Glass i i \6S Book_, ' vJ ■' G F / A VISIT jfffZ TO THE UNITED STATES £ WHITE AND BLACK THE OUTCOME OF A VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES BY SIR GEORGE CAMPBELL, M.P. NEW YORK R. WORTHINGTON, 750 Broadway 1879 £1/68 NEW YORK : PRINTED BY TROW's PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 205-213 EAST I2TH STREET By transfer itC 30 1915 PREFACE. I have long thought that a man has not seen the world till, besides following the beaten tracks in the countries of Europe and Western Asia, which have all drawn from the same sources, he has seen and realised both the great civilisation of the Old World which exists in China, owing nothing to our sources, and the new departure in Western civilisation which has taken place in a New World, in America. While I was in India I was able to make a short run round to China. The circumstances of a hard-working life have not permitted me to fulfil my desire to visit America till I accomplished it this last autumn. Besides the wish to see America as others have seen it, I had also a special desire, for reasons which I explain, to learn something of the present position of 'the nigger question' — a subject on which very- little has been written in this country, and in regard to which I had failed to get much clear information of a recent date. For that reason I gave special at- tention to some of the Southern States, viz., Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. During my tour I kept rough notes, but only as VI PREFACE. an aide-memoire to myself, and not in a state intended for publication. After my return I had occasion to visit my constituents in the Kirkcaldy Burghs, and I varied the monotony of our ordinary political subjects by telling them something of what I had seen in America. To go through a group of Scotch burghs one has to make a good many speeches; and so it happened that on several occasions I went over ground connected with or suggested by my American expe- riences. I also wrote an article on * Black and White in the Southern States,' which the Editor of the ' Fortnightly Review' was kind enough to publish. Several of my friends have been so good as to say that they have been interested by it, and some of them have added, l It is only a pity that you did not carry the subject a little farther.' Thus encouraged, I have thought that some might be glad to see the evidence on which my conclusions were founded, as contained in my notes. The fact is, too, that though we have plenty of books about the Far West and life in the Rocky Mountains, and so on, there seem to be very few regarding the more accessible parts of the United States. I certainly had great difficulty in finding such books to guide me in my travels, and was obliged to take my information in a great degree from that of Mr. Anthony Trollope, written almost a quarter of a century back. A Member of Parliament, Mr. Hussey Vivian, who recently visited America, and who is a very competent observer, has published a book of a very interesting character ; but it so happens that his specialties are different from mine. PREFACE. Vll He tells much about mines and metals, and other things, of which I have no knowledge. It has occurred to me, then, that there might be room for such a book as I now offer, containing much of what I have picked up during my tour in the United States. I fancy that my notes may perhaps be useful, if only as a sort of guide and handbook to others contemplating a similar tour ; and that those interested in the position of the coloured population, and the political and industrial questions arising out of it, may find a good deal which has not yet been given to the public. It will be seen that I made a very rapid run through the Northern and some of the Western States, and saw something of the interior of Illinois and the farmers of that country ; and then, after visiting Penn- sylvania, Baltimore, and Washington, made a more careful study of the condition of things in the four Southern States which I have already mentioned. In addition to the Black question I have been much interested in the cultivation and handling of cotton, which I had also seen in India and Egypt ; and in the Southern cotton mills, which now rival the North in the production of the coarser goods, just as the mills in our cotton-producing possessions rival those of Lancashire. There seems to be no doubt that both in America and Egypt the yield of cotton to the acre is much larger than in India. The bale of which I speak is about 450 lbs. My tour was so far cut short that I was not able to make a little stay in New York and Philadelphia VI 11 PKEFACE. in the winter season, as I had hoped ; and I have not had an opportunity of going into the social and polit- ical affairs of New England, which I should have much liked. That and a great deal more remains for another tour, if I should ever be able to accomplish it. I have worked up and supplemented the general views which I presented in the Kirkcaldy Burghs, and submit the whole as 'A Bird's-eye View of the United States.' Then I have been permitted to re- publish my article on ' Black and White,' and have prefaced it with some remarks on our own manage- ment of coloured races in our American and African colonies. I have put into some shape those parts of my Journal which I thought might bear publica- tion. During the return voyage I had made notes of the Constitutions of some of the States; and, as a specimen of the most improved and modern State Constitutions, I have appended the principal parts of the Constitutions of some States, especially Illinois. I left a blank side in my Journal, on which I have sometimes subsequently noted up later experiences and corrections, and I have thought it better to amalgamate these with the rest, rather than to put them separately as notes ; but the effect is to create some anachronisms, as it were; so I have not entered the precise dates, but have followed generally the order of time, place, and subjects. At the same tinie a journal must necessarily contain something of an olla podrida of various and sometimes incongruous subjects a good deal mixed together. If it be re- marked that on some subjects several repetitions are PREFACE. IX to be found, I reply that this is the evidence on which my conclusions are founded, and that proof of this kind necessarily depends on the cumulative testimony of various witnesses. Things march rapidly, and while I write the Black question seems to have assumed a new phase, creat- ing great interest in it, owing to the movement of large numbers of that race from Mississippi and Lou- isiana, seeking to escape from tyranny and ill-usage, and to find new homes in Kansas — a State where I have mentioned that the negroes seem to be well treated, and in the back parts of which a good many of them are, I have heard, successfully established as independent small farmers. There was an outbreak of yellow fever, and I did not visit Mississippi and Louisiana; but I have several times mentioned the former State, as that in which the practice of ' bull- dozing,' or bullying the negroes, has most prevailed. There were also severe election contests in parts of Louisiana, accompanied by much violence ; and some cases of very unjustifiable lynchings of Negroes were reported during my visit. To these things, no doubt, the movement is due. I have also mentioned the case of a county in Georgia, in which the negroes, being dissatisfied with their treatment, formed a league among themselves to abandon that county and leave their persecutors without labour. That, I take it, is exactly what has been done on a larger scale in the States of the Lower Mississippi. It is a form of strike as a counter-move against ill-treatment; and under the circumstances the move may be a bold PEEFACE. and effective measure. There is nothing so likely to bring the landowners to a sense of what they owe the negro population as to make them feel the want of it. The only fear is, that these poor people are rushing into an independence for which they have not the means ; but I gather from the latest accounts that the movement is rather striking in its sudden and concentrated form, than one which involves a very great population. The numbers are said to have been somewhat exaggerated. I think it will probably be found that it is only the population of particular counties or districts, where there has been special ill-usage, who have emigrated in mass. If the efforts now being made to obtain assistance for them in the North should be successful, and they should be enabled to locate themselves in a temperate region in Southern Kansas, the effect may be bene- ficial on the whole. At the same time I have expressed a strong belief that, in the Southern States, whites and blacks are interdependent — neither can do with- out the other. I think they themselves have found this to be so ; and generally speaking industrial ques- tions are not the cause of serious dissension. It is the struggle for political power, and the question whether the coloured people are to be al- lowed to vote freely, which has caused all the trouble. The greater the trouble the more necessity for settling the question whether real effect is to be given to the 15th Article of Amendment to the United States Con- stitution, providing that the right to vote shall not be denied or abridged on account or race or colour. It PEEFACE. XI is notorious that in the late elections the free exercise of that vote has been abridged and destroyed by violence and fraud in several Congressional districts. These disputed elections must be decided by the present Congress. I cannot but think that it would be good policy on the part of Northern Democrats honestly to give up the few seats which have been won by the South by means which cannot possibly be defended ; and that it is nothing but the most evident prudence on the part of Southern Democrats to accept that solution and be content with the great majority and complete control of their States, which they have attained, without insisting on an absolutely solid South, to which they have no just right, if election be free. A solution of this kind would involve an even balancing of parties, which would plainly point to compromise; and if there is to be compromise surely the best plan would be to let the President of com- promise, Mr. Hayes, sit quietly for another term. Mr. Hayes pleases neither party, and it is the fashion to run him down and call him weak. Yet he is the only man who has shown some independent will to act for the benefit of his country outside the tram- mels of party. I cannot but think that the Civil Service and other reforms that he has attempted to initiate are well worthy of a trial. No doubt if the 1 man on horseback ' must come back — if the South must be kept down by a firm hand, Grant is the man to do it. Whatever his other qualities, he knows the policy he is to carry out, and can be depended on to Xll PEEFACE. j do it firmly without flinching. But if things, are to be settled by conciliation, and North and South are to come together on friendly terms for a new depar- ture, then I venture to think that Mr. Hayes is an able and good man, whose personal character, manner, and surroundings well fit him to carry out such a policy. But to make such a policy possible it is ab- solutely necessary that the South should honestly accept the 15th Amendment. George Campbell. May 10, 1879. *2£s± CONTENTS. A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE UNITED STATES. Inducements to Visit America . General Features of the Country . The Climate The Races Composing the Population The Principal Products of the Soil Characteristics of the American People Language ..... Hotels and Food Railway Travelling Social Arrangements Manners .... The Cities The Country Districts The Free School System Commercial Morality . Protection and Reciprocity . The Drink Question . Religion .... The Political System Home Rule in the States The Position of Canada Taxation in the States . The Land System The Currency Question Opportunities for Emigration and Investment Feeling towards England .... 