has received +these good things, I would have her proud of the one and by no means +ashamed of the other.</p> + +<p>Let women say what they will of their rights, or men who think +themselves generous say what they will for them, the question has all +been settled both for them and for us men by a higher power. They are +the nursing mothers of mankind, and in that law their fate is written +with all its joys and all its privileges. It is for men to make those +joys as lasting and those privileges as perfect as may be. That women +should have their rights no man will deny. To my thinking neither +increase of work nor increase of political influence are among them. +The best right a woman has is the right to a husband, and that is the +right to which I would recommend every young woman here and in the +States to turn her best attention. On the whole, I think that my +doctrine will be more acceptable than that of Mrs. Dall or Mr. +Wendell Phillips.</p> + + +<p><a id="c19"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER XIX.</h3> +<h4>EDUCATION AND RELIGION.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>The one matter in which, as far as my judgment goes, the people of +the United States have excelled us Englishmen, so as to justify them +in taking to themselves praise which we cannot take to ourselves or +refuse to them, is the matter of Education. In saying this I do not +think that I am proclaiming anything disgraceful to England, though I +am proclaiming much that is creditable to America. To the Americans +of the States was given the good fortune of beginning at the +beginning. The French at the time of their revolution endeavoured to +reorganize everything, and to begin the world again with new habits +and grand theories; but the French as a people were too old for such +a change, and the theories fell to the ground. But in the States, +after their revolution, an Anglo-Saxon people had an opportunity of +making a new State, with all the experience of the world before them; +and to this matter of education they were from the first aware that +they must look for their success. They did so; and unrivalled +population, wealth, and intelligence have been the results; and with +these, looking at the whole masses of the people,—I think I am +justified in saying,—unrivalled comfort and happiness. It is not +that you, my reader, to whom in this matter of education fortune and +your parents have probably been bountiful, would have been more happy +in New York than in London. It is not that I, who, at any rate, can +read and write, have cause to wish that I had been an American. But +it is this:—if you and I can count up in a day all those on whom our +eyes may rest, and learn the circumstances of their lives, we shall +be driven to conclude that nine-tenths of that number would have had +a better life as Americans than they can have in their spheres as +Englishmen. The States are at a discount with us now, in the +beginning of this year of grace 1862; and Englishmen were not very +willing to admit the above statement, even when the States were not +at a discount. But I do not think that a man can travel through the +States with his eyes open and not admit the fact. Many things will +conspire to induce him to shut his eyes and admit no conclusion +favourable to the Americans. Men and women will sometimes be impudent +to him;—the better his coat, the greater the impudence. He will be +pelted with the braggadocio of equality. The corns of his Old-World +conservatism will be trampled on hourly by the purposely vicious herd +of uncouth democracy. The fact that he is paymaster will go for +nothing, and will fail to insure civility. I shall never forget my +agony as I saw and heard my desk fall from a porter's hand on a +railway station, as he tossed it from him seven yards off on to the +hard pavement. I heard its poor weak intestines rattle in their +death-struggle, and knowing that it was smashed I forgot my position +on American soil and remonstrated. "It's my desk, and you have +utterly destroyed it," I said. "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the porter. +"You've destroyed my property," I rejoined, "and it's no laughing +matter." And then all the crowd laughed. "Guess you'd better get it +glued," said one. So I gathered up the broken article and retired +mournfully and crestfallen into a coach. This was very sad, and for +the moment I deplored the ill-luck which had brought me to so savage +a country. Such and such like are the incidents which make an +Englishman in the States unhappy, and rouse his gall against the +institutions of the country;—these things and the continued +appliance of the irritating ointment of American braggadocio with +which his sores are kept open. But though I was badly off on that +railway platform,—worse off than I should have been in England,—all +that crowd of porters round me were better off than our English +porters. They had a "good time" of it. And this, O my English brother +who hast travelled through the States and returned disgusted, is the +fact throughout. Those men whose familiarity was so disgusting to you +are having a good time of it. "They might be a little more civil," +you say, "and yet read and write just as well." True; but they are +arguing in their minds that civility to you will be taken by you for +subservience, or for an acknowledgment of superiority; and looking at +your habits of life,—yours and mine together,—I am not quite sure +that they are altogether wrong. Have you ever realized to yourself as +a fact that the porter who carries your box has not made himself +inferior to you by the very act of carrying that box? If not, that is +the very lesson which the man wishes to teach you.</p> + +<p>If a man can forget his own miseries in his journeyings, and think of +the people he comes to see rather than of himself, I think he will +find himself driven to admit that education has made life for the +million in the Northern States better than life for the million is +with us. They have begun at the beginning, and have so managed that +every one may learn to read and write,—have so managed that almost +every one does learn to read and write. With us this cannot now be +done. Population had come upon us in masses too thick for management +before we had as yet acknowledged that it would be a good thing that +these masses should be educated. Prejudices, too, had sprung up, and +habits, and strong sectional feelings, all antagonistic to a great +national system of education. We are, I suppose, now doing all that +we can do; but comparatively it is little. I think I saw some time +since that the cost for gratuitous education, or education in part +gratuitous, which had fallen upon the nation had already amounted to +the sum of £800,000; and I think also that I read in the document +which revealed to me this fact, a very strong opinion that Government +could not at present go much further. But if this matter were +regarded in England as it is regarded in Massachusetts,—or rather, +had it from some prosperous beginning been put upon a similar +footing, £800,000 would not have been esteemed a great expenditure +for free education simply in the city of London. In 1857 the public +schools of Boston cost £70,000, and these schools were devoted to a +population of about 180,000 souls. Taking the population of London at +two-and-a-half millions, the whole sum now devoted to England would, +if expended in the metropolis, make education there even cheaper than +it is in Boston. In Boston during 1857 there were above 24,000 pupils +at these public schools, giving more than one-eighth of the whole +population. But I fear it would not be practicable for us to spend +£800,000 on the gratuitous education of London. Rich as we are, we +should not know where to raise the money. In Boston it is raised by a +separate tax. It is a thing understood, acknowledged, and made easy +by being habitual,—as is our national debt. I do not know that +Boston is peculiarly blessed, but I quote the instance as I have a +record of its schools before me. At the three high schools in Boston, +at which the average of pupils is 526, about £13 per head is paid for +free education. The average price per annum of a child's schooling +throughout these schools in Boston is about £3 per annum. To the +higher schools any boy or girl may attain without any expense, and +the education is probably as good as can be given, and as far +advanced. The only question is, whether it is not advanced further +than may be necessary. Here, as at New York, I was almost startled by +the amount of knowledge around me, and listened, as I might have +done, to an examination in theology among young Brahmins. When a +young lad explained in my hearing all the properties of the different +levers as exemplified by the bones of the human body, I bowed my head +before him in unaffected humility. We, at our English schools, never +got beyond the use of those bones which he described with such +accurate scientific knowledge. In one of the girls' schools they were +reading Milton, and when we entered were discussing the nature of the +pool in which the Devil is described as wallowing. The question had +been raised by one of the girls. A pool, so called, was supposed to +contain but a small amount of water, and how could the Devil, being +so large, get into it? Then came the origin of the word pool,—from +"palus," a marsh, as we were told, some dictionary attesting to the +fact,—and such a marsh might cover a large expanse. The "Palus +Mæotis" was then quoted. And so we went on till Satan's theory of +political liberty,</p> + + +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"><tr><td> +"Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven," +</td></tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<p class="noindent">was thoroughly +discussed and understood. These girls of sixteen and +seventeen got up one after another and gave their opinions on the +subject,—how far the Devil was right and how far he was manifestly +wrong. I was attended by one of the directors or guardians of the +schools, and the teacher, I thought, was a little embarrassed by her +position. But the girls themselves were as easy in their demeanour as +though they were stitching handkerchiefs at home.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to refrain from telling all this, and from making a +little innocent fun out of the super-excellencies of these schools; +but the total result on my mind was very greatly in their favour. And +indeed the testimony came in both ways. Not only was I called on to +form an opinion of what the men and women would become from the +education which was given to the boys and girls, but also to say what +must have been the education of the boys and girls from what I saw of +the men and women. Of course it will be understood that I am not here +speaking of those I met in society, or of their children, but of the +working people,—of that class who find that a gratuitous education +for their children is needful, if any considerable amount of +education is to be given. The result is to be seen daily in the whole +intercourse of life. The coachman who drives you, the man who mends +your window, the boy who brings home your purchases, the girl who +stitches your wife's dress,—they all carry with them sure signs of +education, and show it in every word they utter.</p> + +<p>It will of course be understood that this is, in the separate States, +a matter of State law; indeed I may go further and say that it is in +most of the States a matter of State constitution. It is by no means +a matter of Federal constitution. The United States as a nation takes +no heed of the education of its people. All that is left to the +judgment of the separate States. In most of the thirteen original +States provision is made in the written constitution for the general +education of the people; but this is not done in all. I find that it +was more frequently done in the Northern or Freesoil States than in +those which admitted slavery,—as might have been expected. In the +constitutions of South Carolina and Virginia I find no allusion to +the public provision for education, but in those of North Carolina +and Georgia it is enjoined. The forty-first section of the +constitution for North Carolina enjoins that "schools shall be +established by the legislature for the convenient instruction of +youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may +enable them to instruct <i>at low prices</i>;" showing that the intention +here was to assist education, and not provide it altogether +gratuitously. I think that provision for public education is enjoined +in the constitutions of all the States admitted into the Union since +the first federal knot was tied, except in that of Illinois. Vermont +was the first so admitted, in 1791, and Vermont declares that "a +competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town for +the convenient instruction of youth." Ohio was the second, in 1802, +and Ohio enjoins that "the general assembly shall make such +provisions by taxation or otherwise as, with the income arising from +the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of +common schools throughout the State; but no religious or other sect +or sects shall ever have any exclusive right or control of any part +of the school funds of this State." In Indiana, admitted in 1816, it +is required that "the general assembly shall provide by law for a +general and uniform system of common schools." Illinois was admitted +next, in 1818; but the constitution of Illinois is silent on the +subject of education. It enjoins, however, in lieu of this, that no +person shall fight a duel or send a challenge! If he do he is not +only to be punished, but to be deprived for ever of the power of +holding any office of honour or profit in the State. I have no +reason, however, for supposing that education is neglected in +Illinois, or that duelling has been abolished. In Maine it is +demanded that the towns—the whole country is divided into what are +called towns—shall make suitable provision at their own expense for +the support and maintenance of public schools.</p> + +<p>Some of these constitutional enactments are most magniloquently +worded, but not always with precise grammatical correctness. That for +the famous Bay State of Massachusetts runs as follows:—"Wisdom and +knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of +the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and +liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and +advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and +among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of the +legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this +commonwealth, to cherish the interest of literature and the sciences, +and of all seminaries of them, especially the University at +Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools in the towns; to +encourage private societies and public institutions, by rewards, and +immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, +commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; +to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general +benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, +honesty and punctuality in all their dealings; sincerity, good +humour, and all social affections and generous sentiments among the +people." I must confess, that had the words of that little +constitutional enactment been made known to me before I had seen its +practical results, I should not have put much faith in it. Of all the +public schools I have ever seen,—by public schools I mean schools +for the people at large maintained at public cost,—those of +Massachusetts are, I think, the best. But of all the educational +enactments which I ever read, that of the same State is, I should +say, the worst. In Texas now, of which as a State the people of +Massachusetts do not think much, they have done it better. "A general +diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the +rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the +legislature of this State to make suitable provision for the support +and maintenance of public schools." So say the Texians; but then the +Texians had the advantage of a later experience than any which fell +in the way of the constitution-makers of Massachusetts.</p> + +<p>There is something of the magniloquence of the French style,—of the +liberty, equality, and fraternity mode of eloquence,—in the +preambles of most of these constitutions, which, but for their +success, would have seemed to have prophesied loudly of failure. +Those of New York and Pennsylvania are the least so, and that of +Massachusetts by far the most violently magniloquent. They generally +commence by thanking God for the present civil and religious liberty +of the people, and by declaring that all men are born free and equal. +New York and Pennsylvania, however, refrain from any such very +general remarks.</p> + +<p>I am well aware that all these constitutional enactments are not +likely to obtain much credit in England. It is not only that grand +phrases fail to convince us, but that they carry to our senses almost +an assurance of their own inefficiency. When we hear that a people +have declared their intention of being henceforward better than their +neighbours, and going upon a new theory that shall lead them direct +to a terrestrial paradise, we button up our pockets and lock up our +spoons. And that is what we have done very much as regards the +Americans. We have walked with them and talked with them, and bought +with them and sold with them; but we have mistrusted them as to their +internal habits and modes of life, thinking that their philanthropy +was pretentious and that their theories were vague. Many cities in +the States are but skeletons of towns, the streets being there, and +the houses numbered,—but not one house built out of ten that have +been so counted up. We have regarded their institutions as we regard +those cities, and have been specially willing so to consider them +because of the fine language in which they have been paraded before +us. They have been regarded as the skeletons of philanthropical +systems, to which blood and flesh and muscle, and even skin, are +wanting. But it is at least but fair to inquire how far the promise +made has been carried out. The elaborate wordings of the +constitutions made by the French politicians in the days of their +great revolution have always been to us no more than so many written +grimaces; but we should not have continued so to regard them had the +political liberty which they promised followed upon the promises so +magniloquently made. As regards education in the States,—at any rate +in the northern and western States,—I think that the assurances put +forth in the various written constitutions have been kept. If this be +so, an American citizen, let him be ever so arrogant, ever so +impudent if you will, is at any rate a civilized being, and on the +road to that cultivation which will sooner or later divest him of his +arrogance. <i>Emollit mores.</i> We quote here our old friend the Colonel +again. If a gentleman be compelled to confine his classical allusions +to one quotation, he cannot do better than hang by that.</p> + +<p>But has education been so general, and has it had the desired result? +In the city of Boston, as I have said, I found that in 1857 about +one-eighth of the whole population were then on the books of the free +public schools as pupils, and that about one-ninth of the population +formed the average daily attendance. To these numbers of course must +be added all pupils of the richer classes,—those for whose education +their parents chose to pay. As nearly as I can learn, the average +duration of each pupil's schooling is six years, and if this be +figured out statistically, I think it will show that education in +Boston reaches a very large majority—I must almost say the whole—of +the population. That the education given in other towns of +Massachusetts is not so good as that given in Boston I do not doubt, +but I have reason to believe that it is quite as general.</p> + +<p>I have spoken of one of the schools of New York. In that city the +public schools are apportioned to the wards, and are so arranged that +in each ward of the city there are public schools of different +standing for the gratuitous use of the children. The population of +the city of New York in 1857 was about 650,000, and in that year it +is stated that there were 135,000 pupils in the schools. By this it +would appear that one person in five throughout the city was then +under process of education,—which statement, however, I cannot +receive with implicit credence. It is, however, also stated that the +daily attendances averaged something less than 50,000 a day—and this +latter statement probably implies some mistake in the former one. +Taking the two together for what they are worth, they show, I think, +that school teaching is not only brought within the reach of the +population generally, but is used by almost all classes. At New York +there are separate free schools for coloured children. At +Philadelphia I did not see the schools, but I was assured that the +arrangements there were equal to those at New York and Boston. Indeed +I was told that they were infinitely better;—but then I was so told +by a Philadelphian. In the State of Connecticut the public schools +are certainly equal to those in any part of the Union. As far as I +could learn, education—what we should call advanced education—is +brought within the reach of all classes in the northern and western +States of America,—and, I would wish to add here, to those of the +Canadas also.</p> + +<p>So much for the schools, and now for the results. I do not know that +anything impresses a visitor more strongly with the amount of books +sold in the States, than the practice of selling them as it has been +adopted in the railway cars. Personally the traveller will find the +system very disagreeable,—as is everything connected with these +cars. A young man enters during the journey,—for the trade is +carried out while the cars are travelling, as is also a very brisk +trade in lollipops, sugar-candy, apples, and ham sandwiches,—the +young tradesman enters the car firstly with a pile of magazines or of +novels bound like magazines. These are chiefly the "Atlantic," +published at Boston, "Harper's Magazine," published at New York, and +a cheap series of novels published at Philadelphia. As he walks along +he flings one at every passenger. An Englishman, when he is first +introduced to this manner of trade, becomes much astonished. He is +probably reading, and on a sudden he finds a fat, fluffy magazine, +very unattractive in its exterior, dropped on to the page he is +perusing. I thought at first that it was a present from some crazed +philanthropist, who was thus endeavouring to disseminate literature. +But I was soon undeceived. The bookseller, having gone down the whole +car and the next, returned, and beginning again where he had begun +before, picked up either his magazine or else the price of it. Then, +in some half-hour, he came again, with an armful or basket of books, +and distributed them in the same way. They were generally novels, but +not always. I do not think that any endeavour is made to assimilate +the book to the expected customer. The object is to bring the book +and the man together, and in this way a very large sale is effected. +The same thing is done with illustrated newspapers. The sale of +political newspapers goes on so quickly in these cars that no such +enforced distribution is necessary. I should say that the average +consumption of newspapers by an American must amount to about three a +day. At Washington I begged the keeper of my lodgings to let me have +a paper regularly,—one American newspaper being much the same to me +as another,—and my host supplied me daily with four.</p> + +<p>But the numbers of the popular books of the day, printed and sold, +afford the most conclusive proof of the extent to which education is +carried in the States. The readers of Tennyson, Thackeray, Dickens, +Bulwer, Collins, Hughes, and—Martin Tupper, are to be counted by +tens of thousands in the States, to the thousands by which they may +be counted in our own islands. I do not doubt that I had fully +fifteen copies of the "Silver Cord" thrown at my head in different +railway cars on the continent of America. Nor is the taste by any +means confined to the literature of England. Longfellow, Curtis, +Holmes, Hawthorne, Lowell, Emerson,—and Mrs. Stowe, are almost as +popular as their English rivals. I do not say whether or no the +literature is well chosen, but there it is. It is printed, sold, and +read. The disposal of ten thousand copies of a work is no large sale +in America of a book published at a dollar; but in England it is a +large sale of a book brought out at five shillings.</p> + +<p>I do not remember that I ever examined the rooms of an American +without finding books or magazines in them. I do not speak here of +the houses of my friends, as of course the same remark would apply as +strongly in England, but of the houses of persons presumed to earn +their bread by the labour of their hands. The opportunity for such +examination does not come daily; but when it has been in my power I +have made it, and have always found signs of education. Men and women +of the classes to which I allude talk of reading and writing as of +arts belonging to them as a matter of course, quite as much as are +the arts of eating and drinking. A porter or a farmer's servant in +the States is not proud of reading and writing. It is to him quite a +matter of course. The coachmen on their boxes and the boots as they +sit in the halls of the hotels, have newspapers constantly in their +hands. The young women have them also, and the children. The fact +comes home to one at every turn, and at every hour, that the people +are an educated people. The whole of this question between North and +South is as well understood by the servants as by their masters, is +discussed as vehemently by the private soldiers as by the officers. +The politics of the country and the nature of its constitution are +familiar to every labourer. The very wording of the Declaration of +Independence is in the memory of every lad of sixteen. Boys and girls +of a younger age than that know why Slidell and Mason were arrested, +and will tell you why they should have been given up, or why they +should have been held in durance. The question of the war with +England is debated by every native paviour and hodman of New York.</p> + +<p>I know what Englishmen will say in answer to this. They will declare +that they do not want their paviours and hodmen to talk politics; +that they are as well pleased that their coachmen and cooks should +not always have a newspaper in their hands; that private soldiers +will fight as well, and obey better, if they are not trained to +discuss the causes which have brought them into the field. An English +gentleman will think that his gardener will be a better gardener +without than with any excessive political ardour; and the English +lady will prefer that her housemaid shall not have a very pronounced +opinion of her own as to the capabilities of the cabinet ministers. +But I would submit to all Englishmen and Englishwomen who may look at +these pages whether such an opinion or feeling on their part bears +much, or even at all, upon the subject. I am not saying that the man +who is driven in the coach is better off because his coachman reads +the paper, but that the coachman himself who reads the paper is +better off than the coachman who does not and cannot. I think that we +are too apt, in considering the ways and habits of any people, to +judge of them by the effect of those ways and habits on us, rather +than by their effects on the owners of them. When we go among +garlic-eaters, we condemn them because they are offensive to us; but +to judge of them properly we should ascertain whether or no the +garlic be offensive to them. If we could imagine a nation of +vegetarians hearing for the first time of our habits as flesh-eaters, +we should feel sure that they would be struck with horror at our +blood-stained banquets; but when they came to argue with us, we +should bid them inquire whether we flesh-eaters did not live longer +and do more than the vegetarians. When we express a dislike to the +shoeboy reading his newspaper, I fear we do so because we fear that +the shoeboy is coming near our own heels. I know there is among us a +strong feeling that the lower classes are better without politics, as +there is also that they are better without crinoline and artificial +flowers; but if politics and crinoline and artificial flowers are +good at all, they are good for all who can honestly come by them and +honestly use them. The political coachman is perhaps less valuable to +his master as a coachman than he would be without his politics, but +he with his politics is more valuable to himself. For myself, I do +not like the Americans of the lower orders. I am not comfortable +among them. They tread on my corns and offend me. They make my daily +life unpleasant. But I do respect them. I acknowledge their +intelligence and personal dignity. I know that they are men and women +worthy to be so called; I see that they are living as human beings in +possession of reasoning faculties; and I perceive that they owe this +to the progress that education has made among them.</p> + +<p>After all, what is wanted in this world? Is it not that men should +eat and drink, and read and write, and say their prayers? Does not +that include everything, providing that they eat and drink enough, +read and write without restraint, and say their prayers without +hypocrisy? When we talk of the advances of civilization, do we mean +anything but this, that men who now eat and drink badly shall eat and +drink well, and that those who cannot read and write now shall learn +to do so,—the prayers following, as prayers will follow upon such +learning? Civilization does not consist in the eschewing of garlic or +the keeping clean of a man's finger-nails. It may lead to such +delicacies, and probably will do so. But the man who thinks that +civilization cannot exist without them imagines that the church +cannot stand without the spire. In the States of America men do eat +and drink, and do read and write.</p> + +<p>But as to saying their prayers? That, as far as I can see, has come +also, though perhaps not in a manner altogether satisfactory, or to a +degree which should be held to be sufficient. Englishmen of strong +religious feeling will often be startled in America by the freedom +with which religious subjects are discussed, and the ease with which +the matter is treated; but he will very rarely be shocked by that +utter absence of all knowledge on the subject,—that total darkness, +which is still so common among the lower orders in our own country. +It is not a common thing to meet an American who belongs to no +denomination of Christian worship, and who cannot tell you why he +belongs to that which he has chosen.</p> + +<p>"But," it will be said, "all the intelligence and education of this +people have not saved them from falling out among themselves and +their friends, and running into troubles by which they will be +ruined. Their political arrangements have been so bad, that in spite +of all their reading and writing they must go to the wall." I venture +to express an opinion that they will by no means go to the wall, and +that they will be saved from such a destiny, if in no other way, then +by their education. Of their political arrangements, as I mean before +long to rush into that perilous subject, I will say nothing here. But +no political convulsions, should such arise,—no revolution in the +constitution, should such be necessary,—will have any wide effect on +the social position of the people to their serious detriment. They +have the great qualities of the Anglo-Saxon race,—industry, +intelligence, and self-confidence; and if these qualities will no +longer suffice to keep such a people on their legs, the world must be +coming to an end.</p> + +<p>I have said that it is not a common thing to meet an American who +belongs to no denomination of Christian worship. This I think is so; +but I would not wish to be taken as saying that religion on that +account stands on a satisfactory footing in the States. Of all +subjects of discussion, this is the most difficult. It is one as to +which most of us feel that to some extent we must trust to our +prejudices rather than our judgments. It is a matter on which we do +not dare to rely implicitly on our own reasoning faculties, and +therefore throw ourselves on the opinions of those whom we believe to +have been better men and deeper thinkers than ourselves. For myself, +I love the name of State and Church, and believe that much of our +English well-being has depended on it. I have made up my mind to +think that union good, and not to be turned away from that +conviction. Nevertheless I am not prepared to argue the matter. One +does not always carry one's proofs at one's finger-ends.</p> + +<p>But I feel very strongly that much of that which is evil in the +structure of American politics is owing to the absence of any +national religion, and that something also of social evil has sprung +from the same cause. It is not that men do not say their prayers. For +aught I know, they may do so as frequently and as fervently, or more +frequently and more fervently, than we do; but there is a rowdiness, +if I may be allowed to use such a word, in their manner of doing so +which robs religion of that reverence which is, if not its essence, +at any rate its chief protection. It is a part of their system that +religion shall be perfectly free, and that no man shall be in any way +constrained in that matter. Consequently, the question of a man's +religion is regarded in a free-and-easy way. It is well, for +instance, that a young lad should go somewhere on a Sunday; but a +sermon is a sermon, and it does not much concern the lad's father +whether his son hear the discourse of a freethinker in the +music-hall, or the eloquent but lengthy outpouring of a preacher in a +Methodist chapel. Everybody is bound to have a religion, but it does +not much matter what it is.</p> + +<p>The difficulty in which the first fathers of the Revolution found +themselves on this question, is shown by the constitutions of the +different States. There can be no doubt that the inhabitants of the +New England States were, as things went, a strictly religious +community. They had no idea of throwing over the worship of God, as +the French had attempted to do at their Revolution. They intended +that the new nation should be pre-eminently composed of a God-fearing +people; but they intended also that they should be a people free in +everything,—free to choose their own forms of worship. They intended +that the nation should be a Protestant people; but they intended also +that no man's conscience should be coerced in the matter of his own +religion. It was hard to reconcile these two things, and to explain +to the citizens that it behoved them to worship God,—even under +penalties for omission; but that it was at the same time open to them +to select any form of worship that they pleased, however that form +might differ from the practices of the majority. In Connecticut it is +declared that it is the duty of all men to worship the Supreme Being, +the Creator and Preserver of the universe, but that it is their right +to render that worship in the mode most consistent with the dictates +of their consciences. And then a few lines further down the article +skips the great difficulty in a manner somewhat disingenuous, and +declares that each and every society of Christians in the State shall +have and enjoy the same and equal privileges. But it does not say +whether a Jew shall be divested of those privileges, or, if he be +divested, how that treatment of him is to be reconciled with the +assurance that it is every man's right to worship the Supreme Being +in the mode most consistent with the dictates of his own conscience.</p> + +<p>In Rhode Island they were more honest. It is there declared that +every man shall be free to worship God according to the dictates of +his own conscience, and to profess and by argument to maintain his +opinion in matters of religion; and that the same shall in nowise +diminish, enlarge, or affect his civil capacity. Here it is simply +presumed that every man will worship a God, and no allusion is made +even to Christianity.</p> + +<p>In Massachusetts they are again hardly honest. "It is the right," +says the constitution, "as well as the duty of all men in society +publicly and at stated seasons to worship the Supreme Being, the +great Creator and Preserver of the universe." And then it goes on to +say that every man may do so in what form he pleases; but further +down it declares that "every denomination of Christians, demeaning +themselves peaceably and as good subjects of the commonwealth, shall +be equally under the protection of the law." But what about those who +are not Christians? In New Hampshire it is exactly the same. It is +enacted that—"Every individual has a natural and unalienable right +to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience and +reason." And that—"Every denomination of Christians, demeaning +themselves quietly and as good citizens of the State, shall be +equally under the protection of the law." From all which it is, I +think, manifest that the men who framed these documents, desirous +above all things of cutting themselves and their people loose from +every kind of trammel, still felt the necessity of enforcing +religion,—of making it to a certain extent a matter of State duty. +In the first constitution of North Carolina it is enjoined,—"That no +person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the +Protestant religion, shall be capable of holding any office or place +of trust or profit." But this was altered in the year 1836, and the +words "Christian religion" were substituted for "Protestant +religion."</p> + +<p>In New England the Congregationalists are, I think, the dominant +sect. In Massachusetts, and I believe in the other New England +States, a man is presumed to be a Congregationalist if he do not +declare himself to be anything else; as with us the Church of England +counts all who do not specially have themselves counted elsewhere. +The Congregationalist, as far as I can learn, is very near to a +Presbyterian. In New England I think the Unitarians would rank next +in number; but a Unitarian in America is not the same as a Unitarian +with us. Here, if I understand the nature of his creed, a Unitarian +does not recognize the divinity of our Saviour. In America he does do +so, but throws over the doctrine of the Trinity. The Protestant +Episcopalians muster strong in all the great cities, and I fancy that +they would be regarded as taking the lead of the other religious +denominations in New York. Their tendency is to high-church +doctrines. I wish they had not found it necessary to alter the forms +of our prayer-book in so many little matters, as to which there was +no national expediency for such changes. But it was probably thought +necessary that a new people should show their independence in all +things. The Roman Catholics have a very strong party—as a matter of +course—seeing how great has been the immigration from Ireland; but +here, as in Ireland—and as indeed is the case all the world +over—the Roman Catholics are the hewers of wood and drawers of +water. The Germans, who have latterly flocked into the States in such +swarms that they have almost Germanized certain States, have of +course their own churches. In every town there are places of worship +for Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Anabaptists, and every +denomination of Christianity; and the meeting-houses prepared for +these sects are not, as with us, hideous buildings contrived to +inspire disgust by the enormity of their ugliness, nor are they +called Salem, Ebenezer, and Sion, nor do the ministers within them +look in any way like the Deputy-Shepherd. The churches belonging to +those sects are often handsome. This is especially the case in New +York; and the pastors are not unfrequently among the best educated +and most agreeable men whom the traveller will meet. They are for the +most part well paid; and are enabled by their outward position to +hold that place in the world's ranks which should always belong to a +clergyman. I have not been able to obtain information from which I +can state with anything like correctness what may be the average +income of ministers of the Gospel in the northern States, but that it +is much higher than the average income of our parish clergymen, +admits, I think, of no doubt. The stipends of clergymen in the +American towns are higher than those paid in the country. The +opposite to this, I think as a rule, is the case with us.</p> + +<p>I have said that religion in the States is rowdy. By that I mean to +imply that it seems to me to be divested of that reverential order +and strictness of rule which, according to our ideas, should be +attached to matters of religion. One hardly knows where the affairs +of this world end, or where those of the next begin. When the holy +men were had in at the lecture, were they doing stage-work or +church-work? On hearing sermons, one is often driven to ask oneself +whether the discourse from the pulpit be in its nature political or +religious. I heard an Episcopalian Protestant clergyman talk of the +scoffing nations of Europe,—because at that moment he was angry with +England and France about Slidell and Mason. I have heard a chapter of +the Bible read in Congress at the desire of a member, and very badly +read. After which the chapter itself and the reading of it became the +subject of a debate, partly jocose and partly acrimonious. It is a +common thing for a clergyman to change his profession and follow any +other pursuit. I know two or three gentlemen who were once in that +line of life, but have since gone into other trades. There is, I +think, an unexpressed determination on the part of the people to +abandon all reverence, and to regard religion from an altogether +worldly point of view. They are willing to have religion, as they are +willing to have laws; but they choose to make it for themselves. They +do not object to pay for it, but they like to have the handling of +the article for which they pay. As the descendants of Puritans and +other godly Protestants, they will submit to religious teaching, but +as Republicans they will have no priestcraft. The French at their +Revolution had the latter feeling without the former, and were +therefore consistent with themselves in abolishing all worship. The +Americans desire to do the same thing politically, but infidelity has +had no charms for them. They say their prayers, and then seem to +apologize for doing so, as though it were hardly the act of a free +and enlightened citizen, justified in ruling himself as he pleases. +All this to me is rowdy. I know no other word by which I can so well +describe it.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless the nation is religious in its tendencies, and prone to +acknowledge the goodness of God in all things. A man there is +expected to belong to some church, and is not, I think, well looked +on if he profess that he belongs to none. He may be a Swedenborgian, +a Quaker, a Muggletonian;—anything will do. But it is expected of +him that he shall place himself under some flag, and do his share in +supporting the flag to which he belongs. This duty is, I think, +generally fulfilled.</p> + + +<p><a id="c20"></a> </p> +<p> </p> +<h3>CHAPTER XX.</h3> +<h4>FROM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON.<br /> </h4> + + +<p>From Boston, on the 27th of November, my wife returned to England, +leaving me to prosecute my journey southward to Washington by myself. +I shall never forget the political feeling which prevailed in Boston +at that time, or the discussions on the subject of Slidell and Mason, +in which I felt myself bound to take a part. Up to that period I +confess that my sympathies had been strongly with the northern side +in the general question; and so they were still, as far as I could +divest the matter of its English bearings. I had always thought, and +do think, that a war for the suppression of the southern rebellion +could not have been avoided by the North without an absolute loss of +its political prestige. Mr. Lincoln was elected President of the +United States in the autumn of 1860, and any steps taken by him or +his party towards a peaceable solution of the difficulties which +broke out immediately on his election, must have been taken before he +entered upon his office. South Carolina threatened secession as soon +as Mr. Lincoln's election was known, while yet there were four months +left of Mr. Buchanan's Government. That Mr. Buchanan might, during +those four months, have prevented secession, few men, I think, will +doubt when the history of the time shall be written. But instead of +doing so he consummated secession. Mr. Buchanan is a northern man, a +Pennsylvanian; but he was opposed to the party which had brought in +Mr. Lincoln, having thriven as a politician by his adherence to +southern principles. Now, when the struggle came, he could not forget +his party in his duty as President. General Jackson's position was +much the same when Mr. Calhoun, on the question of the tariff, +endeavoured to produce secession in South Carolina thirty years ago, +in 1832,—excepting in this, that Jackson was himself a southern man. +But Jackson had a strong conception of the position which he held as +President of the United States. He put his foot on secession and +crushed it, forcing Mr. Calhoun, as senator from South Carolina, to +vote for that compromise as to the tariff which the Government of the +day proposed. South Carolina was as eager in 1832 for secession as +she was in 1859-1860; but the Government was in the hands of a strong +man and an honest one. Mr. Calhoun would have been hung had he +carried out his threats. But Mr. Buchanan had neither the power nor +the honesty of General Jackson, and thus secession was in fact +consummated during his Presidency.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Lincoln's party, it is said—and I believe truly said—might +have prevented secession by making overtures to the South, or +accepting overtures from the South, before Mr. Lincoln himself had +been inaugurated. That is to say,—if Mr. Lincoln and the band of +politicians who with him had pushed their way to the top of their +party, and were about to fill the offices of State, chose to throw +overboard the political convictions which had bound them together and +insured their success,—if they could bring themselves to adopt on +the subject of slavery the ideas of their opponents,—then the war +might have been avoided, and secession also avoided. I do believe +that had Mr. Lincoln at that time submitted himself to a compromise +in favour of the Democrats, promising the support of the Government +to certain acts which would in fact have been in favour of slavery, +South Carolina would again have been foiled for the time. For it must +be understood, that though South Carolina and the Gulf States might +have accepted certain compromises, they would not have been satisfied +in so accepting them. They desired secession, and nothing short of +secession would, in truth, have been acceptable to them. But in doing +so Mr. Lincoln would have been the most dishonest politician even in +America. The North would have been in arms against him; and any true +spirit of agreement between the cotton-growing slave States and the +manufacturing States of the North, or the agricultural States of the +West, would have been as far off and as improbable as it is now. Mr. +Crittenden, who proffered his compromise to the Senate in December, +1860, was at that time one of the two senators from Kentucky, a slave +State. He now sits in the Lower House of Congress as a member from +the same State. Kentucky is one of those border States which has +found it impossible to secede, and almost equally impossible to +remain in the Union. It is one of the States into which it was most +probable that the war would be carried;—Virginia, Kentucky, and +Missouri being the three States which have suffered the most in this +way. Of Mr. Crittenden's own family, some have gone with secession +and some with the Union. His name had been honourably connected with +American politics for nearly forty years, and it is not surprising +that he should have desired a compromise. His terms were in fact +these,—a return to the Missouri compromise, under which the Union +pledged itself that no slavery should exist north of 36.30 degrees N. +lat. unless where it had so existed prior to the date of that +compromise; a pledge that Congress would not interfere with slavery +in the individual States,—which under the constitution it cannot do; +and a pledge that the Fugitive Slave Law should be carried out by the +northern States. Such a compromise might seem to make very small +demand on the forbearance of the Republican party, which was now +dominant. The repeal of the Missouri compromise had been to them a +loss, and it might be said that its re-enactment would be a gain. But +since that compromise had been repealed, vast territories south of +the line in question had been added to the Union, and the +re-enactment of that compromise would hand those vast regions over to +absolute slavery, as had been done with Texas. This might be all very +well for Mr. Crittenden in the slave State of Kentucky—for Mr. +Crittenden, although a slave-owner, desired to perpetuate the Union; +but it would not have been well for New England or for the West. As +for the second proposition, it is well understood that under the +constitution Congress cannot interfere in any way in the question of +slavery in the individual States. Congress has no more constitutional +power to abolish slavery in Maryland than she has to introduce it +into Massachusetts. No such pledge, therefore, was necessary on +either side. But such a pledge given by the North and West would have +acted as an additional tie upon them, binding them to the finality of +a constitutional enactment to which, as was of course well known, +they strongly object. There was no question of Congress interfering +with slavery, with the purport of extending its area by special +enactment, and therefore by such a pledge the North and West could +gain nothing; but the South would in prestige have gained much.</p> + +<p>But that third proposition as to the Fugitive Slave Law and the +faithful execution of that law by the northern and western States +would, if acceded to by Mr. Lincoln's party, have amounted to an +unconditional surrender of everything. What! Massachusetts and +Connecticut carry out the Fugitive Slave Law! Ohio carry out the +Fugitive Slave Law after the "Dred Scot" decision and all its +consequences! Mr. Crittenden might as well have asked Connecticut, +Massachusetts, and Ohio to introduce slavery within their own lands. +The Fugitive Slave Law was then, as it is now, the law of the land; +it was the law of the United States as voted by Congress and passed +by the President, and acted on by the Supreme Judge of the United +States' Court. But it was a law to which no free State had submitted +itself, or would submit itself. "What!" the English reader will +say,—"sundry States in the Union refuse to obey the laws of the +Union,—refuse to submit to the constitutional action of their own +Congress!" Yes. Such has been the position of this country! To such a +dead lock has it been brought by the attempted but impossible +amalgamation of North and South. Mr. Crittenden's compromise was +moonshine. It was utterly out of the question that the free States +should bind themselves to the rendition of escaped slaves,—or that +Mr. Lincoln, who had just been brought in by their voices, should +agree to any compromise which should attempt so to bind them. Lord +Palmerston might as well attempt to re-enact the Corn Laws.</p> + +<p>Then comes the question whether Mr. Lincoln or his Government could +have prevented the war after he had entered upon his office in March, +1861? I do not suppose that any one thinks that he could have avoided +secession and avoided the war also;—that by any ordinary effort of +Government he could have secured the adhesion of the Gulf States to +the Union after the first shot had been fired at Fort Sumter. The +general opinion in England is, I take it, this,—that secession then +was manifestly necessary, and that all the bloodshed and money-shed, +and all this destruction of commerce and of agriculture might have +been prevented by a graceful adhesion to an indisputable fact. But +there are some facts, even some indisputable facts, to which a +graceful adherence is not possible. Could King Bomba have welcomed +Garibaldi to Naples? Can the Pope shake hands with Victor Emmanuel? +Could the English have surrendered to their rebel colonists peaceable +possession of the colonies? The indisputability of a fact is not very +easily settled while the circumstances are in course of action by +which the fact is to be decided. The men of the northern States have +not believed in the necessity of secession, but have believed it to +be their duty to enforce the adherence of these States to the Union. +The American Governments have been much given to compromises, but had +Mr. Lincoln attempted any compromise by which any one southern State +could have been let out of the Union, he would have been impeached. +In all probability the whole constitution would have gone to ruin, +and the presidency would have been at an end. At any rate, his +presidency would have been at an end. When secession, or in other +words rebellion, was once commenced, he had no alternative but the +use of coercive measures for putting it down;—that is, he had no +alternative but war. It is not to be supposed that he or his ministry +contemplated such a war as has existed,—with 600,000 men in arms on +one side, each man with his whole belongings maintained at a cost of +£150 per annum, or ninety millions sterling per annum for the army. +Nor did we, when we resolved to put down the French revolution, think +of such a national debt as we now owe. These things grow by degrees, +and the mind also grows in becoming used to them; but I cannot see +that there was any moment at which Mr. Lincoln could have stayed his +hand and cried Peace! It is easy to say now that acquiescence in +secession would have been better than war, but there has been no +moment when he could have said so with any avail. It was incumbent on +him to put down rebellion, or to be put down by it. So it was with us +in America in 1776.</p> + +<p>I do not think that we in England have quite sufficiently taken all +this into consideration. We have been in the habit of exclaiming very +loudly against the war, execrating its cruelty and anathematizing its +results, as though the cruelty were all superfluous and the results +unnecessary. But I do not remember to have seen any statement as to +what the northern States should have done,—what they should have +done, that is, as regards the South, or when they should have done +it. It seems to me that we have decided as regards them that civil +war is a very bad thing, and that therefore civil war should be +avoided. But bad things cannot always be avoided. It is this feeling +on our part that has produced so much irritation in them against +us,—reproducing, of course, irritation on our part against them. +They cannot understand that we should not wish them to be successful +in putting down a rebellion; nor can we understand why they should be +outrageous against us for standing aloof, and keeping our hands, if +it be only possible, out of the fire.</p> + +<p>When Slidell and Mason were arrested, my opinions were not changed, +but my feelings were altered. I seemed to acknowledge to myself that +the treatment to which England had been subjected, and the manner in +which that treatment was discussed, made it necessary that I should +regard the question as it existed between England and the States, +rather than in its reference to the North and South. I had always +felt that as regarded the action of our Government we had been sans +reproche; that in arranging our conduct we had thought neither of +money nor political influence, but simply of the justice of the +case,—promising to abstain from all interference and keeping that +promise faithfully. It had been quite clear to me that the men of the +North, and the women also, had failed to appreciate this, looking, as +men in a quarrel always do look, for special favour on their side. +Everything that England did was wrong. If a private merchant, at his +own risk, took a cargo of rifles to some southern port, that act to +northern eyes was an act of English interference,—of favour shown to +the South by England as a nation; but twenty shiploads of rifles sent +from England to the North merely signified a brisk trade and a desire +for profit. The "James Adger," a northern man-of-war, was refitted at +Southampton as a matter of course. There was no blame to England for +that. But the "Nashville," belonging to the Confederates, should not +have been allowed into English waters! It was useless to speak of +neutrality. No Northerner would understand that a rebel could have +any mutual right. The South had no claim in his eyes as a +belligerent, though the North claimed all those rights which he could +only enjoy by the fact of there being a recognized war between him +and his enemy the South. The North was learning to hate England, and +day by day the feeling grew upon me that, much as I wished to espouse +the cause of the North, I should have to espouse the cause of my own +country. Then Slidell and Mason were arrested, and I began to +calculate how long I might remain in the country. "There is no +danger. We are quite right," the lawyers said. "There are Vattel and +Puffendorff and Stowell and Phillimore and Wheaton," said the ladies. +"Ambassadors are contraband all the world over,—more so than +gunpowder; and if taken in a neutral bottom, &c." I wonder why ships +are always called bottoms when spoken of with legal technicality? But +neither the lawyers nor the ladies convinced me. I know that there +are matters which will be read not in accordance with any written +law, but in accordance with the bias of the reader's mind. Such laws +are made to be strained any way. I knew how it would be. All the +legal acumen of New England declared the seizure of Slidell and Mason +to be right. The legal acumen of Old England has declared it to be +wrong; and I have no doubt that the ladies of Old England can prove +it to be wrong out of Vattel, Puffendorff, Stowell, Phillimore, and +Wheaton.</p> + +<p>"But there's Grotius," I said, to an elderly female at New York, who +had quoted to me some half-dozen writers on international law, +thinking thereby that I should trump her last card. "I've looked into +Grotius too," said she, "and as far as I can see," &c. &c. &c. So I +had to fall back again on the convictions to which instinct and +common sense had brought me. I never doubted for a moment that those +convictions would be supported by English lawyers.</p> + +<p>I left Boston with a sad feeling at my heart that a quarrel was +imminent between England and the States, and that any such quarrel +must be destructive to the cause of the North. I had never believed +that the States of New England and the Gulf States would again become +parts of one nation, but I had thought that the terms of separation +would be dictated by the North, and not by the South. I had felt +assured that South Carolina and the Gulf States, across from the +Atlantic to Texas, would succeed in forming themselves into a +separate confederation; but I had still hoped that Maryland, +Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri might be saved to the grander empire +of the North, and that thus a great blow to slavery might be the +consequence of this civil war. But such ascendancy could only fall to +the North by reason of their command of the sea. The northern ports +were all open, and the southern ports were all closed. But if this +should be reversed. If by England's action the southern ports should +be opened, and the northern ports closed, the North could have no +fair expectation of success. The ascendancy in that case would all be +with the South. Up to that moment,—the Christmas of 1861,—Maryland +was kept in subjection by the guns which General Dix had planted over +the city of Baltimore. Two-thirds of Virginia were in active +rebellion, coerced originally into that position by her dependence +for the sale of her slaves on the cotton States. Kentucky was +doubtful, and divided. When the federal troops prevailed, Kentucky +was loyal; when the Confederate troops prevailed, Kentucky was +rebellious. The condition in Missouri was much the same. Those four +States, by two of which the capital, with its district of Columbia, +is surrounded, might be gained, or might be lost. And these four +States are susceptible of white labour,—as much so as Ohio and +Illinois,—are rich in fertility, and rich also in all associations +which must be dear to Americans. Without Virginia, Maryland, and +Kentucky, without the Potomac, the Chesapeake, and Mount Vernon, the +North would indeed be shorn of its glory! But it seemed to be in the +power of the North to say under what terms secession should take +place, and where should be the line. A senator from South Carolina +could never again sit in the same chamber with one from +Massachusetts; but there need be no such bar against the border +States. So much might at any rate be gained, and might stand +hereafter as the product of all that money spent on 600,000 soldiers. +But if the Northerners should now elect to throw themselves into a +quarrel with England, if in the gratification of a shameless +braggadocio they should insist on doing what they liked, not only +with their own, but with the property of all others also, it +certainly did seem as though utter ruin must await their cause. With +England, or one might say with Europe, against them, secession must +be accomplished, not on northern terms, but on terms dictated by the +South. The choice was then for them to make; and just at that time it +seemed as though they were resolved to throw away every good card out +of their hand. Such had been the ministerial wisdom of Mr. Seward. I +remember hearing the matter discussed in easy terms by one of the +United States senators. "Remember, Mr. Trollope," he said to me, "we +don't want a war with England. If the choice is given to us, we had +rather not fight England. Fighting is a bad thing. But remember this +also, Mr. Trollope—that if the matter is pressed on us, we have no +great objection. We had rather not, but we don't care much one way or +the other." What one individual may say to another is not of much +moment, but this senator was expressing the feelings of his +constituents, who were the legislature of the State from whence he +came. He was expressing the general idea on the subject of a large +body of Americans. It was not that he and his State had really no +objection to the war. Such a war loomed terribly large before the +minds of them all. They knew it to be fraught with the saddest +consequences. It was so regarded in the mind of that senator. But the +braggadocio could not be omitted. Had he omitted it, he would have +been untrue to his constituency.</p> + +<p>When I left Boston for Washington nothing was as yet known of what +the English Government or the English lawyers might say. This was in +the first week in December, and the expected voice from England could +not be heard till the end of the second week. It was a period of +great suspense, and of great sorrow also to the more sober-minded +Americans. To me the idea of such a war was terrible. It seemed that +in these days all the hopes of our youth were being shattered. That +poetic turning of the sword into a sickle, which gladdened our hearts +ten or twelve years since, had been clean banished from men's minds. +To belong to a peace-party was to be either a fanatic, an idiot, or a +driveller. The arts of war had become everything. Armstrong guns, +themselves indestructible, but capable of destroying everything +within sight, and most things out of sight, were the only recognized +results of man's inventive faculties. To build bigger, stronger, and +more ships than the French was England's glory. To hit a speck with a +rifle bullet at 800 yards' distance was an Englishman's first duty. +The proper use for a young man's leisure hours was the practice of +drilling. All this had come upon us with very quick steps, since the +beginning of the Russian war. But if fighting must needs be done, one +did not feel special grief at fighting a Russian. That the Indian +mutiny should be put down was a matter of course. That those Chinese +rascals should be forced into the harness of civilization was a good +thing. That England should be as strong as France,—or perhaps, if +possible, a little stronger,—recommended itself to an Englishman's +mind as a State necessity. But a war with the States of America! In +thinking of it I began to believe that the world was going backwards. +Over sixty millions sterling of stock—railway stock and such +like—are held in America by Englishmen, and the chances would be +that before such a war could be finished the whole of that would be +confiscated. Family connections between the States and the British +isles are almost as close as between one of those islands and +another. The commercial intercourse between the two countries has +given bread to millions of Englishmen, and a break in it would rob +millions of their bread. These people speak our language, use our +prayers, read our books, are ruled by our laws, dress themselves in +our image, are warm with our blood. They have all our virtues; and +their vices are our own too, loudly as we call out against them. They +are our sons and our daughters, the source of our greatest pride, and +as we grow old they should be the staff of our age. Such a war as we +should now wage with the States would be an unloosing of hell upon +all that is best upon the world's surface. If in such a war we beat +the Americans, they with their proud stomachs would never forgive us. +If they should be victors, we should never forgive ourselves. I +certainly could not bring myself to speak of it with the equanimity +of my friend the senator.</p> + +<p>I went through New York to Philadelphia and made a short visit to the +latter town. Philadelphia seems to me to have thrown off its Quaker +garb, and to present itself to the world in the garments ordinarily +assumed by large cities; by which I intend to express my opinion that +the Philadelphians are not in these latter days any better than their +neighbours. I am not sure whether in some respects they may not +perhaps be worse. Quakers,—Quakers absolutely in the very flesh of +close bonnets and brown knee-breeches,—are still to be seen there; +but they are not numerous, and would not strike the eye if one did +not specially look for a Quaker at Philadelphia. It is a large town, +with a very large hotel,—there are no doubt half-a-dozen large +hotels, but one of them is specially great,—with long straight +streets, good shops and markets, and decent comfortable-looking +houses. The houses of Philadelphia generally are not so large as +those of other great cities in the States. They are more modest than +those of New York, and less commodious than those of Boston. Their +most striking appendage is the marble steps at the front doors. Two +doors as a rule enjoy one set of steps, on the outer edges of which +there is generally no parapet or raised curb-stone. This, to my eye, +gave the houses an unfinished appearance,—as though the marble ran +short, and no further expenditure could be made. The frost came when +I was there, and then all these steps were covered up in wooden +cases.</p> + +<p>The city of Philadelphia lies between the two rivers, the Delaware +and the Schuylkill. Eight chief streets run from river to river, and +twenty-four cross-streets bisect the eight at right angles. The long +streets are, with the exception of Market Street, called by the names +of trees,—chesnut, walnut, pine, spruce, mulberry, vine, and so on. +The cross-streets are all called by their numbers. In the long +streets the numbers of the houses are not consecutive, but follow the +numbers of the cross streets; so that a person living in Chesnut +Street between Tenth Street and Eleventh Street, and ten doors from +Tenth Street, would live at No. 1010. The opposite house would be No. +1011. It thus follows that the number of the house indicates the +exact block of houses in which it is situated. I do not like the +right-angled building of these towns, nor do I like the sound of +Twentieth Street and Thirtieth Street; but I must acknowledge that +the arrangement in Philadelphia has its convenience. In New York I +found it by no means an easy thing to arrive at the desired locality.</p> + +<p>They boast in Philadelphia that they have half a million inhabitants. +If this be taken as a true calculation, Philadelphia is in size the +fourth city in the world,—putting out of the question the cities of +China, as to which we have heard so much and believe so little. But +in making this calculation the citizens include the population of a +district on some sides ten miles distant from Philadelphia. It takes +in other towns connected with it by railway but separated by large +spaces of open country. American cities are very proud of their +population, but if they all counted in this way, there would soon be +no rural population left at all. There is a very fine bank at +Philadelphia,—and Philadelphia is a town somewhat celebrated in its +banking history. My remarks here, however, apply simply to the +external building, and not to its internal honesty and wisdom, or to +its commercial credit.</p> + +<p>In Philadelphia also stands the old house of Congress,—the house in +which the Congress of the United States was held previous to 1800, +when the Government, and the Congress with it, were moved to the new +city of Washington. I believe, however, that the first Congress, +properly so called, was assembled at New York in 1789, the date of +the inauguration of the first President. It was, however, here, in +this building at Philadelphia, that the independence of the Union was +declared in 1776, and that the constitution of the United States was +framed.</p> + +<p>Pennsylvania, with Philadelphia for its capital, was once the leading +State of the Union,—leading by a long distance. At the end of the +last century it beat all the other States in population, but has +since been surpassed by New York in all respects,—in population, +commerce, wealth, and general activity. Of course it is known that +Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn, the Quaker, by Charles II. +I cannot completely understand what was the meaning of such +grants,—how far they implied absolute possession in the territory, +or how far they confirmed simply the power of settling and governing +a colony. In this case a very considerable property was confirmed, as +the claim made by Penn's children after Penn's death was bought up by +the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for £130,000; which in those days +was a large price for almost any landed estate on the other side of +the Atlantic.</p> + +<p>Pennsylvania lies directly on the borders of slave land, being +immediately north of Maryland. Mason and Dixon's line, of which we +hear so often, and which was first established as the division +between slave soil and free soil, runs between Pennsylvania and +Maryland. The little State of Delaware, which lies between Maryland +and the Atlantic, is also tainted with slavery; but the stain is not +heavy nor indelible. In a population of a hundred and twelve thousand +there are not two thousand slaves, and of these the owners generally +would willingly rid themselves if they could. It is, however, a point +of honour with these owners, as it is also in Maryland, not to sell +their slaves; and a man who cannot sell his slaves must keep them. +Were he to enfranchise them and send them about their business, they +would come back upon his hands. Were he to enfranchise them and pay +them wages for work, they would get the wages but he would not get +the work. They would get the wages, but at the end of three months +they would still fall back upon his hands in debt and distress, +looking to him for aid and comfort as a child looks for it. It is not +easy to get rid of a slave in a slave State. That question of +enfranchising slaves is not one to be very readily solved.</p> + +<p>In Pennsylvania the right of voting is confined to free white men. In +New York the coloured free men have the right to vote, providing they +have a certain small property qualification, and have been citizens +for three years in the State;—whereas a white man need have been a +citizen but for ten days, and need have no property qualification; +from which it is seen that the position of the negro becomes worse, +or less like that of a white man, as the border of slave land is more +nearly reached. But in the teeth of this embargo on coloured men, the +constitution of Pennsylvania asserts broadly that all men are born +equally free and independent. One cannot conceive how two clauses can +have found their way into the same document so absolutely +contradictory to each other. The first clause says that white men +shall vote, and that black men shall not, which means that all +political action shall be confined to white men. The second clause +says that all men are born equally free and independent!</p> + +<p>In Philadelphia I for the first time came across live +secessionists,—secessionists who pronounced themselves to be such. I +will not say that I had met in other cities men who falsely declared +themselves true to the Union; but I had fancied, in regard to some, +that their words were a little stronger than their feelings. When a +man's bread,—and much more, when the bread of his wife and +children,—depends on his professing a certain line of political +conviction, it is very hard for him to deny his assent to the truth +of the argument. One feels that a man under such circumstances is +bound to be convinced, unless he be in a position which may make a +stanch adherence to opposite politics a matter of grave public +importance. In the North I had fancied that I could sometimes read a +secessionist tendency under a cloud of unionist protestations. But in +Philadelphia men did not seem to think it necessary to have recourse +to such a cloud. I generally found in mixed society, even there, that +the discussion of secession was not permitted; but in society that +was not mixed, I heard very strong opinions expressed on each side. +With the unionists nothing was so strong as the necessity of keeping +Slidell and Mason. When I suggested that the English Government would +probably require their surrender, I was talked down and ridiculed. +"Never that; come what may." Then, within half an hour, I would be +told by a secessionist that England must demand reparation if she +meant to retain any place among the great nations of the world; but +he also would declare that the men would not be surrendered. "She +must make the demand," the secessionist would say, "and then there +will be war; and after that we shall see whose ports will be +blockaded!" The Southerner has ever looked to England for some breach +of the blockade, quite as strongly as the North has looked to England +for sympathy and aid in keeping it.</p> + +<p>The railway from Philadelphia to Baltimore passes along the top of +Chesapeake Bay and across the Susquehanna river; at least the railway +cars do so. On one side of that river they are run on to a huge +ferryboat, and are again run off at the other side. Such an operation +would seem to be one of difficulty to us under any circumstances; but +as the Susquehanna is a tidal river, rising and falling a +considerable number of feet, the natural impediment in the way of +such an enterprise would, I think, have staggered us. We should have +built a bridge costing two or three millions sterling, on which no +conceivable amount of traffic would pay a fair dividend. Here, in +crossing the Susquehanna, the boat is so constructed that its deck +shall be level with the line of the railway at half tide, so that the +inclined plane from the shore down to the boat, or from the shore up +to the boat, shall never exceed half the amount of the rise or fall. +One would suppose that the most intricate machinery would have been +necessary for such an arrangement; but it was all rough and simple, +and apparently managed by two negroes. We should employ a small corps +of engineers to conduct such an operation, and men and women would be +detained in their carriages under all manner of threats as to the +peril of life and limb; but here everybody was expected to look out +for himself. The cars were dragged up the inclined plane by a hawser +attached to an engine, which hawser, had the stress broken it, as I +could not but fancy probable, would have flown back and cut to pieces +a lot of us who were standing in front of the car. But I do not think +that any such accident would have caused very much attention. Life +and limbs are not held to be so precious here as they are in England. +It may be a question whether with us they are not almost too +precious. Regarding railways in America generally, as to the relative +safety of which, when compared with our own, we have not in England a +high opinion, I must say that I never saw any accident or in any way +became conversant with one. It is said that large numbers of men and +women are slaughtered from time to time on different lines; but if it +be so, the newspapers make very light of such cases. I myself have +seen no such slaughter, nor have I even found myself in the vicinity +of a broken bone. Beyond the Susquehanna we passed over a creek of +Chesapeake Bay on a long bridge. The whole scenery here is very +pretty, and the view up the Susquehanna is fine. This is the bay +which divides the State of Maryland into two parts, and which is +blessed beyond all other bays by the possession of canvas-back ducks. +Nature has done a great deal for the State of Maryland, but in +nothing more than in sending thither these web-footed birds of +Paradise.</p> + +<p>Nature has done a great deal for Maryland; and Fortune also has done +much for it in these latter days in directing the war from its +territory. But for the peculiar position of Washington as the +capital, all that is now being done in Virginia would have been done +in Maryland, and I must say that the Marylanders did their best to +bring about such a result. Had the presence of the war been regarded +by the men of Baltimore as an unalloyed benefit, they could not have +made a greater struggle to bring it close to them. Nevertheless fate +has so far spared them.</p> + +<p>As the position of Maryland and the course of events as they took +place in Baltimore on the commencement of secession had considerable +influence both in the North and in the South, I will endeavour to +explain how that State was affected, and how the question was +affected by that State. Maryland, as I have said before, is a slave +State lying immediately south of Mason and Dixon's line. Small +portions both of Virginia and of Delaware do run north of Maryland, +but practically Maryland is the frontier State of the slave States. +It was therefore of much importance to know which way Maryland would +go in the event of secession among the slave States becoming general; +and of much also to ascertain whether it could secede if desirous of +doing so. I am inclined to think that as a State it was desirous of +following Virginia, though there are many in Maryland who deny this +very stoutly. But it was at once evident that if loyalty to the North +could not be had in Maryland of its own free will, adherence to the +North must be enforced upon Maryland. Otherwise the city of +Washington could not be maintained as the existing capital of the +nation.</p> + +<p>The question of the fidelity of the State to the Union was first +tried by the arrival at Baltimore of a certain Commissioner from the +State of Mississippi, who visited that city with the object of +inducing secession. It must be understood that Baltimore is the +commercial capital of Maryland, whereas Annapolis is the seat of +Government and the legislature—or is, in other terms, the political +capital. Baltimore is a city containing 230,000 inhabitants, and is +considered to have as strong and perhaps as violent a mob as any city +in the Union. Of the above number 30,000 are negroes and 2000 are +slaves. The Commissioner made his appeal, telling his tale of +southern grievances, declaring, among other things, that secession +was not intended to break up the Government but to perpetuate it, and +asked for the assistance and sympathy of Maryland. This was in +December, 1860. The Commissioner was answered by Governor Hicks, who +was placed in a somewhat difficult position. The existing legislature +of the State was presumed to be secessionist, but the legislature was +not sitting, nor in the ordinary course of things would that +legislature have been called on to sit again. The legislature of +Maryland is elected every other year, and in the ordinary course sits +only once in the two years. That session had been held, and the +existing legislature was therefore exempt from further work,—unless +specially summoned for an extraordinary session. To do this is within +the power of the Governor. But Governor Hicks, who seems to have been +mainly anxious to keep things quiet, and whose individual politics +did not come out strongly, was not inclined to issue the summons. +"Let us show moderation as well as firmness," he said; and that was +about all he did say to the Commissioner from Mississippi. The +Governor after that was directly called on to convene the +legislature; but this he refused to do, alleging that it would not be +safe to trust the discussion of such a subject as secession +to—"excited politicians, many of whom having nothing to lose from +the destruction of the Government, may hope to derive some gain from +the ruin of the State!" I quote these words, coming from the head of +the executive of the State and spoken with reference to the +legislature of the State, with the object of showing in what light +the political leaders of a State may be held in that very State to +which they belong! If we are to judge of these legislators from the +opinion expressed by Governor Hicks, they could hardly have been fit +for their places. That plan of governing by the little men has +certainly not answered. It need hardly be said that Governor Hicks, +having expressed such an opinion of his State's legislature, refused +to call them to an extraordinary session.</p> + +<p>On the 18th of April, 1860, Governor Hicks issued a proclamation to +the people of Maryland, begging them to be quiet, the chief object of +which, however, was that of promising that no troops should be sent +out from their State, unless with the object of guarding the +neighbouring city of Washington,—a promise which he had no means of +fulfilling, seeing that the President of the United States is the +Commander-in-Chief of the army of the nation and can summon the +militia of the several States. This proclamation by the Governor to +the State was immediately backed up by one from the Mayor of +Baltimore to the city, in which he congratulates the citizens on the +Governor's promise that none of their troops are to be sent to +another State; and then he tells them that they shall be preserved +from the horrors of civil war.</p> + +<p>But on the very next day the horrors of civil war began in Baltimore. +By this time President Lincoln was collecting troops at Washington +for the protection of the capital; and that army of the Potomac, +which has ever since occupied the Virginian side of the river, was in +course of construction. To join this, certain troops from +Massachusetts were sent down by the usual route, viâ New York, +Philadelphia, and Baltimore; but on their reaching Baltimore by +railway, the mob of that town refused to allow them to pass +through,—and a fight began. Nine citizens were killed and two +soldiers, and as many more were wounded. This, I think, was the first +blood spilt in the civil war; and the attack was first made by the +mob of the first slave city reached by the northern soldiers. This +goes far to show, not that the border States desired secession, but +that, when compelled to choose between secession and union,—when not +allowed by circumstances to remain neutral,—their sympathies were +with their sister slave States rather than with the North.</p> + +<p>Then there was a great running about of official men between +Baltimore and Washington, and the President was besieged with +entreaties that no troops should be sent through Baltimore. Now this +was hard enough upon President Lincoln, seeing that he was bound to +defend his capital, that he could get no troops from the South, and +that Baltimore is on the high road from Washington, both to the West +and to the North; but, nevertheless, he gave way. Had he not done so, +all Baltimore would have been in a blaze of rebellion, and the scene +of the coming contest must have been removed from Virginia to +Maryland, and Congress and the Government must have travelled from +Washington north to Philadelphia. "They shall not come through +Baltimore," said Mr. Lincoln. "But they shall come through the State +of Maryland. They shall be passed over Chesapeake Bay by water to +Annapolis, and shall come up by rail from thence." This arrangement +was as distasteful to the State of Maryland as the other; but +Annapolis is a small town without a mob, and the Marylanders had no +means of preventing the passage of the troops. Attempts were made to +refuse the use of the Annapolis branch railway, but General Butler +had the arranging of that. General Butler was a lawyer from Boston, +and by no means inclined to indulge the scruples of the Marylanders +who had so roughly treated his fellow-citizens from Massachusetts. +The troops did therefore pass through Annapolis, much to the disgust +of the State. On the 27th of April Governor Hicks, having now had a +sufficiency of individual responsibility, summoned the legislature of +which he had expressed so bad an opinion; but on this occasion he +omitted to repeat that opinion, and submitted his views in very +proper terms to the wisdom of the senators and representatives. He +entertained, as he said, an honest conviction that the safety of +Maryland lay in preserving a neutral position between the North and +the South. Certainly, Governor Hicks, if it were only possible! The +legislature again went to work to prevent, if it might be prevented, +the passage of troops through their State; but luckily for them, they +failed. The President was bound to defend Washington, and the +Marylanders were denied their wish of having their own fields made +the fighting ground of the civil war.</p> + +<p>That which appears to me to be the most remarkable feature in all +this is the antagonism between United States law and individual State +feeling. Through the whole proceeding the Governor and the State of +Maryland seemed to have considered it legal and reasonable to oppose +the constitutional power of the President and his Government. It is +argued in all the speeches and written documents that were produced +in Maryland at the time, that Maryland was true to the Union; and yet +she put herself in opposition to the constitutional military power of +the President! Certain commissioners went from the State legislature +to Washington, in May, and from their report, it appears that the +President had expressed himself of opinion that Maryland might do +this or that, as long "as she had not taken and was not about to take +a hostile attitude to the Federal Government!" From which we are to +gather that a denial of that military power given to the President by +the constitution was not considered as an attitude hostile to the +Federal Government. At any rate, it was direct disobedience of +federal law. I cannot but revert from this to the condition of the +fugitive slave law. Federal law, and indeed the original +constitution, plainly declare that fugitive slaves shall be given up +by the free-soil States. Massachusetts proclaims herself to be +specially a federal, law-loving State. But every man in Massachusetts +knows that no judge, no sheriff, no magistrate, no policeman in that +State would at this time, or then, when that civil war was beginning, +have lent a hand in any way to the rendition of a fugitive slave. The +Federal law requires the State to give up the fugitive, but the State +law does not require judge, sheriff, magistrate, or policeman to +engage in such work, and no judge, sheriff, or magistrate will do so; +consequently that Federal law is dead in Massachusetts, as it is also +in every free-soil State,—dead, except inasmuch as there was life in +it to create ill-blood as long as the North and South remained +together, and would be life in it for the same effect if they should +again be brought under the same flag.</p> + +<p>On the 10th May the Maryland legislature, having received the report +of their Commissioners above-mentioned, passed the following +<span class="nowrap">resolution:—</span></p> + +<p>"Whereas the war against the Confederate States is unconstitutional +and repugnant to civilization, and will result in a bloody and +shameful overthrow of our constitution, and whilst recognizing the +obligations of Maryland to the Union, we sympathize with the South in +the struggle for their rights; for the sake of humanity we are for +peace and reconciliation, and solemnly protest against this war, and +will take no part in it.</p> + +<p>"Resolved,—That Maryland implores the President, in the name of God, +to cease this unholy war, at least until Congress assembles"—a +period of above six months. "That Maryland desires and consents to +the recognition of the independence of the Confederate States. The +military occupation of Maryland is unconstitutional, and she protests +against it, though the violent interference with the transit of the +Federal troops is discountenanced. That the vindication of her rights +be left to time and reason, and that a convention under existing +circumstances is inexpedient."</p> + +<p>From which it is plain that Maryland would have seceded as +effectually as Georgia seceded, had she not been prevented by the +interposition of Washington between her and the Confederate +States,—the happy intervention, seeing that she has thus been saved +from becoming the battle-ground of the contest. But the legislature +had to pay for its rashness. On the 13th of September thirteen of its +members were arrested, as were also two editors of newspapers +presumed to be secessionists. A member of Congress was also arrested +at the same time, and a candidate for Governor Hicks's place, who +belonged to the secessionist party. Previously, in the last days of +June and beginning of July, the chief of the police at Baltimore and +the members of the Board of Police had been arrested by General +Banks, who then held Baltimore in his power.</p> + +<p>I should be sorry to be construed as saying that republican +institutions, or what may more properly be called democratic +institutions, have been broken down in the States of America. I am +far from thinking that they have broken down. Taking them and their +work as a whole, I think that they have shown, and still show, +vitality of the best order. But the written constitution of the +United States and of the several States, as bearing upon each other, +are not equal to the requirements made upon them. That, I think, is +the conclusion to which a spectator should come. It is in that +doctrine of finality that our friends have broken down,—a doctrine +not expressed in their constitutions, and indeed expressly denied in +the constitution of the United States, which provides the mode in +which amendments shall be made—but appearing plainly enough in every +word of self-gratulation which comes from them. Political finality +has ever proved a delusion,—as has the idea of finality in all human +institutions. I do not doubt but that the republican form of +government will remain and make progress in North America; but such +prolonged existence and progress must be based on an acknowledgment +of the necessity for change, and must in part depend on the +facilities for change which shall be afforded.</p> + +<p>I have described the condition of Baltimore as it was early in May, +1861. I reached that city just seven months later, and its condition +was considerably altered. There was no question then whether troops +should pass through Baltimore, or by an awkward round through +Annapolis, or not pass at all through Maryland. General Dix, who had +succeeded General Banks, was holding the city in his grip, and +martial law prevailed. In such times as those, it was bootless to +inquire as to that promise that no troops should pass southward +through Baltimore. What have such assurances ever been worth in such +days! Baltimore was now a military depot in the hands of the northern +army, and General Dix was not a man to stand any trifling. He did me +the honour to take me to the top of Federal Hill, a suburb of the +city, on which he had raised great earthworks and planted mighty +cannons, and built tents and barracks for his soldiery, and to show +me how instantaneously he could destroy the town from his exalted +position. "This hill was made for the very purpose," said General +Dix; and no doubt he thought so. Generals, when they have fine +positions and big guns and prostrate people lying under their thumbs, +are inclined to think that God's providence has specially ordained +them and their points of vantage. It is a good thing in the mind of a +general so circumstanced that 200,000 men should be made subject to a +dozen big guns. I confess that to me, having had no military +education, the matter appeared in a different light, and I could not +work up my enthusiasm to a pitch which would have been suitable to +the General's courtesy. That hill, on which many of the poor of +Baltimore had lived, was desecrated in my eyes by those columbiads. +The neat earthworks were ugly, as looked upon by me; and though I +regarded General Dix as energetic, and no doubt skilful in the work +assigned to him, I could not sympathize with his exultation.</p> + +<p>Previously to the days of secession Baltimore had been guarded by +Fort MacHenry, which lies on a spit of land running out into the bay +just below the town. Hither I went with General Dix, and he explained +to me how the cannon had heretofore been pointed solely towards the +sea; that, however, now was all changed, and the mouths of his bombs +and great artillery were turned all the other way. The commandant of +the fort was with us, and other officers, and they all spoke of this +martial tenure as a great blessing. Hearing them, one could hardly +fail to suppose that they had lived their forty, fifty, or sixty +years of life in full reliance on the powers of a military despotism. +But not the less were they American republicans, who, twelve months +since, would have dilated on the all-sufficiency of their republican +institutions, and on the absence of any military restraint in their +country, with that peculiar pride which characterizes the citizens of +the States. There are, however, some lessons which may be learned +with singular rapidity!</p> + +<p>Such was the state of Baltimore when I visited that city. I found, +nevertheless, that cakes and ale still prevailed there. I am inclined +to think that cakes and ale prevail most freely in times that are +perilous, and when sources of sorrow abound. I have seen more +reckless joviality in a town stricken by pestilence than I ever +encountered elsewhere. There was General Dix seated on Federal Hill +with his cannon; and there, beneath his artillery, were gentlemen +hotly professing themselves to be secessionists, men whose sons and +brothers were in the southern army, and women—alas! whose brothers +would be in one army, and their sons in another. That was the part of +it which was most heart-rending in this border land. In New England +and New York men's minds at any rate were bent all in the same +direction,—as doubtless they were also in Georgia and Alabama. But +here fathers were divided from sons, and mothers from daughters. +Terrible tales were told of threats uttered by one member of a family +against another. Old ties of friendship were broken up. Society had +so divided itself, that one side could hold no terms of courtesy with +the other. "When this is over," one gentleman said to me, "every man +in Baltimore will have a quarrel to the death on his hands with some +friend whom he used to love." The complaints made on both sides were +eager and open-mouthed against the other.</p> + +<p>Late in the autumn an election for a new legislature of the State had +taken place, and the members returned were all supposed to be +unionist. That they were prepared to support the Government is +certain. But no known or presumed secessionist was allowed to vote +without first taking the oath of allegiance. The election therefore, +even if the numbers were true, cannot be looked upon as a free +election. Voters were stopped at the poll and not allowed to vote +unless they would take an oath which would, on their parts, +undoubtedly have been false. It was also declared in Baltimore that +men engaged to promote the northern party were permitted to vote five +or six times over, and the enormous number of votes polled on the +Government side gave some colouring to the statement. At any rate an +election carried under General Dix's guns cannot be regarded as an +open election. It was out of the question that any election taken +under such circumstances should be worth anything as expressing the +minds of the people. Red and white had been declared to be the +colours of the Confederates, and red and white had of course become +the favourite colours of the Baltimore ladies. Then it was given out +that red and white would not be allowed in the streets. Ladies +wearing red and white were requested to return home. Children +decorated with red and white ribbons were stripped of their bits of +finery,—much to their infantine disgust and dismay. Ladies would put +red and white ornaments in their windows, and the police would insist +on the withdrawal of the colours. Such was the condition of Baltimore +during the past winter. Nevertheless cakes and ale abounded; and +though there was deep grief in the city, and wailing in the recesses +of many houses, and a feeling that the good times were gone, never to +return within the days of many of them, still there existed an +excitement and a consciousness of the importance of the crisis which +was not altogether unsatisfactory. Men and women can endure to be +ruined, to be torn from their friends, to be overwhelmed with +avalanches of misfortune, better than they can endure to be dull.</p> + +<p>Baltimore is, or at any rate was, an aspiring city, proud of its +commerce and proud of its society. It has regarded itself as the New +York of the South, and to some extent has forced others so to regard +it also. In many respects it is more like an English town than most +of its transatlantic brethren, and the ways of its inhabitants are +English. In old days a pack of fox-hounds was kept here,—or indeed +in days that are not yet very old, for I was told of their doings by +a gentleman who had long been a member of the hunt. The country looks +as a hunting country should look, whereas no man that ever crossed a +field after a pack of hounds would feel the slightest wish to attempt +that process in New England or New York. There is in Baltimore an old +inn with an old sign, standing at the corner of Eutaw and Franklin +Streets, just such as may still be seen in the towns of +Somersetshire, and before it are to be seen old wagons, covered and +soiled and battered, about to return from the city to the country, +just as the wagons do in our own agricultural counties. I have found +nothing so thoroughly English in any other part of the Union.</p> + +<p>But canvas-back ducks and terrapins are the great glories of +Baltimore. Of the nature of the former bird I believe all the world +knows something. It is a wild duck which obtains the peculiarity of +its flavour from the wild celery on which it feeds. This celery grows +on the Chesapeake Bay, and I believe on the Chesapeake Bay only. At +any rate Baltimore is the head-quarters of the canvas-backs, and it +is on the Chesapeake Bay that they are shot. I was kindly invited to +go down on a shooting-party; but when I learned that I should have to +ensconce myself alone for hours in a wet wooden box on the water's +edge, waiting there for the chance of a duck to come to me, I +declined. The fact of my never having as yet been successful in +shooting a bird of any kind conduced somewhat perhaps to my decision. +I must acknowledge that the canvas-back duck fully deserves all the +reputation it has acquired. As to the terrapin, I have not so much to +say. The terrapin is a small turtle, found on the shores of Maryland +and Virginia, out of which a very rich soup is made. It is cooked +with wines and spices, and is served in the shape of a hash, with +heaps of little bones mixed through it. It is held in great repute, +and the guest is expected as a matter of course to be helped twice. +The man who did not eat twice of terrapin would be held in small +repute, as the Londoner is held who at a city banquet does not +partake of both thick and thin turtle. I must, however, confess that +the terrapin for me had no surpassing charms.</p> + +<p>Maryland was so called from Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles I., +by which king in 1632 the territory was conceded to the Roman +Catholic Lord Baltimore. It was chiefly peopled by Roman Catholics, +but I do not think that there is now any such speciality attaching to +the State. There are in it two or three old Roman Catholic families, +but the people have come down from the North, and have no peculiar +religious tendencies. Some of Lord Baltimore's descendants remained +in the State up to the time of the revolution. From Baltimore I went +on to Washington.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="center"> +<table style="margin: 0 auto" cellpadding="0"><tr><td> +END OF VOL. I. +</td></tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORTH AMERICA, VOLUME I (OF 2)***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 1865-h.txt or 1865-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/1865">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/6/1865</a></p> +<p> +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p> +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: North America, Volume I (of 2) + + +Author: Anthony Trollope + + + +Release Date: August, 1999 [eBook #1865] +Release Date of this revision: February 18, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NORTH AMERICA, VOLUME I (OF 2)*** + + +E-text prepared by Donald Lainson +and revised by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D. + + + +Editorial note: + + Anthony Trollope travelled through the United States from + August, 1861, to May, 1862, visiting all the states that + did not secede except California. This book is partly a + journal of his travels and partly his description of American + customs and culture including industry, education, government, + military affairs, religion, transportation, and even + hotels. To an American of today it provides a revealing and + fascinating picture of life at the time. + + The book was first published in two volumes by Chapman & Hall + in 1862. + + Project Gutenberg has the other volume of this work. + Volume II: see http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1866 + + + + + +NORTH AMERICA + +by + +ANTHONY TROLLOPE + +In Two Volumes + +VOL. I + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. INTRODUCTION. + II. NEWPORT--RHODE ISLAND. + III. MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. + IV. LOWER CANADA. + V. UPPER CANADA. + VI. THE CONNEXION OF THE CANADAS WITH GREAT BRITAIN. + VII. NIAGARA. + VIII. NORTH AND WEST. + IX. FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. + X. THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. + XI. CERES AMERICANA. + XII. BUFFALO TO NEW YORK. + XIII. AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR. + XIV. NEW YORK. + XV. