arose for confiscation of Southern lands, for the purpose of creating funds wherewith to found and endow schools. Of so much consequence is it held to be that all persons shall possess facilities for forming independent opinions upon the course of public affairs, that in Massachusetts every man must be able to read and write before he is allowed to cast his ballot. Supposing that Massachusetts citizens held that it was equally necessary in the South to adopt this safeguard and protection, it would follow that the negro could not vote. But other considerations determined the question, and the instant admission to political privileges of four millions of scarcely civilized voters, was thought to be the least of the two evils between which the nation saw itself compelled to choose.

The voluntary principle in religion has also had its influence in encouraging free education. Each sect was not only obliged to build its own churches and support its own priests or clergy, but also to take proper measures for the education of the young. These denominational institutions now exist all over the country, and greatly limit the scope of the purely secular schools. An inspector of the public schools once complained to me, "every denomination thinks it must have its own school, and hence our field is sadly reduced." The eighth census shows us that nearly five millions of persons received instruction in the various States in the year 1860; but this return included schools of all descriptions. The schoolhouse always springs up, as if in a night, by the side

CHAP. X.

DENOMINATIONAL SCHOOLS.

227

of a church. In a new settlement the one is never considered complete without the other. They are nourished with an equal hand, and thrive commensurately with the growth of the community. The poorest cheerfully give of their slender substance to protect the welfare of their sect, which to their minds is advancing the great cause of religion, and to provide means for the instruction of the young. The secular principle in education is indispensable, where the chief object aimed at is to entice parents of all shades of religious opinions to send their children to school. It is, therefore, an essential and not an optional part of the educational system in America. Indeed, the managers of these institutions sometimes strive too hard, and sacrifice too much, to make their establishments popular with all. They offend many by their over anxiety to keep religion outside in the street, and to "conciliate" certain sects. When one of the schools in Boston was opened, the usual devotional exercises were abridged, and the reading of the Bible altogether omitted, because the building was in the midst of a Roman Catholic population, and several priests had been invited to attend. This pleased the Catholics very much, it was said, and probably with truth; but Massachusetts has always been a Protestant community, and it is possible to avoid giving offence to Roman Catholics without tricking out the schools in false colours and disguises to accommodate them to their dogmas.

If all the appliances for education in America were excellent of their kind, the children of Americans ought to be the best educated in the world; but will any one except a very prejudiced and uninformed observer assert that they are so? The effects of a superficial and desultory training are palpable to every one who lives in the country, and who watches life and manners with impartial eyes, and who has listened to the frequent complaints of parents that their sons know nothing thoroughly. "They skim over the surface of things," it will often be said, "and will not work, as one reads and hears of English boys doing." There is no people in the world who read so much and know so little as the Americans. It will be understood that this remark applies simply to the masses, who live upon a mental diet furnished by newspapers, and cheap magazines, and tawdry novels. The learned class are by no means few in number, and it is yearly strengthened by the sound and efficient work done in the excellent Universities of Yale and Harvard. There, some of the finest intellects in the country have been cultivated, and men of distinguished abilities daily conduct the studies of the graduates. It is not the fault of any of the States within the Union if their inhabitants are not possessed of a common and serviceable education. They appreciate the truth of the words pronounced by Mr. Robert Lowe, in the House of Commons, "that it is absolutely necessary that their masters should be taught their letters." While England is intent upon

CHAP. X.

ENGLAND'S DUTY.

229

imitating the elective franchise of the United States, she must also borrow from the Americans their ideas upon education, and make schools at least as numerous as polling-booths, or she may find that she has imported from another nation a recognised element of disturbance, without also providing herself with the only security which it was within her power to obtain.

CHAPTER XI.

CAPITAL AND LABOUR.-RELATIONS BETWEEN
EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYED.

It is sometimes asserted by speakers and writers whose claims to authority justify us in expecting an average degree of accuracy in their statements, that there is no dissatisfaction among the working classes of America, that every man is sure of being properly paid for his labour, that class distinctions do not exist, and that combinations of labour against capital, or of capital against labour, are impossible. Trades' Unions, we are told, are unknown, and "such a combination of class against class as that with which we are afflicted [in England] would be an absurdity, when all alike are in possession of political power, and at liberty to promote and defend their own interests by constitutional means."1

These representations are probably not intended to convey the truth about America, so much as to serve

·

1 See an essay by Mr. Goldwin Smith, in Essays on Reform (Lond. 1867). Compare his confident statements with the following from a high American and Radical authority, the North American Review,' for July, 1867 (p. 178):-"Trades' Unions have, in many of the great branches of industry here, been brought to as high a degree of efficiency as in Europe."