General remarks continued--The common schools--Their defect--Difficulties
--Management of the schools--The free academy--Railways--Telegraphs--
Poverty--Literature--Advantages for emigrants--Difficulties of emigrants--
Peace or war--Concluding observations.
At a time when the deficiencies of our own educational system are so
strongly felt, it may be well to give an outline of that pursued in the
States. The following statistics, taken from the last census, show that
our Transatlantic brethren have made great progress in moral and
intellectual interests.
At the period when the enumeration was made there were 80,958 public
schools, with 91,966 teachers, and 2,890,507 scholars; 119 colleges, with
11,903 students; 44 schools of theology; 36 schools of medicine; and 16
schools of law. Fifty millions of dollars were annually spent for
education, and the proportion of scholars to the community was as 1 to 5.
But it is to the common-school system that the attention should be
particularly directed. I may premise that it has one unavoidable defect,
namely, the absence of religious instruction. It would be neither possible
nor right to educate the children in any denominational creed, or to
instruct them in any particular doctrinal system, but would it not, to
take the lowest ground, be both prudent and politic to give them a
knowledge of the Bible, as the only undeviating rule and standard of truth
and right? May not the obliquity of moral vision, which is allowed to
exist among a large class of Americans, be in some degree chargeable to
those who have the care of their education--who do not place before them,
as a part of their instruction, those principles of truth and morality,
which, as revealed in Holy Scripture, lay the whole universe under
obligations to obedience? History and observation alike show the little
influence practically possessed by principles destitute of superior
authority, how small the restraint exercised by conscience is, and how far
those may wander into error who once desert "Life's polar star, the fear
of God." In regretting the exclusion of religious instruction from the
common-school system, the difficulties which beset the subject must not be
forgotten, the multiplicity of the sects, and the very large number of
Roman Catholics. In schools supported by a rate levied indiscriminately on
all, to form a course of instruction which could bear the name of a
religious one, and yet meet the views of all, and clash with the
consciences and prejudices of none, was manifestly impossible. The
religious public in the United States has felt that there was no tenable
ground between thorough religious instruction and the broadest toleration.
Driven by the circumstances of their country to accept the latter course,
they have exerted themselves to meet this omission in the public schools
by a most comprehensive Sabbath-school system. But only a portion of the
children under secular instruction in the week attend these schools; and
it must be admitted that to bestow intellectual culture upon the pupils,
without giving them religious instruction, is to draw forth and add to the
powers of the mind, without giving it any helm to guide it; in other
words, it is to increase the capacity, without diminishing the propensity,
to do evil.
Apart from this important consideration, the educational system pursued in
the States is worthy of the highest praise, and of an enlightened people
in the nineteenth century. The education is conducted at the public
expense, and the pupils consequently pay no fees. Parents feel that a free
education is as much a part of the birthright of their children as the
protection which the law affords to their life and property.
The schools called common schools are supported by an education rate, and
in each State are under the administration of a general board of
education, with local boards, elected by all who pay the rate. In the
State of Massachusetts alone the sum of 921,532 dollars was raised within
the year, being at the rate of very nearly a dollar for every inhabitant.
Under the supervision of the General Board of Education in the State,
schools are erected in districts according to the educational necessities
of the population, which are periodically ascertained by a census.
To give some idea of the system adopted, I will just give a sketch of the
condition of education in the State of New York, as being the most
populous and important.
There is a "state tax," or "appropriation," of 800,000 dollars, and this
is supplemented by a rate levied on real and personal property. Taking as
an authority the return made to the Legislature for the year ending in
1854, the total sum expended for school purposes within the State amounted
to 2,469,248 dollars. The total number of children in the organised
districts of the State was 1,150,532, of whom 862,935 were registered as
being under instruction. The general management of education within the
State is vested in a central board, with local boards in each of the
organised districts, to which the immediate government and official
supervision of the schools are intrusted.
The system comprises the common schools, with their primary and upper
departments, a normal school for the preparation of teachers, and a free
academy. In the city of New York there are 224 schools in the receipt of
public money, of which 25 are for coloured children, and the number of
pupils registered is given at 133,813. These common or ward schools are
extremely handsome, and are fitted up at great expense, with every modern
improvement in heating and ventilation. Children of every class, residing
within the limits of the city, are admissible without payment, as the
parents of all are supposed to be rated in proportion to their means.