3 5 10 12 18 21 22 23 26 27 29 32 34 35 37 38 45 51 57 71 77 79 84 89 97 109. XIV CONTENTS. THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. The System prevailing in our Colonies Treatment of Natives in Africa 120 BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. Objects of my Inquiry 126 The Character and Capacity of the Negro . . . 128 The Negroes as a Labouring Population .... 140 The Political Situation in the South . . . . 162 The Caste Question *........ 194 SOME OF THE CONTENTS OF MY JOURNAL. The Voyage and First Impressions .... New York The Elevated Railway The New York Country A Scamper North and West Boston . . . The Massachusetts Country The Mohawk Valley Niagara .... Canada .... Chicago . . . Chicago to St. Louis St. Louis .... Kansas .... The Blacks in the West The Missouri and Mississippi The Interior of Illinois The Western Farmers Indiana and Ohio Pennsylvania Pittsburgh . Interior of Pennsylvania 203 204 207 209 211 212 213 213 215 215 219 221 222 223 225 228 230 232 235 236 237 239 CONTENTS A Democratic Meeting Pennsylvania!! Farming . Philadelphia A Republican Meeting . Pennsylvanian Industries . Philadelphian Society The Courts and the Judges Some Pennsylvanian Ideas Baltimore The Blacks in Maryland, &c. . The Hopkins University The Baltimore People A Democratic view of Politics XV Washington Conversation with the President Appearance of the City . Some Opinions on several Subjects Some of the Public Offices The Revenue System . The Weather Department General Sherman Law and Lawyers . Virginia .... The Blacks at Hampton . Norfolk . . . Petersburg Free Trade Views Richmond Education . The Tobacco Manufacture A Visit to the Country The Governor of Virginia Virginian Views of Things XVI CONTENTS. North Carolina . . . • Raleigh, Capital of the State Gaelic-speaking Americans The Cotton Culture . Condition of the Negroes Political Parties . Agricultural Geography . Education . . . . The Farmers .... Some Carolinian Acquaintances The Constitution and Legislation Durhams and Tobacco Manufacture A Southern Cotton Mill . Salisbury and the People there South Carolina To Columbia, the Capital . Wade Hampton, the Governor The Election Education Position of the Negroes The Tenure of Land Charleston .... The Low-country Negroes The Rice Country The Sea Islands Some Representative Men . Visits to the Country How the Election was Won The Exodus to Liberia . South Carolina Legislation A Visit to the Rice Districts The Phosphate Works The County of Beaufort . The Effect of Black Rule . An American ' Ryotwar ' Settlement CONTENTS. Georgia ...... Augusta and the Cotton Mills Journey to Atlanta A Southern View of Things . Atlanta, the Capital . The Georgian Legislature Some Georgian Acquaintances . The Liquor Traffic . Views about the Nigger Some Statistics More Talk with Georgians . A Democratic Orator The Election of Judges Manufactures and Trade The Georgian Farmers The Independents . To Calhoun — a Farm in the Country The White Farmers Dalton — more White Farmers and Black The Return Journey A Cattle Country Washington again . To New York .... Railway Affairs Some Views of North and South A New York Market New York Politics and Taxation The Voyage Home . XVll PAGE 346 347 348 350 352 352 354 358 358 361 364 367 368 369 370 370 371 372 374^ 377 378 #79 380 380 381 382 383 385 x ^ STATE CONSTITUTIONS. The Constitution of Massachusetts The Constitution of Virginia . The Constitution of Illinois 386 387 3'92 A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF THE UNITED STATES BEING- THE SUBSTANCE OP A SERIES OF ADDRESSES DELIVERED IN SCOTLAND IN THE BEGINNING OF FEBRUARY 1879 A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OP THE UNITED STATES: THE SUBSTANCE OF A SERIES OF ADDRESSES. 1 have a strong belief that all of us ought to know the Americans better than we do. They are really and truly our kin. This is not a mere phrase. When one goes among them one finds that they are very little removed from us after all, and the community of language makes intimacy very easy. An inti- mate acquaintance and friendship with them must be most beneficial to both parties, in order to cultivate the arts of peace and material progress, and to avert the possibility of misunderstandings which have led, and might even yet lead to war between two sister countries, than which, in these modern days of destruction, nothing can be more awful or more terrible ; but a risk to which we are always exposed as long as misunderstandings are possible. It seems to me very unfortunate that most of the popular English writers who have described the Americans have caricatured them : and that is so not only as regards the writers of the past who have suffered 4 EIPwD's-ETE view of the united states. from American finance or otherwise, but even the popular writer Anthony Trollope, who is still among us, and who some years ago gave us a description of the Americans in his very vivid and popular manner, seems to me to have done them the greatest injustice. He seems to make the worst of everything ; most of their ways and institutions he condemns to, I think, an unfair degree ; and you may imagine the spirit in which he wrote, when I mention that writing in the latter part of the great civil war he condemns, in language the most scathing, all who would do any- thing so mad and foolish as to emancipate the slaves. The only wonder to me is that after all that has passed the feeling of the Americans towards us is so good as it in fact is. They really have a very kindly feeling on their part ; and if there is misunderstanding I think it is more clue to ignorance and prejudice on the part of many people in England, though I hope not in Kirkcaldy, which has so much and so benefi- cial business with America. It is certainly the case that the Americans who come to Europe do not feel themselves at their ease in England, and consequently it happens — a very lamentable fact, I think— that, almost invariably, after spending a few days in the country and seeing Windsor, Stratford-on-Avon, and Abbotsforcl, they go abroad to the Continent of Europe and spend their time and money there. I think this should be cured. We should welcome them more than we do ; and I would very much urge on all of you who can make it out to go and, see for yourselves in America what kind of people they GEXEKAL FEATUEE3 OF THE COUXTEY. . 5 are. You would very soon find that you are not among foreigners there, but among a people with whom you could very readily make yourselves at home. The facilities for getting to America are now very great, and the expense not large. The Atlantic no doubt is not the calmest of seas, but stout-hearted people don't mind that. The voyage is now reduced to eight days, and the steamers are admirable and very numerous. For those who are prepared to travel in an independent way, without servants or special luxuries, the cost of travelling in America is not excessive, and the comforts are considerable. Whatever may be said of the hotels in other re- spects, they are very convenient for the passing trav- eller, and the kindness of American friends to whom one is introduced is unbounded. For people who require private rooms and ac- commodation for. servants, and who cannot rough it so far as to get about by the aid of tramways and public conveyances only, travelling in America is much more difficult and expensive, since the American establishments do not afford the same private accom- modation as English hotels, or if they do, charge for it excessively, and the hack carriages are enormously dear. This must be borne in mind if ladies are of the party. GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY. I will try to give you some little account of the country and the people ; and first as regards the 6 bird's-eye view of the united states. objects iixmiecliately apparent to the eye- — the com- mon botany and zoology of the country, I was sur- prised to find not nearly so strange as I expected. One has heard so much of the extremely new character of the trees and animals of Australasia, and other distant countries — of trees without leaves, and animals that walk chiefly by the aid of their tails — that I had expected in America also, so long an undiscovered continent, to find numerous strange appearances. It really is not so at all. The vegeta- tion is curiously like our own. Firs and oaks, and other trees, look very much like those in Europe, and the animals too are not violently unlike. There are partridges and birds like grouse, and American rabbits not so unlike ours, and other creatures very familiar to us. But there is this peculiarity, that, although almost all plants and animals are like those with us they are never identical. .They are always similar, but never the same species ; and perhaps it is due to the peculiarities of climate that European species seem never to have superseded those of America. For instance, while the European rabbit has overrun Australia and New Zealand, it is un- known in America, and the small American rabbit — something between the rabbit and the hare in its habits — still holds its place. I am told that in re- ality there is a greater difference between the natural productions of the country east and west of the Rocky Mountains than there is between Europe and the Eastern States. I did not myself go so far as the Rocky Mountains ; but till we reach the western GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COUNTRY. 7 part of the American continent, I may say of the States in general, that they are not so mountainous or so hilly as Great Britain. The most decided hills that one sees are close to the eastern ports, but beyond that there is scarcely anything that can be called a mountain. What is called a mountain in American language is sometimes a very little hill indeed. On the other hand, one is struck by the immense quantity of wood all over the country, not less in the Southern States than in the North. In fact, the Southern States are especially woody, and it is the quantity of wood that in all the old States makes the extension of cultivation somewhat slow and difficult. The prevailing tree in the south is a pine, which very much resembles our Scotch fir ; in the north, hardwood trees are more prevalent. In truth, not a tenth part of the older States is yet really cleared and cultivated. There is yet every- where room for immense development. The rainfall is generally most beneficently arranged, and the gen- eral character of the land is one of much fertility. In this respect, however, I do not think that it has upon the whole, or taken on an average, an advan- tage over England and the lowlands of Scotland. True, some western lands are of extraordinary fertility, but there is a great deal that is only moderately fertile, and that is the case in regard to most of the Eastern States. When we compare the country on the whole with England, I think it may be said that perhaps it is about on a par — the average of the soil is as good, perhaps a little better. 