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. + XVI. BOSTON. + XVII. CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL. + XVIII. THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN. + XIX. EDUCATION AND RELIGION. + XX. FROM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCTION. + + +It has been the ambition of my literary life to write a book about +the United States, and I had made up my mind to visit the country +with this object before the intestine troubles of the United States +Government had commenced. I have not allowed the division among +the States and the breaking out of civil war to interfere with my +intention; but I should not purposely have chosen this period either +for my book or for my visit. I say so much, in order that it may not +be supposed that it is my special purpose to write an account of the +struggle as far as it has yet been carried. My wish is to describe as +well as I can the present social and political state of the country. +This I should have attempted, with more personal satisfaction in the +work, had there been no disruption between the North and South; but I +have not allowed that disruption to deter me from an object which, if +it were delayed, might probably never be carried out. I am therefore +forced to take the subject in its present condition, and being so +forced I must write of the war, of the causes which have led to it, +and of its probable termination. But I wish it to be understood that +it was not my selected task to do so, and is not now my primary +object. + +Thirty years ago my mother wrote a book about the Americans, to which +I believe I may allude as a well known and successful work without +being guilty of any undue family conceit. That was essentially a +woman's book. She saw with a woman's keen eye, and described with a +woman's light but graphic pen, the social defects and absurdities +which our near relatives had adopted into their domestic life. +All that she told was worth the telling, and the telling, if done +successfully, was sure to produce a good result. I am satisfied that +it did so. But she did not regard it as a part of her work to dilate +on the nature and operation of those political arrangements which had +produced the social absurdities which she saw, or to explain that +though such absurdities were the natural result of those arrangements +in their newness, the defects would certainly pass away, while the +political arrangements, if good, would remain. Such a work is fitter +for a man than for a woman. I am very far from thinking that it is +a task which I can perform with satisfaction either to myself or to +others. It is a work which some man will do who has earned a right +by education, study, and success to rank himself among the political +sages of his age. But I may perhaps be able to add something to the +familiarity of Englishmen with Americans. The writings which have +been most popular in England on the subject of the United States have +hitherto dealt chiefly with social details; and though in most cases +true and useful, have created laughter on one side of the Atlantic, +and soreness on the other. If I could do anything to mitigate the +soreness, if I could in any small degree add to the good feeling +which should exist between two nations which ought to love each other +so well, and which do hang upon each other so constantly, I should +think that I had cause to be proud of my work. + +But it is very hard to write about any country a book that does +not represent the country described in a more or less ridiculous +point of view. It is hard at least to do so in such a book +as I must write. A De Tocqueville may do it. It may be done +by any philosophico-political or politico-statistical, or +statistico-scientific writer; but it can hardly be done by a man who +professes to use a light pen, and to manufacture his article for the +use of general readers. Such a writer may tell all that he sees of +the beautiful; but he must also tell, if not all that he sees of the +ludicrous, at any rate the most piquant part of it. How to do this +without being offensive is the problem which a man with such a task +before him has to solve. His first duty is owed to his readers, and +consists mainly in this: that he shall tell the truth, and shall +so tell that truth that what he has written may be readable. But +a second duty is due to those of whom he writes; and he does not +perform that duty well if he gives offence to those, as to whom, on +the summing up of the whole evidence for and against them in his own +mind, he intends to give a favourable verdict. There are of course +those against whom a writer does not intend to give a favourable +verdict;--people and places whom he desires to describe, on the peril +of his own judgment, as bad, ill-educated, ugly, and odious. In such +cases his course is straightforward enough. His judgment may be +in great peril, but his volume or chapter will be easily written. +Ridicule and censure run glibly from the pen, and form themselves +into sharp paragraphs which are pleasant to the reader. Whereas +eulogy is commonly dull, and too frequently sounds as though it were +false. There is much difficulty in expressing a verdict which is +intended to be favourable; but which, though favourable, shall not be +falsely eulogistic; and though true, not offensive. + +Who has ever travelled in foreign countries without meeting excellent +stories against the citizens of such countries? And how few can +travel without hearing such stories against themselves? It is +impossible for me to avoid telling of a very excellent gentleman whom +I met before I had been in the United States a week, and who asked me +whether lords in England ever spoke to men who were not lords. Nor +can I omit the opening address of another gentleman to my wife. "You +like our institutions, ma'am?" "Yes, indeed," said my wife,--not with +all that eagerness of assent which the occasion perhaps required. +"Ah," said he, "I never yet met the down-trodden subject of a despot +who did not hug his chains." The first gentleman was certainly +somewhat ignorant of our customs, and the second was rather abrupt in +his condemnation of the political principles of a person whom he only +first saw at that moment. It comes to me in the way of my trade to +repeat such incidents; but I can tell stories which are quite as good +against Englishmen. As for instance, when I was tapped on the back in +one of the galleries of Florence by a countryman of mine, and asked +to show him where stood the medical Venus. Nor is anything that one +can say of the inconveniences attendant upon travel in the United +States to be beaten by what foreigners might truly say of us. I shall +never forget the look of a Frenchman whom I found on a wet afternoon +in the best inn of a provincial town in the west of England. He was +seated on a horsehair-covered chair in the middle of a small dingy +ill-furnished private sitting-room. No eloquence of mine could make +intelligible to a Frenchman or an American the utter desolation of +such an apartment. The world as then seen by that Frenchman offered +him solace of no description. The air without was heavy, dull, and +thick. The street beyond the window was dark and narrow. The room +contained mahogany chairs covered with horsehair, a mahogany table +ricketty in its legs, and a mahogany sideboard ornamented with +inverted glasses and old cruet-stands. The Frenchman had come +to the house for shelter and food, and had been asked whether +he was commercial. Whereupon he shook his head. "Did he want a +sitting-room?" Yes, he did. "He was a leetle tired and vanted to +seet." Whereupon he was presumed to have ordered a private room, +and was shown up to the Eden I have described. I found him there at +death's door. Nothing that I can say with reference to the social +habits of the Americans can tell more against them than the story of +that Frenchman's fate tells against those of our country. + +From which remarks I would wish to be understood as deprecating +offence from my American friends, if in the course of my book should +be found aught which may seem to argue against the excellence of +their institutions, and the grace of their social life. Of this at +any rate I can assure them in sober earnestness that I admire what +they have done in the world and for the world with a true and hearty +admiration; and that whether or no all their institutions be at +present excellent, and their social life all graceful, my wishes are +that they should be so, and my convictions are that that improvement +will come for which there may perhaps even yet be some little room. + +And now touching this war which had broken out between the North and +South before I left England. I would wish to explain what my feelings +were; or rather what I believe the general feelings of England to +have been, before I found myself among the people by whom it was +being waged. It is very difficult for the people of any one nation to +realize the political relations of another, and to chew the cud and +digest the bearings of those external politics. But it is unjust in +the one to decide upon the political aspirations and doings of that +other without such understanding. Constantly as the name of France +is in our mouth, comparatively few Englishmen understand the way +in which France is governed;--that is, how far absolute despotism +prevails, and how far the power of the one ruler is tempered, or, as +it may be, hampered by the voices and influence of others. And as +regards England, how seldom is it that in common society a foreigner +is met who comprehends the nature of her political arrangements! To +a Frenchman,--I do not of course include great men who have made the +subject a study,--but to the ordinary intelligent Frenchman the thing +is altogether incomprehensible. Language, it may be said, has much +to do with that. But an American speaks English; and how often is an +American met, who has combined in his mind the idea of a monarch, so +called, with that of a republic, properly so named;--a combination of +ideas which I take to be necessary to the understanding of English +politics? The gentleman who scorned my wife for hugging her chains +had certainly not done so, and yet he conceived that he had studied +the subject. The matter is one most difficult of comprehension. +How many Englishmen have failed to understand accurately their own +constitution, or the true bearing of their own politics! But when +this knowledge has been attained, it has generally been filtered into +the mind slowly, and has come from the unconscious study of many +years. An Englishman handles a newspaper for a quarter of an hour +daily, and daily exchanges some few words in politics with those +around him, till drop by drop the pleasant springs of his liberty +creep into his mind and water his heart; and thus, earlier or later +in life according to the nature of his intelligence, he understands +why it is that he is at all points a free man. But if this be so of +our own politics; if it be so rare a thing to find a foreigner who +understands them in all their niceties, why is it that we are so +confident in our remarks on all the niceties of those of other +nations? + +I hope that I may not be misunderstood as saying that we should not +discuss foreign politics in our press, our parliament, our public +meetings, or our private houses. No man could be mad enough to preach +such a doctrine. As regards our Parliament, that is probably the best +British school of foreign politics, seeing that the subject is not +there often taken up by men who are absolutely ignorant, and that +mistakes when made are subject to a correction which is both rough +and ready. The press, though very liable to error, labours hard at +its vocation in teaching foreign politics, and spares no expense +in letting in daylight. If the light let in be sometimes moonshine, +excuse may easily be made. Where so much is attempted, there must +necessarily be some failure. But even the moonshine does good, if it +be not offensive moonshine. What I would deprecate is, that aptness +at reproach which we assume;--the readiness with scorn, the quiet +words of insult, the instant judgment and condemnation with which we +are so inclined to visit, not the great outward acts, but the smaller +inward politics of our neighbours. + +And do others spare us, will be the instant reply of all who may read +this. In my counter reply I make bold to place myself and my country +on very high ground, and to say that we, the older and therefore +more experienced people as regards the United States, and the better +governed as regards France, and the stronger as regards all the world +beyond, should not throw mud again even though mud be thrown at us. +I yield the path to a small chimney-sweeper as readily as to a lady; +and forbear from an interchange of courtesies with a Billingsgate +heroine, even though at heart I may have a proud consciousness that +I should not altogether go to the wall in such an encounter. + +I left England in August last--August 1861. At that time, and for +some months previous, I think that the general English feeling on +the American question was as follows. "This wide-spread nationality +of the United States, with its enormous territorial possessions and +increasing population, has fallen asunder, torn to pieces by the +weight of its own discordant parts,--as a congregation when its +size has become unwieldy will separate, and reform itself into two +wholesome wholes. It is well that this should be so, for the people +are not homogeneous, as a people should be who are called to live +together as one nation. They have attempted to combine free-soil +sentiments with the practice of slavery, and to make these two +antagonists live together in peace and unity under the same roof; +but, as we have long expected, they have failed. Now has come the +period for separation; and if the people would only see this, and +act in accordance with the circumstances which Providence and the +inevitable hand of the world's ruler has prepared for them, all +would be well. But they will not do this. They will go to war with +each other. The South will make her demands for secession with an +arrogance and instant pressure which exasperates the North; and the +North, forgetting that an equable temper in such matters is the most +powerful of all weapons, will not recognize the strength of its own +position. It allows itself to be exasperated, and goes to war for +that which if regained would only be injurious to it. Thus millions +on millions sterling will be spent. A heavy debt will be incurred; +and the North, which divided from the South might take its place +among the greatest of nations, will throw itself back for half a +century, and perhaps injure the splendour of its ultimate prospects. +If only they would be wise, throw down their arms, and agree to part! +But they will not." + +This was, I think, the general opinion when I left England. It would +not, however, be necessary to go back many months to reach the time +when Englishmen were saying how impossible it was that so great a +national power should ignore its own greatness, and destroy its own +power by an internecine separation. But in August last all that had +gone by, and we in England had realized the probability of actual +secession. + +To these feelings on the subject may be added another, which was +natural enough though perhaps not noble. "These western cocks have +crowed loudly," we said; "too loudly for the comfort of those who +live after all at no such great distance from them. It is well that +their combs should be clipped. Cocks who crow so very loudly are a +nuisance. It might have gone so far that the clipping would become a +work necessarily to be done from without. But it is ten times better +for all parties that it should be done from within; and as the cocks +are now clipping their own combs, in God's name let them do it +and the whole world will be the quieter." That, I say, was not a +very noble idea; but it was natural enough, and certainly has done +somewhat in mitigating that grief which the horrors of civil war and +the want of cotton have caused to us in England. + +Such certainly had been my belief as to the country. I speak here of +my opinion as to the ultimate success of secession and the folly of +the war,--repudiating any concurrence of my own in the ignoble but +natural sentiment alluded to in the last paragraph. I certainly did +think that the Northern States, if wise, would have let the Southern +States go. I had blamed Buchanan as a traitor for allowing the germ +of secession to make any growth;--and as I thought him a traitor +then, so do I think him a traitor now. But I had also blamed Lincoln, +or rather the government of which Mr. Lincoln in this matter is +no more than the exponent, for his efforts to avoid that which is +inevitable. In this I think that I--or as I believe I may say we, we +Englishmen--were wrong. I do not see how the North, treated as it was +and had been, could have submitted to secession without resistance. +We all remember what Shakespere says of the great armies which were +led out to fight for a piece of ground not large enough to cover +the bodies of those who would be slain in the battle; but I do not +remember that Shakespere says that the battle was on this account +necessarily unreasonable. It is the old point of honour, which, till +it had been made absurd by certain changes of circumstances, was +always grand and usually beneficent. These changes of circumstances +have altered the manner in which appeal may be made, but have not +altered the point of honour. Had the Southern States sought to obtain +secession by constitutional means, they might or might not have been +successful; but if successful there would have been no war. I do not +mean to brand all the Southern States with treason, nor do I intend +to say that having secession at heart they could have obtained it +by constitutional means. But I do intend to say that acting as they +did, demanding secession not constitutionally but in opposition to +the constitution, taking upon themselves the right of breaking up a +nationality of which they formed only a part, and doing that without +consent of the other part, opposition from the North and war was an +inevitable consequence. + +It is, I think, only necessary to look back to the revolution by +which the United States separated themselves from England to see +this. There is hardly to be met, here and there, an Englishman who +now regrets the loss of the revolted American colonies;--who now +thinks that civilization was retarded and the world injured by that +revolt; who now conceives that England should have expended more +treasure and more lives in the hope of retaining those colonies. It +is agreed that the revolt was a good thing; that those who were then +rebels became patriots by success, and that they deserved well of all +coming ages of mankind. But not the less absolutely necessary was it +that England should endeavour to hold her own. She was as the mother +bird when the young bird will fly alone. She suffered those pangs +which Nature calls upon mothers to endure. + +As was the necessity of British opposition to American independence, +so was the necessity of Northern opposition to Southern secession. +I do not say that in other respects the two cases were parallel. +The States separated from us because they would not endure taxation +without representation--in other words because they were old enough +and big enough to go alone. The South is seceding from the North +because the two are not homogeneous. They have different instincts, +different appetites, different morals, and a different culture. It is +well for one man to say that slavery has caused the separation; and +for another to say that slavery has not caused it. Each in so saying +speaks the truth. Slavery has caused it, seeing that slavery is the +great point on which the two have agreed to differ. But slavery has +not caused it, seeing that other points of difference are to be found +in every circumstance and feature of the two people. The North and +the South must ever be dissimilar. In the North labour will always +be honourable, and because honourable successful. In the South +labour has ever been servile,--at least in some sense, and therefore +dishonourable; and because dishonourable has not, to itself, been +successful. In the South, I say, labour ever has been dishonourable; +and I am driven to confess that I have not hitherto seen a sign of +any change in the Creator's fiat on this matter. That labour will be +honourable all the world over, as years advance and the millennium +draws nigh, I for one never doubt. + +So much for English opinion about America in August last. And now I +will venture to say a word or two as to American feeling respecting +this English opinion at that period. It will of course be remembered +by all my readers that at the beginning of the war Lord Russell, who +was then in the lower house, declared as Foreign Secretary of State +that England would regard the North and South as belligerents, and +would remain neutral as to both of them. This declaration gave +violent offence to the North, and has been taken as indicating +British sympathy with the cause of the seceders. I am not going +to explain--indeed it would be necessary that I should first +understand--the laws of nations with regard to blockaded ports, +privateering, ships and men and goods contraband of war, and all +those semi-nautical semi-military rules and axioms which it is +necessary that all Attorneys-General and such like should at the +present moment have at their fingers' end. But it must be evident +to the most ignorant in those matters, among which large crowd I +certainly include myself, that it was essentially necessary that Lord +John Russell should at that time declare openly what England intended +to do. It was essential that our seamen should know where they would +be protected and where not, and that the course to be taken by +England should be defined. Reticence in the matter was not within the +power of the British Government. It behoved the Foreign Secretary of +State to declare openly that England intended to side either with one +party or with the other, or else to remain neutral between them. + +I had heard this matter discussed by Americans before I left England, +and I have of course heard it discussed very frequently in America. +There can be no doubt that the front of the offence given by England +to the Northern States was this declaration of Lord John Russell's. +But it has been always made evident to me that the sin did not +consist in the fact of England's neutrality,--in the fact of +her regarding the two parties as belligerents,--but in the open +declaration made to the world by a Secretary of State that she did +intend so to regard them. If another proof were wanting, this would +afford another proof of the immense weight attached in America to all +the proceedings and to all the feelings of England on this matter. +The very anger of the North is a compliment paid by the North to +England. But not the less is that anger unreasonable. To those in +America who understand our constitution, it must be evident that our +Government cannot take official measures without a public avowal of +such measures. France can do so. Russia can do so. The Government +of the United States can do so, and could do so even before this +rupture. But the Government of England cannot do so. All men +connected with the Government in England have felt themselves from +time to time more or less hampered by the necessity of publicity. +Our statesmen have been forced to fight their battles with the plan +of their tactics open before their adversaries. But we, in England, +are inclined to believe, that the general result is good, and that +battles so fought and so won will be fought with the honestest blows, +and won with the surest results. Reticence in this matter was not +possible, and Lord John Russell in making the open avowal which gave +such offence to the Northern States only did that which, as a servant +of England, England required him to do. + +"What would you in England have thought," a gentleman of much weight +in Boston said to me, "if when you were in trouble in India, we had +openly declared that we regarded your opponents there as belligerents +on equal terms with yourselves?" I was forced to say that, as far as +I could see, there was no analogy between the two cases. In India an +army had mutinied, and that an army composed of a subdued, if not a +servile race. The analogy would have been fairer had it referred to +any sympathy shown by us to insurgent negroes. But, nevertheless, +had the army which mutinied in India been in possession of ports and +sea-board; had they held in their hands vast commercial cities and +great agricultural districts; had they owned ships and been masters +of a wide-spread trade, America could have done nothing better +towards us than have remained neutral in such a conflict, and have +regarded the parties as belligerents. The only question is whether +she would have done so well by us. "But," said my friend in answer +to all this, "we should not have proclaimed to the world that we +regarded you and them as standing on an equal footing." There again +appeared the true gist of the offence. A word from England such as +that spoken by Lord John Russell was of such weight to the South, +that the North could not endure to have it spoken. I did not say to +that gentleman,--but here I may say, that had such circumstances +arisen as those conjectured, and had America spoken such a word, +England would not have felt herself called upon to resent it. + +But the fairer analogy lies between Ireland and the Southern States. +The monster meetings and O'Connell's triumphs are not so long gone by +but that many of us can remember the first demand for secession made +by Ireland, and the line which was then taken by American sympathies. +It is not too much to say that America then believed that Ireland +would secure secession, and that the great trust of the Irish +repealers was in the moral aid which she did and would receive from +America. "But our Government proclaimed no sympathy with Ireland," +said my friend. No. The American Government is not called on to make +such proclamations; nor had Ireland ever taken upon herself the +nature and labours of a belligerent. + +That this anger on the part of the North is unreasonable I cannot +doubt. That it is unfortunate, grievous, and very bitter I am quite +sure. But I do not think that it is in any degree surprising. I am +inclined to think that did I belong to Boston as I do belong to +London, I should share in the feeling, and rave as loudly as all men +there have raved against the coldness of England. When men have on +hand such a job of work as the North has now undertaken they are +always guided by their feelings rather than their reason. What two +men ever had a quarrel in which each did not think that all the +world, if just, would espouse his own side of the dispute? The North +feels that it has been more than loyal to the South, and that the +South has taken advantage of that over-loyalty to betray the North. +"We have worked for them, and fought for them, and paid for them," +says the North. "By our labour we have raised their indolence to a +par with our energy. While we have worked like men, we have allowed +them to talk and bluster. We have warmed them in our bosom, and now +they turn against us and sting us. The world sees that this is so. +England, above all, must see it, and seeing it should speak out her +true opinion." The North is hot with such thoughts as these, and +one cannot wonder that she should be angry with her friend, when +her friend, with an expression of certain easy good wishes, bids +her fight out her own battles. The North has been unreasonable with +England;--but I believe that every reader of this page would have +been as unreasonable had that reader been born in Massachusetts. + +Mr. and Mrs. Jones are the dearly beloved friends of my family. My +wife and I have lived with Mrs. Jones on terms of intimacy which have +been quite endearing. Jones has had the run of my house with perfect +freedom, and in Mrs. Jones' drawing-room I have always had my own +arm-chair, and have been regaled with large breakfast-cups of tea, +quite as though I were at home. But of a sudden Jones and his wife +have fallen out, and there is for a while in Jones' Hall a cat and +dog life that may end--in one hardly dare to surmise what calamity. +Mrs. Jones begs that I will interfere with her husband, and Jones +entreats the good offices of my wife in moderating the hot temper of +his own. But we know better than that. If we interfere, the chances +are that my dear friends will make it up and turn upon us. I grieve +beyond measure in a general way at the temporary break up of the +Jones' Hall happiness. I express general wishes that it may be +temporary. But as for saying which is right or which is wrong,--as +to expressing special sympathy on either side in such a quarrel,--it +is out of the question. "My dear Jones, you must excuse me. Any news +in the City to-day? Sugars have fell; how are teas?" Of course Jones +thinks that I'm a brute; but what can I do? + +I have been somewhat surprised to find the trouble that has been +taken by American orators, statesmen, and logicians to prove that +this secession on the part of the South has been revolutionary;--that +is to say, that it has been undertaken and carried on not in +compliance with the constitution of the United States, but in +defiance of it. This has been done over and over again by some of +the greatest men of the North, and has been done most successfully. +But what then? Of course the movement has been revolutionary and +anti-constitutional. Nobody, no single Southerner, can really believe +that the Constitution of the United States as framed in 1787, or +altered since, intended to give to the separate States the power of +seceding as they pleased. It is surely useless going through long +arguments to prove this, seeing that it is absolutely proved by the +absence of any clause giving such licence to the separate States. +Such licence would have been destructive to the very idea of a great +nationality. Where would New England have been as a part of the +United States, if New York, which stretches from the Atlantic to the +borders of Canada, had been endowed with the power of cutting off the +six Northern States from the rest of the Union? No one will for a +moment doubt that the movement was revolutionary, and yet infinite +pains are taken to prove a fact that is patent to every one. + +It is revolutionary, but what then? Have the Northern States of +the American Union taken upon themselves in 1861 to proclaim their +opinion that revolution is a sin? Are they going back to the divine +right of any sovereignty? Are they going to tell the world that +a nation or a people is bound to remain in any political status, +because that status is the recognized form of government under which +such a people have lived? Is this to be the doctrine of United +States' citizens,--of all people? And is this the doctrine preached +now, of all times, when the King of Naples and the Italian dukes +have just been dismissed from their thrones with such enchanting +nonchalance, because their people have not chosen to keep them? Of +course the movement is revolutionary; and why not? It is agreed now +among all men and all nations that any people may change its form of +government to any other, if it wills to do so,--and if it can do so. + +There are two other points on which these Northern statesmen and +logicians also insist, and these two other points are at any rate +better worth an argument than that which touches the question of +revolution. It being settled that secession on the part of the +Southerners is revolution, it is argued, firstly, that no occasion +for revolution had been given by the North to the South; and, +secondly, that the South has been dishonest in its revolutionary +tactics. Men certainly should not raise a revolution for nothing; and +it may certainly be declared that whatever men do, they should do +honestly. + +But in that matter of the cause and ground for revolution, it +is so very easy for either party to put in a plea that shall be +satisfactory to itself! Mr. and Mrs. Jones each had a separate story. +Mr. Jones was sure that the right lay with him: but Mrs. Jones was +no less sure. No doubt the North had done much for the South;--had +earned money for it; had fed it;--and had moreover in a great measure +fostered all its bad habits. It had not only been generous to the +South, but over-indulgent. But also it had continually irritated the +South by meddling with that which the Southerners believed to be a +question absolutely private to themselves. The matter was illustrated +to me by a New Hampshire man who was conversant with black bears. At +the hotels in the New Hampshire mountains it is customary to find +black bears chained to poles. These bears are caught among the hills, +and are thus imprisoned for the amusement of the hotel guests. "Them +Southerners," said my friend, "are jist as one as that 'ere bear. We +feeds him and gives him a house and his belly is ollers full. But +then, jist becase he's a black bear, we're ollers a poking him with +sticks, and a' course the beast is kinder riled. He wants to be back +to the mountains. He wouldn't have his belly filled, but he'd have +his own way. It's jist so with them Southerners." + +It is of no use proving to any man or to any nation that they have +got all they should want, if they have not got all that they do want. +If a servant desires to go, it is of no avail to show him that he +has all he can desire in his present place. The Northerners say that +they have given no offence to the Southerners, and that therefore the +South is wrong to raise a revolution. The very fact that the North is +the North, is an offence to the South. As long as Mr. and Mrs. Jones +were one in heart and one in feeling, having the same hopes and the +same joys, it was well that they should remain together. But when it +is proved that they cannot so live without tearing out each other's +eyes, Sir Cresswell Cresswell, the revolutionary institution of +domestic life, interferes and separates them. This is the age of such +separations. I do not wonder that the North should use its logic to +show that it has received cause of offence but given none. But I +do think that such logic is thrown away. The matter is not one for +argument. The South has thought that it can do better without the +North than with it; and if it has the power to separate itself, it +must be conceded that it has the right. + +And then as to that question of honesty. Whatever men do they +certainly should do honestly. Speaking broadly one may say that the +rule applies to nations as strongly as to individuals, and should +be observed in politics as accurately as in other matters. We must, +however, confess that men who are scrupulous in their private +dealings do too constantly drop those scruples when they handle +public affairs,--and especially when they handle them at stirring +moments of great national changes. The name of Napoleon III. stands +fair now before Europe, and yet he filched the French empire with a +falsehood. The union of England and Ireland is a successful fact, but +nevertheless it can hardly be said that it was honestly achieved. I +heartily believe that the whole of Texas is improved in every sense +by having been taken from Mexico and added to the Southern States, +but I much doubt whether that annexation was accomplished with +absolute honesty. We all reverence the name of Cavour, but Cavour did +not consent to abandon Nice to France with clean hands. When men have +political ends to gain they regard their opponents as adversaries, +and then that old rule of war is brought to bear, Deceit or +valour,--either may be used against a foe. Would it were not so! The +rascally rule--rascally in reference to all political contests--is +becoming less universal than it was. But it still exists with +sufficient force to be urged as an excuse; and while it does exist it +seems almost needless to show that a certain amount of fraud has been +used by a certain party in a revolution. If the South be ultimately +successful, the fraud of which it may have been guilty will be +condoned by the world. + +The Southern or democratic party of the United States had, as all +men know, been in power for many years. Either Southern Presidents +had been elected, or Northern Presidents with Southern politics. The +South for many years had had the disposition of military matters, and +the power of distributing military appliances of all descriptions. It +is now alleged by the North that a conspiracy had long been hatching +in the South with the view of giving to the Southern States the power +of secession whenever they might think fit to secede; and it is +further alleged that President after President for years back has +unduly sent the military treasure of the nation away from the North +down to the South, in order that the South might be prepared when +the day should come. That a President with Southern instincts should +unduly favour the South, that he should strengthen the South, and +feel that arms and ammunition were stored there with better effect +than they could be stored in the North, is very probable. We all +understand what is the bias of a man's mind, and how strong that +bias may become when the man is not especially scrupulous. But I do +not believe that any President previous to Buchanan sent military +materials to the South with the self-acknowledged purpose of using +them against the Union. That Buchanan did so, or knowingly allowed +this to be done, I do believe, and I think that Buchanan was a +traitor to the country whose servant he was and whose pay he +received. + +And now, having said so much in the way of introduction, I will begin +my journey. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +NEWPORT--RHODE ISLAND. + + +We--the we consisting of my wife and myself--left Liverpool for +Boston on the 24th August, 1861, in the "Arabia," one of Cunard's +North American mail packets. We had determined that my wife should +return alone at the beginning of winter, when I intended to go to a +part of the country in which, under the existing circumstances of the +war, a lady might not feel herself altogether comfortable. I proposed +staying in America over the winter, and returning in the spring; and +this programme I have carried out with sufficient exactness. + +The "Arabia" touched at Halifax; and as the touch extended from 11 +A.M. to 6 P.M. we had an opportunity of seeing a good deal of that +colony;--not quite sufficient to justify me at this critical age in +writing a chapter of travels in Nova Scotia, but enough perhaps to +warrant a paragraph. It chanced that a cousin of mine was then in +command of the troops there, so that we saw the fort with all the +honours. A dinner on shore was, I think, a greater treat to us even +than this. We also inspected sundry specimens of the gold which is +now being found for the first time in Nova Scotia,--as to the glory +and probable profits of which the Nova Scotians seemed to be fully +alive. But still, I think, the dinner on shore took rank with us as +the most memorable and meritorious of all that we did and saw at +Halifax. At seven o'clock on the morning but one after that, we were +landed at Boston. + +At Boston I found friends ready to receive us with open arms, though +they were friends we had never known before. I own that I felt myself +burdened with much nervous anxiety at my first introduction to men +and women in Boston. I knew what the feeling there was with reference +to England, and I knew also how impossible it is for an Englishman +to hold his tongue and submit to dispraise of England. As for going +among a people whose whole minds were filled with affairs of the +war, and saying nothing about the war,--I knew that no resolution +to such an effect could be carried out. If one could not trust +oneself to speak, one should have stayed at home in England. I will +here state that I always did speak out openly what I thought and +felt, and that though I encountered very strong--sometimes almost +fierce--opposition, I never was subjected to anything that was +personally disagreeable to me. + +In September we did not stay above a week in Boston, having been +fairly driven out of it by the mosquitoes. I had been told that I +should find nobody in Boston whom I cared to see, as everybody was +habitually out of town during the heat of the latter summer and early +autumn; but this was not so. The war and attendant turmoils of war +had made the season of vacation shorter than usual, and most of those +for whom I asked were back at their posts. I know no place at which +an Englishman may drop down suddenly among a pleasanter circle of +acquaintance, or find himself with a more clever set of men, than he +can do at Boston. I confess that in this respect I think that but few +towns are at present more fortunately circumstanced than the capital +of the Bay State, as Massachusetts is called, and that very few towns +make a better use of their advantages. Boston has a right to be proud +of what it has done for the world of letters. It is proud; but I have +not found that its pride was carried too far. + +Boston is not in itself a fine city, but it is a very pleasant city. +They say that the harbour is very grand and very beautiful. It +certainly is not so fine as that of Portland in a nautical point of +view, and as certainly it is not as beautiful. It is the entrance +from the sea into Boston of which people say so much; but I did not +think it quite worthy of all I had heard. In such matters, however, +much depends on the peculiar light in which scenery is seen. An +evening light is generally the best for all landscapes; and I did not +see the entrance to Boston harbour by an evening light. It was not +the beauty of the harbour of which I thought the most, but of the tea +that had been sunk there, and of all that came of that successful +speculation. Few towns now standing have a right to be more proud of +their antecedents than Boston. + +But as I have said, it is not specially interesting to the eye--what +new town, or even what simply adult town, can be so? There is an +Athenaeum, and a State Hall, and a fashionable street,--Beacon Street, +very like Piccadilly as it runs along the Green Park,--and there is +the Green Park opposite to this Piccadilly, called Boston Common. +Beacon Street and Boston Common are very pleasant. Excellent houses +there are, and large churches, and enormous hotels; but of such +things as these a man can write nothing that is worth the reading. +The traveller who desires to tell his experience of North America +must write of people rather than of things. + +As I have said, I found myself instantly involved in discussions on +American politics, and the bearing of England upon those politics. +"What do you think, you in England--what do you all believe will +be the upshot of this war?" That was the question always asked in +those or other words. "Secession, certainly," I always said, but not +speaking quite with that abruptness. "And you believe, then, that the +South will beat the North?" I explained that I, personally, had never +so thought, and that I did not believe that to be the general idea. +Men's opinions in England, however, were too divided to enable me to +say that there was any prevailing conviction on the matter. My own +impression was, and is, that the North will, in a military point of +view, have the best of the contest,--will beat the South; but that +the Northerners will not prevent secession, let their success be what +it may. Should the North prevail after a two years' conflict, the +North will not admit the South to an equal participation of good +things with themselves, even though each separate rebellious State +should return suppliant, like a prodigal son, kneeling on the floor +of Congress, each with a separate rope of humiliation round its neck. +Such was my idea as expressed then, and I do not know that I have +since had much cause to change it. + +"We will never give it up," one gentleman said to me--and, indeed, +many have said the same,--"till the whole territory is again united +from the Bay to the Gulf! It is impossible that we should allow +of two nationalities within those limits." "And do you think it +possible," I asked, "that you should receive back into your bosom +this people which you now hate with so deep a hatred, and receive +them again into your arms as brothers on equal terms? Is it in +accordance with experience that a conquered people should be so +treated--and that, too, a people whose every habit of life is at +variance with the habits of their presumed conquerors? When you have +flogged them into a return of fraternal affection, are they to keep +their slaves or are they to abolish them?" "No," said my friend; "it +may not be practicable to put those rebellious States at once on an +equality with ourselves. For a time they will probably be treated as +the Territories are now treated." (The Territories are vast outlying +districts belonging to the Union, but not as yet endowed with State +governments, or a participation in the United States Congress.) "For +a time they must, perhaps, lose their full privileges; but the Union +will be anxious to readmit them at the earliest possible period." +"And as to the slaves?" I asked again. "Let them emigrate to Liberia: +back to their own country." I could not say that I thought much of +the solution of the difficulty. It would, I suggested, overtask even +the energy of America to send out an emigration of four million +souls, to provide for their wants in a new and uncultivated country, +and to provide after that for the terrible gap made in the labour +market of the Southern States. "The Israelites went back from +bondage," said my friend. But a way was opened for them by a miracle +across the sea, and food was sent to them from heaven, and they had +among them a Moses for a leader and a Joshua to fight their battles. +I could not but express my fear that the days of such immigrations +were over. This plan of sending back the negroes to Africa did not +reach me only from one or from two mouths; and it was suggested by +men whose opinions respecting their country have weight at home and +are entitled to weight abroad. I mention this merely to show how +insurmountable would be the difficulty of preventing secession, let +which side win that may. + +"We will never abandon the right to the mouth of the Mississippi." +That in all such arguments is a strong point with men of the Northern +States;--perhaps the point to which they all return with the greatest +firmness. It is that on which Mr. Everett insists in the last +paragraph of the oration which he made in New York on the 4th of +July, 1861. "The Missouri and the Mississippi rivers," he says, "with +their hundred tributaries give to the great central basin of our +continent its character and destiny. The outlet of this system lies +between the States of Tennessee and Missouri, of Mississippi and +Arkansas, and through the State of Louisiana. The ancient province +so called, the proudest monument of the mighty monarch whose +name it bears, passed from the jurisdiction of France to that of +Spain in 1763. Spain coveted it; not that she might fill it with +prosperous colonies and rising States, but that it might stretch +as a broad waste barrier, infested with warlike tribes, between +the Anglo-American power and the silver mines of Mexico. With the +independence of the United States, the fear of a still more dangerous +neighbour grew upon Spain; and in the insane expectation of checking +the progress of the Union westward, she threatened, and at times +attempted, to close the mouth of the Mississippi on the rapidly +increasing trade of the West. The bare suggestion of such a +policy roused the population upon the banks of the Ohio, then +inconsiderable, as one man. Their confidence in Washington scarcely +restrained them from rushing to the seizure of New Orleans, when +the treaty of San Lorenzo El Real, in 1795, stipulated for them a +precarious right of navigating the noble river to the sea, with a +right of deposit at New Orleans. This subject was for years the +turning-point of the politics of the West; and it was perfectly well +understood that, sooner or later, she would be content with nothing +less than the sovereign control of the mighty stream from its +head-spring to its outlet in the Gulf. _And that is as true now as it +was then._" + +This is well put. It describes with force the desires, ambition, +and necessities of a great nation, and it tells with historical truth +the story of the success of that nation. It was a great thing done +when the purchase of the whole of Louisiana was completed by the +United States,--that cession by France, however, having been made +at the instance of Napoleon, and not in consequence of any demand +made by the States. The district then called Louisiana included +the present State of that name, and the States of Missouri and +Arkansas;--included also the right to possess, if not the absolute +possession of, all that enormous expanse of country running from +thence back to the Pacific; a huge amount of territory of which the +most fertile portion is watered by the Mississippi and its vast +tributaries. That river and those tributaries are navigable through +the whole centre of the American continent up to Wisconsin and +Minnesota. To the United States the navigation of the Mississippi +was, we may say, indispensable; and to the States when no longer +united the navigation will be equally indispensable. But the days are +gone when any country, such as Spain was, can interfere to stop the +highways of the world with the all but avowed intention of arresting +the progress of civilization. It may be that the North and the South +can never again be friends as the component parts of one nation. Such +I take it is the belief of all politicians in Europe, and of many of +those who live across the water. But as separate nations they may yet +live together in amity, and share between them the great water-ways +which God has given them for their enrichment. The Rhine is free to +Prussia and to Holland. The Danube is not closed against Austria. It +will be said that the Danube has in fact been closed against Austria, +in spite of treaties to the contrary. But the faults of bad and weak +governments are made known as cautions to the world, and not as facts +to copy. The free use of the waters of a common river between two +nations is an affair for treaty; and it has not yet come to that that +treaties must necessarily be null and void through the falseness of +politicians. + +"And what will England do for cotton? Is it not the fact that Lord +John Russell with his professed neutrality intends to express +sympathy with the South, intends to pave the way for the advent +of Southern cotton?" "You ought to love us," so say men in Boston, +"because we have been with you in heart and spirit for long, +long years. But your trade has eaten into your souls, and you +love American cotton better than American loyalty and American +fellowship." This I found to be unfair, and in what politest language +I could use I said so. I had not any special knowledge of the minds +of English statesmen on this matter; but I knew as well as Americans +could do what our statesmen had said and done respecting it. That +cotton, if it came from the South, would be made very welcome in +Liverpool, of course, I knew. If private enterprise could bring it, +it might be brought. But the very declaration made by Lord John +Russell was the surest pledge that England as a nation would not +interfere, even to supply her own wants. It may easily be imagined +what eager words all this would bring about; but I never found that +eager words led to feelings which were personally hostile. + +All the world has heard of Newport in Rhode Island as being the +Brighton, and Tenby, and Scarborough of New England. And the glory +of Newport is by no means confined to New England, but is shared by +New York and Washington, and in ordinary years by the extreme South. +It is the habit of Americans to go to some watering place every +summer,--that is, to some place either of sea water or of inland +waters. This is done much in England; more in Ireland than in +England; but, I think, more in the States than even in Ireland. +But of all such summer haunts, Newport is supposed to be in many +ways the most captivating. In the first place it is certainly the +most fashionable, and in the next place it is said to be the most +beautiful. We decided on going to Newport,--led thither by the latter +reputation rather than the former. As we were still in the early part +of September we expected to find the place full, but in this we were +disappointed;--disappointed, I say, rather than gratified, although +a crowded house at such a place is certainly a nuisance. But a house +which is prepared to make up six hundred beds, and which is called +on to make up only twenty-five becomes, after a while, somewhat +melancholy. The natural depression of the landlord communicates +itself to his servants, and from the servants it descends to the +twenty-five guests, who wander about the long passages and deserted +balconies like the ghosts of those of the summer visitors, who cannot +rest quietly in their graves at home. + +In England we know nothing of hotels prepared for six hundred +visitors, all of whom are expected to live in common. Domestic +architects would be frightened at the dimensions which are needed, +and at the number of apartments which are required to be clustered +under one roof. We went to the Ocean Hotel at Newport, and fancied, +as we first entered the hall under a verandah as high as the house, +and made our way into the passage, that we had been taken to a +well-arranged barrack. "Have you rooms?" I asked, as a man always +does ask on first reaching his inn. "Rooms enough," the clerk +said. "We have only fifty here." But that fifty dwindled down to +twenty-five during the next day or two. + +We were a melancholy set, the ladies appearing to be afflicted in +this way worse than the gentlemen, on account of their enforced +abstinence from tobacco. What can twelve ladies do scattered about +a drawing-room, so-called, intended for the accommodation of two +hundred? The drawing-room at the Ocean Hotel, Newport, is not as big +as Westminster Hall, but would, I should think, make a very good +House of Commons for the British nation. Fancy the feelings of a lady +when she walks into such a room intending to spend her evening there, +and finds six or seven other ladies located on various sofas at +terrible distances,--all strangers to her. She has come to Newport +probably to enjoy herself; and as, in accordance with the customs of +the place, she has dined at two, she has nothing before her for the +evening but the society of that huge furnished cavern. Her husband, +if she have one, or her father, or her lover, has probably entered +the room with her. But a man has never the courage to endure such a +position long. He sidles out with some muttered excuse, and seeks +solace with a cigar. The lady, after half an hour of contemplation, +creeps silently near some companion in the desert, and suggests in a +whisper that Newport does not seem to be very full at present. + +We stayed there for a week, and were very melancholy; but in our +melancholy we still talked of the war. Americans are said to be given +to bragging, and it is a sin of which I cannot altogether acquit +them. But I have constantly been surprised at hearing the Northern +men speak of their own military achievements with anything but +self-praise. "We've been whipped, sir; and we shall be whipped again +before we've done; uncommon well whipped we shall be." "We began +cowardly, and were afraid to send our own regiments through one of +our own cities." This alluded to a demand that had been made on +the Government, that troops going to Washington should not be sent +through Baltimore, because of the strong feeling for rebellion which +was known to exist in that city. President Lincoln complied with this +request, thinking it well to avoid a collision between the mob and +the soldiers. "We began cowardly, and now we're going on cowardly, +and darn't attack them. Well; when we've been whipped often enough, +then we shall learn the trade." Now all this,--and I heard much of +such a nature,--could not be called boasting. But yet with it all +there was a substratum of confidence. I have heard northern gentlemen +complaining of the President, complaining of all his ministers one +after another, complaining of the contractors who were robbing the +army, of the commanders who did not know how to command the army, +and of the army itself which did not know how to obey; but I do not +remember that I have discussed the matter with any Northerner who +would admit a doubt as to ultimate success. + +We were certainly rather melancholy at Newport, and the empty house +may perhaps have given its tone to the discussions on the war. +I confess that I could not stand the drawing-room--the ladies' +drawing-room as such-like rooms are always called at the hotels,--and +that I basely deserted my wife. I could not stand it either here or +elsewhere, and it seemed to me that other husbands,--ay, and even +lovers,--were as hard pressed as myself. I protest that there is no +spot on the earth's surface so dear to me as my own drawing-room, +or rather my wife's drawing-room at home; that I am not a man +given hugely to clubs, but one rather rejoicing in the rustle of +petticoats. I like to have women in the same room with me. But at +these hotels I found myself driven away,--propelled as it were by +some unknown force,--to absent myself from the feminine haunts. +Anything was more palatable than them; even "liquoring up" at a +nasty bar, or smoking in a comfortless reading-room among a deluge +of American newspapers. And I protest also,--hoping as I do so +that I may say much in these volumes to prove the truth of such +protestation,--that this comes from no fault of the American women. +They are as lovely as our own women. Taken generally, they are better +instructed--though perhaps not better educated. They are seldom +troubled with _mauvaise honte_,--I do not say it in irony, but +begging that the words may be taken at their proper meaning. They +can always talk, and very often can talk well. But when assembled +together in these vast, cavernous, would-be luxurious, but in truth +horribly comfortless hotel drawing-rooms,--they are unapproachable. +I have seen lovers, whom I have known to be lovers, unable to remain +five minutes in the same cavern with their beloved ones. + +And then the music! There is always a piano in an hotel drawing-room, +on which, of course, some one of the forlorn ladies is generally +employed. I do not suppose that these pianos are in fact, as a +rule, louder and harsher, more violent and less musical, than other +instruments of the kind. They seem to be so, but that, I take it, +arises from the exceptional mental depression of those who have to +listen to them. Then the ladies, or probably some one lady, will +sing, and as she hears her own voice ring and echo through the lofty +corners and round the empty walls, she is surprised at her own force, +and with increased efforts sings louder and still louder. She is +tempted to fancy that she is suddenly gifted with some power of vocal +melody unknown to her before, and filled with the glory of her own +performance shouts till the whole house rings. At such moments she at +least is happy, if no one else is so. Looking at the general sadness +of her position, who can grudge her such happiness? + +And then the children,--babies, I should say if I were speaking of +English bairns of their age; but seeing that they are Americans, I +hardly dare to call them children. The actual age of these perfectly +civilized and highly educated beings may be from three to four. One +will often see five or six such seated at the long dinner-table of +the hotel, breakfasting and dining with their elders, and going +through the ceremony with all the gravity, and more than all the +decorum of their grandfathers. When I was three years old I had not +yet, as I imagine, been promoted beyond a silver spoon of my own +wherewith to eat my bread and milk in the nursery, and I feel assured +that I was under the immediate care of a nursemaid, as I gobbled up +my minced mutton mixed with potatoes and gravy. But at hotel life in +the States the adult infant lisps to the waiter for everything at +table, handles his fish with epicurean delicacy, is choice in his +selection of pickles, very particular that his beefsteak at breakfast +shall be hot, and is instant in his demand for fresh ice in his +water. But perhaps his, or in this case her, retreat from the +room when the meal is over, is the _chef d'oeuvre_ of the whole +performance. The little precocious, full-blown beauty of four +signifies that she has completed her meal,--or is "through" her +dinner, as she would express it,--by carefully extricating herself +from the napkin which has been tucked around her. Then the waiter, +ever attentive to her movements, draws back the chair on which she is +seated, and the young lady glides to the floor. A little girl in Old +England would scramble down, but little girls in New England never +scramble. Her father and mother, who are no more than her chief +ministers, walk before her out of the saloon, and then she--swims +after them. But swimming is not the proper word. Fishes in making +their way through the water assist, or rather impede, their motion +with no dorsal riggle. No animal taught to move directly by its +Creator adopts a gait so useless, and at the same time so graceless. +Many women, having received their lessons in walking from a less +eligible instructor, do move in this way, and such women this +unfortunate little lady has been instructed to copy. The peculiar +step to which I allude is to be seen often on the Boulevards in +Paris. It is to be seen more often in second rate French towns, and +among fourth rate French women. Of all signs in women betokening +vulgarity, bad taste, and aptitude to bad morals, it is the surest. +And this is the gait of going which American mothers,--some American +mothers I should say,--love to teach their daughters! As a comedy at +an hotel, it is very delightful, but in private life I should object +to it. + +To me Newport could never be a place charming by reason of its own +charms. That it is a very pleasant place when it is full of people +and the people are in spirits and happy, I do not doubt. But then the +visitors would bring, as far as I am concerned, the pleasantness with +them. The coast is not fine. To those who know the best portions of +the coast of Wales or Cornwall,--or better still, the western coast +of Ireland, of Clare and Kerry for instance,--it would not be in any +way remarkable. It is by no means equal to Dieppe or Biarritz, and +not to be talked of in the same breath with Spezzia. The hotels, too, +are all built away from the sea; so that one cannot sit and watch the +play of the waves from one's window. Nor are there pleasant rambling +paths down among the rocks, and from one short strand to another. +There is excellent bathing for those who like bathing on shelving +sand. I don't. The spot is about half a mile from the hotels, and to +this the bathers are carried in omnibuses. Till one o'clock ladies +bathe;--which operation, however, does not at all militate against +the bathing of men, but rather necessitates it as regards those men +who have ladies with them. For here ladies and gentlemen bathe in +decorous dresses, and are very polite to each other. I must say, that +I think the ladies have the best of it. My idea of sea-bathing for +my own gratification is not compatible with a full suit of clothing. +I own that my tastes are vulgar and perhaps indecent; but I love +to jump into the deep clear sea from off a rock, and I love to be +hampered by no outward impediments as I do so. For ordinary bathers, +for all ladies, and for men less savage in their instincts than I am, +the bathing at Newport is very good. + +The private houses--villa residences as they would be termed by an +auctioneer in England--are excellent. Many of them are, in fact, +large mansions, and are surrounded with grounds, which, as the shrubs +grow up, will be very beautiful. Some have large, well-kept lawns, +stretching down to the rocks, and these to my taste give the charm +to Newport. They extend about two miles along the coast. Should my +lot have made me a citizen of the United States, I should have had no +objection to become the possessor of one of these "villa residences," +but I do not think that I should have "gone in" for hotel life at +Newport. + +We hired saddle-horses, and rode out nearly the length of the island. +It was all very well, but there was little in it remarkable either +as regards cultivation or scenery. We found nothing that it would be +possible either to describe or remember. The Americans of the United +States have had time to build and populate vast cities, but they have +not yet had time to surround themselves with pretty scenery. Outlying +grand scenery is given by nature; but the prettiness of home scenery +is a work of art. It comes from the thorough draining of land, from +the planting and subsequent thinning of trees, from the controlling +of waters, and constant use of minute patches of broken land. +In another hundred years or so Rhode Island may be, perhaps, as +pretty as the Isle of Wight. The horses which we got were not good. +They were unhandy and badly mouthed, and that which my wife rode +was altogether ignorant of the art of walking. We hired them +from an Englishman, who had established himself at New York as a +riding-master for ladies, and who had come to Newport for the season +on the same business. He complained to me with much bitterness of the +saddle-horses which came in his way,--of course thinking that it was +the special business of a country to produce saddle-horses,--as I +think it the special business of a country to produce pens, ink, and +paper of good quality. According to him, riding has not yet become +an American art, and hence the awkwardness of American horses. "Lord +bless you, sir! they don't give an animal a chance of a mouth." In +this he alluded only, I presume, to saddle-horses. I know nothing of +the trotting-horses, but I should imagine that a fine mouth must be +an essential requisite for a trotting-match in harness. As regards +riding at Newport, we were not tempted to repeat the experiment. The +number of carriages which we saw there,--remembering as I did that +the place was comparatively empty,--and their general smartness, +surprised me very much. It seemed that every lady with a house of her +own had also her own carriage. These carriages were always open, and +the law of the land imperatively demands that the occupants shall +cover their knees with a worked worsted apron of brilliant colours. +These aprons at first, I confess, seemed tawdry; but the eye soon +becomes used to bright colours, in carriage aprons as well as in +architecture, and I soon learned to like them. + +Rhode Island, as the State is usually called, is the smallest State +in the Union. I may perhaps best show its disparity to other States +by saying that New York extends about 250 miles from north to south +and the same distance from east to west; whereas the State called +Rhode Island is about forty miles long by twenty broad, independently +of certain small islands. It would, in fact, not form a considerable +addition, if added on to many of the other States. Nevertheless, it +has all the same powers of self-government as are possessed by such +nationalities as the States of New York and Pennsylvania; and sends +two senators to the Senate at Washington, as do those enormous +States. Small as the State is, Rhode Island itself forms but a +small portion of it. The authorized and proper name of the State is +Providence Plantation and Rhode Island. Roger Williams was the first +founder of the colony, and he established himself on the mainland +at a spot which he called Providence. Here now stands the city of +Providence, the chief town of the State; and a thriving, comfortable +town it seems to be, full of banks, fed by railways and steamers, and +going ahead quite as quickly as Roger Williams could in his fondest +hopes have desired. + +Rhode Island, as I have said, has all the attributes of government in +common with her stouter and more famous sisters. She has a governor, +and an upper house, and a lower house of legislature; and she is +somewhat fantastic in the use of these constitutional powers, for she +calls on them to sit now in one town and now in another. Providence +is the capital of the State; but the Rhode Island parliament sits +sometimes at Providence and sometimes at Newport. At stated times +also it has to collect itself at Bristol, and at other stated times +at Kingston, and at others at East Greenwich. Of all legislative +assemblies it is the most peripatetic. Universal suffrage does not +absolutely prevail in this State, a certain property qualification +being necessary to confer a right to vote even for the State +Representatives. I should think it would be well for all parties +if the whole State could be swallowed up by Massachusetts or by +Connecticut, either of which lie conveniently for the feat; but I +presume that any suggestion of such a nature would be regarded as +treason by the men of Providence Plantation. + +We returned back to Boston by Attleborough, a town at which in +ordinary times the whole population is supported by the jewellers' +trade. It is a place with a speciality, upon which speciality it has +thriven well and become a town. But the speciality is one ill-adapted +for times of war; and we were assured that the trade was for the +present at an end. What man could now-a-days buy jewels, or even what +woman, seeing that everything would be required for the war? I do not +say that such abstinence from luxury has been begotten altogether by +a feeling of patriotism. The direct taxes which all Americans will +now be called on to pay, have had, and will have much to do with such +abstinence. In the mean time the poor jewellers of Attleborough have +gone altogether to the wall. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +MAINE, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND VERMONT. + + +Perhaps I ought to assume that all the world in England knows that +that portion of the United States called New England consists of +the six States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, +Connecticut, and Rhode Island. This is especially the land of +Yankees, and none can properly be called Yankees but those who belong +to New England. I have named the States as nearly as may be in order +from the North downwards. Of Rhode Island, the smallest State in the +Union, I have already said what little I have to say. Of these six +States Boston may be called the capital. Not that it is so in any +civil or political sense;--it is simply the capital of Massachusetts. +But as it is the Athens of the Western world; as it was the cradle +of American freedom; as everybody of course knows that into Boston +harbour was thrown the tea which George III. would tax, and that at +Boston, on account of that and similar taxes, sprang up the new +revolution; and as it has grown in wealth, and fame, and size beyond +other towns in New England, it may be allowed to us to regard it as +the capital of these six Northern States, without guilt of _lese +majeste_ towards the other five. To me, I confess, this Northern +division of our once unruly colonies is, and always has been, the +dearest. I am no Puritan myself, and fancy that had I lived in +the days of the Puritans, I should have been anti-Puritan to the +full extent of my capabilities. But I should have been so through +ignorance and prejudice, and actuated by that love of existing rights +and wrongs which men call loyalty. If the Canadas were to rebel now, +I should be for putting down the Canadians with a strong hand; but +not the less have I an idea that it will become the Canadas to rebel +and assert their independence at some future period;--unless it +be conceded to them without such rebellion. Who, on looking back, +can now refuse to admire the political aspirations of the English +Puritans, or decline to acknowledge the beauty and fitness of what +they did? It was by them that these States of New England were +colonized. They came hither stating themselves to be pilgrims, and as +such they first placed their feet on that hallowed rock at Plymouth, +on the shore of Massachusetts. They came here driven by no thirst of +conquest, by no greed for gold, dreaming of no Western empire such as +Cortez had achieved and Raleigh had meditated. They desired to earn +their bread in the sweat of their brow, worshipping God according to +their own lights, living in harmony under their own laws, and feeling +that no master could claim a right to put a heel upon their necks. +And be it remembered that here in England, in those days, earthly +masters were still apt to put their heels on the necks of men. The +Star Chamber was gone, but Jeffreys had not yet reigned. What earthly +aspirations were ever higher than these, or more manly? And what +earthly efforts ever led to grander results? + +We determined to go to Portland, in Maine, from thence to the White +Mountains in New Hampshire--the American Alps, as they love to call +themselves,--and then on to Quebec and up through the two Canadas +to Niagara; and this route we followed. From Boston to Portland we +travelled by railroad,--the carriages on which are in America always +called cars. And here I beg, once for all, to enter my protest loudly +against the manner in which these conveyances are conducted. The one +grand fault--there are other smaller faults--but the one grand fault +is that they admit but one class. Two reasons for this are given. +The first is that the finances of the companies will not admit of +a divided accommodation; and the second is that the republican +nature of the people will not brook a superior or aristocratic +classification of travelling. As regards the first, I do not in the +least believe in it. If a more expensive manner of railway travelling +will pay in England, it would surely do so here. Were a better class +of carriages organized, as large a portion of the population would +use them in the United States as in any country in Europe. And it +seems to be evident that in arranging that there shall be only one +rate of travelling, the price is enhanced on poor travellers exactly +in proportion as it is made cheap to those who are not poor. For the +poorer classes, travelling in America is by no means cheap,--the +average rate being, as far as I can judge, fully three halfpence a +mile. It is manifest that dearer rates for one class would allow +of cheaper rates for the other; and that in this manner general +travelling would be encouraged and increased. + +But I do not believe that the question of expenditure has had +anything to do with it. I conceive it to be true that the railways +are afraid to put themselves at variance with the general feeling of +the people. If so the railways may be right. But then, on the other +hand, the general feeling of the people must in such case be wrong. +Such a feeling argues a total mistake as to the nature of that +liberty and equality for the security of which the people are so +anxious, and that mistake the very one which has made shipwreck so +many attempts at freedom in other countries. It argues that confusion +between social and political equality which has led astray multitudes +who have longed for liberty fervently, but who have not thought of +it carefully. If a first-class railway carriage should be held as +offensive, so should a first-class house, or a first-class horse, or +a first-class dinner. But first-class houses, first-class horses, +and first-class dinners are very rife in America. Of course it may +be said that the expenditure shown in these last-named objects is +private expenditure, and cannot be controlled; and that railway +travelling is of a public nature, and can be made subject to public +opinion. But the fault is in that public opinion which desires to +control matters of this nature. Such an arrangement partakes of all +the vice of a sumptuary law, and sumptuary laws are in their very +essence mistakes. It is well that a man should always have all for +which he is willing to pay. If he desires and obtains more than is +good for him, the punishment, and thus also the preventive, will come +from other sources. + +It will be said that the American cars are good enough for all +purposes. The seats are not very hard, and the room for sitting is +sufficient. Nevertheless I deny that they are good enough for all +purposes. They are very long, and to enter them and find a place +often requires a struggle and almost a fight. There is rarely any +person to tell a stranger which car he should enter. One never meets +an uncivil or unruly man, but the women of the lower ranks are not +courteous. American ladies love to lie at ease in their carriages, as +thoroughly as do our women in Hyde Park, and to those who are used +to such luxury, travelling by railroad in their own country must be +grievous. I would not wish to be thought a Sybarite myself, or to be +held as complaining because I have been compelled to give up my seat +to women with babies and bandboxes who have accepted the courtesy +with very scanty grace. I have borne worse things than these, and +have roughed it much in my days from want of means and other reasons. +Nor am I yet so old but what I can rough it still. Nevertheless +I like to see things as well done as is practicable, and railway +travelling in the States is not well done. I feel bound to say as +much as this, and now I have said it, once for all. + +Few cities, or localities for cities, have fairer natural advantages +than Portland--and I am bound to say that the people of Portland have +done much in turning them to account. This town is not the capital of +the State in a political point of view. Augusta, which is further to +the North, on the Kenebec river, is the seat of the State Government +for Maine. It is very generally the case that the States do not hold +their legislatures and carry on their Government at their chief +towns. Augusta and not Portland is the capital of Maine. Of the State +of New York, Albany is the capital, and not the city which bears the +State's name. And of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg and not Philadelphia +is the capital. I think the idea has been that old-fashioned notions +were bad in that they were old-fashioned; and that a new people, +bound by no prejudices, might certainly make improvement by choosing +for themselves new ways. If so the American politicians have not been +the first in the world who have thought that any change must be a +change for the better. The assigned reason is the centrical position +of the selected political capitals: but I have generally found the +real commercial capital to be easier of access than the smaller +town in which the two legislative houses are obliged to collect +themselves. + +What must be the natural excellence of the harbour of Portland will +be understood when it is borne in mind that the Great Eastern can +enter it at all times, and that it can lie along the wharves at any +hour of the tide. The wharves which have been prepared for her--and +of which I will say a word further by-and-by--are joined to and in +fact are a portion of the station of the Grand Trunk Railway, which +runs from Portland up to Canada. So that passengers landing at +Portland out of a vessel so large even as the Great Eastern can walk +at once on shore, and goods can be passed on to the railway without +any of the cost of removal. I will not say that there is no other +harbour in the world that would allow of this, but I do not know any +other that would do so. + +From Portland a line of railway, called as a whole by the name of the +Canada Grand Trunk line, runs across the State of Maine through the +Northern parts of New Hampshire and Vermont, to Montreal, a branch +striking from Richmond, a little within the limits of Canada, to +Quebec, and down the St. Lawrence to Riviere du Loup. The main line +is continued from Montreal, through Upper Canada to Toronto, and from +thence to Detroit in the State of Michigan. The total distance thus +traversed is in a direct line about 900 miles. From Detroit there is +railway communication through the immense North-Western States of +Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois, than which perhaps the surface of +the globe affords no finer districts for purposes of agriculture. The +produce of the two Canadas must be poured forth to the Eastern world, +and the men of the Eastern world must throng into these lands, by +means of this railroad,--and, as at present arranged, through the +harbour of Portland. At present the line has been opened, and they +who have opened are sorely suffering in pocket for what they have +done. The question of the railway is rather one applying to Canada +than to the State of Maine, and I will therefore leave it for the +present. + +But the Great Eastern has never been to Portland, and as far as I +know has no intention of going there. She was, I believe, built with +that object. At any rate it was proclaimed during her building that +such was her destiny, and the Portlanders believed it with a perfect +faith. They went to work and built wharves expressly for her; two +wharves prepared to fit her two gangways, or ways of exit and +entrance. They built a huge hotel to receive her passengers. They +prepared for her advent with a full conviction that a millennium of +trade was about to be wafted to their happy port. "Sir, the town has +expended two hundred thousand dollars in expectation of that ship, +and that ship has deceived us." So was the matter spoken of to me by +an intelligent Portlander. I explained to that intelligent gentleman +that two hundred thousand dollars would go a very little way towards +making up the loss which the ill-fortuned vessel had occasioned +on the other side of the water. He did not in words express +gratification at this information, but he looked it. The matter +was as it were a partnership without deed of contract between the +Portlanders and the shareholders of the vessel, and the Portlanders, +though they also have suffered their losses, have not had the worst +of it. + +But there are still good days in store for the town. Though the Great +Eastern has not gone there, other ships from Europe, more profitable +if less in size, must eventually find their way thither. At present +the Canada line of packets runs to Portland only during those months +in which it is shut out from the St. Lawrence and Quebec by ice. +But the St. Lawrence and Quebec cannot offer the advantages which +Portland enjoys, and that big hotel and those new wharves will not +have been built in vain. + +I have said that a good time is coming, but I would by no means wish +to signify that the present times in Portland are bad. So far from +it, that I doubt whether I ever saw a town with more evident signs of +prosperity. It has about it every mark of ample means, and no mark +of poverty. It contains about 27,000 people, and for that population +covers a very large space of ground. The streets are broad and +well built, the main streets not running in those absolutely +straight parallels which are so common in American towns, and are so +distressing to English eyes and English feelings. All these, except +the streets devoted exclusively to business, are shaded on both sides +by trees--generally, if I remember rightly, by the beautiful American +elm, whose drooping boughs have all the grace of the willow without +its fantastic melancholy. What the poorer streets of Portland may be +like I cannot say. I saw no poor street. But in no town of 30,000 +inhabitants did I ever see so many houses which must require an +expenditure of from six to eight hundred a year to maintain them. + +The place too is beautifully situated. It is on a long promontory, +which takes the shape of a peninsula;--for the neck which joins it +to the mainland is not above half a mile across. But though the +town thus stands out into the sea, it is not exposed and bleak. The +harbour again is surrounded by land, or so guarded and locked by +islands as to form a series of salt-water lakes running round the +town. Of those islands there are, of course, 365. Travellers who +write their travels are constantly called upon to record that +number, so that it may now be considered as a superlative in local +phraseology, signifying a very great many indeed. The town stands +between two hills, the suburbs or outskirts running up on to each of +them. The one looking out towards the sea is called Mountjoy--though +the obstinate Americans will write it Munjoy on their maps. From +thence the view out to the harbour and beyond the harbour to the +islands is, I may not say unequalled, or I shall be guilty of running +into superlatives myself; but it is, in its way, equal to anything I +have seen. Perhaps it is more like Cork harbour, as seen from certain +heights over Passage than anything else I can remember; but Portland +harbour, though equally landlocked, is larger; and then from Portland +harbour there is as it were a river outlet, running through delicious +islands, most unalluring to the navigator, but delicious to the eyes +of an uncommercial traveller. There are in all four outlets to the +sea, one of which appears to have been made expressly for the Great +Eastern. Then there is the hill looking inwards. If it has a name +I forget it. The view from this hill is also over the water on each +side, and though not so extensive is perhaps as pleasing as the +other. + +The ways of the people seemed to be quiet, smooth, orderly, and +republican. There is nothing to drink in Portland of course, for, +thanks to Mr. Neal Dow, the Father Mathew of the State of Maine, the +Maine Liquor Law is still in force in that State. There is nothing +to drink, I should say, in such orderly houses as that I selected. +"People do drink some in the town, they say," said my hostess to +me; "and liquor is to be got. But I never venture to sell any. An +ill-natured person might turn on me, and where should I be then?" I +did not press her, and she was good enough to put a bottle of porter +at my right hand at dinner, for which I observed she made no charge. +"But they advertise beer in the shop-windows," I said to a man +who was driving me--"Scotch ale, and bitter beer. A man can get +drunk on them." "Wa'al, yes. If he goes to work hard, and drinks a +bucket-full," said the driver, "perhaps he may." From which and other +things I gathered that the men of Maine drank pottle deep before Mr. +Neal Dow brought his exertions to a successful termination. + +The Maine Liquor Law still stands in Maine, and is the law of the +land throughout New England; but it is not actually put in force in +the other States. By this law no man may retail wine, spirits, or, in +truth, beer, except with a special license, which is given only to +those who are presumed to sell them as medicines. A man may have what +he likes in his own cellar for his own use--such at least is the +actual working of the law--but may not obtain it at hotels and +public-houses. This law, like all sumptuary laws, must fail. And it +is fast failing even in Maine. But it did appear to me from such +information as I could collect that the passing of it had done much +to hinder and repress a habit of hard drinking which was becoming +terribly common, not only in the towns of Maine, but among the +farmers and hired labourers in the country. + +But if the men and women of Portland may not drink they may eat, and +it is a place, I should say, in which good living on that side of the +question is very rife. It has an air of supreme plenty, as though the +agonies of an empty stomach were never known there. The faces of the +people tell of three regular meals of meat a day, and of digestive +powers in proportion. Oh happy Portlanders, if they only knew their +own good fortune! They get up early, and go to bed early. The women +are comely and sturdy, able to take care of themselves without +any fal-lal of chivalry; and the men are sedate, obliging, and +industrious. I saw the young girls in the streets, coming home from +their tea-parties at nine o'clock, many of them alone, and all with +some basket in their hands which betokened an evening not passed +absolutely in idleness. No fear there of unruly questions on the way, +or of insolence from the ill-conducted of the other sex! All was, or +seemed to be, orderly, sleek, and unobtrusive. Probably of all modes +of life that are allotted to man by his Creator, life such as this is +the most happy. One hint, however, for improvement I must give, even +to Portland! It would be well if they could make their streets of +some material harder than sand. + +I must not leave the town without desiring those who may visit it to +mount the Observatory. They will from thence get the best view of the +harbour and of the surrounding land; and, if they chance to do so +under the reign of the present keeper of the signals, they will find +a man there able and willing to tell them everything needful about +the State of Maine in general, and the harbour in particular. He will +come out in his shirt sleeves, and, like a true American, will not +at first be very smooth in his courtesy; but he will wax brighter in +conversation, and if not stroked the wrong way will turn out to be an +uncommonly pleasant fellow. Such I believe to be the case with most +of them. + +From Portland we made our way up to the White Mountains, which lay on +our route to Canada. Now I would ask any of my readers who are candid +enough to expose their own ignorance whether they ever heard, or +at any rate whether they know anything of the White Mountains. As +regards myself I confess that the name had reached my ears; that I +had an indefinite idea that they formed an intermediate stage between +the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghenies, and that they were inhabited +either by Mormons, Indians, or simply by black bears. That there was +a district in New England containing mountain scenery superior to +much that is yearly crowded by tourists in Europe, that this is +to be reached with ease by railways and stage-coaches, and that +it is dotted with huge hotels, almost as thickly as they lie in +Switzerland, I had no idea. Much of this scenery, I say, is superior +to the famed and classic lands of Europe. I know nothing, for +instance, on the Rhine equal to the view from Mount Willard, down the +mountain pass called the Notch. + +Let the visitor of these regions be as late in the year as he can, +taking care that he is not so late as to find the hotels closed. +October, no doubt, is the most beautiful month among these mountains, +but according to the present arrangement of matters here, the hotels +are shut up by the end of September. With us, August, September, and +October are the holiday months; whereas our rebel children across the +Atlantic love to disport themselves in July and August. The great +beauty of the autumn, or fall, is in the brilliant hues which are +then taken by the foliage. The autumnal tints are fine with us. They +are lovely and bright wherever foliage and vegetation form a part +of the beauty of scenery. But in no other land do they approach the +brilliancy of the fall in America. The bright rose colour, the rich +bronze which is almost purple in its richness, and the glorious +golden yellows must be seen to be understood. By me at any rate they +cannot be described. These begin to show themselves in September, and +perhaps I might name the latter half of that month as the best time +for visiting the White Mountains. + +I am not going to write a guide-book, feeling sure that Mr. Murray +will do New England, and Canada, including Niagara and the Hudson +river, with a peep into Boston and New York before many more seasons +have passed by. But I cannot forbear to tell my countrymen that +any enterprising individual with a hundred pounds to spend on his +holiday,--a hundred and twenty would make him more comfortable, in +regard to wine, washing, and other luxuries,--and an absence of two +months from his labours, may see as much and do as much here for the +money as he can see or do elsewhere. In some respects he may do more; +for he will learn more of American nature in such a journey than he +can ever learn of the nature of Frenchmen or Americans by such an +excursion among them. Some three weeks of the time, or perhaps a day +or two over, he must be at sea, and that portion of his trip will +cost him fifty pounds,--presuming that he chooses to go in the most +comfortable and costly way;--but his time on board ship will not be +lost. He will learn to know much of Americans there, and will perhaps +form acquaintances of which he will not altogether lose sight for +many a year. He will land at Boston, and staying a day or two there +will visit Cambridge, Lowell, and Bunker Hill; and, if he be that +way given, will remember that here live, and occasionally are to +be seen alive, men such as Longfellow, Emerson, Hawthorne, and a +host of others whose names and fames have made Boston the throne of +Western Literature. He will then,--if he take my advice and follow +my track,--go by Portland up into the White Mountains. At Gorham, a +station on the Grand Trunk line, he will find an hotel as good as any +of its kind, and from thence he will take a light waggon, so called +in these countries;--and here let me presume that the traveller +is not alone; he has his wife or friend, or perhaps a pair of +sisters,--and in his waggon he will go up through primeval forests to +the Glen House. When there he will ascend Mount Washington on a pony. +That is _de rigueur_, and I do not, therefore, dare to recommend him +to omit the ascent. I did not gain much myself by my labour. He will +not stay at the Glen House, but will go on to--Jackson's I think they +call the next hotel; at which he will sleep. From thence he will take +his waggon on through the Notch to the Crawford House, sleeping there +again; and when here let him of all things remember to go up Mount +Willard. It is but a walk of two hours, up and down, if so much. When +reaching the top he will be startled to find that he looks down into +the ravine without an inch of fore-ground. He will come out suddenly +on a ledge of rock, from whence, as it seems, he might leap down at +once into the valley below. Then going on from the Crawford House +he will be driven through the woods of Cherry Mount, passing, +I fear without toll of custom, the house of my excellent friend +Mr. Plaistead, who keeps an hotel at Jefferson. "Sir," said Mr. +Plaistead, "I have everything here that a man ought to want; air, +sir, that ain't to be got better nowhere; trout, chickens, beef, +mutton, milk,--and all for a dollar a day. A top of that hill, sir, +there's a view that ain't to be beaten this side of the Atlantic, or +I believe the other. And an echo, sir!--We've an echo that comes back +to us six times, sir; floating on the light wind, and wafted about +from rock to rock till you would think the angels were talking to +you. If I could raise that echo, sir, every day at command I'd give a +thousand dollars for it. It would be worth all the money to a house +like this." And he waved his hand about from hill to hill, pointing +out in graceful curves the lines which the sounds would take. Had +destiny not called on Mr. Plaistead to keep an American hotel, he +might have been a poet. + +My traveller, however, unless time were plenty with him, would pass +Mr. Plaistead, merely lighting a friendly cigar, or perhaps breaking +the Maine Liquor Law if the weather be warm, and would return to +Gorham on the railway. All this mountain district is in New +Hampshire, and presuming him to be capable of going about the world +with his mouth, ears, and eyes open, he would learn much of the way +in which men are settling themselves in this still sparsely populated +country. Here young farmers go into the woods, as they are doing +far down west in the Territories, and buying some hundred acres at +perhaps six shillings an acre, fell and burn the trees and build +their huts, and take the first steps, as far as man's work is +concerned, towards accomplishing the will of the Creator in those +regions. For such pioneers of civilization there is still ample room +even in the long settled States of New Hampshire and Vermont. + +But to return to my traveller, whom having brought so far, I must +send on. Let him go on from Gorham to Quebec, and the heights of +Abraham, stopping at Sherbrooke that he might visit from thence the +lake of Memphra Magog. As to the manner of travelling over this +ground I shall say a little in the next chapter, when I come to the +progress of myself and my wife. From Quebec he will go up the St. +Lawrence to Montreal. He will visit Ottawa, the new capital, and +Toronto. He will cross the Lake to Niagara, resting probably at the +Clifton House on the Canada side. He will then pass on to Albany, +taking the Trenton falls on his way. From Albany he will go down the +Hudson to West-Point. He cannot stop at the Catskill Mountains, for +the hotel will be closed. And then he will take the river boat, and +in a few hours will find himself at New York. If he desires to go +into American city society, he will find New York agreeable; but in +that case he must exceed his two months. If he do not so desire, a +short sojourn at New York will show him all that there is to be seen, +and all that there is not to be seen in that great city. That the +Cunard line of steamers will bring him safely back to Liverpool +in about eleven days, I need not tell to any Englishman, or, as +I believe, to any American. So much, in the spirit of a guide, +I vouchsafe to all who are willing to take my counsel,--thereby +anticipating Murray, and leaving these few pages as a legacy to him +or to his collaborateurs. + +I cannot say that I like the hotels in those parts, or indeed the +mode of life at American hotels in general. In order that I may not +unjustly defame them, I will commence these observations by declaring +that they are cheap to those who choose to practise the economy which +they encourage, that the viands are profuse in quantity and wholesome +in quality, that the attendance is quick and unsparing, and that +travellers are never annoyed by that grasping greedy hunger and +thirst after francs and shillings which disgrace in Europe many +English and many continental inns. All this is, as must be admitted, +great praise; and yet I do not like the American hotels. + +One is in a free country and has come from a country in which one +has been brought up to hug one's chains,--so at least the English +traveller is constantly assured--and yet in an American inn one can +never do as one likes. A terrific gong sounds early in the morning, +breaking one's sweet slumbers, and then a second gong sounding some +thirty minutes later, makes you understand that you must proceed to +breakfast, whether you be dressed or no. You certainly can go on with +your toilet and obtain your meal after half an hour's delay. Nobody +actually scolds you for so doing, but the breakfast is, as they say +in this country, "through." You sit down alone, and the attendant +stands immediately over you. Probably there are two so standing. They +fill your cup the instant it is empty. They tender you fresh food +before that which has disappeared from your plate has been swallowed. +They begrudge you no amount that you can eat or drink; but they +begrudge you a single moment that you sit there neither eating nor +drinking. This is your fate if you're too late, and therefore as a +rule you are not late. In that case you form one of a long row of +eaters who proceed through their work with a solid energy that is +past all praise. It is wrong to say that Americans will not talk at +their meals. I never met but few who would not talk to me, at any +rate till I got to the far west; but I have rarely found that they +would address me first. Then the dinner comes early; at least it +always does so in New England, and the ceremony is much of the same +kind. You came there to eat, and the food is pressed on you almost +_ad nauseam_. But as far as one can see there is no drinking. In +these days, I am quite aware, that drinking has become improper, even +in England. We are apt at home to speak of wine as a thing tabooed, +wondering how our fathers lived and swilled. I believe that as a fact +we drink as much as they did; but nevertheless that is our theory. I +confess, however, that I like wine. It is very wicked, but it seems +to me that my dinner goes down better with a glass of sherry than +without it. As a rule I always did get it at hotels in America. +But I had no comfort with it. Sherry they do not understand at +all. Of course I am only speaking of hotels. Their claret they get +exclusively from Mr. Gladstone, and looking at the quality, have a +right to quarrel even with Mr. Gladstone's price. But it is not the +quality of the wine that I hereby intend to subject to ignominy, so +much as the want of any opportunity for drinking it. After dinner, +if all that I hear be true, the gentlemen occasionally drop into the +hotel bar and "liquor up." Or rather this is not done specially after +dinner, but without prejudice to the hour at any time that may be +found desirable. I also have "liquored up," but I cannot say that +I enjoy the process. I do not intend hereby to accuse Americans of +drinking much, but I maintain that what they do drink, they drink in +the most uncomfortable manner that the imagination can devise. + +The greatest luxury at an English inn is one's tea, one's fire, and +one's book. Such an arrangement is not practicable at an American +hotel. Tea, like breakfast, is a great meal, at which meat should +be eaten, generally with the addition of much jelly, jam, and sweet +preserve; but no person delays over his tea-cup. I love to have my +tea-cup emptied and filled with gradual pauses, so that time for +oblivion may accrue, and no exact record be taken. No such meal is +known at American hotels. It is possible to hire a separate room and +have one's meals served in it; but in doing so a man runs counter to +all the institutions of the country, and a woman does so equally. A +stranger does not wish to be viewed askance by all around him; and +the rule which holds that men at Rome should do as Romans do, if true +anywhere, is true in America. Therefore I say that in an American inn +one can never do as one pleases. + +In what I have here said I do not intend to speak of hotels in the +largest cities, such as Boston or New York. At them meals are served +in the public room separately, and pretty nearly at any or at all +hours of the day; but at them also the attendant stands over the +unfortunate eater, and drives him. The guest feels that he is +controlled by laws adapted to the usages of the Medes and Persians. +He is not the master on the occasion, but the slave; a slave well +treated and fattened up to the full endurance of humanity; but yet a +slave. + +From Gorham we went on to Island Pond, a station on the same Canada +Trunk Railway, on a Saturday evening, and were forced by the +circumstances of the line to pass a melancholy Sunday at the place. +The cars do not run on Sundays, and run but once a day on other days +over the whole line; so that in fact the impediment to travelling +spreads over two days. Island Pond is a lake with an island in it, +and the place which has taken the name is a small village, about +ten years old, standing in the midst of uncut forests, and has been +created by the railway. In ten years more there will no doubt be +a spreading town at Island Pond; the forests will recede, and men +rushing out from the crowded cities will find here food and space +and wealth. For myself I never remain long in such a spot without +feeling thankful that it has not been my mission to be a pioneer of +civilization. + +The farther that I got away from Boston the less strong did I find +the feeling of anger against England. There, as I have said before, +there was a bitter animosity against the mother country in that she +had shown no open sympathy with the North. In Maine and New Hampshire +I did not find this to be the case to any violent degree. Men spoke +of the war as openly as they did at Boston, and in speaking to me +generally connected England with the subject. But they did so simply +to ask questions as to England's policy. What will she do for cotton +when her operatives are really pressed? Will she break the blockade? +Will she insist on a right to trade with Charlestown and New Orleans? +I always answered that she would insist on no such right, if that +right were denied to others and the denial enforced. England, I took +upon myself to say, would not break a veritable blockade, let her be +driven to what shifts she might in providing for her operatives. "Ah; +that's what we fear," a very stanch patriot said to me, if words may +be taken as a proof of stanchness. "If England allies herself with +the Southerners, all our trouble is for nothing." It was impossible +not to feel that all that was said was complimentary to England. It +is her sympathy that the Northern men desire, to her co-operation +that they would willingly trust, on her honesty that they would +choose to depend. It is the same feeling whether it shows itself +in anger or in curiosity. An American whether he be embarked in +politics, in literature, or in commerce, desires English admiration, +English appreciation of his energy, and English encouragement. The +anger of Boston is but a sign of its affectionate friendliness. What +feeling is so hot as that of a friend when his dearest friend refuses +to share his quarrel or to sympathize in his wrongs? To my thinking +the men of Boston are wrong and unreasonable in their anger; but were +I a man of Boston I should be as wrong and as unreasonable as any +of them. All that, however, will come right. I will not believe it +possible that there should in very truth be a quarrel between England +and the Northern States. + +In the guidance of those who are not quite _au fait_ at the details +of American Government, I will here in a few words describe the +outlines of State Government as it is arranged in New Hampshire. +The States in this respect are not all alike, the modes of election +of their officers and periods of service being different. Even the +franchise is different in different States. Universal suffrage is not +the rule throughout the United States; though it is I believe very +generally thought in England that such is the fact. I need hardly +say that the laws in the different States may be as various as the +different legislatures may choose to make them. + +In New Hampshire universal suffrage does prevail; which means that +any man may vote who lives in the State, supports himself, and +assists to support the poor by means of poor rates. A governor of the +State is elected for one year only, but it is customary or at any +rate not uncustomary to re-elect him for a second year. His salary is +a thousand dollars a year, or L200. It must be presumed therefore +that glory and not money is his object. To him is appended a council, +by whose opinions he must in a great degree be guided. His functions +are to the State what those of the President are to the country, and +for the short period of his reign he is as it were a Prime Minister +of the State with certain very limited regal attributes. He however +by no means enjoys the regal attribute of doing no wrong. In every +State there is an Assembly, consisting of two houses of elected +representatives; the Senate, or upper house, and the House of +Representatives so called. In New Hampshire this Assembly, or +Parliament, is styled The General Court of New Hampshire. It sits +annually; whereas the legislature in many States sits only every +other year. Both Houses are re-elected every year. This Assembly +passes laws with all the power vested in our Parliament, but such +laws apply of course only to the State in question. The Governor +of the State has a veto on all bills passed by the two Houses. But, +after receipt of his veto, any bill so stopped by the Governor can +be passed by a majority of two thirds in each House. The General +Court usually sits for about ten weeks. There are in the State eight +judges, three Supreme who sit at Concord, the capital, as a court +of appeal both in civil and criminal matters; and then five lesser +judges, who go circuit through the State. The salaries of these +lesser judges do not exceed from L250 to L300 a year; but they are, I +believe, allowed to practise as lawyers in any counties except those +in which they sit as judges,--being guided in this respect by the +same law as that which regulates the work of assistant barristers +in Ireland. The assistant barristers in Ireland are attached to the +counties as judges at Quarter Sessions, but they practise or may +practise as advocates in all counties except that to which they +are so attached. The judges in New Hampshire are appointed by +the Governor with the assistance of his Council. No judge in New +Hampshire can hold his seat after he has reached seventy years of +age. + +So much at the present moment with reference to the Government of New +Hampshire. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +LOWER CANADA. + + +The Grand Trunk Railway runs directly from Portland to Montreal, +which latter town is, in fact, the capital of Canada, though it never +has been so exclusively, and, as it seems, never is to be so, as +regards authority, government, and official name. In such matters +authority and government often say one thing while commerce says +another; but commerce always has the best of it and wins the game +whatever Government may decree. Albany in this way is the capital of +the State of New York, as authorized by the State Government; but New +York has made herself the capital of America, and will remain so. So +also Montreal has made herself the capital of Canada. The Grand Trunk +Railway runs from Portland to Montreal; but there is a branch from +Richmond, a township within the limits of Canada, to Quebec; so that +travellers to Quebec, as we were, are not obliged to reach that place +_via_ Montreal. + +Quebec is the present seat of Canadian Government, its turn for that +honour having come round some two years ago; but it is about to be +deserted in favour of Ottawa, a town which is, in fact, still to be +built on the river of that name. The public edifices are, however, in +a state of forwardness; and if all goes well the Governor, the two +Councils, and the House of Representatives will be there before +two years are over whether there be any town to receive them or no. +Who can think of Ottawa without bidding his brothers to row, and +reminding them that the stream runs fast, that the rapids are near +and the daylight past? I asked, as a matter of course, whether Quebec +was much disgusted at the proposed change, and I was told that the +feeling was not now very strong. Had it been determined to make +Montreal the permanent seat of government Quebec and Toronto would +both have been up in arms. + +I must confess that in going from the States into Canada, an +Englishman is struck by the feeling that he is going from a richer +country into one that is poorer, and from a greater country into one +that is less. An Englishman going from a foreign land into a land +which is in one sense his own, of course finds much in the change to +gratify him. He is able to speak as the master, instead of speaking +as the visitor. His tongue becomes more free, and he is able to fall +back to his national habits and national expressions. He no longer +feels that he is admitted on sufferance, or that he must be careful +to respect laws which he does not quite understand. This feeling was +naturally strong in an Englishman in passing from the States into +Canada at the time of my visit. English policy at that moment was +violently abused by Americans, and was upheld as violently in Canada. +But, nevertheless, with all this, I could not enter Canada without +seeing, and hearing, and feeling that there was less of enterprise +around me there than in the States--less of general movement, and +less of commercial success. To say why this is so would require a +long and very difficult discussion, and one which I am not prepared +to hold. It may be that a dependent country, let the feeling of +dependence be ever so much modified by powers of self-governance, +cannot hold its own against countries which are in all respects their +own masters. Few, I believe, would now maintain that the Northern +States of America would have risen in commerce as they have risen, +had they still remained attached to England as colonies. If this be +so, that privilege of self-rule which they have acquired, has been +the cause of their success. It does not follow as a consequence that +the Canadas fighting their battle alone in the world could do as +the States have done. Climate, or size, or geographical position +might stand in their way. But I fear that it does follow, if not as a +logical conclusion at least as a natural result, that they never will +do so well unless some day they shall so fight their battle. It may +be argued that Canada has in fact the power of self-governance; that +she rules herself and makes her own laws as England does; that the +Sovereign of England has but a veto on those laws, and stands in +regard to Canada exactly as she does in regard to England. This is +so, I believe, by the letter of the Constitution, but is not so in +reality, and cannot, in truth, be so in any colony, even of Great +Britain. In England the political power of the Crown is nothing. The +Crown has no such power, and now-a-days makes no attempt at having +any. But the political power of the Crown, as it is felt in Canada, +is everything. The Crown has no such power in England because it must +change its ministers whenever called upon to do so by the House of +Commons. But the Colonial Minister in Downing Street is the Crown's +Prime Minister as regards the Colonies, and he is changed not as any +Colonial House of Assembly may wish, but in accordance with the will +of the British Commons. Both the Houses in Canada--that, namely, +of the Representatives, or Lower House, and of the Legislative +Council, or Upper House--are now elective, and are filled without +direct influence from the Crown. The power of self-government is +as thoroughly developed as perhaps may be possible in a colony. But +after all it is a dependent form of government, and as such may +perhaps not conduce to so thorough a development of the resources of +the country as might be achieved under a ruling power of its own, to +which the welfare of Canada itself would be the chief if not the only +object. + +I beg that it may not be considered from this that I would propose to +Canada to set up for itself at once and declare itself independent. +In the first place I do not wish to throw over Canada; and in the +next place I do not wish to throw over England. If such a separation +shall ever take place, I trust that it may be caused, not by Canadian +violence but by British generosity. Such a separation, however, never +can be good till Canada herself shall wish it. That she does not +wish it yet is certain. If Canada ever should wish it, and should +ever press for the accomplishment of such a wish, she must do so in +connection with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. If at any future time +there be formed such a separate political power, it must include the +whole of British North America. + +In the meantime, I return to my assertion, that in entering Canada +from the States one clearly comes from a richer to a poorer country. +When I have said so, I have heard no Canadian absolutely deny it; +though in refraining from denying it, they have usually expressed a +general conviction, that in settling himself for life, it is better +for a man to set up his staff in Canada than in the States. "I do not +know that we are richer," a Canadian says, "but on the whole we are +doing better and are happier." Now, I regard the golden rules against +the love of gold, the "_aurum irrepertum et sic melius situm_," and +the rest of it, as very excellent when applied to individuals. Such +teaching has not much effect, perhaps, in inducing men to abstain +from wealth,--but such effect as it may have will be good. Men and +women do, I suppose, learn to be happier when they learn to disregard +riches. But such a doctrine is absolutely false as regards a nation. +National wealth produces education and progress, and through them +produces plenty of food, good morals, and all else that is good. +It produces luxury also, and certain evils attendant on luxury. +But I think it may be clearly shown, and that it is universally +acknowledged, that national wealth produces individual well-being. If +this be so, the argument of my friend the Canadian is nought. + +To the feeling of a refined gentleman, or of a lady whose eye loves +to rest always on the beautiful, an agricultural population that +touches its hat, eats plain victuals, and goes to church is more +picturesque and delightful than the thronged crowd of a great city by +which a lady and gentleman is hustled without remorse, which never +touches its hat, and perhaps also never goes to church. And as we +are always tempted to approve of that which we like, and to think +that that which is good to us is good altogether, we--the refined +gentlemen and ladies of England I mean--are very apt to prefer the +hat-touchers to those who are not hat-touchers. In doing so we +intend, and wish, and strive to be philanthropical. We argue to +ourselves that the dear, excellent lower classes receive an immense +amount of consoling happiness from that ceremony of hat-touching, +and quite pity those who, unfortunately for themselves, know nothing +about it. I would ask any such lady or gentleman whether he or she +does not feel a certain amount of commiseration for the rudeness of +the town-bred artisan, who walks about with his hands in his pockets +as though he recognized a superior in no one. + +But that which is good and pleasant to us, is often not good and +pleasant altogether. Every man's chief object is himself; and the +philanthropist should endeavour to regard this question, not from +his own point of view, but from that which would be taken by the +individuals for whose happiness he is anxious. The honest, happy +rustic makes a very pretty picture; and I hope that honest rustics +are happy. But the man who earns two shillings a day in the country +would always prefer to earn five in the town. The man who finds +himself bound to touch his hat to the squire would be glad to +dispense with that ceremony, if circumstances would permit. A crowd +of greasy-coated town artisans with grimy hands and pale faces, is +not in itself delectable; but each of that crowd has probably more +of the goods of life than any rural labourer. He thinks more, reads +more, feels more, sees more, hears more, learns more, and lives more. +It is through great cities that the civilization of the world has +progressed, and the charms of life been advanced. Man in his rudest +state begins in the country, and in his most finished state may +retire there. But the battle of the world has to be fought in the +cities; and the country that shows the greatest city population is +ever the one that is going most ahead in the world's history. + +If this be so, I say that the argument of my Canadian friend was +nought. It may be that he does not desire crowded cities with +dirty, independent artisans; that to his view small farmers, living +sparingly but with content on the sweat of their brows, are surer +signs of a country's prosperity than hives of men and smoking +chimneys. He has, probably, all the upper classes of England with him +in so thinking, and as far as I know the upper classes of all Europe. +But the crowds themselves, the thick masses of which are composed +those populations which we count by millions, are against him. Up in +those regions which are watered by the great lakes, Lake Michigan, +Lake Huron, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and by the St. Lawrence, the +country is divided between Canada and the States. The cities in +Canada were settled long before those in the States. Quebec and +Montreal were important cities before any of the towns belonging to +the States had been founded. But taking the population of three of +each, including the three largest Canadian towns, we find they are +as follows:--In Canada, Quebec has 60,000; Montreal, 85,000; Toronto, +55,000. In the States, Chicago has 120,000; Detroit, 70,000; and +Buffalo, 80,000. If the population had been equal, it would have +shown a great superiority in the progress of those belonging to the +States, because the towns of Canada had so great a start. But the +numbers are by no means equal, showing instead a vast preponderance +in favour of the States. There can be no stronger proof that the +States are advancing faster than Canada,--and in fact doing better +than Canada. Quebec is a very picturesque town,--from its natural +advantages almost as much so as any town I know. Edinburgh, perhaps, +and Innspruck may beat it. But Quebec has very little to recommend it +beyond the beauty of its situation. Its public buildings and works of +art do not deserve a long narrative. It stands at the confluence of +the St. Lawrence and St. Charles rivers; the best part of the town is +built high upon the rock,--the rock which forms the celebrated plains +of Abram; and the view from thence down to the mountains which shut +in the St. Lawrence is magnificent. The best point of view is, I +think, from the esplanade, which is distant some five minutes' walk +from the hotels. When that has been seen by the light of the setting +sun, and seen again, if possible, by moonlight, the most considerable +lion of Quebec may be regarded as "done," and may be ticked off from +the list. + +The most considerable lion according to my taste. Lions which roar +merely by the force of association of ideas are not to me very +valuable beasts. To many the rock over which Wolfe climbed to the +plains of Abram, and on the summit of which he fell in the hour of +victory, gives to Quebec its chiefest charm. But I confess to being +somewhat dull in such matters. I can count up Wolfe, and realize his +glory, and put my hand as it were upon his monument, in my own room +at home as well as I can at Quebec. I do not say this boastingly or +with pride, but truly acknowledging a deficiency. I have never cared +to sit in chairs in which old kings have sat, or to have their crowns +upon my head. + +Nevertheless, and as a matter of course, I went to see the rock, +and can only say, as so many have said before me, that it is very +steep. It is not a rock which I think it would be difficult for +any ordinarily active man to climb,--providing, of course, that he +was used to such work. But Wolfe took regiments of men up there at +night--and that in face of enemies who held the summits. One grieves +that he should have fallen there and have never tasted the sweet cup +of his own fame. For fame is sweet, and the praise of one's brother +men the sweetest draught which a man can drain. But now, and for +coming ages, Wolfe's name stands higher than it probably would have +done had he lived to enjoy his reward. + +But there is another very worthy lion near Quebec,--the Falls, +namely, of Montmorency. They are eight miles from the town, and the +road lies through the suburb of St. Roch, and the long straggling +French village of Beauport. These are in themselves very interesting, +as showing the quiet, orderly, unimpulsive manner in which the French +Canadians live. Such is their character, although there have been +such men as Papineau, and although there have been times in which +English rule has been unpopular with the French settlers. As far as +I could learn there is no such feeling now. These people are quiet, +contented; and as regards a sufficiency of the simple staples of +living, sufficiently well to do. They are thrifty;--but they do not +thrive. They do not advance, and push ahead, and become a bigger +people from year to year as settlers in a new country should do. They +do not even hold their own in comparison with those around them. But +has not this always been the case with colonists out of France; and +has it not always been the case with Roman Catholics when they have +been forced to measure themselves against Protestants? As to the +ultimate fate in the world of this people, one can hardly form a +speculation. There are, as nearly as I could learn, about 800,000 of +them in Lower Canada; but it seems that the wealth and commercial +enterprise of the country is passing out of their hands. Montreal, +and even Quebec are, I think, becoming less and less French every +day; but in the villages and on the small farms the French remain, +keeping up their language, their habits, and their religion. In the +cities they are becoming hewers of wood and drawers of water. I am +inclined to think that the same will ultimately be their fate in +the country. Surely one may declare as a fact that a Roman Catholic +population can never hold its ground against one that is Protestant. +I do not speak of numbers, for the Roman Catholics will increase +and multiply, and stick by their religion, although their religion +entails poverty and dependence; as they have done and still do in +Ireland. But in progress and wealth the Romanists have always gone +to the wall when the two have been made to compete together. And +yet I love their religion. There is something beautiful and almost +divine in the faith and obedience of a true son of the Holy Mother. +I sometimes fancy that I would fain be a Roman Catholic,--if I +could; as also I would often wish to be still a child, if that were +possible. + +All this is on the way to the Falls of Montmorency. These falls are +placed exactly at the mouth of the little river of the same name, so +that it may be said absolutely to fall into the St. Lawrence. The +people of the country, however, declare that the river into which +the waters of the Montmorency fall is not the St. Lawrence, but the +Charles. Without a map I do not know that I can explain this. The +river Charles appears to, and in fact does, run into the St. Lawrence +just below Quebec. But the waters do not mix. The thicker, browner +stream of the lesser river still keeps the north-eastern bank till +it comes to the island of Orleans, which lies in the river five or +six miles below Quebec. Here or hereabouts are the Falls of the +Montmorency, and then the great river is divided for twenty-five +miles by the Isle of Orleans. It is said that the waters of the +Charles and the St. Lawrence do not mix till they meet each other at +the foot of this island. + +I do not know that I am particularly happy at describing a waterfall, +and what little capacity I may have in this way I would wish to keep +for Niagara. One thing I can say very positively about Montmorency, +and one piece of advice I can give to those who visit the falls. +The place from which to see them is not the horrible little wooden +temple, which has been built immediately over them on that side which +lies nearest to Quebec. The stranger is put down at a gate through +which a path leads to this temple, and at which a woman demands from +him twenty-five cents for the privilege of entrance. Let him by all +means pay the twenty-five cents. Why should he attempt to see the +falls for nothing, seeing that this woman has a vested interest in +the showing of them? I declare that if I thought that I should hinder +this woman from her perquisites by what I write, I would leave it +unwritten, and let my readers pursue their course to the temple--to +their manifest injury. But they will pay the twenty-five cents. Then +let them cross over the bridge, eschewing the temple, and wander +round on the open field till they get the view of the falls, and the +view of Quebec also, from the other side. It is worth the twenty-five +cents, and the hire of the carriage also. Immediately over the falls +there was a suspension bridge, of which the supporting, or rather +non-supporting, pillars are still to be seen. But the bridge fell +down one day into the river; and, alas, alas! with the bridge fell +down an old woman, and a boy, and a cart,--a cart and horse,--and +all found a watery grave together in the spray. No attempt has been +made since that to renew the suspension bridge; but the present +wooden bridge has been built higher up, in lieu of it. + +Strangers naturally visit Quebec in summer or autumn, seeing that +a Canada winter is a season with which a man cannot trifle; but I +imagine that the mid-winter is the best time for seeing the Falls of +Montmorency. The water in its fall is dashed into spray, and that +spray becomes frozen, till a cone of ice is formed immediately under +the cataract, which gradually rises till the temporary glacier +reaches nearly half-way to the level of the higher river. Up this men +climb,--and ladies also, I am told,--and then descend with pleasant +rapidity on sledges of wood, sometimes not without an innocent +tumble in the descent. As we were at Quebec in September, we did not +experience the delights of this pastime. + +As I was too early for the ice cone under the Montmorency Falls, so +also was I too late to visit the Saguenay river which runs into the +St. Lawrence some hundred miles below Quebec. I presume that the +scenery of the Saguenay is the finest in Canada. During the summer +steamers run down the St. Lawrence and up the Saguenay, but I was +too late for them. An offer was made to us through the kindness of +Sir Edmund Head, who was then the Governor-General, of the use of a +steam-tug belonging to a gentleman who carries on a large commercial +enterprise at Chicoutimi, far up the Saguenay; but an acceptance +of this offer would have entailed some delay at Quebec, and as we +were anxious to get into the North Western States before the winter +commenced, we were obliged with great regret to decline the journey. + +I feel bound to say that a stranger regarding Quebec merely as a +town, finds very much of which he cannot but complain. The foot-paths +through the streets are almost entirely of wood, as indeed seems +to be general throughout Canada. Wood is of course the cheapest +material, and though it may not be altogether good for such a purpose +it would not create animadversion if it were kept in tolerable order. +But in Quebec the paths are intolerably bad. They are full of holes. +The boards are rotten and worn in some places to dirt. The nails have +gone, and the broken planks go up and down under the feet, and in +the dark they are absolutely dangerous. But if the paths are bad the +roadways are worse. The street through the lower town along the quays +is, I think, the most disgraceful thoroughfare I ever saw in any +town. I believe the whole of it, or at any rate a great portion, +has been paved with wood; but the boards have been worked into mud, +and the ground under the boards has been worked into holes, till +the street is more like the bottom of a filthy ditch than a roadway +through one of the most thickly populated parts of a city. Had Quebec +in Wolfe's time been as it is now, Wolfe would have stuck in the mud +between the river and the rock, before he reached the point which he +desired to climb. In the upper town the roads are not so bad as they +are below, but still they are very bad. I was told that this arose +from disputes among the municipal corporations. Everything in Canada +relating to roads, and a very great deal affecting the internal +government of the people, is done by these municipalities. It is made +a subject of great boast in Canada that the communal authorities +do carry on so large a part of the public business, and that they +do it generally so well, and at so cheap a rate. I have nothing to +say against this, and as a whole believe that the boast is true. I +must protest, however, that the streets of the greater cities,--for +Montreal is nearly as bad as Quebec,--prove the rule by a very sad +exception. The municipalities of which I speak extend, I believe, to +all Canada; the two provinces being divided into counties, and the +counties subdivided into townships to which, as a matter of course, +the municipalities are attached. + +From Quebec to Montreal there are two modes of travel. There are the +steamers up the St. Lawrence which, as all the world know is, or at +any rate hitherto has been, the high road of the Canadas; and there +is the Grand Trunk Railway. Passengers choosing the latter go towards +Portland as far as Richmond, and there join the main line of the +road, passing from Richmond on to Montreal. We learned while at +Quebec that it behoved us not to leave the colony till we had seen +the lake and mountains of Memphra-Magog, and as we were clearly +neglecting our duty with regard to the Saguenay, we felt bound to +make such amends as lay in our power, by deviating from our way to +the lake above named. In order to do this we were obliged to choose +the railway, and to go back beyond Richmond to the station at +Sherbrooke. Sherbrooke is a large village on the confines of Canada, +and as it is on the railway will no doubt become a large town. It is +very prettily situated on the meeting of two rivers; it has three +or four different churches, and intends to thrive. It possesses two +newspapers, of the prosperity of which I should be inclined to feel +less assured. The annual subscription to such a newspaper published +twice a week is ten shillings per annum. A sale of a thousand copies +is not considered bad. Such a sale would produce L500 a year, and +this would, if entirely devoted to that purpose, give a moderate +income to a gentleman qualified to conduct a newspaper. But the paper +and printing must cost something, and the capital invested should +receive its proper remuneration. And then,--such at least is the +general idea,--the getting together of news and the framing of +intelligence is a costly operation. I can only hope that all this is +paid for by the advertisements, for I must trust that the editors do +not receive less than the moderate sum above named. At Sherbrooke we +are still in Lower Canada. Indeed, as regards distance, we are when +there nearly as far removed from Upper Canada as at Quebec. But the +race of people here is very different. The French population had made +their way down into these townships before the English and American +war broke out, but had not done so in great numbers. The country was +then very unapproachable, being far to the south of the St. Lawrence, +and far also from any great line of internal communication towards +the Atlantic. But, nevertheless, many settlers made their way in here +from the States; men who preferred to live under British rule, and +perhaps doubted the stability of the new order of things. They or +their children have remained here since, and as the whole country +has been opened up by the railway many others have flocked in. Thus +a better class of people than the French hold possession of the +larger farms, and are on the whole doing well. I am told that many +Americans are now coming here, driven over the borders from Maine, +New Hampshire, and Vermont by fears of the war and the weight of +taxation. I do not think that fears of war or the paying of taxes +drive many individuals away from home. Men who would be so influenced +have not the amount of foresight which would induce them to avoid +such evils; or, at any rate, such fears would act slowly. Labourers, +however, will go where work is certain, where work is well paid, and +where the wages to be earned will give plenty in return. It may be +that work will become scarce in the States, as it has done with those +poor jewellers at Attleborough, of whom we spoke, and that food will +become dear. If this be so, labourers from the States will no doubt +find their way into Canada. + +From Sherbrooke we went with the mails on a pair-horse waggon to +Magog. Cross country mails are not interesting to the generality +of readers, but I have a professional liking for them myself. I +have spent the best part of my life in looking after and I hope +in improving such mails, and I always endeavour to do a stroke of +work when I come across them. I learned on this occasion that the +conveyance of mails with a pair of horses in Canada costs little more +than half what is paid for the same work in England with one horse, +and something less than what is paid in Ireland, also for one horse. +But in Canada the average pace is only five miles an hour. In Ireland +it is seven, and the time is accurately kept, which does not seem to +be the case in Canada. In England the pace is eight miles an hour. +In Canada and in Ireland these conveyances carry passengers; but in +England they are prohibited from doing so. In Canada the vehicles +are much better got up than they are in England, and the horses too +look better. Taking Ireland as a whole they are more respectable in +appearance there than in England. From all which it appears that pace +is the article that costs the highest price, and that appearance does +not go for much in the bill. In Canada the roads are very bad in +comparison with the English or Irish roads; but to make up for this, +the price of forage is very low. + +I have said that the cross mail conveyances in Canada did not seem +to be very closely bound as to time; but they are regulated by +clock-work in comparison with some of them in the United States. +"Are you going this morning?" I said to a mail-driver in Vermont. "I +thought you always started in the evening." "Wa'll; I guess I do. But +it rained some last night, so I jist stayed at home." I do not know +that I ever felt more shocked in my life, and I could hardly keep my +tongue off the man. The mails, however, would have paid no respect to +me in Vermont, and I was obliged to walk away crestfallen. + +We went with the mails from Sherbrooke to a village called Magog at +the outlet of the lake, and from thence by a steamer up the lake to a +solitary hotel called the Mountain House, which is built at the foot +of the mountain on the shore, and which is surrounded on every side +by thick forest. There is no road within two miles of the house. The +lake therefore is the only highway, and that is frozen up for four +months in the year. When frozen, however, it is still a road, for it +is passable for sledges. I have seldom been in a house that seemed +so remote from the world, and so little within reach of doctors, +parsons, or butchers. Bakers in this country are not required, as all +persons make their own bread. But in spite of its position the hotel +is well kept, and on the whole we were more comfortable there than at +any other inn in Lower Canada. The Mountain House is but five miles +from the borders of Vermont, in which State the head of the lake +lies. The steamer which brought us runs on to Newport,--or rather +from Newport to Magog and back again. And Newport is in Vermont. + +The one thing to be done at the Mountain House is the ascent of the +mountain called the Owl's Head. The world there offers nothing else +of active enterprise to the traveller, unless fishing be considered +an active enterprise. I am not capable of fishing, therefore we +resolved on going up the Owl's Head. To dine in the middle of the day +is absolutely imperative at these hotels, and thus we were driven +to select either the morning or the afternoon. Evening lights we +declared were the best for all views, and therefore we decided on the +afternoon. It is but two miles; but then, as we were told more than +once by those who had spoken to us on the subject, those two miles +are not like other miles. "I doubt if the lady can do it," one man +said to me. I asked if ladies did not sometimes go up. "Yes; young +women do, at times," he said. After that my wife resolved that she +would see the top of the Owl's Head, or die in the attempt, and so +we started. They never think of sending a guide with one in these +places, whereas in Europe a traveller is not allowed to go a step +without one. When I asked for one to show us the way up Mount +Washington, I was told that there were no idle boys about that place. +The path was indicated to us, and off we started with high hopes. + +I have been up many mountains, and have climbed some that were +perhaps somewhat dangerous in their ascent. In climbing the Owl's +Head there is no danger. One is closed in by thick trees the whole +way. But I doubt if I ever went up a steeper ascent. It was very hard +work, but we were not beaten. We reached the top, and there sitting +down thoroughly enjoyed our victory. It was then half-past five +o'clock, and the sun was not yet absolutely sinking. It did not seem +to give us any warning that we should especially require its aid, +and as the prospect below us was very lovely we remained there for +a quarter of an hour. The ascent of the Owl's Head is certainly a +thing to do, and I still think, in spite of our following misfortune, +that it is a thing to do late in the afternoon. The view down upon +the lakes and the forests around, and on the wooded hills below, is +wonderfully lovely. I never was on a mountain which gave me a more +perfect command of all the country round. But as we arose to descend +we saw a little cloud coming towards us from over Newport. + +The little cloud came on with speed, and we had hardly freed +ourselves from the rocks of the summit before we were surrounded by +rain. As the rain became thicker, we were surrounded by darkness +also, or if not by darkness by so dim a light that it became a task +to find our path. I still thought that the daylight had not gone, and +that as we descended and so escaped from the cloud we should find +light enough to guide us. But it was not so. The rain soon became a +matter of indifference, and so also did the mud and briars beneath +our feet. Even the steepness of the way was almost forgotten as we +endeavoured to thread our path through the forest before it should +become impossible to discern the track. A dog had followed us up, and +though the beast would not stay with us so as to be our guide, he +returned ever and anon and made us aware of his presence by dashing +by us. I may confess now that I became much frightened. We were wet +through, and a night out in the forest would have been unpleasant to +us. At last I did utterly lose the track. It had become quite dark, +so dark that we could hardly see each other. We had succeeded in +getting down the steepest and worst part of the mountain, but we were +still among dense forest-trees, and up to our knees in mud. But the +people at the Mountain House were Christians, and men with lanterns +were sent hallooing after us through the dark night. When we were +thus found we were not many yards from the path, but unfortunately on +the wrong side of a stream. Through that we waded and then made our +way in safety to the inn. In spite of which misadventure I advise all +travellers in Lower Canada to go up the Owl's Head. + +On the following day we crossed the lake to Georgeville, and drove +round another lake called the Massawhippi back to Sherbrooke. This +was all very well, for it showed us a part of the country which +is comparatively well tilled, and has been long settled; but the +Massawhippi itself is not worth a visit. The route by which we +returned occupies a longer time than the other, and is more costly +as it must be made in a hired vehicle. The people here are quiet, +orderly, and I should say a little slow. It is manifest that a strong +feeling against the Northern States has lately sprung up. This is +much to be deprecated, but I cannot but say that it is natural. It is +not that the Canadians have any special Secession feelings, or that +they have entered with peculiar warmth into the questions of American +politics; but they have been vexed and acerbated by the braggadocio +of the Northern States. They constantly hear that they are to be +invaded, and translated into citizens of the Union: that British rule +is to be swept off the Continent, and that the star-spangled banner +is to be waved over them in pity. The star-spangled banner is in fact +a fine flag, and has waved to some purpose; but those who live near +it, and not under it, fancy that they hear too much of it. At the +present moment the loyalty of both the Canadas to Great Britain +is beyond all question. From all that I can hear I doubt whether +this feeling in the Provinces was ever so strong, and under such +circumstances American abuse of England and American braggadocio +is more than usually distasteful. All this abuse and all this +braggadocio comes to Canada from the Northern States, and therefore +the Southern cause is at the present moment the more popular with +them. + +I have said that the Canadians hereabouts are somewhat slow. As we +were driving back to Sherbrooke it became necessary that we should +rest for an hour or so in the middle of the day, and for this purpose +we stopped at a village inn. It was a large house, in which there +appeared to be three public sitting-rooms of ample size, one of which +was occupied as the bar. In this there were congregated some six or +seven men, seated in arm-chairs round a stove, and among these I +placed myself. No one spoke a word either to me or to any one else. +No one smoked, and no one read, nor did they even whittle sticks. I +asked a question first of one and then of another, and was answered +with monosyllables. So I gave up any hope in that direction, and sat +staring at the big stove in the middle of the room, as the others +did. Presently another stranger entered, having arrived in a waggon +as I had done. He entered the room and sat down, addressing no one, +and addressed by no one. After a while, however, he spoke. "Will +there be any chance of dinner here?" he said. "I guess there'll be +dinner by-and-by," answered the landlord, and then there was silence +for another ten minutes, during which the stranger stared at the +stove. "Is that dinner any way ready?" he asked again. "I guess it +is," said the landlord. And then the stranger went out to see after +his dinner himself. When we started at the end of an hour nobody said +anything to us. The driver "hitched" on the horses, as they call +it, and we started on our way, having been charged nothing for our +accommodation. That some profit arose from the horse provender is to +be hoped. + +On the following day we reached Montreal, which, as I have said +before, is the commercial capital of the two Provinces. This question +of the capitals is at the present moment a subject of great interest +in Canada, but as I shall be driven to say something on the matter +when I report myself as being at Ottawa, I will refrain now. There +are two special public affairs at the present moment to interest a +traveller in Canada. The first I have named, and the second is the +Grand Trunk Railway. I have already stated what is the course of this +line. It runs from the Western State of Michigan to Portland on the +Atlantic in the State of Maine, sweeping the whole length of Canada +in its route. It was originally made by three Companies. The Atlantic +and St. Lawrence constructed it from Portland to Island Pond on the +borders of the States. The St. Lawrence and Atlantic took it from the +South Eastern side of the river at Montreal to the same point, viz., +Island Pond. And the Grand Trunk Company have made it from Detroit to +Montreal, crossing the river there with a stupendous tubular bridge, +and have also made the branch connecting the main line with Quebec +and Riviere du Loup. This latter company is now incorporated with the +St. Lawrence and Atlantic, but has only leased the portion of the +line running through the States. This they have done, guaranteeing +the shareholders an interest of six per cent. There never was a +grander enterprise set on foot. I will not say there never was one +more unfortunate, for is there not the Great Eastern, which by the +weight and constancy of its failures demands for itself a proud +pre-eminence of misfortune? But surely the Grand Trunk comes next +to it. I presume it to be quite out of the question that the +shareholders should get any interest whatever on their shares for +years. The company when I was at Montreal had not paid the interest +due to the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Company for the last year, and +there was a doubt whether the lease would not be broken. No party +that had advanced money to the undertaking was able to recover what +had been advanced. I believe that one firm in London had lent nearly +a million to the Company and is now willing to accept half the sum so +lent in quittance of the whole debt. In 1860 the line could not carry +the freight that offered, not having or being able to obtain the +necessary rolling stock; and on all sides I heard men discussing +whether the line would be kept open for traffic. The Government of +Canada advanced to the Company three millions of money, with an +understanding that neither interest nor principal should be demanded +till all other debts were paid, and all shareholders in receipt of +six per cent. interest. But the three millions were clogged with +conditions which, though they have been of service to the country, +have been so expensive to the Company that it is hardly more solvent +with it than it would have been without it. As it is, the whole +property seems to be involved in ruin; and yet the line is one of the +grandest commercial conceptions that was ever carried out on the face +of the globe, and in the process of a few years will do more to make +bread cheap in England than any other single enterprise that exists. + +I do not know that blame is to be attached to any one. I at least +attach no such blame. Probably it might be easy now to show that the +road might have been made with sufficient accommodation for ordinary +purposes without some of the more costly details. The great tubular +bridge on which was expended L1,300,000 might, I should think, have +been dispensed with. The Detroit end of the line might have been +left for later time. As it stands now, however, it is a wonderful +operation carried to a successful issue as far as the public are +concerned, and one can only grieve that it should be so absolute a +failure to those who have placed their money in it. There are schemes +which seem to be too big for men to work out with any ordinary regard +to profit and loss. The Great Eastern is one, and this is another. +The national advantage arising from such enterprises is immense; but +the wonder is that men should be found willing to embark their money +where the risk is so great, and the return even hoped for is so +small. + +While I was in Canada some gentlemen were there from the Lower +Provinces--Nova Scotia, that is, and New Brunswick--agitating the +subject of another great line of railway from Quebec to Halifax. +The project is one in favour of which very much may be said. In a +national point of view an Englishman or a Canadian cannot but regret +that there should be no winter mode of exit from, or entrance to, +Canada, except through the United States. The St. Lawrence is blocked +up for four or five months in winter, and the steamers which run +to Quebec in the summer run to Portland during the season of ice. +There is at present no mode of public conveyance between the Canadas +and the Lower Provinces, and an immense district of country on the +borders of Lower Canada, through New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia +is now absolutely closed against civilization, which by such a +railway would be opened up to the light of day. We all know how much +the want of such a road was felt when our troops were being forwarded +to Canada during the last winter. It was necessary they should reach +their destination without delay; and as the river was closed, and +the passing of troops through the States was of course out of the +question, that long overland journey across Nova Scotia and New +Brunswick became a necessity. It would certainly be a very great +thing for British interests if a direct line could be made from such +a port as Halifax, a port which is open throughout the whole year, +up into the Canadas. If these Colonies belonged to France or to any +other despotic Government, the thing would be done. But the Colonies +do not belong to any despotic Government. + +Such a line would in fact be a continuance of the Grand Trunk; and +who that looks at the present state of the finances of the Grand +Trunk can think it to be on the cards that private enterprise should +come forward with more money,--with more millions? The idea is that +England will advance the money, and that the English House of Commons +will guarantee the interest, with some counter-guarantee from the +Colonies that this interest shall be duly paid. But it would seem +that if such Colonial guarantee is to go for anything, the Colonies +might raise the money in the money market without the intervention of +the British House of Commons. + +Montreal is an exceedingly good commercial town, and business there +is brisk. It has now 85,000 inhabitants. Having said that of it, I do +not know what more there is left to say. Yes; one word there is to +say of Sir William Logan the creator of the Geological Museum there +and the head of all matters geological throughout the Province. +While he was explaining to me with admirable perspicuity the result +of investigations into which he had poured his whole heart, I stood +by understanding almost nothing, but envying everything. That I +understood almost nothing, I know he perceived. That, ever and anon, +with all his graciousness became apparent. But I wonder whether +he perceived also that I did envy everything. I have listened to +geologists by the hour before--have had to listen to them, desirous +simply of escape. I have listened and understood absolutely nothing, +and have only wished myself away. But I could have listened to Sir +William Logan for the whole day, if time allowed. I found even in +that hour that some ideas found their way through to me, and I began +to fancy that even I could become a geologist at Montreal. + +Over and beyond Sir William Logan there is at Montreal for strangers +the drive round the mountain, not very exciting; and there is the +tubular bridge over the St. Lawrence. This, it must be understood, +is not made in one tube, as is that over the Menai Straits, but is +divided into, I think, thirteen tubes. To the eye there appear to be +twenty-five tubes; but each of the six side tubes is supported by a +pier in the middle. A great part of the expense of the bridge was +incurred in sinking the shafts for these piers. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +UPPER CANADA. + + +Ottawa is in Upper Canada, but crossing the suspension bridge from +Ottawa into Hull the traveller is in Lower Canada. It is therefore +exactly in the confines, and has been chosen as the site of the new +Government capital very much for this reason. Other reasons have, +no doubt, had a share in the decision. At the time when the choice +was made Ottawa was not large enough to create the jealousy of the +more populous towns. Though not on the main line of railway, it was +connected with it by a branch railway, and it is also connected with +the St. Lawrence by water communication. And then it stands nobly +on a magnificent river, with high overhanging rock, and a natural +grandeur of position which has perhaps gone far in recommending it to +those whose voice in the matter has been potential. Having the world +of Canada from whence to choose the site of a new town, the choosers +have certainly chosen well. It is another question whether or no a +new town should have been deemed necessary. + +Perhaps it may be well to explain the circumstances under which it +was thought expedient thus to establish a new Canadian capital. In +1841 when Lord Sydenham was Governor General of the Provinces, the +two Canadas, separate till then, were united under one Government. +At that time the people of Lower or French Canada, and the people +of Upper or English Canada differed much more in their habits and +language than they do now. I do not know that the English have become +in any way Gallicized, but the French have been very materially +Anglicized. But while this has been in progress, national jealousy +has been at work; and even yet that national jealousy is not at an +end. While the two provinces were divided, there were, of course, +two capitals, and two seats of Government. These were at Quebec for +Lower Canada, and at Toronto for Upper Canada, both which towns are +centrically situated as regards the respective provinces. When the +union was effected, it was deemed expedient that there should be but +one capital; and the small town of Kingstown was selected, which is +situated on the lower end of Lake Ontario in the Upper Province. +But Kingstown was found to be inconvenient, lacking space and +accommodation for those who had to follow the Government, and the +Governor removed it and himself to Montreal. Montreal is in the +Lower Province, but is very central to both the provinces; and it is, +moreover, the chief town in Canada. This would have done very well, +but for an unforeseen misfortune. + +It will be remembered by most readers that in 1837 took place the +Mackenzie-Papineau rebellion, of which those who were then old enough +to be politicians heard so much in England. I am not going back to +recount the history of the period, otherwise than to say that the +English Canadians at that time, in withstanding and combating the +rebels, did considerable injury to the property of certain French +Canadians, and that when the rebellion had blown over and those +in fault had been pardoned, a question arose whether or no the +Government should make good the losses of those French Canadians who +had been injured. The English Canadians protested that it would be +monstrous that they should be taxed to repair damages suffered by +rebels, and made necessary in the suppression of rebellion. The +French Canadians declared that the rebellion had been only a just +assertion of their rights, that if there had been crime on the part +of those who took up arms that crime had been condoned, and that the +damages had not fallen exclusively or even chiefly on those who had +done so. I will give no opinion on the merits of the question, but +simply say that blood ran very hot when it was discussed. At last +the Houses of the Provincial Parliament, then assembled at Montreal, +decreed that the losses should be made good by the public treasury; +and the English mob in Montreal, when this decree became known, was +roused to great wrath by a decision which seemed to be condemnatory +of English loyalty. It pelted Lord Elgin, the Governor General, with +rotten eggs, and burned down the Parliament House. Hence, there +arose, not unnaturally, a strong feeling of anger on the part of the +local Government against Montreal; and moreover there was no longer a +House in which the Parliament could be held in that town. For these +conjoint reasons it was decided to move the seat of Government again, +and it was resolved that the Governor and the Parliament should +sit alternately at Toronto in Upper Canada, and at Quebec in Lower +Canada, remaining four years at each place. They went at first to +Toronto for two years only, having agreed that they should be there +on this occasion only for the remainder of the term of the then +Parliament. After that they were at Quebec for four years; then at +Toronto for four; and now are again at Quebec. But this arrangement +has been found very inconvenient. In the first place there is a great +national expenditure incurred in moving old records, and in keeping +double records, in moving the library, and as I have been informed +even the pictures. The Government clerks also are called on to +move as the Government moves; and though an allowance is made to +them from the national purse to cover their loss, the arrangement +has nevertheless been felt by them to be a grievance, as may be +well understood. The accommodation also for the ministers of the +Government, and for members of the two Houses has been insufficient. +Hotels, lodgings, and furnished houses could not be provided to the +extent required, seeing that they would be left nearly empty for +every alternate space of four years. Indeed it needs but little +argument to prove that the plan adopted must have been a thoroughly +uncomfortable plan, and the wonder is that it should have been +adopted. Lower Canada had undertaken to make all her leading citizens +wretched, providing Upper Canada would treat hers with equal +severity. This has now gone on for some twelve years, and as the +system was found to be an unendurable nuisance it has been at last +admitted that some steps must be taken towards selecting one capital +for the country. + +I should here, in justice to the Canadians, state a remark made to +me on this matter by one of the present leading politicians of the +colony. I cannot think that the migratory scheme was good; but he +defended it, asserting that it had done very much to amalgamate the +people of the two provinces; that it had brought Lower Canadians into +Upper Canada, and Upper Canadians into Lower Canada, teaching English +to those who spoke only French before, and making each pleasantly +acquainted with the other. I have no doubt that something,--perhaps +much,--has been done in this way; but valuable as the result may have +been, I cannot think it worth the cost of the means employed. The +best answer to the above argument consists in the undoubted fact that +a migratory Government would never have been established for such +a reason. It was so established because Montreal, the central town, +had given offence, and because the jealousy of the provinces against +each other would not admit of the Government being placed entirely at +Quebec, or entirely at Toronto. + +But it was necessary that some step should be taken; and as it was +found to be unlikely that any resolution should be reached by the +joint provinces themselves, it was loyally and wisely determined to +refer the matter to the Queen. That Her Majesty has constitutionally +the power to call the Parliament of Canada at any town of Canada +which she may select, admits, I conceive, of no doubt. It is, I +imagine, within her prerogative to call the Parliament of England +where she may please within that realm, though her lieges would be +somewhat startled if it were called otherwhere than in London. It +was therefore well done to ask Her Majesty to act as arbiter in +the matter. But there are not wanting those in Canada who say that +in referring the matter to the Queen it was in truth referring it +to those by whom very many of the Canadians were least willing to +be guided in the matter; to the Governor General namely, and the +Colonial Secretary. Many indeed in Canada now declare that the +decision simply placed the matter in the hands of the Governor +General. + +Be that as it may, I do not think that any unbiassed traveller will +doubt that the best possible selection has been made, presuming +always, as we may presume in the discussion, that Montreal could +not be selected. I take for granted that the rejection of Montreal +was regarded as a _sine qua non_ in the decision. To me it appears +grievous that this should have been so. It is a great thing for any +country to have a large, leading, world-known city, and I think that +the Government should combine with the commerce of the country in +carrying out this object. But commerce can do a great deal more +for Government than Government can do for commerce. Government has +selected Ottawa as the capital of Canada; but commerce has already +made Montreal the capital, and Montreal will be the chief city of +Canada, let Government do what it may to foster the other town. The +idea of spiting a town because there has been a row in it seems to +me to be preposterous. The row was not the work of those who have +made Montreal rich and respectable. Montreal is more centrical than +Ottawa,--nay, it is as nearly centrical as any town can be. It is +easier to get to Montreal from Toronto than to Ottawa;--and if from +Toronto, then from all that distant portion of Upper Canada, back of +Toronto. To all Lower Canada Montreal is, as a matter of course, much +easier of access than Ottawa. But having said so much in favour of +Montreal, I will again admit that, putting aside Montreal, the best +possible selection has been made. + +When Ottawa was named, no time was lost in setting to work to prepare +for the new migration. In 1859 the Parliament was removed to Quebec, +with the understanding that it should remain there till the new +buildings should be completed. These buildings were absolutely +commenced in April 1860, and it was, and I believe still is, expected +that they will be completed in 1863. I am now writing in the winter +of 1861; and, as is necessary in Canadian winters, the works are +suspended. But unfortunately they were suspended in the early part +of October,--on the 1st of October,--whereas they might have been +continued, as far as the season is concerned, up to the end of +November. We reached Ottawa on the 3rd of October, and more than a +thousand men had then been just dismissed. All the money in hand +had been expended, and the Government,--so it was said,--could give +no more money till Parliament should meet again. This was most +unfortunate. In the first place the suspension was against the +contract as made with the contractors for the building; in the next +place there was the delay; and then, worst of all, the question again +became agitated whether the colonial legislature were really in +earnest with reference to Ottawa. Many men of mark in the colony were +still anxious--I believe are still anxious,--to put an end to the +Ottawa scheme, and think that there still exists for them a chance +of success. And very many men who are not of mark are thus united, +and a feeling of doubt on the subject has been created. L225,000 has +already been spent on these buildings, and I have no doubt myself +that they will be duly completed, and duly used. + +We went up to the new town by boat, taking the course of the river +Ottawa. We passed St. Ann's, but no one at St. Ann's seemed to know +anything of the brothers who were to rest there on their weary oars. +At Maxwellstown I could hear nothing of Annie Laurie or of her +trysting place on the braes, and the turnpike man at Tara could +tell me nothing of the site of the hall, and had never even heard +of the harp. When I go down South I shall expect to find that the +negro melodies have not yet reached "Old Virginie." This boat +conveyance from Montreal to Ottawa is not all that could be wished +in convenience, for it is allied too closely with railway travelling. +Those who use it leave Montreal by a railway; after nine miles, they +are changed into a steamboat. Then they encounter another railway, +and at last reach Ottawa in a second steamboat. But the river is +seen, and a better idea of the country is obtained than can be had +solely from the railway cars. The scenery is by no means grand, nor +is it strikingly picturesque; but it is in its way interesting. For a +long portion of the river the old primeval forests come down close to +the water's edge, and in the fall of the year the brilliant colouring +is very lovely. It should not be imagined,--as I think it often is +imagined,--that these forests are made up of splendid trees, or +that splendid trees are even common. When timber grows on undrained +ground, and when it is uncared for, it does not seem to approach +nearer to its perfection than wheat and grass do under similar +circumstances. Seen from a little distance the colour and effect is +good, but the trees themselves have shallow roots and grow up tall, +narrow, and shapeless. It necessarily is so with all timber that is +not thinned in its growth. When fine forest trees are found, and are +left standing alone by any cultivator who may have taste enough to +wish for such adornment, they almost invariably die. They are robbed +of the sickly shelter by which they have been surrounded; the hot +sun strikes the uncovered fibres of the roots, and the poor solitary +invalid languishes and at last dies. + +As one ascends the river, which by its breadth forms itself into +lakes, one is shown Indian villages clustering down upon the bank. +Some years ago these Indians were rich, for the price of furs, in +which they dealt, was high; but furs have become cheaper, and the +beavers with which they used to trade are almost valueless. That a +change in the fashion of hats should have assisted to polish these +poor fellows off the face of creation must, one may suppose, be very +unintelligible to them; but nevertheless it is probably a subject of +deep speculation. If the reading world were to take to sermons again +and eschew their novels, Messrs. Thackeray, Dickens, and some others +would look about them and inquire into the causes of such a change +with considerable acuteness. They might not, perhaps, hit the truth, +and these Indians are much in that predicament. It is said that very +few pure-blooded Indians are now to be found in their villages, but I +doubt whether this is not erroneous. The children of the Indians are +now fed upon baked bread, and on cooked meat, and are brought up in +houses. They are nursed somewhat as the children of the white men are +nursed; and these practices no doubt have done much towards altering +their appearance. The negroes who have been bred in the States, and +whose fathers have been so bred before them, differ both in colour +and form from their brothers who have been born and nurtured in +Africa. + +I said in the last chapter that the city of Ottawa was still to be +built; but I must explain, lest I should draw down on my head the +wrath of the Ottawaites, that the place already contains a population +of 15,000 inhabitants. As, however, it is being prepared for four +times that number--for eight times that number let us hope--and as it +straggles over a vast extent of ground, it gives one the idea of a +city in an active course of preparation. In England we know nothing +about unbuilt cities. With us four or five blocks of streets together +never assume that ugly, unfledged appearance which belongs to the +half-finished carcase of a house, as they do so often on the other +side of the Atlantic. Ottawa is preparing for itself broad streets, +and grand thoroughfares. The buildings already extend over a length +considerably exceeding two miles, and half a dozen hotels have been +opened, which, if I were writing a guide-book in a complimentary +tone, it would be my duty to describe as first-rate. But the +half-dozen first-rate hotels, though open, as yet enjoy but a +moderate amount of custom. All this justifies me, I think, in saying +that the city has as yet to get itself built. The manner in which +this is being done justifies me also in saying that the Ottawaites +are going about their task with a worthy zeal. + +To me I confess that the nature of the situation has great +charms,--regarding it as the site for a town. It is not on a plain, +and from the form of the rock overhanging the river, and of the +hill that falls from thence down to the water, it has been found +impracticable to lay out the place in right-angled parallelograms. A +right-angled parallelogramical city, such as are Philadelphia and the +new portion of New York, is from its very nature odious to me. I know +that much may be said in its favour--that drainage and gas-pipes come +easier to such a shape, and that ground can be better economized. +Nevertheless I prefer a street that is forced to twist itself about. +I enjoy the narrowness of Temple Bar, and the misshapen curvature +of Pickett Street. The disreputable dinginess of Holywell Street is +dear to me, and I love to thread my way up by the Olympic into Covent +Garden. Fifth Avenue in New York is as grand as paint and glass can +make it; but I would not live in a palace in Fifth Avenue if the +corporation of the city would pay my baker's and butcher's bills. + +The town of Ottawa lies between two waterfalls. The upper one, or +Rideau Fall, is formed by the confluence of a small river with the +larger one; and the lower fall--designated as lower because it is at +the foot of the hill, though it is higher up the Ottawa river--is +called the Chaudiere, from its resemblance to a boiling kettle. +This is on the Ottawa river itself. The Rideau fall is divided into +two branches, thus forming an island in the middle as is the case +at Niagara. It is pretty enough, and worth visiting, even were it +further from the town than it is; but by those who have hunted out +many cataracts in their travels it will not be considered very +remarkable. The Chaudiere fall I did think very remarkable. It is of +trifling depth, being formed by fractures in the rocky bed of the +river; but the waters have so cut the rock as to create beautiful +forms in the rush which they make in their descent. Strangers are +told to look at these falls from the suspension bridge; and it +is well that they should do so. But in so looking at them they +obtain but a very small part of their effect. On the Ottawa side +of the bridge is a brewery, which brewery is surrounded by a +huge timber-yard. This timber-yard I found to be very muddy, and +the passing and repassing through it is a work of trouble; but +nevertheless let the traveller by all means make his way through the +mud, and scramble over the timber, and cross the plank bridges which +traverse the streams of the sawmills, and thus take himself to the +outer edge of the woodwork over the water. If he will then seat +himself, about the hour of sunset, he will see the Chaudiere fall +aright. + +But the glory of Ottawa will be--and, indeed, already is--the set of +public buildings which is now being erected on the rock which guards +as it were the town from the river. How much of the excellence of +these buildings may be due to the taste of Sir Edmund Head, the late +Governor, I do not know. That he has greatly interested himself +in the subject is well known: and as the style of the different +buildings is so much alike as to make one whole, though the designs +of different architects were selected, and these different architects +employed, I imagine that considerable alterations must have been made +in the original drawings. There are three buildings, forming three +sides of a quadrangle; but they are not joined, the vacant spaces +at the corner being of considerable extent. The fourth side of the +quadrangle opens upon one of the principal streets of the town. The +centre building is intended for the Houses of Parliament, and the +two side buildings for the Government offices. Of the first Messrs. +Fuller and Jones are the architects, and of the latter Messrs. Stent +and Laver. I did not have the pleasure of meeting any of these +gentlemen; but I take upon myself to say that as regards purity of +art and manliness of conception their joint work is entitled to the +very highest praise. How far the buildings may be well arranged +for the required purposes, how far they may be economical in +construction, or specially adapted to the severe climate of the +country, I cannot say; but I have no hesitation in risking my +reputation for judgment in giving my warmest commendation to them as +regards beauty of outline and truthful nobility of detail. + +I will not attempt to describe them, for I should interest no one in +doing so, and should certainly fail in my attempt to make any reader +understand me. I know no modern Gothic purer of its kind, or less +sullied with fictitious ornamentation. Our own Houses of Parliament +are very fine, but it is, I believe, generally felt that the +ornamentation is too minute; and, moreover, it may be questioned +whether perpendicular Gothic is capable of the highest nobility which +architecture can achieve. I do not pretend to say that these Canadian +public buildings will reach that highest nobility. They must be +finished before any final judgment can be pronounced; but I do feel +very certain that that final judgment will be greatly in their +favour. The total frontage of the quadrangle, including the side +buildings, is 1,200 feet; that of the centre buildings is 475. As +I have said before, L225,000 has already been expended, and it +is estimated that the total cost, including the arrangement and +decoration of the ground behind the building and in the quadrangle, +will be half a million. + +The buildings front upon what will, I suppose, be the principal +street of Ottawa, and they stand upon a rock looking immediately down +upon the river. In this way they are blessed with a site peculiarly +happy. Indeed I cannot at this moment remember any so much so. The +castle of Edinburgh stands very well; but then, like many other +castles, it stands on a summit by itself, and can only be approached +by a steep ascent. These buildings at Ottawa, though they look down +from a grand eminence immediately on the river, are approached +from the town without any ascent. The rock, though it falls +almost precipitously down to the water, is covered with trees and +shrubs, and then the river that runs beneath is rapid, bright, and +picturesque in the irregularity of all its lines. The view from the +back of the library, up to the Chaudiere falls, and to the saw-mills +by which they are surrounded, is very lovely. So that I will say +again, that I know no site for such a set of buildings so happy as +regards both beauty and grandeur. It is intended that the library, of +which the walls were only ten feet above the ground when I was there, +shall be an octagonal building, in shape and outward character like +the chapter-house of a cathedral. This structure will, I presume, be +surrounded by gravel walks and green sward. Of the library there is a +large model showing all the details of the architecture; and if that +model be ultimately followed, this building alone will be worthy of a +visit from English tourists. To me it was very wonderful to find such +an edifice in the course of erection on the banks of a wild river, +almost at the back of Canada. But if ever I visit Canada again it +will be to see those buildings when completed. + +And now, like all friendly critics, having bestowed my modicum of +praise, I must proceed to find fault. I cannot bring myself to +administer my sugar-plum without adding to it some bitter morsel by +way of antidote. The building to the left of the quadrangle as it is +entered is deficient in length, and on that account appears mean to +the eye. The two side buildings are brought up close to the street, +so that each has a frontage immediately on the street. Such being the +case they should be of equal length, or nearly so. Had the centre of +one fronted the centre of the other, a difference of length might +have been allowed; but in this case the side front of the smaller +one would not have reached the street. As it is, the space between +the main building and the smaller wing is disproportionably large, +and the very distance at which it stands will, I fear, give to +it that appearance of meanness of which I have spoken. The clerk +of the works, who explained to me with much courtesy the plan of +the buildings, stated that the design of this wing was capable of +elongation, and had been expressly prepared with that object. If this +be so, I trust that the defect will be remedied. + +The great trade of Canada is lumbering; and lumbering consists in +cutting down pine trees up in the far distant forests, in hewing or +sawing them into shape for market, and getting them down the rivers +to Quebec, from whence they are exported to Europe, and chiefly +to England. Timber in Canada is called lumber; those engaged in +the trade are called lumberers, and the business itself is called +lumbering. After a lapse of time it must no doubt become monotonous +to those engaged in it, and the name is not engaging; but there is +much about it that is very picturesque. A saw-mill worked by water +power is almost always a pretty object, and stacks of new cut timber +are pleasant to the smell, and group themselves not amiss on the +water's edge. If I had the time, and were a year or two younger, I +should love well to go up lumbering into the woods. The men for this +purpose are hired in the fall of the year, and are sent up hundreds +of miles away to the pine forests in strong gangs. Everything is +there found for them. They make log huts for their shelter, and food +of the best and the strongest is taken up for their diet. But no +strong drink of any kind is allowed, nor is any within reach of the +men. There are no publics, no shebeen houses, no grog-shops. Sobriety +is an enforced virtue; and so much is this considered by the masters, +and understood by the men, that very little contraband work is done +in the way of taking up spirits to these settlements. It may be said +that the work up in the forests is done with the assistance of no +stronger drink than tea; and it is very hard work. There cannot be +much work that is harder; and it is done amidst the snows and forests +of a Canadian winter. A convict in Bermuda cannot get through his +daily eight hours of light labour without an allowance of rum; but +a Canadian lumberer can manage to do his daily task on tea without +milk. These men, however, are by no means teetotallers. When they +come back to the towns they break out, and reward themselves for +their long enforced moderation. The wages I found to be very various, +running from thirteen or fourteen dollars a month to twenty-eight or +thirty, according to the nature of the work. The men who cut down the +trees receive more than those who hew them when down, and these again +more than the under class who make the roads and clear the ground. +These money wages, however, are in addition to their diet. The +operation requiring the most skill is that of marking the trees for +the axe. The largest only are worth cutting, and form and soundness +must also be considered. + +But if I were about to visit a party of lumberers in the forest, I +should not be disposed to pass a whole winter with them. Even of a +very good thing one may have too much. I would go up in the spring, +when the rafts are being formed in the small tributary streams, and +I would come down upon one of them, shooting the rapids of the rivers +as soon as the first freshets had left the way open. A freshet in the +rivers is the rush of waters occasioned by melting snow and ice. The +first freshets take down the winter waters of the nearer lakes and +rivers. Then the streams become for a time navigable, and the rafts +go down. After that comes the second freshet, occasioned by the +melting of far-off snow and ice up in the great northern lakes which +are little known. These rafts are of immense construction, such as +those which we have seen on the Rhone and Rhine, and often contain +timber to the value of two, three, and four thousand pounds. At the +rapids the large rafts are, as it were, unyoked, and divided into +small portions, which go down separately. The excitement and motion +of such transit must, I should say, be very joyous. I was told that +the Prince of Wales desired to go down a rapid on a raft, but that +the men in charge would not undertake to say that there was no +possible danger. Whereupon those who accompanied the prince requested +his Royal Highness to forbear. I fear that in these careful days +crowned heads and their heirs must often find themselves in the +position of Sancho at the banquet. The sailor prince who came after +his brother was allowed to go down a rapid, and got, as I was told, +rather a rough bump as he did so. + +Ottawa is a great place for these timber rafts. Indeed, it may, I +think, be called the head-quarters of timber for the world. Nearly +all the best pine wood comes down the Ottawa and its tributaries. +The other rivers by which timber is brought down to the St. Lawrence +are chiefly the St. Maurice, the Madawaska, and the Saguenay; but +the Ottawa and its tributaries water 75,000 square miles; whereas +the other three rivers with their tributaries water only 53,000. +The timber from the Ottawa and St. Maurice finds its way down the +St. Lawrence to Quebec, where, however, it loses the whole of its +picturesque character. The Saguenay and the Madawaska fall into the +St. Lawrence below Quebec. + +From Ottawa we went by rail to Prescott, which is surely one of the +most wretched little places to be found in any country. Immediately +opposite to it, on the other side of the St. Lawrence, is the +thriving town of Ogdensburgh. But Ogdensburgh is in the United +States. Had we been able to learn at Ottawa any facts as to the hours +of the river steamers and railways we might have saved time and have +avoided Prescott; but this was out of the question. Had I asked the +exact hour at which I might reach Calcutta by the quickest route, an +accurate reply would not have been more out of the question. I was +much struck at Prescott--and indeed all through Canada, though more +in the upper than in the lower province--by the sturdy roughness, +some would call it insolence, of those of the lower classes of the +people with whom I was brought into contact. If the words "lower +classes" give offence to any reader, I beg to apologize;--to +apologize and to assert that I am one of the last of men to apply +such a term in a sense of reproach to those who earn their bread by +the labour of their hands. But it is hard to find terms which will +be understood; and that term, whether it give offence or no, will be +understood. Of course such a complaint as that I now make is very +common as made against the States. Men in the States with horned +hands and fustian coats are very often most unnecessarily insolent +in asserting their independence. What I now mean to say is that +precisely the same fault is to be found in Canada. I know well what +the men mean when they offend in this manner. And when I think on +the subject with deliberation, at my own desk, I can not only excuse, +but almost approve them. But when one personally encounters their +corduroy braggadocio; when the man to whose services one is entitled +answers one with determined insolence; when one is bidden to follow +"that young lady," meaning the chambermaid, or desired, with a toss +of the head, to wait for the "gentleman who is coming," meaning the +boots, the heart is sickened, and the English traveller pines for the +civility,--for the servility, if my American friends choose to call +it so,--of a well-ordered servant. But the whole scene is easily +construed, and turned into English. A man is asked by a stranger some +question about his employment, and he replies in a tone which seems +to imply anger, insolence, and a dishonest intention to evade the +service for which he is paid. Or if there be no question of service +or payment, the man's manner will be the same, and the stranger feels +that he is slapped in the face and insulted. The translation of +it is this. The man questioned, who is aware that as regards coat, +hat, boots, and outward cleanliness he is below him by whom he is +questioned, unconsciously feels himself called upon to assert his +political equality. It is his shibboleth that he is politically equal +to the best, that he is independent, and that his labour, though it +earn him but a dollar a day by porterage, places him as a citizen on +an equal rank with the most wealthy fellow-man that may employ or +accost him. But being so inferior in that coat, hat and boots matter, +he is forced to assert his equality by some effort. As he improves in +externals he will diminish the roughness of his claim. As long as the +man makes his claim with any roughness, so long does he acknowledge +within himself some feeling of external inferiority. When that has +gone,--when the American has polished himself up by education and +general well being to a feeling of external equality with gentlemen, +he shows, I think, no more of that outward braggadocio of +independence than a Frenchman. + +But the blow at the moment of the stroke is very galling. I confess +that I have occasionally all but broken down beneath it. But when it +is thought of afterwards it admits of full excuse. No effort that a +man can make is better than a true effort at independence. But this +insolence is a false effort, it will be said. It should rather be +called a false accompaniment to a life-long true effort. The man +probably is not dishonest, does not desire to shirk any service which +is due from him,--is not even inclined to insolence. Accept his first +declaration of equality for that which it is intended to represent, +and the man afterwards will be found obliging and communicative. +If occasion offer he will sit down in the room with you and will +talk with you on any subject that he may choose; but having once +ascertained that you show no resentment for this assertion of +equality, he will do pretty nearly all that he is asked. He will at +any rate do as much in that way as an Englishman. I say thus much on +this subject now especially, because I was quite as much struck by +the feeling in Canada as I was within the States. + +From Prescott we went on by the Grand Trunk Railway to Toronto, and +stayed there for a few days. Toronto is the capital of the province +of Upper Canada, and I presume will in some degree remain so in spite +of Ottawa and its pretensions. That is, the law courts will still +be held there. I do not know that it will enjoy any other supremacy, +unless it be that of trade and population. Some few years ago Toronto +was advancing with rapid strides, and was bidding fair to rival +Quebec, or even perhaps Montreal. Hamilton, also, another town of +Upper Canada, was going a head in the true American style; but +then reverses came in trade, and the towns were checked for a +while. Toronto, with a neighbouring suburb which is a part of it, +as Southwark is of London, contains now over 50,000 inhabitants. +The streets are all parallelogramical, and there is not a single +curvature to rest the eye. It is built down close upon Lake Ontario; +and as it is also on the Grand Trunk Railway it has all the aid which +facility of traffic can give it. + +The two sights of Toronto are the Osgoode Hall and the University. +The Osgoode Hall is to Upper Canada what the Four Courts are to +Ireland. The law courts are all held there. Exteriorly little can +be said for Osgoode Hall, whereas the exterior of the Four Courts +in Dublin is very fine; but as an interior the temple of Themis at +Toronto beats hollow that which the goddess owns in Dublin. In Dublin +the Courts themselves are shabby, and the space under the dome is +not so fine as the exterior seems to promise that it should be. In +Toronto the Courts themselves are, I think, the most commodious that +I ever saw, and the passages, vestibules, and hall are very handsome. +In Upper Canada the common law judges and those in Chancery are +divided as they are in England; but it is, as I was told, the opinion +of Canadian lawyers that the work may be thrown together. Appeal is +allowed in criminal cases; but as far as I could learn such power of +appeal is held to be both troublesome and useless. In Lower Canada +the old French laws are still administered. + +But the University is the glory of Toronto. This is a Gothic building +and will take rank after, but next to the buildings at Ottawa. It +will be the second piece of noble architecture in Canada, and as far +as I know on the American continent. It is, I believe, intended to be +purely Norman, though I doubt whether the received types of Norman +architecture have not been departed from in many of the windows. Be +this as it may the College is a manly, noble structure, free from +false decoration, and infinitely creditable to those who projected +it. I was informed by the head of the College that it has been open +only two years, and here also I fancy that the colony has been much +indebted to the taste of the late Governor, Sir Edmund Head. + +Toronto as a city is not generally attractive to a traveller. The +country around it is flat; and, though it stands on a lake, that +lake has no attributes of beauty. Large inland seas such as are +these great Northern lakes of America never have such attributes. +Picturesque mountains rise from narrow valleys, such as form the beds +of lakes in Switzerland, Scotland, and Northern Italy. But from such +broad waters as those of Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and Lake Michigan, +the shores shelve very gradually, and have none of the materials of +lovely scenery. + +The streets in Toronto are framed with wood, or rather planked, as +are those of Montreal and Quebec; but they are kept in better order. +I should say that the planks are first used at Toronto, then sent +down by the lake to Montreal, and when all but rotted out there, are +again floated off by the St. Lawrence to be used in the thoroughfares +of the old French capital. But if the streets of Toronto are better +than those of the other towns, the roads round it are worse. I had +the honour of meeting two distinguished members of the Provincial +Parliament at dinner some few miles out of town, and, returning back +a short while after they had left our host's house, was glad to be +of use in picking them up from a ditch into which their carriage had +been upset. To me it appeared all but miraculous that any carriage +should make its way over that road without such misadventure. I may +perhaps be allowed to hope that the discomfiture of those worthy +legislators may lead to some improvement in the thoroughfare. + +I had on a previous occasion gone down the St. Lawrence, through the +thousand isles, and over the rapids in one of those large summer +steamboats which ply upon the lake and river. I cannot say that I was +much struck by the scenery, and therefore did not encroach upon my +time by making the journey again. Such an opinion will be regarded +as heresy by many who think much of the thousand islands. I do not +believe that they would be expressly noted by any traveller who was +not expressly bidden to admire them. + +From Toronto we went across to Niagara, re-entering the States at +Lewiston in New York. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE CONNEXION OF THE CANADAS WITH GREAT BRITAIN. + + +When the American war began troops were sent out to Canada, and when +I was in the Provinces more troops were then expected. The matter was +much talked of, as a matter of course, in Canada; and it had been +discussed in England before I left. I had seen much said about it +in the English papers since, and it also had become the subject of +very hot question among the politicians of the Northern States. +The measure had at that time given more umbrage to the North than +anything else done or said by England from the beginning of the war +up to that time, except the declaration made by Lord John Russell in +the House of Commons as to the neutrality to be preserved by England +between the two belligerents. The argument used by the Northern +States was this. If France collects men and material of war in the +neighbourhood of England, England considers herself injured, calls +for an explanation, and talks of invasion. Therefore as England is +now collecting men and material of war in our neighbourhood, we +will consider ourselves injured. It does not suit us to ask for an +explanation, because it is not our habit to interfere with other +nations. We will not pretend to say that we think we are to be +invaded. But as we clearly are injured, we will express our anger at +that injury, and when the opportunity shall come will take advantage +of having that new grievance. + +As we all know, a very large increase of force was sent when we +were still in doubt as to the termination of the Trent affair, and +imagined that war was imminent. But the sending of that large force +did not anger the Americans, as the first despatch of troops to +Canada had angered them. Things had so turned out that measures of +military precaution were acknowledged by them to be necessary. I +cannot, however, but think that Mr. Seward might have spared that +offer to send British troops across Maine; and so, also, have all his +countrymen thought by whom I have heard the matter discussed. + +As to any attempt at invasion of Canada by the Americans, or idea +of punishing the alleged injuries suffered by the States from Great +Britain by the annexation of those provinces, I do not believe that +any sane-minded citizens of the States believe in the possibility of +such retaliation. Some years since the Americans thought that Canada +might shine in the Union firmament as a new star, but that delusion +is, I think, over. Such annexation if ever made, must have been made +not only against the arms of England but must also have been made +in accordance with the wishes of the people so annexed. It was then +believed that the Canadians were not averse to such a change, and +there may possibly have then been among them the remnant of such a +wish. There is certainly no such desire now, not even a remnant of +such a desire; and the truth on this matter is, I think, generally +acknowledged. The feeling in Canada is one of strong aversion to the +United States Government, and of predilection for self-government +under the English Crown. A faineant Governor and the prestige of +British power is now the political aspiration of the Canadians in +general; and I think that this is understood in the States. Moreover +the States have a job of work on hand which, as they themselves +are well aware, is taxing all their energies. Such being the case +I do not think that England needs to fear any invasion of Canada, +authorized by the States Government. + +This feeling of a grievance on the part of the States was a manifest +absurdity. The new reinforcement of the garrisons in Canada did not, +when I was in Canada, amount as I believe to more than 2,000 men. But +had it amounted to 20,000 the States would have had no just ground +for complaint. Of all nationalities that in modern days have risen +to power, they above all others have shown that they would do what +they liked with their own, indifferent to foreign councils, and +deaf to foreign remonstrance. "Do you go your way, and let us go +ours. We will trouble you with no question, nor do you trouble us." +Such has been their national policy, and it has obtained for them +great respect. They have resisted the temptation of putting their +fingers into the caldron of foreign policy; and foreign politicians, +acknowledging their reserve in this respect, have not been offended +at the bristles with which their Noli me tangere has been proclaimed. +Their intelligence has been appreciated, and their conduct has been +respected. But if this has been their line of policy, they must be +entirely out of court in raising any question as to the position of +British troops on British soil. + +"It shows us that you doubt us," an American says, with an air of +injured honour--or did say, before that Trent affair. "And it is done +to express sympathy with the South. The Southerners understand it, +and we understand it also. We know where your hearts are--nay, your +very souls. They are among the slave-begotten cotton bales of the +rebel South." Then comes the whole of the long argument, in which it +seems so easy to an Englishman to prove that England in the whole of +this sad matter has been true and loyal to her friend. She could not +interfere when the husband and wife would quarrel. She could only +grieve, and wish that things might come right and smooth for both +parties. But the argument though so easy is never effectual. + +It seems to me foolish in an American to quarrel with England for +sending soldiers to Canada; but I cannot say that I thought it was +well done to send them at the beginning of the war. The English +Government did not, I presume, take this step with reference to any +possible invasion of Canada by the Government of the States. We are +fortifying Portsmouth, and Portland, and Plymouth, because we would +fain be safe against the French army acting under a French Emperor. +But we sent 2,000 troops to Canada, if I understand the matter +rightly, to guard our provinces against the filibustering energies of +a mass of unemployed American soldiers, when those soldiers should +come to be disbanded. When this war shall be over--a war during which +not much, if any, under a million of American citizens will have been +under arms--it will not be easy for all who survive to return to +their old homes and old occupations. Nor does a disbanded soldier +always make a good husbandman, notwithstanding the great examples of +Cincinnatus and Bird-o'-freedom Sawin. It may be that a considerable +amount of filibustering energy will be afloat, and that the then +Government of those who neighbour us in Canada will have other +matters in hand more important to them than the controlling of these +unruly spirits. That, as I take it, was the evil against which we of +Great Britain and of Canada desired to guard ourselves. + +But I doubt whether 2,000 or 10,000 British soldiers would be any +effective guard against such inroads, and I doubt more strongly +whether any such external guarding will be necessary. If the +Canadians were prepared to fraternize with filibusters from the +States, neither three nor ten thousand soldiers would avail against +such a feeling over a frontier stretching from the State of Maine to +the shores of Lake Huron and Lake Erie. If such a feeling did exist, +if the Canadians wished the change, in God's name let them go. It is +for their sakes and not for our own that we would have them bound to +us. But the Canadians are averse to such a change with a degree of +feeling that amounts to national intensity. Their sympathies are with +the Southern States, not because they care for cotton, not because +they are anti-abolitionists, not because they admire the hearty +pluck of those who are endeavouring to work out for themselves a new +revolution. They sympathize with the South from strong dislike to the +aggression, the braggadocio, and the insolence they have felt upon +their own borders. They dislike Mr. Seward's weak and vulgar joke +with the Duke of Newcastle. They dislike Mr. Everett's flattering +hints to his countrymen as to the one nation that is to occupy the +whole continent. They dislike the Monroe doctrine. They wonder at the +meekness with which England has endured the vauntings of the Northern +States, and are endued with no such meekness of their own. They +would, I believe, be well prepared to meet and give an account of any +filibusters who might visit them; and I am not sure that it is wisely +done on our part to show any intention of taking the work out of +their hands. + +But I am led to this opinion in no degree by a feeling that Great +Britain ought to grudge the cost of the soldiers. If Canada will be +safer with them, in heaven's name let her have them. It has been +argued in many places, not only with regard to Canada, but as to all +our self-governed colonies, that military service should not be given +at British expense and with British men to any colony which has its +own representative government, and which levies its own taxes. "While +Great Britain absolutely held the reins of government, and did as it +pleased with the affairs of its dependencies," such politicians say, +"it was just and right that she should pay the bill. As long as her +government of a colony was paternal, so long was it right that the +mother country should put herself in the place of a father, and +enjoy a father's undoubted prerogative of putting his hand into +his breeches pocket to provide for all the wants of his child. But +when the adult son set up for himself in business, having received +education from the parent, and having had his apprentice fees duly +paid, then that son should settle his own bills, and look no longer +to the paternal pocket." Such is the law of the world all over, from +little birds whose young fly away when fledged, upwards to men and +nations. Let the father work for the child while he is a child, +but when the child has become a man let him lean no longer on his +father's staff. + +The argument is, I think, very good; but it proves, not that we are +relieved from the necessity of assisting our colonies with payments +made out of British taxes, but that we are still bound to give such +assistance; and that we shall continue to be so bound as long as we +allow these colonies to adhere to us, or as they allow us to adhere +to them. In fact the young bird is not yet fully fledged. That +illustration of the father and the child is a just one, but in order +to make it just it should be followed throughout. When the son is +in fact established on his own bottom, then the father expects that +he will live without assistance. But when the son does so live he +is freed from all paternal control. The father, while he expects to +be obeyed, continues to fill the paternal office of paymaster,--of +paymaster, at any rate, to some extent. And so, I think, it must be +with our colonies. The Canadas at present are not independent, and +have not political power of their own apart from the political power +of Great Britain. England has declared herself neutral as regards the +Northern and Southern States, and by that neutrality the Canadas are +bound; and yet the Canadas were not consulted in the matter. Should +England go to war with France, Canada must close her ports against +French vessels. If England chooses to send her troops to Canadian +barracks, Canada cannot refuse to accept them. If England should send +to Canada an unpopular Governor, Canada has no power to reject his +services. As long as Canada is a colony, so called, she cannot be +independent, and should not be expected to walk alone. It is exactly +the same with the colonies of Australia, with New Zealand, with +the Cape of Good Hope, and with Jamaica. While England enjoys the +prestige of her colonies, while she boasts that such large and now +populous territories are her dependencies, she must and should be +content to pay some portion of the bill. Surely it is absurd +on our part to quarrel with Caffre warfare, with New Zealand +fighting, and the rest of it. Such complaints remind one of an +ancient paterfamilias, who insists on having his children and his +grandchildren under the old paternal roof, and then grumbles because +the butcher's bill is high. Those who will keep large households and +bountiful tables should not be afraid of facing the butcher's bill, +or unhappy at the tonnage of the coal. It is a grand thing, that +power of keeping a large table; but it ceases to be grand when the +items heaped upon it cause inward groans and outward moodiness. + +Why should the colonies remain true to us as children are true to +their parents, if we grudge them the assistance which is due to a +child? They raise their own taxes, it is said, and administer them. +True; and it is well that the growing son should do something for +himself. While the father does all for him the son's labour belongs +to the father. Then comes a middle state in which the son does +much for himself, but not all. In that middle state now stand our +prosperous colonies. Then comes the time when the son shall stand +alone by his own strength; and to that period of manly self-respected +strength let us all hope that those colonies are advancing. It is +very hard for a mother country to know when such a time has come; +and hard also for the child-colony to recognize justly the period of +its own maturity. Whether or no such severance may ever take place +without a quarrel, without weakness on one side and pride on the +other, is a problem in the world's history yet to be solved. The most +successful child that ever yet has gone off from a successful parent +and taken its own path into the world, is without doubt the nation +of the United States. Their present troubles are the result and +the proofs of their success. The people that were too great to be +dependent on any nation have now spread till they are themselves too +great for a single nationality. No one now thinks that that daughter +should have remained longer subject to her mother. But the severance +was not made in amity, and the shrill notes of the old family quarrel +are still sometimes heard across the waters. + +From all this the question arises whether that problem may ever be +solved with reference to the Canadas. That it will never be their +destiny to join themselves to the States of the Union, I feel fully +convinced. In the first place it is becoming evident from the present +circumstances of the Union,--if it had never been made evident by +history before,--that different people with different habits living +at long distances from each other cannot well be brought together +on equal terms under one Government. That noble ambition of the +Americans that all the continent north of the isthmus should be +united under one flag, has already been thrown from its saddle. The +North and South are virtually separated, and the day will come in +which the West also will secede. As population increases and trades +arise peculiar to those different climates, the interests of the +people will differ, and a new secession will take place beneficial +alike to both parties. If this be so, if even there be any tendency +this way, it affords the strongest argument against the probability +of any future annexation of the Canadas. And then, in the second +place, the feeling of Canada is not American, but British. If ever +she be separated from Great Britain, she will be separated as the +States were separated. She will desire to stand alone, and to enter +herself as one among the nations of the earth. + +She will desire to stand alone;--alone, that is without dependence +either on England or on the States. But she is so circumstanced +geographically that she can never stand alone without amalgamation +with our other North American provinces. She has an outlet to the +sea at the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but it is only a summer outlet. Her +winter outlet is by railway through the States, and no other winter +outlet is possible for her except through the sister provinces. +Before Canada can be nationally great, the line of railway which now +runs for some hundred miles below Quebec to Riviere du Loup, must be +continued on through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to the port of +Halifax. + +When I was in Canada I heard the question discussed of a Federal +Government between the provinces of the two Canadas, New Brunswick +and Nova Scotia. To these were added, or not added, according to +the opinion of those who spoke, the smaller outlying colonies of +Newfoundland and Prince Edward's Island. If a scheme for such a +Government were projected in Downing Street, all would no doubt be +included, and a clean sweep would be made without difficulty. But +the project as made in the colonies appears in different guises as +it comes either from Canada or from one of the other provinces. The +Canadian idea would be that the two Canadas should form two States +of such a confederation, and the other provinces a third State. But +this slight participation in power would hardly suit the views of New +Brunswick and Nova Scotia. In speaking of such a Federal Government +as this, I shall of course be understood as meaning a confederation +acting in connection with a British Governor, and dependent upon +Great Britain as far as the different colonies are now dependent. + +I cannot but think that such a confederation might be formed with +great advantage to all the colonies and to Great Britain. At present +the Canadas are in effect almost more distant from Nova Scotia and +New Brunswick than they are from England. The intercourse between +them is very slight--so slight that it may almost be said that there +is no intercourse. A few men of science or of political importance +may from time to time make their way from one colony into the other, +but even this is not common. Beyond that they seldom see each other. +Though New Brunswick borders both with Lower Canada and with Nova +Scotia, thus making one whole of the three colonies, there is neither +railroad nor stage conveyance running from one to the other. And yet +their interests should be similar. From geographical position their +modes of life must be alike, and a close conjunction between them is +essentially necessary to give British North America any political +importance in the world. There can be no such conjunction, no +amalgamation of interests, until a railway shall have been made +joining the Canada Grand Trunk Line with the two outlying colonies. +Upper Canada can feed all England with wheat, and could do so without +any aid of railway through the States, if a railway were made from +Quebec to Halifax. But then comes the question of the cost. The +Canada Grand Trunk is at the present moment at the lowest ebb of +commercial misfortune, and with such a fact patent to the world what +company will come forward with funds for making four or five hundred +miles of railway, through a district of which one half is not +yet prepared for population? It would be, I imagine, out of the +question that such a speculation should for many years give any fair +commercial interest on the money to be expended. But nevertheless +to the colonies,--that is, to the enormous regions of British +North America,--such a railroad would be invaluable. Under such +circumstances it is for the Home Government and the colonies between +them to see how such a measure may be carried out. As a national +expenditure to be defrayed in the course of years by the territories +interested, the sum of money required would be very small. + +But how would this affect England? And how would England be affected +by a union of the British North American colonies under one Federal +Government? Before this question can be answered, he who prepares to +answer it must consider what interest England has in her colonies, +and for what purpose she holds them. Does she hold them for profit, +or for glory, or for power; or does she hold them in order that she +may carry out the duty which has devolved upon her of extending +civilization, freedom, and well-being through the new uprising +nations of the world? Does she hold them, in fact, for her own +benefit, or does she hold them for theirs? I know nothing of the +ethics of the Colonial Office, and not much perhaps of those of the +House of Commons; but looking at what Great Britain has hitherto done +in the way of colonization, I cannot but think that the national +ambition looks to the welfare of the colonists, and not to home +aggrandisement. That the two may run together is most probable. +Indeed there can be no glory to a people so great or so readily +recognized by mankind at large as that of spreading civilization from +East to West, and from North to South. But the one object should be +the prosperity of the colonists; and not profit, nor glory, nor even +power to the parent country. + +There is no virtue of which more has been said and sung than +patriotism, and none which when pure and true has led to finer +results. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. To live for one's +country also is a very beautiful and proper thing. But if we examine +closely much patriotism, that is so called, we shall find it going +hand in hand with a good deal that is selfish, and with not a little +that is devilish. It was some fine fury of patriotic feeling which +enabled the national poet to put into the mouth of every Englishman +that horrible prayer with regard to our enemies, which we sing when +we wish to do honour to our sovereign. It did not seem to him that it +might be well to pray that their hearts should be softened, and our +own hearts softened also. National success was all that a patriotic +poet could desire, and therefore in our national hymn have we gone +on imploring the Lord to arise and scatter our enemies; to confound +their politics, whether they be good or ill; and to expose their +knavish tricks,--such knavish tricks being taken for granted. And +then with a steady confidence we used to declare how certain we +were that we should achieve all that was desirable, not exactly by +trusting to our prayer to heaven, but by relying almost exclusively +on George the Third or George the Fourth. Now I have always thought +that that was rather a poor patriotism. Luckily for us our national +conduct has not squared itself with our national anthem. Any +patriotism must be poor which desires glory or even profit for a few +at the expense of many, even though the few be brothers and the many +aliens. As a rule patriotism is a virtue only because man's aptitude +for good is so finite, that he cannot see and comprehend a wider +humanity. He can hardly bring himself to understand that salvation +should be extended to Jew and Gentile alike. The word philanthropy +has become odious, and I would fain not use it; but the thing itself +is as much higher than patriotism, as heaven is above the earth. + +A wish that British North America should ever be severed from +England, or that the Australian colonies should ever be so severed, +will by many Englishmen be deemed unpatriotic. But I think that +such severance is to be wished if it be the case that the colonies +standing alone would become more prosperous than they are under +British rule. We have before us an example in the United States of +the prosperity which has attended such a rupture of old ties. I will +not now contest the point with those who say that the present moment +of an American civil war is ill chosen for vaunting that prosperity. +There stand the cities which the people have built, and their power +is attested by the world-wide importance of their present contest. +And if the States have so risen since they left their parent's +apron-string, why should not British North America rise as high? That +the time has as yet come for such rising I do not think; but that it +will soon come I do most heartily hope. The making of the railway +of which I have spoken, and the amalgamation of the provinces would +greatly tend to such an event. If, therefore, England desires to keep +these colonies in a state of dependency; if it be more essential to +her to maintain her own power with regard to them than to increase +their influence; if her main object be to keep the colonies and not +to improve the colonies, then I should say that an amalgamation of +the Canadas with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick should not be regarded +with favour by statesmen in Downing Street. But if, as I would fain +hope, and do partly believe, such ideas of national power as these +are now out of vogue with British statesmen, then I think that such +an amalgamation should receive all the support which Downing Street +can give it. + +The United States severed themselves from Great Britain with a great +struggle and after heartburnings and bloodshed. Whether Great Britain +will ever allow any colony of hers to depart from out of her nest, to +secede and start for herself, without any struggle or heartburnings, +with all furtherance for such purpose which an old and powerful +country can give to a new nationality then first taking its own place +in the world's arena, is a problem yet to be solved. There is, I +think, no more beautiful sight than that of a mother, still in all +the glory of womanhood, preparing the wedding trousseau for her +daughter. The child hitherto has been obedient and submissive. She +has been one of a household in which she has held no command. She has +sat at table as a child, fitting herself in all things to the behests +of others. But the day of her power and her glory, and also of her +cares and solicitude is at hand. She is to go forth, and do as she +best may in the world under that teaching which her old home has +given her. The hour of separation has come; and the mother, smiling +through her tears, sends her forth decked with a bounteous hand and +furnished with full stores, so that all may be well with her as she +enters on her new duties. So is it that England should send forth her +daughters. They should not escape from her arms with shrill screams +and bleeding wounds, with ill-omened words which live so long, though +the speakers of them lie cold in their graves. + +But this sending forth of a child-nation to take its own political +status in the world has never yet been done by Great Britain. I +cannot remember that such has ever been done by any great power with +reference to its dependency;--by any power that was powerful enough +to keep such dependency within its grasp. But a man thinking on these +matters cannot but hope that a time will come when such amicable +severance may be effected. Great Britain cannot think that through +all coming ages she is to be the mistress of the vast continent of +Australia, lying on the other side of the globe's surface; that she +is to be the mistress of all South Africa, as civilization shall +extend northward; that the enormous territories of British North +America are to be subject for ever to a veto from Downing Street. +If the history of past empires does not teach her that this may not +be so, at least the history of the United States might so teach her. +"But we have learned a lesson from those United States," the patriot +will argue who dares to hope that the glory and extent of the British +Empire may remain unimpaired _in saecula saeculorum_. "Since that day +we have given political rights to our colonies, and have satisfied +the political longings of their inhabitants. We do not tax their +tea and stamps, but leave it to them to tax themselves as they may +please." True. But in political aspirations the giving of an inch +has ever created the desire for an ell. If the Australian colonies, +even now,--with their scanty population and still young civilization, +chafe against imperial interference, will they submit to it when they +feel within their veins all the full blood of political manhood? What +is the cry even of the Canadians--of the Canadians who are thoroughly +loyal to England? Send us a faineant Governor, a King Log, who will +not presume to interfere with us; a Governor who will spend his money +and live like a gentleman and care little or nothing for politics. +That is the Canadian _beau ideal_ of a Governor. They are to govern +themselves; and he who comes to them from England is to sit among +them as the silent representative of England's protection. If that +be true--and I do not think that any who know the Canadas will +deny it--must it not be presumed that they will soon also desire a +faineant minister in Downing Street? Of course they will so desire. +Men do not become milder in their aspirations for political power, +the more that political power is extended to them. Nor would it be +well that they should be so humble in their desires. Nations devoid +of political power have never risen high in the world's esteem. Even +when they have been commercially successful, commerce has not brought +to them the greatness which it has always given when joined with a +strong political existence. The Greeks are commercially rich and +active; but "Greece" and "Greek" are bye-words now for all that is +mean. Cuba is a colony, and putting aside the cities of the States, +the Havana is the richest town on the other side of the Atlantic and +commercially the greatest; but the political villainy of Cuba, her +daily importation of slaves, her breaches of treaty, and the bribery +of her all but royal Governor are known to all men. But Canada is not +dishonest; Canada is no bye-word for anything evil; Canada eats her +own bread in the sweat of her brow, and fears a bad word from no +man. True. But why does New York with its suburbs boast a million of +inhabitants, while Montreal has 85,000? Why has that babe in years, +Chicago, 120,000, while Toronto has not half the number? I do not say +that Montreal and Toronto should have gone ahead abreast with New +York and Chicago. In such races one must be first, and one last. But +I do say that the Canadian towns will have no equal chance, till +they are actuated by that feeling of political independence which has +created the growth of the towns in the United States. + +I do not think that the time has yet come in which Great Britain +should desire the Canadians to start for themselves. There is the +making of that railroad to be effected, and something done towards +the union of those provinces. Canada could no more stand alone +without New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, than could those latter +colonies without Canada. But I think it would be well to be prepared +for such a coming day; and that it would at any rate be well to bring +home to ourselves and realize the idea of such secession on the +part of our colonies, when the time shall have come at which such +secession may be carried out with profit and security to them. Great +Britain, should she ever send forth her child alone into the world, +must of course guarantee her security. Such guarantees are given +by treaties; and in the wording of them it is presumed that such +treaties will last for ever. It will be argued that in starting +British North America as a political power on its own bottom, we +should bind ourself to all the expense of its defence, while we +should give up all right to any interference in its concerns; and +that from a state of things so unprofitable as this there would be no +prospect of deliverance. But such treaties, let them be worded how +they will, do not last for ever. For a time, no doubt, Great Britain +would be so hampered--if indeed she would feel herself hampered by +extending her name and prestige to a country bound to her by ties +such as those which would then exist between her and this new nation. +Such treaties are not everlasting, nor can they be made to last even +for ages. Those who word them seem to think that powers and dynasties +will never pass away. But they do pass away, and the balance of power +will not keep itself fixed for ever on the same pivot. The time may +come--that it may not come soon we will all desire--but the time may +come when the name and prestige of what we call British North America +will be as serviceable to Great Britain as those of Great Britain are +now serviceable to her colonies. + +But what shall be the new form of government for the new kingdom? +That is a speculation very interesting to a politician; though one +which to follow out at great length in these early days would be +rather premature. That it should be a kingdom--that the political +arrangement should be one of which a crowned hereditary king +should form a part, nineteen out of every twenty Englishmen would +desire; and, as I fancy, so would also nineteen out of every twenty +Canadians. A king for the United States when they first established +themselves was impossible. A total rupture from the Old World and all +its habits was necessary for them. The name of a king, or monarch, or +sovereign had become horrible to their ears. Even to this day they +have not learned the difference between arbitrary power retained in +the hand of one man, such as that now held by the Emperor over the +French, and such hereditary headship in the State as that which +belongs to the Crown in Great Britain. And this was necessary, seeing +that their division from us was effected by strife, and carried out +with war and bitter animosities. In those days also there was a +remnant, though but a small remnant, of the power of tyranny left +within the scope of the British Crown. That small remnant has been +removed; and to me it seems that no form of existing government--no +form of government that ever did exist, gives or has given so large +a measure of individual freedom to all who live under it as a +constitutional monarchy in which the Crown is divested of direct +political power. + +I will venture then to suggest a king for this new nation; and seeing +that we are rich in princes there need be no difficulty in the +selection. Would it not be beautiful to see a new nation established +under such auspices, and to establish a people to whom their +independence had been given,--to whom it had been freely surrendered +as soon as they were capable of holding the position assigned to +them? + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +NIAGARA. + + +Of all the sights on this earth of ours which tourists travel to +see,--at least of all those which I have seen,--I am inclined to give +the palm to the Falls of Niagara. In the catalogue of such sights I +intend to include all buildings, pictures, statues, and wonders of +art made by men's hands, and also all beauties of nature prepared by +the Creator for the delight of his creatures. This is a long word; +but as far as my taste and judgment go, it is justified. I know no +other one thing so beautiful, so glorious, and so powerful. I would +not by this be understood as saying that a traveller wishing to do +the best with his time should first of all places seek Niagara. In +visiting Florence he may learn almost all that modern art can teach. +At Rome he will be brought to understand the cold hearts, correct +eyes, and cruel ambition of the old Latin race. In Switzerland he +will surround himself with a flood of grandeur and loveliness, and +fill himself, if he be capable of such filling, with a flood of +romance. The Tropics will unfold to him all that vegetation in its +greatest richness can produce. In Paris he will find the supreme +of polish, the _ne plus ultra_ of varnish according to the world's +capability of varnishing. And in London he will find the supreme +of power, the _ne plus ultra_ of work according to the world's +capability of working. Any one of such journeys may be more valuable +to a man,--nay, any one such journey must be more valuable to a +man,--than a visit to Niagara. At Niagara there is that fall of +waters alone. But that fall is more graceful than Giotto's tower, +more noble than the Apollo. The peaks of the Alps are not so +astounding in their solitude. The valleys of the Blue Mountains in +Jamaica are less green. The finished glaze of life in Paris is less +invariable; and the full tide of trade round the Bank of England is +not so inexorably powerful. + +I came across an artist at Niagara who was attempting to draw the +spray of the waters. "You have a difficult subject," said I. "All +subjects are difficult," he replied, "to a man who desires to do +well." "But yours, I fear, is impossible," I said. "You have no +right to say so till I have finished my picture," he replied. I +acknowledged the justice of his rebuke, regretted that I could not +remain till the completion of his work should enable me to revoke +my words, and passed on. Then I began to reflect whether I did not +intend to try a task as difficult in describing the falls, and +whether I felt any of that proud self-confidence which kept him happy +at any rate while his task was in hand. I will not say that it is as +difficult to describe aright that rush of waters, as it is to paint +it well. But I doubt whether it is not quite as difficult to write +a description that shall interest the reader, as it is to paint a +picture of them that shall be pleasant to the beholder. My friend the +artist was at any rate not afraid to make the attempt, and I also +will try my hand. + +That the waters of Lake Erie have come down in their courses from the +broad basins of Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, and Lake Huron; that +these waters fall into Lake Ontario by the short and rapid river of +Niagara, and that the Falls of Niagara are made by a sudden break +in the level of this rapid river, is probably known to all who will +read this book. All the waters of these huge northern inland seas run +over that breach in the rocky bottom of the stream; and thence it +comes that the flow is unceasing in its grandeur, and that no eye +can perceive a difference in the weight, or sound, or violence of +the fall, whether it be visited in the drought of autumn, amidst the +storms of winter, or after the melting of the upper worlds of ice in +the days of the early summer. How many cataracts does the habitual +tourist visit at which the waters fail him? But at Niagara the waters +never fail. There it thunders over its ledge in a volume that never +ceases and is never diminished;--as it has done from times previous +to the life of man, and as it will do till tens of thousands of years +shall see the rocky bed of the river worn away, back to the upper +lake. + +This stream divides Canada from the States, the western or +farthermost bank belonging to the British Crown, and the eastern or +nearer bank being in the State of New York. In visiting Niagara it +always becomes a question on which side the visitor shall take up his +quarters. On the Canada side there is no town, but there is a large +hotel, beautifully placed immediately opposite to the falls, and this +is generally thought to be the best locality for tourists. In the +State of New York is the town called Niagara Falls, and here there +are two large hotels, which, as to their immediate site, are not so +well placed as that in Canada. I first visited Niagara some three +years since. I stayed then at the Clifton House on the Canada side, +and have since sworn by that position. But the Clifton House was +closed for the season when I was last there, and on that account we +went to the Cataract House in the town on the other side. I now think +that I should set up my staff on the American side if I went again. +My advice on the subject to any party starting for Niagara would +depend upon their habits, or on their nationality. I would send +Americans to the Canadian side, because they dislike walking; but +English people I would locate on the American side, seeing that +they are generally accustomed to the frequent use of their own legs. +The two sides are not very easily approached, one from the other. +Immediately below the falls there is a ferry, which may be traversed +at the expense of a shilling; but the labour of getting up and down +from the ferry is considerable, and the passage becomes wearisome. +There is also a bridge, but it is two miles down the river, making a +walk or drive of four miles necessary, and the toll for passing is +four shillings or a dollar in a carriage, and one shilling on foot. +As the greater variety of prospect can be had on the American side, +as the island between the two falls is approachable from the American +side and not from the Canadian, and as it is in this island that +visitors will best love to linger and learn to measure in their +minds the vast triumph of waters before them, I recommend such of my +readers as can trust a little,--it need be but a little,--to their +own legs to select their hotel at Niagara Falls town. + +It has been said that it matters much from what point the falls are +first seen, but to this I demur. It matters, I think, very little, +or not at all. Let the visitor first see it all, and learn the +whereabouts of every point, so as to understand his own position and +that of the waters; and then having done that in the way of business +let him proceed to enjoyment. I doubt whether it be not the best to +do this with all sight seeing. I am quite sure that it is the way in +which acquaintance may be best and most pleasantly made with a new +picture. + +The falls are, as I have said, made by a sudden breach in the level +of the river. All cataracts are, I presume, made by such breaches; +but generally the waters do not fall precipitously as they do at +Niagara, and never elsewhere, as far as the world yet knows, has a +breach so sudden been made in a river carrying in its channel such +or any approach to such a body of water. Up above the falls, for +more than a mile, the waters leap and burst over rapids, as though +conscious of the destiny that awaits them. Here the river is very +broad, and comparatively shallow, but from shore to shore it frets +itself into little torrents, and begins to assume the majesty of its +power. Looking at it even here, in the expanse which forms itself +over the greater fall, one feels sure that no strongest swimmer +could have a chance of saving himself, if fate had cast him in even +among those petty whirlpools. The waters, though so broken in their +descent, are deliciously green. This colour as seen early in the +morning, or just as the sun has set, is so bright as to give to the +place one of its chiefest charms. + +This will be best seen from the further end of the island,--Goat +Island, as it is called,--which, as the reader will understand, +divides the river immediately above the falls. Indeed the island is a +part of that precipitously broken ledge over which the river tumbles; +and no doubt in process of time will be worn away and covered with +water. The time, however, will be very long. In the meanwhile it is +perhaps a mile round, and is covered thickly with timber. At the +upper end of the island the waters are divided, and coming down in +two courses, each over its own rapids, form two separate falls. The +bridge by which the island is entered is a hundred yards or more +above the smaller fall. The waters here have been turned by the +island, and make their leap into the body of the river below at a +right angle with it,--about two hundred yards below the greater fall. +Taken alone this smaller cataract would, I imagine, be the heaviest +fall of water known, but taken in conjunction with the other it is +terribly shorn of its majesty. The waters here are not green as they +are at the larger cataract, and though the ledge has been hollowed +and bowed by them so as to form a curve, that curve does not deepen +itself into a vast abyss as it does at the horseshoe up above. This +smaller fall is again divided, and the visitor passing down a flight +of steps and over a frail wooden bridge finds himself on a smaller +island in the midst of it. + +But we will go at once on to the glory, and the thunder, and the +majesty, and the wrath of that upper hell of waters. We are still, +let the reader remember, on Goat Island, still in the States, and +on what is called the American side of the main body of the river. +Advancing beyond the path leading down to the lesser fall, we come to +that point of the island at which the waters of the main river begin +to descend. From hence across to the Canadian side the cataract +continues itself in one unabated line. But the line is very far from +being direct or straight. After stretching for some little way from +the shore, to a point in the river which is reached by a wooden +bridge at the end of which stands a tower upon the rock,--after +stretching to this, the line of the ledge bends inwards against the +flood,--in, and in, and in till one is led to think that the depth +of that horseshoe is immeasurable. It has been cut with no stinting +hand. A monstrous cantle has been worn back out of the centre of the +rock, so that the fury of the waters converges, and the spectator as +he gazes into the hollow with wishful eyes fancies that he can hardly +trace out the centre of the abyss. + +Go down to the end of that wooden bridge, seat yourself on the rail, +and there sit till all the outer world is lost to you. There is no +grander spot about Niagara than this. The waters are absolutely +around you. If you have that power of eye-control which is so +necessary to the full enjoyment of scenery you will see nothing but +the water. You will certainly hear nothing else; and the sound, I beg +you to remember, is not an ear-cracking, agonizing crash and clang of +noises; but is melodious, and soft withal, though loud as thunder. It +fills your ears, and as it were envelopes them, but at the same time +you can speak to your neighbour without an effort. But at this place, +and in these moments, the less of speaking I should say the better. +There is no grander spot than this. Here, seated on the rail of the +bridge, you will not see the whole depth of the fall. In looking at +the grandest works of nature, and of art too, I fancy, it is never +well to see all. There should be something left to the imagination, +and much should be half concealed in mystery. The greatest charm of a +mountain range is the wild feeling that there must be strange unknown +desolate worlds in those far-off valleys beyond. And so here, at +Niagara, that converging rush of waters may fall down, down at once +into a hell of rivers for what the eye can see. It is glorious to +watch them in their first curve over the rocks. They come green +as a bank of emeralds; but with a fitful flying colour, as though +conscious that in one moment more they would be dashed into spray and +rise into air, pale as driven snow. The vapour rises high into the +air, and is gathered there, visible always as a permanent white cloud +over the cataract; but the bulk of the spray which fills the lower +hollow of that horse-shoe is like a tumult of snow. This you will +not fully see from your seat on the rail. The head of it rises ever +and anon out of that caldron below, but the caldron itself will be +invisible. It is ever so far down,--far as your own imagination can +sink it. But your eyes will rest full upon the curve of the waters. +The shape you will be looking at is that of a horse-shoe, but of +a horse-shoe miraculously deep from toe to heel;--and this depth +becomes greater as you sit there. That which at first was only great +and beautiful, becomes gigantic and sublime till the mind is at loss +to find an epithet for its own use. To realize Niagara you must sit +there till you see nothing else than that which you have come to see. +You will hear nothing else, and think of nothing else. At length you +will be at one with the tumbling river before you. You will find +yourself among the waters as though you belonged to them. The cool +liquid green will run through your veins, and the voice of the +cataract will be the expression of your own heart. You will fall as +the bright waters fall, rushing down into your new world with no +hesitation and with no dismay; and you will rise again as the spray +rises, bright, beautiful, and pure. Then you will flow away in your +course to the uncompassed, distant, and eternal ocean. + +When this state has been reached and has passed away you may get off +your rail and mount the tower. I do not quite approve of that tower, +seeing that it has about it a gingerbread air, and reminds one of +those well-arranged scenes of romance in which one is told that on +the left you turn to the lady's bower, price sixpence; and on the +right ascend to the knight's bed, price sixpence more, with a view +of the hermit's tomb thrown in. But nevertheless the tower is worth +mounting, and no money is charged for the use of it. It is not very +high, and there is a balcony at the top on which some half dozen +persons may stand at ease. Here the mystery is lost, but the whole +fall is seen. It is not even at this spot brought so fully before +your eye,--made to show itself in so complete and entire a shape, +as it will do when you come to stand near to it on the opposite or +Canadian shore. But I think that it shows itself more beautifully. +And the form of the cataract is such, that, here in Goat Island, +on the American side, no spray will reach you, although you are +absolutely over the waters. But on the Canadian side, the road as it +approaches the fall is wet and rotten with spray, and you, as you +stand close upon the edge, will be wet also. The rainbows as they are +seen through the rising cloud--for the sun's rays as seen through +these waters show themselves in a bow as they do when seen through +rain,--are pretty enough, and are greatly loved. For myself I do +not care for this prettiness at Niagara. It is there, but I forget +it,--and do not mind how soon it is forgotten. + +But we are still on the tower; and here I must declare that though +I forgive the tower, I cannot forgive the horrid obelisk which has +latterly been built opposite to it, on the Canadian side, up above +the fall; built apparently,--for I did not go to it,--with some +camera obscura intention for which the projector deserves to be put +in Coventry by all good Christian men and women. At such a place as +Niagara tasteless buildings, run up in wrong places with a view to +money making, are perhaps necessary evils. It may be that they are +not evils at all;--that they give more pleasure than pain, seeing +that they tend to the enjoyment of the multitude. But there are +edifices of this description which cry aloud to the gods by the force +of their own ugliness and malposition. As to such it may be said that +there should somewhere exist a power capable of crushing them in +their birth. This new obelisk or picture-building at Niagara is one +of such. + +And now we will cross the water, and with this object will return by +the bridge out of Goat Island on the main land of the American side. +But as we do so let me say that one of the great charms of Niagara +consists in this,--that over and above that one great object of +wonder and beauty, there is so much little loveliness;--loveliness +especially of water I mean. There are little rivulets running here +and there over little falls, with pendent boughs above them, and +stones shining under their shallow depths. As the visitor stands and +looks through the trees the rapids glitter before him, and then hide +themselves behind islands. They glitter and sparkle in far distances +under the bright foliage till the remembrance is lost, and one +knows not which way they run. And then the river below, with its +whirlpool;--but we shall come to that by-and-by, and to the mad +voyage which was made down the rapids by that mad captain who ran the +gauntlet of the waters at the risk of his own life, with fifty to one +against him, in order that he might save another man's property from +the Sheriff. + +The readiest way across to Canada is by the ferry; and on the +American side this is very pleasantly done. You go into a little +house, pay 20 cents, take a seat on a wooden car of wonderful shape, +and on the touch of a spring find yourself travelling down an +inclined plane of terrible declivity and at a very fast rate. You +catch a glance of the river below you, and recognize the fact that +if the rope by which you are held should break, you would go down at +a very fast rate indeed,--and find your final resting place in the +river. As I have gone down some dozen times and have come to no such +grief, I will not presume that you will be less lucky. Below there is +a boat generally ready. If it be not there, the place is not chosen +amiss for a rest of ten minutes, for the lesser fall is close at +hand, and the larger one is in full view. Looking at the rapidity +of the river you will think that the passage must be dangerous and +difficult. But no accidents ever happen, and the lad who takes you +over seems to do it with sufficient ease. The walk up the hill on +the other side is another thing. It is very steep, and for those who +have not good locomotive power of their own, will be found to be +disagreeable. In the full season, however, carriages are generally +waiting there. In so short a distance I have always been ashamed to +trust to other legs than my own, but I have observed that Americans +are always dragged up. I have seen single young men of from eighteen +to twenty-five, from whose outward appearance no story of idle +luxurious life can be read, carried about alone in carriages over +distances which would be counted as nothing by any healthy English +lady of fifty. None but the old and invalids should require the +assistance of carriages in seeing Niagara, but the trade in carriages +is to all appearance the most brisk trade there. + +Having mounted the hill on the Canada side you will walk on towards +the falls. As I have said before, you will from this side look +directly into the full circle of the upper cataract, while you will +have before you at your left hand the whole expanse of the lesser +fall. For those who desire to see all at a glance, who wish to +comprise the whole with their eyes, and to leave nothing to be +guessed, nothing to be surmised, this, no doubt, is the best point of +view. + +You will be covered with spray as you walk up to the ledge of rocks, +but I do not think that the spray will hurt you. If a man gets wet +through going to his daily work, cold, catarrh, cough, and all their +attendant evils may be expected; but these maladies usually spare +the tourist. Change of air, plenty of air, excellence of air, and +increased exercise make these things powerless. I should therefore +bid you disregard the spray. If, however, you are yourself of a +different opinion, you may hire a suit of oil-cloth clothes for, I +believe, a quarter of a dollar. They are nasty of course, and have +this further disadvantage, that you become much more wet having them +on than you would be without them. + +Here, on this side, you walk on to the very edge of the cataract, +and, if your tread be steady and your legs firm, you dip your foot +into the water exactly at the spot where the thin outside margin of +the current reaches the rocky edge and jumps to join the mass of the +fall. The bed of white foam beneath is certainly seen better here +than elsewhere, and the green curve of the water is as bright here as +when seen from the wooden rail across. But nevertheless I say again +that that wooden rail is the one point from whence Niagara may be +best seen aright. + +Close to the cataract, exactly at the spot from whence in former days +the Table Rock used to project from the land over the boiling caldron +below, there is now a shaft down which you will descend to the level +of the river, and pass between the rock and the torrent. This Table +Rock broke away from the cliff and fell, as up the whole course of +the river the seceding rocks have split and fallen from time to time +through countless years, and will continue to do till the bed of +the upper lake is reached. You will descend this shaft, taking to +yourself or not taking to yourself a suit of oil-clothes as you +may think best. I have gone with and without the suit, and again +recommend that they be left behind. I am inclined to think that +the ordinary payment should be made for their use, as otherwise it +will appear to those whose trade it is to prepare them that you are +injuring them in their vested rights. + +Some three years since I visited Niagara on my way back to England +from Bermuda, and in a volume of travels which I then published I +endeavoured to explain the impression made upon me by this passage +between the rock and the waterfall. An author should not quote +himself; but as I feel myself bound, in writing a chapter specially +about Niagara, to give some account of this strange position, I will +venture to repeat my own words. + +In the spot to which I allude the visitor stands on a broad safe +path, made of shingles, between the rock over which the water rushes +and the rushing water. He will go in so far that the spray rising +back from the bed of the torrent does not incommode him. With this +exception, the further he can go in the better; but circumstances +will clearly show him the spot to which he should advance. Unless +the water be driven in by a very strong wind, five yards make the +difference between a comparatively dry coat and an absolutely wet +one. And then let him stand with his back to the entrance, thus +hiding the last glimmer of the expiring day. So standing he will look +up among the falling waters, or down into the deep misty pit, from +which they reascend in almost as palpable a bulk. The rock will be +at his right hand, high and hard, and dark and straight, like the +wall of some huge cavern, such as children enter in their dreams. +For the first five minutes he will be looking but at the waters of a +cataract,--at the waters, indeed, of such a cataract as we know no +other, and at their interior curves which elsewhere we cannot see. +But by-and-by all this will change. He will no longer be on a shingly +path beneath a waterfall; but that feeling of a cavern wall will grow +upon him, of a cavern deep, below roaring seas, in which the waves +are there, though they do not enter in upon him; or rather not the +waves, but the very bowels of the ocean. He will feel as though the +floods surrounded him, coming and going with their wild sounds, and +he will hardly recognize that though among them he is not in them. +And they, as they fall with a continual roar, not hurting the ear, +but musical withal, will seem to move as the vast ocean waters may +perhaps move in their internal currents. He will lose the sense of +one continued descent, and think that they are passing round him in +their appointed courses. The broken spray that rises from the depth +below, rises so strongly, so palpably, so rapidly, that the motion in +every direction will seem equal. And, as he looks on, strange colours +will show themselves through the mist; the shades of grey will become +green or blue, with ever and anon a flash of white; and then, when +some gust of wind blows in with greater violence, the sea-girt cavern +will become all dark and black. Oh, my friend, let there be no one +there to speak to thee then; no, not even a brother. As you stand +there speak only to the waters. + +Two miles below the falls the river is crossed by a suspension bridge +of marvellous construction. It affords two thoroughfares, one above +the other. The lower road is for carriages and horses, and the upper +one bears a railway belonging to the Great Western Canada line. The +view from hence both up and down the river is very beautiful, for the +bridge is built immediately over the first of a series of rapids. One +mile below the bridge these rapids end in a broad basin called the +whirlpool, and, issuing out of this, the current turns to the right +through a narrow channel overhung by cliffs and trees, and then makes +its way down to Lake Ontario with comparative tranquillity. + +But I will beg you to take notice of those rapids from the bridge and +to ask yourself what chance of life would remain to any ship, craft, +or boat required by destiny to undergo navigation beneath the bridge +and down into that whirlpool. Heretofore all men would have said +that no chance of life could remain to so ill-starred a bark. The +navigation, however, has been effected. But men used to the river +still say that the chances would be fifty to one against any vessel +which should attempt to repeat the experiment. + +The story of that wondrous voyage was as follows. A small steamer +called the Maid of the Mist was built upon the river, between the +falls and the rapids, and was used for taking adventurous tourists up +amidst the spray, as near to the cataract as was possible. The Maid +of the Mist plied in this way for a year or two, and was, I believe, +much patronized during the season. But in the early part of last +summer an evil time had come. Either the Maid got into debt, or her +owner had embarked in other and less profitable speculations. At any +rate he became subject to the law, and tidings reached him that the +Sheriff would seize the Maid. On most occasions the Sheriff is bound +to keep such intentions secret, seeing that property is moveable, +and that an insolvent debtor will not always await the officers of +justice. But with the poor Maid there was no need of such secresy. +There was but a mile or so of water on which she could ply, and she +was forbidden by the nature of her properties to make any way upon +land. The Sheriff's prey therefore was easy and the poor Maid was +doomed. + +In any country in the world but America such would have been the +case, but an American would steam down Phlegethon to save his +property from the Sheriff; he would steam down Phlegethon or get some +one else to do it for him. Whether or no in this case the captain of +the boat was the proprietor, or whether, as I was told, he was paid +for the job, I do not know; but he determined to run the rapids, and +he procured two others to accompany him in the risk. He got up his +steam, and took the Maid up amidst the spray according to his custom. +Then suddenly turning on his course, he with one of his companions +fixed himself at the wheel, while the other remained at his engine. +I wish I could look into the mind of that man and understand what his +thoughts were at that moment; what were his thoughts and what his +beliefs. As to one of the men I was told that he was carried down, +not knowing what he was about to do, but I am inclined to believe +that all the three were joined together in the attempt. + +I was told by a man who saw the boat pass under the bridge, that she +made one long leap down as she came thither, that her funnel was at +once knocked flat on the deck by the force of the blow, that the +waters covered her from stem to stern, and that then she rose again +and skimmed into the whirlpool a mile below. When there she rode with +comparative ease upon the waters, and took the sharp turn round into +the river below without a struggle. The feat was done, and the Maid +was rescued from the Sheriff. It is said that she was sold below at +the mouth of the river, and carried from thence over Lake Ontario and +down the St. Lawrence to Quebec. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +NORTH AND WEST. + + +From Niagara we determined to proceed north-west; as far to the +north-west as we could go with any reasonable hope of finding +American citizens in a state of political civilization, and perhaps +guided also in some measure by our hopes as to hotel accommodation. +Looking to these two matters we resolved to get across to the +Mississippi, and to go up that river as far as the town of St. Paul +and the falls of St. Anthony, which are some twelve miles above the +town; then to descend the river as far as the States of Iowa on +the west and Illinois on the east; and to return eastwards through +Chicago and the large cities on the southern shores of Lake Erie, +from whence we would go across to Albany, the capital of New York +State, and down the Hudson to New York, the capital of the Western +world. For such a journey, in which scenery was one great object, +we were rather late, as we did not leave Niagara till the 10th of +October; but though the winters are extremely cold through all this +portion of the American continent--15, 20, and even 25 degrees below +zero being an ordinary state of the atmosphere in latitudes equal +to those of Florence, Nice, and Turin--nevertheless the autumns are +mild, the noon day being always warm, and the colours of the foliage +are then in all their glory. I was also very anxious to ascertain, +if it might be in my power to do so, with what spirit or true feeling +as to the matter, the work of recruiting for the now enormous army +of the States was going on in those remote regions. That men should +be on fire in Boston and New York, in Philadelphia, and along the +borders of secession, I could understand. I could understand also +that they should be on fire throughout the cotton, sugar, and rice +plantations of the South. But I could hardly understand that this +political fervour should have communicated itself to the far-off +farmers who had thinly spread themselves over the enormous +wheat-growing districts of the North-West. St. Paul, the capital +of Minnesota, is 900 miles directly north of St. Louis, the most +northern point to which slavery extends in the Western States of the +Union, and the farming lands of Minnesota stretch away again for some +hundreds of miles north and west of St. Paul. Could it be that those +scanty and far-off pioneers of agriculture, those frontier farmers +who are nearly one half German and nearly the other half Irish, would +desert their clearings and ruin their chances of progress in the +world for distant wars of which the causes must, as I thought, be +to them unintelligible? I had been told that distance had but lent +enchantment to the view, and that the war was even more popular in +the remote and newly settled States than in those which have been +longer known as great political bodies. So I resolved that I would go +and see. + +It may be as well to explain here that that great political Union +hitherto called the United States of America may be more properly +divided into three than into two distinct interests. In England we +have long heard of North and South as pitted against each other, and +we have always understood that the southern politicians or democrats +have prevailed over the northern politicians or republicans, because +they were assisted in their views by northern men of mark who have +held southern principles;--that is, by northern men who have been +willing to obtain political power by joining themselves to the +southern party. That as far as I can understand has been the general +idea in England, and in a broad way it has been true. But as years +have advanced and as the States have extended themselves westward, a +third large party has been formed, which sometimes rejoices to call +itself The Great West; and though at the present time the West and +the North are joined together against the South, the interests of the +North and the West are not, I think, more closely interwoven than are +those of the West and South; and when the final settlement of this +question shall be made, there will doubtless be great difficulty in +satisfying the different aspirations and feelings of two great free +soil populations. The North, I think, will ultimately perceive that +it will gain much by the secession of the South; but it will be very +difficult to make the West believe that secession will suit its +views. + +I will attempt in a rough way to divide the States, as they seem to +divide themselves, into these three parties. As to the majority of +them there is no difficulty in locating them; but this cannot be done +with absolute certainty as to some few that lie on the borders. + +New England consists of six States, of which all of course belong +to the North. They are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, +Rhode Island, and Connecticut; the six States which should be most +dear to England, and in which the political success of the United +States as a nation is to my eyes the most apparent. But even in them +there was till quite of late a strong section so opposed to the +republican party as to give a material aid to the South. This, I +think, was particularly so in New Hampshire, from whence President +Pierce came. He had been one of the senators from New Hampshire; and +yet to him, as President, is affixed the disgrace,--whether truly +affixed or not I do not say,--of having first used his power in +secretly organizing those arrangements which led to secession and +assisted at its birth. In Massachusetts also itself there was a +strong democratic party, of which Massachusetts now seems to be +somewhat ashamed. Then, to make up the North, must be added the two +great States of New York and Pennsylvania, and the small State of New +Jersey. The West will not agree even to this absolutely, seeing that +they claim all territory west of the Alleghenies, and that a portion +of Pennsylvania, and some part also of New York lie westward of +that range; but in endeavouring to make these divisions ordinarily +intelligible I may say that the North consists of the nine States +above named. But the North will also claim Maryland and Delaware, and +the eastern half of Virginia. The North will claim them though they +are attached to the South by joint participation in the great social +institution of slavery, for Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia are +slave States;--and I think that the North will ultimately make good +its claim. Maryland and Delaware lie, as it were, behind the capital, +and Eastern Virginia is close upon the capital. And these regions are +not tropical in their climate or influences. They are and have been +slave States; but will probably rid themselves of that taint and +become a portion of the free North. + +The southern or slave States, properly so called, are easily defined. +They are Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, +Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The South will also +claim Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Virginia, Delaware, and +Maryland, and will endeavour to prove its right to the claim by the +fact of the social institution being the law of the land in those +States. Of Delaware, Maryland, and Eastern Virginia, I have already +spoken. Western Virginia is, I think, so little tainted with slavery, +that, as she stands even at present, she properly belongs to the +West. As I now write the struggle is going on in Kentucky and +Missouri. In Missouri the slave population is barely more than a +tenth of the whole, while in South Carolina and Mississippi it is +more than half. And, therefore, I venture to count Missouri among the +western States, although slavery is still the law of the land within +its borders. It is surrounded on three sides by free States of the +West, and its soil, let us hope, must become free. Kentucky I must +leave as doubtful, though I am inclined to believe that slavery will +be abolished there also. Kentucky at any rate will never throw in its +lot with the southern States. As to Tennessee, it seceded heart and +soul, and I fear that it must be accounted as southern, although the +northern army has now, in May 1862, possessed itself of the greater +part of the State. + +To the great West remains an enormous territory, of which, however, +the population is as yet but scanty; though perhaps no portion of +the world has increased so fast in population as have these western +States. The list is as follows: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, +Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas,--to which I would add Missouri, +and probably the western half of Virginia. We have then to account +for the two already admitted States on the Pacific, California and +Oregon, and also for the unadmitted Territories, Dacotah, Nebraska, +Washington, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Neveda. I should be +refining too much for my present very general purpose, if I were to +attempt to marshal these huge but thinly populated regions in either +rank. Of California and Oregon it may probably be said that it is +their ambition to form themselves into a separate division;--a +division which may be called the further West. + +I know that all statistical statements are tedious, and I believe +that but few readers believe them. I will, however, venture to give +the populations of these States in the order I have named them, +seeing that power in America depends almost entirely on population. +The census of 1860 gave the following results:-- + +In the North. + + Maine 619,000 + New Hampshire 326,872 + Vermont 325,827 + Massachusetts 1,231,494 + Rhode Island 174,621 + Connecticut 460,670 + New York 3,851,563 + Pennsylvania 2,916,018 + New Jersey 676,034 + ---------- + Total 10,582,099 + +In the South--the population of which must be divided into free and +slave. + + FREE. SLAVE. TOTAL. + + Texas 415,999 184,956 600,955 + Louisiana 354,245 312,186 666,431 + Arkansas 331,710 109,065 440,775 + Mississippi 407,051 479,607 886,658 + Alabama 520,444 435,473 955,917 + Florida 81,885 63,809 145,694 + Georgia 615,366 467,461 1,082,827 + South Carolina 308,186 407,185 715,371 + North Carolina 679,965 328,377 1,008,342 + Tennessee 859,578 287,112 1,146,690 + --------- --------- --------- + Total 4,574,429 3,075,231 7,649,660 + +In the West. + + Ohio 2,377,917 + Indiana 1,350,802 + Illinois 1,691,238 + Michigan 754,291 + Wisconsin 763,485 + Minnesota 172,796 + Iowa 682,002 + Kansas 143,645 + Missouri *1,204,214 + --------- + Total 9,140,390 + + *Of which number, in Missouri, 115,619 are slaves. + +In the doubtful States. + + FREE. SLAVE. TOTAL. + + Maryland 646,183 85,382 731,565 + Delaware 110,548 1,805 112,353 + Virginia 1,097,373 495,826 1,593,199 + Kentucky 920,077 225,490 1,145,567 + --------- ------- --------- + Total 2,774,181 808,503 3,582,684 + +To these must be added to make up the population of the United +States, as it stood in 1860. + + The separate district of Columbia, + in which is included Washington, + the seat of the Federal Government 75,321 + California 384,770 + Oregon 52,566 + The Territories of + Dacotah 4,839 + Nebraska 28,892 + Washington 11,624 + Utah 49,000 + New Mexico 93,024 + Colorado 34,197 + Neveda 6,857 + ------- + Total 741,090 + +And thus the total population may be given as follows:-- + + North 10,582,099 + South 7,649,660 + West 9,140,390 + Doubtful 3,582,684 + Outlying States and Territories 741,090 + ---------- + Total 31,695,923 + +Each of the three interests would consider itself wronged by the +division above made, but the South would probably be the loudest in +asserting its grievance. The South claims all the slave States, and +would point to secession in Virginia to justify such claim,--and +would point also to Maryland and Baltimore, declaring that secession +would be as strong there as at New Orleans, if secession were +practicable. Maryland and Baltimore lie behind Washington, and are +under the heels of the northern troops, so that secession is not +practicable; but the South would say that they have seceded in heart. +In this the South would have some show of reason for its assertion; +but, nevertheless, I shall best convey a true idea of the position of +these States by classing them as doubtful. When secession shall have +been accomplished,--if ever it be accomplished,--it will hardly be +possible that they should adhere to the South. + +It will be seen by the above tables that the population of the West +is nearly equal to that of the North, and that therefore western +power is almost as great as northern. It is almost as great already, +and as population in the West increases faster than it does in the +North, the two will soon be equalized. They are already sufficiently +on a par to enable them to fight on equal terms, and they will be +prepared for fighting--political fighting, if no other--as soon as +they have established their supremacy over a common enemy. + +Whilst I am on the subject of population, I should explain--though +the point is not one which concerns the present argument--that the +numbers given, as they regard the South, include both the whites and +the blacks, the free men and the slaves. The political power of the +South is of course in the hands of the white race only, and the total +white population should therefore be taken as the number indicating +the southern power. The political power of the South, however, as +contrasted with that of the North, has, since the commencement of the +Union, been much increased by the slave population. The slaves have +been taken into account in determining the number of representatives +which should be sent to Congress by each State. That number depends +on the population, but it was decided in 1787, that in counting up +the number of representatives to which each State should be held to +be entitled, five slaves should represent three white men. A Southern +population, therefore, of five thousand free men and five thousand +slaves would claim as many representatives as a Northern population +of eight thousand free men, although the voting would be confined to +the free population. This has ever since been the law of the United +States. + +The western power is nearly equal to that of the North, and this +fact, somewhat exaggerated in terms, is a frequent boast in the +mouths of western men. "We ran Fremont for President," they say, "and +had it not been for northern men with southern principles, we should +have put him in the White House instead of the traitor Buchanan. If +that had been done, there would have been no secession." How things +might have gone had Fremont been elected in lieu of Buchanan, I +will not pretend to say; but the nature of the argument shows the +difference that exists between northern and western feeling. At the +time that I was in the West, General Fremont was the great topic of +public interest. Every newspaper was discussing his conduct, his +ability as a soldier, his energy, and his fate. At that time General +Maclellan was in command at Washington on the Potomac, it being +understood that he held his power directly under the President,--free +from the exercise of control on the part of the veteran General +Scott, though at that time General Scott had not actually resigned +his position as head of the army. And General Fremont, who some five +years before had been "run" for President by the Western States, held +another command of nearly equal independence in Missouri. He had been +put over General Lyon in the western command, and directly after +this General Lyon had fallen in battle at Springfield, in the first +action in which the opposing armies were engaged in the West. General +Fremont at once proceeded to carry matters with a very high hand. +On the 30th of August, 1861, he issued a proclamation by which he +declared martial law at St. Louis, the city at which he held his head +quarters, and indeed throughout the State of Missouri generally. In +this proclamation he declared his intention of exercising a severity +beyond that ever threatened, as I believe, in modern warfare. He +defines the region presumed to be held by his army of occupation, +drawing his lines across the State, and then declares "that all +persons who shall be taken with arms in their hands within those +lines shall be tried by Court Martial, and if found guilty will +be shot." He then goes on to say that he will confiscate all the +property of persons in the State who shall have taken up arms against +the Union, or who shall have taken part with the enemies of the +Union, and that he will make free all slaves belonging to such +persons. This proclamation was not approved at Washington, and was +modified by the order of the President. It was understood also that +he issued orders for military expenditure, which were not recognized +at Washington, and men began to understand that the army in the West +was gradually assuming that irresponsible military position, which +in disturbed countries and in times of civil war has so frequently +resulted in a military dictatorship. Then there arose a clamour +for the removal of General Fremont. A semi-official account of his +proceedings, which had reached Washington from an officer under his +command, was made public; and also the correspondence which took +place on the subject between the President and General Fremont's +wife. The officer in question was thereupon placed under arrest, but +immediately released by orders from Washington. He then made official +complaint of his General, sending forward a list of charges in which +Fremont was accused of rashness, incompetency, want of fidelity of +the interests of the Government, and disobedience to orders from +head quarters. After a while the Secretary of War himself proceeded +from Washington to the quarters of General Fremont at St. Louis, and +remained there for a day or two, making or pretending to make inquiry +into the matter. But when he returned he left the General still in +command. During the whole month of October the papers were occupied +in declaring in the morning that General Fremont had been recalled +from his command, and in the evening that he was to remain. In the +mean time they who befriended his cause, and this included the whole +West, were hoping from day to day that he would settle the matter +for himself and silence his accusers, by some great military success. +General Price held the command opposed to him, and men said that +Fremont would sweep General Price and his army down the valley of the +Mississippi into the sea. But General Price would not be so swept, +and it began to appear that a guerilla warfare would prevail; that +General Price, if driven southwards, would reappear behind the backs +of his pursuers, and that General Fremont would not accomplish all +that was expected of him with that rapidity for which his friends had +given him credit. So the newspapers still went on waging the war, and +every morning General Fremont was recalled, and every evening they +who had recalled him were shown up as having known nothing of the +matter. + +"Never mind; he is a pioneer man, and will do a'most anything he puts +his hand to," his friends in the West still said. "He understands the +frontier." Understanding the frontier is a great thing in Western +America, across which the vanguard of civilization continues to march +on in advance from year to year. "And it's he that is bound to sweep +slavery from off the face of this Continent. He's the man, and he's +about the only man." I am not qualified to write the life of General +Fremont, and can at present only make this slight reference to the +details of his romantic career. That it has been full of romance, +and that the man himself is indued with a singular energy and a high +romantic idea of what may be done by power and will, there is no +doubt. Five times he has crossed the continent of North America +from Missouri to Oregon and California, enduring great hardships in +the service of advancing civilization and knowledge. That he has +considerable talent, immense energy, and strong self-confidence, +I believe. He is a frontier man; one of those who care nothing for +danger, and who would dare anything with the hope of accomplishing a +great career. But I have never heard that he has shown any practical +knowledge of high military matters. It may be doubted whether a man +of this stamp is well fitted to hold the command of a nation's army +for great national purposes. May it not even be presumed that a man +of this class is of all men the least fitted for such a work? The +officer required should be a man with two specialities--a speciality +for military tactics, and a speciality for national duty. The army +in the West was far removed from head quarters in Washington, and +it was peculiarly desirable that the General commanding it should +be one possessing a strong idea of obedience to the control of his +own Government. Those frontier capabilities, that self-dependent +energy for which his friends gave Fremont,--and probably justly gave +him,--such unlimited credit are exactly the qualities which are most +dangerous in such a position. + +I have endeavoured to explain the circumstances of the Western +command in Missouri, as they existed at the time when I was in the +North-Western States, in order that the double action of the North +and West may be understood. I, of course, was not in the secret +of any official persons, but I could not but feel sure that the +Government in Washington would have been glad to have removed Fremont +at once from the command, had they not feared that by doing so they +would have created a schism, as it were, in their own camp, and have +done much to break up the integrity or oneness of Northern loyalty. +The western people almost to a man desired abolition. The States +there were sending out their tens of thousands of young men into +the army with a prodigality as to their only source of wealth which +they hardly recognized themselves, because this to them was a fight +against slavery. The western population has been increased to a +wonderful degree by a German infusion;--so much so that the western +towns appear to have been peopled with Germans. I found regiments +of volunteers consisting wholly of Germans. And the Germans are all +abolitionists. To all the men of the West the name of Fremont is +dear. He is their hero, and their Hercules. He is to cleanse the +stables of the southern king, and turn the waters of emancipation +through the foul stalls of slavery. And, therefore, though the +Cabinet in Washington would have been glad for many reasons to +have removed Fremont in October last, it was at first scared from +committing itself to so strong a measure. At last, however, the +charges made against him were too fully substantiated to allow of +their being set on one side, and early in November, 1861, he was +superseded. I shall be obliged to allude again to General Fremont's +career as I go on with my narrative. + +At this time the North was looking for a victory on the Potomac; but +they were no longer looking for it with that impatience which in the +summer had led to the disgrace at Bull's Run. They had recognized the +fact that their troops must be equipped, drilled, and instructed; and +they had also recognized the perhaps greater fact, that their enemies +were neither weak, cowardly, nor badly officered. I have always +thought that the tone and manner with which the North bore the defeat +at Bull's Run was creditable to it. It was never denied, never +explained away, never set down as trifling. "We have been whipped!" +was what all Northerners said,--"We've got an almighty whipping, and +here we are." I have heard many Englishmen complain of this, saying +that the matter was taken almost as a joke,--that no disgrace was +felt, and the licking was owned by a people who ought never to have +allowed that they had been licked. To all this, however, I demur. +Their only chance of speedy success consisted in their seeing and +recognizing the truth. Had they confessed the whipping and then sat +down with their hands in their pockets,--had they done as second-rate +boys at school will do,--declare that they had been licked, and then +feel that all the trouble is over,--they would indeed have been open +to reproach. The old mother across the water would in such case have +disowned her son. But they did the very reverse of this. "I have been +whipped," Jonathan said, and he immediately went into training under +a new system for another fight. + +And so all through September and October the great armies on the +Potomac rested comparatively in quiet, the Northern forces drawing to +themselves immense levies. The general confidence in Maclellan was +then very great, and the cautious measures by which he endeavoured to +bring his vast untrained body of men under discipline were such as +did at that time recommend themselves to most military critics. Early +in September the northern party obtained a considerable advantage +by taking the fort at Cape Hatteras, in North Carolina, situated +on one of those long banks which lie along the shores of the +Southern States; but towards the end of October they experienced a +considerable reverse in an attack which was made on the Secessionists +by General Stone, and in which Colonel Baker was killed. Colonel +Baker had been senator for Oregon, and was well known as an orator. +Taking all things together, however, nothing material had been +done up to the end of October; and at that time northern men were +waiting--not perhaps impatiently, considering the great hopes, +and perhaps great fears which filled their hearts, but with eager +expectation for some event of which they might talk with pride. + +The man to whom they had trusted all their hopes was young for so +great a command. I think that at this time (October 1861) General +Maclellan was not yet thirty-five. He had served early in life in the +Mexican war, having come originally from Pennsylvania, and having +been educated at the military college at West Point. During our +war with Russia he was sent to the Crimea by his own Government +in conjunction with two other officers of the United States army, +that they might learn all that was to be learned there as to +military tactics, and report especially as to the manner in which +fortifications were made and attacked. I have been informed that a +very able report was sent in by them to the Government, on their +return, and that this was drawn up by Maclellan. But in America a +man is not only a soldier or always a soldier; nor is he always a +clergyman if once a clergyman. He takes a spell at anything suitable +that may be going. And in this way Maclellan was for some years +engaged on the Central Illinois Railway, and was for a considerable +time the head manager of that concern. We all know with what +suddenness he rose to the highest command in the army immediately +after the defeat at Bull's Run. + +I have endeavoured to describe what were the feelings of the West +in the autumn of 1861 with regard to the war. The excitement and +eagerness there were very great, and they were perhaps as great in +the North. But in the North the matter seemed to me to be regarded +from a different point of view. As a rule, the men of the North are +not abolitionists. It is quite certain that they were not so before +secession began. They hate slavery as we in England hate it; but they +are aware, as also are we, that the disposition of four million of +black men and women forms a question which cannot be solved by the +chivalry of any modern Orlando. The property invested in these four +million slaves forms the entire wealth of the South. If they could +be wafted by a philanthropic breeze back to the shores of Africa,--a +breeze of which the philanthropy would certainly not be appreciated +by those so wafted--the South would be a wilderness. The subject is +one as full of difficulty as any with which politicians of these days +are tormented. The Northerners fully appreciate this, and as a rule +are not abolitionists in the western sense of the word. To them the +war is recommended by precisely those feelings which animated us when +we fought for our colonies,--when we strove to put down American +independence. Secession is rebellion against the Government: and is +all the more bitter to the North because that rebellion broke out at +the first moment of northern ascendancy. "We submitted," the North +says, "to southern Presidents, and southern statesmen, and southern +councils, because we obeyed the vote of the people. But as to +you--the voice of the people is nothing in your estimation! At +the first moment in which the popular vote places at Washington a +President with northern feelings, you rebel. We submitted in your +days; and by heaven, you shall submit in ours! We submitted loyally; +through love of the law and the Constitution. You have disregarded +the law, and thrown over the Constitution. But you shall be made to +submit, as a child is made to submit to its governor." + +It must also be remembered that on commercial questions the North +and the West are divided. The Morrill tariff is as odious to the +West as it is to the South. The South and West are both agricultural +productive regions, desirous of sending cotton and corn to foreign +countries and of receiving back foreign manufactures on the best +terms. But the North is a manufacturing country--a poor manufacturing +country as regards excellence of manufacture--and therefore the more +anxious to foster its own growth by protective laws. The Morrill +tariff is very injurious to the West, and is odious there. I might +add that its folly has already been so far recognized even in the +North, as to make it very generally odious there also. + +So much I have said endeavouring to make it understood how far the +North and West were united in feeling against the South in the autumn +of 1861, and how far there existed between them a diversity of +interests. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +FROM NIAGARA TO THE MISSISSIPPI. + + +From Niagara we went by the Canada Great Western Railway to Detroit, +the big city of Michigan. It is an American institution that the +States should have a commercial capital, or what I call their big +city, as well as a political capital, which may as a rule be called +the State's central city. The object in choosing the political +capital is average nearness of approach from the various confines +of the State; but commerce submits to no such Procrustean laws in +selecting her capitals, and consequently she has placed Detroit on +the borders of Michigan, on the shore of the neck of water which +joins Lake Huron to Lake Erie through which all the trade must flow +which comes down from Lakes Michigan, Superior, and Huron, on its way +to the eastern States and to Europe. We had thought of going from +Buffalo across Lake Erie to Detroit; but we found that the better +class of steamers had been taken off the waters for the winter. And +we also found that navigation among these lakes is a mistake whenever +the necessary journey can be taken by railway. Their waters are by +no means smooth; and then there is nothing to be seen. I do not +know whether others may have a feeling, almost instinctive, that +lake navigation must be pleasant,--that lakes must of necessity +be beautiful. I have such a feeling; but not now so strongly as +formerly. Such an idea should be kept for use in Europe, and never +brought over to America with other travelling gear. The lakes in +America are cold, cumbrous, uncouth, and uninteresting--intended by +nature for the conveyance of cereal produce, but not for the comfort +of travelling men and women. So we gave up our plan of traversing +the lake, and passing back into Canada by the suspension bridge at +Niagara, we reached the Detroit river at Windsor by the Great Western +line, and passed thence by the ferry into the city of Detroit. + +In making this journey at night we introduced ourselves to the +thoroughly American institution of sleeping-cars;--that is, of cars +in which beds are made up for travellers. The traveller may have a +whole bed, or half a bed, or no bed at all as he pleases, paying a +dollar or half a dollar extra should he choose the partial or full +fruition of a couch. I confess I have always taken a delight in +seeing these beds made up, and consider that the operations of +the change are generally as well executed as the manoeuvres of +any pantomime at Drury Lane. The work is usually done by negroes +or coloured men; and the domestic negroes of America are always +light-handed and adroit. The nature of an American car is no +doubt known to all men. It looks as far removed from all bedroom +accommodation, as the baker's barrow does from the steam-engine into +which it is to be converted by Harlequin's wand. But the negro goes +to work much more quietly than the Harlequin, and for every four +seats in the railway car he builds up four beds, almost as quickly +as the hero of the pantomime goes through his performance. The great +glory of the Americans is in their wondrous contrivances,--in their +patent remedies for the usually troublous operations of life. In +their huge hotels all the bell-ropes of each house ring on one bell +only, but a patent indicator discloses a number, and the whereabouts +of the ringer is shown. One fire heats every room, passage, hall, and +cupboard,--and does it so effectually that the inhabitants are all +but stifled. Soda-water bottles open themselves without any trouble +of wire or strings. Men and women go up and down stairs without +motive power of their own. Hot and cold water are laid on to all the +chambers;--though it sometimes happens that the water from both taps +is boiling, and that when once turned on it cannot be turned off +again by any human energy. Everything is done by a new and wonderful +patent contrivance; and of all their wonderful contrivances that +of their railroad beds is by no means the least. For every four +seats the negro builds up four beds,--that is, four half-beds or +accommodation for four persons. Two are supposed to be below on the +level of the ordinary four seats, and two up above on shelves which +are let down from the roof. Mattresses slip out from one nook and +pillows from another. Blankets are added, and the bed is ready. Any +over particular individual--an islander, for instance, who hugs +his chains--will generally prefer to pay the dollar for the double +accommodation. Looking at the bed in the light of a bed,--taking as +it were an abstract view of it,--or comparing it with some other +bed or beds with which the occupant may have acquaintance, I cannot +say that it is in all respects perfect. But distances are long in +America; and he who declines to travel by night will lose very much +time. He who does so travel will find the railway bed a great relief. +I must confess that the feeling of dirt on the following morning is +rather oppressive. + +From Windsor on the Canada side we passed over to Detroit in the +State of Michigan by a steam ferry. But ferries in England and +ferries in America are very different. Here on this Detroit ferry, +some hundred of passengers who were going forward from the other side +without delay, at once sat down to breakfast. I may as well explain +the way in which disposition is made of one's luggage as one takes +these long journeys. The traveller when he starts has his baggage +checked. He abandons his trunk--generally a box studded with nails, +as long as a coffin and as high as a linen chest,--and in return for +this he receives an iron ticket with a number on it. As he approaches +the end of his first instalment of travel, and while the engine is +still working its hardest, a man comes up to him, bearing with him +suspended on a circular bar an infinite variety of other checks. The +traveller confides to this man his wishes; and if he be going further +without delay, surrenders his check and receives a counter-check in +return. Then while the train is still in motion, the new destiny +of the trunk is imparted to it. But another man, with another set +of checks, also comes the way, walking leisurely through the train +as he performs his work. This is the minister of the hotel-omnibus +institution. His business is with those who do not travel beyond +the next terminus. To him, if such be your intention, you make your +confidence, giving up your tallies and taking other tallies, by way +of receipt; and your luggage is afterwards found by you in the hall +of your hotel. There is undoubtedly very much of comfort in this; and +the mind of the traveller is lost in amazement as he thinks of the +futile efforts with which he would struggle to regain his luggage +were there no such arrangement. Enormous piles of boxes are disclosed +on the platform at all the larger stations, the numbers of which are +roared forth with quick voice by some two or three railway denizens +at once. A modest English voyager with six or seven small packages, +would stand no chance of getting anything if he were left to his own +devices. As it is I am bound to say that the thing is well done. +I have had my desk with all my money in it lost for a day, and my +black leather bag was on one occasion sent back over the line. They, +however, were recovered; and on the whole I feel grateful to the +check system of the American railways. And then, too, one never hears +of extra luggage. Of weight they are quite regardless. On two or +three occasions an overwrought official has muttered between his +teeth that ten packages were a great many, and that some of those +"light fixings" might have been made up into one. And when I came to +understand that the number of every check was entered in a book, and +re-entered at every change, I did whisper to my wife that she ought +to do without a bonnet-box. The ten, however, went on, and were +always duly protected. I must add, however, that articles requiring +tender treatment will sometimes reappear a little the worse from the +hardships of their journey. + +I have not much to say of Detroit; not much, that is, beyond what I +have to say of all the North. It is a large well-built half-finished +city, lying on a convenient water way, and spreading itself out +with promises of a wide and still wider prosperity. It has about it +perhaps as little of intrinsic interest as any of those large western +towns which I visited. It is not so pleasant as Milwaukee, nor so +picturesque as St. Paul, nor so grand as Chicago, nor so civilized as +Cleveland, nor so busy as Buffalo. Indeed Detroit is neither pleasant +nor picturesque at all. I will not say that it is uncivilized, but it +has a harsh, crude, unprepossessing appearance. It has some 70,000 +inhabitants, and good accommodation for shipping. It was doing an +enormous business before the war began, and when these troublous +times are over will no doubt again go ahead. I do not, however, +think it well to recommend any Englishman to make a special visit to +Detroit, who may be wholly uncommercial in his views and travel in +search of that which is either beautiful or interesting. + +From Detroit we continued our course westward across the State of +Michigan through a country that was absolutely wild till the railway +pierced it. Very much of it is still absolutely wild. For miles upon +miles the road passes the untouched forest, showing that even in +Michigan the great work of civilization has hardly more than been +commenced. As one thinks of the all but countless population which is +before long to be fed from these regions, of the cities which will +grow here, and of the amount of government which in due time will be +required, one can hardly fail to feel that the division of the United +States into separate nationalities is merely a part of the ordained +work of creation, as arranged for the well-being of mankind. The +States already boast of thirty millions of inhabitants,--not of +unnoticed and unnoticeable beings, requiring little, knowing little, +and doing little, such as are the Eastern hordes which may be counted +by tens of millions; but of men and women who talk loudly and are +ambitious, who eat beef, who read and write, and understand the +dignity of manhood. But these thirty millions are as nothing to the +crowds which will grow sleek and talk loudly, and become aggressive +on these wheat and meat producing levels. The country is as yet but +touched by the pioneering hand of population. In the old countries +agriculture, following on the heels of pastoral patriarchal life, +preceded the birth of cities. But in this young world the cities have +come first. The new Jasons, blessed with the experience of the old +world adventurers, have gone forth in search of their golden fleeces +armed with all that the science and skill of the East had as yet +produced, and in settling up their new Colchis have begun by the +erection of first-class hotels and the fabrication of railroads. Let +the old world bid them God speed in their work. Only it would be well +if they could be brought to acknowledge from whence they have learned +all that they know. + +Our route lay right across the State to a place called Grand Haven on +Lake Michigan, from whence we were to take boat for Milwaukee, a town +in Wisconsin on the opposite or western shore of the lake. Michigan +is sometimes called the Peninsular State from the fact that the +main part of its territory is surrounded by Lakes Michigan and +Huron, by the little Lake St. Clair, and by Lake Erie. It juts out +to the northward from the main land of Indiana and Ohio, and is +circumnavigable on the east, north, and west. These particulars +refer, however, to a part of the State only, for a portion of it lies +on the other side of Lake Michigan, between that and Lake Superior. I +doubt whether any large inland territory in the world is blessed with +such facilities of water carriage. + +On arriving at Grand Haven we found that there had been a storm on +the lake, and that the passengers from the trains of the preceding +day were still remaining there, waiting to be carried over to +Milwaukee. The water, however,--or the sea as they all call it,--was +still very high, and the captain declared his intention of remaining +there that night. Whereupon all our fellow-travellers huddled +themselves into the great lake steam-boat, and proceeded to carry on +life there as though they were quite at home. The men took themselves +to the bar-room and smoked cigars and talked about the war with +their feet upon the counter, and the women got themselves into +rocking-chairs in the saloon and sat there listless and silent, +but not more listless and silent than they usually are in the big +drawing-rooms of the big hotels. There was supper there, precisely +at six o'clock, beefsteaks, and tea, and apple jam, and hot cakes, +and light fixings, to all which luxuries an American deems himself +entitled, let him have to seek his meal where he may. And I was soon +informed with considerable energy, that let the boat be kept there +as long as it might by stress of weather, the beefsteaks and apple +jam, light fixings and heavy fixings, must be supplied at the cost of +the owners of the ship. "Your first supper you pay for," my informant +told me, "because you eat that on your own account. What you consume +after that comes of their doing, because they don't start; and if +it's three meals a day for a week, it's their look out." It occurred +to me that under such circumstances a captain would be very apt to +sail either in foul weather or in fair. + +It was a bright moonlight night, moonlight such as we rarely have in +England, and I started off by myself for a walk, that I might see +of what nature were the environs of Grand Haven. A more melancholy +place I never beheld. The town of Grand Haven itself is placed on the +opposite side of a creek, and was to be reached by a ferry. On our +side, to which the railway came and from which the boat was to sail, +there was nothing to be seen but sandhills which stretched away for +miles along the shore of the lake. There were great sand mountains, +and sand valleys, on the surface of which were scattered the debris +of dead trees, scattered logs white with age, and boughs half buried +beneath the sand. Grand Haven itself is but a poor place, not having +succeeded in catching much of the commerce which comes across the +lake from Wisconsin, and which takes itself on eastwards by the +railway. Altogether it is a dreary place, such as might break a man's +heart, should he find that inexorable fate required him there to +pitch his tent. + +On my return I went down into the bar-room of the steamer, put my +feet upon the counter, lit my cigar, and struck into the debate then +proceeding on the subject of the war. I was getting West, and General +Fremont was the hero of the hour. "He's a frontier man, and that's +what we want. I guess he'll about go through. Yes, sir." "As for +relieving General Fre-mont,"--with the accent always strongly on +the "mont,"--"I guess you may as well talk of relieving the whole +West. They won't meddle with Fre-mont. They are beginning to know in +Washington what stuff he's made of." "Why, sir, there are 50,000 men +in these States who will follow Fre-mont, who would not stir a foot +after any other man." From which, and the like of it in many other +places, I began to understand how difficult was the task which the +statesmen in Washington had in hand. + +I received no pecuniary advantage whatever from that law as to the +steam-boat meals which my new friend had revealed to me. For my one +supper of course I paid, looking forward to any amount of subsequent +gratuitous provisions. But in the course of the night the ship +sailed, and we found ourselves at Milwaukee in time for breakfast on +the following morning. + +Milwaukee is a pleasant town, a very pleasant town, containing 45,000 +inhabitants. How many of my readers can boast that they know anything +of Milwaukee, or even have heard of it? To me its name was unknown +until I saw it on huge railway placards stuck up in the smoking-rooms +and lounging halls of all American hotels. It is the big town of +Wisconsin, whereas Madison is the capital. It stands immediately on +the western shore of Lake Michigan, and is very pleasant. Why it +should be so, and why Detroit should be the contrary, I can hardly +tell; only I think that the same verdict would be given by any +English tourist. It must be always borne in mind that 10,000 or +40,000 inhabitants in an American town, and especially in any new +western town, is a number which means much more than would be implied +by any similar number as to an old town in Europe. Such a population +in America consumes double the amount of beef which it would in +England, wears double the amount of clothes, and demands double as +much of the comforts of life. If a census could be taken of the +watches it would be found, I take it, that the American population +possessed among them nearly double as many as would the English; and +I fear also that it would be found that many more of the Americans +were readers and writers by habit. In any large town in England it is +probable that a higher excellence of education would be found than +in Milwaukee, and also a style of life into which more of refinement +and more of luxury had found its way. But the general level of these +things, of material and intellectual well being--of beef, that is, +and book learning--is no doubt infinitely higher in a new American +than in an old European town. Such an animal as a beggar is as +much unknown as a mastodon. Men out of work and in want are almost +unknown. I do not say that there are none of the hardships of +life--and to them I will come by-and-by; but want is not known as +a hardship in these towns, nor is that dense ignorance in which so +large a proportion of our town populations is still steeped. And then +the town of 40,000 inhabitants is spread over a surface which would +suffice in England for a city of four times the size. Our towns in +England,--and the towns, indeed, of Europe generally,--have been +built as they have been wanted. No aspiring ambition as to hundreds +of thousands of people warmed the bosoms of their first founders. Two +or three dozen men required habitations in the same locality, and +clustered them together closely. Many such have failed and died out +of the world's notice. Others have thriven, and houses have been +packed on to houses till London and Manchester, Dublin and Glasgow +have been produced. Poor men have built, or have had built for them, +wretched lanes; and rich men have erected grand palaces. From the +nature of their beginnings such has, of necessity, been the manner +of their creation. But in America, and especially in Western America, +there has been no such necessity and there is no such result. The +founders of cities have had the experience of the world before them. +They have known of sanitary laws as they began. That sewerage, and +water, and gas, and good air would be needed for a thriving community +has been to them as much a matter of fact as are the well understood +combinations between timber and nails, and bricks and mortar. They +have known that water carriage is almost a necessity for commercial +success, and have chosen their sites accordingly. Broad streets +cost as little, while land by the foot is not as yet of value to be +regarded, as those which are narrow; and therefore the sites of towns +have been prepared with noble avenues, and imposing streets. A city +at its commencement is laid out with an intention that it shall be +populous. The houses are not all built at once, but there are the +places allocated for them. The streets are not made, but there are +the spaces. Many an abortive attempt at municipal greatness has so +been made and then all but abandoned. There are wretched villages +with huge straggling parallel ways which will never grow into +towns. They are the failures,--failures in which the pioneers of +civilization, frontier men as they call themselves, have lost their +tens of thousands of dollars. But when the success comes; when the +happy hit has been made, and the ways of commerce have been truly +foreseen with a cunning eye, then a great and prosperous city springs +up, ready made, as it were, from the earth. Such a town is Milwaukee, +now containing 45,000 inhabitants, but with room apparently for +double that number; with room for four times that number, were men +packed as closely there as they are with us. + +In the principal business streets of all these towns one sees +vast buildings. They are usually called blocks, and are often so +denominated in large letters on their front, as Portland Block, +Devereux Block, Buel's Block. Such a block may face to two, three, or +even four streets, and, as I presume, has generally been a matter of +one special speculation. It may be divided into separate houses, or +kept for a single purpose, such as that of an hotel, or grouped into +shops below, and into various sets of chambers above. I have had +occasion in various towns to mount the stairs within these blocks, +and have generally found some portion of them vacant;--have sometimes +found the greater portion of them vacant. Men build on an enormous +scale, three times, ten times as much as is wanted. The only measure +of size is an increase on what men have built before. Monroe P. +Jones, the speculator, is very probably ruined, and then begins the +world again, nothing daunted. But Jones's block remains, and gives to +the city in its aggregate a certain amount of wealth. Or the block +becomes at once of service and finds tenants. In which case Jones +probably sells it and immediately builds two others twice as +big. That Monroe P. Jones will encounter ruin is almost a matter +of course; but then he is none the worse for being ruined. It +hardly makes him unhappy. He is greedy of dollars with a terrible +covetousness; but he is greedy in order that he may speculate more +widely. He would sooner have built Jones' tenth block, with a +prospect of completing a twentieth, than settle himself down at +rest for life as the owner of a Chatsworth or a Woburn. As for his +children he has no desire of leaving them money. Let the girls marry. +And for the boys,--for them it will be good to begin as he begun. If +they cannot build blocks for themselves, let them earn their bread +in the blocks of other men. So Monroe P. Jones, with his million of +dollars accomplished, advances on to a new frontier, goes to work +again on a new city, and loses it all. As an individual I differ very +much from Monroe P. Jones. The first block accomplished, with an +adequate rent accruing to me as the builder, I fancy that I should +never try a second. But Jones is undoubtedly the man for the West. +It is that love of money to come, joined to a strong disregard for +money made, which constitutes the vigorous frontier mind, the true +pioneering organization. Monroe P. Jones would be a great man to all +posterity, if only he had a poet to sing of his valour. + +It may be imagined how large in proportion to its inhabitants will +be a town which spreads itself in this way. There are great houses +left untenanted, and great gaps left unfilled. But if the place be +successful,--if it promise success, it will be seen at once that +there is life all through it. Omnibuses, or street cars working on +rails run hither and thither. The shops that have been opened are +well filled. The great hotels are thronged. The quays are crowded +with vessels, and a general feeling of progress pervades the place. +It is easy to perceive whether or no an American town is going ahead. +The days of my visit to Milwaukee were days of civil war and national +trouble, but in spite of civil war and national trouble Milwaukee +looked healthy. + +I have said that there was but little poverty,--little to be seen +of real want in these thriving towns, but that they who laboured in +them had nevertheless their own hardships. This is so. I would not +have any man believe that he can take himself to the Western States +of America,--to those States of which I am now speaking,--Michigan, +Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, or Illinois, and there by industry escape +the ills to which flesh is heir. The labouring Irish in these towns +eat meat seven days a week, but I have met many a labouring Irishman +among them who has wished himself back in his old cabin. Industry is +a good thing, and there is no bread so sweet as that which is eaten +in the sweat of a man's brow; but labour carried to excess wearies +the mind as well as body, and the sweat that is ever running makes +the bread bitter. There is, I think, no task-master over free labour +so exacting as an American. He knows nothing of hours, and seems to +have that idea of a man which a lady always has of a horse. He thinks +that he will go for ever. I wish those masons in London who strike +for nine hours' work with ten hours' pay could be driven to the +labour market of Western America for a spell. And moreover, which +astonished me, I have seen men driven and hurried,--as it were forced +forward at their work, in a manner which to an English workman would +be intolerable. This surprised me much, as it was at variance with +our,--or perhaps I should say with my,--preconceived ideas as to +American freedom. I had fancied that an American citizen would not +submit to be driven;--that the spirit of the country if not the +spirit of the individual would have made it impossible. I thought +that the shoe would have pinched quite on the other foot. But I found +that such driving did exist; and American masters in the West with +whom I had an opportunity of discussing the subject all admitted it. +"Those men 'll never half move unless they're driven," a foreman said +to me once as we stood together over some twenty men who were at +their work. "They kinder look for it, and don't well know how to get +along when they miss it." It was not his business at this moment to +drive;--nor was he driving. He was standing at some little distance +from the scene with me, and speculating on the sight before him. I +thought the men were working at their best; but their movements did +not satisfy his practised eye, and he saw at a glance that there was +no one immediately over them. + +But there is worse even than this. Wages in these regions are what we +should call high. An agricultural labourer will earn perhaps fifteen +dollars a month and his board; and a town labourer will earn a dollar +a day. A dollar may be taken as representing four shillings, though +it is in fact more. Food in these parts is much cheaper than in +England, and therefore the wages must be considered as very good. +In making, however, a just calculation it must be borne in mind +that clothing is dearer than in England and that much more of it +is necessary. The wages nevertheless are high, and will enable the +labourer to save money,--if only he can get them paid. The complaint +that wages are held back and not even ultimately paid is very common. +There is no fixed rule for satisfying all such claims once a week; +and thus debts to labourers are contracted and when contracted are +ignored. With us there is a feeling that it is pitiful, mean almost +beyond expression, to wrong a labourer of his hire. We have men +who go in debt to tradesmen perhaps without a thought of paying +them;--but when we speak of such a one who has descended into +the lowest mire of insolvency, we say that he has not paid his +washerwoman. Out there in the West the washerwoman is as fair game +as the tailor, the domestic servant as the wine merchant. If a man +be honest he will not willingly take either goods or labour without +payment; and it may be hard to prove that he who takes the latter is +more dishonest than he who takes the former; but with us there is a +prejudice in favour of one's washerwoman by which the western mind +is not weakened. "They certainly have to be smart to get it," a +gentleman said to me whom I taxed on the subject. "You see on the +frontier a man is bound to be smart. If he ain't smart he'd better +go back East;--perhaps as far as Europe. He'll do there." I had got +my answer, and my friend had turned the question. But the fact was +admitted by him as it had been by many others. + +Why this should be so, is a question, to answer which thoroughly +would require a volume in itself. As to the driving, why should men +submit to it, seeing that labour is abundant, and that in all newly +settled countries the labourer is the true hero of the age? In answer +to this is to be alleged the fact that hired labour is chiefly done +by fresh comers, by Irish and Germans, who have not as yet among them +any combination sufficient to protect them from such usage. The men +over them are new as masters,--masters who are rough themselves, who +themselves have been roughly driven, and who have not learned to be +gracious to those below them. It is a part of their contract that +very hard work shall be exacted; and the driving resolves itself into +this,--that the master looking after his own interest is constantly +accusing his labourer of a breach of his part of the contract. The +men no doubt do become used to it, and slacken probably in their +endeavours when the tongue of the master or foreman is not heard. But +as to that matter of non-payment of wages, the men must live; and +here as elsewhere the master who omits to pay once, will hardly find +labourers in future. The matter would remedy itself elsewhere, and +does it not do so here? This of course is so, and it is not to be +understood that labour as a rule is defrauded of its hire. But the +relation of the master and the man admits of such fraud here much +more frequently than in England. In England the labourer who did not +get his wages on the Saturday could not go on for the next week. To +him under such circumstances the world would be coming to an end. But +in the Western States, the labourer does not live so completely from +hand to mouth. He is rarely paid by the week, is accustomed to give +some credit, and till hard pressed by bad circumstances generally has +something by him. They do save money, and are thus fattened up to a +state which admits of victimization. I cannot owe money to the little +village cobbler who mends my shoes, because he demands and receives +his payment when his job is done. But to my friend in Regent Street I +extend my custom on a different system; and when I make my start for +continental life, I have with him a matter of unsettled business to a +considerable extent. The American labourer is in the condition of the +Regent Street boot-maker;--excepting in this respect, that he gives +his credit under compulsion. "But does not the law set him right? +Is there no law against debtors?" The laws against debtors are +plain enough as they are written down, but seem to be anything but +plain when called into action. They are perfectly understood, and +operations are carried on with the express purpose of evading them. +If you proceed against a man, you find that his property is in the +hands of some one else. You work in fact for Jones who lives in the +next street to you; but when you quarrel with Jones about your wages, +you find that according to law you have been working for Smith in +another State. In all countries such dodges are probably practicable. +But men will or will not have recourse to such dodges according to +the light in which they are regarded by the community. In the Western +States such dodges do not appear to be regarded as disgraceful. "It +behoves a frontier man to be smart, sir." + +Honesty is the best policy. That is a doctrine which has been widely +preached, and which has recommended itself to many minds as being +one of absolute truth. It is not very ennobling in its sentiment, +seeing that it advocates a special virtue, not on the ground that +that virtue is in itself a thing beautiful, but on account of the +immediate reward which will be its consequence. Smith is enjoined not +to cheat Jones, because he will, in the long run, make more money by +dealing with Jones on the square. This is not teaching of the highest +order; but it is teaching well adapted to human circumstances, and +has obtained for itself a wide credit. One is driven, however, to +doubt whether even this teaching is not too high for the frontier +man. Is it possible that a frontier man should be scrupulous and at +the same time successful? Hitherto those who have allowed scruples to +stand in their way have not succeeded; and they who have succeeded +and made for themselves great names,--who have been the pioneers of +civilization,--have not allowed ideas of exact honesty to stand in +their way. From General Jason down to General Fremont there have +been men of great aspirations but of slight scruples. They have been +ambitious of power and desirous of progress, but somewhat regardless +how power and progress shall be attained. Clive and Warren Hastings +were great frontier men, but we cannot imagine that they had ever +realized the doctrine that honesty is the best policy. Cortez, and +even Columbus, the prince of frontier men, are in the same category. +The names of such heroes is legion. But with none of them has +absolute honesty been a favourite virtue. "It behoves a frontier man +to be smart, sir." Such, in that or other language, has been the +prevailing idea. Such is the prevailing idea. And one feels driven to +ask oneself whether such must not be the prevailing idea with those +who leave the world and its rules behind them, and go forth with the +resolve that the world and its rules shall follow them. + +Of filibustering, annexation, and polishing savages off the face of +creation there has been a great deal, and who can deny that humanity +has been the gainer? It seems to those who look widely back over +history, that all such works have been carried on in obedience to +God's laws. When Jacob by Rebecca's aid cheated his elder brother he +was very smart; but we cannot but suppose that a better race was by +this smartness put in possession of the patriarchal sceptre. Esau was +polished off, and readers of Scripture wonder why heaven with its +thunder did not open over the heads of Rebecca and her son. But Jacob +with all his fraud was the chosen one. Perhaps the day may come when +scrupulous honesty may be the best policy even on the frontier. I can +only say that hitherto that day seems to be as distant as ever. I do +not pretend to solve the problem, but simply record my opinion that +under circumstances as they still exist I should not willingly select +a frontier life for my children. + +I have said that all great frontier men have been unscrupulous. There +is, however, an exception in history which may perhaps serve to prove +the rule. The Puritans who colonized New England were frontier men, +and were, I think, in general scrupulously honest. They had their +faults. They were stern, austere men, tyrannical at the backbone when +power came in their way,--as are all pioneers;--hard upon vices for +which they who made the laws had themselves no minds; but they were +not dishonest. + +At Milwaukee I went up to see the Wisconsin volunteers, who were +then encamped on open ground in the close vicinity of the town. +Of Wisconsin I had heard before,--and have heard the same opinion +repeated since,--that it was more backward in its volunteering than +its neighbour States in the West. Wisconsin has 760,000 inhabitants, +and its tenth thousand of volunteers was not then made up; whereas +Indiana with less than double its number had already sent out +thirty-six thousand. Iowa, with a hundred thousand less of +inhabitants, had then made up fifteen thousand. But nevertheless to +me it seemed that Wisconsin was quite alive to its presumed duty +in that respect. Wisconsin with its three quarters of a million +of people is as large as England. Every acre of it may be made +productive, but as yet it is not half cleared. Of such a country its +young men are its heart's blood. Ten thousand men fit to bear arms +carried away from such a land to the horrors of civil war is a sight +as full of sadness as any on which the eye can rest. Ah me, when will +they return, and with what altered hopes! It is, I fear, easier to +turn the sickle into the sword, than to recast the sword back again +into the sickle! + +We found a completed regiment at Wisconsin consisting entirely of +Germans. A thousand Germans had been collected in that State and +brought together in one regiment, and I was informed by an officer +on the ground that there are many Germans in sundry other of the +Wisconsin regiments. It may be well to mention here that the number +of Germans through all these western States is very great. Their +number and well-being were to me astonishing. That they form a great +portion of the population of New York, making the German quarter of +that city the third largest German town in the world, I have long +known; but I had no previous idea of their expansion westward. In +Detroit nearly every third shop bore a German name, and the same +remark was to be made at Milwaukee;--and on all hands I heard praises +of their morals, of their thrift, and of their new patriotism. I was +continually told how far they exceeded the Irish settlers. To me in +all parts of the world an Irishman is dear. When handled tenderly he +becomes a creature most loveable. But with all my judgment in the +Irishman's favour, and with my prejudices leaning the same way, I +feel myself bound to state what I heard and what I saw as to the +Germans. + +But this regiment of Germans, and another not completed regiment, +called from the State generally, were as yet without arms, +accoutrements, or clothing. There was the raw material of the +regiment, but there was nothing else. Winter was coming on,--winter +in which the mercury is commonly 20 degrees below zero,--and the men +were in tents with no provision against the cold. These tents held +each two men, and were just large enough for two to lie. The canvas +of which they were made seemed to me to be thin, but was I think +always double. At this camp there was a house in which the men took +their meals, but I visited other camps in which there was no such +accommodation. I saw the German regiment called to its supper by tuck +of drum, and the men marched in gallantly, armed each with a knife +and spoon. I managed to make my way in at the door after them, and +can testify to the excellence of the provisions of which their +supper consisted. A poor diet never enters into any combination +of circumstances contemplated by an American. Let him be where he +will, animal food is, with him, the first necessary of life, and he +is always provided accordingly. As to those Wisconsin men whom I +saw, it was probable that they might be marched off, down south to +Washington, or to the doubtful glories of the western campaign under +Fremont before the winter commenced. The same might have been said +of any special regiment. But taking the whole mass of men who were +collected under canvas at the end of the autumn of 1861, and who +were so collected without arms or military clothing, and without +protection from the weather, it did seem that the task taken in +hand by the Commissariat of the Northern army was one not devoid of +difficulty. + +The view from Milwaukee over Lake Michigan is very pleasing. One +looks upon a vast expanse of water to which the eye finds no bounds, +and therefore there are none of the common attributes of lake beauty; +but the colour of the lake is bright, and within a walk of the city +the traveller comes to the bluffs or low round-topped hills from +which he can look down upon the shores. These bluffs form the beauty +of Wisconsin and Minnesota, and relieve the eye after the flat level +of Michigan. Round Detroit there is no rising ground, and therefore, +perhaps, it is that Detroit is uninteresting. + +I have said that those who are called on to labour in these States +have their own hardships, and I have endeavoured to explain what +are the sufferings to which the town labourer is subject. To escape +from this is the labourer's great ambition, and his mode of doing +so consists almost universally in the purchase of land. He saves up +money in order that he may buy a section of an allotment, and thus +become his own master. All his savings are made with a view to this +independence. Seated on his own land he will have to work probably +harder than ever, but he will work for himself. No taskmaster can +then stand over him and wound his pride with harsh words. He will be +his own master; will eat the food which he himself has grown, and +live in the cabin which his own hands have built. This is the object +of his life; and to secure this position he is content to work late +and early and to undergo the indignities of previous servitude. The +Government price for land is about five shillings an acre--one dollar +and a quarter--and the settler may get it for this price if he be +contented to take it not only untouched as regards clearing, but also +far removed from any completed road. The traffic in these lands has +been the great speculating business of western men. Five or six years +ago, when the rage for such purchases was at its height, land was +becoming a scarce article in the market! Individuals or companies +bought it up with the object of reselling it at a profit; and many +no doubt did make money. Railway companies were, in fact, companies +combined for the purchase of land. They purchased land, looking to +increase the value of it five-fold by the opening of a railroad. It +may easily be understood that a railway, which could not be in itself +remunerative, might in this way become a lucrative speculation. No +settler could dare to place himself absolutely at a distance from +any thoroughfare. At first the margins of nature's highways, the +navigable rivers and lakes, were cleared. But as the railway system +grew and expanded itself, it became manifest that lands might be +rendered quickly available which were not so circumstanced by nature, +A company which had purchased an enormous territory from the United +States Government at five shillings an acre might well repay itself +all the cost of a railway through that territory, even though the +receipts of the railway should do no more than maintain the current +expenses. It is in this way that the thousands of miles of American +railroads have been opened; and here again must be seen the immense +advantages which the States as a new country have enjoyed. With us +the purchase of valuable land for railways, together with the legal +expenses which those compulsory purchases entailed, have been so +great that with all our traffic railways are not remunerative. But +in the States the railways have created the value of the land. The +States have been able to begin at the right end, and to arrange +that the districts which are benefited shall themselves pay for the +benefit they receive. + +The Government price of land is 125 cents, or about five shillings an +acre; and even this need not be paid at once if the settler purchase +directly from the Government. He must begin by making certain +improvements on the selected land,--clearing and cultivating some +small portion, building a hut, and probably sinking a well. When this +has been done,--when he has thus given a pledge of his intentions +by depositing on the land the value of a certain amount of labour, +he cannot be removed. He cannot be removed for a term of years, and +then if he pays the price of the land it becomes his own with an +indefeasible title. Many such settlements are made on the purchase +of warrants for land. Soldiers returning from the Mexican wars +were donated with warrants for land,--the amount being 160 acres, +or the quarter of a section. The localities of such lands were +not specified, but the privilege granted was that of occupying +any quarter-section not hitherto tenanted. It will of course be +understood that lands favourably situated would be tenanted. Those +contiguous to railways were of course so occupied, seeing that +the lines were not made till the lands were in the hands of the +companies. It may therefore be understood of what nature would be +the traffic in these warrants. The owner of a single warrant might +find it of no value to him. To go back utterly into the woods, away +from river or road, and there to commence with 160 acres of forest, +or even of prairie, would be a hopeless task even to an American +settler. Some mode of transport for his produce must be found before +his produce would be of value,--before indeed he could find the means +of living. But a company buying up a large aggregate of such warrants +would possess the means of making such allotments valuable and of +reselling them at greatly increased prices. + +The primary settler, therefore,--who, however, will not usually have +been the primary owner,--goes to work upon his land amidst all the +wildness of nature. He levels and burns the first trees, and raises +his first crop of corn amidst stumps still standing four or five feet +above the soil; but he does not do so till some mode of conveyance +has been found for him. So much I have said hoping to explain the +mode in which the frontier speculator paves the way for the frontier +agriculturist. But the permanent farmer very generally comes on the +land as the third owner. The first settler is a rough fellow, and +seems to be so wedded to his rough life that he leaves his land after +his first wild work is done, and goes again further off to some +untouched allotment. He finds that he can sell his improvements at a +profitable rate and takes the price. He is a preparer of farms rather +than a farmer. He has no love for the soil which his hand has first +turned. He regards it merely as an investment; and when things about +him are beginning to wear an aspect of comfort,--when his property +has become valuable, he sells it, packs up his wife and little ones, +and goes again into the woods. The western American has no love for +his own soil, or his own house. The matter with him is simply one of +dollars. To keep a farm which he could sell at an advantage from any +feeling of affection,--from what we should call an association of +ideas,--would be to him as ridiculous as the keeping of a family pig +would be in an English farmer's establishment. The pig is a part of +the farmer's stock in trade, and must go the way of all pigs. And +so is it with house and land in the life of the frontier man in the +western States. + +But yet this man has his romance, his high poetic feeling, and above +all his manly dignity. Visit him, and you will find him without coat +or waistcoat, unshorn, in ragged blue trousers and old flannel shirt, +too often bearing on his lantern jaws the signs of ague and sickness; +but he will stand upright before you and speak to you with all the +ease of a lettered gentleman in his own library. All the odious +incivility of the republican servant has been banished. He is his own +master, standing on his own threshold, and finds no need to assert +his equality by rudeness. He is delighted to see you, and bids you +sit down on his battered bench without dreaming of any such apology +as an English cottier offers to a Lady Bountiful when she calls. He +has worked out his independence, and shows it in every easy movement +of his body. He tells you of it unconsciously in every tone of his +voice. You will always find in his cabin some newspaper, some book, +some token of advance in education. When he questions you about the +old country he astonishes you by the extent of his knowledge. I defy +you not to feel that he is superior to the race from whence he has +sprung in England or in Ireland. To me I confess that the manliness +of such a man is very charming. He is dirty and perhaps squalid. His +children are sick and he is without comforts. His wife is pale, and +you think you see shortness of life written in the faces of all the +family. But over and above it all there is an independence which sits +gracefully on their shoulders, and teaches you at the first glance +that the man has a right to assume himself to be your equal. It is +for this position that the labourer works, bearing hard words and +the indignity of tyranny,--suffering also too often the dishonest +ill-usage which his superior power enables the master to inflict. + +"I have lived very rough," I heard a poor woman say, whose husband +had ill-used and deserted her. "I have known what it is to be hungry +and cold, and to work hard till my bones have ached. I only wish that +I might have the same chance again. If I could have ten acres cleared +two miles away from any living being, I could be happy with my +children. I find a kind of comfort when I am at work from daybreak to +sundown, and know that it is all my own." I believe that life in the +backwoods has an allurement to those who have been used to it, that +dwellers in cities can hardly comprehend. + +From Milwaukee we went across Wisconsin and reached the Mississippi +at La Crosse. From hence, according to agreement, we were to start +by steamer at once up the river. But we were delayed again, as had +happened to us before on Lake Michigan at Grand Haven. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI. + + +It had been promised to us that we should start from La Crosse by +the river steamer immediately on our arrival there; but on reaching +La Crosse we found that the vessel destined to take us up the river +had not yet come down. She was bringing a regiment from Minnesota, +and under such circumstances some pardon might be extended to +irregularities. This plea was made by one of the boat clerks in +a very humble tone, and was fully accepted by us. The wonder was +that at such a period all means of public conveyance were not put +absolutely out of gear. One might surmise that when regiments were +constantly being moved for the purposes of civil war, when the whole +North had but the one object of collecting together a sufficient +number of men to crush the South, ordinary travelling for ordinary +purposes would be difficult, slow, and subject to sudden stoppages. +Such, however, was not the case either in the northern or western +States. The trains ran much as usual, and those connected with the +boats and railways were just as anxious as ever to secure passengers. +The boat clerk at La Crosse apologised amply for the delay, and we +sat ourselves down with patience to await the arrival of the second +Minnesota regiment on its way to Washington. + +During the four hours that we were kept waiting we were harboured on +board a small steamer, and at about eleven the terribly harsh whistle +that is made by the Mississippi boats informed us that the regiment +was arriving. It came up to the quay in two steamers, 750 being +brought in that which was to take us back, and 250 in a smaller one. +The moon was very bright, and great flaming torches were lit on the +vessel's side, so that all the operations of the men were visible. +The two steamers had run close up, thrusting us away from the quay +in their passage, but doing it so gently that we did not even feel +the motion. These large boats--and their size may be understood from +the fact that one of them had just brought down 750 men,--are moved +so easily and so gently that they come gliding in among each other +without hesitation and without pause. On English waters we do +not willingly run ships against each other; and when we do so +unwillingly, they bump and crush and crash upon each other, and +timbers fly while men are swearing. But here there was neither +crashing nor swearing, and the boats noiselessly pressed against each +other as though they were cased in muslin and crinoline. + +I got out upon the quay and stood close by the plank, watching each +man as he left the vessel and walked across towards the railway. +Those whom I had previously seen in tents were not equipped, but +these men were in uniform and each bore his musket. Taking them all +together they were as fine a set of men as I ever saw collected. No +man could doubt on seeing them that they bore on their countenances +the signs of higher breeding and better education than would be +seen in a thousand men enlisted in England. I do not mean to argue +from this that Americans are better than English. I do not mean to +argue here that they are even better educated. My assertion goes to +show that the men generally were taken from a higher level in the +community than that which fills our own ranks. It was a matter of +regret to me, here and on many subsequent occasions, to see men bound +for three years to serve as common soldiers, who were so manifestly +fitted for a better and more useful life. To me it is always a source +of sorrow to see a man enlisted. I feel that the individual recruit +is doing badly with himself--carrying himself and the strength and +intelligence which belongs to him to a bad market. I know that there +must be soldiers; but as to every separate soldier I regret that he +should be one of them. And the higher is the class from which such +soldiers are drawn, the greater the intelligence of the men so to +be employed, the deeper with me is that feeling of regret. But this +strikes one much less in an old country than in a country that is +new. In the old countries population is thick, and food sometimes +scarce. Men can be spared, and any employment may be serviceable, +even though that employment be in itself so unproductive as that of +fighting battles or preparing for them. But in the western States of +America every arm that can guide a plough is of incalculable value. +Minnesota was admitted as a State about three years before this time, +and its whole population is not much above 150,000. Of this number +perhaps 40,000 may be working men. And now this infant State with +its huge territory and scanty population is called upon to send its +heart's blood out to the war. + +And it has sent its heart's best blood. Forth they came--fine, +stalwart, well-grown fellows, looking to my eye as though they had +as yet but faintly recognised the necessary severity of military +discipline. To them hitherto the war had seemed to be an arena on +which each might do something for his country, which that country +would recognise. To themselves as yet--and to me also--they were a +band of heroes, to be reduced by the compressing power of military +discipline to the lower level, but more necessary position of a +regiment of soldiers. Ah me! how terrible to them has been the +breaking up of that delusion! When a poor yokel in England is +enlisted with a shilling and a promise of unlimited beer and glory, +one pities and if possible would save him. But with him the mode of +life to which he goes may not be much inferior to that he leaves. +It may be that for him soldiering is the best trade possible in his +circumstances. It may keep him from the hen-roosts, and perhaps +from his neighbours' pantries; and discipline may be good for him. +Population is thick with us, and there are many whom it may be well +to collect and make available under the strictest surveillance. But +of these men whom I saw entering on their career upon the banks of +the Mississippi, many were fathers of families, many were owners of +lands, many were educated men capable of high aspirations,--all were +serviceable members of their State. There were probably there not +three or four of whom it would be well that the State should be rid. +As soldiers fit, or capable of being made fit for the duties they had +undertaken, I could find but one fault with them. Their average age +was too high. There were men among them with grizzled beards, and +many who had counted thirty, thirty-five, and forty years. They had, +I believe, devoted themselves with a true spirit of patriotism. No +doubt each had some ulterior hope as to himself,--as has every mortal +patriot. Regulus when he returned hopeless to Carthage, trusted that +some Horace would tell his story. Each of these men from Minnesota +looked probably forward to his reward; but the reward desired was of +a high class. + +The first great misery to be endured by these regiments will be the +military lesson of obedience which they must learn before they can +be of any service. It always seemed to me when I came near them +that they had not as yet recognized the necessary austerity of an +officer's duty. Their idea of a captain was the stage idea of a +leader of dramatic banditti, a man to be followed and obeyed as a +leader, but to be obeyed with that free and easy obedience which is +accorded to the reigning chief of the forty thieves. "Wa'll Captain," +I have heard a private say to his officer, as he sat on one seat in a +railway-car with his feet upon the back of another. And the captain +has looked as though he did not like it. The captain did not like it, +but the poor private was being fast carried to that destiny which +he would like still less. From the first I have had faith in the +northern army; but from the first I have felt that the suffering to +be endured by these free and independent volunteers would be very +great. A man to be available as a private soldier must be compressed +and belted in till he be a machine. + +As soon as the men had left the vessel we walked over the side of +it and took possession. "I am afraid your cabin won't be ready for +a quarter of an hour," said the clerk. "Such a body of men as that +will leave some dirt after them." I assured him of course that our +expectations under such circumstances were very limited, and that +I was fully aware that the boat and the boat's company were taken +up with matters of greater moment than the carriage of ordinary +passengers. But to this he demurred altogether. "The regiments +were very little to them, but occasioned much trouble. Everything, +however, should be square in fifteen minutes." At the expiration of +the time named the key of our state-room was given to us, and we +found the appurtenances as clean as though no soldier had ever put +his foot upon the vessel. + +From La Crosse to St. Paul, the distance up the river is something +over 200 miles, and from St. Paul down to Dubuque, in Iowa, to which +we went on our return, the distance is 450 miles. We were therefore +for a considerable time on board these boats; more so than such a +journey may generally make necessary, as we were delayed at first by +the soldiers, and afterwards by accidents, such as the breaking of +a paddle-wheel, and other causes to which navigation on the Upper +Mississippi seems to be liable. On the whole we slept on board four +nights, and lived on board as many days. I cannot say that the life +was comfortable, though I do not know that it could be made more so +by any care on the part of the boat-owners. My first complaint would +be against the great heat of the cabins. The Americans as a rule live +in an atmosphere which is almost unbearable by an Englishman. To this +cause, I am convinced, is to be attributed their thin faces, their +pale skins, their unenergetic temperament,--unenergetic as regards +physical motion,--and their early old age. The winters are long and +cold in America, and mechanical ingenuity is far extended. These two +facts together have created a system of stoves, hot-air pipes, steam +chambers, and heating apparatus so extensive that from autumn till +the end of spring all inhabited rooms are filled with the atmosphere +of a hot oven. An Englishman fancies that he is to be baked, and +for a while finds it almost impossible to exist in the air prepared +for him. How the heat is engendered on board the river steamers +I do not know, but it is engendered to so great a degree that the +sitting-cabins are unendurable. The patient is therefore driven out +at all hours into the outside balconies of the boat, or on to the top +roof,--for it is a roof rather than a deck,--and there as he passes +through the air at the rate of twenty miles an hour, finds himself +chilled to the very bones. That is my first complaint. But as the +boats are made for Americans, and as Americans like hot air, I do not +put it forward with any idea that a change ought to be effected. My +second complaint is equally unreasonable, and is quite as incapable +of a remedy as the first. Nine-tenths of the travellers carry +children with them. They are not tourists engaged on pleasure +excursions, but men and women intent on the business of life. They +are moving up and down, looking for fortune, and in search of new +homes. Of course they carry with them all their household goods. Do +not let any critic say that I grudge these young travellers their +right to locomotion. Neither their right to locomotion is grudged +by me, nor any of those privileges which are accorded in America to +the rising generation. The habits of their country and the choice +of their parents give to them full dominion over all hours and over +all places, and it would ill become a foreigner to make such habits +and such choice a ground of serious complaint. But nevertheless the +uncontrolled energies of twenty children round one's legs do not +convey comfort or happiness, when the passing events are producing +noise and storm rather than peace and sunshine. I must protest that +American babies are an unhappy race. They eat and drink just as they +please; they are never punished; they are never banished, snubbed, +and kept in the back ground as children are kept with us; and yet +they are wretched and uncomfortable. My heart has bled for them +as I have heard them squalling by the hour together in agonies of +discontent and dyspepsia. Can it be, I wonder, that children are +happier when they are made to obey orders and are sent to bed at six +o'clock, than when allowed to regulate their own conduct; that bread +and milk are more favourable to laughter and soft childish ways +than beef-steaks and pickles three times a day; that an occasional +whipping, even, will conduce to rosy cheeks? It is an idea which I +should never dare to broach to an American mother; but I must confess +that after my travels on the western continent my opinions have a +tendency in that direction. Beef-steaks and pickles certainly produce +smart little men and women. Let that be taken for granted. But rosy +laughter and winning childish ways are, I fancy, the produce of +bread and milk. But there was a third reason why travelling on +these boats was not as pleasant as I had expected. I could not get +my fellow-travellers to talk to me. It must be understood that +our fellow-travellers were not generally of that class which we +Englishmen, in our pride, designate as gentlemen and ladies. They +were people, as I have said, in search of new homes and new fortunes. +But I protest that as such they would have been in those parts much +more agreeable as companions to me than any gentlemen or any ladies, +if only they would have talked to me. I do not accuse them of any +incivility. If addressed, they answered me. If application was made +by me for any special information, trouble was taken to give it +me. But I found no aptitude, no wish for conversation; nay, even a +disinclination to converse. In the western States I do not think +that I was ever addressed first by an American sitting next to me at +table. Indeed I never held any conversation at a public table in the +West. I have sat in the same room with men for hours, and have not +had a word spoken to me. I have done my very best to break through +this ice, and have always failed. A western American man is not a +talking man. He will sit for hours over a stove with his cigar in +his mouth, and his hat over his eyes, chewing the cud of reflection. +A dozen will sit together in the same way, and there shall not be +a dozen words spoken between them in an hour. With the women one's +chance of conversation is still worse. It seemed as though the +cares of the world had been too much for them, and that all talking +excepting as to business,--demands for instance on the servants +for pickles for their children,--had gone by the board. They were +generally hard, dry, and melancholy. I am speaking of course of aged +females,--from five and twenty perhaps to thirty, who had long since +given up the amusements and levities of life. I very soon abandoned +any attempt at drawing a word from these ancient mothers of families; +but not the less did I ponder in my mind over the circumstances of +their lives. Had things gone with them so sadly, was the struggle +for independence so hard, that all the softness of existence had +been trodden out of them? In the cities too it was much the same. It +seemed to me that a future mother of a family in those parts had left +all laughter behind her when she put out her finger for the wedding +ring. + +For these reasons I must say that life on board these steam-boats was +not as pleasant as I had hoped to find it, but for our discomfort in +this respect we found great atonement in the scenery through which we +passed. I protest that of all the river scenery that I know, that of +the Upper Mississippi is by far the finest and the most continued. +One thinks of course of the Rhine; but, according to my idea of +beauty, the Rhine is nothing to the Upper Mississippi. For miles upon +miles, for hundreds of miles, the course of the river runs through +low hills, which are there called bluffs. These bluffs rise in every +imaginable form, looking sometimes like large straggling unwieldy +castles, and then throwing themselves into sloping lawns which +stretch back away from the river till the eye is lost in their twists +and turnings. Landscape beauty, as I take it, consists mainly in four +attributes: in water, in broken land, in scattered timber,--timber +scattered as opposed to continuous forest timber,--and in the +accident of colour. In all these particulars the banks of the Upper +Mississippi can hardly be beaten. There are no high mountains; but +high mountains themselves are grand rather than beautiful. There +are no high mountains, but there is a succession of hills which +group themselves for ever without monotony. It is perhaps the +ever-variegated forms of these bluffs which chiefly constitute the +wonderful loveliness of this river. The idea constantly occurs that +some point on every hillside would form the most charming site ever +yet chosen for a noble residence. I have passed up and down rivers +clothed to the edge with continuous forest. This at first is grand +enough, but the eye and feeling soon become weary. Here the trees are +scattered so that the eye passes through them, and ever and again +a long lawn sweeps back into the country, and up the steep side of +a hill, making the traveller long to stay there and linger through +the oaks, and climb the bluffs, and lie about on the bold but easy +summits. The boat, however, steams quickly up against the current, +and the happy valleys are left behind, one quickly after another. +The river is very various in its breadth, and is constantly divided +by islands. It is never so broad that the beauty of the banks is +lost in the distance or injured by it. It is rapid, but has not the +beautifully bright colour of some European rivers,--of the Rhine for +instance, and the Rhone. But what is wanting in the colour of the +water is more than compensated by the wonderful hues and lustre of +the shores. We visited the river in October, and I must presume that +they who seek it solely for the sake of scenery should go there in +that month. It was not only that the foliage of the trees was bright +with every imaginable colour, but that the grass was bronzed, and +that the rocks were golden. And this beauty did not last only for a +while and then cease. On the Rhine there are lovely spots and special +morsels of scenery with which the traveller becomes duly enraptured. +But on the Upper Mississippi there are no special morsels. The +position of the sun in the heavens will, as it always does, make much +difference in the degree of beauty. The hour before and the half-hour +after sunset are always the loveliest for such scenes. But of the +shores themselves one may declare that they are lovely throughout +those 400 miles which run immediately south from St. Paul. + +About half-way between La Crosse and St. Paul we came upon Lake +Pepin, and continued our course up the lake for perhaps fifty or +sixty miles. This expanse of water is narrow for a lake, and by those +who know the lower courses of great rivers, would hardly be dignified +by that name. But, nevertheless, the breadth here lessens the beauty. +There are the same bluffs, the same scattered woodlands, and the +same colours. But they are either at a distance, or else they are +to be seen on one side only. The more that I see of the beauty +of scenery, and the more I consider its elements, the stronger +becomes my conviction that size has but little to do with it, and +rather detracts from it than adds to it. Distance gives one of its +greatest charms, but it does so by concealing rather than displaying +an expanse of surface. The beauty of distance arises from the +romance,--the feeling of mystery which it creates. It is like the +beauty of woman which allures the more the more that it is veiled. +But open, uncovered land and water, mountains which simply rise to +great heights with long unbroken slopes, wide expanses of lake, and +forests which are monotonous in their continued thickness, are never +lovely to me. A landscape should always be partly veiled, and display +only half its charms. + +To my taste the finest stretch of the river was that immediately +above Lake Pepin; but then, at this point, we had all the glory of +the setting sun. It was like fairy land, so bright were the golden +hues, so fantastic were the shapes of the hills, so broken and +twisted the course of the waters! But the noisy steamer went groaning +up the narrow passages with almost unabated speed, and left the fairy +land behind all too quickly. Then the bell would ring for tea, and +the children with the beef-steaks, the pickled onions, and the light +fixings would all come over again. The care-laden mothers would tuck +the bibs under the chins of their tyrant children, and some embryo +senator of four years old would listen with concentrated attention, +while the negro servant recapitulated to him the delicacies of +the supper-table, in order that he might make his choice with due +consideration. "Beef-steak," the embryo four-year old senator would +lisp, "and stewed potato, and buttered toast, and corn cake, and +coffee,--and--and--and--; mother, mind you get me the pickles." + +St. Paul enjoys the double privilege of being the commercial and +political capital of Minnesota. The same is the case with Boston in +Massachusetts, but I do not remember another instance in which it is +so. It is built on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, though the +bulk of the State lies to the west of the river. It is noticeable as +the spot up to which the river is navigable. Immediately above St. +Paul there are narrow rapids up which no boat can pass. North of +this, continuous navigation does not go; but from St. Paul down +to New Orleans, and the Gulf of Mexico, it is uninterrupted. The +distance to St. Louis in Missouri, a town built below the confluence +of the three rivers, Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois, is 900 +miles; and then the navigable waters down to the gulf wash a southern +country of still greater extent. No river on the face of the globe +forms a highway for the produce of so wide an extent of agricultural +land. The Mississippi with its tributaries carried to market, before +the war, the produce of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, +Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, +Mississippi, and Louisiana. This country is larger than England, +Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany and Spain +together, and is undoubtedly composed of much more fertile land. The +States named comprise the great centre valley of the continent, and +are the farming lands and garden grounds of the western world. He who +has not seen corn on the ground in Illinois or Minnesota, does not +know to what extent the fertility of land may go, or how great may be +the weight of cereal crops. And for all this the Mississippi was the +high road to market. When the crop of 1861 was garnered this high +road was stopped by the war. What suffering this entailed on the +South, I will not here stop to say, but on the West the effect was +terrible. Corn was in such plenty, Indian corn that is, or maize, +that it was not worth the farmer's while to prepare it for market. +When I was in Illinois the second quality of Indian corn when shelled +was not worth more than from eight to ten cents a bushel. But the +shelling and preparation are laborious, and in some instances it was +found better to burn it for fuel than to sell it. Respecting the +export of corn from the West, I must say a further word or two in +the next chapter; but it seemed to be indispensable that I should +point out here how great to the United States is the need of the +Mississippi. Nor is it for corn and wheat only that its waters are +needed. Timber, lead, iron, coal, pork, all find, or should find, +their exit to the world at large by this road. There are towns on it, +and on its tributaries, already holding more than one hundred and +fifty thousand inhabitants. The number of Cincinnati exceeds that, as +also does the number of St. Louis. Under these circumstances it is +not wonderful that the States should wish to keep in their own hands +the navigation of this river. + +It is not wonderful. But it will not, I think, be admitted by the +politicians of the world, that the navigation of the Mississippi need +be closed against the West, even though the southern States should +succeed in raising themselves to the power and dignity of a separate +nationality. If the waters of the Danube be not open to Austria, it +is through the fault of Austria. That the subject will be one of +trouble no man can doubt; and of course it would be well for the +North to avoid that, or any other trouble. In the meantime the +importance of this right of way must be admitted; and it must be +admitted also that whatever may be the ultimate resolve of the North, +it will be very difficult to reconcile the West to a divided dominion +of the Mississippi. + +St. Paul contains about fourteen thousand inhabitants, and, like all +other American towns, is spread over a surface of ground adapted to +the accommodation of a very extended population. As it is belted on +one side by the river, and on the other by the bluffs which accompany +the course of the river, the site is pretty, and almost romantic. +Here also we found a great hotel,--a huge square building, such as +we in England might perhaps place near to a railway terminus, in such +a city as Glasgow or Manchester; but on which no living Englishman +would expend his money in a town even five times as big again as +St. Paul. Everything was sufficiently good, and much more than +sufficiently plentiful. The whole thing went on exactly as hotels do +down in Massachusetts, or the State of New York. Look at the map, and +see where St. Paul is. Its distance from all known civilization,--all +civilization that has succeeded in obtaining acquaintance with the +world at large, is very great. Even American travellers do not go up +there in great numbers, excepting those who intend to settle there. +A stray sportsman or two, American or English, as the case may be, +makes his way into Minnesota for the sake of shooting, and pushes on +up through St. Paul to the Red River. Some few adventurous spirits +visit the Indian settlements, and pass over into the unsettled +regions of Dacotah and Washington territory. But there is no throng +of travelling. Nevertheless, an hotel has been built there capable +of holding three hundred guests, and other hotels exist in the +neighbourhood, one of which is even larger than that at St. Paul. +Who can come to them, and create even a hope that such an enterprise +may be remunerative? In America it is seldom more than hope, for one +always hears that such enterprises fail. + +When I was there the war was in hand, and it was hardly to be +expected that any hotel should succeed. The landlord told me that he +held it at the present time for a very low rent, and that he could +just manage to keep it open without loss. The war which hindered +people from travelling, and in that way injured the innkeepers, also +hindered people from housekeeping, and reduced them to the necessity +of boarding out,--by which the innkeepers were, of course, benefited. +At St. Paul I found that the majority of the guests were inhabitants +of the town, boarding at the hotel, and thus dispensing with the +cares of a separate establishment. I do not know what was charged for +such accommodation at St. Paul, but I have come across large houses +at which a single man could get all that he required for a dollar a +day. Now Americans are great consumers, especially at hotels, and all +that a man requires includes three hot meals with a choice from about +two dozen dishes at each. + +From St. Paul there are two waterfalls to be seen, which we, of +course, visited. We crossed the river at Fort Snelling, a ricketty, +ill-conditioned building, standing at the confluence of the Minnesota +and Mississippi rivers, built there to repress the Indians. It is, +I take it, very necessary, especially at the present moment, as +the Indians seem to require repressing. They have learned that the +attention of the federal government has been called to the war, and +have become bold in consequence. When I was at St. Paul I heard of a +party of Englishmen who had been robbed of everything they possessed, +and was informed that the farmers in the distant parts of the State +were by no means secure. The Indians are more to be pitied than the +farmers. They are turning against enemies who will neither forgive +nor forget any injuries done. When the war is over they will be +improved, and polished, and annexed, till no Indian will hold an acre +of land in Minnesota. At present Fort Snelling is the nucleus of a +recruiting camp. On the point between the bluffs of the two rivers +there is a plain, immediately in front of the fort, and there we +saw the newly-joined Minnesota recruits going through their first +military exercises. They were in detachments of twenties, and were +rude enough at their goose step. The matter which struck me most in +looking at them was the difference of condition which I observed in +the men. There were the country lads, fresh from the farms, such as +we see following the recruiting sergeant through English towns; but +there were also men in black coats and black trousers, with thin +boots, and trimmed beards,--beards which had been trimmed till very +lately; and some of them with beards which showed that they were +no longer young. It was inexpressibly melancholy to see such men +as these twisting and turning about at the corporal's word, each +handling some stick in his hand in lieu of weapon. Of course they +were more awkward than the boys, even though they were twice more +assiduous in their efforts. Of course they were sad, and wretched. +I saw men there that were very wretched,--all but heart-broken, if +one might judge from their faces. They should not have been there +handling sticks, and moving their unaccustomed legs in cramped paces. +They were as razors, for which no better purpose could be found than +the cutting of blocks. When such attempts are made the block is not +cut, but the razor is spoilt. Most unfit for the commencement of +a soldier's life were some that I saw there, but I do not doubt +that they had been attracted to the work by the one idea of doing +something for their country in its trouble. + +From Fort Snelling we went on to the Falls of Minnehaha. Minnehaha, +laughing water. Such I believe is the interpretation. The name in +this case is more imposing than the fall. It is a pretty little +cascade, and might do for a picnic in fine weather, but it is not a +waterfall of which a man can make much when found so far away from +home. Going on from Minnehaha we came to Minneapolis, at which place +there is a fine suspension bridge across the river, just above the +falls of St. Anthony and leading to the town of that name. Till I got +there I could hardly believe that in these days there should be a +living village called Minneapolis by living men. I presume I should +describe it as a town, for it has a municipality, and a post-office, +and, of course, a large hotel. The interest of the place however is +in the saw-mills. On the opposite side of the water, at St. Anthony, +is another very large hotel,--and also a smaller one. The smaller +one may be about the size of the first-class hotels at Cheltenham or +Leamington. They were both closed, and there seemed to be but little +prospect that either would be opened till the war should be over. The +saw-mills, however, were at full work, and to my eyes were extremely +picturesque. I had been told that the beauty of the falls had been +destroyed by the mills. Indeed all who had spoken to me about St. +Anthony had said so. But I did not agree with them. Here, as at +Ottawa, the charm in fact consists, not in an uninterrupted shoot +of water, but in a succession of rapids over a bed of broken rocks. +Among these rocks logs of loose timber are caught, which have escaped +from their proper courses, and here they lie, heaped up in some +places, and constructing themselves into bridges in others, till +the freshets of the spring carry them off. The timber is generally +brought down in logs to St. Anthony, is sawn there, and then sent +down the Mississippi in large rafts. These rafts on other rivers are +I think generally made of unsawn timber. Such logs as have escaped in +the manner above described are recognized on their passage down the +river by their marks, and are made up separately, the original owners +receiving the value,--or not receiving it as the case may be. "There +is quite a trade going on with the loose lumber," my informant told +me. And from his tone I was led to suppose that he regarded the trade +as sufficiently lucrative if not peculiarly honest. + +There is very much in the mode of life adopted by the settlers +in these regions which creates admiration. The people are all +intelligent. They are energetic and speculative, conceiving grand +ideas, and carrying them out almost with the rapidity of magic. +A suspension bridge half a mile long is erected, while in England +we should be fastening together a few planks for a foot passage. +Progress, mental as well as material, is the demand of the people +generally. Everybody understands everything, and everybody intends +sooner or later to do everything. All this is very grand;--but +then there is a terrible drawback. One hears on every side of +intelligence, but one hears also on every side of dishonesty. Talk +to whom you will, of whom you will, and you will hear some tale of +successful or unsuccessful swindling. It seems to be the recognized +rule of commerce in the Far West that men shall go into the world's +markets prepared to cheat and to be cheated. It may be said that as +long as this is acknowledged and understood on all sides, no harm +will be done. It is equally fair for all. When I was a child there +used to be certain games at which it was agreed in beginning either +that there should be cheating or that there should not. It may be +said that out there in the western States, men agree to play the +cheating game; and that the cheating game has more of interest in it +than the other. Unfortunately, however, they who agree to play this +game on a large scale, do not keep outsiders altogether out of the +play-ground. Indeed outsiders become very welcome to them;--and then +it is not pleasant to hear the tone in which such outsiders speak of +the peculiarities of the sport to which they have been introduced. +When a beginner in trade finds himself furnished with a barrel of +wooden nutmegs, the joke is not so good to him as to the experienced +merchant who supplies him. This dealing in wooden nutmegs, this +selling of things which do not exist, and buying of goods for which +no price is ever to be given, is an institution which is much +honoured in the West. We call it swindling;--and so do they. But it +seemed to me that in the western States the word hardly seemed to +leave the same impress on the mind that it does elsewhere. + +On our return down the river we passed La Crosse, at which we had +embarked, and went down as far as Dubuque in Iowa. On our way down we +came to grief and broke one of our paddle-wheels to pieces. We had +no special accident. We struck against nothing above or below water. +But the wheel went to pieces, and we lay-to on the river side for the +greater part of a day while the necessary repairs were being made. +Delay in travelling is usually an annoyance, because it causes the +unsettlement of a settled purpose. But the loss of the day did us no +harm, and our accident had happened at a very pretty spot. I climbed +up to the top of the nearest bluff, and walked back till I came to +the open country, and also went up and down the river banks, visiting +the cabins of two settlers who live there by supplying wood to the +river steamers. One of these was close to the spot at which we were +lying; and yet though most of our passengers came on shore, I was +the only one who spoke to the inmates of the cabin. These people +must live there almost in desolation from one year's end to another. +Once in a fortnight or so they go up to a market town in their small +boats, but beyond that they can have little intercourse with their +fellow-creatures. Nevertheless none of these dwellers by the river +side came out to speak to the men and women who were lounging about +from eleven in the morning till four in the afternoon; nor did one of +the passengers except myself knock at the door or enter the cabin, or +exchange a word with those who lived there. + +I spoke to the master of the house, whom I met outside, and he at +once asked me to come in and sit down. I found his father there and +his mother, his wife, his brother, and two young children. The wife, +who was cooking, was a very pretty, pale young woman, who, however, +could have circulated round her stove more conveniently had her +crinoline been of less dimensions. She bade me welcome very prettily, +and went on with her cooking, talking the while, as though she were +in the habit of entertaining guests in that way daily. The old woman +sat in a corner knitting--as old women always do. The old man lounged +with a grandchild on his knee, and the master of the house threw +himself on the floor while the other child crawled over him. There +was no stiffness or uneasiness in their manners, nor was there +anything approaching to that republican roughness which so often +operates upon a poor, well-intending Englishman like a slap on the +cheek. I sat there for about an hour, and when I had discussed with +them English politics and the bearing of English politics upon the +American war, they told me of their own affairs. Food was very +plenty, but life was very hard. Take the year through, each man could +not earn above half a dollar a day by cutting wood. This, however, +they owned, did not take up all their time. Working on favourable +wood on favourable days they could each earn two dollars a day; but +these favourable circumstances did not come together very often. They +did not deal with the boats themselves, and the profits were eaten up +by the middleman. He, the middleman, had a good thing of it, because +he could cheat the captains of the boats in the measurement of the +wood. The chopper was obliged to supply a genuine cord of logs,--true +measure. But the man who took it off in the barge to the steamer +could so pack it that fifteen true cords would make twenty-two false +cords. "It cuts up into a fine trade, you see, sir," said the young +man, as he stroked back the little girl's hair from her forehead. +"But the captains of course must find it out," said I. This he +acknowledged, but argued that the captains on this account insisted +on buying the wood so much cheaper, and that the loss all came upon +the chopper. I tried to teach him that the remedy lay in his own +hands, and the three men listened to me quite patiently while I +explained to them how they should carry on their own trade. But the +young father had the last word. "I guess we don't get above the fifty +cents a day any way." He knew at least where the shoe pinched him. +He was a handsome, manly, noble-looking fellow, tall and thin, with +black hair and bright eyes. But he had the hollow look about his +jaws, and so had his wife, and so had his brother. They all owned +to fever and ague. They had a touch of it most years, and sometimes +pretty sharply. "It was a coarse place to live in," the old woman +said, "but there was no one to meddle with them, and she guessed that +it suited." They had books and newspapers, tidy delf, and clean glass +upon their shelves, and undoubtedly provisions in plenty. Whether +fever and ague yearly, and cords of wood stretched from fifteen to +twenty-two are more than a set-off for these good things, I will +leave every one to decide according to his own taste. + +In another cabin I found women and children only, and one of the +children was in the last stage of illness. But nevertheless the woman +of the house seemed glad to see me, and talked cheerfully as long as +I would remain. She inquired what had happened to the vessel, but +it had never occurred to her to go out and see. Her cabin was neat +and well furnished, and there also I saw newspapers and Harper's +everlasting magazine. She said it was a coarse, desolate place for +living, but that she could raise almost anything in her garden. + +I could not then understand, nor can I now understand, why none of +the numerous passengers out of the boat should have entered those +cabins except myself, and why the inmates of the cabins should not +have come out to speak to any one. Had they been surly, morose +people, made silent by the specialties of their life, it would have +been explicable; but they were delighted to talk and to listen. The +fact, I take it, is, that the people are all harsh to each other. +They do not care to go out of their way to speak to any one unless +something is to be gained. They say that two Englishmen meeting in +the desert would not speak unless they were introduced. The further I +travel, the less true do I find this of Englishmen, and the more true +of other people. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CERES AMERICANA. + + +We stopped at the Julien House, Dubuque. Dubuque is a city in Iowa +on the western shore of the Mississippi, and as the names both of +the town and of the hotel sounded French in my ears, I asked for +an explanation. I was then told that Julien Dubuque, a Canadian +Frenchman, had been buried on one of the bluffs of the river within +the precincts of the present town, that he had been the first white +settler in Iowa, and had been the only man who had ever prevailed +upon the Indians to work. Among them he had become a great +"Medicine," and seems for a while to have had absolute power over +them. He died I think in 1800, and was buried on one of the hills +over the river. "He was a bold bad man," my informant told me, "and +committed every sin under heaven. But he made the Indians work." + +Lead mines are the glory of Dubuque, and very large sums of money +have been made from them. I was taken out to see one of them, and to +go down it; but we found, not altogether to my sorrow, that the works +had been stopped on account of the water. No effort has been made in +any of these mines to subdue the water, nor has steam been applied to +the working of them. The lodes have been so rich with lead that the +speculators have been content to take out the metal that was easily +reached, and to go off in search of fresh ground when disturbed by +water. "And are wages here paid pretty punctually?" I asked. "Well; +a man has to be smart, you know." And then my friend went on to +acknowledge that it would be better for the country if smartness were +not so essential. + +Iowa has a population of 674,000 souls, and in October 1861 had +already mustered eighteen regiments of 1000 men each. Such a +population would give probably 170,000 men capable of bearing arms, +and therefore the number of soldiers sent had already amounted to +more than a decimation of the available strength of the State. When +we were at Dubuque nothing was talked of but the army. It seemed +that mines, coal-pits, and corn-fields, were all of no account in +comparison with the war. How many regiments could be squeezed out +of the State, was the one question which filled all minds; and the +general desire was that such regiments should be sent to the Western +army, to swell the triumph which was still expected for General +Fremont, and to assist in sweeping slavery out into the Gulf of +Mexico. The patriotism of the West has been quite as keen as that +of the North, and has produced results as memorable; but it has +sprung from a different source, and been conducted and animated by a +different sentiment. National greatness and support of the law have +been the ideas of the North; national greatness and abolition of +slavery have been those of the West. How they are to agree as to +terms when between them they have crushed the South,--that is the +difficulty. + +At Dubuque in Iowa, I ate the best apple that I ever encountered. +I make that statement with the purpose of doing justice to the +Americans on a matter which is to them one of considerable +importance. Americans as a rule do not believe in English apples. +They declare that there are none, and receive accounts of Devonshire +cyder with manifest incredulity. "But at any rate there are no +apples in England equal to ours." That is an assertion to which an +Englishman is called upon to give an absolute assent; and I hereby +give it. Apples so excellent as some which were given to us at +Dubuque, I have never eaten in England. There is a great jealousy +respecting all the fruits of the earth. "Your peaches are fine to +look at," was said to me, "but they have no flavour." This was the +assertion of a lady, and I made no answer. My idea had been that +American peaches had no flavour; that French peaches had none; that +those of Italy had none; that little as there might be of which +England could boast with truth, she might at any rate boast of her +peaches without fear of contradiction. Indeed my idea had been that +good peaches were to be got in England only. I am beginning to doubt +whether my belief on the matter has not been the product of insular +ignorance, and idolatrous self-worship. It may be that a peach should +be a combination of an apple and a turnip. "My great objection +to your country, sir," said another, "is that you have got no +vegetables." Had he told me that we had got no seaboard, or no coals, +he would not have surprised me more. No vegetables in England! I +could not restrain myself altogether, and replied by a confession +"that we 'raised' no squash." Squash is the pulp of the pumpkin, +and is much used in the States, both as a vegetable and for pies. +No vegetables in England! Did my surprise arise from the insular +ignorance and idolatrous self-worship of a Britisher, or was my +American friend labouring under a delusion? Is Covent Garden well +supplied with vegetables, or is it not? Do we cultivate our kitchen +gardens with success, or am I under a delusion on that subject? Do +I dream, or is it true that out of my own little patches at home +I have enough for all domestic purposes of peas, beans, broccoli, +cauliflower, celery, beet-root, onions, carrots, parsnips, turnips, +seakale, asparagus, French beans, artichokes, vegetable marrow, +cucumbers, tomatoes, endive, lettuce, as well as herbs of many kinds, +cabbages throughout the year, and potatoes? No vegetables! Had the +gentleman told me that England did not suit him because we had +nothing but vegetables, I should have been less surprised. + +From Dubuque, on the western shore of the river, we passed over to +Dunleath in Illinois, and went on from thence by railway to Dixon. +I was induced to visit this not very flourishing town by a desire +to see the rolling prairie of Illinois, and to learn by eyesight +something of the crops of corn or Indian maize which are produced +upon the land. Had that gentleman told me that we knew nothing of +producing corn in England he would have been nearer the mark; for +of corn in the profusion in which it is grown here we do not know +much. Better land than the prairies of Illinois for cereal crops +the world's surface probably cannot show. And here there has been +no necessity for the long previous labour of banishing the forest. +Enormous prairies stretch across the State, into which the plough can +be put at once. The earth is rich with the vegetation of thousands +of years, and the farmer's return is given to him without delay. The +land bursts with its own produce, and the plenty is such that it +creates wasteful carelessness in the gathering of the crop. It is +not worth a man's while to handle less than large quantities. Up in +Minnesota I had been grieved by the loose manner in which wheat was +treated. I have seen bags of it upset, and left upon the ground. +The labour of collecting it was more than it was worth. There wheat +is the chief crop, and as the lands become cleared and cultivation +spreads itself, the amount coming down the Mississippi will be +increased almost to infinity. The price of wheat in Europe will soon +depend, not upon the value of the wheat in the country which grows +it, but on the power and cheapness of the modes which may exist for +transporting it. I have not been able to obtain the exact prices with +reference to the carriage of wheat from St. Paul, the capital of +Minnesota, to Liverpool, but I have done so as regards Indian corn +from the State of Illinois. The following statement will show what +proportion the value of the article at the place of its growth bears +to the cost of the carriage; and it shows also how enormous an effect +on the price of corn in England would follow any serious decrease in +the cost of carriage. + + A bushel of Indian corn at Bloomington + in Illinois cost in October, 1861 10 cents. + Freight to Chicago 10 " + Storeage 2 " + Freight from Chicago to Buffalo 22 " + Elevating, and canal freight to + New York 19 " + Transfer in New York and insurance 3 " + Ocean freight 23 " + -- + Cost of a bushel of Indian corn at + Liverpool 89 cents. + +Thus corn which in Liverpool costs 3_s._ 10_d._, has been sold by +the farmer who produced it for 5_d._! It is probable that no great +reduction can be expected in the cost of ocean transit; but it will +be seen by the above figures that out of the Liverpool price of 3_s._ +10_d._ or 89 cents, considerably more than half is paid for carriage +across the United States. All or nearly all this transit is by water, +and there can, I think, be no doubt but that a few years will see +it reduced by fifty per cent. In October last the Mississippi was +closed, the railways had not rolling stock sufficient for their work, +the crops of the two last years had been excessive, and there existed +the necessity of sending out the corn before the internal navigation +had been closed by frost. The parties who had the transit in their +hands put their heads together and were able to demand any prices +that they pleased. It will be seen that the cost of carrying a bushel +of corn from Chicago to Buffalo, by the lakes, was within one cent of +the cost of bringing it from New York to Liverpool. These temporary +causes for high prices of transit will cease, a more perfect system +of competition between the railways and the water transit will be +organized, and the result must necessarily be both an increase of +price to the producer and a decrease of price to the consumer. It +certainly seems that the produce of cereal crops in the valleys of +the Mississippi and its tributaries increases at a faster rate than +population increases. Wheat and corn are sown by the thousand acres +in a piece. I heard of one farmer who had 10,000 acres of corn. +Thirty years ago grain and flour were sent westward out of the +State of New York to supply the wants of those who had emigrated +into the prairies, and now we find that it will be the destiny of +those prairies to feed the universe. Chicago is the main point of +exportation north-westward from Illinois, and at the present time +sends out from its granaries more cereal produce than any other town +in the world. The bulk of this passes, in the shape of grain or +flour, from Chicago to Buffalo, which latter place is as it were +a gateway leading from the lakes or big waters to the canals or +small waters. I give below the amount of grain and flour in bushels +received into Buffalo for transit in the month of October during four +consecutive years. + + October, 1858 4,429,055 bushels. + " 1859 5,523,448 " + " 1860 6,500,864 " + " 1861 12,483,797 " + +In 1860, from the opening to the close of navigation, 30,837,632 +bushels of grain and flour passed through Buffalo. In 1861 the amount +received up to the 31st of October was 51,969,142 bushels. As the +navigation would be closed during the month of November, the above +figures may be taken as representing not quite the whole amount +transported for the year. It may be presumed the 52,000,000 of +bushels, as quoted above, will swell itself to 60,000,000. I confess +that to my own mind statistical amounts do not bring home any +enduring idea. Fifty million bushels of corn and flour simply seems +to mean a great deal. It is a powerful form of superlative, and soon +vanishes away, as do other superlatives in this age of strong words. +I was at Chicago and at Buffalo in October 1861. I went down to the +granaries, and climbed up into the elevators. I saw the wheat running +in rivers from one vessel into another, and from the railroad vans up +into the huge bins on the top stores of the warehouses;--for these +rivers of food run up hill as easily as they do down. I saw the corn +measured by the forty bushel measure with as much ease as we measure +an ounce of cheese, and with greater rapidity. I ascertained that the +work went on, week day and Sunday, day and night incessantly; rivers +of wheat and rivers of maize ever running. I saw the men bathed in +corn as they distributed it in its flow. I saw bins by the score +laden with wheat, in each of which bins there was space for a +comfortable residence. I breathed the flour, and drank the flour, +and felt myself to be enveloped in a world of breadstuff. And then +I believed, understood, and brought it home to myself as a fact, +that here in the corn lands of Michigan, and amidst the bluffs +of Wisconsin, and on the high table plains of Minnesota, and the +prairies of Illinois, had God prepared the food for the increasing +millions of the Eastern world, as also for the coming millions of the +Western. + +I do not find many minds constituted like my own, and therefore I +venture to publish the above figures. I believe them to be true in +the main, and they will show, if credited, that the increase during +the last four years has gone on with more than fabulous rapidity. For +myself I own that those figures would have done nothing unless I had +visited the spot myself. A man cannot, perhaps, count up the results +of such a work by a quick glance of his eye, nor communicate with +precision to another the conviction which his own short experience +has made so strong within himself;--but to himself seeing is +believing. To me it was so at Chicago and at Buffalo. I began then +to know what it was for a country to overflow with milk and honey, +to burst with its own fruits, and be smothered by its own riches. +From St. Paul down the Mississippi by the shores of Wisconsin and +Iowa,--by the ports on Lake Pepin,--by La Crosse, from which one +railway runs eastward,--by Prairie du Chien the terminus of a +second,--by Dunleath, Fulton, and Rock Island from whence three other +lines run eastward, all through that wonderful State of Illinois--the +farmers' glory,--along the ports of the great lakes,--through +Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and further Pennsylvania, up to Buffalo, the +great gate of the western Ceres, the loud cry was this--"How shall we +rid ourselves of our corn and wheat?" The result has been the passage +of 60,000,000 bushels of breadstuffs through that gate in one year! +Let those who are susceptible of statistics ponder that. For them who +are not I can only give this advice:--Let them go to Buffalo next +October, and look for themselves. + +In regarding the above figures and the increase shown between the +years 1860 and 1861, it must of course be borne in mind that during +the latter autumn no corn or wheat was carried into the Southern +States, and that none was exported from New Orleans or the mouth of +the Mississippi. The States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana +have for some time past received much of their supplies from +the north-western lands, and the cutting off of this current of +consumption has tended to swell the amount of grain which has been +forced into the narrow channel of Buffalo. There has been no southern +exit allowed, and the southern appetite has been deprived of its +food. But taking this item for all that it is worth,--or taking +it, as it generally will be taken, for much more than it can be +worth,--the result left will be materially the same. The grand +markets to which the western States look and have looked are those of +New England, New York, and Europe. Already corn and wheat are not the +common crops of New England. Boston, and Hartford, and Lowell are fed +from the great western States. The State of New York, which, thirty +years ago, was famous chiefly for its cereal produce, is now fed +from these States. New York city would be starved if it depended +on its own State; and it will soon be as true that England would +be starved if it depended on itself. It was but the other day that +we were talking of free trade in corn as a thing desirable, but as +yet doubtful;--but the other day that Lord Derby who may be Prime +Minister to-morrow, and Mr. Disraeli who may be Chancellor of the +Exchequer to-morrow, were stoutly of opinion that the corn laws might +be and should be maintained;--but the other day that the same opinion +was held with confidence by Sir Robert Peel, who, however, when the +day for the change came, was not ashamed to become the instrument +used by the people for their repeal. Events in these days march so +quickly that they leave men behind, and our dear old Protectionists +at home will have grown sleek upon American flour before they have +realized the fact that they are no longer fed from their own furrows. + +I have given figures merely as regards the trade of Buffalo; but it +must not be presumed that Buffalo is the only outlet from the great +corn lands of Northern America. In the first place no grain of the +produce of Canada finds its way to Buffalo. Its exit is by the St. +Lawrence, or by the Grand Trunk Railway, as I have stated when +speaking of Canada. And then there is the passage for large vessels +from the Upper Lakes, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie, +through the Welland Canal, into Lake Ontario, and out by the St. +Lawrence. There is also the direct communication from Lake Erie, by +the New York and Erie railway to New York. I have more especially +alluded to the trade of Buffalo, because I have been enabled to +obtain a reliable return of the quantity of grain and flour which +passes through that town, and because Buffalo and Chicago are the two +spots which are becoming most famous in the cereal history of the +western States. + +Everybody has a map of North America. A reference to such a map will +show the peculiar position of Chicago. It is at the south or head +of Lake Michigan, and to it converge railways from Wisconsin, Iowa, +Illinois, and Indiana. At Chicago is found the nearest water carriage +which can be obtained for the produce of a large portion of these +States. From Chicago there is direct water conveyance round through +the lakes to Buffalo at the foot of Lake Erie. At Milwaukee, higher +up on the lake, certain lines of railway come in, joining the lake to +the Upper Mississippi, and to the wheat-lands of Minnesota. Thence +the passage is round by Detroit which is the port for the produce +of the greatest part of Michigan, and still it all goes on towards +Buffalo. Then on Lake Erie there are the ports of Toledo, Cleveland, +and Erie. At the bottom of Lake Erie, there is this city of corn, at +which the grain and flour are transhipped into the canal boats and +into the railway cars for New York; and there is also the Welland +Canal, through which large vessels pass from the upper lakes, without +transhipment of their cargo. + +I have said above that corn--meaning maize or Indian corn--was to be +bought at Bloomington in Illinois for 10 cents or fivepence a bushel. +I found this also to be the case at Dixon--and also that corn of +inferior quality might be bought for fourpence; but I found also that +it was not worth the farmers' while to shell it and sell it at such +prices. I was assured that farmers were burning their Indian corn in +some places, finding it more available to them as fuel, than it was +for the market. The labour of detaching a bushel of corn from the +hulls or cobs is considerable, as is also the task of carrying it to +market. I have known potatoes in Ireland so cheap that they would not +pay for digging and carrying away for purposes of sale. There was +then a glut of potatoes in Ireland; and in the same way there was in +the autumn of 1861 a glut of corn in the western States. The best +qualities would fetch a price, though still a low price; but corn +that was not of the best quality was all but worthless. It did for +fuel, and was burnt. The fact was that the produce had re-created +itself quicker than mankind had multiplied. The ingenuity of man had +not worked quick enough for its disposal. The earth had given forth +her increase so abundantly that the lap of created humanity could not +stretch itself to hold it. At Dixon in 1861 corn cost fourpence a +bushel. In Ireland in 1848, it was sold for a penny a pound, a pound +being accounted sufficient to sustain life for a day,--and we all +felt that at that price food was brought into the country cheaper +than it had ever been brought before. + +Dixon is not a town of much apparent prosperity. It is one of those +places at which great beginnings have been made, but as to which the +deities presiding over new towns have not been propitious. Much of it +has been burnt down, and more of it has never been built up. It had a +straggling, ill-conditioned, uncommercial aspect, very different from +the look of Detroit, Milwaukee, or St. Paul. There was, however, a +great hotel there, as usual, and a grand bridge over the Rock River, +a tributary of the Mississippi which runs by or through the town. I +found that life might be maintained on very cheap terms at Dixon. To +me as a passing traveller the charges at the hotel were, I take it, +the same as elsewhere. But I learned from an inmate there that he +with his wife and horse were fed and cared for and attended for two +dollars or 8_s._ 4_d._ a day. This included a private sitting-room, +coals, light, and all the wants of life--as my informant told +me--except tobacco and whiskey. Feeding at such a house means a +succession of promiscuous hot meals as often as the digestion of the +patient can face them. Now I do not know any locality where a man can +keep himself and his wife, with all material comforts, and the luxury +of a horse and carriage, on cheaper terms than that. Whether or no it +might be worth a man's while to live at all at such a place as Dixon +is altogether another question. + +We went there because it is surrounded by the prairie, and out into +the prairie we had ourselves driven. We found some difficulty in +getting away from the corn, though we had selected this spot as one +at which the open rolling prairie was specially attainable. As long +as I could see a corn-field or a tree I was not satisfied. Nor indeed +was I satisfied at last. To have been thoroughly on the prairie and +in the prairie I should have been a day's journey from tilled land. +But I doubt whether that could now be done in the State of Illinois. +I got out into various patches and brought away specimens of +corn;--ears bearing sixteen rows of grain, with forty grains in each +row; each ear bearing a meal for a hungry man. + +At last we did find ourselves on the prairie, amidst the waving +grass, with the land rolling on before us in a succession of gentle +sweeps, never rising so as to impede the view, or apparently changing +in its general level,--but yet without the monotony of flatness. We +were on the prairie, but still I felt no satisfaction. It was private +property--divided among holders and pastured over by private cattle. +Salisbury plain is as wild, and Dartmoor almost wilder. Deer they +told me were to be had within reach of Dixon; but for the buffalo one +has to go much further afield than Illinois. The farmer may rejoice +in Illinois, but the hunter and the trapper must cross the big rivers +and pass away into the western territories before he can find lands +wild enough for his purposes. My visit to the corn-fields of Illinois +was in its way successful; but I felt as I turned my face eastward +towards Chicago that I had no right to boast that I had as yet made +acquaintance with a prairie. + +All minds were turned to the war, at Dixon as elsewhere. In Illinois +the men boasted that as regards the war, they were the leading State +of the Union. But the same boast was made in Indiana, and also in +Massachusetts; and probably in half the States of the North and West. +They, the Illinoisians, call their country the war nest of the West. +The population of the State is 1,700,000, and it had undertaken +to furnish sixty volunteer regiments of 1000 men each. And let it +be borne in mind that these regiments, when furnished, are really +full,--absolutely containing the thousand men when they are sent away +from the parent States. The number of souls above named will give +420,000 working men, and if out of these 60,000 are sent to the war, +the State, which is almost purely agricultural, will have given more +than one man in eight. When I was in Illinois, over forty regiments +had already been sent--forty-six if I remember rightly,--and there +existed no doubt whatever as to the remaining number. From the next +State of Indiana, with a population of 1,350,000, giving something +less than 350,000 working men, thirty-six regiments had been sent. +I fear that I am mentioning these numbers usque ad nauseam; but I +wish to impress upon English readers the magnitude of the effort +made by the States in mustering and equipping an army within six or +seven months of the first acknowledgment that such an army would be +necessary. The Americans have complained bitterly of the want of +English sympathy, and I think they have been weak in making that +complaint. But I would not wish that they should hereafter have the +power of complaining of a want of English justice. There can be no +doubt that a genuine feeling of patriotism was aroused throughout +North and West, and that men rushed into the ranks actuated by that +feeling--men for whom war and army life, a camp and fifteen dollars +a month, would not of themselves have had any attraction. It came +to that, that young men were ashamed not to go into the army. This +feeling of course produced coercion, and the movement was in that way +tyrannical. There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular +feeling among a democratic people. During the period of enlistment +this tyranny was very strong. But the existence of such a tyranny +proves the passion and patriotism of the people. It got the better +of the love of money, of the love of children, and of the love of +progress. Wives who with their bairns were absolutely dependent on +their husbands' labours, would wish their husbands to be at the +war. Not to conduce, in some special way, towards the war,--to have +neither father there, nor brother, nor son,--not to have lectured, or +preached, or written for the war,--to have made no sacrifice for the +war, to have had no special and individual interest in the war, was +disgraceful. One sees at a glance the tyranny of all this in such a +country as the States. One can understand how quickly adverse stories +would spread themselves as to the opinion of any man who chose to +remain tranquil at such a time. One shudders at the absolute absence +of true liberty which such a passion throughout a democratic country +must engender. But he who has observed all this must acknowledge that +that passion did exist. Dollars, children, progress, education, and +political rivalry all gave way to the one strong national desire for +the thrashing and crushing of those who had rebelled against the +authority of the Stars and Stripes. + +When we were at Dixon they were getting up the Dement regiment. The +attempt at the time did not seem to be prosperous, and the few men +who had been collected had about them a forlorn, ill-conditioned +look. But then, as I was told, Dixon had already been decimated and +re-decimated by former recruiting colonels. Colonel Dement, from whom +the regiment was to be named, and whose military career was only now +about to commence, had come late into the field. I did not afterwards +ascertain what had been his success, but I hardly doubt that he did +ultimately scrape together his thousand men. "Why don't you go?" I +said to a burly Irishman who was driving me. "I'm not a sound man, +yer honour," said the Irishman. "I'm deficient in me liver." Taking +the Irishmen, however, throughout the Union, they had not been found +deficient in any of the necessaries for a career of war. I do not +think that any men have done better than the Irish in the American +army. + +From Dixon we went to Chicago. Chicago is in many respects the +most remarkable city among all the remarkable cities of the Union. +Its growth has been the fastest and its success the most assured. +Twenty-five years ago there was no Chicago, and now it contains +120,000 inhabitants. Cincinnati on the Ohio, and St. Louis at the +junction of the Missouri and Mississippi, are larger towns; but they +have not grown large so quickly nor do they now promise so excessive +a development of commerce. Chicago may be called the metropolis +of American corn--the favourite city haunt of the American Ceres. +The goddess seats herself there amidst the dust of her full barns, +and proclaims herself a goddess ruling over things political and +philosophical as well as agricultural. Not furrows only are in her +thoughts, but free trade also, and brotherly love. And within her own +bosom there is a boast that even yet she will be stronger than Mars. +In Chicago there are great streets, and rows of houses fit to be the +residences of a new Corn Exchange nobility. They look out on the wide +lake which is now the highway for breadstuffs, and the merchant, as +he shaves at his window, sees his rapid ventures as they pass away, +one after the other, towards the East. + +I went over one great grain store in Chicago possessed by gentlemen +of the name of Sturgess and Buckenham. It was a world in itself,--and +the dustiest of all the worlds. It contained, when I was there, half +a million bushels of wheat--or a very great many, as I might say +in other language. But it was not as a storehouse that this great +building was so remarkable, but as a channel or a river course for +the flooding freshets of corn. It is so built that both railway vans +and vessels come immediately under its claws, as I may call the great +trunks of the elevators. Out of the railway vans the corn and wheat +is clawed up into the building, and down similar trunks it is at once +again poured out into the vessels. I shall be at Buffalo in a page or +two, and then I will endeavour to explain more minutely how this is +done. At Chicago the corn is bought and does change hands, and much +of it, therefore, is stored there for some space of time,--shorter +or longer as the case may be. When I was at Chicago, the only +limit to the rapidity of its transit was set by the amount of boat +accommodation. There were not bottoms enough to take the corn away +from Chicago, nor indeed on the railway was there a sufficiency of +rolling stock or locomotive power to bring it into Chicago. As I said +before, the country was bursting with its own produce and smothered +in its own fruits. + +At Chicago the hotel was bigger than other hotels, and grander. There +were pipes without end for cold water which ran hot, and for hot +water which would not run at all. The post-office also was grander +and bigger than other post-offices;--though the postmaster confessed +to me that that matter of the delivery of letters was one which could +not be compassed. Just at that moment it was being done as a private +speculation; but it did not pay, and would be discontinued. The +theatre too was large, handsome, and convenient; but on the night of +my attendance it seemed to lack an audience. A good comic actor it +did not lack, and I never laughed more heartily in my life. There was +something wrong too just at that time--I could not make out what--in +the constitution of Illinois, and the present moment had been +selected for voting a new constitution. To us in England such a +necessity would be considered a matter of importance, but it did not +seem to be much thought of here. "Some slight alteration probably," +I suggested. "No," said my informant--one of the judges of their +courts--"it is to be a thorough radical change of the whole +constitution. They are voting the delegates to-day." I went to see +them vote the delegates; but unfortunately got into a wrong place--by +invitation--and was turned out, not without some slight tumult. I +trust that the new constitution was carried through successfully. + +From these little details it may perhaps be understood how a town +like Chicago goes on and prospers, in spite of all the drawbacks +which are incident to newness. Men in those regions do not mind +failures, and when they have failed, instantly begin again. They make +their plans on a large scale, and they who come after them fill up +what has been wanting at first. Those taps of hot and cold water will +be made to run by the next owner of the hotel, if not by the present +owner. In another ten years the letters, I do not doubt, will all +be delivered. Long before that time the theatre will probably be +full. The new constitution is no doubt already at work; and if found +deficient, another will succeed to it without any trouble to the +State or any talk on the subject through the Union. Chicago was +intended as a town of export for corn, and, therefore, the corn +stores have received the first attention. When I was there, they were +in perfect working order. + +From Chicago we went on to Cleveland, a town in the State of Ohio on +Lake Erie, again travelling by the sleeping cars. I found that these +cars were universally mentioned with great horror and disgust by +Americans of the upper class. They always declared that they would +not travel in them on any account. Noise and dirt were the two +objections. They are very noisy, but to us belonged the happy power +of sleeping down noise. I invariably slept all through the night, and +knew nothing about the noise. They are also very dirty,--extremely +dirty,--dirty so as to cause much annoyance. But then they are not +quite so dirty as the day cars. If dirt is to be a bar against +travelling in America, men and women must stay at home. For myself I +don't much care for dirt, having a strong reliance on soap and water +and scrubbing brushes. No one regards poisons who carries antidotes +in which he has perfect faith. + +Cleveland is another pleasant town,--pleasant as Milwaukee and +Portland. The streets are handsome, and are shaded by grand avenues +of trees. One of these streets is over a mile in length, and +throughout the whole of it, there are trees on each side--not little +paltry trees as are to be seen on the boulevards of Paris, but +spreading elms,--the beautiful American elm which not only spreads, +but droops also, and makes more of its foliage than any other tree +extant. And there is a square in Cleveland, well sized, as large +as Russell Square I should say, with open paths across it, and +containing one or two handsome buildings. I cannot but think that all +men and women in London would be great gainers if the iron rails of +the squares were thrown down, and the grassy enclosures thrown open +to the public. Of course the edges of the turf would be worn, and the +paths would not keep their exact shapes. But the prison look would be +banished, and the sombre sadness of the squares would be relieved. + +I was particularly struck by the size and comfort of the houses at +Cleveland. All down that street of which I have spoken, they do not +stand continuously together, but are detached and separate; houses +which in England would require some fifteen or eighteen hundred a +year for their maintenance. In the States, however, men commonly +expend upon house rent a much greater proportion of their income than +they do in England. With us it is, I believe, thought that a man +should certainly not apportion more than a seventh of his spending +income to his house rent,--some say not more than a tenth. But in +many cities of the States a man is thought to live well within bounds +if he so expends a fourth. There can be no doubt as to Americans +living in better houses than Englishmen,--making the comparison of +course between men of equal incomes. But the Englishman has many more +incidental expenses than the American. He spends more on wine, on +entertainments, on horses, and on amusements. He has a more numerous +establishment, and keeps up the adjuncts and outskirts of his +residence with a more finished neatness. + +These houses in Cleveland were very good,--as indeed they are in most +Northern towns; but some of them have been erected with an amount +of bad taste that is almost incredible. It is not uncommon to see +in front of a square brick house a wooden quasi-Greek portico, with +a pediment and Ionic columns, equally high with the house itself. +Wooden columns with Greek capitals attached to the doorways, and +wooden pediments over the windows, are very frequent. As a rule these +are attached to houses which, without such ornamentation, would +be simple, unpretentious, square, roomy residences. An Ionic or +Corinthian capital stuck on to a log of wood called a column, and +then fixed promiscuously to the outside of an ordinary house, is to +my eye the vilest of architectural pretences. Little turrets are +better than this; or even brown battlements made of mortar. Except in +America I do not remember to have seen these vicious bits of white +timber,--timber painted white,--plastered on to the fronts and sides +of red-brick houses. + +Again we went on by rail,--to Buffalo. I have travelled some +thousands of miles by railway in the States, taking long journeys by +night and longer journeys by day; but I do not remember that while +doing so I ever made acquaintance with an American. To an American +lady in a railway car I should no more think of speaking than I +should to an unknown female in the next pew to me at a London church. +It is hard to understand from whence come the laws which govern +societies in this respect; but there are different laws in different +societies, which soon obtain recognition for themselves. American +ladies are much given to talking, and are generally free from all +_mauvaise honte_. They are collected in manner, well instructed, and +resolved to have their share of the social advantages of the world. +In this phase of life they come out more strongly than English women. +But on a railway journey, be it ever so long, they are never seen +speaking to a stranger. English women, however, on English railways +are generally willing to converse. They will do so if they be on a +journey; but will not open their mouths if they be simply passing +backwards and forwards between their homes and some neighbouring +town. We soon learn the rules on these subjects;--but who make the +rules? If you cross the Atlantic with an American lady you invariably +fall in love with her before the journey is over. Travel with the +same woman in a railway car for twelve hours, and you will have +written her down in your own mind in quite other language than that +of love. + +And now for Buffalo, and the elevators. I trust I have made it +understood that corn comes into Buffalo, not only from Chicago, of +which I have spoken specially, but from all the ports round the +lakes: Racine, Milwaukee, Grandhaven, Port Sarnia, Detroit, Toledo, +Cleveland, and many others. At these ports the produce is generally +bought and sold; but at Buffalo it is merely passed through a +gateway. It is taken from vessels of a size fitted for the lakes, and +placed in other vessels fitted for the canal. This is the Erie Canal, +which connects the lakes with the Hudson River and with New York. +The produce which passes through the Welland Canal--the canal which +connects Lake Erie and the upper lakes with Lake Ontario and the St. +Lawrence--is not transhipped, seeing that the Welland Canal, which +is less than thirty miles in length, gives a passage to vessels of +500 tons. As I have before said, 60,000,000 bushels of breadstuff +were thus pushed through Buffalo in the open months of the year 1861. +These open months run from the middle of April to the middle of +November; but the busy period is that of the last two months,--the +time that is which intervenes between the full ripening of the corn +and the coming of the ice. + +An elevator is as ugly a monster as has been yet produced. In +uncouthness of form it outdoes those obsolete old brutes who used to +roam about the semi-aqueous world, and live a most uncomfortable life +with their great hungering stomachs and huge unsatisfied maws. The +elevator itself consists of a big moveable trunk,--moveable as is +that of an elephant, but not pliable, and less graceful even than an +elephant's. This is attached to a huge granary or barn; but in order +to give altitude within the barn for the necessary moving up and +down of this trunk,--seeing that it cannot be curled gracefully +to its purposes as the elephant's is curled,--there is an awkward +box erected on the roof of the barn, giving some twenty feet of +additional height, up into which the elevator can be thrust. It will +be understood, then, that this big moveable trunk, the head of which, +when it is at rest, is thrust up into the box on the roof, is made +to slant down in an oblique direction from the building to the river. +For the elevator is an amphibious institution, and flourishes only on +the banks of navigable waters. When its head is ensconced within its +box, and the beast of prey is thus nearly hidden within the building, +the unsuspicious vessel is brought up within reach of the creature's +trunk, and down it comes, like a mosquito's proboscis, right through +the deck, in at the open aperture of the hole, and so into the very +vitals and bowels of the ship. When there, it goes to work upon its +food with a greed and an avidity that is disgusting to a beholder +of any taste or imagination. And now I must explain the anatomical +arrangement by which the elevator still devours and continues to +devour, till the corn within its reach has all been swallowed, +masticated, and digested. Its long trunk, as seen slanting down from +out of the building across the wharf and into the ship, is a mere +wooden pipe; but this pipe is divided within. It has two departments; +and as the grain-bearing troughs pass up the one on a pliable band, +they pass empty down the other. The system therefore is that of an +ordinary dredging machine; only that corn, and not mud is taken away, +and that the buckets or troughs are hidden from sight. Below, within +the stomach of the poor bark, three or four labourers are at work, +helping to feed the elevator. They shovel the corn up towards its +maw, so that at every swallow he should take in all that he can hold. +Thus the troughs, as they ascend, are kept full, and when they reach +the upper building they empty themselves into a shoot, over which a +porter stands guard, moderating the shoot by a door, which the weight +of his finger can open and close. Through this doorway the corn +runs into a measure, and is weighed. By measures of forty bushels +each, the tale is kept. There stands the apparatus, with the figures +plainly marked, over against the porter's eye; and as the sum mounts +nearly up to forty bushels he closes the door till the grains run +thinly through, hardly a handful at a time, so that the balance is +exactly struck. Then the teller standing by marks down his figure, +and the record is made. The exact porter touches the string of +another door, and the forty bushels of corn run out at the bottom of +the measure, disappear down another shoot, slanting also towards the +water, and deposit themselves in the canal-boat. The transit of the +bushels of corn from the larger vessel to the smaller will have taken +less than a minute, and the cost of that transit will have been--a +farthing. + +But I have spoken of the rivers of wheat, and I must explain what +are those rivers. In the working of the elevator, which I have just +attempted to describe, the two vessels were supposed to be lying at +the same wharf, on the same side of the building, in the same water, +the smaller vessel inside the larger one. When this is the case +the corn runs direct from the weighing measure into the shoot that +communicates with the canal boat. But there is not room or time for +confining the work to one side of the building. There is water on +both sides, and the corn or wheat is elevated on the one side, and +re-shipped on the other. To effect this the corn is carried across +the breadth of the building; but, nevertheless, it is never handled +or moved in its direction on trucks or carriages requiring the use +of men's muscles for its motion. Across the floor of the building +are two gutters, or channels, and through these small troughs on a +pliable band circulate very quickly. They which run one way, in one +channel, are laden; they which return by the other channel are empty. +The corn pours itself into these, and they again pour it into the +shoot which commands the other water. And thus rivers of corn are +running through these buildings night and day. The secret of all the +motion and arrangement consists of course in the elevation. The corn +is lifted up; and when lifted up can move itself and arrange itself, +and weigh itself, and load itself. + +I should have stated that all this wheat which passes through Buffalo +comes loose, in bulk. Nothing is known of sacks or bags. To any +spectator at Buffalo this becomes immediately a matter of course; but +this should be explained, as we in England are not accustomed to see +wheat travelling in this open, unguarded, and plebeian manner. Wheat +with us is aristocratic, and travels always in its private carriage. + +Over and beyond the elevators there is nothing specially worthy of +remark at Buffalo. It is a fine city, like all other American cities +of its class. The streets are broad, the "blocks" are high, and cars +on tram-ways run all day, and nearly all night as well. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +BUFFALO TO NEW YORK. + + +We had now before us only two points of interest before we should +reach New York,--the Falls of Trenton, and West Point on the Hudson +River. We were too late in the year to get up to Lake George, which +lies in the State of New York, north of Albany, and is, in fact, the +southern continuation of Lake Champlain. Lake George, I know, is very +lovely, and I would fain have seen it; but visitors to it must have +some hotel accommodation, and the hotel was closed when we were near +enough to visit it. I was in its close neighbourhood three years +since in June; but then the hotel was not yet opened. A visitor to +Lake George must be very exact in his time. July and August are the +months,--with perhaps the grace of a week in September. + +The hotel at Trenton was also closed, as I was told. But even if +there were no hotel at Trenton, it can be visited without difficulty. +It is within a carriage drive of Utica, and there is moreover a +direct railway from Utica, with a station at the Trenton Falls. Utica +is a town on the line of railway from Buffalo to New York via Albany, +and is like all the other towns we had visited. There are broad +streets, and avenues of trees, and large shops, and excellent houses. +A general air of fat prosperity pervades them all, and is strong at +Utica as elsewhere. + +I remember to have been told thirty years ago that a traveller might +go far and wide in search of the picturesque, without finding a spot +more romantic in its loveliness than Trenton Falls. The name of the +river is Canada Creek West; but as that is hardly euphonious, the +course of the water which forms the falls has been called after +the town or parish. This course is nearly two miles in length, and +along the space of these two miles it is impossible to say where the +greatest beauty exists. To see Trenton aright one must be careful not +to have too much water. A sufficiency is no doubt desirable, and it +may be that at the close of summer, before any of the autumnal rains +have fallen, there may occasionally be an insufficiency. But if there +be too much, the passage up the rocks along the river is impossible. +The way on which the tourist should walk becomes the bed of the +stream, and the great charm of the place cannot be enjoyed. That +charm consists in descending into the ravine of the river, down +amidst the rocks through which it has cut its channel, and in walking +up the bed against the stream, in climbing the sides of the various +falls, and sticking close to the river till an envious block is +reached, which comes sheer down into the water, and prevents further +progress. This is nearly two miles above the steps by which the +descent is made; and not a foot of this distance but is wildly +beautiful. When the river is very low there is a pathway even beyond +that block; but when this is the case there can hardly be enough of +water to make the fall satisfactory. + +There is no one special cataract at Trenton which is in itself either +wonderful or pre-eminently beautiful. It is the position, form, +colour, and rapidity of the river which give the charm. It runs +through a deep ravine, at the bottom of which the water has cut +for itself a channel through the rocks, the sides of which rise +sometimes with the sharpness of the walls of a stone sarcophagus. +They are rounded too towards the bed, as I have seen the bottom of a +sarcophagus. Along the side of the right bank of the river there is +a passage, which when the freshets come is altogether covered. This +passage is sometimes very narrow, but in the narrowest parts an iron +chain is affixed into the rock. It is slippery and wet, and it is +well for ladies when visiting the place to be provided with outside +india-rubber shoes, which keep a hold upon the stone. If I remember +rightly there are two actual cataracts, one not far above the steps +by which the descent is made into the channel, and the other close +under a summer-house, near to which the visitors reascend into +the wood. But these cataracts, though by no means despicable as +cataracts, leave comparatively a slight impression. They tumble +down with sufficient violence, and the usual fantastic disposition +of their forces; but simply as cataracts, within a day's journey +of Niagara, they would be nothing. Up beyond the summer-house the +passage along the river can be continued for another mile, but it is +rough, and the climbing in some places rather difficult for ladies. +Every man, however, who has the use of his legs, should do it, for +the succession of rapids, and the twistings of the channels, and the +forms of the rocks are as wild and beautiful as the imagination can +desire. The banks of the river are closely wooded on each side; and +though this circumstance does not at first seem to add much to the +beauty, seeing that the ravine is so deep that the absence of wood +above would hardly be noticed, still there are broken clefts ever and +anon through which the colours of the foliage show themselves, and +straggling boughs and rough roots break through the rocks here and +there, and add to the wildness and charm of the whole. + +The walk back from the summer-house through the wood is very lovely; +but it would be a disappointing walk to visitors who had been +prevented by a flood in the river from coming up the channel, for it +indicates plainly how requisite it is that the river should be seen +from below and not from above. The best view of the larger fall +itself is that seen from the wood. And here again I would point out +that any male visitor should walk the channel of the river up and +down. The descent is too slippery and difficult for bipeds laden with +petticoats. We found a small hotel open at Trenton, at which we got +a comfortable dinner, and then in the evening were driven back to +Utica. + +Albany is the capital of the State of New York, and our road from +Trenton to West Point lay through that town; but these political +State capitals have no interest in themselves. The State legislature +was not sitting, and we went on, merely remarking that the manner in +which the railway cars are made to run backward and forward through +the crowded streets of the town must cause a frequent loss of human +life. One is led to suppose that children in Albany can hardly have +a chance of coming to maturity. Such accidents do not become the +subject of long-continued and strong comment in the States as they do +with us; but, nevertheless, I should have thought that such a state +of things as we saw there would have given rise to some remark on the +part of the philanthropists. I cannot myself say that I saw anybody +killed, and therefore should not be justified in making more than +this passing remark on the subject. + +When first the Americans of the Northern States began to talk much +of their country, their claims as to fine scenery were confined to +Niagara and the Hudson River. Of Niagara, I have spoken, and all +the world has acknowledged that no claim made on that head can be +regarded as exaggerated. As to the Hudson, I am not prepared to say +so much generally, though there is one spot upon it which cannot be +beaten for sweetness. I have been up and down the Hudson by water, +and confess that the entire river is pretty. But there is much of +it that is not pre-eminently pretty among rivers. As a whole it +cannot be named with the Upper Mississippi, with the Rhine, with the +Moselle, or with the Upper Rhone. The palisades just out of New York +are pretty, and the whole passage through the mountains from West +Point up to Catskill and Hudson is interesting. But the glory of the +Hudson is at West Point itself; and thither on this occasion we went +direct by railway, and there we remained for two days. The Catskill +mountains should be seen by a detour off from the river. We did not +visit them because, here again, the hotel was closed. I will leave +them therefore for the new handbook which Mr. Murray will soon bring +out. + +Of West Point there is something to be said independently of its +scenery. It is the Sandhurst of the States. Here is their military +school, from which officers are drafted to their regiments, and the +tuition for military purposes is, I imagine, of a high order. It +must, of course, be borne in mind that West Point, even as at present +arranged, is fitted to the wants of the old army, and not to that of +the army now required. It can go but a little way to supply officers +for 500,000 men; but would do much towards supplying them for 40,000. +At the time of my visit to West Point the regular army of the +northern States had not even then swelled itself to the latter +number. + +I found that there were 220 students at West Point; that about forty +graduate every year, each of whom receives a commission in the army; +that about 120 pupils are admitted every year; and that in the course +of every year about eighty either resign, or are called upon to leave +on account of some deficiency, or fail in their final examination. +The result is simply this, that one third of those who enter +succeeds, and that two thirds fail. The number of failures seemed +to me to be terribly large,--so large as to give great ground of +hesitation to a parent in accepting a nomination for the college. +I especially inquired into the particulars of these dismissals and +resignations, and was assured that the majority of them take place in +the first year of the pupillage. It is soon seen whether or no a lad +has the mental and physical capacities necessary for the education +and future life required of him, and care is taken that those shall +be removed early as to whom it may be determined that the necessary +capacity is clearly wanting. If this is done,--and I do not doubt +it,--the evil is much mitigated. The effect otherwise would be very +injurious. The lads remain till they are perhaps one and twenty, +and have then acquired aptitudes for military life, but no other +aptitudes. At that age the education cannot be commenced anew, and, +moreover, at that age the disgrace of failure is very injurious. +The period of education used to be five years, but has now been +reduced to four. This was done in order that a double class might be +graduated in 1861 to supply the wants of the war. I believe it is +considered that but for such necessity as that, the fifth year of +education can be ill spared. + +The discipline, to our English ideas, is very strict. In the first +place no kind of beer, wine, or spirits is allowed at West Point. The +law upon this point may be said to be very vehement, for it debars +even the visitors at the hotel from the solace of a glass of beer. +The hotel is within the bounds of the College, and as the lads might +become purchasers at the bar, there is no bar allowed. Any breach of +this law leads to instant expulsion; or, I should say rather, any +detection of such breach. The officer who showed us over the College +assured me that the presence of a glass of wine in a young man's room +would secure his exclusion, even though there should be no evidence +that he had tasted it. He was very firm as to this; but a little bird +of West Point, whose information, though not official or probably +accurate in words, seemed to me to be worthy of reliance in general, +told me that eyes were wont to wink when such glasses of wine made +themselves unnecessarily visible. Let us fancy an English mess of +young men from seventeen to twenty-one, at which a mug of beer would +be felony, and a glass of wine high treason! But the whole management +of the young with the Americans differs much from that in vogue +with us. We do not require so much at so early an age, either in +knowledge, in morals, or even in manliness. In America, if a lad be +under control, as at West Point, he is called upon for an amount of +labour, and a degree of conduct, which would be considered quite +transcendental and out of the question in England. But if he be not +under control, if at the age of eighteen he be living at home, or +be from his circumstances exempt from professorial power, he is a +full-fledged man with his pipe apparatus and his bar acquaintances. + +And then I was told at West Point how needful and yet how painful +it was that all should be removed who were in any way deficient in +credit to the establishment. "Our rules are very exact," my informant +told me; "but the carrying out of our rules is a task not always very +easy." As to this also I had already heard something from that little +bird of West Point, but of course I wisely assented to my informant, +remarking that discipline in such an establishment was essentially +necessary. The little bird had told me that discipline at West Point +had been rendered terribly difficult by political interference. "A +young man will be dismissed by the unanimous voice of the Board, and +will be sent away. And then, after a week or two, he will be sent +back, with an order from Washington, that another trial shall be +given him. The lad will march back into the college with all the +honours of a victory, and will be conscious of a triumph over the +superintendent and his officers." "And is that common?" I asked. +"Not at the present moment," I was told. "But it was common before +the war. While Mr. Buchanan, and Mr. Pierce, and Mr. Polk were +Presidents, no officer or board of officers then at West Point was +able to dismiss a lad whose father was a Southerner, and who had +friends among the Government." + +Not only was this true of West Point, but the same allegation is true +as to all matters of patronage throughout the United States. During +the three or four last Presidencies, and I believe back to the time +of Jackson, there has been an organized system of dishonesty in +the management of all beneficial places under the control of the +Government. I doubt whether any despotic court of Europe has been +so corrupt in the distribution of places,--that is in the selection +of public officers,--as has been the assemblage of statesmen at +Washington. And this is the evil which the country is now expiating +with its blood and treasure. It has allowed its knaves to stand in +the high places; and now it finds that knavish works have brought +about evil results. But of this I shall be constrained to say +something further hereafter. + +We went into all the schools of the College, and made ourselves +fully aware that the amount of learning imparted was far above our +comprehension. It always occurs to me in looking through the new +schools of the present day, that I ought to be thankful to persons +who know so much for condescending to speak to me at all in plain +English. I said a word to the gentleman who was with me about horses, +seeing a lot of lads going to their riding lesson. But he was down +upon me, and crushed me instantly beneath the weight of my own +ignorance. He walked me up to the image of a horse, which he took to +pieces bit by bit, taking off skin, muscle, flesh, nerves and bones, +till the animal was a heap of atoms, and assured me that the anatomy +of the horse throughout was one of the necessary studies of the +place. We afterwards went to see the riding. The horses themselves +were poor enough. This was accounted for by the fact that such of +them as had been found fit for military service had been taken for +the use of the army. + +There is a gallery in the College in which are hung sketches and +pictures by former students. I was greatly struck with the merit of +many of these. There were some copies from well-known works of art +of very high excellence, when the age is taken into account of those +by whom they were done. I don't know how far the art of drawing, +as taught generally and with no special tendency to military +instruction, may be necessary for military training; but if it be +necessary I should imagine that more is done in that direction at +West Point than at Sandhurst. I found, however, that much of that in +the gallery which was good had been done by lads who had not obtained +their degree, and who had shown an aptitude for drawing, but had not +shown any aptitude for other pursuits necessary to their intended +career. + +And then we were taken to the chapel, and there saw, displayed as +trophies, two of our own dear old English flags. I have seen many a +banner hung up in token of past victory, and many a flag taken on +the field of battle mouldering by degrees into dust on some chapel's +wall,--but they have not been the flags of England. Till this +day I had never seen our own colours in any position but one of +self-assertion and independent power. From the tone used by the +gentleman who showed them to me, I could gather that he would have +passed them by had he not foreseen that he could not do so without my +notice. "I don't know that we are right to put them there," he said. +"Quite right," was my reply, "as long as the world does such things." +In private life it is vulgar to triumph over one's friends, and +malicious to triumph over one's enemies. We have not got so far yet +in public life, but I hope we are advancing toward it. In the mean +time I did not begrudge the Americans our two flags. If we keep flags +and cannons taken from our enemies, and show them about as signs of +our own prowess after those enemies have become friends, why should +not others do so as regards us? It clearly would not be well for the +world that we should always beat other nations and never be beaten. +I did not begrudge that chapel our two flags. But nevertheless the +sight of them made me sick in the stomach and uncomfortable. As an +Englishman I do not want to be ascendant over any one. But it makes +me very ill when any one tries to be ascendant over me. I wish we +could send back with our compliments all the trophies that we hold, +carriage paid, and get back in return those two flags and any other +flag or two of our own that may be doing similar duty about the +world. I take it that the parcel sent away would be somewhat more +bulky than that which would reach us in return. + +The discipline at West Point seemed, as I have said, to be very +severe; but it seemed also that that severity could not in all cases +be maintained. The hours of study also were long, being nearly +continuous throughout the day. "English lads of that age could not +do it," I said; thus confessing that English lads must have in them +less power of sustained work than those of America. "They must do it +here," said my informant, "or else leave us." And then he took us off +to one of the young gentleman's quarters, in order that we might see +the nature of their rooms. We found the young gentleman fast asleep +on his bed, and felt uncommonly grieved that we should have thus +intruded on him. As the hour was one of those allocated by my +informant in the distribution of the day to private study, I could +not but take the present occupation of the embryo warrior as an +indication that the amount of labour required might be occasionally +too much even for an American youth. "The heat makes one so +uncommonly drowsy," said the young man. I was not the least surprised +at the exclamation. The air of the apartment had been warmed up to +such a pitch by the hot-pipe apparatus of the building that prolonged +life to me would, I should have thought, be out of the question in +such an atmosphere. "Do you always have it as hot as this?" I asked. +The young man swore that it was so, and with considerable energy +expressed his opinion that all his health and spirits and vitality +were being baked out of him. He seemed to have a strong opinion on +the matter, for which I respected him; but it had never occurred to +him, and did not then occur to him, that anything could be done to +moderate that deathly flow of hot air which came up to him from the +neighbouring infernal regions. He was pale in the face, and all the +lads there were pale. American lads and lasses are all pale. Men at +thirty and women at twenty-five have had all semblance of youth baked +out of them. Infants even are not rosy, and the only shades known +on the cheeks of children are those composed of brown, yellow, and +white. All this comes of those damnable hot-air pipes with which +every tenement in America is infested. "We cannot do without them," +they say. "Our cold is so intense that we must heat our houses +throughout. Open fire-places in a few rooms would not keep our toes +and fingers from the frost." There is much in this. The assertion is +no doubt true, and thereby a great difficulty is created. It is no +doubt quite within the power of American ingenuity to moderate the +heat of these stoves, and to produce such an atmosphere as may be +most conducive to health. In hospitals no doubt this will be done; +perhaps is done at present,--though even in hospitals I have thought +the air hotter than it should be. But hot-air-drinking is like +dram-drinking. There is the machine within the house capable of +supplying any quantity, and those who consume it unconsciously +increase their draughts, and take their drams stronger and stronger, +till a breath of fresh air is felt to be a blast direct from Boreas. + +West Point is at all points a military colony, and as such belongs +exclusively to the Federal Government as separate from the Government +of any individual State. It is the purchased property of the United +States as a whole, and is devoted to the necessities of a military +college. No man could take a house there, or succeed in getting even +permanent lodgings, unless he belonged to or were employed by the +establishment. There is no intercourse by road between West Point and +other towns or villages on the river side, and any such intercourse +even by water is looked upon with jealousy by the authorities. +The wish is that West Point should be isolated and kept apart +for military instruction to the exclusion of all other purposes +whatever,--especially love-making purposes. The coming over from the +other side of the water of young ladies by the ferry is regarded as a +great hindrance. They will come, and then the military students will +talk to them. We all know to what such talking leads! A lad when I +was there had been tempted to get out of barracks in plain clothes, +in order that he might call on a young lady at the hotel;--and was +in consequence obliged to abandon his commission and retire from the +Academy. Will that young lady ever again sleep quietly in her bed? +I should hope not. An opinion was expressed to me that there should +be no hotel in such a place;--that there should be no ferry, no +roads, no means by which the attention of the students should be +distracted;--that these military Rasselases should live in a happy +military valley from which might be excluded both strong drinks and +female charms,--those two poisons from which youthful military ardour +is supposed to suffer so much. + +It always seems to me that such training begins at the wrong end. +I will not say that nothing should be done to keep lads of eighteen +from strong drinks. I will not even say that there should not be +some line of moderation with reference to feminine allurements. But +as a rule the restraint should come from the sense, good feeling, +and education of him who is restrained. There is no embargo on the +beer-shops either at Harrow or at Oxford,--and certainly none upon +the young ladies. Occasional damage may accrue from habits early +depraved, or a heart too early and too easily susceptible; but +the injury so done is not, I think, equal to that inflicted by a +Draconian code of morals, which will probably be evaded, and will +certainly create a desire for its evasion. + +Nevertheless, I feel assured that West Point, taken as a whole, is an +excellent military academy, and that young men have gone forth from +it, and will go forth from it, fit for officers as far as training +can make men fit. The fault, if fault there be, is that which is to +be found in so many of the institutions of the United States; and is +one so allied to a virtue that no foreigner has a right to wonder +that it is regarded in the light of a virtue by all Americans. There +has been an attempt to make the place too perfect. In the desire to +have the establishment self-sufficient at all points, more has been +attempted than human nature can achieve. The lad is taken to West +Point, and it is presumed that from the moment of his reception, he +shall expend every energy of his mind and body in making himself a +soldier. At fifteen he is not to be a boy, at twenty he is not to be +a young man. He is to be a gentleman, a soldier, and an officer. I +believe that those who leave the College for the army are gentlemen, +soldiers, and officers, and therefore the result is good. But they +are also young men; and it seems that they have become so, not in +accordance with their training, but in spite of it. + +But I have another complaint to make against the authorities of +West Point, which they will not be able to answer so easily as +that already preferred. What right can they have to take the +very prettiest spot on the Hudson--the prettiest spot on the +continent--one of the prettiest spots which Nature, with all her +vagaries, ever formed--and shut it up from all the world for purposes +of war? Would not any plain, however ugly, do for military exercises? +Cannot broadsword, goose-step, and double quick time be instilled +into young hands and legs in any field of thirty, forty, or fifty +acres? I wonder whether these lads appreciate the fact that they are +studying fourteen hours a day amidst the sweetest river, rock, and +mountain scenery that the imagination can conceive. Of course it +will be said that the world at large is not excluded from West Point, +that the ferry to the place is open, and that there is even a hotel +there, closed against no man or woman who will consent to become a +teetotaller for the period of his visit. I must admit that this is +so; but still one feels that one is only admitted as a guest. I want +to go and live at West Point, and why should I be prevented? The +Government had a right to buy it of course, but Government should +not buy up the prettiest spots on a country's surface. If I were an +American I should make a grievance of this; but Americans will suffer +things from their Government which no Englishmen would endure. + +It is one of the peculiarities of West Point that every thing there +is in good taste. The Point itself consists of a bluff of land so +formed that the river Hudson is forced to run round three sides of +it. It is consequently a peninsula, and as the surrounding country is +mountainous on both sides of the river, it may be imagined that the +site is good. The views both up and down the river are lovely, and +the mountains behind break themselves so as to make the landscape +perfect. But this is not all. At West Point there is much of +buildings, much of military arrangement in the way of cannons, forts, +and artillery yards. All these things are so contrived as to group +themselves well into pictures. There is no picture of architectural +grandeur; but everything stands well and where it should stand, and +the eye is not hurt at any spot. I regard West Point as a delightful +place, and was much gratified by the kindness I received there. + +From West Point we went direct to New York. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +AN APOLOGY FOR THE WAR. + + +I think it may be received as a fact that the Northern States, taken +together, sent a full tenth of their able-bodied men into the ranks +of the army in the course of the summer and autumn of 1861. The +South, no doubt, sent a much larger proportion; but the effect of +such a drain upon the South would not be the same, because the slaves +were left at home to perform the agricultural work of the country. I +very much doubt whether any other nation ever made such an effort +in so short a time. To a people who can do this it may well be +granted that they are in earnest; and I do not think it should be +lightly decided by any foreigner that they are wrong. The strong and +unanimous impulse of a great people is seldom wrong. And let it be +borne in mind that in this case both people may be right,--the people +both of North and South. Each may have been guided by a just and +noble feeling; though each was brought to its present condition by +bad government and dishonest statesmen. + +There can be no doubt that, since the commencement of the war, the +American feeling against England has been very bitter. All Americans +to whom I spoke on the subject admitted that it was so. I, as an +Englishman, felt strongly the injustice of this feeling, and lost +no opportunity of showing or endeavouring to show that the line of +conduct pursued by England towards the States was the only line which +was compatible with her own policy and just interests, and also with +the dignity of the States' Government. I heard much of the tender +sympathy of Russia. Russia sent a flourishing general message, saying +that she wished the North might win, and ending with some good +general advice, proposing peace. It was such a message as strong +nations send to those which are weaker. Had England ventured on such +counsel the diplomatic paper would probably have been returned to +her. It is, I think, manifest that an absolute and disinterested +neutrality has been the only course which could preserve England from +deserved rebuke,--a neutrality on which her commercial necessity for +importing cotton or exporting her own manufactures should have no +effect. That our Government would preserve such a neutrality I have +always insisted, and I believe it has been done with a pure and +strict disregard to any selfish views on the part of Great Britain. +So far I think England may feel that she has done well in this +matter. But I must confess that I have not been so proud of the tone +of all our people at home as I have been of the decisions of our +statesmen. It seems to me that some of us never tire in abusing the +Americans, and calling them names for having allowed themselves to +be driven into this civil war. We tell them that they are fools and +idiots; we speak of their doings as though there had been some plain +course by which the war might have been avoided; and we throw it in +their teeth that they have no capability for war. We tell them of +the debt which they are creating, and point out to them that they +can never pay it. We laugh at their attempt to sustain loyalty, and +speak of them as a steady father of a family is wont to speak of some +unthrifty prodigal who is throwing away his estate and hurrying from +one ruinous debauchery to another. And, alas! we too frequently allow +to escape from us some expression of that satisfaction which one +rival tradesman has in the downfall of another. "Here you are with +all your boasting," is what we say. "You were going to whip all +creation the other day; and it has come to this! Brag is a good +dog, but Holdfast is a better. Pray remember that, if ever you find +yourselves on your legs again." That little advice about the two +dogs is very well, and was not altogether inapplicable. But this +is not the time in which it should be given. Putting aside slight +asperities, we will all own that the people of the States have +been and are our friends, and that as friends we cannot spare them. +For one Englishman who brings home to his own heart a feeling of +cordiality for France--a belief in the affection of our French +alliance--there are ten who do so with reference to the States. Now, +in these days of their trouble, I think that we might have borne with +them more tenderly. + +And how was it possible that they should have avoided this war? I +will not now go into the cause of it, or discuss the course which it +has taken, but will simply take up the fact of the rebellion. The +South rebelled against the North, and such being the case, was it +possible that the North should yield without a war? It may very +likely be well that Hungary should be severed from Austria, or Poland +from Russia, or Venice from Austria. Taking Englishmen in a lump, +they think that such separation would be well. The subject people do +not speak the language of those that govern them, or enjoy kindred +interests. But yet when military efforts are made by those who govern +Hungary, Poland, and Venice to prevent such separation, we do not +say that Russia and Austria are fools. We are not surprised that +they should take up arms against the rebels, but would be very much +surprised indeed if they did not do so. We know that nothing but +weakness would prevent their doing so. But if Austria and Russia +insist on tying to themselves a people who do not speak their +language or live in accordance with their habits, and are not +considered unreasonable in so insisting, how much more thoroughly +would they carry with them the sympathy of their neighbours +in preventing any secession by integral parts of their own +nationalities? Would England let Ireland walk off by herself if +she wished it? In 1843 she did wish it. Three-fourths of the Irish +population would have voted for such a separation; but England would +have prevented such secession _vi et armis_ had Ireland driven her to +the necessity of such prevention. + +I will put it to any reader of history whether, since government +commenced, it has not been regarded as the first duty of government +to prevent a separation of the territories governed, and whether also +it has not been regarded as a point of honour with all nationalities +to preserve uninjured each its own greatness and its own power? I +trust that I may not be thought to argue that all governments or even +all nationalities should succeed in such endeavours. Few kings have +fallen in my day in whose fate I have not rejoiced; none, I take it, +except that poor citizen King of the French. And I can rejoice that +England lost her American colonies, and shall rejoice when Spain has +been deprived of Cuba. But I hold that citizen King of the French in +small esteem, seeing that he made no fight, and I know that England +was bound to struggle when the Boston people threw her tea into the +water. Spain keeps a tighter hand on Cuba than we thought she would +some ten years since, and therefore she stands higher in the world's +respect. + +It may be well that the South should be divided from the North. I am +inclined to think that it would be well--at any rate for the North; +but the South must have been aware that such division could only +be effected in two ways: either by agreement,--in which case the +proposition must have been brought forward by the South and discussed +by the North,--or by violence. They chose the latter way, as being +the readier and the surer, as most seceding nations have done. +O'Connell, when struggling for the secession of Ireland, chose the +other, and nothing came of it. The South chose violence, and prepared +for it secretly and with great adroitness. If that be not rebellion +there never has been rebellion since history began; and if civil +war was ever justified in one portion of a nation by turbulence in +another, it has now been justified in the northern States of America. + +What was the North to do; this foolish North, which has been so +liberally told by us that she has taken up arms for nothing, that she +is fighting for nothing, and will ruin herself for nothing? When was +she to take the first step towards peace? Surely every Englishman +will remember that when the earliest tidings of the coming quarrel +reached us on the election of Mr. Lincoln, we all declared that any +division was impossible;--it was a mere madness to speak of it. The +States, which were so great in their unity, would never consent to +break up all their prestige and all their power by a separation! +Would it have been well for the North then to say, "If the South wish +it we will certainly separate?" After that, when Mr. Lincoln assumed +the power to which he had been elected, and declared with sufficient +manliness, and sufficient dignity also, that he would make no war +upon the South, but would collect the customs and carry on the +government, did we turn round and advise him that he was wrong? No. +The idea in England then was that his message was, if anything, too +mild. "If he means to be President of the whole Union," England said, +"he must come out with something stronger than that." Then came Mr. +Seward's speech, which was, in truth, weak enough. Mr. Seward had ran +Mr. Lincoln very hard for the President's chair on the republican +interest, and was--most unfortunately, as I think--made Secretary +of State by Mr. Lincoln, or by his party. The Secretary of State +holds the highest office in the United States Government under the +President. He cannot be compared to our Prime Minister, seeing +that the President himself exercises political power, and is +responsible for its exercise. Mr. Seward's speech simply amounted to +a declaration that separation was a thing of which the Union would +neither hear, speak, nor, if possible, think. Things looked very like +it; but no; they could never come to that! The world was too good, +and especially the American world. Mr. Seward had no specific against +secession; but let every free man strike his breast, look up to +heaven, determine to be good, and all would go right. A great deal +had been expected from Mr. Seward, and when this speech came out, we +in England were a little disappointed, and nobody presumed even then +that the North would let the South go. + +It will be argued by those who have gone into the details of American +politics that an acceptance of the Crittenden compromise at this +point would have saved the war. What is or was the Crittenden +compromise I will endeavour to explain hereafter; but the terms and +meaning of that compromise can have no bearing on the subject. The +republican party who were in power disapproved of that compromise, +and could not model their course upon it. The republican party may +have been right or may have been wrong; but surely it will not be +argued that any political party elected to power by a majority should +follow the policy of a minority, lest that minority should rebel. +I can conceive of no government more lowly placed than one which +deserts the policy of the majority which supports it, fearing either +the tongues or arms of a minority. + +As the next scene in the play, the State of South Carolina bombarded +Fort Sumter. Was that to be the moment for a peaceable separation? +Let us suppose that O'Connell had marched down to the Pigeon House at +Dublin, and had taken it--in 1843, let us say--would that have been +an argument to us for allowing Ireland to set up for herself? Is +that the way of men's minds, or of the minds of nations? The powers +of the President were defined by law, as agreed upon among all the +States of the Union, and against that power and against that law, +South Carolina raised her hand, and the other States joined her in +rebellion. When circumstances had come to that, it was no longer +possible that the North should shun the war. To my thinking the +rights of rebellion are holy. Where would the world have been, +or where would the world hope to be, without rebellion? But let +rebellion look the truth in the face, and not blanch from its own +consequences. She has to judge her own opportunities and to decide on +her own fitness. Success is the test of her judgment. But rebellion +can never be successful except by overcoming the power against which +she raises herself. She has no right to expect bloodless triumphs; +and if she be not the stronger in the encounter which she creates, +she must bear the penalty of her rashness. Rebellion is justified +by being better served than constituted authority, but cannot be +justified otherwise. Now and again it may happen that rebellion's +cause is so good that constituted authority will fall to the ground +at the first glance of her sword. This was so the other day in +Naples, when Garibaldi blew away the king's armies with a breath. But +this is not so often. Rebellion knows that it must fight, and the +legalized power against which rebels rise must of necessity fight +also. + +I cannot see at what point the North first sinned; nor do I think +that had the North yielded, England would have honoured her for her +meekness. Had she yielded without striking a blow she would have +been told that she had suffered the Union to drop asunder by her +supineness. She would have been twitted with cowardice, and told +that she was no match for Southern energy. It would then have seemed +to those who sat in judgment on her that she might have righted +everything by that one blow from which she had abstained. But having +struck that one blow, and having found that it did not suffice, could +she then withdraw, give way, and own herself beaten? Has it been so +usually with Anglo-Saxon pluck? In such case as that would there have +been no mention of those two dogs, Brag and Holdfast? The man of the +northern States knows that he has bragged,--bragged as loudly as his +English forefathers. In that matter of bragging the British lion and +the Star-spangled banner may abstain from throwing mud at each other. +And now the northern man wishes to show that he can hold fast also. +Looking at all this I cannot see that peace has been possible to the +North. + +As to the question of secession and rebellion being one and the +same thing, the point to me does not seem to bear an argument. The +confederation of States had a common army, a common policy, a common +capital, a common government, and a common debt. If one might secede, +any or all might secede, and where then would be their property, +their debt, and their servants? A confederation with such a license +attached to it would have been simply playing at national power. +If New York had seceded--a State which stretches from the Atlantic +to British North America--it would have cut New England off from +the rest of the Union. Was it legally within the power of New York +to place the six States of New England in such a position? And +why should it be assumed that so suicidal a power of destroying a +nationality should be inherent in every portion of the nation? The +States are bound together by a written compact, but that compact +gives each State no such power. Surely such a power would have been +specified had it been intended that it should be given. But there are +axioms in politics as in mathematics, which recommend themselves to +the mind at once, and require no argument for their proof. Men who +are not argumentative perceive at once that they are true. A part +cannot be greater than the whole. + +I think it is plain that the remnant of the Union was bound to take +up arms against those States which had illegally torn themselves off +from her; and if so, she could only do so with such weapons as were +at her hand. The United States' army had never been numerous or well +appointed; and of such officers and equipments as it possessed, the +more valuable part was in the hands of the Southerners. It was clear +enough that she was ill-provided, and that in going to war she was +undertaking a work as to which she had still to learn many of the +rudiments. But Englishmen should be the last to twit her with such +ignorance. It is not yet ten years since we were all boasting that +swords and guns were useless things, and that military expenditure +might be cut down to any minimum figure that an economizing +Chancellor of the Exchequer could name. Since that we have +extemporized two, if not three armies. There are our volunteers at +home; and the army which holds India can hardly be considered as one +with that which is to maintain our prestige in Europe and the West. +We made some natural blunders in the Crimea, but in making those +blunders we taught ourselves the trade. It is the misfortune of the +northern States that they must learn these lessons in fighting their +own countrymen. In the course of our history we have suffered the +same calamity more than once. The Roundheads, who beat the Cavaliers +and created English liberty, made themselves soldiers on the bodies +of their countrymen. But England was not ruined by that civil war; +nor was she ruined by those which preceded it. From out of these she +came forth stronger than she entered them,--stronger, better, and +more fit for a great destiny in the history of nations. The northern +States had nearly five hundred thousand men under arms when the +winter of 1861 commenced, and for that enormous multitude all +commissariat requirements were well supplied. Camps and barracks +sprang up through the country as though by magic. Clothing was +obtained with a rapidity that has, I think, never been equalled. The +country had not been prepared for the fabrication of arms, and yet +arms were put into the men's hands almost as quickly as the regiments +could be mustered. The eighteen millions of the northern States lent +themselves to the effort as one man. Each State gave the best it had +to give. Newspapers were as rabid against each other as ever, but +no newspaper could live which did not support the war. "The South +has rebelled against the law, and the law shall be supported." This +has been the cry and the heartfelt feeling of all men; and it is a +feeling which cannot but inspire respect. + +We have heard much of the tyranny of the present Government of the +United States, and of the tyranny also of the people. They have both +been very tyrannical. The "habeas corpus" has been suspended by the +word of one man. Arrests have been made on men who have been hardly +suspected of more than secession principles. Arrests have, I believe, +been made in cases which have been destitute even of any fair ground +for such suspicion. Newspapers have been stopped for advocating views +opposed to the feelings of the North, as freely as newspapers were +ever stopped in France for opposing the Emperor. A man has not been +safe in the streets who was known to be a Secessionist. It must be at +once admitted that opinion in the northern States was not free when I +was there. But has opinion ever been free anywhere on all subjects? +In the best-built strongholds of freedom have there not always been +questions on which opinion has not been free; and must it not always +be so? When the decision of a people on any matter has become, so +to say, unanimous,--when it has shown itself to be so general as +to be clearly the expression of the nation's voice as a single +chorus,--that decision becomes holy, and may not be touched. Could +any newspaper be produced in England which advocated the overthrow +of the Queen? And why may not the passion for the Union be as strong +with the northern States, as the passion for the Crown is strong with +us? The Crown with us is in no danger, and therefore the matter is at +rest. But I think we must admit that in any nation, let it be ever +so free, there may be points on which opinion must be held under +restraint. And as to those summary arrests, and the suspension of the +"habeas corpus," is there not something to be said for the States' +Government on that head also? Military arrests are very dreadful, +and the soul of a nation's liberty is that personal freedom from +arbitrary interference which is signified to the world by those two +unintelligible Latin words. A man's body shall not be kept in duress +at any man's will; but shall be brought up into open court, with +uttermost speed, in order that the law may say whether or no it +should be kept in duress. That I take it is the meaning of "habeas +corpus," and it is easy to see that the suspension of that privilege +destroys all freedom, and places the liberty of every individual at +the mercy of him who has the power to suspend it. Nothing can be +worse than this; and such suspension, if extended over any long +period of years, will certainly make a nation weak, mean-spirited, +and poor. But in a period of civil war, or even of a widely-extended +civil commotion, things cannot work in their accustomed grooves. A +lady does not willingly get out of her bedroom-window with nothing on +but her nightgown; but when her house is on fire she is very thankful +for an opportunity of doing so. It is not long since the "habeas +corpus" was suspended in parts of Ireland, and absurd arrests were +made almost daily when that suspension first took effect. It was +grievous that there should be necessity for such a step, and it is +very grievous now that such necessity should be felt in the northern +States. But I do not think that it becomes Englishmen to bear +hardly upon Americans generally for what has been done in that +matter. Mr. Seward, in an official letter to the British Minister at +Washington--which letter, through official dishonesty, found its way +to the press--claimed for the President the right of suspending the +"habeas corpus" in the States whenever it might seem good to him +to do so. If this be in accordance with the law of the land, which +I think must be doubted, the law of the land is not favourable to +freedom. For myself, I conceive that Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward have +been wrong in their law, and that no such right is given to the +President by the Constitution of the United States. This I will +attempt to prove in some subsequent chapter. But I think it must be +felt by all who have given any thought to the constitution of the +States, that let what may be the letter of the law, the Presidents of +the United States have had no such power. It is because the States +have been no longer united that Mr. Lincoln has had the power, +whether it be given to him by the law or no. + +And then as to the debt; it seems to me very singular that we in +England should suppose that a great commercial people would be ruined +by a national debt. As regards ourselves, I have always looked on our +national debt as the ballast in our ship. We have a great deal of +ballast, but then the ship is very big. The States also are taking in +ballast at a rather rapid rate;--and we too took it in quickly when +we were about it. But I cannot understand why their ship should not +carry, without shipwreck, that which our ship has carried without +damage, and, as I believe, with positive advantage to its sailing. +The ballast, if carried honestly, will not, I think, bring the vessel +to grief. The fear is lest the ballast should be thrown overboard. + +So much I have said, wishing to plead the cause of the northern +States before the bar of English opinion, and thinking that there is +ground for a plea in their favour. But yet I cannot say that their +bitterness against Englishmen has been justified, or that their tone +towards England has been dignified. Their complaint is that they +have received no sympathy from England; but it seems to me that a +great nation should not require an expression of sympathy during its +struggle. Sympathy is for the weak rather than for the strong. When +I hear two powerful men contending together in argument, I do not +sympathize with him who has the best of it; but I watch the precision +of his logic, and acknowledge the effects of his rhetoric. There has +been a whining weakness in the complaints made by Americans against +England, which has done more to lower them as a people in my judgment +than any other part of their conduct during the present crisis. When +we were at war with Russia, the feeling of the States was strongly +against us. All their wishes were with our enemies. When the Indian +mutiny was at its worst, the feeling of France was equally adverse to +us. The joy expressed by the French newspapers was almost ecstatic. +But I do not think that on either occasion we bemoaned ourselves +sadly on the want of sympathy shown by our friends. On each occasion +we took the opinion expressed for what it was worth, and managed to +live it down. We listened to what was said, and let it pass by. When +in each case we had been successful, there was an end of our friends' +croakings. + +But in the northern States of America the bitterness against England +has amounted almost to a passion. The players, those chroniclers of +the time, have had no hits so sure as those which have been aimed +at Englishmen as cowards, fools, and liars. No paper has dared to +say that England has been true in her American policy. The name +of an Englishman has been made a byword for reproach. In private +intercourse private amenities have remained. I, at any rate, may +boast that such has been the case as regards myself. But even in +private life I have been unable to keep down the feeling that I have +always been walking over smothered ashes. + +It may be that, when the civil war in America is over, all this will +pass by, and there will be nothing left of international bitterness +but its memory. It is sincerely to be hoped that this may be +so;--that even the memory of the existing feeling may fade away and +become unreal. I for one cannot think that two nations, situated as +are the States and England, should permanently quarrel and avoid each +other. But words have been spoken which will, I fear, long sound in +men's ears, and thoughts have sprung up which will not easily allow +themselves to be extinguished. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +NEW YORK. + + +Speaking of New York as a traveller I have two faults to find with +it. In the first place there is nothing to see; and in the second +place there is no mode of getting about to see anything. Nevertheless +New York is a most interesting city. It is the third biggest city +in the known world;--for those Chinese congregations of unwinged +ants are not cities in the known world. In no other city is there +a population so mixed and cosmopolitan in their modes of life. And +yet in no other city that I have seen are there such strong and +ever-visible characteristics of the social and political bearings of +the nation to which it belongs. New York appears to me as infinitely +more American than Boston, Chicago, or Washington. It has no peculiar +attribute of its own, as have those three cities; Boston in its +literature and accomplished intelligence, Chicago in its internal +trade, and Washington in its congressional and State politics. +New York has its literary aspirations, its commercial grandeur, +and,--heaven knows,--it has its politics also. But these do not +strike the visitor as being specially characteristic of the city. +That it is pre-eminently American is its glory or its disgrace,--as +men of different ways of thinking may decide upon it. Free +institutions, general education, and the ascendancy of dollars are +the words written on every paving-stone along Fifth Avenue, down +Broadway, and up Wall Street. Every man can vote, and values the +privilege. Every man can read, and uses the privilege. Every man +worships the dollar, and is down before his shrine from morning to +night. + +As regards voting and reading no American will be angry with me +for saying so much of him; and no Englishman, whatever may be his +ideas as to the franchise in his own country, will conceive that +I have said aught to the dishonour of an American. But as to that +dollar-worshipping, it will of course seem that I am abusing the New +Yorkers. We all know what a wretchedly wicked thing money is! How it +stands between us and heaven! How it hardens our hearts, and makes +vulgar our thoughts! Dives has ever gone to the devil, while Lazarus +has been laid up in heavenly lavender. The hand that employs itself +in compelling gold to enter the service of man has always been +stigmatized as the ravisher of things sacred. The world is agreed +about that, and therefore the New Yorker is in a bad way. There +are very few citizens in any town known to me which under this +dispensation are in a good way, but the New Yorker is in about the +worst way of all. Other men, the world over, worship regularly at the +shrine with matins and vespers, nones and complines, and whatever +other daily services may be known to the religious houses; but the +New Yorker is always on his knees. + +That is the amount of the charge which I bring against New York; +and now having laid on my paint thickly, I shall proceed, like an +unskilful artist, to scrape a great deal of it off again. New York +has been a leading commercial city in the world for not more than +fifty or sixty years. As far as I can learn, its population at the +close of the last century did not exceed 60,000, and ten years later +it had not reached 100,000. In 1860 it had reached nearly 800,000 in +the city of New York itself. To this number must be added the numbers +of Brooklyn, Williamsburgh, and the city of New Jersey, in order +that a true conception may be had of the population of this American +metropolis, seeing that those places are as much a part of New York +as Southwark is of London. By this the total will be swelled to +considerably above a million. It will no doubt be admitted that this +growth has been very fast, and that New York may well be proud of it. +Increase of population is, I take it, the only trustworthy sign of +a nation's success or of a city's success. We boast that London has +beaten the other cities of the world, and think that that boast is +enough to cover all the social sins for which London has to confess +her guilt. New York beginning with 60,000 sixty years since has now a +million souls;--a million mouths, all of which eat a sufficiency of +bread, all of which speak _ore rotundo_, and almost all of which can +read. And this has come of its love of dollars. + +For myself I do not believe that Dives is so black as he is painted, +or that his peril is so imminent. To reconcile such an opinion with +holy writ might place me in some difficulty were I a clergyman. +Clergymen in these days are surrounded by difficulties of this +nature, finding it necessary to explain away many old-established +teachings which narrowed the Christian Church, and to open the +door wide enough to satisfy the aspirations and natural hopes +of instructed men. The brethren of Dives are now so many and so +intelligent that they will no longer consent to be damned without +looking closely into the matter themselves. I will leave them to +settle the matter with the Church, merely assuring them of my +sympathies in their little difficulties in any case in which mere +money causes the hitch. + +To eat his bread in the sweat of his brow was man's curse in Adam's +day, but is certainly man's blessing in our day. And what is eating +one's bread in the sweat of one's brow but making money? I will +believe no man who tells me that he would not sooner earn two loaves +than one;--and if two, then two hundred. I will believe no man who +tells me that he would sooner earn one dollar a day than two;--and +if two, then two hundred. That is, in the very nature of the +argument,--_coeteris paribus_. When a man tells me that he would +prefer one honest loaf to two that are dishonest, I will, in all +possible cases, believe him. So also a man may prefer one quiet loaf +to two that are unquiet. But under circumstances that are the same, +and to a man who is sane, a whole loaf is better than half, and two +loaves are better than one. The preachers have preached well, but on +this matter they have preached in vain. Dives has never believed that +he will be damned because he is Dives. He has never even believed +that the temptations incident to his position have been more than a +fair counterpoise, or even so much as a fair counterpoise, to his +opportunities for doing good. All men who work desire to prosper +by their work, and they so desire by the nature given to them from +God. Wealth and progress must go on hand in hand together, let the +accidents which occasionally divide them for a time happen as often +as they may. The progress of the Americans has been caused by their +aptitude for money-making, and that continual kneeling at the shrine +of the coined goddess has carried them across from New York to San +Francisco. Men who kneel at that shrine are called on to have ready +wits, and quick hands, and not a little aptitude for self-denial. The +New Yorker has been true to his dollar, because his dollar has been +true to him. + +But not on this account can I, nor on this account will any +Englishman, reconcile himself to the savour of dollars which pervades +the atmosphere of New York. The _ars celare artem_ is wanting. The +making of money is the work of man; but he need not take his work +to bed with him, and have it ever by his side at table, amidst his +family, in church, while he disports himself, as he declares his +passion to the girl of his heart, in the moments of his softest +bliss, and at the periods of his most solemn ceremonies. That many +do so elsewhere than in New York,--in London, for instance, in Paris, +among the mountains of Switzerland, and the steppes of Russia, I +do not doubt. But there is generally a veil thrown over the object +of the worshipper's idolatry. In New York one's ear is constantly +filled with the fanatic's voice as he prays, one's eyes are always +on the familiar altar. The frankincense from the temple is ever in +one's nostrils. I have never walked down Fifth Avenue alone without +thinking of money. I have never walked there with a companion without +talking of it. I fancy that every man there, in order to maintain the +spirit of the place, should bear on his forehead a label stating how +many dollars he is worth, and that every label should be expected to +assert a falsehood. + +I do not think that New York has been less generous in the use of its +money than other cities, or that the men of New York generally are +so. Perhaps I might go farther and say that in no city has more been +achieved for humanity by the munificence of its richest citizens than +in New York. Its hospitals, asylums, and institutions for the relief +of all ailments to which flesh is heir, are very numerous, and beyond +praise in the excellence of their arrangements. And this has been +achieved in a great degree by private liberality. Men in America +are not as a rule anxious to leave large fortunes to their children. +The millionaire when making his will very generally gives back a +considerable portion of the wealth which he has made to the city in +which he made it. The rich citizen is always anxious that the poor +citizen shall be relieved. It is a point of honour with him to raise +the character of his municipality, and to provide that the deaf and +dumb, the blind, the mad, the idiots, the old, and the incurable +shall have such alleviation in their misfortune as skill and kindness +can afford. + +Nor is the New Yorker a hugger-mugger with his money. He does not +hide up his dollars in old stockings and keep rolls of gold in hidden +pots. He does not even invest it where it will not grow but only +produce small though sure fruit. He builds houses, he speculates +largely, he spreads himself in trade to the extent of his wings,--and +not seldom somewhat further. He scatters his wealth broadcast over +strange fields, trusting that it may grow with an increase of an +hundred-fold, but bold to bear the loss should the strange field +prove itself barren. His regret at losing his money is by no means +commensurate with his desire to make it. In this there is a living +spirit which to me divests the dollar-worshipping idolatry of +something of its ugliness. The hand when closed on the gold is +instantly reopened. The idolator is anxious to get, but he is anxious +also to spend. He is energetic to the last, and has no comfort +with his stock unless it breeds with transatlantic rapidity of +procreation. + +So much I say, being anxious to scrape off some of that daub of +black paint with which I have smeared the face of my New Yorker; but +not desiring to scrape it all off. For myself, I do not love to +live amidst the clink of gold, and never have "a good time," as the +Americans say, when the price of shares and percentages come up in +conversation. That state of men's minds here which I have endeavoured +to explain tends, I think, to make New York disagreeable. A stranger +there who has no great interest in percentages soon finds himself +anxious to escape. By degrees he perceives that he is out of his +element, and had better go away. He calls at the bank, and when he +shows himself ignorant as to the price at which his sovereigns should +be done, he is conscious that he is ridiculous. He is like a man who +goes out hunting for the first time at forty years of age. He feels +himself to be in the wrong place, and is anxious to get out of it. +Such was my experience of New York, at each of the visits that I paid +to it. + +But yet, I say again, no other American city is so intensely American +as New York. It is generally considered that the inhabitants of +New England, the Yankees properly so called, have the American +characteristics of physiognomy in the fullest degree. The lantern +jaws, the thin and lithe body, the dry face on which there has +been no tint of the rose since the baby's long-clothes were first +abandoned, the harsh, thick hair, the thin lips, the intelligent +eyes, the sharp voice with the nasal twang--not altogether harsh, +though sharp and nasal,--all these traits are supposed to belong +especially to the Yankee. Perhaps it was so once, but at present they +are, I think, more universally common in New York than in any other +part of the States. Go to Wall Street, the front of the Astor House, +and the regions about Trinity Church, and you will find them in their +fullest perfection. + +What circumstances of blood or food, of early habit or subsequent +education, have created for the latter-day American his present +physiognomy? It is as completely marked, as much his own, as is that +of any race under the sun that has bred in and in for centuries. But +the American owns a more mixed blood than any other race known. The +chief stock is English, which is itself so mixed that no man can +trace its ramifications. With this are mingled the bloods of Ireland, +Holland, France, Sweden, and Germany. All this has been done within +but a few years, so that the American may be said to have no claim +to any national type of face. Nevertheless, no man has a type of +face so clearly national as the American. He is acknowledged by it +all over the continent of Europe, and on his own side of the water +is gratified by knowing that he is never mistaken for his English +visitor. I think it comes from the hot-air pipes and from dollar +worship. In the Jesuit his mode of dealing with things divine has +given a peculiar cast of countenance; and why should not the American +be similarly moulded by his special aspirations? As to the hot-air +pipes, there can, I think, be no doubt that to them is to be charged +the murder of all rosy cheeks throughout the States. If the effect +was to be noticed simply in the dry faces of the men about Wall +Street, I should be very indifferent to the matter. But the young +ladies of Fifth Avenue are in the same category. The very pith and +marrow of life is baked out of their young bones by the hot-air +chambers to which they are accustomed. Hot air is the great destroyer +of American beauty. + +In saying that there is very little to be seen in New York, I have +also said that there is no way of seeing that little. My assertion +amounts to this,--that there are no cabs. To the reading world at +large this may not seem to be much, but let the reading world go to +New York, and it will find out how much the deficiency means. In +London, in Paris, in Florence, in Rome, in the Havana, or at Grand +Cairo, the cab-driver or attendant does not merely drive the cab or +belabour the donkey, but he is the visitor's easiest and cheapest +guide. In London, the Tower, Westminster Abbey, and Madame Tussaud, +are found by the stranger without difficulty, and almost without a +thought, because the cab-driver knows the whereabouts and the way. +Space is moreover annihilated, and the huge distances of the English +metropolis are brought within the scope of mortal power. But in New +York there is no such institution. + +In New York there are street omnibuses as we have,--there are +street cars such as last year we declined to have,--and there +are very excellent public carriages; but none of these give you +the accommodation of a cab, nor can all of them combined do +so. The omnibuses, though clean and excellent, were to me very +unintelligible. They have no conductor to them. To know their +different lines and usages a man should have made a scientific study +of the city. To those going up and down Broadway I became accustomed, +but in them I was never quite at my ease. The money has to be paid +through a little hole behind the driver's back, and should, as I +learned at last, be paid immediately on entrance. But in getting up +to do this I always stumbled about, and it would happen that when +with considerable difficulty I had settled my own account, two or +three ladies would enter, and would hand me, without a word, some +coins with which I had no life-long familiarity in order that I might +go through the same ceremony on their account. The change I would +usually drop into the straw, and then there would arise trouble and +unhappiness. Before I became aware of that law as to instant payment, +bells used to be rung at me which made me uneasy. I knew I was not +behaving as a citizen should behave, but could not compass the exact +points of my delinquency. And then when I desired to escape, the door +being strapped up tight, I would halloo vainly at the driver through +the little hole; whereas, had I known my duty, I should have rung +a bell, or pulled a strap, according to the nature of the omnibus +in question. In a month or two all these things may possibly be +learned;--but the visitor requires his facilities for locomotion at +the first moment of his entrance into the city. I heard it asserted +by a lecturer in Boston, Mr. Wendell Phillips, whose name is there +a household word, that citizens of the United States carried brains +in their fingers as well as in their heads, whereas "common people," +by which Mr. Phillips intended to designate the remnant of mankind +beyond the United States, were blessed with no such extended cerebral +development. Having once learned this fact from Mr. Phillips, +I understood why it was that a New York omnibus should be so +disagreeable to me, and at the same time so suitable to the wants of +the New Yorkers. + +And then there are street cars--very long omnibuses--which run on +rails but are dragged by horses. They are capable of holding forty +passengers each, and as far as my experience goes carry an average +load of sixty. The fare of the omnibus is six cents or three pence. +That of the street car five cents or two pence halfpenny. They run +along the different avenues, taking the length of the city. In the +upper or new part of the town their course is simple enough, but +as they descend to the Bowery, Peckslip, and Pearl Street, nothing +can be conceived more difficult or devious than their courses. The +Broadway omnibus, on the other hand, is a straightforward honest +vehicle in the lower part of the town, becoming, however, dangerous +and miscellaneous when it ascends to Union Square and the vicinities +of fashionable life. + +The street cars are manned with conductors, and therefore are free +from many of the perils of the omnibus, but they have perils of their +own. They are always quite full. By that I mean that every seat is +crowded, that there is a double row of men and women standing down +the centre, and that the driver's platform in front is full, and also +the conductor's platform behind. That is the normal condition of a +street car in the Third Avenue. You, as a stranger in the middle of +the car, wish to be put down at, let us say, 89th Street. In the map +of New York now before me the cross streets running from east to +west are numbered up northwards as far as 154th Street. It is quite +useless for you to give the number as you enter. Even an American +conductor, with brains all over him, and an anxious desire to +accommodate, as is the case with all these men, cannot remember. You +are left therefore in misery to calculate the number of the street +as you move along, vainly endeavouring through the misty glass to +decipher the small numbers which after a day or two you perceive to +be written on the lamp posts. + +But I soon gave up all attempts at keeping a seat in one of these +cars. It became my practice to sit down on the outside iron rail +behind, and as the conductor generally sat in my lap I was in a +measure protected. As for the inside of these vehicles, the women +of New York were, I must confess, too much for me. I would no +sooner place myself on a seat, than I would be called on by a mute, +unexpressive, but still impressive stare into my face, to surrender +my place. From cowardice if not from gallantry I would always obey; +and as this led to discomfort and an irritated spirit, I preferred +nursing the conductor on the hard bar in the rear. + +And here if I seem to say a word against women in America, I beg that +it may be understood that I say that word only against a certain +class; and even as to that class I admit that they are respectable, +intelligent, and, as I believe, industrious. Their manners, however, +are to me more odious than those of any other human beings that I +ever met elsewhere. Nor can I go on with that which I have to say +without carrying my apology further, lest perchance I should be +misunderstood by some American women whom I would not only exclude +from my censure, but would include in the very warmest eulogium which +words of mine could express as to those of the female sex whom I love +and admire the most. I have known, do know, and mean to continue +to know as far as in me may lie, American ladies as bright, as +beautiful, as graceful, as sweet, as mortal limits for brightness, +beauty, grace, and sweetness will permit. They belong to the +aristocracy of the land, by whatever means they may have become +aristocrats. In America one does not inquire as to their birth, their +training, or their old names. The fact of their aristocratic power +comes out in every word and look. It is not only so with those who +have travelled or with those who are rich. I have found female +aristocrats with families and slender means, who have as yet made +no grand tour across the ocean. These women are charming beyond +expression. It is not only their beauty. Had he been speaking of +such, Wendell Phillips would have been right in saying that they have +brains all over them. So much for those who are bright and beautiful, +who are graceful and sweet! And now a word as to those who to me are +neither bright nor beautiful, and who can be to none either graceful +or sweet. + +It is a hard task that of speaking ill of any woman, but it seems +to me that he who takes upon himself to praise incurs the duty of +dispraising also where dispraise is, or to him seems to be, deserved. +The trade of a novelist is very much that of describing the softness, +sweetness, and loving dispositions of women; and this he does, +copying as best he can from nature. But if he only sings of that +which is sweet, whereas that which is not sweet too frequently +presents itself, his song will in the end be untrue and ridiculous. +Women are entitled to much observance from men, but they are entitled +to no observance which is incompatible with truth. Women, by the +conventional laws of society, are allowed to exact much from men, +but they are allowed to exact nothing for which they should not make +some adequate return. It is well that a man should kneel in spirit +before the grace and weakness of a woman, but it is not well that he +should kneel either in spirit or body if there be neither grace nor +weakness. A man should yield everything to a woman for a word, for a +smile,--to one look of entreaty. But if there be no look of entreaty, +no word, no smile, I do not see that he is called upon to yield much. + +The happy privileges with which women are at present blessed have +come to them from the spirit of chivalry. That spirit has taught men +to endure in order that women may be at their ease; and has generally +taught women to accept the ease bestowed on them with grace and +thankfulness. But in America the spirit of chivalry has sunk deeper +among men than it has among women. It must be borne in mind that in +that country material well-being and education are more extended than +with us; and that, therefore, men there have learned to be chivalrous +who with us have hardly progressed so far. The conduct of men to +women throughout the States is always gracious. They have learned the +lesson. But it seems to me that the women have not advanced as far +as the men have done. They have acquired a sufficient perception of +the privileges which chivalry gives them, but no perception of that +return which chivalry demands from them. Women of the class to which +I allude are always talking of their rights, but seem to have a most +indifferent idea of their duties. They have no scruple at demanding +from men everything that a man can be called on to relinquish in a +woman's behalf, but they do so without any of that grace which turns +the demand made into a favour conferred. + +I have seen much of this in various cities of America, but much +more of it in New York than elsewhere. I have heard young Americans +complain of it, swearing that they must change the whole tenor of +their habits towards women. I have heard American ladies speak of it +with loathing and disgust. For myself, I have entertained on sundry +occasions that sort of feeling for an American woman which the close +vicinity of an unclean animal produces. I have spoken of this with +reference to street cars, because in no position of life does an +unfortunate man become more liable to these anti-feminine atrocities +than in the centre of one of these vehicles. The woman, as she +enters, drags after her a misshapen, dirty mass of battered wirework, +which she calls her crinoline, and which adds as much to her grace +and comfort as a log of wood does to a donkey when tied to the +animal's leg in a paddock. Of this she takes much heed, not managing +it so that it may be conveyed up the carriage with some decency, but +striking it about against men's legs, and heaving it with violence +over people's knees. The touch of a real woman's dress is in itself +delicate; but these blows from a harpy's fins are loathsome. If +there be two of them they talk loudly together, having a theory that +modesty has been put out of court by women's rights. But, though +not modest, the woman I describe is ferocious in her propriety. She +ignores the whole world around her, and as she sits with raised chin +and face flattened by affectation, she pretends to declare aloud that +she is positively not aware that any man is even near her. She speaks +as though to her, in her womanhood, the neighbourhood of men was the +same as that of dogs or cats. They are there, but she does not hear +them, see them, or even acknowledge them by any courtesy of motion. +But her own face always gives her the lie. In her assumption of +indifference she displays her nasty consciousness, and in each +attempt at a would-be propriety is guilty of an immodesty. Who does +not know the timid retiring face of the young girl who when alone +among men unknown to her feels that it becomes her to keep herself +secluded? As many men as there are around her, so many knights has +such a one, ready bucklered for her service, should occasion require +such services. Should it not, she passes on unmolested,--but not, as +she herself will wrongly think, unheeded. But as to her of whom I am +speaking, we may say that every twist of her body, and every tone +of her voice is an unsuccessful falsehood. She looks square at you +in the face, and you rise to give her your seat. You rise from a +deference to your own old convictions, and from that courtesy which +you have ever paid to a woman's dress, let it be worn with ever such +hideous deformities. She takes the place from which you have moved +without a word or a bow. She twists herself round, banging your shins +with her wires, while her chin is still raised, and her face is still +flattened, and she directs her friend's attention to another seated +man, as though that place were also vacant, and necessarily at her +disposal. Perhaps the man opposite has his own ideas about chivalry. +I have seen such a thing, and have rejoiced to see it. + +You will meet these women daily, hourly,--everywhere in the streets. +Now and again you will find them in society, making themselves even +more odious there than elsewhere. Who they are, whence they come, +and why they are so unlike that other race of women of which I have +spoken, you will settle for yourself. Do we not all say of our chance +acquaintances after half an hour's conversation,--nay, after half an +hour spent in the same room without conversation,--that this woman +is a lady, and that that other woman is not? They jostle each other +even among us, but never seem to mix. They are closely allied; but +neither imbues the other with her attributes. Both shall be equally +well-born, or both shall be equally ill-born; but still it is so. +The contrast exists in England; but in America it is much stronger. +In England women become ladylike or vulgar. In the States they are +either charming or odious. + +See that female walking down Broadway. She is not exactly such a +one as her I have attempted to describe on her entrance into the +street car; for this lady is well-dressed, if fine clothes will +make well-dressing. The machinery of her hoops is not battered, and +altogether she is a personage much more distinguished in all her +expenditures. But yet she is a copy of the other woman. Look at the +train which she drags behind her over the dirty pavement, where dogs +have been, and chewers of tobacco, and everything concerned with +filth except a scavenger. At every hundred yards some unhappy man +treads upon the silken swab which she trails behind her,--loosening +it dreadfully at the girth one would say; and then see the style +of face and the expression of features with which she accepts the +sinner's half-muttered apology. The world, she supposes, owes her +everything because of her silken train,--even room enough in a +crowded thoroughfare to drag it along unmolested. But, according to +her theory, she owes the world nothing in return. She is a woman with +perhaps a hundred dollars on her back, and having done the world +the honour of wearing them in the world's presence, expects to be +repaid by the world's homage and chivalry. But chivalry owes her +nothing,--nothing, though she walk about beneath a hundred times +a hundred dollars,--nothing even though she be a woman. Let every +woman learn this,--that chivalry owes her nothing unless she also +acknowledge her debt to chivalry. She must acknowledge it and pay it; +and then chivalry will not be backward in making good her claims upon +it. + +All this has come of the street cars. But as it was necessary that I +should say it somewhere, it is as well said on that subject as on any +other. And now to continue with the street cars. They run, as I have +said, the length of the town, taking parallel lines. They will take +you from the Astor House, near the bottom of the town, for miles and +miles northward,--half way up the Hudson river,--for, I believe, five +pence. They are very slow, averaging about five miles an hour; but +they are very sure. For regular inhabitants, who have to travel five +or six miles perhaps to their daily work, they are excellent. I have +nothing really to say against the street cars. But they do not fill +the place of cabs. + +There are, however, public carriages, roomy vehicles dragged by two +horses, clean and nice, and very well suited to ladies visiting the +city. But they have none of the attributes of the cab. As a rule they +are not to be found standing about. They are very slow. They are very +dear. A dollar an hour is the regular charge; but one cannot regulate +one's motion by the hour. Going out to dinner and back costs two +dollars, over a distance which in London would cost two shillings. As +a rule, the cost is four times that of a cab; and the rapidity half +that of a cab. Under these circumstances I think I am justified in +saying that there is no mode of getting about in New York to see +anything. + +And now as to the other charge against New York, of there being +nothing to see. How should there be anything there to see of general +interest? In other large cities, cities as large in name as New York, +there are works of art, fine buildings, ruins, ancient churches, +picturesque costumes, and the tombs of celebrated men. But in New +York there are none of these things. Art has not yet grown up there. +One or two fine figures by Crawford are in the town,--especially +that of the sorrowing Indian at the rooms of the Historical Society; +but art is a luxury in a city which follows but slowly on the heels +of wealth and civilization. Of fine buildings,--which indeed are +comprised in art,--there are none deserving special praise or remark. +It might well have been that New York should ere this have graced +herself with something grand in architecture; but she has not done +so. Some good architectural effect there is, and much architectural +comfort. Of ruins of course there can be none; none at least of such +ruins as travellers admire, though perhaps some of that sort which +disgraces rather than decorates. Churches there are plenty, but none +that are ancient. The costume is the same as our own; and I need +hardly say that it is not picturesque. And the time for the tombs of +celebrated men has not yet come. A great man's ashes are hardly of +value till they have all but ceased to exist. + +The visitor to New York must seek his gratification and obtain his +instruction from the habits and manners of men. The American, though +he dresses like an Englishman, and eats roast beef with a silver +fork,--or sometimes with a steel knife,--as does an Englishman, +is not like an Englishman in his mind, in his aspirations, in +his tastes, or in his politics. In his mind he is quicker, more +universally intelligent, more ambitious of general knowledge, less +indulgent of stupidity and ignorance in others, harder, sharper, +brighter with the surface brightness of steel, than is an Englishman; +but he is more brittle, less enduring, less malleable, and I think +less capable of impressions. The mind of the Englishman has more +imagination, but that of the American more incision. The American is +a great observer, but he observes things material rather than things +social or picturesque. He is a constant and ready speculator; but all +speculations, even those which come of philosophy, are with him more +or less material. In his aspirations the American is more constant +than an Englishman,--or I should rather say he is more constant +in aspiring. Every citizen of the United States intends to do +something. Every one thinks himself capable of some effort. But in +his aspirations he is more limited than an Englishman. The ambitious +American never soars so high as the ambitious Englishman. He does +not even see up to so great a height; and when he has raised himself +somewhat above the crowd becomes sooner dizzy with his own altitude. +An American of mark, though always anxious to show his mark, is +always fearful of a fall. In his tastes the American imitates the +Frenchman. Who shall dare to say that he is wrong, seeing that +in general matters of design and luxury the French have won for +themselves the foremost name? I will not say that the American is +wrong, but I cannot avoid thinking that he is so. I detest what is +called French taste; but the world is against me. When I complained +to a landlord of an hotel out in the West that his furniture was +useless; that I could not write at a marble table whose outside rim +was curved into fantastic shapes; that a gold clock in my bedroom +which did not go would give me no aid in washing myself; that a +heavy, immoveable curtain shut out the light; and that papier-mache +chairs with small fluffy velvet seats were bad to sit on,--he +answered me completely by telling me that his house had been +furnished not in accordance with the taste of England, but with +that of France. I acknowledged the rebuke, gave up my pursuits of +literature and cleanliness, and hurried out of the house as quickly +as I could. All America is now furnishing itself by the rules which +guided that hotel-keeper. I do not merely allude to actual household +furniture,--to chairs, tables, and detestable gilt clocks. The taste +of America is becoming French in its conversation, French in its +comforts and French in its discomforts, French in its eating, and +French in its dress, French in its manners, and will become French in +its art. There are those who will say that English taste is taking +the same direction. I do not think so. I strongly hope that it is not +so. And therefore I say that an Englishman and an American differ in +their tastes. + +But of all differences between an Englishman and an American that +in politics is the strongest, and the most essential. I cannot here, +in one paragraph, define that difference with sufficient clearness +to make my definition satisfactory; but I trust that some idea of +that difference may be conveyed by the general tenor of my book. The +American and the Englishman are both Republicans. The governments +of the States and of England are probably the two purest republican +governments in the world. I do not, of course, here mean to say that +the governments are more pure than others, but that the systems +are more absolutely republican. And yet no men can be much further +asunder in politics than the Englishman and the American. The +American of the present day puts a ballot-box into the hands of every +citizen and takes his stand upon that and that only. It is the duty +of an American citizen to vote, and when he has voted he need trouble +himself no further till the time for voting shall come round again. +The candidate for whom he has voted represents his will, if he have +voted with the majority, and in that case he has no right to look +for further influence. If he have voted with the minority, he has no +right to look for any influence at all. In either case he has done +his political work, and may go about his business till the next year +or the next two or four years shall have come round. The Englishman, +on the other hand, will have no ballot-box, and is by no means +inclined to depend exclusively upon voters or upon voting. As far +as voting can show it, he desires to get the sense of the country; +but he does not think that that sense will be shown by universal +suffrage. He thinks that property amounting to a thousand pounds +will show more of that sense than property amounting to a hundred; +but he will not on that account go to work and apportion votes to +wealth. He thinks that the educated can show more of that sense than +the uneducated; but he does not therefore lay down any rule about +reading, writing, and arithmetic, or apportion votes to learning. He +prefers that all these opinions of his shall bring themselves out and +operate by their own intrinsic weight. Nor does he at all confine +himself to voting in his anxiety to get the sense of the country. He +takes it in any way that it will show itself, uses it for what it is +worth,--or perhaps for more than it is worth,--and welds it into that +gigantic lever by which the political action of the country is moved. +Every man in Great Britain, whether he possess any actual vote or no, +can do that which is tantamount to voting every day of his life, by +the mere expression of his opinion. Public opinion in America has +hitherto been nothing, unless it has managed to express itself by a +majority of ballot-boxes. Public opinion in England is everything, +let votes go as they may. Let the people want a measure, and there +is no doubt of their obtaining it. Only the people must want +it;--as they did want Catholic emancipation, reform, and corn-law +repeal;--and as they would want war if it were brought home to them +that their country was insulted. + +In attempting to describe this difference in the political action of +the two countries, I am very far from taking all praise for England +or throwing any reproach on the States. The political action of the +States is undoubtedly the more logical and the clearer. That indeed +of England is so illogical and so little clear that it would be quite +impossible for any other nation to assume it, merely by resolving to +do so. Whereas the political action of the States might be assumed by +any nation to-morrow, and all its strength might be carried across +the water in a few written rules as are the prescriptions of a +physician or the regulations of an infirmary. With us the thing has +grown of habit, has been fostered by tradition, has crept up uncared +for and in some parts unnoticed. It can be written in no book, can be +described in no words, can be copied by no statesmen, and I almost +believe can be understood by no people but that to whose peculiar +uses it has been adapted. + +In speaking as I have here done of American taste and American +politics I must allude to a special class of Americans who are to be +met more generally in New York than elsewhere,--men who are educated, +who have generally travelled, who are almost always agreeable, but +who as regards their politics are to me the most objectionable of all +men. As regards taste they are objectionable to me also. But that is +a small thing; and as they are quite as likely to be right as I am I +will say nothing against their taste. But in politics it seems to me +that these men have fallen into the bitterest and perhaps into the +basest of errors. Of the man who begins his life with mean political +ideas, having sucked them in with his mother's milk, there may be +some hope. The evil is at any rate the fault of his forefathers +rather than of himself. But who can have hope of him who, having been +thrown by birth and fortune into the running river of free political +activity, has allowed himself to be drifted into the stagnant level +of general political servility? There are very many such Americans. +They call themselves republicans, and sneer at the idea of a limited +monarchy, but they declare that there is no republic so safe, so +equal for all men, so purely democratic as that now existing in +France. Under the French empire all men are equal. There is no +aristocracy; no oligarchy; no overshadowing of the little by the +great. One superior is admitted;--admitted on earth, as a superior is +also admitted in heaven. Under him everything is level, and--provided +he be not impeded--everything is free. He knows how to rule, and the +nation, allowing him the privilege of doing so, can go along its +course safely;--can eat, drink, and be merry. If few men can rise +high, so also can few men fall low. Political equality is the one +thing desirable in a commonwealth, and by this arrangement political +equality is obtained. Such is the modern creed of many an educated +republican of the States. + +To me it seems that such a political state is about the vilest to +which a man can descend. It amounts to a tacit abandonment of the +struggle which men are making for political truth and political +beneficence, in order that bread and meat may be eaten in peace +during the score of years or so that are at the moment passing over +us. The politicians of this class have decided for themselves that +the _summum bonum_ is to be found in bread and the circus games. +If they be free to eat, free to rest, free to sleep, free to drink +little cups of coffee while the world passes before them on a +boulevard, they have that freedom which they covet. But equality is +necessary as well as freedom. There must be no towering trees in this +parterre to overshadow the clipped shrubs, and destroy the uniformity +of a growth which should never mount more than two feet above the +earth. The equality of this politician would forbid any to rise above +him instead of inviting all to rise up to him. It is the equality +of fear and of selfishness, and not the equality of courage and +philanthropy. And brotherhood too must be invoked,--fraternity as we +may better call it in the jargon of the school. Such politicians tell +one much of fraternity, and define it too. It consists in a general +raising of the hat to all mankind; in a daily walk that never hurries +itself into a jostling trot, inconvenient to passengers on the +pavement;--in a placid voice, a soft smile, and a small cup of coffee +on a boulevard. It means all this, but I could never find that it +meant any more. There is a nation for which one is almost driven to +think that such political aspirations as these are suitable; but that +nation is certainly not the States of America. + +And yet one finds many American gentlemen who have allowed themselves +to be drifted into such a theory. They have begun the world as +republican citizens, and as such they must go on. But in their +travels and their studies, and in the luxury of their life, they have +learned to dislike the rowdiness of their country's politics. They +want things to be soft and easy;--as republican as you please, but +with as little noise as possible. The President is there for four +years. Why not elect him for eight, for twelve, or for life?--for +eternity if it were possible to find one who could continue to live? +It is to this way of thinking that Americans are driven, when the +polish of Europe has made the roughness of their own elections odious +to them. + +"Have you seen any of our great institootions, sir?" That of course +is a question which is put to every Englishman who has visited New +York, and the Englishman who intends to say that he has seen New +York, should visit many of them. I went to schools, hospitals, +lunatic asylums, institutes for deaf and dumb, water works, +historical societies, telegraph offices, and large commercial +establishments. I rather think that I did my work in a thorough +and conscientious manner, and I owe much gratitude to those who +guided me on such occasions. Perhaps I ought to describe all these +institutions; but were I to do so, I fear that I should inflict fifty +or sixty very dull pages on my readers. If I could make all that I +saw as clear and intelligible to others as it was made to me who saw +it, I might do some good. But I know that I should fail. I marvelled +much at the developed intelligence of a room full of deaf and dumb +pupils, and was greatly astonished at the performance of one special +girl, who seemed to be brighter and quicker, and more rapidly easy +with her pen than girls generally are who can hear and talk; but I +cannot convey my enthusiasm to others. On such a subject a writer may +be correct, may be exhaustive, may be statistically great; but he +can hardly be entertaining, and the chances are that he will not be +instructive. + +In all such matters, however, New York is preeminently great. All +through the States suffering humanity receives so much attention that +humanity can hardly be said to suffer. The daily recurring boast of +"our glorious institootions, sir," always provokes the ridicule of an +Englishman. The words have become ridiculous, and it would, I think, +be well for the nation if the term "Institution" could be excluded +from its vocabulary. But, in truth, they are glorious. The country in +this respects boasts, but it has done that which justifies a boast. +The arrangements for supplying New York with water are magnificent. +The drainage of the new part of the city is excellent. The +hospitals are almost alluring. The lunatic asylum which I saw was +perfect,--though I did not feel obliged to the resident physician +for introducing me to all the worst patients as countrymen of my own. +"An English lady, Mr. Trollope. I'll introduce you. Quite a hopeless +case. Two old women. They've been here fifty years. They're English. +Another gentleman from England, Mr. Trollope. A very interesting +case! Confirmed inebriety." + +And as to the schools, it is almost impossible to mention them with +too high a praise. I am speaking here specially of New York, though +I might say the same of Boston, or of all New England. I do not know +any contrast that would be more surprising to an Englishman, up to +that moment ignorant of the matter, than that which he would find by +visiting first of all a free school in London, and then a free school +in New York. If he would also learn the number of children that are +educated gratuitously in each of the two cities, and also the number +in each which altogether lack education, he would, if susceptible of +statistics, be surprised also at that. But seeing and hearing are +always more effective than mere figures. The female pupil at a free +school in London is, as a rule, either a ragged pauper, or a charity +girl, if not degraded at least stigmatized by the badges and dress +of the Charity. We Englishmen know well the type of each, and have a +fairly correct idea of the amount of education which is imparted to +them. We see the result afterwards when the same girls become our +servants, and the wives of our grooms and porters. The female pupil +at a free school in New York is neither a pauper nor a charity girl. +She is dressed with the utmost decency. She is perfectly cleanly. In +speaking to her, you cannot in any degree guess whether her father +has a dollar a day, or three thousand dollars a year. Nor will you +be enabled to guess by the manner in which her associates treat her. +As regards her own manner to you, it is always the same as though +her father were in all respects your equal. As to the amount of her +knowledge, I fairly confess that it is terrific. When, in the first +room which I visited, a slight slim creature was had up before me +to explain to me the properties of the hypothenuse I fairly confess +that, as regards education, I backed down, and that I resolved to +confine my criticisms to manner, dress, and general behaviour. In +the next room I was more at my ease, finding that ancient Roman +history was on the tapis. "Why did the Romans run away with the +Sabine women?" asked the mistress, herself a young woman of about +three-and-twenty. "Because they were pretty," simpered out a +little girl with a cherry mouth. The answer did not give complete +satisfaction; and then followed a somewhat abstruse explanation +on the subject of population. It was all done with good faith and +a serious intent, and showed what it was intended to show,--that +the girls there educated had in truth reached the consideration of +important subjects, and that they were leagues beyond that terrible +repetition of A B C, to which, I fear, that most of our free +metropolitan schools are still necessarily confined. You and I, +reader, were we called on to superintend the education of girls of +sixteen, might not select as favourite points either the hypothenuse, +or the ancient methods of populating young colonies. There may be, +and to us on the European side of the Atlantic there will be, a +certain amount of absurdity in the transatlantic idea that all +knowledge is knowledge, and that it should be imparted if it be not +knowledge of evil. But as to the general result, no fair-minded man +or woman can have a doubt. That the lads and girls in these schools +are excellently educated comes home as a fact to the mind of any one +who will look into the subject. That girl could not have got as far +as the hypothenuse without a competent and abiding knowledge of much +that is very far beyond the outside limits of what such girls know +with us. It was at least manifest in the other examination that the +girls knew as well as I did who were the Romans, and who were the +Sabine women. That all this is of use, was shown in the very gestures +and bearings of the girl. _Emollit mores_, as Colonel Newcombe used +to say. That young woman whom I had watched while she cooked her +husband's dinner upon the banks of the Mississippi, had doubtless +learned all about the Sabine women, and I feel assured that she +cooked her husband's dinner all the better for that knowledge,--and +faced the hardships of the world with a better front than she would +have done had she been ignorant on the subject. + +In order to make a comparison between the schools of London and those +of New York, I have called them both free schools. They are in fact +more free in New York than they are in London, because in New York +every boy and girl, let his parentage be what it may, can attend +these schools without any payment. Thus an education as good as the +American mind can compass, prepared with every care, carried on by +highly paid tutors, under ample surveillance, provided with all that +is most excellent in the way of rooms, desks, books, charts, maps, +and implements, is brought actually within the reach of everybody. +I need not point out to Englishmen how different is the nature of +schools in London. It must not, however, be supposed that these are +charity schools. Such is not their nature. Let us say what we may +as to the beauty of charity as a virtue, the recipient of charity +in its customary sense among us is ever more or less degraded by +the position. In the States that has been fully understood, and +the schools to which I allude are carefully preserved from any +such taint. Throughout the States a separate tax is levied for the +maintenance of these schools, and as the tax-payer supports them, +he is of course entitled to the advantage which they confer. The +child of the non-tax-payer is also entitled, and to him the boon, if +strictly analysed, will come in the shape of a charity. But under +the system as it is arranged, this is not analysed. It is understood +that the school is open to all in the ward to which it belongs, and +no inquiry is made whether the pupil's parent has or has not paid +anything towards the school's support. I found this theory carried +out so far that at the deaf and dumb school, where some of the poorer +children are wholly provided by the institution, care is taken to +clothe them in dresses of different colours and different make, in +order that nothing may attach to them which has the appearance of a +badge. Political economists will see something of evil in this. But +philanthropists will see very much that is good. + +It is not without a purpose that I have given this somewhat glowing +account of a girls' school in New York so soon after my little +picture of New York women, as they behave themselves in the streets +and street cars. It will, of course, be said that those women of whom +I have spoken, by no means in terms of admiration, are the very girls +whose education has been so excellent. This of course is so; but I +beg to remark that I have by no means said that an excellent school +education will produce all female excellences. The fact, I take it, +is this,--that seeing how high in the scale these girls have been +raised, one is anxious that they should be raised higher. One is +surprised at their pert vulgarity and hideous airs, not because they +are so low in our general estimation but because they are so high. +Women of the same class in London are humble enough, and therefore +rarely offend us who are squeamish. They show by their gestures that +they hardly think themselves good enough to sit by us; they apologise +for their presence; they conceive it to be their duty to be lowly +in their gestures. The question is which is best, the crouching and +crawling or the impudent unattractive self-composure. Not, my reader, +which action on her part may the better conduce to my comfort or to +yours! That is by no means the question. Which is the better for +the woman herself? That I take it is the point to be decided. That +there is something better than either we shall all agree;--but to my +thinking the crouching and crawling is the lowest type of all. + +At that school I saw some five or six hundred girls collected in one +room, and heard them sing. The singing was very pretty, and it was +all very nice; but I own that I was rather startled, and to tell the +truth somewhat abashed, when I was invited to "say a few words to +them." No idea of such a suggestion had dawned upon me, and I felt +myself quite at a loss. To be called up before five hundred men is +bad enough, but how much worse before that number of girls! What +could I say but that they were all very pretty? As far as I can +remember I did say that and nothing else. Very pretty they were, and +neatly dressed, and attractive; but among them all there was not a +pair of rosy cheeks. How should there be, when every room in the +building was heated up to the condition of an oven by those damnable +hot-air pipes! + +In England a taste for very large shops has come up during the last +twenty years. A firm is not doing a good business, or at any rate +a distinguished business, unless he can assert in his trade card +that he occupies at least half a dozen houses--Nos. 105, 106, 107, +108, 109, and 110. The old way of paying for what you want over +the counter is gone; and when you buy a yard of tape or a new +carriage,--for either of which articles you will probably visit the +same establishment,--you go through about the same amount of ceremony +as when you sell a thousand pounds out of the stocks in propria +persona. But all this is still further exaggerated in New York. Mr. +Stewart's store there is perhaps the handsomest institution in the +city, and his hall of audience for new carpets is a magnificent +saloon. "You have nothing like that in England," my friend said to +me as he walked me through it in triumph. "I wish we had nothing +approaching to it," I answered. For I confess to a liking for +the old-fashioned private shops. Harper's establishment for the +manufacture and sale of books is also very wonderful. Everything is +done on the premises, down to the very colouring of the paper which +lines the covers, and places the gilding on their backs. The firm +prints, engraves, electroplates, sews, binds, publishes, and sells +wholesale and retail. I have no doubt that the authors have rooms in +the attics where the other slight initiatory step is taken towards +the production of literature. + +New York is built upon an island, which is I believe about ten +miles long, counting from the southern point at the Battery up +to Carmansville, to which place the city is presumed to extend +northwards. This island is called Manhattan,--a name which I have +always thought would have been more graceful for the city than that +of New York. It is formed by the Sound or East river, which divides +the continent from Long Island, by the Hudson river which runs into +the Sound or rather joins it at the city foot, and by a small stream +called the Haarlem river which runs out of the Hudson and meanders +away into the Sound at the north of the city, thus cutting the city +off from the main land. The breadth of the island does not much +exceed two miles, and therefore the city is long, and not capable of +extension in point of breadth. In its old days it clustered itself +round about the Point, and stretched itself up from there along +the quays of the two waters. The streets down in this part of the +town are devious enough, twisting themselves about with delightful +irregularity; but as the city grew there came the taste for +parallelograms, and the upper streets are rectangular and numbered. +Broadway, the street of New York with which the world is generally +best acquainted, begins at the southern point of the town and goes +northward through it. For some two miles and a half it walks away in +a straight line, and then it turns to the left towards the Hudson, +and becomes in fact a continuation of another street called the +Bowery, which comes up in a devious course from the south-east +extremity of the island. From that time Broadway never again takes +a straight course, but crosses the various Avenues in an oblique +direction till it becomes the Bloomingdale road, and under that +name takes itself out of town. There are eleven so-called Avenues, +which descend in absolutely straight lines from the northern, and +at present unsettled, extremity of the new town, making their way +southward till they lose themselves among the old streets. These are +called First Avenue, Second Avenue, and so on. The town had already +progressed two miles up northwards from the Battery before it had +caught the parallelogrammic fever from Philadelphia, for at about +that distance we find "First Street." First Street runs across the +Avenues from water to water, and then Second Street. I will not name +them all, seeing that they go up to 154th Street! They do so at least +on the map, and I believe on the lamp-posts. But the houses are not +yet built in order beyond 50th or 60th Street. The other hundred +streets, each of two miles long, with the Avenues which are mostly +unoccupied for four or five miles, is the ground over which the young +New Yorkers are to spread themselves. I do not in the least doubt +that they will occupy it all, and that 154th Street will find itself +too narrow a boundary for the population. + +I have said that there was some good architectural effect in New +York, and I alluded chiefly to that of the Fifth Avenue. The Fifth +Avenue is the Belgrave Square, the Park Lane, and the Pall Mall of +New York. It is certainly a very fine street. The houses in it are +magnificent, not having that aristocratic look which some of our +detached London residences enjoy, or the palatial appearance of an +old-fashioned hotel in Paris, but an air of comfortable luxury and +commercial wealth which is not excelled by the best houses of any +other town that I know. They are houses, not hotels or palaces; but +they are very roomy houses, with every luxury that complete finish +can give them. Many of them cover large spaces of ground, and their +rent will sometimes go up as high as L800 and L1000 a year. Generally +the best of these houses are owned by those who live in them, and +rent is not therefore paid. But this is not always the case, and the +sums named above may be taken as expressing their value. In England +a man should have a very large income indeed who could afford to pay +L1000 a year for his house in London. Such a one would as a matter of +course have an establishment in the country, and be an Earl or a Duke +or a millionaire. But it is different in New York. The resident there +shows his wealth chiefly by his house, and though he may probably +have a villa at Newport or a box somewhere up the Hudson he has no +second establishment. Such a house therefore will not represent a +total expenditure of above L4,000 a year. + +There are churches on each side of Fifth Avenue,--perhaps five or +six within sight at one time,--which add much to the beauty of the +street. They are well-built, and in fairly good taste. These, added +to the general well-being and splendid comfort of the place, give it +an effect better than the architecture of the individual houses would +seem to warrant. I own that I have enjoyed the vista as I have walked +up and down Fifth Avenue, and have felt that the city had a right to +be proud of its wealth. But the greatness and beauty and glory of +wealth have on such occasions been all in all with me. I know no +great man, no celebrated statesman, no philanthropist of peculiar +note who has lived in Fifth Avenue. That gentleman on the right made +a million of dollars by inventing a shirt-collar; this one on the +left electrified the world by a lotion; as to the gentleman at the +corner there,--there are rumours about him and the Cuban slave-trade; +but my informant by no means knows that they are true. Such are the +aristocracy of Fifth Avenue. I can only say that if I could make a +million dollars by a lotion, I should certainly be right to live in +such a house as one of those. + +The suburbs of New York are, by the nature of the localities, divided +from the city by water. New Jersey and Hoboken are on the other side +of the Hudson, and in another State. Williamsburgh and Brooklyn are +in Long Island, which is a part of the State of New York. But these +places are as easily reached as Lambeth is reached from Westminster. +Steam ferries ply every three or four minutes, and into these boats +coaches, carts, and waggons of any size or weight are driven. In fact +they make no other stoppage to the commerce than that occasioned by +the payment of a few cents. Such payment no doubt is a stoppage, and +therefore it is that New Jersey, Brooklyn, and Williamsburgh are, at +any rate in appearance, very dull and uninviting. They are, however, +very populous. Many of the quieter citizens prefer to live there; and +I am told that the Brooklyn tea-parties consider themselves to be, in +aesthetic feeling, very much ahead of anything of the kind in the more +opulent centres of the city. In beauty of scenery Staten Island is +very much the prettiest of the suburbs of New York. The view from the +hill side in Staten Island down upon New York harbour is very lovely. +It is the only really good view of that magnificent harbour which I +have been able to find. As for appreciating such beauty when one is +entering a port from sea, or leaving it for sea, I do not believe in +any such power. The ship creeps up or creeps out while the mind is +engaged on other matters. The passenger is uneasy either with hopes +or fears; and then the grease of the engines offends one's nostrils. +But it is worth the tourist's while to look down upon New York +harbour from the hill side in Staten Island. When I was there Fort +Lafayette looked black in the centre of the channel, and we knew that +it was crowded with the victims of secession. Fort Tomkins was being +built, to guard the pass,--worthy of a name of richer sound; and Fort +something else was bristling with new cannon. Fort Hamilton, on Long +Island, opposite, was frowning at us; and immediately around us a +regiment of volunteers was receiving regimental stocks and boots from +the hands of its officers. Everything was bristling with war; and one +could not but think that not in this way had New York raised herself +so quickly to her present greatness. + +But the glory of New York is the Central Park;--its glory in the mind +of all New Yorkers of the present day. The first question asked of +you is whether you have seen the Central Park, and the second is as +to what you think of it. It does not do to say simply that it is +fine, grand, beautiful, and miraculous. You must swear by cock and +pie that it is more fine, more grand, more beautiful, more miraculous +than anything else of the kind anywhere. Here you encounter, in its +most annoying form, that necessity for eulogium which presses you +everywhere. For, in truth, taken as it is at present, the Central +Park is not fine, nor grand, nor beautiful. As to the miracle, let +that pass. It is perhaps as miraculous as some other great latter-day +miracles. + +But the Central Park is a very great fact, and affords a strong +additional proof of the sense and energy of the people. It is very +large, being over three miles long, and about three quarters of +a mile in breadth. When it was found that New York was extending +itself, and becoming one of the largest cities of the world, a space +was selected between Fifth and Seventh Avenues, immediately outside +the limits of the city as then built, but nearly in the centre of +the city as it is intended to be built. The ground around it became +at once of great value; and I do not doubt that the present fashion +of the Fifth Avenue about Twentieth Street will in course of time +move itself up to the Fifth Avenue as it looks, or will look, over +the Park at Seventieth, Eightieth, and Ninetieth Streets. The great +waterworks of the city bring the Croton River, whence New York is +supplied, by an aqueduct over the Haarlem river into an enormous +reservoir just above the Park; and hence it has come to pass that +there will be water not only for sanitary and useful purposes, but +also for ornament. At present the Park, to English eyes, seems to be +all road. The trees are not grown up, and the new embankments, and +new lakes, and new ditches, and new paths give to the place anything +but a picturesque appearance. The Central Park is good for what it +will be, rather than for what it is. The summer heat is so very great +that I doubt much whether the people of New York will ever enjoy such +verdure as our parks show. But there will be a pleasant assemblage of +walks and water-works, with fresh air, and fine shrubs and flowers, +immediately within the reach of the citizens. All that art and energy +can do will be done, and the Central Park doubtless will become one +of the great glories of New York. When I was expected to declare +that St. James's Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens, +altogether, were nothing to it, I confess that I could only remain +mute. + +Those who desire to learn what are the secrets of society in New +York, I would refer to the Potiphar Papers. The Potiphar Papers are +perhaps not as well known in England as they deserve to be. They were +published, I think, as much as seven or eight years ago; but are +probably as true now as they were then. What I saw of society in New +York was quiet and pleasant enough; but doubtless I did not climb +into that circle in which Mrs. Potiphar held so distinguished a +position. It may be true that gentlemen habitually throw fragments of +their supper and remnants of their wine on to their host's carpets; +but if so I did not see it. + +As I progress in my work I feel that duty will call upon me to write +a separate chapter on hotels in general, and I will not, therefore, +here say much about those in New York. I am inclined to think +that few towns in the world, if any, afford on the whole better +accommodation, but there are many in which the accommodation is +cheaper. Of the railways also I ought to say something. The fact +respecting them which is most remarkable is that of their being +continued into the centre of the town through the streets. The cars +are not dragged through the city by locomotive engines, but by +horses; the pace therefore is slow, but the convenience to travellers +in being brought nearer to the centre of trade must be much felt. It +is as though passengers from Liverpool and passengers from Bristol +were carried on from Euston Square and Paddington along the New Road, +Portland Place, and Regent Street to Pall Mall, or up the City Road +to the Bank. As a general rule, however, the railways, railway cars, +and all about them are ill-managed. They are monopolies, and the +public, through the press, has no restraining power upon them as it +has in England. A parcel sent by express over a distance of forty +miles will not be delivered within twenty-four hours. I once made my +plaint on this subject at the bar or office of an hotel, and was told +that no remonstrance was of avail. "It is a monopoly," the man told +me, "and if we say anything, we are told that if we do not like it +we need not use it." In railway matters and postal matters time and +punctuality are not valued in the States as they are with us, and the +public seem to acknowledge that they must put up with defects,--that +they must grin and bear them in America, as the public no doubt do in +Austria where such affairs are managed by a government bureau. + +In the beginning of this chapter I spoke of the population of +New York, and I cannot end it without remarking that out of that +population more than one-eighth is composed of Germans. It is, I +believe, computed that there are about 120,000 Germans in the city, +and that only two other German cities in the world, Vienna and +Berlin, have a larger German population than New York. The Germans +are good citizens and thriving men, and are to be found prospering +all over the northern and western parts of the Union. It seems that +they are excellently well adapted to colonization, though they have +in no instance become the dominant people in a colony, or carried +with them their own language or their own laws. The French have +done so in Algeria, in some of the West India islands, and quite as +essentially into Lower Canada, where their language and laws still +prevail. And yet it is, I think, beyond doubt that the French are not +good colonists, as are the Germans. + +Of the ultimate destiny of New York as one of the ruling commercial +cities of the world, it is, I think, impossible to doubt. Whether or +no it will ever equal London in population I will not pretend to say. +Even should it do so, should its numbers so increase as to enable +it to say that it had done so, the question could not very well be +settled. When it comes to pass that an assemblage of men in one +so-called city have to be counted by millions, there arises the +impossibility of defining the limits of that city, and of saying who +belong to it and who do not. An arbitrary line may be drawn, but that +arbitrary line, though perhaps false when drawn as including too +much, soon becomes more false as including too little. Ealing, Acton, +Fulham, Putney, Norwood, Sydenham, Blackheath, Woolwich, Greenwich, +Stratford, Highgate, and Hampstead, are, in truth, component parts of +London, and very shortly Brighton will be as much so. + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. + + +As New York is the most populous State of the Union, having the +largest representation in Congress,--on which account it has been +called the Empire State,--I propose to mention, as shortly as may be, +the nature of its separate Constitution as a State. Of course it will +be understood that the constitutions of the different States are by +no means the same. They have been arranged according to the judgment +of the different people concerned, and have been altered from time to +time to suit such altered judgment. But as the States together form +one nation, and on such matters as foreign affairs, war, customs, +and post-office regulations, are bound together as much as are the +English counties, it is, of course, necessary that the constitution +of each should in most matters assimilate itself to those of the +others. These constitutions are very much alike. A Governor, with +two houses of legislature, generally called the Senate and the House +of Representatives, exists in each State. In the State of New York +the lower house is called the Assembly. In most States the Governor +is elected annually; but in some States for two years, as in New +York. In Pennsylvania he is elected for three years. The House of +Representatives or the Assembly is, I think, always elected for one +session only; but as, in many of the States, the Legislature only +sits once in two years, the election recurs of course at the same +interval. The franchise in all the States is nearly universal, but +in no State is it perfectly so. The Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, +and other officers are elected by vote of the people as well as the +members of the Legislature. Of course it will be understood that each +State makes laws for itself,--that they are in nowise dependent on +the Congress assembled at Washington for their laws,--unless for laws +which refer to matters between the United States as a nation and +other nations, or between one State and another. Each State declares +with what punishment crimes shall be visited; what taxes shall be +levied for the use of the State; what laws shall be passed as to +education; what shall be the State judiciary. With reference to the +judiciary, however, it must be understood, that the United States +as a nation have separate national law courts before which come all +cases litigated between State and State, and all cases which do not +belong in every respect to any one individual State. In a subsequent +chapter I will endeavour to explain this more fully. In endeavouring +to understand the constitution of the United States it is essentially +necessary that we should remember that we have always to deal with +two different political arrangements,--that which refers to the +nation as a whole, and that which belongs to each State as a separate +governing power in itself. What is law in one State is not law in +another. Nevertheless there is a very great likeness throughout these +various constitutions; and any political student who shall have +thoroughly mastered one, will not have much to learn in mastering the +others. + +This State, now called New York, was first settled by the Dutch in +1614, on Manhattan Island. They established a government in 1629, +under the name of the New Netherlands. In 1664 Charles II. granted +the province to his brother, James II., then Duke of York, and +possession was taken of the country on his behalf by one Colonel +Nichols. In 1673 it was recaptured by the Dutch, but they could not +hold it, and the Duke of York again took possession by patent. A +legislative body was first assembled during the reign of Charles II., +in 1683; from which it will be seen that parliamentary representation +was introduced into the American colonies at a very early date. The +declaration of independence was made by the revolted colonies in +1776, and in 1777 the first constitution was adopted by the State of +New York. In 1822 this was changed for another; and the one of which +I now purport to state some of the details was brought into action +in 1847. In this constitution there is a provision that it shall +be overhauled and remodelled, if needs be, once in twenty years. +Article XIII. Sec. 2.--"At the general election to be held in 1866, +and in each twentieth year thereafter, the question, 'Shall there +be a convention to revise the Constitution and amend the same?' +shall be decided by the electors qualified to vote for members of +the Legislature." So that the New Yorkers cannot be twitted with +the presumption of finality in reference to their legislative +arrangements. + +The present constitution begins with declaring the inviolability +of trial by jury and of habeas corpus,--"unless when, in cases of +rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require its suspension." +It does not say by whom it may be suspended, or who is to judge of +the public safety, but, at any rate, it may be presumed that such +suspension was supposed to come from the powers of the State which +enacted the law. At the present moment the habeas corpus is suspended +in New York, and this suspension has proceeded not from the powers of +the State, but from the Federal Government, without the sanction even +of the Federal Congress. + +"Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his sentiments +on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right; and +no law shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech +or of the press." Art. I. Sec. 8. But at the present moment liberty +of speech and of the press is utterly abrogated in the State of New +York, as it is in other States. I mention this not as a reproach +against either the State or the Federal Government, but to show how +vain all laws are for the protection of such rights. If they be not +protected by the feelings of the people,--if the people are at any +time, or from any cause, willing to abandon such privileges, no +written laws will preserve them. + +In Art. I. Sec. 14, there is a proviso that no land--land, that is, +used for agricultural purposes--shall be let on lease for a longer +period than twelve years. "No lease or grant of agricultural land for +a longer period than twelve years hereafter made, in which shall be +reserved any rent or service of any kind, shall be valid." I do not +understand the intended virtue of this proviso, but it shows very +clearly how different are the practices with reference to land in +England and America. Farmers in the States almost always are the +owners of the land which they farm, and such tenures as those, by +which the occupiers of land generally hold their farms with us, are +almost unknown. There is no such relation as that of landlord and +tenant as regards agricultural holdings. + +Every male citizen of New York may vote who is twenty-one, who has +been a citizen for ten days, who has lived in the State for a year, +and for four months in the county in which he votes. He can vote for +all "officers that now are, or hereafter may be, elective by the +people." Art. II. Sec. 1. "But," the section goes on to say, "no man +of colour, unless he shall have been for three years a citizen of the +State, and for one year next preceding any election shall have been +possessed of a freehold estate of the value of 250 dollars (L50), +and shall have been actually rated, and paid a tax thereon, shall be +entitled to vote at such election." This is the only embargo with +which universal suffrage is laden in the State of New York. + +The third article provides for the election of the Senate and the +Assembly. The Senate consists of thirty-two members. And it may here +be remarked that large as is the State of New York, and great as is +its population, its Senate is less numerous than that of many other +States. In Massachusetts, for instance, there are forty senators, +though the population of Massachusetts is barely one third that of +New York. In Virginia there are fifty senators, whereas the free +population is not one third of that of New York. As a consequence the +Senate of New York is said to be filled with men of a higher class +than are generally found in the Senates of other States. Then follows +in the article a list of the districts which are to return the +Senators. These districts consist of one, two, three, or in one case +four counties, according to the population. + +The article does not give the number of members of the Lower House, +nor does it even state what amount of population shall be held as +entitled to a member. It merely provides for the division of the +State into districts which shall contain an equal number, not of +population, but of voters. The House of Assembly does consist of 128 +members. + +It is then stipulated that every member of both houses shall receive +three dollars a day, or twelve shillings, for their services during +the sitting of the legislature; but this sum is never to exceed 300 +dollars, or sixty pounds in one year, unless an extra Session be +called. There is also an allowance for the travelling expenses of +members. It is, I presume, generally known that the members of the +Congress at Washington are all paid, and that the same is the case +with reference to the legislatures of all the States. + +No member of the New York legislature can also be a member of the +Washington Congress, or hold any civil or military office under the +general States Government. + +A majority of each House must be present, or as the article says, +"shall constitute a quorum to do business." Each House is to keep a +journal of its proceedings. The doors are to be open,--except when +the public welfare shall require secresy. A singular proviso this in +a country boasting so much of freedom! For no speech or debate in +either House shall the legislature be called in question in any other +place. The legislature assembles on the first Tuesday in January, and +sits for about three months. Its seat is at Albany. + +The executive power, (Art. IV.) is to be vested in a Governor and a +Lieutenant-Governor, both of whom shall be chosen for two years. The +Governor must be a citizen of the United States, must be thirty years +of age, and have lived for the last four years in the State. He is +to be commander-in-chief of the military and naval forces of the +State,--as is the President of those of the Union. I see that this +is also the case in inland States, which one would say can have +no navies. And with reference to some States it is enacted that +the Governor is commander-in-chief of the army, navy, and militia, +showing that some army over and beyond the militia may be kept by the +State. In Tennessee, which is an inland State, it is enacted that the +Governor shall be "commander-in-chief of the army and navy of this +State, and of the militia, except when they shall be called into the +service of the United States." In Ohio the same is the case, except +that there is no mention of militia. In New York there is no proviso +with reference to the service of the United States. I mention this +as it bears with some strength on the question of the right of +secession, and indicates the jealousy of the individual States +with reference to the Federal Government. The Governor can convene +extra Sessions of one House or of both. He makes a message to the +legislature when it meets,--a sort of Queen's speech; and he receives +for his services a compensation, to be established by law. In New +York this amounts to L800 a year. In some States this is as low as +L200 and L300. In Virginia it is L1000. In California L1200. + +The Governor can pardon, except in cases of treason. He has also a +veto upon all bills sent up by the legislature. If he exercise this +veto he returns the bill to the legislature with his reasons for so +doing. If the bill on reconsideration by the Houses be again passed +by a majority of two thirds in each House, it becomes law in spite +of the Governor's veto. The veto of the President at Washington is +of the same nature. Such are the powers of the Governor. But though +they are very full, the Governor of each State does not practically +exercise any great political power, nor is he, even politically, a +great man. You might live in a State during the whole term of his +government and hardly hear of him. There is vested in him by the +language of the constitution a much wider power than that intrusted +to the Governors of our colonies. But in our colonies everybody +talks, and thinks, and knows about the Governor. As far as the limits +of the colony the Governor is a great man. But this is not the case +with reference to the Governors in the different States. + +The next article provides that the Governor's ministers, viz., the +Secretary of State, the Comptroller, Treasurer, and Attorney-General, +shall be chosen every two years at a general election. In +this respect the State constitution differs from that of the +national constitution. The President at Washington names his own +ministers,--subject to the approbation of the Senate. He makes +many other appointments with the same limitation. As regards these +nominations in general, the Senate, I believe, is not slow to +interfere; but with reference to the ministers it is understood that +the names sent in by the President shall stand. Of the Secretary +of State, Comptroller, &c., belonging to the different States, and +who are elected by the people, in a general way one never hears. No +doubt they attend their offices and take their pay, but they are not +political personages. + +The next article, No. VI., refers to the Judiciary, and is very +complicated. After considerable study I have failed to understand it. +The judges are elected by vote, and remain in office for, I believe, +a term of eight years. In Sect. 20 of this article it is provided +that--"No judicial officer, except Justices of the Peace, shall +receive to his own use any fees or perquisites of office." How +pleasantly this enactment must sound in the ears of the justices of +the peace. + +Article VII. refers to fiscal matters, and is more especially +interesting as showing how greatly the State of New York has depended +on its canals for its wealth. These canals are the property of the +State; and by this article it seems to be provided that they shall +not only maintain themselves, but maintain to a considerable extent +the State expenditure also, and stand in lieu of taxation. It is +provided, Section 6, that the "legislature shall not sell, lease, or +otherwise dispose of any of the canals of the State; but that they +shall remain the property of the State, and under its management for +ever." But in spite of its canals the State does not seem to be doing +very well, for I see that in 1860, its income was 4,780,000 dollars, +and its expenditure 5,100,000, whereas its debt was 32,500,000 +dollars. Of all the States, Pennsylvania is the most indebted, +Virginia is the second on the list, and New York the third. New +Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Delaware, and Texas, owe no State +debts. All the other State ships have taken in ballast. + +The militia is supposed to consist of all men capable of bearing +arms, under forty-five years of age. But no one need be enrolled, who +from scruples of conscience is averse to bearing arms. At the present +moment such scruples do not seem to be very general. Then follows, +in Article XI., a detailed enactment as to the choosing of militia +officers. It may be perhaps sufficient to say that the privates +are to choose the captains and the subalterns; the captains and +subalterns are to choose the field officers; and the field officers +the brigadier-generals and inspectors of brigade. The Governor, +however, with the consent of the Senate shall nominate all +major-generals. Now that real soldiers have unfortunately become +necessary the above plan has not been found to work well. + +Such is the Constitution of the State of New York, which has been +intended to work and does work quite separately from that of the +United States. It will be seen that the purport has been to make it +as widely democratic as possible,--to provide that all power of all +description shall come directly from the people, and that such power +shall return to the people at short intervals. The Senate and the +Governor each remain for two years, but not for the same two years. +If a new Senate commence its work in 1861, a new Governor will come +in in 1862. But, nevertheless, there is in the form of Government +as thus established an absence of that close and immediate +responsibility which attends our ministers. When a man has been +voted in, it seems that responsibility is over for the period of +the required service. He has been chosen, and the country which has +chosen him is to trust that he will do his best. I do not know that +this matters much with reference to the legislature or governments of +the different States, for their State legislatures and governments +are but puny powers; but in the legislature and government at +Washington it does matter very much. But I shall have another +opportunity of speaking on that subject. + +Nothing has struck me so much in America as the fact that these State +legislatures are puny powers. The absence of any tidings whatever +of their doings across the water is a proof of this. Who has heard +of the legislature of New York or of Massachusetts? It is boasted +here that their insignificance is a sign of the well-being of the +people;--that the smallness of the power necessary for carrying on +the machine shows how beautifully the machine is organised, and how +well it works. "It is better to have little governors than great +governors," an American said to me once. "It is our glory that we +know how to live without having great men over us to rule us." That +glory, if ever it were a glory, has come to an end. It seems to me +that all these troubles have come upon the States because they have +not placed high men in high places. The less of laws and the less of +control the better, providing a people can go right with few laws and +little control. One may say that no laws and no control would be best +of all,--provided that none were needed. But this is not exactly the +position of the American people. + +The two professions of law-making and of governing have become +unfashionable, low in estimation, and of no repute in the States. +The municipal powers of the cities have not fallen into the hands of +the leading men. The word politician has come to bear the meaning of +political adventurer and almost of political blackleg. If A calls B +a politician A intends to vilify B by so calling him. Whether or no +the best citizens of a State will ever be induced to serve in the +State legislature by a nobler consideration than that of pay, or by a +higher tone of political morals than that now existing, I cannot say. +It seems to me that some great decrease in the numbers of the State +legislators should be a first step towards such a consummation. There +are not many men in each State who can afford to give up two or three +months of the year to the State service for nothing; but it may be +presumed that in each State there are a few. Those who are induced +to devote their time by the payment of L60, can hardly be the men +most fitted for the purpose of legislation. It certainly has seemed +to me that the members of the State legislatures and of the State +governments are not held in that respect and treated with that +confidence to which, in the eyes of an Englishman, such functionaries +should be held as entitled. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +BOSTON. + + +From New York we returned to Boston by Hartford, the capital, or one +of the capitals of Connecticut. This proud little State is composed +of two old provinces, of which Hartford and Newhaven were the two +metropolitan towns. Indeed there was a third colony called Saybrook, +which was joined to Hartford. As neither of the two could of course +give way when Hartford and Newhaven were made into one, the houses +of legislature and the seat of government are changed about, year by +year. Connecticut is a very proud little State, and has a pleasant +legend of its own stanchness in the old colonial days. In 1662 the +colonies were united, and a charter was given to them by Charles II. +But some years later, in 1686, when the bad days of James II. had +come, this charter was considered to be too liberal, and order was +given that it should be suspended. One Sir Edmund Andross had been +appointed governor of all New England, and sent word from Boston to +Connecticut that the charter itself should be given up to him. This +the men of Connecticut refused to do. Whereupon Sir Edmund with a +military following presented himself at their assembly, declared +their governing powers to be dissolved, and after much palaver +caused the charter itself to be laid upon the table before him. The +discussion had been long, having lasted through the day into the +night, and the room had been lighted with candles. On a sudden each +light disappeared, and Sir Edmund with his followers were in the +dark. As a matter of course, when the light was restored the charter +was gone, and Sir Edmund, the governor-general, was baffled, as all +governors-general and all Sir Edmunds always are in such cases. The +charter was gone, a gallant Captain Wadsworth having carried it off +and hidden it in an oak tree. The charter was renewed when William +III. came to the throne, and now hangs triumphantly in the State +House at Hartford. The charter oak has, alas! succumbed to the +weather, but was standing a few years since. The men of Hartford are +very proud of their charter, and regard it as the parent of their +existing liberties quite as much as though no national revolution of +their own had intervened. + +And indeed the Northern States of the Union, especially those of New +England, refer all their liberties to the old charters which they +held from the mother-country. They rebelled, as they themselves would +seem to say, and set themselves up as a separate people, not because +the mother-country had refused to them by law sufficient liberty and +sufficient self-control, but because the mother-country infringed the +liberties and powers of self-control which she herself had given. The +mother-country, so these States declare, had acted the part of Sir +Edmund Andross, had endeavoured to take away their charters. So they +also put out the lights, and took themselves to an oak tree of their +own,--which is still standing, though winds from the infernal regions +are now battering its branches. Long may it stand! + +Whether the mother-country did or did not infringe the charters +she had given, I will not here inquire. As to the nature of those +alleged infringements, are they not written down to the number of +twenty-seven in the Declaration of Independence? I have taken the +liberty of appending this Declaration to the end of my book, and the +twenty-seven paragraphs may all be seen. They mostly begin with He. +"He" has done this, and "He" has done that. The "He" is poor George +III., whose twenty-seven mortal sins against his transatlantic +colonies are thus recapitulated. It would avail nothing to argue now +whether those deeds were sins or virtues; nor would it have availed +then. The child had grown up and was strong, and chose to go alone +into the world. The young bird was fledged, and flew away. Poor +George III. with his cackling was certainly not efficacious in +restraining such a flight. But it is gratifying to see how this new +people, when they had it in their power to change all their laws, to +throw themselves upon any Utopian theory that the folly of a wild +philanthropy could devise, to discard as abominable every vestige of +English rule and English power,--it is gratifying to see that when +they could have done all this, they did not do so, but preferred to +cling to things English. Their old colonial limits were still to +be the borders of their States. Their old charters were still to +be regarded as the sources from whence their State powers had come. +The old laws were to remain in force. The precedents of the English +courts were to be held as legal precedents in the courts of the +new nation,--and are now so held. It was still to be England,--but +England without a King making his last struggle for political power. +This was the idea of the people, and this was their feeling; and that +idea has been carried out, and that feeling has remained. + +In the constitution of the State of New York nothing is said about +the religion of the people. It was regarded as a subject with +which the constitution had no concern whatever. But as soon as we +come among the stricter people of New England we find that the +constitution-makers have not been able absolutely to ignore the +subject. In Connecticut it is enjoined that as it is the duty of all +men to worship the Supreme Being, and their right to render that +worship in the mode most consistent with their consciences, no person +shall be by law compelled to join or be classed with any religious +association. The line of argument is hardly logical, the conclusion +not being in accordance with, or hanging on the first of the two +premises. But nevertheless the meaning is clear. In a free country +no man shall be made to worship after any special fashion; but it +is decreed by the constitution that every man is bound by duty to +worship after some fashion. The article then goes on to say how they +who do worship are to be taxed for the support of their peculiar +church. I am not quite clear whether the New Yorkers have not managed +this difficulty with greater success. When we come to the old Bay +State,--to Massachusetts,--we find the Christian religion spoken of +in the Constitution as that which in some one of its forms should +receive the adherence of every good citizen. + +Hartford is a pleasant little town, with English-looking houses, and +an English-looking country around it. Here, as everywhere through the +States, one is struck by the size and comfort of the residences. I +sojourned there at the house of a friend, and could find no limit to +the number of spacious sitting-rooms which it contained. The modest +dining-room and drawing-room which suffice with us for men of seven +or eight hundred a year would be regarded as very mean accommodation +by persons of similar incomes in the States. + +I found that Hartford was all alive with trade, and that wages were +high, because there are there two factories for the manufacture of +arms. Colt's pistols come from Hartford, as do also Sharpe's rifles. +Wherever arms can be prepared, or gunpowder; where clothes or +blankets fit for soldiers can be made, or tents or standards, or +things appertaining in any way to warfare, there trade was still +brisk. No being is more costly in his requirements than a soldier, +and no soldier so costly as the American. He must eat and drink of +the best, and have good boots and warm bedding, and good shelter. +There were during the Christmas of 1861 above half a million of +soldiers so to be provided,--the President, in his message made in +December to Congress, declared the number to be above six hundred +thousand--and therefore in such places as Hartford trade was very +brisk. I went over the rifle factory, and was shown everything, but +I do not know that I brought away much with me that was worth any +reader's attention. The best of rifles, I have no doubt, were being +made with the greatest rapidity, and all were sent to the army as +soon as finished. I saw some murderous-looking weapons, with swords +attached to them instead of bayonets, but have since been told +by soldiers that the old-fashioned bayonet is thought to be more +serviceable. + +Immediately on my arrival in Boston I heard that Mr. Emerson was +going to lecture at the Tremont Hall on the subject of the war, and +I resolved to go and hear him. I was acquainted with Mr. Emerson, +and by reputation knew him well. Among us in England he is regarded +as transcendental, and perhaps even as mystic in his philosophy. His +"Representative Men" is the work by which he is best known on our +side of the water, and I have heard some readers declare that they +could not quite understand Mr. Emerson's "Representative Men." For +myself, I confess that I had broken down over some portions of that +book. Since I had become acquainted with him I had read others of +his writings, especially his book on England, and had found that he +improved greatly on acquaintance. I think that he has confined his +mysticism to the book above named. In conversation he is very clear, +and by no means above the small practical things of the world. He +would, I fancy, know as well what interest he ought to receive for +his money as though he were no philosopher; and I am inclined to +think that if he held land he would make his hay while the sun shone, +as might any common farmer. Before I had met Mr. Emerson, when my +idea of him was formed simply on the "Representative Men," I should +have thought that a lecture from him on the war would have taken +his hearers all among the clouds. As it was, I still had my doubts, +and was inclined to fear that a subject which could only be handled +usefully at such a time before a large audience by a combination of +common sense, high principles, and eloquence, would hardly be safe in +Mr. Emerson's hands. I did not doubt the high principles, but feared +much that there would be a lack of common sense. So many have talked +on that subject, and have shown so great a lack of common sense! As +to the eloquence, that might be there, or might not. + +Mr. Emerson is a Massachusetts man, very well known in Boston, and +a great crowd was collected to hear him. I suppose there were some +three thousand persons in the room. I confess that when he took his +place before us my prejudices were against him. The matter in hand +required no philosophy. It required common sense, and the very best +of common sense. It demanded that he should be impassioned, for of +what interest can any address be on a matter of public politics +without passion? But it demanded that the passion should be winnowed, +and free from all rhodomontade. I fancied what might be said on +such a subject as to that overlauded star-spangled banner, and how +the star-spangled flag would look when wrapped in a mist of mystic +Platonism. + +But from the beginning to the end there was nothing mystic--no +Platonism; and, if I remember rightly, the star-spangled banner +was altogether omitted. To the national eagle he did allude. "Your +American eagle," he said, "is very well. Protect it here and abroad. +But beware of the American peacock." He gave an account of the war +from the beginning, showing how it had arisen, and how it had been +conducted; and he did so with admirable simplicity and truth. He +thought the North were right about the war; and as I thought so +also, I was not called upon to disagree with him. He was terse and +perspicuous in his sentences, practical in his advice, and, above all +things, true in what he said to his audience of themselves. They who +know America will understand how hard it is for a public man in the +States to practise such truth in his addresses. Fluid compliments and +high-flown national eulogium are expected. In this instance none were +forthcoming. The North had risen with patriotism to make this effort, +and it was now warned that in doing so it was simply doing its +national duty. And then came the subject of slavery. I had been told +that Mr. Emerson was an abolitionist, and knew that I must disagree +with him on that head, if on no other. To me it has always seemed +that to mix up the question of general abolition with this war must +be the work of a man too ignorant to understand the real subject of +the war, or too false to his country to regard it. Throughout the +whole lecture I was waiting for Mr. Emerson's abolition doctrine, +but no abolition doctrine came. The words abolition and compensation +were mentioned, and then there was an end of the subject. If Mr. +Emerson be an abolitionist he expressed his views very mildly on that +occasion. On the whole the lecture was excellent, and that little +advice about the peacock was in itself worth an hour's attention. + +That practice of lecturing is "quite an institution" in the States. +So it is in England, my readers will say. But in England it is done +in a different way, with a different object and with much less of +result. With us, if I am not mistaken, lectures are mostly given +gratuitously by the lecturer. They are got up here and there with +some philanthropical object, and in the hope that an hour at the +disposal of young men and women may be rescued from idleness. The +subjects chosen are social, literary, philanthropic, romantic, +geographical, scientific, religious,--anything rather than political. +The lecture-rooms are not usually filled to overflowing, and there is +often a question whether the real good achieved is worth the trouble +taken. The most popular lectures are given by big people, whose +presence is likely to be attractive; and the whole thing, I fear we +must confess, is not pre-eminently successful. In the Northern States +of America the matter stands on a very different footing. Lectures +there are more popular than either theatres or concerts. Enormous +halls are built for them. Tickets for long courses are taken with +avidity. Very large sums are paid to popular lecturers, so that the +profession is lucrative,--more so, I am given to understand, than +is the cognate profession of literature. The whole thing is done in +great style. Music is introduced. The lecturer stands on a large +raised platform, on which sit around him the bald and hoary-headed +and superlatively wise. Ladies come in large numbers; especially +those who aspire to soar above the frivolities of the world. Politics +is the subject most popular, and most general. The men and women of +Boston could no more do without their lectures, than those of Paris +could without their theatres. It is the decorous diversion of the +best ordered of her citizens. The fast young men go to clubs, and the +fast young women to dances, as fast young men and women do in other +places that are wicked; but lecturing is the favourite diversion of +the steady-minded Bostonian. After all, I do not know that the result +is very good. It does not seem that much will be gained by such +lectures on either side of the Atlantic,--except that respectable +killing of an evening which might otherwise be killed less +respectably. It is but an industrious idleness, an attempt at a royal +road to information, that habit of attending lectures. Let any man or +woman say what he has brought away from any such attendance. It is +attractive, that idea of being studious without any of the labour +of study; but I fear it is illusive. If an evening can be so passed +without ennui, I believe that that may be regarded as the best result +to be gained. But then it so often happens that the evening is not +passed without ennui! Of course in saying this, I am not alluding +to lectures given in special places as a course of special study. +Medical lectures, no doubt, are a necessary part of medical +education. As many as two or three thousand often attend these +popular lectures in Boston, but I do not know whether on that account +the popular subjects are much better understood. Nevertheless I +resolved to hear more, hoping that I might in that way teach myself +to understand what were the popular politics in New England. Whether +or no I may have learned this in any other way I do not perhaps know; +but at any rate I did not learn it in this way. + +The next lecture which I attended was also given in the Tremont Hall, +and on this occasion also the subject of the war was to be treated. +The special treachery of the rebels was, I think, the matter to be +taken in hand. On this occasion also the room was full, and my hopes +of a pleasant hour ran high. For some fifteen minutes I listened, and +I am bound to say that the gentleman discoursed in excellent English. +He was master of that wonderful fluency which is peculiarly the gift +of an American. He went on from one sentence to another with rhythmic +tones and unerring pronunciation. He never faltered, never repeated +his words, never fell into those vile half-muttered hems and haws +by which an Englishman in such a position so generally betrays his +timidity. But during the whole time of my remaining in the room he +did not give expression to a single thought. He went on from one soft +platitude to another, and uttered words from which I would defy any +one of his audience to carry away with them anything. And yet it +seemed to me that his audience was satisfied. I was not satisfied, +and managed to escape out of the room. + +The next lecturer to whom I listened was Mr. Everett. Mr. Everett's +reputation as an orator is very great, and I was especially anxious +to hear him. I had long since known that his power of delivery was +very marvellous; that his tones, elocution, and action were all +great; and that he was able to command the minds and sympathies +of his audience in a remarkable manner. His subject also was the +war;--or rather the causes of the war, and its qualification. Had the +North given to the South cause of provocation? Had the South been +fair and honest in its dealings to the North? Had any compromise been +possible by which the war might have been avoided, and the rights and +dignity of the North preserved? Seeing that Mr. Everett is a Northern +man and was lecturing to a Boston audience, one knew well how these +questions would be answered, but the manner of the answering would be +everything. This lecture was given at Roxboro', one of the suburbs +of Boston. So I went out to Roxboro' with a party, and found myself +honoured by being placed on the platform among the bald-headed ones +and the superlatively wise. This privilege is naturally gratifying, +but it entails on him who is so gratified the inconvenience of +sitting at the lecturer's back, whereas it is perhaps better for the +listener to be before his face. + +I could not but be amused by one little scenic incident. When we all +went upon the platform, some one proposed that the clergymen should +lead the way out of the waiting-room in which we bald-headed ones and +superlatively wise were assembled. But to this the manager of the +affair demurred. He wanted the clergymen for a purpose, he said. And +so the profane ones led the way, and the clergymen, of whom there +might be some six or seven, clustered in around the lecturer at last. +Early in his discourse Mr. Everett told us what it was that the +country needed at this period of her trial. Patriotism, courage, the +bravery of the men, the good wishes of the women, the self-denial +of all,--"and," continued the lecturer, turning to his immediate +neighbours, "the prayers of these holy men whom I see around me." It +had not been for nothing that the clergymen were detained. + +Mr. Everett lectures without any book or paper before him, and +continues from first to last as though the words came from him on the +spur of the moment. It is known, however, that it is his practice +to prepare his orations with great care and commit them entirely to +memory, as does an actor. Indeed he repeats the same lecture over and +over again, I am told, without the change of a word or of an action. +I did not like Mr. Everett's lecture. I did not like what he said, +or the seeming spirit in which it was framed. But I am bound to +admit that his power of oratory is very wonderful. Those among his +countrymen who have criticised his manner in my hearing have said +that he is too florid, that there is an affectation in the motion +of his hands, and that the intended pathos of his voice sometimes +approaches too near the precipice over which the fall is so deep and +rapid, and at the bottom of which lies absolute ridicule. Judging for +myself, I did not find it so. My position for seeing was not good, +but my ear was not offended. Critics also should bear in mind that +an orator does not speak chiefly to them or for their approval. He +who writes, or speaks, or sings for thousands, must write, speak, or +sing as those thousands would have him. That to a dainty connoisseur +will be false music, which to the general ear shall be accounted as +the perfection of harmony. An eloquence altogether suited to the +fastidious and hypercritical, would probably fail to carry off the +hearts and interest the sympathies of the young and eager. As regards +manners, tone, and choice of words, I think that the oratory of Mr. +Everett places him very high. His skill in his work is perfect. He +never falls back upon a word. He never repeats himself. His voice is +always perfectly under command. As for hesitation or timidity, the +days for those failings have long passed by with him. When he makes +a point, he makes it well, and drives it home to the intelligence of +every one before him. Even that appeal to the holy men around him +sounded well,--or would have done so had I not been present at that +little arrangement in the anteroom. On the audience at large it was +manifestly effective. + +But nevertheless the lecture gave me but a poor idea of Mr. Everett +as a politician, though it made me regard him highly as an orator. +It was impossible not to perceive that he was anxious to utter the +sentiments of the audience rather than his own;--that he was making +himself an echo, a powerful and harmonious echo of what he conceived +to be public opinion in Boston at that moment;--that he was neither +leading nor teaching the people before him, but allowing himself to +be led by them, so that he might best play his present part for their +delectation. He was neither bold nor honest, as Emerson had been, and +I could not but feel that every tyro of a politician before him would +thus recognize his want of boldness and of honesty. As a statesman, +or as a critic of statecraft and of other statesmen, he is wanting +in backbone. For many years Mr. Everett has been not even inimical +to southern politics and southern courses, nor was he among those +who, during the last eight years previous to Mr. Lincoln's election, +fought the battle for northern principles. I do not say that on this +account he is now false to advocate the war. But he cannot carry +men with him when, at his age, he advocates it by arguments opposed +to the tenour of his long political life. His abuse of the South +and of southern ideas was as virulent as might be that of a young +lad now beginning his political career, or of one who had through +life advocated abolition principles. He heaped reproaches on poor +Virginia, whose position as the chief of the border States has given +to her hardly the possibility of avoiding a Scylla of ruin on the +one side, or a Charybdis of rebellion on the other. When he spoke as +he did of Virginia, ridiculing the idea of her sacred soil, even I, +Englishman as I am, could not but think of Washington, of Jefferson, +of Randolph, and of Madison. He should not have spoken of Virginia +as he did speak; for no man could have known better Virginia's +difficulties. But Virginia was at a discount in Boston, and Mr. +Everett was speaking to a Boston audience. And then he referred to +England and to Europe. Mr. Everett has been minister to England, and +knows the people. He is a student of history, and must, I think, +know that England's career has not been unhappy or unprosperous. +But England also was at a discount in Boston, and Mr. Everett was +speaking to a Boston audience. They are sending us their advice +across the water, said Mr. Everett. And what is their advice to +us? that we should come down from the high place we have built for +ourselves, and be even as they are. They screech at us from the low +depths in which they are wallowing in their misery, and call on us to +join them in their wretchedness. I am not quoting Mr. Everett's very +words, for I have not them by me; but I am not making them stronger, +nor so strong as he made them. As I thought of Mr. Everett's +reputation, and of his years of study,--of his long political life +and unsurpassed sources of information,--I could not but grieve +heartily when I heard such words fall from him. I could not but +ask myself whether it were impossible that under the present +circumstances of her constitution this great nation of America should +produce an honest, high-minded statesman. When Lincoln and Hamlin, +the existing President and Vice-President of the States, were in 1860 +as yet but the candidates of the republican party, Bell and Everett +also were the candidates of the old whig, conservative party. Their +express theory was this,--that the question of slavery should +not be touched. Their purpose was to crush agitation and restore +harmony by an impartial balance between the North and South: a fine +purpose,--the finest of all purposes, had it been practicable. But +such a course of compromise was now at a discount in Boston, and +Mr. Everett was speaking to a Boston audience. As an orator, Mr. +Everett's excellence is, I think, not to be questioned; but as a +politician I cannot give him a high rank. + +After that I heard Mr. Wendell Phillips. Of him, too, as an orator +all the world of Massachusetts speaks with great admiration, and I +have no doubt so speaks with justice. He is, however, known as the +hottest and most impassioned advocate of abolition. Not many months +since the cause of abolition, as advocated by him, was so unpopular +in Boston, that Mr. Phillips was compelled to address his audience +surrounded by a guard of policemen. Of this gentleman, I may at any +rate say that he is consistent, devoted, and disinterested. He is an +abolitionist by profession, and seeks to find in every turn of the +tide of politics some stream on which he may bring himself nearer +to his object. In the old days, previous to the selection of Mr. +Lincoln, in days so old that they are now nearly eighteen months +past, Mr. Phillips was an anti-Union man. He advocated strongly the +disseverance of the Union, so that the country to which he belonged +might have hands clean from the taint of slavery. He had probably +acknowledged to himself, that while the North and South were bound +together no hope existed of emancipation, but that if the North stood +alone the South would become too weak to foster and keep alive the +"social institution." In which, if such were his opinions, I am +inclined to agree with him. But now he is all for the Union, thinking +that a victorious North can compel the immediate emancipation of +southern slaves. As to which I beg to say that I am bold to differ +from Mr. Phillips altogether. + +It soon became evident to me that Mr. Phillips was unwell, and +lecturing at a disadvantage. His manner was clearly that of an +accustomed orator, but his voice was weak, and he was not up to +the effect which he attempted to make. His hearers were impatient, +repeatedly calling upon him to speak out, and on that account I tried +hard to feel kindly towards him and his lecture. But I must confess +that I failed. To me it seemed that the doctrine he preached was one +of rapine, bloodshed, and social destruction. He would call upon the +Government and upon Congress to enfranchise the slaves at once,--now +during the war,--so that the Southern power might be destroyed by +a concurrence of misfortunes. And he would do so at once, on the +spur of the moment, fearing lest the South should be before him, +and themselves emancipate their own bondsmen. I have sometimes +thought that there is no being so venomous, so bloodthirsty as a +professed philanthropist; and that when the philanthropist's ardour +lies negro-wards, it then assumes the deepest die of venom and +bloodthirstiness. There are four millions of slaves in the southern +States, none of whom have any capacity for self-maintenance or +self-control. Four millions of slaves, with the necessities of +children, with the passions of men, and the ignorance of savages! +And Mr. Phillips would emancipate these at a blow; would, were it +possible for him to do so, set them loose upon the soil to tear +their masters, destroy each other, and make such a hell upon the +earth as has never even yet come from the uncontrolled passions +and unsatisfied wants of men. But Congress cannot do this. All +the members of Congress put together cannot, according to the +constitution of the United States, emancipate a single slave in South +Carolina; not if they were all unanimous. No emancipation in a Slave +State can come otherwise than by the legislative enactment of that +State. But it was then thought that in this coming winter of 1860-61 +the action of Congress might be set aside. The North possessed an +enormous army under the control of the President. The South was in +rebellion, and the President could pronounce, and the army perhaps +enforce, the confiscation of all property held in slaves. If any who +held them were not disloyal, the question of compensation might be +settled afterwards. How those four million slaves should live, and +how white men should live among them, in some States or parts of +States not equal to the blacks in number;--as to that Mr. Phillips +did not give us his opinion. + +And Mr. Phillips also could not keep his tongue away from the +abominations of Englishmen and the miraculous powers of his own +countrymen. It was on this occasion that he told us more than +once how Yankees carried brains in their fingers, whereas "common +people"--alluding by that name to Europeans--had them only, if at +all, inside their brain-pans. And then he informed us that Lord +Palmerston had always hated America. Among the Radicals there might +be one or two who understood and valued the institutions of America, +but it was a well-known fact that Lord Palmerston was hostile to +the country. Nothing but hidden enmity,--enmity hidden or not +hidden,--could be expected from England. That the people of Boston, +or of Massachusetts, or of the North generally, should feel sore +against England is to me intelligible. I know how the minds of men +are moved in masses to certain feelings, and that it ever must be so. +Men in common talk are not bound to weigh their words, to think, and +speculate on their results, and be sure of the premises on which +their thoughts are founded. But it is different with a man who rises +before two or three thousand of his countrymen to teach and instruct +them. After that I heard no more political lectures in Boston. + +Of course I visited Bunker's Hill, and went to Lexington and Concord. +From the top of the monument on Bunker's Hill there is a fine view of +Boston Harbour, and seen from thence the harbour is picturesque. The +mouth is crowded with islands and jutting necks and promontories; +and though the shores are in no place rich enough to make the +scenery grand, the general effect is good. The monument, however, +is so constructed that one can hardly get a view through the +windows at the top of it, and there is no outside gallery round it. +Immediately below the monument is a marble figure of Major Warren, +who fell there,--not from the top of the monument, as some one +was led to believe when informed that on that spot the Major had +fallen. Bunker's Hill, which is little more than a mound, is at +Charleston,--a dull, populous, respectable, and very unattractive +suburb of Boston. + +Bunker's Hill has obtained a considerable name, and is accounted +great in the annals of American history. In England we have all +heard of Bunker's Hill, and some of us dislike the sound as much as +Frenchmen do that of Waterloo. In the States men talk of Bunker's +Hill as we may, perhaps, talk of Agincourt and such favourite fields. +But, after all, little was done at Bunker's Hill, and, as far as +I can learn, no victory was gained there by either party. The road +from Boston to the town of Concord, on which stands the village of +Lexington, is the true scene of the earliest and greatest deeds of +the men of Boston. The monument at Bunker's Hill stands high and +commands attention, while those at Lexington and Concord are very +lowly and command no attention. But it is of that road and what was +done on it that Massachusetts should be proud. When the colonists +first began to feel that they were oppressed, and a half resolve was +made to resist that oppression by force, they began to collect a +few arms and some gunpowder at Concord, a small town about eighteen +miles from Boston. Of this preparation the English Governor received +tidings, and determined to send a party of soldiers to seize the +arms. This he endeavoured to do secretly; but he was too closely +watched, and word was sent down over the waters by which Boston +was then surrounded that the colonists might be prepared for the +soldiers. At that time Boston Neck, as it was and is still called, +was the only connection between the town and the main land, and +the road over Boston Neck did not lead to Concord. Boats therefore +were necessarily used, and there was some difficulty in getting the +soldiers to the nearest point. They made their way, however, to +the road, and continued their route as far as Lexington without +interruption. Here, however, they were attacked, and the first blood +of that war was shed. They shot three or four of the--rebels, I +suppose I should in strict language call them, and then proceeded +on to Concord. But at Concord they were stopped and repulsed, and +along the road back from Concord to Lexington they were driven with +slaughter and dismay. And thus the rebellion was commenced which led +to the establishment of a people which, let us Englishmen say and +think what we may of them at this present moment, has made itself one +of the five great nations of the earth, and has enabled us to boast +that the two out of the five who enjoy the greatest liberty and +the widest prosperity, speak the English language and are known by +English names. For all that has come and is like to come, I say +again, long may that honour remain. I could not but feel that that +road from Boston to Concord deserves a name in the world's history +greater, perhaps, than has yet been given to it. + +Concord is at present to be noted as the residence of Mr. Emerson and +of Mr. Hawthorne, two of those many men of letters of whose presence +Boston and its neighbourhood have reason to be proud. Of Mr. Emerson +I have already spoken. The author of the "Scarlet Letter" I regard +as certainly the first of American novelists. I know what men will +say of Mr. Cooper,--and I also am an admirer of Cooper's novels. But +I cannot think that Mr. Cooper's powers were equal to those of Mr. +Hawthorne, though his mode of thought may have been more genial, and +his choice of subjects more attractive in their day. In point of +imagination, which, after all, is the novelist's greatest gift, I +hardly know any living author who can be accounted superior to Mr. +Hawthorne. + +Very much has, undoubtedly, been done in Boston to carry out +that theory of Colonel Newcome's--_Emollit mores_, by which the +Colonel meant to signify his opinion that a competent knowledge of +reading, writing, and arithmetic, with a taste for enjoying those +accomplishments, goes very far towards the making of a man, and will +by no means mar a gentleman. In Boston nearly every man, woman, and +child has had his or her manners so far softened; and though they may +still occasionally be somewhat rough to the outer touch, the inward +effect is plainly visible. With us, especially among our agricultural +population, the absence of that inner softening is as visible. + +I went to see a public library in the city, which, if not founded by +Mr. Bates whose name is so well known in London as connected with the +house of Messrs. Baring, has been greatly enriched by him. It is by +his money that it has been enabled to do its work. In this library +there is a certain number of thousands of volumes--a great many +volumes, as there are in most public libraries. There are books of +all classes, from ponderous unreadable folios, of which learned men +know the title-pages, down to the lightest literature. Novels are by +no means eschewed,--are rather, if I understood aright, considered +as one of the staples of the library. From this library any book, +excepting such rare volumes as in all libraries are considered holy, +is given out to any inhabitant of Boston, without any payment, on +presentation of a simple request on a prepared form. In point of +fact, it is a gratuitous circulating library open to all Boston, rich +or poor, young or old. The books seemed in general to be confided +to young children, who came as messengers from their fathers and +mothers, or brothers and sisters. No question whatever is asked, +if the applicant is known or the place of his residence undoubted. +If there be no such knowledge, or there be any doubt as to the +residence, the applicant is questioned, the object being to confine +the use of the library to the _bona fide_ inhabitants of the city. +Practically the books are given to those who ask for them, whoever +they may be. Boston contains over 200,000 inhabitants, and all those +200,000 are entitled to them. Some twenty men and women are kept +employed from morning to night in carrying on this circulating +library; and there is, moreover, attached to the establishment a +large reading-room supplied with papers and magazines, open to the +public of Boston on the same terms. + +Of course I asked whether a great many of the books were not lost, +stolen, and destroyed; and of course I was told that there were no +losses, no thefts, and no destruction. As to thefts, the librarian +did not seem to think that any instance of such an occurrence could +be found. Among the poorer classes a book might sometimes be lost +when they were changing their lodgings, but anything so lost was +more than replaced by the fines. A book is taken out for a week, +and if not brought back at the end of that week, when the loan can +be renewed if the reader wishes, a fine, I think of two cents, is +incurred. The children, when too late with the books, bring in the +two cents as a matter of course, and the sum so collected fully +replaces all losses. It was all _couleur de rose_; the librarianesses +looked very pretty and learned, and, if I remember aright, mostly +wore spectacles; the head librarian was enthusiastic; the nice +instructive books were properly dogs-eared; my own productions were +in enormous demand; the call for books over the counter was brisk, +and the reading-room was full of readers. + +It has, I dare say, occurred to other travellers to remark that the +proceedings at such institutions, when visited by them on their +travels, are always rose coloured. It is natural that the bright side +should be shown to the visitor. It may be that many books are called +for and returned unread, that many of those taken out are so taken by +persons who ought to pay for their novels at circulating libraries, +that the librarian and librarianesses get very tired of their long +hours of attendance,--for I found that they were very long;--and +that many idlers warm themselves in that reading-room: nevertheless +the fact remains,--the library is public to all the men and women in +Boston, and books are given out without payment to all who may choose +to ask for them. Why should not the great Mr. Mudie emulate Mr. +Bates, and open a library in London on the same system? + +The librarian took me into one special room, of which he himself kept +the key, to show me a present which the library had received from the +English Government. The room was filled with volumes of two sizes, +all bound alike, containing descriptions and drawings of all the +patents taken out in England. According to this librarian such a work +would be invaluable as to American patents; but he conceived that the +subject had become too confused to render any such an undertaking +possible. "I never allow a single volume to be used for a moment +without the presence of myself or one of my assistants," said the +librarian; and then he explained to me, when I asked him why he was +so particular, that the drawings would, as a matter of course, be cut +out and stolen if he omitted his care. "But they may be copied," I +said. "Yes; but if Jones merely copies one, Smith may come after him +and copy it also. Jones will probably desire to hinder Smith from +having any evidence of such a patent." As to the ordinary borrowing +and returning of books, the poorest labourer's child in Boston might +be trusted as honest; but when a question of trade came up, of +commercial competition, then the librarian was bound to bethink +himself that his countrymen are very smart. "I hope," said the +librarian, "you will let them know in England how grateful we are for +their present." And I hereby execute that librarian's commission. + +I shall always look back to social life in Boston with great +pleasure. I met there many men and women whom to know is a +distinction, and with whom to be intimate is a great delight. It was +a Puritan city, in which strict old Roundhead sentiments and laws +used to prevail; but now-a-days ginger is hot in the mouth there, and +in spite of the war there were cakes and ale. There was a law passed +in Massachusetts in the old days that any girl should be fined and +imprisoned who allowed a young man to kiss her. That law has now, I +think, fallen into abeyance, and such matters are regulated in Boston +much as they are in other large towns further eastward. It still, +I conceive, calls itself a Puritan city, but it has divested its +Puritanism of austerity, and clings rather to the politics and public +bearing of its old fathers than to their social manners and pristine +severity of intercourse. The young girls are, no doubt, much more +comfortable under the new dispensation,--and the elderly men also, +as I fancy. Sunday, as regards the outer streets, is sabbatical. But +Sunday evenings within doors I always found to be what my friends in +that country call "quite a good time." It is not the thing in Boston +to smoke in the streets during the day; but the wisest, the sagest, +and the most holy,--even those holy men whom the lecturer saw around +him,--seldom refuse a cigar in the dining-room as soon as the ladies +have gone. Perhaps even the wicked weed would make its appearance +before that sad eclipse, thereby postponing, or perhaps absolutely +annihilating, the melancholy period of widowhood to both parties, +and would light itself under the very eyes of those who in sterner +cities will lend no countenance to such lightings. Ah me, it was very +pleasant! I confess I like this abandonment of the stricter rules of +the more decorous world. I fear that there is within me an aptitude +to the milder debaucheries which makes such deviations pleasant. I +like to drink and I like to smoke, but I do not like to turn women +out of the room. Then comes the question whether one can have all +that one likes together. In some small circles in New England I found +people simple enough to fancy that they could. In Massachusetts the +Maine Liquor Law is still the law of the land, but, like that other +law to which I have alluded, it has fallen very much out of use. At +any rate it had not reached the houses of the gentlemen with whom I +had the pleasure of making acquaintance. But here I must guard myself +from being misunderstood. I saw but one drunken man through all New +England, and he was very respectable. He was, however, so uncommonly +drunk that he might be allowed to count for two or three. The +Puritans of Boston are, of course, simple in their habits and simple +in their expenses. Champagne and canvas-back ducks I found to be the +provisions most in vogue among those who desired to adhere closely to +the manners of their forefathers. Upon the whole I found the ways of +life which had been brought over in the "Mayflower" from the stern +sects of England, and preserved through the revolutionary war for +liberty, to be very pleasant ways, and I made up my mind that a +Yankee Puritan can be an uncommonly pleasant fellow. I wish that some +of them did not dine so early; for when a man sits down at half-past +two, that keeping up of the after-dinner recreations till bedtime +becomes hard work. + +In Boston the houses are very spacious and excellent, and they are +always furnished with those luxuries which it is so difficult to +introduce into an old house. They have hot and cold water pipes +into every room, and baths attached to the bed-chambers. It is not +only that comfort is increased by such arrangements, but that much +labour is saved. In an old English house it will occupy a servant +the best part of the day to carry water up and down for a large +family. Everything also is spacious, commodious, and well lighted. +I certainly think that in house building the Americans have gone +beyond us, for even our new houses are not commodious as are theirs. +One practice which they have in their cities would hardly suit our +limited London spaces. When the body of the house is built, they +throw out the dining-room behind. It stands alone, as it were, with +no other chamber above it, and removed from the rest of the house. +It is consequently behind the double drawing-rooms which form the +ground-floor, and is approached from them, and also from the back of +the hall. The second entrance to the dining-room is thus near the top +of the kitchen stairs, which no doubt is its proper position. The +whole of the upper part of the house is thus kept for the private +uses of the family. To me this plan of building recommended itself as +being very commodious. + +I found the spirit for the war quite as hot at Boston now (in +November), if not hotter than it was when I was there ten weeks +earlier; and I found also, to my grief, that the feeling against +England was as strong. I can easily understand how difficult it must +have been, and still must be, to Englishmen at home to understand +this, and see how it has come to pass. It has not arisen, as I think, +from the old jealousy of England. It has not sprung from that source +which for years has induced certain newspapers, especially the "New +York Herald" to vilify England. I do not think that the men of New +England have ever been, as regards this matter, in the same boat with +the "New York Herald." But when this war between the North and South +first broke out, even before there was as yet a war, the Northern men +had taught themselves to expect what they called British sympathy, +meaning British encouragement. They regarded, and properly regarded, +the action of the South as a rebellion, and said among themselves +that so staid and conservative a nation as Great Britain would surely +countenance them in quelling rebels. If not,--should it come to pass +that Great Britain should show no such countenance and sympathy for +Northern law, if Great Britain did not respond to her friend as +she was expected to respond, then it would appear that Cotton was +king, at least in British eyes. The war did come, and Great Britain +regarded the two parties as belligerents, standing, as far as she was +concerned, on equal grounds. This it was that first gave rise to that +fretful anger against England which has gone so far towards ruining +the northern cause. We know how such passions are swelled by being +ventilated, and how they are communicated from mind to mind till they +become national. Politicians--American politicians I here mean--have +their own future careers ever before their eyes, and are driven +to make capital where they can. Hence it is that such men as Mr. +Seward in the cabinet, and Mr. Everett out of it, can reconcile it +to themselves to speak as they have done of England. It was but the +other day that Mr. Everett spoke in one of his orations of the hope +that still existed that the flag of the United States might still +float over the whole continent of North America. What would he say of +an English statesman who should speak of putting up the Union Jack +on the State House in Boston? Such words tell for the moment on the +hearers, and help to gain some slight popularity; but they tell for +more than a moment on those who read them and remember them. + +And then came the capture of Messrs. Slidell and Mason. I was at +Boston when those men were taken out of the "Trent" by the "San +Jacinto," and brought to Fort Warren in Boston Harbour. Captain +Wilkes was the officer who had made the capture, and he immediately +was recognized as a hero. He was invited to banquets and feted. +Speeches were made to him as speeches are commonly made to high +officers who come home, after many perils, victorious from the wars. +His health was drunk with great applause, and thanks were voted to +him by one of the Houses of Congress. It was said that a sword was +to be given to him, but I do not think that the gift was consummated. +Should it not have been a policeman's truncheon? Had he at the +best done anything beyond a policeman's work? Of Captain Wilkes +no one would complain for doing policeman's duty. If his country +were satisfied with the manner in which he did it, England, if she +quarrelled at all, would not quarrel with him. It may now and again +become the duty of a brave officer to do work of so low a calibre. It +is a pity that an ambitious sailor should find himself told off for +so mean a task, but the world would know that it is not his fault. +No one could blame Captain Wilkes for acting policeman on the seas. +But who ever before heard of giving a man glory for achievements so +little glorious? How Captain Wilkes must have blushed when those +speeches were made to him, when that talk about the sword came up, +when the thanks arrived to him from Congress! An officer receives +his country's thanks when he has been in great peril, and has borne +himself gallantly through his danger; when he has endured the brunt +of war, and come through it with victory; when he has exposed himself +on behalf of his country and singed his epaulets with an enemy's +fire. Captain Wilkes tapped a merchantman on the shoulder in the high +seas, and told him that his passengers were wanted. In doing this he +showed no lack of spirit, for it might be his duty; but where was his +spirit when he submitted to be thanked for such work? + +And then there arose a clamour of justification among the lawyers; +judges and ex-judges flew to Wheaton, Phillimore, and Lord Stowell. +Before twenty-four hours were over, every man and every woman in +Boston were armed with precedents. Then there was the burning of the +"Caroline." England had improperly burned the "Caroline" on Lake +Erie, or rather in one of the American ports on Lake Erie, and had +then begged pardon. If the States had been wrong, they would beg +pardon; but whether wrong or right, they would not give up Slidell +and Mason. But the lawyers soon waxed stronger. The men were +manifestly ambassadors, and as such contraband of war. Wilkes was +quite right, only he should have seized the vessel also. He was quite +right, for though Slidell and Mason might not be ambassadors, they +were undoubtedly carrying despatches. In a few hours there began to +be a doubt whether the men could be ambassadors, because if called +ambassadors, then the power that sent the embassy must be presumed to +be recognized. That Captain Wilkes had taken no despatches was true; +but the Captain suggested a way out of this difficulty by declaring +that he had regarded the two men themselves as an incarnated +embodiment of despatches. At any rate, they were clearly contraband +of war. They were going to do an injury to the North. It was pretty +to hear the charming women of Boston, as they became learned in the +law of nations: "Wheaton is quite clear about it," one young girl +said to me. It was the first I had ever heard of Wheaton, and so +far was obliged to knock under. All the world, ladies and lawyers, +expressed the utmost confidence in the justice of the seizure, but +it was clear that all the world was in a state of the profoundest +nervous anxiety on the subject. To me it seemed to be the most +suicidal act that any party in a life-and-death struggle ever +committed. All Americans on both sides had felt, from the beginning +of the war, that any assistance given by England to one or the other +would turn the scale. The Government of Mr. Lincoln must have learned +by this time that England was at least true in her neutrality; that +no desire for cotton would compel her to give aid to the South as +long as she herself was not ill-treated by the North. But it seemed +as though Mr. Seward, the President's prime minister, had no better +work on hand than that of showing in every way his indifference as to +courtesy with England. Insults offered to England would, he seemed to +think, strengthen his hands. He would let England know that he did +not care for her. When our minister, Lord Lyons, appealed to him +regarding the suspension of the habeas corpus, Mr. Seward not only +answered him with insolence, but instantly published his answer +in the papers. He instituted a system of passports, especially +constructed so as to incommode Englishmen proceeding from the States +across the Atlantic. He resolved to make every Englishman in America +feel himself in some way punished because England had not assisted +the North. And now came the arrest of Slidell and Mason out of +an English mail-steamer; and Mr. Seward took care to let it be +understood that, happen what might, those two men should not be given +up. + +Nothing during all this time astonished me so much as the estimation +in which Mr. Seward was then held by his own party. It is, perhaps, +the worst defect in the Constitution of the States, that no +incapacity on the part of a minister, no amount of condemnation +expressed against him by the people or by Congress, can put him out +of office during the term of the existing Presidency. The President +can dismiss him; but it generally happens that the President is +brought in on a "platform," which has already nominated for him his +Cabinet as thoroughly as they have nominated him. Mr. Seward ran Mr. +Lincoln very hard for the position of candidate for the Presidency +on the Republican interest. On the second voting of the Republican +delegates at the Convention at Chicago, Mr. Seward polled 184 to Mr. +Lincoln's 181. But as a clear half of the total number of votes was +necessary--that is 233 out of 465--there was necessarily a third +polling, and Mr. Lincoln won the day. On that occasion Mr. Chase and +Mr. Cameron, both of whom became members of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, +were also candidates for the White House on the Republican side. +I mention this here to show, that though the President can in fact +dismiss his Ministers, he is in a great manner bound to them, and +that a Minister in Mr. Seward's position is hardly to be dismissed. +But from the 1st of November, 1861, till the day on which I left +the States, I do not think that I heard a good word spoken of Mr. +Seward as a Minister even by one of his own party. The Radical +or Abolitionist Republicans all abused him. The Conservative or +Anti-abolition Republicans, to whose party he would consider himself +as belonging, spoke of him as a mistake. He had been prominent as +Senator from New York, and had been Governor of the State of New +York, but had none of the aptitudes of a statesman. He was there, and +it was a pity. He was not so bad as Mr. Cameron, the Minister for +War; that was the best his own party could say for him, even in his +own State of New York. As to the Democrats, their language respecting +him was as harsh as any that I have heard used towards the Southern +leaders. He seemed to have no friend, no one who trusted him;--and +yet he was the President's chief minister, and seemed to have in +his own hands the power of mismanaging all foreign relations as he +pleased. But, in truth, the States of America, great as they are, and +much as they have done, have not produced Statesmen. That theory of +governing by the little men rather than by the great, has not been +found to answer, and such follies as those of Mr. Seward have been +the consequence. + +At Boston, and indeed elsewhere, I found that there was even +then,--at the time of the capture of Mason and Slidell,--no true +conception of the neutrality of England with reference to the two +parties. When any argument was made, showing that England who had +carried those messengers from the South, would undoubtedly have also +carried messengers from the North, the answer always was--"But the +Southerners are all rebels. Will England regard us who are by treaty +her friend, as she does a people that is in rebellion against its +own government?" That was the old story over again, and as it was +a very long story, it was hardly of use to go back through all its +details. But the fact was that unless there had been such absolute +neutrality--such equality between the parties in the eyes of +England--even Captain Wilkes would not have thought of stopping +the "Trent," or the Government at Washington of justifying such +a proceeding. And it must be remembered that the Government at +Washington had justified that proceeding. The Secretary of the Navy +had distinctly done so in his official report; and that report had +been submitted to the President and published by his order. It was +because England was neutral between the North and South that Captain +Wilkes claimed to have the right of seizing those two men. It had +been the President's intention, some month or so before this affair, +to send Mr. Everett and other gentlemen over to England with objects +as regards the North, similar to those which had caused the sending +of Slidell and Mason with reference to the South. What would Mr. +Everett have thought had he been refused a passage from Dover to +Calais, because the carrying of him would have been towards the South +a breach of neutrality? It would never have occurred to him that he +could become subject to such stoppage. How should we have been abused +for Southern sympathies had we so acted! We, forsooth, who carry +passengers about the world, from China and Australia, round to Chili +and Peru, who have the charge of the world's passengers and letters, +and as a nation incur out of our pocket annually a loss of some +half-million of pounds sterling for the privilege of doing so, are +to inquire the business of every American traveller before we let +him on board, and be stopped in our work if we take anybody on one +side whose journeyings may be conceived by the other side to be to +them prejudicial! Not on such terms will Englishmen be willing to +spread civilization across the ocean! I do not pretend to understand +Wheaton and Phillimore, or even to have read a single word of any +international law. I have refused to read any such, knowing that it +would only confuse and mislead me. But I have my common sense to +guide me. Two men living in one street, quarrel and shy brickbats at +each other, and make the whole street very uncomfortable. Not only is +no one to interfere with them, but they are to have the privilege of +deciding that their brickbats have the right of way, rather than the +ordinary intercourse of the neighbourhood! If that be national law, +national law must be changed. It might do for some centuries back, +but it cannot do now. Up to this period my sympathies had been +with the North. I thought, and still think, that the North had no +alternative, that the war had been forced upon them, and that they +had gone about their work with patriotic energy. But this stopping of +an English mail-steamer was too much for me. + +What will they do in England? was now the question. But for any +knowledge as to that, I had to wait till I reached Washington. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL. + + +The two places of most general interest in the vicinity of Boston +are Cambridge and Lowell. Cambridge is to Massachusetts, and, I may +almost say, is to all the northern States, what Cambridge and Oxford +are to England. It is the seat of the University which gives the +highest education to be attained by the highest classes in that +country. Lowell also is in little to Massachusetts and to New England +what Manchester is to us in so great a degree. It is the largest and +most prosperous cotton-manufacturing town in the States. + +Cambridge is not above three or four miles from Boston. Indeed, the +town of Cambridge properly so called begins where Boston ceases. The +Harvard College--that is its name, taken from one of its original +founders--is reached by horse-cars in twenty minutes from the city. +An Englishman feels inclined to regard the place as a suburb of +Boston; but if he so expresses himself, he will not find favour in +the eyes of the men of Cambridge. + +The University is not so large as I had expected to find it. It +consists of Harvard College, as the undergraduates' department, and +of professional schools of law, medicine, divinity, and science. +In the few words that I will say about it I will confine myself to +Harvard College proper, conceiving that the professional schools +connected with it have not in themselves any special interest. The +average number of undergraduates does not exceed 450, and these +are divided into four classes. The average number of degrees taken +annually by bachelors of art is something under 100. Four years' +residence is required for a degree, and at the end of that period +a degree is given as a matter of course if the candidate's conduct +has been satisfactory. When a young man has pursued his studies for +that period, going through the required examinations and lectures, +he is not subjected to any final examination as is the case with a +candidate for a degree at Oxford and Cambridge. It is, perhaps, in +this respect that the greatest difference exists between the English +Universities and Harvard College. With us a young man may, I take +it, still go through his three or four years with a small amount of +study. But his doing so does not insure him his degree. If he have +utterly wasted his time he is plucked, and late but heavy punishment +comes upon him. At Cambridge in Massachusetts the daily work of +the men is made more obligatory; but if this be gone through with +such diligence as to enable the student to hold his own during the +four years, he has his degree as a matter of course. There are no +degrees conferring special honour. A man cannot go out "in honours" +as he does with us. There are no "firsts" or "double firsts;" no +"wranglers;" no "senior opts" or "junior opts." Nor are there prizes +of fellowships and livings to be obtained. It is, I think, evident +from this that the greatest incentives to high excellence are wanting +at Harvard College. There is neither the reward of honour nor of +money. There is none of that great competition which exists at our +Cambridge for the high place of Senior Wrangler; and, consequently, +the degree of excellence attained is no doubt lower than with us. +But I conceive that the general level of the University education is +higher there than with us; that a young man is more sure of getting +his education, and that a smaller percentage of men leaves Harvard +College utterly uneducated than goes in that condition out of Oxford +or Cambridge. The education at Harvard College is more diversified in +its nature, and study is more absolutely the business of the place +than it is at our Universities. + +The expense of education at Harvard College is not much lower than +at our colleges; with us there are, no doubt, more men who are +absolutely extravagant than at Cambridge, Massachusetts. The actual +authorized expenditure in accordance with the rules is only L50 per +annum, _i.e._ 249 dollars; but this does not, by any means, include +everything. Some of the richer young men may spend as much as L300 +per annum, but the largest number vary their expenditure from L100 +to L180 per annum; and I take it the same thing may be said of our +Universities. There are many young men at Harvard College of very +small means. They will live on L70 per annum, and will earn a great +portion of that by teaching in the vacations. There are thirty-six +scholarships attached to the University varying in value from L20 to +L60 per annum; and there is also a beneficiary fund for supplying +poor scholars with assistance during their collegiate education. Many +are thus brought up at Cambridge who have no means of their own, and +I think I may say that the consideration in which they are held among +their brother students is in no degree affected by their position. +I doubt whether we can say so much of the sizars and bible clerks at +our Universities. + +At Harvard College there is, of course, none of that old-fashioned, +time-honoured, delicious, mediaeval life which lends so much grace and +beauty to our colleges. There are no gates, no porter's lodges, no +butteries, no halls, no battels, and no common rooms. There are no +proctors, no bulldogs, no bursers, no deans, no morning and evening +chapel, no quads, no surplices, no caps and gowns. I have already +said that there are no examinations for degrees and no honours; and I +can easily conceive that in the absence of all these essentials many +an Englishman will ask what right Harvard College has to call itself +a University. + +I have said that there are no honours,--and in our sense there are +none. But I should give offence to my American friends if I did not +explain that there are prizes given--I think all in money, and that +they vary from 50 to 10 dollars. These are called _deturs_. The +degrees are given on Commencement Day, at which occasion certain +of the expectant graduates are selected to take parts in a public +literary exhibition. To be so selected seems to be tantamount to +taking a degree in honours. There is also a dinner on Commencement +Day,--at which, however, "no wine or other intoxicating drink shall +be served." + +It is required that every student shall attend some place of +Christian worship on Sundays; but he, or his parents for him, may +elect what denomination of church he shall attend. There is a +University chapel on the University grounds which belongs, if I +remember right, to the Episcopalian Church. The young men for the +most part live in College, having rooms in the College buildings; +but they do not board in those rooms. There are establishments in +the town under the patronage of the University, at which dinner, +breakfast, and supper are provided; and the young men frequent one +of these houses or another as they, or their friends for them, may +arrange. Every young man not belonging to a family resident within a +hundred miles of Cambridge, and whose parents are desirous to obtain +the protection thus provided, is placed, as regards his pecuniary +management, under the care of a patron, and this patron acts by him +as a father does in England by a boy at school. He pays out his money +for him and keeps him out of debt. The arrangement will not recommend +itself to young men at Oxford quite so powerfully as it may do to +the fathers of some young men who have been there. The rules with +regard to the lodging and boarding-houses are very stringent. Any +festive entertainment is to be reported to the President. No wine or +spirituous liquors may be used, &c. It is not a picturesque system, +this; but it has its advantages. + +There is a handsome library attached to the College, which the young +men can use; but it is not as extensive as I had expected. The +University is not well off for funds by which to increase it. The +new museum in the College is also a handsome building. The edifices +used for the undergraduates' chambers and for the lecture-rooms are +by no means handsome. They are very ugly red-brick houses standing +here and there without order. There are seven such, and they are +called Brattle House, College House, Divinity Hall, Hollis Hall, +Holsworthy Hall, Massachusetts Hall, and Stoughton Hall. It is almost +astonishing that buildings so ugly should have been erected for such +a purpose. These, together with the library, the museum, and the +chapel, stand on a large green, which might be made pretty enough if +it were kept well mown like the gardens of our Cambridge colleges; +but it is much neglected. Here, again, the want of funds--the res +angusta domi--must be pleaded as an excuse. On the same green, but at +some little distance from any other building, stands the President's +pleasant house. + +The immediate direction of the College is of course mainly in +the hands of the President, who is supreme. But for the general +management of the Institution there is a Corporation, of which he is +one. It is stated in the laws of the University that the Corporation +of the University and its Overseers constitute the Government of the +University. The Corporation consists of the President, five Fellows, +so called, and a Treasurer. These Fellows are chosen, as vacancies +occur, by themselves, subject to the concurrence of the Overseers. +But these Fellows are in nowise like to the Fellows of our colleges, +having no salaries attached to their offices. The Board of Overseers +consists of the State Governor, other State officers, the President +and Treasurer of Harvard College, and thirty other persons,--men of +note, chosen by vote. The Faculty of the College, in which is vested +the immediate care and government of the undergraduates, is composed +of the President and the Professors. The Professors answer to +the tutors of our colleges, and upon them the education of the +place depends. I cannot complete this short notice of Harvard +College without saying that it is happy in the possession of that +distinguished natural philosopher, Professor Agassiz. M. Agassiz +has collected at Cambridge a museum of such things as natural +philosophers delight to show, which I am told is all but invaluable. +As my ignorance on all such matters is of a depth which the Professor +can hardly imagine, and which it would have shocked him to behold, I +did not visit the museum. Taking the University of Harvard College as +a whole, I should say that it is most remarkable in this,--that it +does really give to its pupils that education which it professes to +give. Of our own Universities other good things may be said, but that +one special good thing cannot always be said. + +Cambridge boasts itself as the residence of four or five men well +known to fame on the American and also on the European side of the +ocean. President Felton's* name is very familiar to us, and wherever +Greek scholarship is held in repute, that is known. So also is the +name of Professor Agassiz, of whom I have spoken. Russell Lowell is +one of the Professors of the College,--that Russell Lowell who sang +of Birdo'fredum Sawin, and whose Biglow Papers were edited with such +an ardour of love by our Tom Brown. Birdo'fredum is worthy of all +the ardour. Mr. Dana is also a Cambridge man,--he who was "two years +before the mast," and who since that has written to us of Cuba. +But Mr. Dana, though residing at Cambridge, is not of Cambridge, +and, though a literary man, he does not belong to literature. He +is,--could he help it?--a special attorney. I must not, however, +degrade him, for in the States barristers and attorneys are all one. +I cannot but think that he could help it, and that he should not +give up to law what was meant for mankind. I fear, however, that +successful law has caught him in her intolerant clutches, and that +literature, who surely would be the nobler mistress, must wear the +willow. Last and greatest is the poet-laureat of the West; for Mr. +Longfellow also lives at Cambridge. + + *Since these words were written President Felton has died. I, + as I returned on my way homewards, had the melancholy privilege + of being present at his funeral. I feel bound to record here + the great kindness with which Mr. Felton assisted me in obtaining + such information as I needed respecting the Institution over + which he presided. + +I am not at all aware whether the nature of the manufacturing +corporation of Lowell is generally understood by Englishmen. I +confess that until I made personal acquaintance with the plan, I +was absolutely ignorant on the subject. I knew that Lowell was a +manufacturing town at which cotton is made into calico, and at which +calico is printed,--as is the case at Manchester; but I conceived +this was done at Lowell, as it is done at Manchester, by individual +enterprise,--that I or any one else could open a mill at Lowell, and +that the manufacturers there were ordinary traders, as they are at +other manufacturing towns. But this is by no means the case. + +That which most surprises an English visitor on going through the +mills at Lowell is the personal appearance of the men and women who +work at them. As there are twice as many women as there are men, it +is to them that the attention is chiefly called. They are not only +better dressed, cleaner, and better mounted in every respect than +the girls employed at manufactories in England, but they are so +infinitely superior as to make a stranger immediately perceive that +some very strong cause must have created the difference. We all +know the class of young women whom we generally see serving behind +counters in the shops of our larger cities. They are neat, well +dressed, careful, especially about their hair, composed in their +manner, and sometimes a little supercilious in the propriety of their +demeanour. It is exactly the same class of young women that one sees +in the factories at Lowell. They are not sallow, nor dirty, nor +ragged, nor rough. They have about them no signs of want, or of low +culture. Many of us also know the appearance of those girls who work +in the factories in England; and I think it will be allowed that a +second glance at them is not wanting to show that they are in every +respect inferior to the young women who attend our shops. The matter, +indeed, requires no argument. Any young woman at a shop would be +insulted by being asked whether she had worked at a factory. The +difference with regard to the men at Lowell is quite as strong, +though not so striking. Working men do not show their status in the +world by their outward appearance as readily as women; and, as I have +said before, the number of the women greatly exceeded that of the +men. + +One would of course be disposed to say that the superior condition of +the workers must have been occasioned by superior wages; and this, to +a certain extent, has been the cause. But the higher payment is not +the chief cause. Women's wages, including all that they receive at +the Lowell factories, average about 14_s._ a week, which is, I take +it, fully a third more than women can earn in Manchester, or did +earn before the loss of the American cotton began to tell upon them. +But if wages at Manchester were raised to the Lowell standard, the +Manchester women would not be clothed, fed, cared for, and educated +like the Lowell women. The fact is, that the workmen and the +workwomen at Lowell are not exposed to the chances of an open +labour market. They are taken in, as it were, to a philanthropical +manufacturing college, and then looked after and regulated more as +girls and lads at a great seminary, than as hands by whose industry +profit is to be made out of capital. This is all very nice and pretty +at Lowell, but I am afraid it could not be done at Manchester. + +There are at present twelve different manufactories at Lowell, each +of which has what is called a separate corporation. The Merrimack +manufacturing company was incorporated in 1822, and thus Lowell was +commenced. The Lowell machine-shop was incorporated in 1845, and +since that no new establishment has been added. In 1821 a certain +Boston manufacturing company, which had mills at Waltham, near +Boston, was attracted by the water-power of the river Merrimack, +on which the present town of Lowell is situated. A canal, called +the Pawtucket Canal, had been made for purposes of navigation from +one reach of the river to another, with the object of avoiding the +Pawtucket Falls; and this canal, with the adjacent water-power of +the river, was purchased for the Boston Company. The place was then +called Lowell, after one of the partners in that company. + +It must be understood that water-power alone is used for preparing +the cotton and working the spindles and looms of the cotton mills. +Steam is applied in the two establishments in which the cottons are +printed, for the purposes of printing, but I think nowhere else. +When the mills are at full work, about two-and-a-half million yards +of cotton goods are made every week, and nearly a million pounds +of cotton are consumed per week (_i.e._ 842,000 lbs.), but the +consumption of coal is only 30,000 tons in the year. This will give +some idea of the value of the water-power. The Pawtucket Canal was, +as I say, bought, and Lowell was commenced. The town was incorporated +in 1826, and the railway between it and Boston was opened in 1835, +under the superintendence of Mr. Jackson, the gentleman by whom the +purchase of the canal had in the first instance been made. Lowell now +contains about 40,000 inhabitants. + +The following extract is taken from the hand-book to Lowell:--"Mr. +F. C. Lowell had in his travels abroad observed the effect of large +manufacturing establishments on the character of the people, and in +the establishment at Waltham the founders looked for a remedy for +these defects. They thought that education and good morals would even +enhance the profit, and that they could compete with Great Britain by +introducing a more cultivated class of operatives. For this purpose +they built boarding-houses, which, under the direct supervision of +the agent, were kept by discreet matrons"--I can answer for the +discreet matrons at Lowell--"mostly widows, no boarders being allowed +except operatives. Agents and overseers of high moral character were +selected; regulations were adopted at the mills and boarding-houses, +by which only respectable girls were employed. The mills were nicely +painted and swept,"--I can also answer for the painting and sweeping +at Lowell,--"trees set out in the yards and along the streets, habits +of neatness and cleanliness encouraged; and the result justified +the expenditure. At Lowell the same policy has been adopted and +extended; more spacious mills and elegant boarding-houses have been +erected;"--as to the elegance, it may be a matter of taste, but +as to the comfort there is no question,--"the same care as to the +classes employed; more capital has been expended for cleanliness and +decoration; a hospital has been established for the sick, where, +for a small price, they have an experienced physician and skilful +nurses. An institute, with an extensive library, for the use of +the mechanics, has been endowed. The agents have stood forward in +the support of schools, churches, lectures, and lyceums, and their +influence contributed highly to the elevation of the moral and +intellectual character of the operatives. Talent has been encouraged, +brought forward, and recommended."--For some considerable time +the young women wrote, edited, and published a newspaper among +themselves, called the Lowell Offering.--"And Lowell has supplied +agents and mechanics for the later manufacturing places who have +given tone to society, and extended the beneficial influence of +Lowell through the United States. Girls from the country, with a +true Yankee spirit of independence, and confident in their own +powers, pass a few years here, and then return to get married with +a dower secured by their exertions, with more enlarged ideas and +extended means of information, and their places are supplied by +younger relatives. A larger proportion of the female population +of New England has been employed at some time in manufacturing +establishments, and they are not on this account less good wives, +mothers, or educators of families." Then the account goes on to tell +how the health of the girls has been improved by their attendance at +the mills, how they put money into the savings-banks, and buy railway +shares and farms; how there are thirty churches in Lowell, a library, +banks, and insurance offices; how there is a cemetery, and a park, +and how everything is beautiful, philanthropic, profitable, and +magnificent. + +Thus Lowell is the realization of a commercial Utopia. Of all the +statements made in the little book which I have quoted I cannot point +out one which is exaggerated, much less false. I should not call the +place elegant; in other respects I am disposed to stand by the book. +Before I had made any inquiry into the cause of the apparent comfort, +it struck me at once that some great effort at excellence was being +made. I went into one of the discreet matrons' residences; and +perhaps may give but an indifferent idea of her discretion when I say +that she allowed me to go into the bedrooms. If you want to ascertain +the inner ways or habits of life of any man, woman, or child, see, +if it be practicable to do so, his or her bedroom. You will learn +more by a minute's glance round that holy of holies, than by any +conversation. Looking-glasses and such like, suspended dresses, +and toilet-belongings, if taken without notice, cannot lie or even +exaggerate. The discreet matron at first showed me rooms only +prepared for use, for at the period of my visit Lowell was by no +means full; but she soon became more intimate with me, and I went +through the upper part of the house. My report must be altogether +in her favour and in that of Lowell. Everything was cleanly, +well-ordered, and feminine. There was not a bed on which any woman +need have hesitated to lay herself if occasion required it. I fear +that this cannot be said of the lodgings of the manufacturing classes +at Manchester. The boarders all take their meals together. As a rule, +they have meat twice a-day. Hot meat for dinner is with them as +much a matter of course, or probably more so, than with any English +man or woman who may read this book. For in the States of America +regulations on this matter are much more rigid than with us. Cold +meat is rarely seen, and to live a day without meat would be as great +a privation as to pass a night without bed. + +The rules for the guidance of these boarding-houses are very rigid. +The houses themselves belong to the corporations or different +manufacturing establishments, and the tenants are altogether in the +power of the managers. None but operatives are to be taken in. The +tenants are answerable for improper conduct. The doors are to be +closed at ten o'clock. Any boarders who do not attend divine worship +are to be reported to the managers. The yards and walks are to +be kept clean, and snow removed at once; and the inmates must be +vaccinated, &c., &c., &c. It is expressly stated by the Hamilton +Company,--and I believe by all the companies,--that no one shall +be employed who is habitually absent from public worship on Sunday, +or who is known to be guilty of immorality. It is stated that the +average wages of the women are two dollars, or eight shillings, a +week, besides their board. I found when I was there that from three +dollars to three-and-a-half a week were paid to the women, of which +they paid one dollar and twenty-five cents for their board. As this +would not fully cover the expense of their keep, twenty-five cents a +week for each was also paid to the boarding-house keepers by the mill +agents. This substantially came to the same thing, as it left the two +dollars a week, or eight shillings, with the girls over and above +their cost of living. The board included washing, lights, food, bed, +and attendance,--leaving a surplus of eight shillings a week for +clothes and saving. Now let me ask any one acquainted with Manchester +and its operatives, whether that is not Utopia realized. Factory +girls, for whom every comfort of life is secured, with L21 a year +over for saving and dress! One sees the failing, however, at a +moment. It is Utopia. Any Lady Bountiful can tutor three or four +peasants and make them luxuriously comfortable. But no Lady Bountiful +can give luxurious comfort to half-a-dozen parishes. Lowell is now +nearly forty years old, and contains but 40,000 inhabitants. From +the very nature of its corporations it cannot spread itself. Chicago, +which has grown out of nothing in a much shorter period, and which +has no factories, has now 120,000 inhabitants. Lowell is a very +wonderful place and shows what philanthropy can do; but I fear it +also shows what philanthropy cannot do. + +There are, however, other establishments, conducted on the same +principle as those at Lowell, which have had the same amount, +or rather the same sort, of success. Lawrence is now a town of +about 15,000 inhabitants, and Manchester of about 24,000,--if I +remember rightly;--and at those places the mills are also owned by +corporations and conducted as are those at Lowell. But it seems +to me that as New England takes her place in the world as a great +manufacturing country--which place she undoubtedly will take sooner +or later--she must abandon the hot-house method of providing for her +operatives with which she has commenced her work. In the first place, +Lowell is not open as a manufacturing town to the capitalists even +of New England at large. Stock may, I presume, be bought in the +corporations, but no interloper can establish a mill there. It is a +close manufacturing community, bolstered up on all sides, and has +none of that capacity for providing employment for a thickly-growing +population which belongs to such places as Manchester and Leeds. +That it should under its present system have been made in any degree +profitable reflects great credit on the managers; but the profit +does not reach an amount which in America can be considered as +remunerative. The total capital invested by the twelve corporations +is thirteen million and a half of dollars, or about two million seven +hundred thousand pounds. In only one of the corporations, that of +the Merrimack Company, does the profit amount to 12 per cent. In one, +that of the Boott Company, it falls below 7 per cent. The average +profit of the various establishments is something below 9 per cent. +I am of course speaking of Lowell as it was previous to the war. +American capitalists are not, as a rule, contented with so low a rate +of interest as this. + +The States in these matters have had a great advantage over England. +They have been able to begin at the beginning. Manufactories have +grown up among us as our cities grew;--from the necessities and +chances of the times. When labour was wanted it was obtained in the +ordinary way; and so when houses were built they were built in the +ordinary way. We had not the experience, and the results either for +good or bad, of other nations to guide us. The Americans, in seeing +and resolving to adopt our commercial successes, have resolved also, +if possible, to avoid the evils which have attended those successes. +It would be very desirable that all our factory girls should read and +write, wear clean clothes, have decent beds, and eat hot meat every +day. But that is now impossible. Gradually, with very up-hill work, +but still I trust with sure work, much will be done to improve their +position and render their life respectable; but in England we can +have no Lowells. In our thickly populated island any commercial +Utopia is out of the question. Nor can, as I think, Lowell be taken +as a type of the future manufacturing towns of New England. When New +England employs millions in her factories, instead of thousands,--the +hands employed at Lowell, when the mills are at full work, are about +11,000,--she must cease to provide for them their beds and meals, +their church-going proprieties and orderly modes of life. In such +an attempt she has all the experience of the world against her. But +nevertheless I think she will have done much good. The tone which she +will have given will not altogether lose its influence. Employment +in a factory is now considered reputable by a farmer and his +children, and this idea will remain. Factory work is regarded as more +respectable than domestic service, and this prestige will not wear +itself altogether out. Those now employed have a strong conception of +the dignity of their own social position, and their successors will +inherit much of this, even though they may find themselves excluded +from the advantages of the present Utopia. The thing has begun +well, but it can only be regarded as a beginning. Steam, it may be +presumed, will become the motive power of cotton mills in New England +as it is with us; and when it is so, the amount of work to be done +at any one place will not be checked by any such limit as that which +now prevails at Lowell. Water-power is very cheap, but it cannot +be extended; and it would seem that no place can become large as a +manufacturing town which has to depend chiefly upon water. It is not +improbable that steam may be brought into general use at Lowell, and +that Lowell may spread itself. If it should spread itself widely, it +will lose its Utopian characteristics. + +One cannot but be greatly struck by the spirit of philanthropy +in which the system of Lowell was at first instituted. It may be +presumed that men who put their money into such an undertaking did so +with the object of commercial profit to themselves; but in this case +that was not their first object. I think it may be taken for granted +that when Messrs. Jackson and Lowell went about their task, their +grand idea was to place factory work upon a respectable footing,--to +give employment in mills which should not be unhealthy, degrading, +demoralizing, or hard in its circumstances. Throughout the northern +States of America the same feeling is to be seen. Good and thoughtful +men have been active to spread education, to maintain health, to make +work compatible with comfort and personal dignity, and to divest the +ordinary lot of man of the sting of that curse which was supposed to +be uttered when our first father was ordered to eat his bread in the +sweat of his brow. One is driven to contrast this feeling, of which +on all sides one sees such ample testimony, with that sharp desire +for profit, that anxiety to do a stroke of trade at every turn, that +acknowledged necessity of being smart, which we must own is quite +as general as the nobler propensity. I believe that both phases of +commercial activity may be attributed to the same characteristic. Men +in trade in America are not more covetous than tradesmen in England, +nor probably are they more generous or philanthropical. But that +which they do, they are more anxious to do thoroughly and quickly. +They desire that every turn taken shall be a great turn,--or at any +rate that it shall be as great as possible. They go ahead either for +bad or good with all the energy they have. In the institutions at +Lowell I think we may allow that the good has very much prevailed. + +I went over two of the mills, those of the Merrimack corporation, and +of the Massachusetts. At the former the printing establishment only +was at work; the cotton mills were closed. I hardly know whether it +will interest any one to learn that something under half-a-million +yards of calico are here printed annually. At the Lowell bleachery +fifteen million yards are dyed annually. The Merrimack cotton-mills +were stopped, and so had the other mills at Lowell been stopped, till +some short time before my visit. Trade had been bad, and there had of +course been a lack of cotton. I was assured that no severe suffering +had been created by this stoppage. The greater number of hands had +returned into the country,--to the farms from whence they had come; +and though a discontinuance of work and wages had of course produced +hardship, there had been no actual privation,--no hunger and want. +Those of the workpeople who had no homes out of Lowell to which to +betake themselves, and no means at Lowell of living, had received +relief before real suffering had begun. I was assured, with something +of a smile of contempt at the question, that there had been nothing +like hunger. But, as I said before, visitors always see a great deal +of rose colour, and should endeavour to allay the brilliancy of the +tint with the proper amount of human shading. But do not let any +visitor mix in the browns with too heavy a hand! + +At the Massachusetts cotton-mills they were working with about +two-thirds of their full number of hands, and this, I was told, was +about the average of the number now employed throughout Lowell. +Working at this rate they had now on hand a supply of cotton to last +them for six months. Their stocks had been increased lately, and on +asking from whence, I was informed that that last received had come +to them from Liverpool. There is, I believe, no doubt but that a +considerable quantity of cotton has been shipped back from England to +the States since the civil war began. I asked the gentleman, to whose +care at Lowell I was consigned, whether he expected to get cotton +from the South,--for at that time Beaufort in South Carolina had just +been taken by the naval expedition. He had, he said, a political +expectation of a supply of cotton, but not a commercial expectation. +That at least was the gist of his reply, and I found it to be both +intelligent and intelligible. The Massachusetts mills, when at full +work, employ 1300 females and 400 males, and turn out 540,000 yards +of calico per week. + +On my return from Lowell in the smoking car, an old man came and +squeezed in next to me. The place was terribly crowded, and as the +old man was thin and clean and quiet I willingly made room for him, +so as to avoid the contiguity of a neighbour who might be neither +thin, nor clean, nor quiet. He began talking to me in whispers +about the war, and I was suspicious that he was a Southerner and +a Secessionist. Under such circumstances his company might not be +agreeable, unless he could be induced to hold his tongue. At last he +said, "I come from Canada, you know, and you,--you're an Englishman, +and therefore I can speak to you openly;" and he gave me an +affectionate grip on the knee with his old skinny hand. I suppose I +do look more like an Englishman than an American, but I was surprised +at his knowing me with such certainty. "There is no mistaking you," +he said, "with your round face and your red cheeks. They don't look +like that here," and he gave me another grip. I felt quite fond of +the old man, and offered him a cigar. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN. + + +We all know that the subject which appears above as the title of +this chapter is a very favourite subject in America. It is, I hope, +a very favourite subject in England also, and I am inclined to +think has been so for many years past. The rights of women, as +contradistinguished from the wrongs of women, has perhaps been the +most precious of the legacies left to us by the feudal ages. How +amidst the rough darkness of old Teuton rule women began to receive +that respect which is now their dearest right, is one of the most +interesting studies of history. It came, I take it, chiefly from +their own conduct. The women of the old classic races seem to have +enjoyed but a small amount of respect or of rights, and to have +deserved as little. It may have been very well for one Caesar to have +said that his wife should be above suspicion; but his wife was put +away, and therefore either did not have her rights, or else had +justly forfeited them. The daughter of the next Caesar lived in Rome +the life of a Messalina, and did not on that account seem to have +lost her "position in society," till she absolutely declined to throw +any veil whatever over her propensities. But as the Roman empire +fell, chivalry began. For a time even chivalry afforded but a dull +time to the women. During the musical period of the troubadours, +ladies, I fancy, had but little to amuse them save the music. But +that was the beginning, and from that time downwards the rights of +women have progressed very favourably. It may be that they have not +yet all that should belong to them. If that be the case, let the men +lose no time in making up the difference. But it seems to me that +the women who are now making their claims may perhaps hardly know +when they are well off. It will be an ill movement if they insist on +throwing away any of the advantages they have won. As for the women +in America especially, I must confess that I think they have a "good +time." I make them my compliments on their sagacity, intelligence, +and attractions, but I utterly refuse to them any sympathy for +supposed wrongs. _O fortunatas sua si bona norint!_ Whether or no, +were I an American married man and father of a family, I should not +go in for the rights of man--that is altogether another question. + +This question of the rights of women divides itself into two +heads,--one of which is very important, worthy of much consideration, +capable perhaps of much philanthropic action, and at any rate +affording matter for grave discussion. This is the question of +women's work; how far the work of the world, which is now borne +chiefly by men, should be thrown open to women further than is now +done. The other seems to me to be worthy of no consideration, to be +capable of no action, to admit of no grave discussion. This refers to +the political rights of women; how far the political working of the +world, which is now entirely in the hands of men, should be divided +between them and women. The first question is being debated on our +side of the Atlantic as keenly perhaps as on the American side. As to +that other question, I do not know that much has ever been said about +it in Europe. + +"You are doing nothing in England towards the employment of females," +a lady said to me in one of the States soon after my arrival in +America. "Pardon me," I answered, "I think we are doing much, perhaps +too much. At any rate we are doing something." I then explained to +her how Miss Faithfull had instituted a printing establishment in +London; how all the work in that concern was done by females, except +such heavy tasks as those for which women could not be fitted, and I +handed to her one of Miss Faithfull's cards. "Ah," said my American +friend, "poor creatures! I have no doubt their very flesh will be +worked off their bones." I thought this a little unjust on her part; +but nevertheless it occurred to me as an answer not unfit to be made +by some other lady,--by some woman who had not already advocated the +increased employment of women. Let Miss Faithfull look to that. Not +that she will work the flesh off her young women's bones, or allow +such terrible consequences to take place in Coram-street; not that +she or that those connected with her in that enterprise will do aught +but good to those employed therein. It will not even be said of her +individually, or of her partners, that they have worked the flesh +off women's bones; but may it not come to this, that when the tasks +now done by men have been shifted to the shoulders of women, women +themselves will so complain. May it not go further, and come even to +this, that women will have cause for such complaint. I do not think +that such a result will come, because I do not think that the object +desired by those who are active in the matter will be attained. Men, +as a general rule among civilized nations, have elected to earn their +own bread and the bread of the women also, and from this resolve on +their part I do not think that they will be beaten off. + +We know that Mrs. Dall, an American lady, has taken up this subject, +and has written a book on it, in which great good sense and honesty +of purpose are shown. Mrs. Dall is a strong advocate for the +increased employment of women, and I, with great deference, disagree +with her. I allude to her book now because she has pointed out, +I think very strongly, the great reason why women do not engage +themselves advantageously in trade pursuits. She by no means +overpraises her own sex, and openly declares that young women will +not consent to place themselves in fair competition with men. They +will not undergo the labour and servitude of long study at their +trades. They will not give themselves up to an apprenticeship. They +will not enter upon their tasks as though they were to be the tasks +of their lives. They may have the same physical and mental aptitudes +for learning a trade as men, but they have not the same devotion to +the pursuit, and will not bind themselves to it thoroughly as men +do. In all which I quite agree with Mrs. Dall; and the English of it +is,--that the young women want to get married. + +God forbid that they should not so want. Indeed God has forbidden in +a very express way that there should be any lack of such a desire +on the part of women. There has of late years arisen a feeling +among masses of the best of our English ladies that this feminine +propensity should be checked. We are told that unmarried women may +be respectable, which we always knew; that they may be useful, which +we also acknowledge,--thinking still that if married they would be +more useful; and that they may be happy, which we trust,--feeling +confident however that they might in another position be more happy. +But the question is not only as to the respectability, usefulness, +and happiness of womankind, but as to that of men also. If women can +do without marriage, can men do so? And if not, how are the men to +get wives if the women elect to remain single? + +It will be thought that I am treating the subject as though it were +simply jocose, but I beg to assure my reader that such is not my +intention. It certainly is the fact that that disinclination to an +apprenticeship and unwillingness to bear the long training for a +trade, of which Mrs. Dall complains on the part of young women, +arise from the fact, that they have other hopes with which such +apprenticeships would jar; and it is also certain that if such +disinclination be overcome on the part of any great number, it must +be overcome by the destruction or banishment of such hopes. The +question is, whether would good or evil result from such a change? It +is often said that whatever difficulty a woman may have in getting a +husband, no man need encounter difficulty in finding a wife. But in +spite of this seeming fact, I think it must be allowed that if women +are withdrawn from the marriage market, men must be withdrawn from it +also to the same extent. + +In any broad view of this matter we are bound to look, not on any +individual case, and the possible remedies for such cases, but on the +position in the world occupied by women in general; on the general +happiness and welfare of the aggregate feminine world, and perhaps +also a little on the general happiness and welfare of the aggregate +male world. When ladies and gentlemen advocate the right of women to +employment, they are taking very different ground from that on which +stand those less extensive philanthropists who exert themselves +for the benefit of distressed needlewomen, for instance, or for +the alleviation of the more bitter misery of governesses. The two +questions are in fact absolutely antagonistic to each other. The +rights-of-women advocate is doing his best to create that position +for women, from the possible misfortunes of which the friend of the +needlewomen is struggling to relieve them. The one is endeavouring +to throw work from off the shoulders of men on to the shoulders of +women, and the other is striving to lessen the burden which women +are already bearing. Of course it is good to relieve distress in +individual cases. That Song of the Shirt, which I regard as poetry of +the immortal kind, has done an amount of good infinitely wider than +poor Hood ever ventured to hope. Of all such efforts I would speak +not only with respect, but with loving admiration. But of those whose +efforts are made to spread work more widely among women, to call upon +them to make for us our watches, to print our books, to sit at our +desks as clerks, and to add up our accounts; much as I may respect +the individual operators in such a movement, I can express no +admiration for their judgment. + +I have seen women with ropes round their necks drawing a harrow over +ploughed ground. No one will, I suppose, say that they approve of +that. But it would not have shocked me to see men drawing a harrow. I +should have thought it slow, unprofitable work, but my feelings would +not have been hurt. There must, therefore, be some limit; but if we +men teach ourselves to believe that work is good for women, where is +the limit to be drawn, and who shall draw it? It is true that there +is now no actually defined limit. There is much work that is commonly +open to both sexes. Personal domestic attendance is so, and the +attendance in shops. The use of the needle is shared between men and +women, and few, I take it, know where the sempstress ends and where +the tailor begins. In many trades a woman can be, and very often +is, the owner and manager of the business. Painting is as much open +to women as to men; as also is literature. There can be no defined +limit; but nevertheless there is at present a quasi limit, which the +rights-of-women advocates wish to move, and so to move that women +shall do more work and not less. A woman now could not well be a +cab-driver in London; but are these advocates sure that no woman will +be a cab-driver when success has attended their efforts? And would +they like to see a woman driving a cab? For my part I confess I do +not like to see a woman acting as road-keeper on a French railway. +I have seen a woman acting as ostler at a public stage in Ireland. +I knew the circumstances,--how her husband had become ill and +incapable, and how she had been allowed to earn the wages; but +nevertheless the sight was to me disagreeable, and seemed, as far as +it went, to degrade the sex. Chivalry has been very active in raising +women from the hard and hardening tasks of the world, and through +this action they have become soft, tender, and virtuous. It seems to +me that they of whom I am now speaking are desirous of undoing what +chivalry has done. + +The argument used is of course plain enough. It is said that women +are left destitute in the world,--destitute unless they can be +self-dependent, and that to women should be given the same open +access to wages that men possess, in order that they may be as +self-dependent as men. Why should a young woman, for whom no father +is able to provide, not enjoy those means of provision which are +open to a young man so circumstanced? But I think the answer is very +simple. The young man under the happiest circumstances which may +befall him is bound to earn his bread. The young woman is only so +bound when happy circumstances do not befall her. Should we endeavour +to make the recurrence of unhappy circumstances more general or less +so? What does any tradesman, any professional man, any mechanic wish +for his children? Is it not this, that his sons shall go forth and +earn their bread, and that his daughters shall remain with him till +they are married? Is not that the mother's wish? Is it not notorious +that such is the wish of us all as to our daughters? In advocating +the rights of women it is of other men's girls that we think, never +of our own. + +But, nevertheless, what shall we do for those women who must earn +their bread by their own work? Whatever we do, do not let us wilfully +increase their number. By opening trades to women, by making them +printers, watchmakers, accountants, or what not, we shall not simply +relieve those who must now earn their bread by some such work or else +starve. It will not be within our power to stop ourselves exactly +at a certain point; to arrange that those women who under existing +circumstances may now be in want, shall be thus placed beyond want; +but that no others shall be affected. Men, I fear, will be too +willing to relieve themselves of some portion of their present +burden, should the world's altered ways enable them to do so. At +present a lawyer's clerk may earn perhaps his two guineas a week, and +he with his wife lives on that in fair comfort. But if his wife, as +well as he, has been brought up as a lawyer's clerk, he will look to +her also for some amount of wages. I doubt whether the two guineas +would be much increased, but I do not doubt at all that the woman's +position would be injured. + +It seems to me that in discussing this subject, philanthropists fail +to take hold of the right end of the argument. Money returns from +work are very good, and work itself is good, as bringing such returns +and occupying both body and mind; but the world's work is very hard, +and workmen are too often overdriven. The question seems to me to +be this,--of all this work have the men got on their own backs too +heavy a share for them to bear, and should they seek relief by +throwing more of it upon women? It is the rights of man that we are +in fact debating. These watches are weary to make, and this type is +troublesome to set. We have battles to fight and speeches to make, +and our hands altogether are too full. The women are idle,--many +of them. They shall make the watches for us and set the type; and +when they have done that, why should they not make nails as they do +sometimes in Worcestershire, or clean horses, or drive the cabs? They +have had an easy time of it for these years past, but we'll change +that. And then it would come to pass that with ropes round their +necks the women would be drawing harrows across the fields. + +I don't think this will come to pass. The women generally do know +when they are well off, and are not particularly anxious to accept +the philanthropy proffered to them;--as Mrs. Dall says, they do not +wish to bind themselves as apprentices to independent money-making. +This cry has been louder in America than with us, but even in America +it has not been efficacious for much. There is in the States, no +doubt, a sort of hankering after increased influence, a desire for +that prominence of position which men attain by loud voices and +brazen foreheads, a desire in the female heart to be up and doing +something, if the female heart only knew what; but even in the States +it has hardly advanced beyond a few feminine lectures. In many +branches of work women are less employed than in England. They are +not so frequent behind counters in the shops, and are rarely seen +as servants in hotels. The fires in such houses are lighted and the +rooms swept by men. But the American girls may say they do not desire +to light fires and sweep rooms. They are ambitious of the higher +classes of work. But those higher branches of work require study, +apprenticeship, a devotion of youth; and that they will not give. It +is very well for a young man to bind himself for four years, and to +think of marrying four years after that apprenticeship is over. But +such a prospectus will not do for a girl. While the sun shines the +hay must be made, and her sun shines earlier in the day than that of +him who is to be her husband. Let him go through the apprenticeship +and the work, and she will have sufficient on her hands if she looks +well after his household. Under nature's teaching she is aware of +this, and will not bind herself to any other apprenticeship, let Mrs. +Dall preach as she may. + +I remember seeing, either at New York or Boston, a wooden figure of a +neat young woman, as large as life, standing at a desk with a ledger +before her, and looking as though the beau ideal of human bliss were +realized in her employment. Under the figure there was some notice +respecting female accountants. Nothing could be nicer than the lady's +figure, more flowing than the broad lines of her drapery, or more +attractive than her auburn ringlets. There she stood at work, earning +her bread without any impediment to the natural operation of her +female charms, and adjusting the accounts of some great firm with as +much facility as grace. I wonder whether he who designed that figure +had ever sat or stood at a desk for six hours,--whether he knew the +dull hum of the brain which comes from long attention to another +man's figures; whether he had ever soiled his own fingers with the +everlasting work of office hours, or worn his sleeves threadbare as +he leaned, weary in body and mind, upon his desk? Work is a grand +thing,--the grandest thing we have; but work is not picturesque, +graceful, and in itself alluring. It sucks the sap out of men's +bones, and bends their backs, and sometimes breaks their hearts; but +though it be so, I for one would not wish to throw any heavier share +of it on to a woman's shoulders. It was pretty to see those young +women with spectacles at the Boston library, but when I heard that +they were there from eight in the morning till nine at night, I +pitied them their loss of all the softness of home, and felt that +they would not willingly be there if necessity were less stern. + +Say that by advocating the rights of women, philanthropists succeed +in apportioning more work to their share, will they eat more, wear +better clothes, lie softer, and have altogether more of the fruits of +work than they do now? That some would do so there can be no doubt, +but as little that some would have less. If on the whole they would +not have more, for what good result is the movement made? The first +question is, whether at the present time they have less than their +proper share. There are, unquestionably, terrible cases of female +want, and so there are also of want among men. Alas! do we not +all feel that it must be so, let the philanthropists be ever so +energetic? And if a woman be left destitute, without the assistance +of father, brother, or husband, it would be hard if no means of +earning subsistence were open to her. But the object now sought is +not that of relieving such distress. It has a much wider tendency, +or at any rate a wider desire. The idea is that women will ennoble +themselves by making themselves independent, by working for their own +bread instead of eating bread earned by men. It is in that that these +new philosophers seem to me to err so greatly. Humanity and chivalry +have succeeded after a long struggle in teaching the man to work +for the woman; and now the woman rebels against such teaching,--not +because she likes the work, but because she desires the influence +which attends it. But in this I wrong the woman,--even the American +woman. It is not she who desires it, but her philanthropical +philosophical friends who desire it for her. + +If work were more equally divided between the sexes some women would, +of course, receive more of the good things of the world. But women +generally would not do so. The tendency then would be to force young +women out upon their own exertions. Fathers would soon learn to think +that their daughters should be no more dependent on them than their +sons; men would expect their wives to work at their own trades; +brothers would be taught to think it hard that their sisters should +lean on them; and thus women, driven upon their own resources, would +hardly fare better than they do at present. + +After all it is a question of money, and a contest for that power and +influence which money gives. At present men have the position of the +Lower House of Parliament. They have to do the harder work, but they +hold the purse. Even in England there has grown up a feeling that the +old law of the land gives a married man too much power over the joint +pecuniary resources of him and his wife, and in America this feeling +is much stronger, and the old law has been modified. Why should a +married woman be able to possess nothing? And if such be the law of +the land, is it worth a woman's while to marry and put herself in +such a position? Those are the questions asked by the friends of the +rights of women. But the young women do marry, and the men pour their +earnings into their wives' laps. + +If little has as yet been done in extending the rights of women by +giving them a greater share of the work of the world, still less has +been done towards giving them their portion of political influence. +In the States there are many men of mark, and women of mark also, who +think that women should have votes for public elections. Mr. Wendell +Phillips, the Boston lecturer who advocates abolition, is an apostle +in this cause also; and while I was at Boston I read the provisions +of a will lately left by a millionaire, in which he bequeathed some +very large sums of money to be expended in agitation on this subject. +A woman is subject to the law; why then should she not help to make +the law? A child is subject to the law, and does not help to make it; +but the child lacks that discretion which the woman enjoys equally +with the man. That I take it is the amount of the argument in favour +of the political rights of women. The logic of this is so conclusive, +that I am prepared to acknowledge that it admits of no answer. I will +only say that the mutual good relations between men and women, which +are so indispensable to our happiness, require that men and women +should not take to voting at the same time and on the same result. If +it be decided that women shall have political power, let them have +it all to themselves for a season. If that be so resolved, I think +we may safely leave it to them to name the time at which they will +begin. + +I confess that in the States I have sometimes been driven to +think that chivalry has been carried too far;--that there is an +attempt to make women think more of the rights of their womanhood +than is needful. There are ladies' doors at hotels, and ladies' +drawing-rooms, ladies' sides on the ferry-boats, ladies' windows at +the post office for the delivery of letters;--which, by-the-by, is +an atrocious institution, as anybody may learn who will look at the +advertisements called personal in some of the New York papers. Why +should not young ladies have their letters sent to their houses, +instead of getting them at a private window? The post-office clerks +can tell stories about those ladies' windows. But at every turn it +is necessary to make separate provision for ladies. From all this +it comes to pass that the baker's daughter looks down from a great +height on her papa, and by no means thinks her brother good enough +for her associate. Nature, the great restorer, comes in and teaches +her to fall in love with the butcher's son. Thus the evil is +mitigated; but I cannot but wish that the young woman should not see +herself denominated a lady so often, and should receive fewer lessons +as to the extent of her privileges. I would save her if I could from +working at the oven; I would give to her bread and meat earned by +her father's care and her brother's sweat; but when she has received +these good things, I would have her proud of the one and by no means +ashamed of the other. + +Let women say what they will of their rights, or men who think +themselves generous say what they will for them, the question has all +been settled both for them and for us men by a higher power. They are +the nursing mothers of mankind, and in that law their fate is written +with all its joys and all its privileges. It is for men to make those +joys as lasting and those privileges as perfect as may be. That women +should have their rights no man will deny. To my thinking neither +increase of work nor increase of political influence are among them. +The best right a woman has is the right to a husband, and that is +the right to which I would recommend every young woman here and in +the States to turn her best attention. On the whole, I think that +my doctrine will be more acceptable than that of Mrs. Dall or Mr. +Wendell Phillips. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +EDUCATION AND RELIGION. + + +The one matter in which, as far as my judgment goes, the people of +the United States have excelled us Englishmen, so as to justify them +in taking to themselves praise which we cannot take to ourselves or +refuse to them, is the matter of Education. In saying this I do not +think that I am proclaiming anything disgraceful to England, though +I am proclaiming much that is creditable to America. To the Americans +of the States was given the good fortune of beginning at the +beginning. The French at the time of their revolution endeavoured to +reorganize everything, and to begin the world again with new habits +and grand theories; but the French as a people were too old for such +a change, and the theories fell to the ground. But in the States, +after their revolution, an Anglo-Saxon people had an opportunity of +making a new State, with all the experience of the world before +them; and to this matter of education they were from the first aware +that they must look for their success. They did so; and unrivalled +population, wealth, and intelligence have been the results; and with +these, looking at the whole masses of the people,--I think I am +justified in saying,--unrivalled comfort and happiness. It is not +that you, my reader, to whom in this matter of education fortune and +your parents have probably been bountiful, would have been more happy +in New York than in London. It is not that I, who, at any rate, can +read and write, have cause to wish that I had been an American. But +it is this:--if you and I can count up in a day all those on whom our +eyes may rest, and learn the circumstances of their lives, we shall +be driven to conclude that nine-tenths of that number would have +had a better life as Americans than they can have in their spheres +as Englishmen. The States are at a discount with us now, in the +beginning of this year of grace 1862; and Englishmen were not very +willing to admit the above statement, even when the States were not +at a discount. But I do not think that a man can travel through the +States with his eyes open and not admit the fact. Many things will +conspire to induce him to shut his eyes and admit no conclusion +favourable to the Americans. Men and women will sometimes be impudent +to him;--the better his coat, the greater the impudence. He will be +pelted with the braggadocio of equality. The corns of his Old-World +conservatism will be trampled on hourly by the purposely vicious +herd of uncouth democracy. The fact that he is paymaster will go +for nothing, and will fail to insure civility. I shall never forget +my agony as I saw and heard my desk fall from a porter's hand on +a railway station, as he tossed it from him seven yards off on to +the hard pavement. I heard its poor weak intestines rattle in their +death-struggle, and knowing that it was smashed I forgot my position +on American soil and remonstrated. "It's my desk, and you have +utterly destroyed it," I said. "Ha! ha! ha!" laughed the porter. +"You've destroyed my property," I rejoined, "and it's no laughing +matter." And then all the crowd laughed. "Guess you'd better get it +glued," said one. So I gathered up the broken article and retired +mournfully and crestfallen into a coach. This was very sad, and +for the moment I deplored the ill-luck which had brought me to so +savage a country. Such and such like are the incidents which make +an Englishman in the States unhappy, and rouse his gall against +the institutions of the country;--these things and the continued +appliance of the irritating ointment of American braggadocio with +which his sores are kept open. But though I was badly off on that +railway platform,--worse off than I should have been in England,--all +that crowd of porters round me were better off than our English +porters. They had a "good time" of it. And this, O my English brother +who hast travelled through the States and returned disgusted, is the +fact throughout. Those men whose familiarity was so disgusting to you +are having a good time of it. "They might be a little more civil," +you say, "and yet read and write just as well." True; but they are +arguing in their minds that civility to you will be taken by you for +subservience, or for an acknowledgment of superiority; and looking at +your habits of life,--yours and mine together,--I am not quite sure +that they are altogether wrong. Have you ever realized to yourself +as a fact that the porter who carries your box has not made himself +inferior to you by the very act of carrying that box? If not, that is +the very lesson which the man wishes to teach you. + +If a man can forget his own miseries in his journeyings, and think of +the people he comes to see rather than of himself, I think he will +find himself driven to admit that education has made life for the +million in the Northern States better than life for the million is +with us. They have begun at the beginning, and have so managed that +every one may learn to read and write,--have so managed that almost +every one does learn to read and write. With us this cannot now be +done. Population had come upon us in masses too thick for management +before we had as yet acknowledged that it would be a good thing that +these masses should be educated. Prejudices, too, had sprung up, and +habits, and strong sectional feelings, all antagonistic to a great +national system of education. We are, I suppose, now doing all that +we can do; but comparatively it is little. I think I saw some time +since that the cost for gratuitous education, or education in part +gratuitous, which had fallen upon the nation had already amounted to +the sum of L800,000; and I think also that I read in the document +which revealed to me this fact, a very strong opinion that Government +could not at present go much further. But if this matter were +regarded in England as it is regarded in Massachusetts,--or rather, +had it from some prosperous beginning been put upon a similar +footing, L800,000 would not have been esteemed a great expenditure +for free education simply in the city of London. In 1857 the public +schools of Boston cost L70,000, and these schools were devoted to a +population of about 180,000 souls. Taking the population of London at +two-and-a-half millions, the whole sum now devoted to England would, +if expended in the metropolis, make education there even cheaper than +it is in Boston. In Boston during 1857 there were above 24,000 pupils +at these public schools, giving more than one-eighth of the whole +population. But I fear it would not be practicable for us to spend +L800,000 on the gratuitous education of London. Rich as we are, we +should not know where to raise the money. In Boston it is raised by +a separate tax. It is a thing understood, acknowledged, and made +easy by being habitual,--as is our national debt. I do not know that +Boston is peculiarly blessed, but I quote the instance as I have +a record of its schools before me. At the three high schools in +Boston, at which the average of pupils is 526, about L13 per head is +paid for free education. The average price per annum of a child's +schooling throughout these schools in Boston is about L3 per annum. +To the higher schools any boy or girl may attain without any expense, +and the education is probably as good as can be given, and as far +advanced. The only question is, whether it is not advanced further +than may be necessary. Here, as at New York, I was almost startled +by the amount of knowledge around me, and listened, as I might have +done, to an examination in theology among young Brahmins. When a +young lad explained in my hearing all the properties of the different +levers as exemplified by the bones of the human body, I bowed my +head before him in unaffected humility. We, at our English schools, +never got beyond the use of those bones which he described with such +accurate scientific knowledge. In one of the girls' schools they were +reading Milton, and when we entered were discussing the nature of the +pool in which the Devil is described as wallowing. The question had +been raised by one of the girls. A pool, so called, was supposed to +contain but a small amount of water, and how could the Devil, being +so large, get into it? Then came the origin of the word pool,--from +"palus," a marsh, as we were told, some dictionary attesting to the +fact,--and such a marsh might cover a large expanse. The "Palus +Maeotis" was then quoted. And so we went on till Satan's theory of +political liberty, + + "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven," + +was thoroughly discussed and understood. These girls of sixteen and +seventeen got up one after another and gave their opinions on the +subject,--how far the Devil was right and how far he was manifestly +wrong. I was attended by one of the directors or guardians of the +schools, and the teacher, I thought, was a little embarrassed by her +position. But the girls themselves were as easy in their demeanour as +though they were stitching handkerchiefs at home. + +It is impossible to refrain from telling all this, and from making a +little innocent fun out of the super-excellencies of these schools; +but the total result on my mind was very greatly in their favour. +And indeed the testimony came in both ways. Not only was I called on +to form an opinion of what the men and women would become from the +education which was given to the boys and girls, but also to say what +must have been the education of the boys and girls from what I saw of +the men and women. Of course it will be understood that I am not here +speaking of those I met in society, or of their children, but of the +working people,--of that class who find that a gratuitous education +for their children is needful, if any considerable amount of +education is to be given. The result is to be seen daily in the whole +intercourse of life. The coachman who drives you, the man who mends +your window, the boy who brings home your purchases, the girl who +stitches your wife's dress,--they all carry with them sure signs of +education, and show it in every word they utter. + +It will of course be understood that this is, in the separate States, +a matter of State law; indeed I may go further and say that it is in +most of the States a matter of State constitution. It is by no means +a matter of Federal constitution. The United States as a nation takes +no heed of the education of its people. All that is left to the +judgment of the separate States. In most of the thirteen original +States provision is made in the written constitution for the general +education of the people; but this is not done in all. I find that it +was more frequently done in the Northern or Freesoil States than in +those which admitted slavery,--as might have been expected. In the +constitutions of South Carolina and Virginia I find no allusion +to the public provision for education, but in those of North +Carolina and Georgia it is enjoined. The forty-first section of +the constitution for North Carolina enjoins that "schools shall +be established by the legislature for the convenient instruction +of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, +as may enable them to instruct _at low prices_;" showing that the +intention here was to assist education, and not provide it altogether +gratuitously. I think that provision for public education is enjoined +in the constitutions of all the States admitted into the Union since +the first federal knot was tied, except in that of Illinois. Vermont +was the first so admitted, in 1791, and Vermont declares that "a +competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town +for the convenient instruction of youth." Ohio was the second, in +1802, and Ohio enjoins that "the general assembly shall make such +provisions by taxation or otherwise as, with the income arising from +the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of +common schools throughout the State; but no religious or other sect +or sects shall ever have any exclusive right or control of any part +of the school funds of this State." In Indiana, admitted in 1816, it +is required that "the general assembly shall provide by law for a +general and uniform system of common schools." Illinois was admitted +next, in 1818; but the constitution of Illinois is silent on the +subject of education. It enjoins, however, in lieu of this, that +no person shall fight a duel or send a challenge! If he do he +is not only to be punished, but to be deprived for ever of the +power of holding any office of honour or profit in the State. I +have no reason, however, for supposing that education is neglected +in Illinois, or that duelling has been abolished. In Maine it is +demanded that the towns--the whole country is divided into what are +called towns--shall make suitable provision at their own expense for +the support and maintenance of public schools. + +Some of these constitutional enactments are most magniloquently +worded, but not always with precise grammatical correctness. That +for the famous Bay State of Massachusetts runs as follows:--"Wisdom +and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body +of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights +and liberties, and as these depend on spreading the opportunities +and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, +and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty +of the legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of +this commonwealth, to cherish the interest of literature and the +sciences, and of all seminaries of them, especially the University +at Cambridge, public schools, and grammar schools in the towns; to +encourage private societies and public institutions, by rewards, +and immunities for the promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences, +commerce, trades, manufactures, and a natural history of the country; +to countenance and inculcate the principles of humanity and general +benevolence, public and private charity, industry and frugality, +honesty and punctuality in all their dealings; sincerity, good +humour, and all social affections and generous sentiments among +the people." I must confess, that had the words of that little +constitutional enactment been made known to me before I had seen +its practical results, I should not have put much faith in it. Of +all the public schools I have ever seen,--by public schools I mean +schools for the people at large maintained at public cost,--those +of Massachusetts are, I think, the best. But of all the educational +enactments which I ever read, that of the same State is, I should +say, the worst. In Texas now, of which as a State the people of +Massachusetts do not think much, they have done it better. "A general +diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the +rights and liberties of the people, it shall be the duty of the +legislature of this State to make suitable provision for the support +and maintenance of public schools." So say the Texians; but then the +Texians had the advantage of a later experience than any which fell +in the way of the constitution-makers of Massachusetts. + +There is something of the magniloquence of the French style,--of +the liberty, equality, and fraternity mode of eloquence,--in the +preambles of most of these constitutions, which, but for their +success, would have seemed to have prophesied loudly of failure. +Those of New York and Pennsylvania are the least so, and that of +Massachusetts by far the most violently magniloquent. They generally +commence by thanking God for the present civil and religious liberty +of the people, and by declaring that all men are born free and equal. +New York and Pennsylvania, however, refrain from any such very +general remarks. + +I am well aware that all these constitutional enactments are not +likely to obtain much credit in England. It is not only that grand +phrases fail to convince us, but that they carry to our senses almost +an assurance of their own inefficiency. When we hear that a people +have declared their intention of being henceforward better than their +neighbours, and going upon a new theory that shall lead them direct +to a terrestrial paradise, we button up our pockets and lock up +our spoons. And that is what we have done very much as regards the +Americans. We have walked with them and talked with them, and bought +with them and sold with them; but we have mistrusted them as to their +internal habits and modes of life, thinking that their philanthropy +was pretentious and that their theories were vague. Many cities in +the States are but skeletons of towns, the streets being there, and +the houses numbered,--but not one house built out of ten that have +been so counted up. We have regarded their institutions as we regard +those cities, and have been specially willing so to consider them +because of the fine language in which they have been paraded before +us. They have been regarded as the skeletons of philanthropical +systems, to which blood and flesh and muscle, and even skin, +are wanting. But it is at least but fair to inquire how far the +promise made has been carried out. The elaborate wordings of the +constitutions made by the French politicians in the days of their +great revolution have always been to us no more than so many written +grimaces; but we should not have continued so to regard them had the +political liberty which they promised followed upon the promises so +magniloquently made. As regards education in the States,--at any rate +in the northern and western States,--I think that the assurances put +forth in the various written constitutions have been kept. If this +be so, an American citizen, let him be ever so arrogant, ever so +impudent if you will, is at any rate a civilized being, and on the +road to that cultivation which will sooner or later divest him of his +arrogance. _Emollit mores._ We quote here our old friend the Colonel +again. If a gentleman be compelled to confine his classical allusions +to one quotation, he cannot do better than hang by that. + +But has education been so general, and has it had the desired result? +In the city of Boston, as I have said, I found that in 1857 about +one-eighth of the whole population were then on the books of the free +public schools as pupils, and that about one-ninth of the population +formed the average daily attendance. To these numbers of course must +be added all pupils of the richer classes,--those for whose education +their parents chose to pay. As nearly as I can learn, the average +duration of each pupil's schooling is six years, and if this be +figured out statistically, I think it will show that education +in Boston reaches a very large majority--I must almost say the +whole--of the population. That the education given in other towns of +Massachusetts is not so good as that given in Boston I do not doubt, +but I have reason to believe that it is quite as general. + +I have spoken of one of the schools of New York. In that city the +public schools are apportioned to the wards, and are so arranged +that in each ward of the city there are public schools of different +standing for the gratuitous use of the children. The population of +the city of New York in 1857 was about 650,000, and in that year it +is stated that there were 135,000 pupils in the schools. By this it +would appear that one person in five throughout the city was then +under process of education,--which statement, however, I cannot +receive with implicit credence. It is, however, also stated that the +daily attendances averaged something less than 50,000 a day--and this +latter statement probably implies some mistake in the former one. +Taking the two together for what they are worth, they show, I think, +that school teaching is not only brought within the reach of the +population generally, but is used by almost all classes. At New +York there are separate free schools for coloured children. At +Philadelphia I did not see the schools, but I was assured that the +arrangements there were equal to those at New York and Boston. Indeed +I was told that they were infinitely better;--but then I was so told +by a Philadelphian. In the State of Connecticut the public schools +are certainly equal to those in any part of the Union. As far as I +could learn, education--what we should call advanced education--is +brought within the reach of all classes in the northern and western +States of America,--and, I would wish to add here, to those of the +Canadas also. + +So much for the schools, and now for the results. I do not know that +anything impresses a visitor more strongly with the amount of books +sold in the States, than the practice of selling them as it has been +adopted in the railway cars. Personally the traveller will find the +system very disagreeable,--as is everything connected with these +cars. A young man enters during the journey,--for the trade is +carried out while the cars are travelling, as is also a very brisk +trade in lollipops, sugar-candy, apples, and ham sandwiches,--the +young tradesman enters the car firstly with a pile of magazines or +of novels bound like magazines. These are chiefly the "Atlantic," +published at Boston, "Harper's Magazine," published at New York, and +a cheap series of novels published at Philadelphia. As he walks along +he flings one at every passenger. An Englishman, when he is first +introduced to this manner of trade, becomes much astonished. He is +probably reading, and on a sudden he finds a fat, fluffy magazine, +very unattractive in its exterior, dropped on to the page he is +perusing. I thought at first that it was a present from some crazed +philanthropist, who was thus endeavouring to disseminate literature. +But I was soon undeceived. The bookseller, having gone down the whole +car and the next, returned, and beginning again where he had begun +before, picked up either his magazine or else the price of it. Then, +in some half-hour, he came again, with an armful or basket of books, +and distributed them in the same way. They were generally novels, but +not always. I do not think that any endeavour is made to assimilate +the book to the expected customer. The object is to bring the book +and the man together, and in this way a very large sale is effected. +The same thing is done with illustrated newspapers. The sale of +political newspapers goes on so quickly in these cars that no such +enforced distribution is necessary. I should say that the average +consumption of newspapers by an American must amount to about three a +day. At Washington I begged the keeper of my lodgings to let me have +a paper regularly,--one American newspaper being much the same to me +as another,--and my host supplied me daily with four. + +But the numbers of the popular books of the day, printed and sold, +afford the most conclusive proof of the extent to which education is +carried in the States. The readers of Tennyson, Thackeray, Dickens, +Bulwer, Collins, Hughes, and--Martin Tupper, are to be counted by +tens of thousands in the States, to the thousands by which they +may be counted in our own islands. I do not doubt that I had fully +fifteen copies of the "Silver Cord" thrown at my head in different +railway cars on the continent of America. Nor is the taste by any +means confined to the literature of England. Longfellow, Curtis, +Holmes, Hawthorne, Lowell, Emerson,--and Mrs. Stowe, are almost as +popular as their English rivals. I do not say whether or no the +literature is well chosen, but there it is. It is printed, sold, and +read. The disposal of ten thousand copies of a work is no large sale +in America of a book published at a dollar; but in England it is a +large sale of a book brought out at five shillings. + +I do not remember that I ever examined the rooms of an American +without finding books or magazines in them. I do not speak here of +the houses of my friends, as of course the same remark would apply as +strongly in England, but of the houses of persons presumed to earn +their bread by the labour of their hands. The opportunity for such +examination does not come daily; but when it has been in my power I +have made it, and have always found signs of education. Men and women +of the classes to which I allude talk of reading and writing as of +arts belonging to them as a matter of course, quite as much as are +the arts of eating and drinking. A porter or a farmer's servant in +the States is not proud of reading and writing. It is to him quite a +matter of course. The coachmen on their boxes and the boots as they +sit in the halls of the hotels, have newspapers constantly in their +hands. The young women have them also, and the children. The fact +comes home to one at every turn, and at every hour, that the people +are an educated people. The whole of this question between North and +South is as well understood by the servants as by their masters, is +discussed as vehemently by the private soldiers as by the officers. +The politics of the country and the nature of its constitution are +familiar to every labourer. The very wording of the Declaration of +Independence is in the memory of every lad of sixteen. Boys and girls +of a younger age than that know why Slidell and Mason were arrested, +and will tell you why they should have been given up, or why they +should have been held in durance. The question of the war with +England is debated by every native paviour and hodman of New York. + +I know what Englishmen will say in answer to this. They will declare +that they do not want their paviours and hodmen to talk politics; +that they are as well pleased that their coachmen and cooks should +not always have a newspaper in their hands; that private soldiers +will fight as well, and obey better, if they are not trained to +discuss the causes which have brought them into the field. An English +gentleman will think that his gardener will be a better gardener +without than with any excessive political ardour; and the English +lady will prefer that her housemaid shall not have a very pronounced +opinion of her own as to the capabilities of the cabinet ministers. +But I would submit to all Englishmen and Englishwomen who may look at +these pages whether such an opinion or feeling on their part bears +much, or even at all, upon the subject. I am not saying that the man +who is driven in the coach is better off because his coachman reads +the paper, but that the coachman himself who reads the paper is +better off than the coachman who does not and cannot. I think that +we are too apt, in considering the ways and habits of any people, +to judge of them by the effect of those ways and habits on us, +rather than by their effects on the owners of them. When we go among +garlic-eaters, we condemn them because they are offensive to us; +but to judge of them properly we should ascertain whether or no +the garlic be offensive to them. If we could imagine a nation of +vegetarians hearing for the first time of our habits as flesh-eaters, +we should feel sure that they would be struck with horror at our +blood-stained banquets; but when they came to argue with us, we +should bid them inquire whether we flesh-eaters did not live longer +and do more than the vegetarians. When we express a dislike to the +shoeboy reading his newspaper, I fear we do so because we fear that +the shoeboy is coming near our own heels. I know there is among us a +strong feeling that the lower classes are better without politics, as +there is also that they are better without crinoline and artificial +flowers; but if politics and crinoline and artificial flowers are +good at all, they are good for all who can honestly come by them and +honestly use them. The political coachman is perhaps less valuable +to his master as a coachman than he would be without his politics, +but he with his politics is more valuable to himself. For myself, I +do not like the Americans of the lower orders. I am not comfortable +among them. They tread on my corns and offend me. They make my +daily life unpleasant. But I do respect them. I acknowledge their +intelligence and personal dignity. I know that they are men and women +worthy to be so called; I see that they are living as human beings in +possession of reasoning faculties; and I perceive that they owe this +to the progress that education has made among them. + +After all, what is wanted in this world? Is it not that men should +eat and drink, and read and write, and say their prayers? Does not +that include everything, providing that they eat and drink enough, +read and write without restraint, and say their prayers without +hypocrisy? When we talk of the advances of civilization, do we mean +anything but this, that men who now eat and drink badly shall eat and +drink well, and that those who cannot read and write now shall learn +to do so,--the prayers following, as prayers will follow upon such +learning? Civilization does not consist in the eschewing of garlic +or the keeping clean of a man's finger-nails. It may lead to such +delicacies, and probably will do so. But the man who thinks that +civilization cannot exist without them imagines that the church +cannot stand without the spire. In the States of America men do eat +and drink, and do read and write. + +But as to saying their prayers? That, as far as I can see, has come +also, though perhaps not in a manner altogether satisfactory, or to +a degree which should be held to be sufficient. Englishmen of strong +religious feeling will often be startled in America by the freedom +with which religious subjects are discussed, and the ease with which +the matter is treated; but he will very rarely be shocked by that +utter absence of all knowledge on the subject,--that total darkness, +which is still so common among the lower orders in our own country. +It is not a common thing to meet an American who belongs to no +denomination of Christian worship, and who cannot tell you why he +belongs to that which he has chosen. + +"But," it will be said, "all the intelligence and education of this +people have not saved them from falling out among themselves and +their friends, and running into troubles by which they will be +ruined. Their political arrangements have been so bad, that in spite +of all their reading and writing they must go to the wall." I venture +to express an opinion that they will by no means go to the wall, and +that they will be saved from such a destiny, if in no other way, then +by their education. Of their political arrangements, as I mean before +long to rush into that perilous subject, I will say nothing here. But +no political convulsions, should such arise,--no revolution in the +constitution, should such be necessary,--will have any wide effect +on the social position of the people to their serious detriment. +They have the great qualities of the Anglo-Saxon race,--industry, +intelligence, and self-confidence; and if these qualities will no +longer suffice to keep such a people on their legs, the world must be +coming to an end. + +I have said that it is not a common thing to meet an American who +belongs to no denomination of Christian worship. This I think is +so; but I would not wish to be taken as saying that religion on +that account stands on a satisfactory footing in the States. Of all +subjects of discussion, this is the most difficult. It is one as +to which most of us feel that to some extent we must trust to our +prejudices rather than our judgments. It is a matter on which we +do not dare to rely implicitly on our own reasoning faculties, and +therefore throw ourselves on the opinions of those whom we believe +to have been better men and deeper thinkers than ourselves. For +myself, I love the name of State and Church, and believe that much +of our English well-being has depended on it. I have made up my +mind to think that union good, and not to be turned away from that +conviction. Nevertheless I am not prepared to argue the matter. One +does not always carry one's proofs at one's finger-ends. + +But I feel very strongly that much of that which is evil in the +structure of American politics is owing to the absence of any +national religion, and that something also of social evil has sprung +from the same cause. It is not that men do not say their prayers. For +aught I know, they may do so as frequently and as fervently, or more +frequently and more fervently, than we do; but there is a rowdiness, +if I may be allowed to use such a word, in their manner of doing so +which robs religion of that reverence which is, if not its essence, +at any rate its chief protection. It is a part of their system that +religion shall be perfectly free, and that no man shall be in any +way constrained in that matter. Consequently, the question of a +man's religion is regarded in a free-and-easy way. It is well, +for instance, that a young lad should go somewhere on a Sunday; +but a sermon is a sermon, and it does not much concern the lad's +father whether his son hear the discourse of a freethinker in the +music-hall, or the eloquent but lengthy outpouring of a preacher in a +Methodist chapel. Everybody is bound to have a religion, but it does +not much matter what it is. + +The difficulty in which the first fathers of the Revolution found +themselves on this question, is shown by the constitutions of the +different States. There can be no doubt that the inhabitants of +the New England States were, as things went, a strictly religious +community. They had no idea of throwing over the worship of God, as +the French had attempted to do at their Revolution. They intended +that the new nation should be pre-eminently composed of a God-fearing +people; but they intended also that they should be a people free in +everything,--free to choose their own forms of worship. They intended +that the nation should be a Protestant people; but they intended also +that no man's conscience should be coerced in the matter of his own +religion. It was hard to reconcile these two things, and to explain +to the citizens that it behoved them to worship God,--even under +penalties for omission; but that it was at the same time open to them +to select any form of worship that they pleased, however that form +might differ from the practices of the majority. In Connecticut it is +declared that it is the duty of all men to worship the Supreme Being, +the Creator and Preserver of the universe, but that it is their right +to render that worship in the mode most consistent with the dictates +of their consciences. And then a few lines further down the article +skips the great difficulty in a manner somewhat disingenuous, and +declares that each and every society of Christians in the State shall +have and enjoy the same and equal privileges. But it does not say +whether a Jew shall be divested of those privileges, or, if he be +divested, how that treatment of him is to be reconciled with the +assurance that it is every man's right to worship the Supreme Being +in the mode most consistent with the dictates of his own conscience. + +In Rhode Island they were more honest. It is there declared that +every man shall be free to worship God according to the dictates of +his own conscience, and to profess and by argument to maintain his +opinion in matters of religion; and that the same shall in nowise +diminish, enlarge, or affect his civil capacity. Here it is simply +presumed that every man will worship a God, and no allusion is made +even to Christianity. + +In Massachusetts they are again hardly honest. "It is the right," +says the constitution, "as well as the duty of all men in society +publicly and at stated seasons to worship the Supreme Being, the +great Creator and Preserver of the universe." And then it goes on to +say that every man may do so in what form he pleases; but further +down it declares that "every denomination of Christians, demeaning +themselves peaceably and as good subjects of the commonwealth, shall +be equally under the protection of the law." But what about those who +are not Christians? In New Hampshire it is exactly the same. It is +enacted that--"Every individual has a natural and unalienable right +to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience and +reason." And that--"Every denomination of Christians, demeaning +themselves quietly and as good citizens of the State, shall be +equally under the protection of the law." From all which it is, I +think, manifest that the men who framed these documents, desirous +above all things of cutting themselves and their people loose +from every kind of trammel, still felt the necessity of enforcing +religion,--of making it to a certain extent a matter of State duty. +In the first constitution of North Carolina it is enjoined,--"That +no person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the +Protestant religion, shall be capable of holding any office or place +of trust or profit." But this was altered in the year 1836, and +the words "Christian religion" were substituted for "Protestant +religion." + +In New England the Congregationalists are, I think, the dominant +sect. In Massachusetts, and I believe in the other New England +States, a man is presumed to be a Congregationalist if he do not +declare himself to be anything else; as with us the Church of England +counts all who do not specially have themselves counted elsewhere. +The Congregationalist, as far as I can learn, is very near to a +Presbyterian. In New England I think the Unitarians would rank next +in number; but a Unitarian in America is not the same as a Unitarian +with us. Here, if I understand the nature of his creed, a Unitarian +does not recognize the divinity of our Saviour. In America he does +do so, but throws over the doctrine of the Trinity. The Protestant +Episcopalians muster strong in all the great cities, and I fancy that +they would be regarded as taking the lead of the other religious +denominations in New York. Their tendency is to high-church +doctrines. I wish they had not found it necessary to alter the forms +of our prayer-book in so many little matters, as to which there was +no national expediency for such changes. But it was probably thought +necessary that a new people should show their independence in all +things. The Roman Catholics have a very strong party--as a matter +of course--seeing how great has been the immigration from Ireland; +but here, as in Ireland--and as indeed is the case all the world +over--the Roman Catholics are the hewers of wood and drawers of +water. The Germans, who have latterly flocked into the States in +such swarms that they have almost Germanized certain States, have of +course their own churches. In every town there are places of worship +for Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Anabaptists, and every +denomination of Christianity; and the meeting-houses prepared for +these sects are not, as with us, hideous buildings contrived to +inspire disgust by the enormity of their ugliness, nor are they +called Salem, Ebenezer, and Sion, nor do the ministers within them +look in any way like the Deputy-Shepherd. The churches belonging to +those sects are often handsome. This is especially the case in New +York; and the pastors are not unfrequently among the best educated +and most agreeable men whom the traveller will meet. They are for the +most part well paid; and are enabled by their outward position to +hold that place in the world's ranks which should always belong to +a clergyman. I have not been able to obtain information from which +I can state with anything like correctness what may be the average +income of ministers of the Gospel in the northern States, but that +it is much higher than the average income of our parish clergymen, +admits, I think, of no doubt. The stipends of clergymen in the +American towns are higher than those paid in the country. The +opposite to this, I think as a rule, is the case with us. + +I have said that religion in the States is rowdy. By that I mean to +imply that it seems to me to be divested of that reverential order +and strictness of rule which, according to our ideas, should be +attached to matters of religion. One hardly knows where the affairs +of this world end, or where those of the next begin. When the holy +men were had in at the lecture, were they doing stage-work or +church-work? On hearing sermons, one is often driven to ask oneself +whether the discourse from the pulpit be in its nature political or +religious. I heard an Episcopalian Protestant clergyman talk of the +scoffing nations of Europe,--because at that moment he was angry with +England and France about Slidell and Mason. I have heard a chapter of +the Bible read in Congress at the desire of a member, and very badly +read. After which the chapter itself and the reading of it became the +subject of a debate, partly jocose and partly acrimonious. It is a +common thing for a clergyman to change his profession and follow any +other pursuit. I know two or three gentlemen who were once in that +line of life, but have since gone into other trades. There is, I +think, an unexpressed determination on the part of the people to +abandon all reverence, and to regard religion from an altogether +worldly point of view. They are willing to have religion, as they are +willing to have laws; but they choose to make it for themselves. They +do not object to pay for it, but they like to have the handling of +the article for which they pay. As the descendants of Puritans and +other godly Protestants, they will submit to religious teaching, but +as Republicans they will have no priestcraft. The French at their +Revolution had the latter feeling without the former, and were +therefore consistent with themselves in abolishing all worship. The +Americans desire to do the same thing politically, but infidelity +has had no charms for them. They say their prayers, and then seem to +apologize for doing so, as though it were hardly the act of a free +and enlightened citizen, justified in ruling himself as he pleases. +All this to me is rowdy. I know no other word by which I can so well +describe it. + +Nevertheless the nation is religious in its tendencies, and prone +to acknowledge the goodness of God in all things. A man there is +expected to belong to some church, and is not, I think, well looked +on if he profess that he belongs to none. He may be a Swedenborgian, +a Quaker, a Muggletonian;--anything will do. But it is expected of +him that he shall place himself under some flag, and do his share +in supporting the flag to which he belongs. This duty is, I think, +generally fulfilled. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +FROM BOSTON TO WASHINGTON. + + +From Boston, on the 27th of November, my wife returned to England, +leaving me to prosecute my journey southward to Washington by myself. +I shall never forget the political feeling which prevailed in Boston +at that time, or the discussions on the subject of Slidell and Mason, +in which I felt myself bound to take a part. Up to that period I +confess that my sympathies had been strongly with the northern side +in the general question; and so they were still, as far as I could +divest the matter of its English bearings. I had always thought, and +do think, that a war for the suppression of the southern rebellion +could not have been avoided by the North without an absolute loss +of its political prestige. Mr. Lincoln was elected President of the +United States in the autumn of 1860, and any steps taken by him or +his party towards a peaceable solution of the difficulties which +broke out immediately on his election, must have been taken before he +entered upon his office. South Carolina threatened secession as soon +as Mr. Lincoln's election was known, while yet there were four months +left of Mr. Buchanan's Government. That Mr. Buchanan might, during +those four months, have prevented secession, few men, I think, will +doubt when the history of the time shall be written. But instead of +doing so he consummated secession. Mr. Buchanan is a northern man, +a Pennsylvanian; but he was opposed to the party which had brought +in Mr. Lincoln, having thriven as a politician by his adherence +to southern principles. Now, when the struggle came, he could not +forget his party in his duty as President. General Jackson's position +was much the same when Mr. Calhoun, on the question of the tariff, +endeavoured to produce secession in South Carolina thirty years ago, +in 1832,--excepting in this, that Jackson was himself a southern man. +But Jackson had a strong conception of the position which he held +as President of the United States. He put his foot on secession and +crushed it, forcing Mr. Calhoun, as senator from South Carolina, to +vote for that compromise as to the tariff which the Government of +the day proposed. South Carolina was as eager in 1832 for secession +as she was in 1859-1860; but the Government was in the hands of a +strong man and an honest one. Mr. Calhoun would have been hung had +he carried out his threats. But Mr. Buchanan had neither the power +nor the honesty of General Jackson, and thus secession was in fact +consummated during his Presidency. + +But Mr. Lincoln's party, it is said--and I believe truly said--might +have prevented secession by making overtures to the South, or +accepting overtures from the South, before Mr. Lincoln himself had +been inaugurated. That is to say,--if Mr. Lincoln and the band of +politicians who with him had pushed their way to the top of their +party, and were about to fill the offices of State, chose to throw +overboard the political convictions which had bound them together and +insured their success,--if they could bring themselves to adopt on +the subject of slavery the ideas of their opponents,--then the war +might have been avoided, and secession also avoided. I do believe +that had Mr. Lincoln at that time submitted himself to a compromise +in favour of the Democrats, promising the support of the Government +to certain acts which would in fact have been in favour of slavery, +South Carolina would again have been foiled for the time. For it must +be understood, that though South Carolina and the Gulf States might +have accepted certain compromises, they would not have been satisfied +in so accepting them. They desired secession, and nothing short of +secession would, in truth, have been acceptable to them. But in doing +so Mr. Lincoln would have been the most dishonest politician even in +America. The North would have been in arms against him; and any true +spirit of agreement between the cotton-growing slave States and the +manufacturing States of the North, or the agricultural States of the +West, would have been as far off and as improbable as it is now. Mr. +Crittenden, who proffered his compromise to the Senate in December, +1860, was at that time one of the two senators from Kentucky, a slave +State. He now sits in the Lower House of Congress as a member from +the same State. Kentucky is one of those border States which has +found it impossible to secede, and almost equally impossible to +remain in the Union. It is one of the States into which it was most +probable that the war would be carried;--Virginia, Kentucky, and +Missouri being the three States which have suffered the most in this +way. Of Mr. Crittenden's own family, some have gone with secession +and some with the Union. His name had been honourably connected with +American politics for nearly forty years, and it is not surprising +that he should have desired a compromise. His terms were in fact +these,--a return to the Missouri compromise, under which the Union +pledged itself that no slavery should exist north of 36.30 degrees +N. lat. unless where it had so existed prior to the date of that +compromise; a pledge that Congress would not interfere with slavery +in the individual States,--which under the constitution it cannot do; +and a pledge that the Fugitive Slave Law should be carried out by +the northern States. Such a compromise might seem to make very small +demand on the forbearance of the Republican party, which was now +dominant. The repeal of the Missouri compromise had been to them a +loss, and it might be said that its re-enactment would be a gain. +But since that compromise had been repealed, vast territories +south of the line in question had been added to the Union, and the +re-enactment of that compromise would hand those vast regions over +to absolute slavery, as had been done with Texas. This might be all +very well for Mr. Crittenden in the slave State of Kentucky--for Mr. +Crittenden, although a slave-owner, desired to perpetuate the Union; +but it would not have been well for New England or for the West. As +for the second proposition, it is well understood that under the +constitution Congress cannot interfere in any way in the question of +slavery in the individual States. Congress has no more constitutional +power to abolish slavery in Maryland than she has to introduce it +into Massachusetts. No such pledge, therefore, was necessary on +either side. But such a pledge given by the North and West would have +acted as an additional tie upon them, binding them to the finality +of a constitutional enactment to which, as was of course well known, +they strongly object. There was no question of Congress interfering +with slavery, with the purport of extending its area by special +enactment, and therefore by such a pledge the North and West could +gain nothing; but the South would in prestige have gained much. + +But that third proposition as to the Fugitive Slave Law and the +faithful execution of that law by the northern and western States +would, if acceded to by Mr. Lincoln's party, have amounted to an +unconditional surrender of everything. What! Massachusetts and +Connecticut carry out the Fugitive Slave Law! Ohio carry out the +Fugitive Slave Law after the "Dred Scot" decision and all its +consequences! Mr. Crittenden might as well have asked Connecticut, +Massachusetts, and Ohio to introduce slavery within their own lands. +The Fugitive Slave Law was then, as it is now, the law of the land; +it was the law of the United States as voted by Congress and passed +by the President, and acted on by the Supreme Judge of the United +States' Court. But it was a law to which no free State had submitted +itself, or would submit itself. "What!" the English reader will +say,--"sundry States in the Union refuse to obey the laws of the +Union,--refuse to submit to the constitutional action of their own +Congress!" Yes. Such has been the position of this country! To such +a dead lock has it been brought by the attempted but impossible +amalgamation of North and South. Mr. Crittenden's compromise was +moonshine. It was utterly out of the question that the free States +should bind themselves to the rendition of escaped slaves,--or that +Mr. Lincoln, who had just been brought in by their voices, should +agree to any compromise which should attempt so to bind them. Lord +Palmerston might as well attempt to re-enact the Corn Laws. + +Then comes the question whether Mr. Lincoln or his Government could +have prevented the war after he had entered upon his office in March, +1861? I do not suppose that any one thinks that he could have avoided +secession and avoided the war also;--that by any ordinary effort of +Government he could have secured the adhesion of the Gulf States to +the Union after the first shot had been fired at Fort Sumter. The +general opinion in England is, I take it, this,--that secession then +was manifestly necessary, and that all the bloodshed and money-shed, +and all this destruction of commerce and of agriculture might have +been prevented by a graceful adhesion to an indisputable fact. But +there are some facts, even some indisputable facts, to which a +graceful adherence is not possible. Could King Bomba have welcomed +Garibaldi to Naples? Can the Pope shake hands with Victor Emmanuel? +Could the English have surrendered to their rebel colonists peaceable +possession of the colonies? The indisputability of a fact is not very +easily settled while the circumstances are in course of action by +which the fact is to be decided. The men of the northern States have +not believed in the necessity of secession, but have believed it to +be their duty to enforce the adherence of these States to the Union. +The American Governments have been much given to compromises, but had +Mr. Lincoln attempted any compromise by which any one southern State +could have been let out of the Union, he would have been impeached. +In all probability the whole constitution would have gone to ruin, +and the presidency would have been at an end. At any rate, his +presidency would have been at an end. When secession, or in other +words rebellion, was once commenced, he had no alternative but the +use of coercive measures for putting it down;--that is, he had no +alternative but war. It is not to be supposed that he or his ministry +contemplated such a war as has existed,--with 600,000 men in arms on +one side, each man with his whole belongings maintained at a cost of +L150 per annum, or ninety millions sterling per annum for the army. +Nor did we, when we resolved to put down the French revolution, think +of such a national debt as we now owe. These things grow by degrees, +and the mind also grows in becoming used to them; but I cannot see +that there was any moment at which Mr. Lincoln could have stayed his +hand and cried Peace! It is easy to say now that acquiescence in +secession would have been better than war, but there has been no +moment when he could have said so with any avail. It was incumbent on +him to put down rebellion, or to be put down by it. So it was with us +in America in 1776. + +I do not think that we in England have quite sufficiently taken all +this into consideration. We have been in the habit of exclaiming very +loudly against the war, execrating its cruelty and anathematizing its +results, as though the cruelty were all superfluous and the results +unnecessary. But I do not remember to have seen any statement as to +what the northern States should have done,--what they should have +done, that is, as regards the South, or when they should have done +it. It seems to me that we have decided as regards them that civil +war is a very bad thing, and that therefore civil war should be +avoided. But bad things cannot always be avoided. It is this feeling +on our part that has produced so much irritation in them against +us,--reproducing, of course, irritation on our part against them. +They cannot understand that we should not wish them to be successful +in putting down a rebellion; nor can we understand why they should be +outrageous against us for standing aloof, and keeping our hands, if +it be only possible, out of the fire. + +When Slidell and Mason were arrested, my opinions were not changed, +but my feelings were altered. I seemed to acknowledge to myself that +the treatment to which England had been subjected, and the manner in +which that treatment was discussed, made it necessary that I should +regard the question as it existed between England and the States, +rather than in its reference to the North and South. I had always +felt that as regarded the action of our Government we had been sans +reproche; that in arranging our conduct we had thought neither of +money nor political influence, but simply of the justice of the +case,--promising to abstain from all interference and keeping that +promise faithfully. It had been quite clear to me that the men of the +North, and the women also, had failed to appreciate this, looking, as +men in a quarrel always do look, for special favour on their side. +Everything that England did was wrong. If a private merchant, at his +own risk, took a cargo of rifles to some southern port, that act to +northern eyes was an act of English interference,--of favour shown to +the South by England as a nation; but twenty shiploads of rifles sent +from England to the North merely signified a brisk trade and a desire +for profit. The "James Adger," a northern man-of-war, was refitted +at Southampton as a matter of course. There was no blame to England +for that. But the "Nashville," belonging to the Confederates, should +not have been allowed into English waters! It was useless to speak +of neutrality. No Northerner would understand that a rebel could +have any mutual right. The South had no claim in his eyes as a +belligerent, though the North claimed all those rights which he could +only enjoy by the fact of there being a recognized war between him +and his enemy the South. The North was learning to hate England, +and day by day the feeling grew upon me that, much as I wished to +espouse the cause of the North, I should have to espouse the cause +of my own country. Then Slidell and Mason were arrested, and I began +to calculate how long I might remain in the country. "There is no +danger. We are quite right," the lawyers said. "There are Vattel +and Puffendorff and Stowell and Phillimore and Wheaton," said the +ladies. "Ambassadors are contraband all the world over,--more so than +gunpowder; and if taken in a neutral bottom, &c." I wonder why ships +are always called bottoms when spoken of with legal technicality? But +neither the lawyers nor the ladies convinced me. I know that there +are matters which will be read not in accordance with any written +law, but in accordance with the bias of the reader's mind. Such laws +are made to be strained any way. I knew how it would be. All the +legal acumen of New England declared the seizure of Slidell and Mason +to be right. The legal acumen of Old England has declared it to be +wrong; and I have no doubt that the ladies of Old England can prove +it to be wrong out of Vattel, Puffendorff, Stowell, Phillimore, and +Wheaton. + +"But there's Grotius," I said, to an elderly female at New York, +who had quoted to me some half-dozen writers on international law, +thinking thereby that I should trump her last card. "I've looked into +Grotius too," said she, "and as far as I can see," &c. &c. &c. So +I had to fall back again on the convictions to which instinct and +common sense had brought me. I never doubted for a moment that those +convictions would be supported by English lawyers. + +I left Boston with a sad feeling at my heart that a quarrel was +imminent between England and the States, and that any such quarrel +must be destructive to the cause of the North. I had never believed +that the States of New England and the Gulf States would again become +parts of one nation, but I had thought that the terms of separation +would be dictated by the North, and not by the South. I had felt +assured that South Carolina and the Gulf States, across from +the Atlantic to Texas, would succeed in forming themselves into +a separate confederation; but I had still hoped that Maryland, +Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri might be saved to the grander empire +of the North, and that thus a great blow to slavery might be the +consequence of this civil war. But such ascendancy could only fall to +the North by reason of their command of the sea. The northern ports +were all open, and the southern ports were all closed. But if this +should be reversed. If by England's action the southern ports should +be opened, and the northern ports closed, the North could have no +fair expectation of success. The ascendancy in that case would all be +with the South. Up to that moment,--the Christmas of 1861,--Maryland +was kept in subjection by the guns which General Dix had planted +over the city of Baltimore. Two-thirds of Virginia were in active +rebellion, coerced originally into that position by her dependence +for the sale of her slaves on the cotton States. Kentucky was +doubtful, and divided. When the federal troops prevailed, Kentucky +was loyal; when the Confederate troops prevailed, Kentucky was +rebellious. The condition in Missouri was much the same. Those four +States, by two of which the capital, with its district of Columbia, +is surrounded, might be gained, or might be lost. And these four +States are susceptible of white labour,--as much so as Ohio and +Illinois,--are rich in fertility, and rich also in all associations +which must be dear to Americans. Without Virginia, Maryland, and +Kentucky, without the Potomac, the Chesapeake, and Mount Vernon, +the North would indeed be shorn of its glory! But it seemed to be +in the power of the North to say under what terms secession should +take place, and where should be the line. A senator from South +Carolina could never again sit in the same chamber with one from +Massachusetts; but there need be no such bar against the border +States. So much might at any rate be gained, and might stand +hereafter as the product of all that money spent on 600,000 soldiers. +But if the Northerners should now elect to throw themselves into +a quarrel with England, if in the gratification of a shameless +braggadocio they should insist on doing what they liked, not only +with their own, but with the property of all others also, it +certainly did seem as though utter ruin must await their cause. With +England, or one might say with Europe, against them, secession must +be accomplished, not on northern terms, but on terms dictated by the +South. The choice was then for them to make; and just at that time it +seemed as though they were resolved to throw away every good card out +of their hand. Such had been the ministerial wisdom of Mr. Seward. +I remember hearing the matter discussed in easy terms by one of the +United States senators. "Remember, Mr. Trollope," he said to me, "we +don't want a war with England. If the choice is given to us, we had +rather not fight England. Fighting is a bad thing. But remember this +also, Mr. Trollope--that if the matter is pressed on us, we have +no great objection. We had rather not, but we don't care much one +way or the other." What one individual may say to another is not of +much moment, but this senator was expressing the feelings of his +constituents, who were the legislature of the State from whence he +came. He was expressing the general idea on the subject of a large +body of Americans. It was not that he and his State had really no +objection to the war. Such a war loomed terribly large before the +minds of them all. They knew it to be fraught with the saddest +consequences. It was so regarded in the mind of that senator. But the +braggadocio could not be omitted. Had he omitted it, he would have +been untrue to his constituency. + +When I left Boston for Washington nothing was as yet known of what +the English Government or the English lawyers might say. This was in +the first week in December, and the expected voice from England could +not be heard till the end of the second week. It was a period of +great suspense, and of great sorrow also to the more sober-minded +Americans. To me the idea of such a war was terrible. It seemed that +in these days all the hopes of our youth were being shattered. That +poetic turning of the sword into a sickle, which gladdened our hearts +ten or twelve years since, had been clean banished from men's minds. +To belong to a peace-party was to be either a fanatic, an idiot, or +a driveller. The arts of war had become everything. Armstrong guns, +themselves indestructible, but capable of destroying everything +within sight, and most things out of sight, were the only recognized +results of man's inventive faculties. To build bigger, stronger, and +more ships than the French was England's glory. To hit a speck with +a rifle bullet at 800 yards' distance was an Englishman's first duty. +The proper use for a young man's leisure hours was the practice of +drilling. All this had come upon us with very quick steps, since the +beginning of the Russian war. But if fighting must needs be done, one +did not feel special grief at fighting a Russian. That the Indian +mutiny should be put down was a matter of course. That those Chinese +rascals should be forced into the harness of civilization was a good +thing. That England should be as strong as France,--or perhaps, if +possible, a little stronger,--recommended itself to an Englishman's +mind as a State necessity. But a war with the States of America! In +thinking of it I began to believe that the world was going backwards. +Over sixty millions sterling of stock--railway stock and such +like--are held in America by Englishmen, and the chances would be +that before such a war could be finished the whole of that would be +confiscated. Family connections between the States and the British +isles are almost as close as between one of those islands and +another. The commercial intercourse between the two countries has +given bread to millions of Englishmen, and a break in it would rob +millions of their bread. These people speak our language, use our +prayers, read our books, are ruled by our laws, dress themselves in +our image, are warm with our blood. They have all our virtues; and +their vices are our own too, loudly as we call out against them. They +are our sons and our daughters, the source of our greatest pride, and +as we grow old they should be the staff of our age. Such a war as we +should now wage with the States would be an unloosing of hell upon +all that is best upon the world's surface. If in such a war we beat +the Americans, they with their proud stomachs would never forgive +us. If they should be victors, we should never forgive ourselves. I +certainly could not bring myself to speak of it with the equanimity +of my friend the senator. + +I went through New York to Philadelphia and made a short visit to the +latter town. Philadelphia seems to me to have thrown off its Quaker +garb, and to present itself to the world in the garments ordinarily +assumed by large cities; by which I intend to express my opinion +that the Philadelphians are not in these latter days any better than +their neighbours. I am not sure whether in some respects they may not +perhaps be worse. Quakers,--Quakers absolutely in the very flesh of +close bonnets and brown knee-breeches,--are still to be seen there; +but they are not numerous, and would not strike the eye if one did +not specially look for a Quaker at Philadelphia. It is a large town, +with a very large hotel,--there are no doubt half-a-dozen large +hotels, but one of them is specially great,--with long straight +streets, good shops and markets, and decent comfortable-looking +houses. The houses of Philadelphia generally are not so large as +those of other great cities in the States. They are more modest than +those of New York, and less commodious than those of Boston. Their +most striking appendage is the marble steps at the front doors. Two +doors as a rule enjoy one set of steps, on the outer edges of which +there is generally no parapet or raised curb-stone. This, to my eye, +gave the houses an unfinished appearance,--as though the marble ran +short, and no further expenditure could be made. The frost came when +I was there, and then all these steps were covered up in wooden +cases. + +The city of Philadelphia lies between the two rivers, the Delaware +and the Schuylkill. Eight chief streets run from river to river, and +twenty-four cross-streets bisect the eight at right angles. The long +streets are, with the exception of Market Street, called by the names +of trees,--chesnut, walnut, pine, spruce, mulberry, vine, and so +on. The cross-streets are all called by their numbers. In the long +streets the numbers of the houses are not consecutive, but follow +the numbers of the cross streets; so that a person living in Chesnut +Street between Tenth Street and Eleventh Street, and ten doors from +Tenth Street, would live at No. 1010. The opposite house would be +No. 1011. It thus follows that the number of the house indicates the +exact block of houses in which it is situated. I do not like the +right-angled building of these towns, nor do I like the sound of +Twentieth Street and Thirtieth Street; but I must acknowledge that +the arrangement in Philadelphia has its convenience. In New York I +found it by no means an easy thing to arrive at the desired locality. + +They boast in Philadelphia that they have half a million inhabitants. +If this be taken as a true calculation, Philadelphia is in size the +fourth city in the world,--putting out of the question the cities of +China, as to which we have heard so much and believe so little. But +in making this calculation the citizens include the population of a +district on some sides ten miles distant from Philadelphia. It takes +in other towns connected with it by railway but separated by large +spaces of open country. American cities are very proud of their +population, but if they all counted in this way, there would soon +be no rural population left at all. There is a very fine bank at +Philadelphia,--and Philadelphia is a town somewhat celebrated in +its banking history. My remarks here, however, apply simply to the +external building, and not to its internal honesty and wisdom, or to +its commercial credit. + +In Philadelphia also stands the old house of Congress,--the house in +which the Congress of the United States was held previous to 1800, +when the Government, and the Congress with it, were moved to the +new city of Washington. I believe, however, that the first Congress, +properly so called, was assembled at New York in 1789, the date of +the inauguration of the first President. It was, however, here, in +this building at Philadelphia, that the independence of the Union was +declared in 1776, and that the constitution of the United States was +framed. + +Pennsylvania, with Philadelphia for its capital, was once the leading +State of the Union,--leading by a long distance. At the end of the +last century it beat all the other States in population, but has +since been surpassed by New York in all respects,--in population, +commerce, wealth, and general activity. Of course it is known that +Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn, the Quaker, by Charles +II. I cannot completely understand what was the meaning of such +grants,--how far they implied absolute possession in the territory, +or how far they confirmed simply the power of settling and governing +a colony. In this case a very considerable property was confirmed, as +the claim made by Penn's children after Penn's death was bought up by +the commonwealth of Pennsylvania for L130,000; which in those days +was a large price for almost any landed estate on the other side of +the Atlantic. + +Pennsylvania lies directly on the borders of slave land, being +immediately north of Maryland. Mason and Dixon's line, of which +we hear so often, and which was first established as the division +between slave soil and free soil, runs between Pennsylvania and +Maryland. The little State of Delaware, which lies between Maryland +and the Atlantic, is also tainted with slavery; but the stain is not +heavy nor indelible. In a population of a hundred and twelve thousand +there are not two thousand slaves, and of these the owners generally +would willingly rid themselves if they could. It is, however, a point +of honour with these owners, as it is also in Maryland, not to sell +their slaves; and a man who cannot sell his slaves must keep them. +Were he to enfranchise them and send them about their business, they +would come back upon his hands. Were he to enfranchise them and pay +them wages for work, they would get the wages but he would not get +the work. They would get the wages, but at the end of three months +they would still fall back upon his hands in debt and distress, +looking to him for aid and comfort as a child looks for it. It is +not easy to get rid of a slave in a slave State. That question of +enfranchising slaves is not one to be very readily solved. + +In Pennsylvania the right of voting is confined to free white men. In +New York the coloured free men have the right to vote, providing they +have a certain small property qualification, and have been citizens +for three years in the State;--whereas a white man need have been a +citizen but for ten days, and need have no property qualification; +from which it is seen that the position of the negro becomes worse, +or less like that of a white man, as the border of slave land is more +nearly reached. But in the teeth of this embargo on coloured men, the +constitution of Pennsylvania asserts broadly that all men are born +equally free and independent. One cannot conceive how two clauses +can have found their way into the same document so absolutely +contradictory to each other. The first clause says that white men +shall vote, and that black men shall not, which means that all +political action shall be confined to white men. The second clause +says that all men are born equally free and independent! + +In Philadelphia I for the first time came across live +secessionists,--secessionists who pronounced themselves to be such. I +will not say that I had met in other cities men who falsely declared +themselves true to the Union; but I had fancied, in regard to some, +that their words were a little stronger than their feelings. When +a man's bread,--and much more, when the bread of his wife and +children,--depends on his professing a certain line of political +conviction, it is very hard for him to deny his assent to the truth +of the argument. One feels that a man under such circumstances is +bound to be convinced, unless he be in a position which may make +a stanch adherence to opposite politics a matter of grave public +importance. In the North I had fancied that I could sometimes read a +secessionist tendency under a cloud of unionist protestations. But in +Philadelphia men did not seem to think it necessary to have recourse +to such a cloud. I generally found in mixed society, even there, that +the discussion of secession was not permitted; but in society that +was not mixed, I heard very strong opinions expressed on each side. +With the unionists nothing was so strong as the necessity of keeping +Slidell and Mason. When I suggested that the English Government would +probably require their surrender, I was talked down and ridiculed. +"Never that; come what may." Then, within half an hour, I would be +told by a secessionist that England must demand reparation if she +meant to retain any place among the great nations of the world; +but he also would declare that the men would not be surrendered. +"She must make the demand," the secessionist would say, "and then +there will be war; and after that we shall see whose ports will be +blockaded!" The Southerner has ever looked to England for some breach +of the blockade, quite as strongly as the North has looked to England +for sympathy and aid in keeping it. + +The railway from Philadelphia to Baltimore passes along the top of +Chesapeake Bay and across the Susquehanna river; at least the railway +cars do so. On one side of that river they are run on to a huge +ferryboat, and are again run off at the other side. Such an operation +would seem to be one of difficulty to us under any circumstances; +but as the Susquehanna is a tidal river, rising and falling a +considerable number of feet, the natural impediment in the way of +such an enterprise would, I think, have staggered us. We should have +built a bridge costing two or three millions sterling, on which no +conceivable amount of traffic would pay a fair dividend. Here, in +crossing the Susquehanna, the boat is so constructed that its deck +shall be level with the line of the railway at half tide, so that the +inclined plane from the shore down to the boat, or from the shore up +to the boat, shall never exceed half the amount of the rise or fall. +One would suppose that the most intricate machinery would have been +necessary for such an arrangement; but it was all rough and simple, +and apparently managed by two negroes. We should employ a small corps +of engineers to conduct such an operation, and men and women would +be detained in their carriages under all manner of threats as to the +peril of life and limb; but here everybody was expected to look out +for himself. The cars were dragged up the inclined plane by a hawser +attached to an engine, which hawser, had the stress broken it, as I +could not but fancy probable, would have flown back and cut to pieces +a lot of us who were standing in front of the car. But I do not +think that any such accident would have caused very much attention. +Life and limbs are not held to be so precious here as they are in +England. It may be a question whether with us they are not almost too +precious. Regarding railways in America generally, as to the relative +safety of which, when compared with our own, we have not in England a +high opinion, I must say that I never saw any accident or in any way +became conversant with one. It is said that large numbers of men and +women are slaughtered from time to time on different lines; but if it +be so, the newspapers make very light of such cases. I myself have +seen no such slaughter, nor have I even found myself in the vicinity +of a broken bone. Beyond the Susquehanna we passed over a creek of +Chesapeake Bay on a long bridge. The whole scenery here is very +pretty, and the view up the Susquehanna is fine. This is the bay +which divides the State of Maryland into two parts, and which is +blessed beyond all other bays by the possession of canvas-back ducks. +Nature has done a great deal for the State of Maryland, but in +nothing more than in sending thither these web-footed birds of +Paradise. + +Nature has done a great deal for Maryland; and Fortune also has +done much for it in these latter days in directing the war from +its territory. But for the peculiar position of Washington as the +capital, all that is now being done in Virginia would have been done +in Maryland, and I must say that the Marylanders did their best to +bring about such a result. Had the presence of the war been regarded +by the men of Baltimore as an unalloyed benefit, they could not have +made a greater struggle to bring it close to them. Nevertheless fate +has so far spared them. + +As the position of Maryland and the course of events as they took +place in Baltimore on the commencement of secession had considerable +influence both in the North and in the South, I will endeavour +to explain how that State was affected, and how the question was +affected by that State. Maryland, as I have said before, is a slave +State lying immediately south of Mason and Dixon's line. Small +portions both of Virginia and of Delaware do run north of Maryland, +but practically Maryland is the frontier State of the slave States. +It was therefore of much importance to know which way Maryland would +go in the event of secession among the slave States becoming general; +and of much also to ascertain whether it could secede if desirous of +doing so. I am inclined to think that as a State it was desirous of +following Virginia, though there are many in Maryland who deny this +very stoutly. But it was at once evident that if loyalty to the North +could not be had in Maryland of its own free will, adherence to +the North must be enforced upon Maryland. Otherwise the city of +Washington could not be maintained as the existing capital of the +nation. + +The question of the fidelity of the State to the Union was first +tried by the arrival at Baltimore of a certain Commissioner from +the State of Mississippi, who visited that city with the object of +inducing secession. It must be understood that Baltimore is the +commercial capital of Maryland, whereas Annapolis is the seat of +Government and the legislature--or is, in other terms, the political +capital. Baltimore is a city containing 230,000 inhabitants, and is +considered to have as strong and perhaps as violent a mob as any +city in the Union. Of the above number 30,000 are negroes and 2000 +are slaves. The Commissioner made his appeal, telling his tale of +southern grievances, declaring, among other things, that secession +was not intended to break up the Government but to perpetuate it, +and asked for the assistance and sympathy of Maryland. This was in +December, 1860. The Commissioner was answered by Governor Hicks, who +was placed in a somewhat difficult position. The existing legislature +of the State was presumed to be secessionist, but the legislature +was not sitting, nor in the ordinary course of things would that +legislature have been called on to sit again. The legislature of +Maryland is elected every other year, and in the ordinary course +sits only once in the two years. That session had been held, and the +existing legislature was therefore exempt from further work,--unless +specially summoned for an extraordinary session. To do this is within +the power of the Governor. But Governor Hicks, who seems to have been +mainly anxious to keep things quiet, and whose individual politics +did not come out strongly, was not inclined to issue the summons. +"Let us show moderation as well as firmness," he said; and that +was about all he did say to the Commissioner from Mississippi. +The Governor after that was directly called on to convene the +legislature; but this he refused to do, alleging that it would not +be safe to trust the discussion of such a subject as secession +to--"excited politicians, many of whom having nothing to lose from +the destruction of the Government, may hope to derive some gain +from the ruin of the State!" I quote these words, coming from the +head of the executive of the State and spoken with reference to the +legislature of the State, with the object of showing in what light +the political leaders of a State may be held in that very State to +which they belong! If we are to judge of these legislators from the +opinion expressed by Governor Hicks, they could hardly have been +fit for their places. That plan of governing by the little men has +certainly not answered. It need hardly be said that Governor Hicks, +having expressed such an opinion of his State's legislature, refused +to call them to an extraordinary session. + +On the 18th of April, 1860, Governor Hicks issued a proclamation to +the people of Maryland, begging them to be quiet, the chief object +of which, however, was that of promising that no troops should be +sent out from their State, unless with the object of guarding the +neighbouring city of Washington,--a promise which he had no means +of fulfilling, seeing that the President of the United States is +the Commander-in-Chief of the army of the nation and can summon the +militia of the several States. This proclamation by the Governor +to the State was immediately backed up by one from the Mayor of +Baltimore to the city, in which he congratulates the citizens on +the Governor's promise that none of their troops are to be sent to +another State; and then he tells them that they shall be preserved +from the horrors of civil war. + +But on the very next day the horrors of civil war began in Baltimore. +By this time President Lincoln was collecting troops at Washington +for the protection of the capital; and that army of the Potomac, +which has ever since occupied the Virginian side of the river, +was in course of construction. To join this, certain troops from +Massachusetts were sent down by the usual route, via New York, +Philadelphia, and Baltimore; but on their reaching Baltimore +by railway, the mob of that town refused to allow them to pass +through,--and a fight began. Nine citizens were killed and two +soldiers, and as many more were wounded. This, I think, was the first +blood spilt in the civil war; and the attack was first made by the +mob of the first slave city reached by the northern soldiers. This +goes far to show, not that the border States desired secession, but +that, when compelled to choose between secession and union,--when not +allowed by circumstances to remain neutral,--their sympathies were +with their sister slave States rather than with the North. + +Then there was a great running about of official men between +Baltimore and Washington, and the President was besieged with +entreaties that no troops should be sent through Baltimore. Now this +was hard enough upon President Lincoln, seeing that he was bound to +defend his capital, that he could get no troops from the South, and +that Baltimore is on the high road from Washington, both to the West +and to the North; but, nevertheless, he gave way. Had he not done +so, all Baltimore would have been in a blaze of rebellion, and the +scene of the coming contest must have been removed from Virginia to +Maryland, and Congress and the Government must have travelled from +Washington north to Philadelphia. "They shall not come through +Baltimore," said Mr. Lincoln. "But they shall come through the State +of Maryland. They shall be passed over Chesapeake Bay by water to +Annapolis, and shall come up by rail from thence." This arrangement +was as distasteful to the State of Maryland as the other; but +Annapolis is a small town without a mob, and the Marylanders had no +means of preventing the passage of the troops. Attempts were made to +refuse the use of the Annapolis branch railway, but General Butler +had the arranging of that. General Butler was a lawyer from Boston, +and by no means inclined to indulge the scruples of the Marylanders +who had so roughly treated his fellow-citizens from Massachusetts. +The troops did therefore pass through Annapolis, much to the disgust +of the State. On the 27th of April Governor Hicks, having now had a +sufficiency of individual responsibility, summoned the legislature +of which he had expressed so bad an opinion; but on this occasion +he omitted to repeat that opinion, and submitted his views in very +proper terms to the wisdom of the senators and representatives. He +entertained, as he said, an honest conviction that the safety of +Maryland lay in preserving a neutral position between the North and +the South. Certainly, Governor Hicks, if it were only possible! The +legislature again went to work to prevent, if it might be prevented, +the passage of troops through their State; but luckily for them, +they failed. The President was bound to defend Washington, and the +Marylanders were denied their wish of having their own fields made +the fighting ground of the civil war. + +That which appears to me to be the most remarkable feature in all +this is the antagonism between United States law and individual State +feeling. Through the whole proceeding the Governor and the State of +Maryland seemed to have considered it legal and reasonable to oppose +the constitutional power of the President and his Government. It is +argued in all the speeches and written documents that were produced +in Maryland at the time, that Maryland was true to the Union; and yet +she put herself in opposition to the constitutional military power of +the President! Certain commissioners went from the State legislature +to Washington, in May, and from their report, it appears that the +President had expressed himself of opinion that Maryland might do +this or that, as long "as she had not taken and was not about to take +a hostile attitude to the Federal Government!" From which we are to +gather that a denial of that military power given to the President +by the constitution was not considered as an attitude hostile to +the Federal Government. At any rate, it was direct disobedience +of federal law. I cannot but revert from this to the condition +of the fugitive slave law. Federal law, and indeed the original +constitution, plainly declare that fugitive slaves shall be given +up by the free-soil States. Massachusetts proclaims herself to be +specially a federal, law-loving State. But every man in Massachusetts +knows that no judge, no sheriff, no magistrate, no policeman in that +State would at this time, or then, when that civil war was beginning, +have lent a hand in any way to the rendition of a fugitive slave. The +Federal law requires the State to give up the fugitive, but the State +law does not require judge, sheriff, magistrate, or policeman to +engage in such work, and no judge, sheriff, or magistrate will do so; +consequently that Federal law is dead in Massachusetts, as it is also +in every free-soil State,--dead, except inasmuch as there was life +in it to create ill-blood as long as the North and South remained +together, and would be life in it for the same effect if they should +again be brought under the same flag. + +On the 10th May the Maryland legislature, having received the +report of their Commissioners above-mentioned, passed the following +resolution:-- + +"Whereas the war against the Confederate States is unconstitutional +and repugnant to civilization, and will result in a bloody and +shameful overthrow of our constitution, and whilst recognizing the +obligations of Maryland to the Union, we sympathize with the South in +the struggle for their rights; for the sake of humanity we are for +peace and reconciliation, and solemnly protest against this war, and +will take no part in it. + +"Resolved,--That Maryland implores the President, in the name of +God, to cease this unholy war, at least until Congress assembles"--a +period of above six months. "That Maryland desires and consents to +the recognition of the independence of the Confederate States. The +military occupation of Maryland is unconstitutional, and she protests +against it, though the violent interference with the transit of the +Federal troops is discountenanced. That the vindication of her rights +be left to time and reason, and that a convention under existing +circumstances is inexpedient." + +From which it is plain that Maryland would have seceded as +effectually as Georgia seceded, had she not been prevented by +the interposition of Washington between her and the Confederate +States,--the happy intervention, seeing that she has thus been saved +from becoming the battle-ground of the contest. But the legislature +had to pay for its rashness. On the 13th of September thirteen of +its members were arrested, as were also two editors of newspapers +presumed to be secessionists. A member of Congress was also arrested +at the same time, and a candidate for Governor Hicks's place, who +belonged to the secessionist party. Previously, in the last days of +June and beginning of July, the chief of the police at Baltimore +and the members of the Board of Police had been arrested by General +Banks, who then held Baltimore in his power. + +I should be sorry to be construed as saying that republican +institutions, or what may more properly be called democratic +institutions, have been broken down in the States of America. I am +far from thinking that they have broken down. Taking them and their +work as a whole, I think that they have shown, and still show, +vitality of the best order. But the written constitution of the +United States and of the several States, as bearing upon each other, +are not equal to the requirements made upon them. That, I think, +is the conclusion to which a spectator should come. It is in that +doctrine of finality that our friends have broken down,--a doctrine +not expressed in their constitutions, and indeed expressly denied in +the constitution of the United States, which provides the mode in +which amendments shall be made--but appearing plainly enough in every +word of self-gratulation which comes from them. Political finality +has ever proved a delusion,--as has the idea of finality in all +human institutions. I do not doubt but that the republican form of +government will remain and make progress in North America; but such +prolonged existence and progress must be based on an acknowledgment +of the necessity for change, and must in part depend on the +facilities for change which shall be afforded. + +I have described the condition of Baltimore as it was early in May, +1861. I reached that city just seven months later, and its condition +was considerably altered. There was no question then whether troops +should pass through Baltimore, or by an awkward round through +Annapolis, or not pass at all through Maryland. General Dix, who +had succeeded General Banks, was holding the city in his grip, and +martial law prevailed. In such times as those, it was bootless to +inquire as to that promise that no troops should pass southward +through Baltimore. What have such assurances ever been worth in such +days! Baltimore was now a military depot in the hands of the northern +army, and General Dix was not a man to stand any trifling. He did me +the honour to take me to the top of Federal Hill, a suburb of the +city, on which he had raised great earthworks and planted mighty +cannons, and built tents and barracks for his soldiery, and to show +me how instantaneously he could destroy the town from his exalted +position. "This hill was made for the very purpose," said General +Dix; and no doubt he thought so. Generals, when they have fine +positions and big guns and prostrate people lying under their thumbs, +are inclined to think that God's providence has specially ordained +them and their points of vantage. It is a good thing in the mind of +a general so circumstanced that 200,000 men should be made subject +to a dozen big guns. I confess that to me, having had no military +education, the matter appeared in a different light, and I could +not work up my enthusiasm to a pitch which would have been suitable +to the General's courtesy. That hill, on which many of the poor of +Baltimore had lived, was desecrated in my eyes by those columbiads. +The neat earthworks were ugly, as looked upon by me; and though I +regarded General Dix as energetic, and no doubt skilful in the work +assigned to him, I could not sympathize with his exultation. + +Previously to the days of secession Baltimore had been guarded by +Fort MacHenry, which lies on a spit of land running out into the bay +just below the town. Hither I went with General Dix, and he explained +to me how the cannon had heretofore been pointed solely towards the +sea; that, however, now was all changed, and the mouths of his bombs +and great artillery were turned all the other way. The commandant of +the fort was with us, and other officers, and they all spoke of this +martial tenure as a great blessing. Hearing them, one could hardly +fail to suppose that they had lived their forty, fifty, or sixty +years of life in full reliance on the powers of a military despotism. +But not the less were they American republicans, who, twelve months +since, would have dilated on the all-sufficiency of their republican +institutions, and on the absence of any military restraint in their +country, with that peculiar pride which characterizes the citizens +of the States. There are, however, some lessons which may be learned +with singular rapidity! + +Such was the state of Baltimore when I visited that city. I found, +nevertheless, that cakes and ale still prevailed there. I am inclined +to think that cakes and ale prevail most freely in times that are +perilous, and when sources of sorrow abound. I have seen more +reckless joviality in a town stricken by pestilence than I ever +encountered elsewhere. There was General Dix seated on Federal Hill +with his cannon; and there, beneath his artillery, were gentlemen +hotly professing themselves to be secessionists, men whose sons and +brothers were in the southern army, and women--alas! whose brothers +would be in one army, and their sons in another. That was the part of +it which was most heart-rending in this border land. In New England +and New York men's minds at any rate were bent all in the same +direction,--as doubtless they were also in Georgia and Alabama. But +here fathers were divided from sons, and mothers from daughters. +Terrible tales were told of threats uttered by one member of a family +against another. Old ties of friendship were broken up. Society had +so divided itself, that one side could hold no terms of courtesy with +the other. "When this is over," one gentleman said to me, "every man +in Baltimore will have a quarrel to the death on his hands with some +friend whom he used to love." The complaints made on both sides were +eager and open-mouthed against the other. + +Late in the autumn an election for a new legislature of the State +had taken place, and the members returned were all supposed to be +unionist. That they were prepared to support the Government is +certain. But no known or presumed secessionist was allowed to vote +without first taking the oath of allegiance. The election therefore, +even if the numbers were true, cannot be looked upon as a free +election. Voters were stopped at the poll and not allowed to +vote unless they would take an oath which would, on their parts, +undoubtedly have been false. It was also declared in Baltimore that +men engaged to promote the northern party were permitted to vote five +or six times over, and the enormous number of votes polled on the +Government side gave some colouring to the statement. At any rate an +election carried under General Dix's guns cannot be regarded as an +open election. It was out of the question that any election taken +under such circumstances should be worth anything as expressing +the minds of the people. Red and white had been declared to be the +colours of the Confederates, and red and white had of course become +the favourite colours of the Baltimore ladies. Then it was given +out that red and white would not be allowed in the streets. Ladies +wearing red and white were requested to return home. Children +decorated with red and white ribbons were stripped of their bits of +finery,--much to their infantine disgust and dismay. Ladies would put +red and white ornaments in their windows, and the police would insist +on the withdrawal of the colours. Such was the condition of Baltimore +during the past winter. Nevertheless cakes and ale abounded; and +though there was deep grief in the city, and wailing in the recesses +of many houses, and a feeling that the good times were gone, never +to return within the days of many of them, still there existed an +excitement and a consciousness of the importance of the crisis which +was not altogether unsatisfactory. Men and women can endure to +be ruined, to be torn from their friends, to be overwhelmed with +avalanches of misfortune, better than they can endure to be dull. + +Baltimore is, or at any rate was, an aspiring city, proud of its +commerce and proud of its society. It has regarded itself as the New +York of the South, and to some extent has forced others so to regard +it also. In many respects it is more like an English town than most +of its transatlantic brethren, and the ways of its inhabitants are +English. In old days a pack of fox-hounds was kept here,--or indeed +in days that are not yet very old, for I was told of their doings by +a gentleman who had long been a member of the hunt. The country looks +as a hunting country should look, whereas no man that ever crossed a +field after a pack of hounds would feel the slightest wish to attempt +that process in New England or New York. There is in Baltimore +an old inn with an old sign, standing at the corner of Eutaw and +Franklin Streets, just such as may still be seen in the towns of +Somersetshire, and before it are to be seen old wagons, covered and +soiled and battered, about to return from the city to the country, +just as the wagons do in our own agricultural counties. I have found +nothing so thoroughly English in any other part of the Union. + +But canvas-back ducks and terrapins are the great glories of +Baltimore. Of the nature of the former bird I believe all the world +knows something. It is a wild duck which obtains the peculiarity of +its flavour from the wild celery on which it feeds. This celery grows +on the Chesapeake Bay, and I believe on the Chesapeake Bay only. At +any rate Baltimore is the head-quarters of the canvas-backs, and it +is on the Chesapeake Bay that they are shot. I was kindly invited to +go down on a shooting-party; but when I learned that I should have to +ensconce myself alone for hours in a wet wooden box on the water's +edge, waiting there for the chance of a duck to come to me, I +declined. The fact of my never having as yet been successful in +shooting a bird of any kind conduced somewhat perhaps to my decision. +I must acknowledge that the canvas-back duck fully deserves all the +reputation it has acquired. As to the terrapin, I have not so much to +say. The terrapin is a small turtle, found on the shores of Maryland +and Virginia, out of which a very rich soup is made. It is cooked +with wines and spices, and is served in the shape of a hash, with +heaps of little bones mixed through it. It is held in great repute, +and the guest is expected as a matter of course to be helped twice. +The man who did not eat twice of terrapin would be held in small +repute, as the Londoner is held who at a city banquet does not +partake of both thick and thin turtle. I must, however, confess that +the terrapin for me had no surpassing charms. + +Maryland was so called from Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles +I., by which king in 1632 the territory was conceded to the Roman +Catholic Lord Baltimore. It was chiefly peopled by Roman Catholics, +but I do not think that there is now any such speciality attaching to +the State. There are in it two or three old Roman Catholic families, +but the people have come down from the North, and have no peculiar +religious tendencies. Some of Lord Baltimore's descendants remained +in the State up to the time of the revolution. 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