There is a principal to each school, assisted by a numerous and efficient
staff of teachers, who in their turn are expected to go through a course
of studies at the Normal School. The number of teachers required for these
schools is very great, as the daily attendance in two of them exceeds
2000. The education given is so very superior, and habits of order and
propriety are so admirably inculcated, that it is not uncommon to see the
children of wealthy storekeepers side by side with those of working
mechanics. In each school there is one large assembly-room, capable of
accommodating from 500 to 1000 children, and ten or twelve capacious
class-rooms. Order is one important rule, and, that it may be acted upon,
there is no overcrowding--the pupils being seated at substantial mahogany
desks only holding two.
The instruction given comprises all the branches of a liberal education,
with the exception of languages. There is no municipal community out of
America in which the boon of a first-rate education is so freely offered
to all as in the city of New York. There is no child of want who may not
freely receive an education which will fit him for any office in his
country. The common school is one of the glories of America, and every
citizen may be justly proud of it. It brings together while in a pliant
condition the children of people of different origins; and besides
diffusing knowledge among them, it softens the prejudices of race and
party, and carries on a continual process of assimilation.
The Board of Education of New York has lately thrown open several of these
schools in the evening, and with very beneficial results. The number of
pupils registered last year was 9313. Of these, 3400 were above the age of
16 and under 21, and 1100 were above the age of 21. These evening-schools
entailed an additional expense of 17,563 dollars; the whole expenditure
for school purposes in the city being 430,982 dollars. In the ward and
evening schools of New York, 133,000 individuals received instruction.
Each ward, or educational district, elects 2 commissioners, 2 inspectors,
and 8 trustees. The duties of the inspectors are very arduous, as the
examinations are frequent and severe.
The crowning educational advantage offered by this admirable system is the
Free Academy. This academy receives its pupils solely from the common
schools. Every person presenting himself as a candidate must be more than
13 years of age, and, having attended a common school for 12 months, he
must produce a certificate from the principal that he has passed a good
examination in spelling, reading, writing, English grammar, arithmetic,
geography, elementary book-keeping, history of the United States, and
algebra. This institution extends to the pupils in the common schools the
advantage of a free education in those higher departments of learning
which cannot be acquired without considerable expense in any other
college. The yearly examination of candidates for admission takes place
immediately after the common school examinations in July. There are at
present nearly 600 students under the tuition of 14 professors, and as
many tutors as may be required. The course of study extends over a period
of 5 years, and is very complete and severe. Owing to the principle
adopted in their selection, the pupils, representing every social and
pecuniary grade in society, present a very high degree of scholarship and
ability. In this academy the vestiges of antagonism between the higher and
lower classes are swept away. Indeed, the poor man will feel that he has a
greater interest in sustaining this educational system than the rich,
because he can only obtain through it those advantages for his children
which the money of the wealthy can procure from other sources. He will be
content with his daily toil, happy in the thought that, by the wise
provision of his government, the avenues to fame, preferment, and wealth,
are opened as freely to his children as to those of the richest citizen in
the land.
In order to secure a supply of properly qualified teachers, the Board of
Education has established a normal school, which numbers about 400 pupils.
Most of these are assistant-teachers in the common schools, and attend the
normal school on Saturdays, to enable themselves to obtain further
attainments, and higher qualifications for their profession.
Under this system of popular education, the average cost per scholar for 5
years, including books, stationery, fuel, and all other expenses, is 7
dollars 2 cents per annum. This system of education is followed in nearly
all the States; and while it reflects the highest credit on America, it
contrasts strangely with the niggard plan pursued in England, where so
important a thing as the education of the people depends almost entirely
on precarious subscriptions and private benevolence.
With a gratuitous and comprehensive educational system, it may excite some
surprise that the citizens of New York and other of the populous cities
are compelled to supplement the common schools with those for the
shoeless, the ragged, and the vicious, very much on the plan of our Scotch
and English ragged-schools. Already the large cities of the New World are
approximating to the condition of those in the Old, in producing a
subsidence or deposit of the drunken, the dissolute, the vicious, and the
wretched. With parents of this class, education for their offspring is
considered of no importance, and the benevolent founders of these schools
are compelled to offer material inducements to the children to attend, in
the shape of food and clothing. At these schools, in place of the cleanly,
neat, and superior appearance of the children in the common schools, dirt,
rags, shoeless feet, and pallid, vicious, precocious countenances are to
be seen. Nothing destroys so effectually the external distinguishing
peculiarities of race as the habit of evil. There is a uniformity of
expression invariably produced, which is most painful. These children are
early taught to look upon virtue only as a cloak to be worn by the rich.