8 bird's-eye view of the united states. In some respects the climate is brighter, but the winters are certainly more severe, and the extremes of climate lead to an enormous growth of weeds, which makes agriculture in some respects more difficult than with us. True, in the west there are what are called prairie States, great parts of which are free from natural wood ; but it is an entire delusion to suppose that magnificent prairies with magnificent natural grass are easily available to the settler. I travelled considerably west of the Missouri in search of such a prairie, and never found one. The ground is all taken up and enclosed, and the natural prairie grass — never very good — fails as soon as cattle are turned upon it in large numbers. Hence in Illinois and such States the farmers are obliged to resort to artificial grass, just as we do in this part of Scotland. On the whole, then, taking the country mile for mile and acre for acre, I can say that it is about equal to but not superior to England ; but then there is this vast difference, that it is not one England, but forty Englands. Some people seem to have been offended by Mr. Gladstone's recent article, when he said that the United States, if they kept together, must certainly surpass us. It seems to me that Mr. Gladstone only spoke a truth which must be self- evident, without attributing to the American people any great superiority over ourselves, at all events over Scotchmen. We are a people a little over 30,000,000, who have no means of extension in our own country. We are, as it were, like a hive of bees GENERAL FEATURES OE THE COUNTRY. y which is constantly sending forth swarms to establish other hives elsewhere, bnt does not itself admit of extension; whereas the Americans are already up- wards of 40,000,000, perhaps nearly 45,000,000 of people who are continually extending themselves every day ; they have not one hive but forty hives, and these only very partially occupied ; and not only do they send their swarms into their own hives, but they are continually receiving new swarms from us and from others. It follows, as a matter of course, that under such circumstances the forty hives must surpass the one hive in population and production, if only they keep together. And we may be very comfort- able at home without grudging them their extension. In truth, what the Americans suffer from at present is too much land. They would have better settled what they have if they had less of it. At one time it was supposed that, soon after passing the Missouri they had reached the natural limit in that direction, and that the country was then bounded by a great rainless tract, marked in the map as the great American desert; but it has been discovered that this is quite a mistake, that the country called desert is not desert at all, but very capable of excellent cultivation, and especially good for raising wheat and cattle. The most rapidly developing States in the west are those situated in that tract marked as desert in the map. In fact, that is the great feature of recent American extension, and from these there comes a large portion of the wheat and the beef which to-day renders your food so much cheaper 10 bird's-eye view of the united states. than it has been. Wheat is a plant which thrives in a dry climate, and great tracts in the far west are now found to be suitable to it, while even where the land is too dry or steep for wheat, good grazing is still found on the slopes and in the valleys of the Rocky Mountains. TEE CLIMATE. The Americans are accustomed rather to boast of their climate, and to compare the brightness of their skies with our foggy atmosphere ; but on the other hand there is no doubt of this, that they suffer from extremes of heat and cold more than we do. The heat in summer is excessive in New York. For a few weeks in the height of summer I am told that it is not an uncommon thing for the thermometer to stand at 110°, and to be almost as high at night as in the daytime. And then the cold in winter is very severe, and though kept out of houses by stoves — not the most wholesome things in the world — much interferes with agricultural and other opera- tions. It is generally believed that the effect of this climate has been to make the American race perhaps keener and brighter, but not so healthy and rosy as our people are. The difference in the women espe- cially has long been noticed. Still I am bound to say I saw a great many men in America who looked very robust and well, and might have passed for Scotchmen; and that even some of the ladies are now becoming pretty beefy, as it has been irreverently THE CLIMATE. 11 expressed. I say this without detracting from the reputation for a somewhat delicate-looking beauty which is well deserved by so many of them. The great advantage for practical purposes of the American climate is the favourable distribution of the rainfall. The rain seems never to fail, and it generally comes just when it is most wanted. I believe it is almost entirely due to the fortunate distribution of the rainfall that the Southern States so completely beat countries where labour is infinitely cheaper in the production of cotton. The valley of the Mississippi has throughout a very full and good supply of rain at the right season, and throughout the Union there seems to be less trouble from bad weather at harvest time than with us. Many crops, maize especially, stand out for long till it is convenient to reap them. In California I believe the wheat is left standing for weeks without injury. I should tell you here that in what I say of America, I usually do not refer to the Californian countries beyond the mountains. I did not go there ; but I found that if I remarked anything that was wanting in America they always said, 'Ah, you would get that in California.' I have no doubt from what I learned that California really has a different climate — not so hot in summer, nor so cold in winter, but more like that of Southern Europe, as shown by its fruits and other productions. I think one of the most extraordinary things I know, as showing the difference between the energies of different races, is that the Spaniards were actually possessed of California for hundreds of years, and 12 bird's-eye view of the united states. never discovered tliat it was worth anything at all, whereas the Americans no sooner got it than they made it one of the finest countries in the world. At the same time I should say this by way of caution, that under the old Spanish grants of land all California has been monopolised, and it is not owned by settlers, as the other parts of the States. The man who goes there must expect to be a labourer rather than an owner of land. THE RAGES COMPOSING THE POPULATION. And now I will tell you something about the origin and breed, if I may use the expression, of the people of America. The foundation of the people — that upon which their language and manners are based — is almost entirely English, derived in fact from the southern counties of England, from which the early settlers came. Indeed, I am inclined to think that many of the peculiarities in language and other respects, which we now call American, are really old English, or rather old south of England pecu- liarities. We Scotch have not put a special Scotch impress on any part of the United States, as we have in Ireland and other parts of the world. In Canada only does one hear very largely the Scottish tongue and find especially Scottish settlements. But although none of the United States are specially Scotch there is a very large and very valuable infusion of Scotch blood throughout all of them. I found that an immense number of the best and most prominent men RACES COMPOSING THE POPULATION. 13 wherever I went claimed Scotch descent, or at least a share of Scottish blood. Then there is another allied breed which is very prominent in almost every part of the United States — one of the finest races of the world — of which we have reason to be proud and may well think second only to ourselves. I mean the Northern Irish, universally called in America Scotch-Irish, expressing by that term people of Scotch origin who had settled in Ireland. They have emigrated to America in large numbers, and are among the best farmers and the best men in every way. There is, as you know, a very large Southern- Irish element in the States, mostly comparatively recent emigrants, of the Catholic religion. A very great deal has been said against these Irish in the States. I confess I had rather been led to believe that they were a rowdy and not very prosperous set. I have been agreeably surprised by what I learned of them in America. It is true the} r have not very much risen to the higher places, in fact seem com- paratively seldom to rise as compared with Scotch or Scotch-Irish, except as politicians ; but they are admir- able labourers, and it is almost a proverb in the States to say that a good workman does as much as an Irishman. The railways and other great works of the States are almost dependent upon Irish labour. And in the cotton mills of the Northern States, which now so severely rival Lancashire, I am told that the Irish girls work better and are generally preferred to Americans and Canadians who work with them in the mills. Although the Irish have not shown that 14 bird's-eye view oe the united states. aptitude as pioneers in the settlement of land which we might have expected of men so accustomed to small farms in Ireland, and do not successfully push west as do Scotchmen or Germans, and although like other Americans they may not always be very saving, I understand that they are not altogether without these good qualities, and that a very large portion of the North-Eastern States, from which the pushing and ad- venturous Yankees have gone forth to occupy the West, have been filled up as they leave by Irishmen taking their places. It would be a very curious thing if Puritan New England became a Roman Catholic Irish colony, while New England goes West to better itself. Although the language and everything else in the States is English, there is, as you are probably aware, a very large proportion of European foreigners, who have become naturalised and are becoming Anglicised there. The old Dutch of New York are not very numerous. But one is apt to be misled regarding the Dutch, for it is the American habit to call all Germans Dutch, probably the German word deutsch having become naturalised. The Germans are a numerous and most valuable element in the United States. Perhaps, taking them all in all, they are as good colonists as any of the races which come from these islands. For if they are not so bright and so pushing they are more hard-working, and saving, and more economical; in fact, they are quite model colonists. They settle down on the land and work with a thriftiness and perseverance which no Scotch.- men could beat — the women working as well as the RACES COMPOSING THE POPULATION. 15 men; and whether in the east or in the west you always find Germans among the best and most numer- ous of the small farmers. That is their special voca- tion. They are also very numerous among small shopkeepers and traders. German Jews are now be- coming very prominent in the States. Of late years there has been a great emigration of people from the Scandinavian countries : Swedes and Norwegians, and people from Finland and some parts of Russia. They confine themselves to the extreme Northern States, pushing on to the far north-west; but they are admirable settlers, and a great source of increase and improvement to the States to which they go. In several parts of the United States there is a consider- able old French element which contributes in many respects to the brightness of the population and to certain branches of enterprise and industry. The native Indians have never come to any good ; I am afraid they have never been very well managed in the States, not so well as in Canada; at all events they are gradually pushed off the soil ; only a few still remain as pensioners, and they cannot be ac- counted as a considerable element in the population. On the other hand, the negro race, imported as slaves, is now very numerous and very prominent, forming about half the population of many of the Southern States. We have heard a great many prophecies of the terrible things which would happen when these poor helpless children were set free. Mr. Anthony Trollope, whom I have mentioned, is one of the most lugubrious of the prophets. They were to die out 16 bird's-eye view of the united states. or be sent back to Africa, or to be a perpetual incu- bus to the white people among whom they lived. I have been agreeably surprised to find how all this has been falsified. Far from dying out they are now prospering and increasing. They produce that im- mense crop of cotton, larger far than any produced in slave times, which supplies the mills of the whole world. They are capital workers at railways and other works in the southern climates not fitted for white men. They do almost as much work as Irish- men. I was told that many of them are becoming small independent farmers; and altogether instead of being a burden they are becoming an important class of American citizens. They are already zealous Christians. They have adopted the ways and habits of the white men. They have the rights of citizens, and are rapidly being educated. I have alluded to the New Englanders of the North-Eastern States, and said that very many of them have pushed further west. It is in consequence of this emigration that the great North- Western States are very distinctly marked by a New England or Yankee character. Undoubtedly the least fertile portion of the United States is New England. The only wonder is how the first settlers should ever have settled there ; but having taken root there they were rewarded for their industry by the acquisition of the great countries to the north-west. The State of New York is a great State ; but its agricultural citizens have abundant room within their own State ; and it is rather the City of New York than the State RACES COMPOSING THE POPULATION. - 17 i that is so prominent in American politics and com- merce. That city is, in fact, situated in a position •extraordinarily favourable to commerce, and has far outdone all rivals. It has a magnificent harbour, with a tide just enough to keep it clean and sweet, and not so much as to render necessary dry docks and other elaborate appliances which we require. Ships of the largest burden lie alongside the shore for miles, and have facilities such as are not found in our harbours. Then in the latitude of New York there is a natural cleft in the Alleghany Mountains — the only cleft which exists from the Gulf of Mexico to Northern Canada. Through that cleft there is a splendid waterway, the Hudson River, and railways have been carried alongside of it. Thus it is that KeAv York has a natural advantage which no other port possesses. In the country districts of the Xew York State, as in the city, there are still considerable remains of the old Dutch element, but nearly Angli- cised ; the other settlers on the land of all classes, both British and foreign, constitute a very large and prosperous population of small farmers. Pennsylva- nia, again, is a very great State, originally founded by English Quakers, but in which the German ele- ment is now very large. It is, perhaps, the most advanced State in the Union, in regard to its manu- factures and the character of its agriculture. Penn- sylvania, too, has very largely colonised the Western States. Virginia is an old State, but not so prosper- ous. I am afraid most of the Eno-lishmen who have taken up land there have not made a particularly 2 18 bird's-eye view of the united states. good thing of it, except those in the hilly country to the west, where splendid cattle are produced. But Virginia is, as it were, the mother of the Southern States. From Virginia people have very largely gone southwards to colonise the higher and cooler parts of the Carolinas, Georgia, and the other Southern States ; so that in these States, while, as I have said, about half the population are negroes, the other half are very decent and respectable white people, principally small farmers. There has not been much white immigration there of late years, but in the last century a good many Scotchmen went there, especially Highlanders. THE PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS OF THE SOIL. If you look at the map you will see the great varieties of latitude and of physical configuration which enable the United States to produce so many things, and so largely to supply the world with food and the materials for clothing. Round the Southern seaboard, from North Carolina to Texas, and up the Mississippi to Arkansas and Missouri, we have a belt of States producing by far the largest portion of the cotton-supply of Europe. On the lowlands of the Carolinas and Georgia rice of fine quality is grown ; and near the mouths of the Mississippi there are great sugar plantations ; but these latter articles only thrive under protection, and are not exported. There has lately been a good deal of talk and fuss about the production of sugar from maize-stalks and sorghum, THE PEIKCIPAL PKODtrCTS OF THE SOIL. 19 a Chinese millet. Many farmers cultivate patches of the latter; but so far as I could learn, this sugar is not likely to come to much — only a sort of molasses for domestic use is ordinarily obtained. The American tobacco is principally grown in the Central States; still to a large extent in Virginia, but even more in Kentucky and Tennessee, and farther west, and now a good deal in Pennsylvania also. There is some very fine grazing ground in the Central States, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The blue grass of Kentucky is famous; though it is not blue at all, but green, and very like our common natural grass. In the South an East- Indian grass, known as l DlwojpJ or Sun-grass, has been introduced, and proves very productive as a permanent grass. In most of the Northern States timothy grass, rye grass, and clover are largely sown ; and in some parts further south lucerne is a produc- tive crop. Efforts are being made to reintroduce silk in the South, but it has been tried before, and I doubt if it will come to much. The tea-plant grows very well, but it requires too much labour to be a practical culture in the States. There is too much frost for coffee. The Southerners are trying to grow Bengal jute, but nothing has come of these experiments yet. They used to cultivate indigo, but it has quite gone out ; Bengal has beaten them in that. And they have not attempted to rival our Indian opium. Attempts are made to produce wine, but I think it is only in California that vineyards are very successful. 20 bikd's-eye view of the united states. In the Northern States, little as one would expect it, the most valuable product of all is hay, chiefly grown from artificial grass. That shows how much is done for the rearing of flocks. Maize, or Indian corn, is an immense production all over the country. Of this also much is used to feed animals. After that comes wheat, the production of which has made wheat cheap in. our markets, and the cultivation of which is so much increasing that it may be confidently predicted that, unless we have any unhappy quarrel with the United States, which God forbid, bread never can again be dear in this country ; for the means of communication are im- proving every day. The production of barley is not large, but there is a great abundance of oats. Wheat is produced both in the North- Western States, where snow covers it in winter, and much further south, where the winters are mild. In the intermediate zone maize prevails. I trust cheap meat is about to be secured to us in addition to cheap bread. Already bacon is produced in America at an extraordinarily low rate, and the people of a large number of the States are now de- voting immense attention to the production of beef. It is not only that great herds come from the western grazing grounds of Colorado and Texas, but in the settled agricultural countries people- are more and more giving themselves to cattle-breeding. They im- port very carefully the finest bulls, and are raising the character of their cattle every day. Nothing impressed me so much throughout my tour as the CHAEACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN" PEOPLE. 21 great extent of country, North and South, East and West, in which the farmers are going into cattle- breeding for our market with enthusiasm — one hears the talk of beeves everywhere, and the cattle trade is ready to assume enormous jjroportions. You are aware, too, that extraordinary efforts are being made, day by day, to find improved means of bringing the American meat to your doors. An immense number of fine steamers are fitting up for the trade in live cattle, which is growing by leaps and bounds as never trade grew before. I cannot but have some sympathy with our farmers, who are, 1 am afraid, having rather hard times; but still they have con- siderable advantages in many respects, and must more and more devote themselves to supplying us with milk and butter, to finishing off the education of foreign cattle, to turning their farms into a sort of market-gardens of high culture. And, without touch- ing upon political subjects, I must venture to hope that our Government will not be led into any re- striction upon the importation of cattle, which would have the effect of keeping very dear the butcher's-meat consumed by the people of this country. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. I now proceed to tell you something of the characteristics of the American people — I mean the real American, born and bred in the country, as distinguished from the foreign element, of which there is so much. In some things, no doubt, there 22 bied's-eye view of the united states. are peculiarities which make them unlike us; but in very many other things they ar.e like us. And it seems to me that, after getting over the first surface differences, the likenesses are much more numerous and much more prominent than the unlikenesses. "We have heard of their popular " Yankeeisms," which are supposed to give us a fair specimen of the American people ; but what I found when I went there was, that the peculiarities of language and other- wise which had been held out to us as " Yankeeisms " really almost exhaust all that there is of American peculiarity. These * Yankeeisms ' of our literature are not specimens of what is behind, but are in themselves nearly the whole of the features in which the people differ from us. In their general* style, in their man- ners, and in their language they are in a very marked degree British, and not foreign. In regard to language especially I was really surprised to find how little difference there is, and how much their idioms and everything else are thoroughly English. It is a curious thing, but it seems to me that the only people who talk very American indeed are the higher class of people, and especially the ladies — the sort of fine ladies one sees in foreign hotels on the Continent of Europe. Perhaps the truth is that these people are the oldest Americans, who have brought down most completely the provincial peculiarities which they carried with them from certain parts of Old England or established among themselves in the early days of American settlement. It may well be that these have been CHAEACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 23 handed down anions the richer classes, whereas among the lower classes, intermixed so much as they have been with new arrivals, the language has assumed a sort of cosmopolitan English character. I found that in many parts of the States the common labouring man used language which I could not dis- tinguish from that of a tolerably educated man of the same class in these islands. I might have been in doubt what county he came from, but if he did not happen to use a few peculiar American phrases I should not have known that he was not a Britisher. It was not only that my ear became accustomed to the American intonation, for I constantly found, again, that when I met ladies of the more well-to-do classes the ' Yankee' peculiarities came out as pro- minently as ever. Of the body of the people I think it may be said that their language is English — a little better than that used in an}^ county of Eng- land. The hotels are certainly a very peculiar American institution. Mr. Anthony Trollope hits them of± very well. Although he does make the worst of things, I am not prepared to say that there is not much truth in his description of the hotels. I have said that they are extremely convenient for the passing traveller ; but as residences in the way many Americans use them I do not know that I should care for them. It struck me as curious, in regard to hotels and some other things, that, inventive and