This dangerous and increasing class in New York is composed almost
entirely of foreign immigrants. The instruction in these schools is given
principally by ladies of high station and education. It is a noble feature
in New York "high life," and in process of time may diminish the gulf
which is widening between the different classes, and may lessen the
hideous contrasts which are presented between princely fortunes on the one
hand, and vicious poverty on the other.
Taking the various schools throughout the Union, it is estimated that
between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 individuals are at this time receiving
education.
To turn from the social to the material features of the United States:
their system of internal communication deserves a brief notice, for by it
their resources have been developed to a prodigious extent. The system of
railways, telegraphs, and canal and river navigation presents an
indication of the wealth and advancement of the United States, as
wonderful as any other feature of her progress. She contains more miles of
railway than all the rest of the world put together.
In a comparatively new country like America many of the items of expense
which attend the construction of railways in England are avoided; the
initiatory expenses are very small. In most of the States, all that is
necessary is, for the company to prove that it is provided with means to
carry out its scheme, when it obtains a charter from the Legislature at a
very small cost. In several States, including the populous ones of New
York and Ohio, no special charter is required, as a general railway law
prescribes the rules to be observed by joint-stock companies. Materials,
iron alone excepted, are cheap, and the right of way is usually freely
granted. In the older States land would not cost more than 20_l._ an acre.
Wood frequently costs nothing more than the labour of cutting it, and the
very level surface of the country renders tunnels, cuttings, and
embankments generally unnecessary. The average cost per mile is about
38,000 dollars, or 7600_l._
In States where land has become exceedingly valuable, land damages form a
heavy item in the construction of new lines, but in the South and West the
case is reversed, and the proprietors are willing to give as much land as
may be required, in return for having the resources of their localities
opened up by railway communication. It is estimated that the cost of
railways in the new States will not exceed 4000_l._ per mile. The termini
are plain, and have been erected at a very small expense, and many of the
wayside stations are only wooden sheds. Few of the lines have a double
line of rails, and the bridges or viaducts are composed of logs of wood,
with little ironwork and less paint, except in a few instances. Except
where the lines intersect cultivated districts, fences are seldom seen,
and the paucity of porters and other officials materially reduces the
working expenses. The common rate of speed is from 22 to 30 miles an hour,
but there are express trains which are warranted to perform 60 in a like
period. The fuel is very cheap, being billets of wood. The passenger and
goods traffic on nearly all the lines is enormous, and it is stated that
most of them pay a dividend of from 8 to 15 per cent.
The primary design has been to connect the sea-coast with all parts of the
interior, the ulterior is to unite the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. At the
present time there are about 25,000 miles of railway in operation and
course of construction, and the average rate of fare is seldom more than
1_d._ per mile. Already the chief cities of the Atlantic have been
connected with the vast valley of the Mississippi, and before long the
regions bordering on Lake Huron and Lake Superior will be united with
Mobile and New Orleans. In addition to this enormous system of railway
communication, the canal and river navigation extends over 10,000 miles,
and rather more than 3000 steamboats float on American waters alone.
The facilities for telegraphic communication in the States are a further
evidence of the enterprise of this remarkable people. They have now 22,000
miles of telegraph in operation, and the cost of transmitting messages is
less than a halfpenny a word for any distance under 200 miles. The cost of
construction, including every outlay, is about 30_l._ per mile. The wires
are carried along the rail ways, through forests, and across cities,
rivers, and prairies. Messages passing from one very distant point to
another have usually to be re-written at an intermediate station; though
by an improved plan they have been transmitted direct from New York to
Mobile, a distance of 1800 miles. By the Cincinnati telegraphic route to
New Orleans, a distance from New York of 2000 miles, the news brought by
the British steamer to Sandy Hook at 8 in the morning has been telegraphed
to New Orleans, and before 11 o'clock the effects produced by it upon
speculations there have been returned to New York--the message
accomplishing a distance of 4000 miles in three hours. The receipts are
enormous, for, in consequence of the very small sum charged for
transmitting messages, as many as 600 are occasionally sent along the
principal lines in one day. The seven principal morning papers in New York
paid in one year 50,000 dollars for despatches, and 14,000 for special
messages. Messages connected with markets, public news, the weather, and
the rise and fall of stocks, are incessantly passing between the great
cities. Any change in the weather likely to affect the cotton-crop is
known immediately in the northern cities. While in the Exchange at Boston,
I witnessed the receipt of a telegraphic despatch announcing that a heavy
shower was falling at New Orleans!