progressive as the Americans are, there is in these things a sort of dead level of uniformity about them. 24 bikd's-eye view of the united states. "Wherever you go in all these vast States the hotels are almost all on. the same plan. So are the railway carriages, and so are some other things. There does not exist either the cosy, comfortable English hotel or the foreign cafe. There is nothing in New York or anywhere else, so far as I saw, like the Boulevards in Continental cities. But there is everywhere the universal American hotel, the lower hall of which is a kind of place of assembly for all the world, or at all events all the male world. That public life in the hotel hall is what the American men seem to like best. The reading-rooms and other public apartments are not very comfortable ; but the barber's shop attached to every American hotel is luxurious. I do agree with Mr. Trollope in denouncing as the most horrible place in the world the ladies' room, which is always the stiffest, barest, and most uncomfortably gorgeous place that it is possible to conceive — not a book or a newspaper or a domestic comfort of any kind — a place into which a stranger can hardly dare to enter, unless he be a man of iron nerves ; and if he does enter cannot make himself comfortable in any sort of way. It seems very strange that, with the ex- perience of Continental travelling which the Americans have, after seeing the nice, comfortable drawing-rooms in Swiss and other hotels, they won't condescend to introduce something of the kind into their own. Then in their mode of feeding the Americans are certainly peculiar, and their ways are quite different from our ways. You never see such a thing as an English joint or an English dish put upon the table. CHAEACTEELSTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 2o Kor, on the other hand, have you well-cooked dishes Landed round in the French style. They have a style of their own, which is, that your meal is served in a large number of curious oval little dishes, which are put before you all mixed up together, without the smallest regard to time or tide, or hotness, or coldness, or anything else ; and especially you have to this day what Mr. Trollope vividly describes, a waiter who stands over you as a sort of taskmaster, and makes you eat your meal, not at your convenience but at his. I do think it is a very great pity that the founders of the American Republic did not introduce a little Scotch cookery among their early institutions. I am very happy to say that more recent reforms have introduced one excellent Scotch food which we are too much inclined to discard ourselves. I mean oat- meal porridge. They generally give cream with it — a very commendable arrangement. In truth, I could have eaten oatmeal porridge in the States with great satisfaction, if I had not felt insulted by the constant practice there of calling it ' Irish oatmeal.' The Ameiicans themselves seem to have a partiality to live upon oysters, which are there produced in enor- mous quantity, and I believe of excellent quality, for I do not eat them myself. Their beef is generally good, but not always well cooked; the mutton not good. They have a most delightful variety of different kinds of bread, not only of wheat but of maize, corn, buckwheat, and other things. They drink a very great deal of tea and coffee, and a great deal of excellent milk; but what is unpardonable, 26 bikd's-eye view of the united states. considering the excellent dairy facilities which they have, the butter is always salt and bad. When I speak of tea or coffee, however, I should say that coffee is the principal drink of the States, and is generally very well made. Tea is comparatively quite rare, and is almost always very badly made. I shall notice separately in connection with the drink ques- tion the, to us, extraordinary absence of wine and other liquors from their meals. The railway carriages are another American insti- tution which are quite different from ours. They are very long and heavy conveyances, with entrances only from the ends, and seats ranged along; each side. There seems to be no objection on principle to a variety of classes. On all the chief railways of the Northern States there are drawing-room cars, which practically take the place of first-class carriages. But the ordi- nary American railway carriage, which is the only car- riage without distinction of class on a large proportion of railways, is such that it may be generally said that all are second-class. In these travelling in America is somewhat cheaper than travelling first-class in this country ; and so far as my experience goes there is generally an entire absence of any rough and rowdy element, such as some have supposed must result from an amalgamation of classes. I am inclined to think the people who most suffer from the American system are those who travel third-class in this country. For them there is no cheap third-class, and consequently for them travelling is much dearer than in this country. There seem to be no railway porters in CHAEACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 27 America. People manage themselves and take care of themselves, and the railways run through the middle of streets and towns without any fencing. I asked, ' Are people not constantly run down and killed ? ' The answer I got was, 'They sometimes are ; but they learn to take care of themselves.' For travelling at night there are the Pullman cars, or other cars in the style of the Pullman. But here, too, it struck me, there was a too extreme uniformity and great absence of variety. The cars are very gorgeous and not very comfortable — sometimes very crowded and much overheated. The great steamers which run on protected waters and rivers are, I think, the most comfortable institutions in the way of travelling that exist in America or in any other country. If you want to have an idea of the general state of society which exists in America I would put it to you in this way — if in this country you were to kill oif all the country gentlemen, with all their wives and fami- lies, and make the farmers the owners of the land which they till, you would have something which you could hardly distinguish from America. American- towns are very much like English towns. The social arrangements of Kirkcaldy are very like the social arrangements of an American country town. But there is this great difference, in the outward aspect, that in an American town of this size you would have very large and very broad streets, lined with trees ; and very nice villa-like houses, probably on the whole better than our houses. In that respect the American town is a 28 bikd's-eye view of the united states. better and a nicer place than our towns — in dry weather, at any rate. But when it comes to rain, as the streets are all unpaved, they are exceedingly muddy. I have said that the country gentlemen ele- ment is altogether wanting ; but the plutocrats, the money people, are quite as strong in America as in this country — perhaps stronger; that is socially, and in everything not regulated by the first principles of the American Constitution and system — these they cannot get over. In all other matters the plutocrats, it seems to me, rule the country even more than they do here. The rich people rule the press, and the press rules the country. I am afraid that is a good deal the case in most parts of the civilised world. There is a popular idea that the Americans are so civilised that they object to marriage, and that for in- crease of the population the Americans must depend, not upon themselves, but upon the foreigners. 1 be- lieve that this is quite a libel, The peculiar sects of which we hear so much are but a drop among the population. 1 myself saw none of them, but 1 did see a great many people who did not belong to these peculiar sects, and my decided impression is that the Americans marry earlier and trust to their wits to support a family more than we do ; that they have large and rapid families, just such as we have ; and there is not the least danger that the American population will die out. In nothing, I think, does Mr. Trollope so much libel the Americans as in the most odious character which he attributes to the average middle-class woman of America. He seems CHAEACTEEISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 29 to depict lier as a kind of hideous Jezebel who in- vades tramway-cars and other public places, turns men out of their seats in the most audacious and unfeeling manner, and asserts women's rights with the most entire disregard to the rights of unhappy males. Perhaps Mr. Trollope's denunciations have had some effect in working a reform, but all I can say is that I saw nothing whatever of the kind. Where a car is crowded men will generally give seats to women, just as they do on the Metropolitan Railway in London, but I never saw anything more than this. On the contrary, it seemed to me that the more purely American of the American women — those who are not accustomed to sj)end money in an ostentatious way in Europe, and to over-dress and over-peacock there — are very nice people indeed. It is the ' Daisy Millers,' and the Daisy Millers' mammas, who to some extent have given the American women a bad name. See them at home, and they seem to me among the nicest of their sex. The American girls are certainly more independent than our girls are. They think it a reproach if they cannot be trusted to go with a young man either to a church or a theatre. I won't say whether that is better or worse than our system; but I do admire the independence of the American girls in helping themselves by useful employments. In this respect I hope many of our girls are following their example. Ladies of a class who would not like to go out as school teachers and telegraph clerks among us do so quite freely in America. I think the last school I was in before I came to Kirkcaldy was a 30 bird's-eye view of the united states. black school for little ne^ro children in the Southern States, taught by a young white Northern lady, whom we should think almost superior to that sort of work. I am sure our women have much to learn from the American women in the matter of helping others and helping themselves. As to the men, I liked their style and manners. Generally speaking, there was comparatively little of the Yankee about them. I heard a story of my friend Mr. Holmes, the Member for Paisley, who made a tour in the United States, and when he got to Chicago he was very anxious to see a typical American, with his slouched hat, big boots, belt with revolver stuck it, and so on. He could not find one for a Ions: time. At last he found a man who exactly came up to his idea; and entering into con- versation with him, he said, l Have you been long here?' i Na,' was the answer, ' I'am jist a month frae GlascaV Perhaps the men too have been some- what affected by English criticism. At all events, it is now the case that in their conduct they are exceedingly quiet and orderly, and only spit to a moderate extent. In fact, as regards smoking and everything of that kind, the American rules are much more strict than ours. Mr. Trollope denounces the lower class of American men as rude and barbarous in the extreme. For my part, I can say I found them quite the contrary. Whenever I had occasion to talk to any of them I was generally impressed with their civility, intelligence, and education. One thing particularly struck me, and that was the quiet and CIIAEACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 31 orderly character of their political meetings, I may almost say the dullness of them, for I think they were somewhat too quiet. They never interrupt a speaker, but always let him say out his say without the smallest hindrance, however distasteful his ideas may be to some of them. When I said that some- times they are very orderly, to the point of dullness, I might illustrate that by telling you of an American politician whom I met. He had been up attending a political meeting