It must not be supposed that there is no poverty in the New World. During
one year 134,972 paupers were in the receipt of relief, of whom 59,000
were in the State of New York; but to show the evil influence of the
foreign, more especially the Irish, element in America, it is stated that
75 per cent. of the criminals and paupers are foreigners.
The larger portion of the crime committed is done under the influence of
spirits; and to impose a check upon their sale, that celebrated enactment,
known under the name of the "_Maine Law_" has been placed upon the
statute-books of several of the States, including the important ones of
New York, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Nebraska. This law
prohibits, under heavy penalties, the manufacture or sale of alcoholic
liquors. It has been passed in obedience to the will of the people, as
declared at the elections; and though to us its provisions seem somewhat
arbitrary, its working has produced very salutary effects.
When so much importance is attached to education, and such a liberal
provision is made for it, it is to be expected that a taste for reading
would be universally diffused. And such is the case: America teems with
books. Every English work worth reading is reprinted in a cheap form in
the States as soon as the first copy crosses the Atlantic. Our reviews and
magazines appear regularly at half price, and Dickens' 'Household Words'
and 'Chambers' Journal' enjoy an enormous circulation without any
pecuniary benefit being obtained by the authors. Every one reads the
newspapers and 'Harper's Magazine,' and every one buys bad novels, on
worse paper, in the cars and steamboats. The States, although amply
supplied with English literature, have many popular authors of their own,
among whom may be named Prescott, Bancroft, Washington Irving, Stowe,
Stephens, Wetherall, Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, and Bryant. Books are
very cheap wherever the editions of English works are concerned, and a
library is considered an essential part of the fitting up of a house. In
many of the States there are public libraries supported by a rate. In the
State of New York, in the year ending 1854, the Commissioners of Education
received 90,579 dollars for libraries.
Perhaps the greatest advantage offered to emigrants is the opportunity
everywhere afforded of investing small sums of money advantageously. In
England, in most branches of trade, the low rate of wages renders it
impossible for the operative to save any portion of his earnings; and even
when he is able to do so, he can rarely obtain a higher rate of interest
for his money than that which the savings-banks offer. Economise as he
may, his hard-won savings seldom are sufficient to afford him a provision
in old age. In America, on the contrary, the man who possesses 5_l._ or
10_l._ has every hope of securing a competence. He may buy land in newly-
settled districts, which sometimes can be obtained at 7_s._ an acre, and
hold it till it becomes valuable, or he may obtain a few shares in any
thriving corporate concern. A hundred ways present themselves to the man
of intelligence and industry by which he may improve and increase his
little fortune. The necessaries of life are abundant and cheap, and, aided
by a free education, he has the satisfaction of a well-grounded hope that
his children will rise to positions of respectability and affluence, while
his old age will be far removed from the pressure of want. The knowledge
that each shilling saved may produce ten or twenty by judicious investment
is a constant stimulus to his industry.
Yet, from all that I have seen and heard, I should think that Canada West
offers a more advantageous field for emigrants. Equally free and
unburdened by taxation, with the same social and educational advantages,
with an increasing demand for labour of every kind, with a rich soil,
extraordinary facilities of communication, and a healthy climate,
pauperism is unknown; fluctuations in commercial affairs are comparatively
small, and, above all, the emigrant is not exposed to the loss of
everything which he possesses as soon as he lands.
An infamous class of swindlers, called "emigrant-runners," meet the poor
adventurer on his arrival at New York. They sell him second-class tickets
at the price of first-class, forged passes, and tickets to take him 1000
miles, which are only available at the outside for 200 or 300. If he holds
out against their extortions, he is beaten, abused, loses his luggage for
a time, or is transferred to the tender mercies of the boarding-house
keeper, who speedily deprives him of his hard-earned savings. These
runners retard the westward progress of the emigrant in every way; they
charge enormous rates for the removal of his luggage from the wharf; they
plunder him in railway-cars, in steamboats, in lodging-houses; and if
Providence saves him from sinking into drunkenness and despair, and he can
be no longer detained, they sell him a lot in some non-existent locality,
or send him off to the west in search of some pretended employment. Too
frequently, after the emigrant has lost his money and property, sickened
by disappointment and deserted by hope, he is content to remain at New
York, where he contributes to increase that "dangerous class" already so
much feared in the Empire City.