at a country town. I said, ' How did you get on ? ' ' Oh,' he replied, ' exceedingly well ; I gave them three solid hours of it, and they were as quiet as if they had been in church.' Upon the whole, my impression of the Americans is this, that in point of energy and enterprise they are rather above the average Britisher, but not above the average Scotchman — about, I may say, equal to an average Scotchman. They are certainly very pushing and go-ahead people ; but then if they make a great deal of money they also spend it very quickly — there is no doubt that they are inclined to be extra- vagant. Everyone who goes to America is very much struck by the respect for law which prevails there. They are, in fact, an extremely law-abiding people ; and since their great war, having learned by experi ence how horrible war is, they have come through great trials and difficulties with wonderful avoid- ance of irritation and injurious conflict. I know no people in the world who accept defeat in so thor- oughly good-humoured a way; and in this respect I 32 bikd's-eye view of the hotted states. think tliat the tone and temper of the people of the Southern States is very highly to be praised. There is an idea prevalent in this country that in regard to many questions of social science, the management of prisons and such like matters, the Americans have gone far ahead of ourselves. I did not go very minutely into these matters, for I had not time, but so far as I could learn I failed to find that they are much ahead of us. I heard quite as many complaints of prison management in America as ever I did in this country, and I doubt very much whether their sanitary and other improvements are greatly superior to ours. I am inclined to believe that Edinburgh and Glasgow have done quite as much in the way of social science progress as any American town. I was specially interested in the condition of the Southern States, and I spent a good deal of my time there. They have no doubt suffered from war in a pecuniary way as well as by losing all the flower of the population ; but they have a good heart, and are doing well. This subject, however, is a special one, which I shall probably take occasion to explain in another shape, for it is scarcely possible to do so now. I do not know that there is anything very special in the larger American cities, except the trees in the streets which I have mentioned, and the strictly rec- tangular character in their arrangement which leads to the numbering of the streets in the way you have often heard. There is one institution in New York which struck me as very successful, and that is the elevated CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 33 railways just opened. Instead of destroying the .narrower streets, full of traffic, by laying tramways in them, they leave the streets for the ordinary traffic, and carry the railway on elevated girders above the heads of the people and the carts. That seems to be successfully done in New York, and I hope to see it done in London also. The Elevated Railway is quite a new institution in New York — only started in the last few months ; but throughout all the towns the tramway-car is a most universal and successful insti- tution. The whole population use the tram-cars ; in most places there are comparatively few private car* riages, and cabs are always dear. My complaint of the American cities is that they are too big — that is to say, too many people come to the towns who had much better go and work in the country. I was almost tempted to say that, among the Americans, for every man who really works with his hands there seems to be two who seek to live by speculating upon him — especially by insuring his life — that seems to be the great business now to which retired generals, governors, and other great men devote themselves. It seemed to me that Washing- ton is the pleasantest and best of American cities. Mr. Trollope describes it in very horrible terms, but it has certainly been very much improved since those days, and appeared to me to be a charming place. Boston, as you may have heard, is a delightfully English-looking place. Chicago and those new ci- ties seem to have been overdone and to be much too lame. 34 bied's-eye view of the united states. It is always very easy to see the cities of America ; everybody expects you to see the cities ; but it is much more difficult to see the country. Railways there are in abundance, and wherever there is a railway you can go, but there is an extreme want of good roads. The Americans seem to have skipped over that stage in human progress and to have gone direct from no roads to railways. If you want to hire a trap to drive ten miles into the country you will find it scarcely possible to get such a thing. But the Americans themselves have, for country use, most admirable private vehicles — infinitely lighter than our carriages, quite as lasting, and every way superior; and I cannot imagine why we don't take a leaf out of their book in this respect. Whenever you are with friends they are always ready to drive you over the country with their fast-trotting horses and light bug- gies — admirable both horses and buggies are. That is the only way in which you can see America. To my view no man has seen America who merely goes from town to town, and does not see the country in the w^ay I have described, for the real backbone of the population of America consists of the small farmers who cover the country. The American Government have been exceedingly wise in the provisions which they have made against land -jobbing. Land is not appropriated in immense blocks by the early settlers, as in most of our colonies. The amount which each man is allowed to take up is restricted to that which he can beneficially farm ; and under the homestead law every man who settles in the country is entitled CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 60 to a farm of this kind. I believe it is upon this sys- tem that the true greatness of America is founded. Much, too, is due to the system of free education which has prevailed in the common schools of the North for the last two or three generations. Not only is this so in New England, but the New Englanders, taking their ideas to the West, have developed the system still more completely in the Western States. For instance, in Illinois it is re- quired by law that there should be a school every two miles at least. A certain proportion of the land in every township is always set apart for the maintenance of schools. The State maintains not only primary schools but also high schools in number sufficient to meet the demand for higher instruction ; and even, in some places, agricultural colleges and such special institutions. The universities and col- leges for general education of the highest class of all are the only institutions not included in the general system of free public instruction ; but there are many excellent universities, some of which have large endowments, while some have received some public aid under local arrangements. In addition to endowments the cost of public education is met, first, by a rate upon land, and, second, by a poll-tax upon the people. By these means sufficient funds are provided in the Northern States ; but in the South the funds are very deficient, though the system has been more or less introduced there also. There are a good many grumblers in America, as there are with us — a good many people who complain of the highness of 36 BIPwD's-ETE view of the united states. the rates, and who say that they should not be taxed to teach a labourer's daughter to play upon the piano. Now, about the piano I won't say whether I agree with them — perhaps I am rather heretical on musical subjects; but I am impressed with the belief, not only that we should make education as cheap and free as possible to the poorer classes, but also that the public may fairly do something for the middle and higher education, both in view of the fact that the middle classes pay largely to the education rates, and that a ladder may be provided by which the poor may mount upwards. In America the children of the well-to-do classes, merchants and professional men and such like, habitually attend the public schools, girls as well as boys ; indeed, the higher schools are much more used by girls than by boys, for the boys go early into business, while the girls continue their education. I did not find the character of the higher education to be so much reformed as I should have expected. There is still a good deal of Latin and Greek taught ; and there is not so universal a system of instruction in the useful sciences as I looked for ; but much is done in special colleges, and improve- ments are being effected which, no doubt, will soon become general. Meantime I think it may be said that the Amer- icans owe their great success in certain branches of mechanical manufacture to their own ingenuity and energy, rather than to any public system of technical instruction. They certainly are marvel- lously clever as inventors. They have a patent CHARACTERISTICS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 37 law, and consider it to be much better than ours. They examine and test patents before they are passed, and have a great patent show at Washington. I am not qualified to tell you anything of their manu- facturing processes, and indeed was not on this oc- casion long enough in the North-Eastern States and cities to see much of these things ; but they are readily accessible to any of you who choose to go there. The Americans certainly show immense energy in all mercantile and manufacturing operations, and leave no stone unturned to develop the resources of the country. I have often been asked, ' How about American rascality ? Are people there worse than our direct- ors ? ' I can only say that I think they are about the same. The fact is that American law is entirely founded on English law, and the safeguards against new-fashioned rascality offered by a law designed only to meet a rascality which is not new-fashioned are about as great in America as in this country — as great, I think, but not greater. There is a great deal of mercantile rascality there as well as here ; but I have heard it said that some people are rather jealous of the directors of the Glasgow Bank for having done a ' bigger thing ' than they have done. As is the case with us, a great many fraudulent people escape the punishment which they merit ; and there have been some great scandals, not only in joint-stock affairs but in municipal affairs. I think, however, that we must not judge of the American people by what has taken place in the New York Municipality ; that is, 38 bird's-eye view of the united states. I believe, exceptional. Most of their towns are as well managed as ours. My impression is that when they do take fraudulent people in hand they are more thorough in their proceedings than we some-: times are, and that a more adequate punishment is sometimes dealt out. PROTECTION AND RECIPROCITY. In these days of commercial distress and pro- phecies of down-going you will probably expect me to say a word about free trade and reciprocity and such like matters ; for whereas in this country we have been for a good many years the upholders of free trade, in America I have been among a people who have become the strenuous upholders of protectionist doctrines. They protect everything and everybody, and if there are any objectors they silence them by giving them protection too ; so that the protection of one thing leads to a dozen others. I am no expert in commercial matters, and cannot pretend to sit in judgment where doctors disagree. I am, also, no rabid i political eco- nomist,' if I may so express it. I do not treat the dogmas of political economists as if they were emana- tions from on high ; and I also am not one of those people who think that when Englishmen differ from the rest of the world Englishmen must necessarily be in the right. I cannot say whether there are any circumstances in which a certain amount of protection really might be beneficial, in the sense in which a glass cover is beneficial in certain stages of a growing PROTECTION" AND RECIPROCITY. 