One point remains to be noticed, and that is, the feeling which exists in
America towards England. Much has been done to inflame animosity on each
side; national rivalries have been encouraged, and national jealousies
fomented. In travelling through the United States I expected to find a
very strong anti-English feeling. In this I was disappointed. It is true
that I scarcely ever entered a car, steamboat, or hotel, without hearing
England made a topic of discussion in connexion with the war; but, except
on a few occasions in the West, I never heard any other than kindly
feelings expressed towards our country. A few individuals would
prognosticate failure and disaster, and glory in the anticipation of a
"busting-up;" but these were generally "Kurnels" of militia, or newly-
arrived Irish emigrants. These last certainly are very noisy enemies, and
are quite ready to subscribe to the maxim, "That wherever England
possesses an interest, there an American wrong exists." Some of the papers
likewise write against England in no very measured terms; but it must be
borne in mind that declamatory speaking and writing are the safety-valves
of a free community, and the papers from which our opinion of American
feeling is generally taken do not represent even a respectable minority in
the nation. American commercial interests are closely interwoven with-
ours, and "Brother Jonathan" would not lightly go against his own
interests by rushing into war on slight pretences.
While I was dining at an hotel in one of the great American cities a
gentleman proposed to an English friend of his to drink "Success to Old
England." Nearly two hundred students of a well-known college were
present, and one of them begged to join in drinking the toast on behalf of
his fellow-students. "For," he added, "we, in common with the educated
youth of America, look upon England as upon a venerated mother." I have
frequently heard this sentiment expressed in public places, and have often
heard it remarked that kindly feeling towards England is on the increase
in society.
The news of the victory of the Alma was received with rejoicing; the
heroic self-sacrifice of the cavalry at Balaklava excited enthusiastic
admiration; and the glorious stand at Inkermann taught the Americans that
their aged parent could still defend the cause of freedom with the vigour
of youth. The disasters of the winter, and the gloomy months of inaction
which succeeded it, had the effect of damping their sympathies; the
prophets of defeat were for a time triumphant, and our fading prestige,
and reputed incapacity, were made the subjects of ill-natured discussion
by the press. But when the news of the fall of Sebastopol arrived, the
tone of the papers changed, and, relying on the oblivious memories of
their readers, they declared that they had always prophesied the
demolition of Russia. The telegraphic report of the victory was received
with rejoicing, and the ship which conveyed it to Boston was saluted with
thirty-one guns by the States artillery.
The glory of the republic is based upon its advanced social principles and
its successful prosecution of the arts of peace. As the old military
despotisms cannot compete with it in wealth and enlightenment, so it
attempts no competition with them in standing armies and the arts of war.
National vanity is a failing of the Americans, and, if their military
prowess had never been proved before, they might seek to display it on
European soil; but their successful struggle with England in the War of
Independence renders any such display unnecessary. The institutions of the
States do not date from the military ages of the world, and the Federal
Constitution has made no provision for offensive war. The feeling of the
educated classes, and of an immense majority in the Free States, is
believed to be essentially English. Despotism and freedom can never unite;
and whatever may be the declamations of the democratic party, the opinion
of those who are acquainted with the state of popular feeling is that, if
the question were seriously mooted, a war with England or a Russian
alliance would secure to the promoters of either the indignation and
contempt which they would deserve. It is earnestly to be hoped, and I
trust that it may be believed, that none of us will live to see the day
when two nations, so closely allied by blood, religion, and the love of
freedom, shall engage in a horrible and fratricidal war.
Such of the foregoing remarks as apply to the results of the vitiation of
the pure form of republican government delivered to America by Washington,
I have hazarded with very great diffidence. In England we know very little
of the United States, and, however candid the intentions of a tourist may
be, it is difficult in a short residence in the country so completely to
throw off certain prejudices and misapprehensions as to proceed to the
delineation of its social characteristics with any degree of fairness and
accuracy. The similarity of language, and to a great extent of customs and
manners, renders one prone rather to enter into continual comparisons of
America with England than to look at her from the point from which she
really ought to be viewed--namely, _herself_. There are, however, certain
salient points which present themselves to the interested observer, and I
have endeavoured to approach these in as candid a spirit as possible, not
exaggerating obvious faults, where there is so much to commend and admire.
The following remarks were lately made to me by a liberal and enlightened
American on the misapprehensions of British observers:--"The great fault
of English travellers in this land very often is that they see all things
through spectacles which have been graduated to the age and narrow local
dimensions of things in England; and because things here are new, and all
that is good, instead of being concentrated into a narrow space so as to
be seen at one glance, is widely diffused so as not to be easily gauged--
because, in other words, it is the spring here and not the autumn, and our
advance has the step of youth instead of the measured walk of age; and
because our refinements have not the precise customs to which they have
been accustomed at home, they turn away in mighty dissatisfaction. There
are excellences in varieties, and things which differ may both be good."