39 plant ; but of this I am sure, that if there are any such uses of protection, very great abuses, much exceeding the uses, speedily supervene. It is hard to persuade people in America that they have not greatly ben- efited by protection. They point to the extension and improvement of their manufactures. I never admitted that that was due to protection ; but that there has been a vast improvement in America within the last few years no man can doubt. On the other hand, one sees at every turn great evils resulting from the abuse of protection — one of the most prominent I can mention being the American shipping trade, which has been absolutely annihilated by protection. Only yesterday I read an account of the carrying trade in China, which, when I was round there a few years ago, was very largely carried in American ships ; but now American shipping has almost dis- appeared from that trade, because the Americans will neither allow the materials for shipbuilding to be imported without an enormous duty being placed upon them, nor will they allow an American citizen to bring a ready-made ship from the Clyde. Some of the protectionist duties are quite useless^ as they act in an almost prohibitory way on things not produced in America. And some seem of a wan- tonly injurious character, as, for instance, a very high duty on quinine, so much wanted as a remedy for the prevalent ■ fever and chills ' of America. I think no one denies that the details of the tariff should be reformed. Then I have no doubt that the system of protection 40 bird's-eye view of the united states. followed in the United States does in many ways enhance the cost of living, both directly, by enhancing the price of commodities, and indirectly, by pandering to that disposition to prefer high gains and lavish expenditure to moderate gains and careful expendi- ture, which is the bane of the country. Our people are open to the reproach, often levelled against them, that if they make more they spend more and save less than the people of some other countries ; but in this respect the Americans, or at any rate large classes of Americans, much exceed them. The cry there is always for great profits and high wages, but economy of living is not studied. One notices in the smallest things how much more the distributors are allowed to appropriate than with us. You can't buy a two-cent paper in the street for less than five cents ; and in a country where apples are so abundant that you may almost pick them up for nothing they are retailed in the towns dearer than in London. Not only is the system of protection popularised by its universality, but no doubt people get used to, and do not fully realise, any indirect impost. The excuse for the Indian salt duty of 2,000 per cent, is that people get accustomed to it. So it is that the Americans hardly realise the burdens which they bear. They argue that theirs is not a narrow pro- tection, since their country is so large and contains so many States, with varying climates, peoples, and industries, that there is within the limits of the Union abundantly active competition, affording ample stimu- lus to progress. They rely on the recent enormous PKOTECTION AND EECIPEOCITY. 41 improvement of their manufactures as showing the success of their system. When one comes to parti- culars, too, it is somewhat difficult to make out a strong case against them. The daily wants of the ordinary population are food, houses, clothing, and such luxuries as tea and coffee, spirits and tobacco. Now, food and the materials for houses are certainly cheaper in America than with us ; the taxes on alcoholic drinks and tobacco are lighter than ours ; tea and coffee are free. Even as regards clothing I was so constantly assured as to be almost persuaded that their cotton goods — especially what are called 1 domestics ' — are as cheap as and better than ours ; and though woollen goods are dearer, they say that the lower class of woollens, made all over the States from native wool, and a class of mixed goods, much used by the Southern and Western populations, are not materially dearer. It is in the better description of clothing used by the upper classes, the finer woollens and silks, and all ladies' clothing, that there is an enormous difference — the cost of these in America is nearly double, and people who go to Europe almost pay the expenses of the trip by saving in the stock of personal clothes they bring from thence and get through the Custom House free of duty. As regards linens the Americans are behind, and I hope even protection will not enable them to dispense with Kirkcaldy goods. Iron and steel are a good deal dearer than in England ; but when we throw in the cost of carriage, &c, the difference is not so great. It seems to be conceded that the classes employed in 42 bird's-eye view of the united states. this branch of industry in the States have already suf- fered so much from bad times, and are so dangerous,, that it would not be possible to establish free trade in the iron trade till times are more prosperous. The Americans certainly possess magnificent coalfields and immense deposits of iron, and they are advancing greatly in the manufacture. I am afraid our iron-; masters will never obtain that market again. The anthracite coal, of which we have heard so much, is' confined to certain very limited localities in one part of Pennsylvania ; but throughout vast tracts in Pennsylvania and other Eastern States, and again in the Western States,, the fields of soft coal are almost unlimited. There is no denying that in some departments the ingenuity of the Americans has enabled them to rival us in foreign markets to some degree, notwith- standing the greater dearness of some of their materials. I believe it is the fact that they have been exporting railway engines, not only to Russia, but to our own Australian colonies ; their agricultural implements are now sent all over the world; and even their watches are exported to the Continent of Europe — to countries hitherto supplied by the Swiss. On the other hand, our Sheffield goods, such as knives and scissors, cannot be rivalled in America, and hold their own there in spite of protection. There is little hope that the Americans will soon adopt free trade princijjles, unless, indeed, they con- tinue their present rapid improvement in manufactures so far as to become a large exporting people. Then PROTECTION AND PwECTPROCTTY. 43 no doubt it will suit their book, and they will become free traders. Their idea is to raise their enterprise in the hothouse atmosphere of protection at home until it gets so large and strong that they may knock away the glass and let it spread over the outer world. Whether they will accomplish that, time only will show ; but I am quite sure that the people of this country should not give in to them. Though free traders as such now hardly exist in America, there is in some parts of the country a feeling that a tariff more designed for revenue might be the means of relieving the several States of the internal revenue system of which they complain as being both ex- pensive and harassing. I heard a Virginian complain that the tobacco duty raised on the manufacture there makes the internal taxation of the State heavier than that of other and richer States ; and the Southern highlanders of the Alleghanies say that they would get on very well if it were not for the ' ivldsley Moch ade] which interferes with their honest industry in that article. It is likely enough that the tariff may be modified to get rid of some useless and injurious re- strictions, and to increase the customs revenue to some degree, but free trade there will not be for the present. There still remains the reciprocity question. It is said, and I myself have no doubt it is true, that if all nations would accept free trade, and all barriers were broken down, it would be best for all parties ; but then, some people add, since almost all other nations do impose heavy protective duties, 'Would it not be well for us to impose moderate duties, such, 44 bird's-eye view of the united states. at all events, as to equal the taxes which are paid by our own manufacturers, the workmen who live in this country and produce their goods at home \ ' Here also I will not pretend to decide upon grounds of po- litical economy ; but I put this practical question to you, ' if you admit that doctrine, what goods would you tax on their import into this country ? ' I don't myself see what you could tax. We export manufac- tures, and we import food and the raw materials for manufacture ; and because America taxes your manu- factures would you tax the food of the people — the wheat, the beef, and the bacon which come from America ? It is impossible ; the people would not submit to anything of the kind. Then, would you tax the raw materials of your manufactures? You know very well that that would be cutting your own throat. And so I bring it to this, what would you tax ? There might be a few luxuries which it might be right enough to tax, but practically there is no great trade which you could tax ; and it is on that ground I say that reciprocity is a mere theory, and not a practical question. Then some people recommend restriction of production as the remedy. That seems to me also to be a most suicidal system. True, in times of pros- perity and excessive trade it may be well to say to capitalists, ' Take care ; don't overdo it ; don't try to make more money than the trade will justify; don't run up wages to a point at which they cannot be main- tained.' But when you come to hard times and bad trade it seems to me that capitalists will be ready enough to contract ; and as contraction of production THE DRINK QUESTION. 45 means contraction of employment for the workpeople, it is the worst possible thing for them. I have seen a good deal of many countries, and I am quite con- vinced of this, that the only chance of our maintain- ing our supremacy is, that we should do that which we have done in the past, namely, make our goods as many, as cheap, and as durable as possible, and try to undersell all foreign countries in what we may call the neutral markets of the world ; that is, the coun- tries which do not manufacture for themselves. There are still quite enough of them to maintain our trade, and we may still live, if we can occupy them and beat the protectionists. We shall have to look sharp to do even this. The Americans have not yet very seriously rivalled us in foreign markets, but they have begun to do it to a small extent ; and we shall not keej3 them out unless we can undersell them, and undersell them without deteriorating the quality of British goods. We must produce good articles in enormous quanti- ties, and cheaper than anyone else, if we are to re- main ahead of the rest of the world. TEE DRINK QUESTION. Of all the questions affecting the low-Teuton coun- tries I think none is really so important as the drink question, and I paid a good deal of attention to it when I was in America. I was not in Maine, and did not go into the well-worn question of the Maine Liquor Law; but I noticed the ordinary practice in the States through which I travelled, and found it pretty uniform. 46 bied's-eye view of the united states. The first thing that I noticed in travelling $ the remarkable feature in the American meals, people drink no alcoholic liquors at all; it seem -: be contrary to their habits, and I may almost say i J good morals and good manners, to do so — in public at least. In a great American hotel, where you meet hundreds of people, you will probably not see one who takes anything stronger than tea and coffee with his meals ; or if you do he is a foreigner. They drink a great deal of milk and such innocent things, but neither beer, nor wine, nor spirits. "Wine is very dear, and that may be one reason why it is not seen. I know it is said, ' Ah, that is all very well, but the men go and drink afterwards at the bars.' Some of them do so, but I am bound to say that I was exceedingly surprised to find how little frequented these bars are. If you want first-class American drinks you must go to the cafes on the Boulevards of Paris — for you won't get them in America. That is my experience. In some parts of the country it is a common form of civility to invite a friend or a stranger to i take a drink ' and to treat him at the bar ; and there are some men's evening parties at which wine is introduced, but one does not see much of this kind of thing. Among the people at large the public and evi- dent drinking is, I think, less than with us, and if a good deal is consumed it is done in a more decent kind of way. 1 have not been able to compare the statistics exactly with respect to the amount of .drink consumed. A great deal of whisky, no doubt, is THE DRINK QUESTION. 47 m .k ; but the revenue derived from alcoholic liq- 3 is not so large as in this country, and it cer- 8 ij is the case that one sees much less drunken- ness. I am told that this is very muck due to the climate. People say that whereas in Scotland some Scotchmen with strong constitutions drink a good deal of whisky all their lives and die in their beds at eighty — not many of them, I believe — a man cannot possibly do that kind of thing in America. He would be killed in a very short time. Thus neces- sity begets a certain moderation. I am told that there is nowhere in America the state of things said to prevail in some English places, where a large proportion of some classes are so drunk upon a Sun- day that they take Monday to recover, and clont re- turn to work till Tuesday. However, I hoj3e that is an exaggeration. There is a Sunday-closing law almost everywhere, with no exception for bond fide travellers or anyone else. It is more or less strictly observed by the natives, and certainly a stranger can get nothing. I was myself reformed in consequence in a very fortunate manner. I used to think a little whisky-and- water good to make me sleep ; but not being able to get it on Sundays, and finding that I slept quite as well, I did without it .on other days too, to my great benefit. I fear the drink question is not one which can be very effectually dealt with by law in the present state of feeling. We must always have greater reliance upon moral and social means. One result of what I have seen and experienced in America is to make me 48 bird's-eye view of the united states. believe that it is much better to go in for total absti- nence than temperance. It seems to me that drink is like gambling, it is very easy to abstain altogether; abstinence does no harm, and very soon one does not feel the want of it. But if you drink in modera- tion it is like gambling in moderation — you are very apt to go on. Some people are not much tempted to excess, but some constitutions are tempted, and they do go on to excess. The Americans have found out this, and no doubt it is for this reason that it has become so much the practice of the better classes among them to abstain altogether. I must^ say, then, that my advice to those in this country who are sincerely anxious to cure their less restrained fellow-countrymen of bad habits is, that they should rather show an example of abstinence than simply preach temperance to their neighbours and try to cur- tail the public-houses. People never do have very much influence who do not practise what they preach. My strong belief is that if the well-to-do classes, the moral, religious, and evangelical classes, were to banish wine from their tables and take to milk, they might with much greater advantage and effect try to put down the public-houses of the poorer classes. Then, as regards legislation on the subject, a man who becomes convinced of that which he had believed before becomes very thoroughly convinced indeed, and that is pretty much the case with me on this drink question. I have been always inclined to sus- pect that the matter should be dealt with in a way which has not many advocates in this country, and I THE DRINK QUESTION. 49 have been agreeably surprised to find that in America the practice is actually that to which rny own opinion inclined. I believe that it is a very great mistake to deal with the matter simply by limiting the num- ber of public-houses, because the result is to create a monopoly and vested interest in those public-houses which remain. I should say that in this matter there has been a kind of alliance between those who serve God and those who serve Mammon — between the good people who wish to put down public- houses and the public-house keepers who do not wish any more houses to compete with them. Thus the worshippers of God and the worshippers of Marmnon, being united, have been so strong that they have carried everything before them^ and the result is that a great monopoly interest has been created. .Now, I entirely admit that. in rural places where there never has been a public-house it is a very great evil that one should be set up, and that there should be some local power of veto on it ; but, on the other hand, I believe that if you have half a dozen public-houses in a street, no reason exists why two or three more should not be allowed, if, in the way of free trade, they are established. On the contrary, it is the existence of a valuable monopoly on the part of the restricted number of houses which makes practically impos- sible any public action whatever — whether the pro- hibition of sales, the Gothenburg system, or anything else. I think the first step towards any great measure of reform is to make the trade free, paradox as that may seem ; for when you have abolished monopolies 50 bird's-eye view of the united states. and vested rights which have no right to be, you are then free to act in the public interest. This is the view taken by the Americans. The laws of different States are different — I cannot answer for all — but I inquired in several, and in none of them did I find that there was that disgraceful and demoralising con- test for licenses which takes place to such an excessive degree in England, and to some degree in Scotland too. In places where the sale is permitted at all there is no privilege, all the citizens being treated equally ; the manufacture is taxed, the sale is taxed, licenses to sell are very heavily taxed ; but any man of good character, who submits to the rules and keeps the rules, gets the license under a regular system, without making it a matter of canvassing, or argu- mentation by lawyers. On the other hand, in certain localities the sale of spirituous liquors is prohibited, not merely the retail in public-houses, but all sales whatever ; and that seems to me a much more logical process. I never could reconcile myself to closing the poor man's club and leaving open the shops where the better classes or any other class may sup- ply themselves with liquor to consume at home ; nor could I see any reason for giving one grocer a license and prohibiting another. If you prohibit at all, I think you should prohibit all. The Americans have not got Sir Wilfrid Lawson's Permissive Bill. I could not ascertain very exactly the reason for the course which they take, but in many different States they follow the same course, which is this — that when there is a very strong wish to prohibit the sale of RELIGION. 51 liquors in any particular locality a bill for that pur- pose is brought in and passed by the local State Legislature. I presume that, being so treated, the question does not absolutely turn upon a mere local majority, but if there are objectors they have an opportunity of being heard, after which the Home Rule Parliament of the particular State decides as it thinks best ; and it is undoubtedly the case that in almost every State in which I inquired a number of such bills are passed, and under them the Sale of liquors is prohibited in considerable localities. Some- times, but not very often, the bill takes the shape of giving an option to the particular locality to be deter- mined by vote. My own opinion tends very much to prohibition, though I feel that the world generally is not ripe for it yet. I should, however, be very glad to see an experiment made in particular localities which are pretty well united in wishing for it. On that ground I would gladly see some measure em- bodying the principle of vesting a power somewhere to stop the sale of liquors in particular localities when the general sense of the population desires it ; although I do not know that I would let a mere ma- jority impose such a measure on a large and reluctant minority. RELIGION. I had expected to find America overrun by new- fangled ideas in religion, but it did not appear to be so. By far the larger portion of the people adhere 52 bird's-eye view of the united states. to the good old -fashioned Churches, or perhaps in many cases I should say to an old-fashioned Congrega- tional system, for there seems to be a great disposition to Congregationalism in the United States. The Epis- copalians are but a small minority. The most impor- tant sects are the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Bap- tists; but it seems to me that in America there is much inclination among religious sects which do not differ in essentials to come together on common ground. The Young Men's Christian Associations — which are, I believe, unsectarian — are widely spread in the coun- try, and do excellent work. The number of Irish who go to America is so great that, added to a num- ber of Southern Germans, they make a considerable Catholic population. But I do not think- that that re- ligion is suited to the genius of the people of America, white or black. The Catholics do not make progress. The blacks do not at all accept them. In their own way these blacks are an exceedingly religious Chris- tian people ; but it strikes me as a sad thing that the black and the white Churches are now entirely sepa- rated from one another. The blacks have now every- where set up black preachers, who do not preach at all badly. Their congregations sing exceedingly well, and they are more in earnest than most white people. Although, as I have said, one sees very little of the very new-fangled religions, there are a good many divisions and subdivisions of the old sects in differ- ent parts of the country. In the great hotels in the cities of the interior one sees a board with a list of the various Churches, and they are certainly pretty KELIGION. 53 numerous. However, one recognises most of them. The only prevalent sect (especially in the West) which struck me as novel was one called simply ' Christians,' or sometimes ' Campbellites,' having been founded by a Campbell. They claim to be unsec- tarian Christians. I thought I should like to belong to that persuasion. I was anxious to know how people get on in Amer- ica without an Established Church — whether they are the worse for that want. We have all been a good deal exercised on that subject. I have had much difficulty in making up my mind on it. I have had an old affection for the Scotch Establishment which I cannot very easily surrender. It is not that I have had any high-flying ideas about the union of Church and State and the advantage of clothing the Church in purple and fine linen, and making her a ruler of men ; I believe that nothing could be more contrary to the Spirit of Christianity, nothing worse for the Church or worse for the State than that ; and if 1 had any doubt about that, what I have seen on the Con- tinent of Europe has quite solved all those doubts. But I have thought, and I think still, that if we were all of one religion it might be much better to combine to maintain a common minister paid by rates — and teinds or tithes are nothing but an old form of rates — just as we find it better to maintain a common school by rates — rather than allow ministers to depend upon the bounty of their congregations, and especially of the richer among their ^ congregations. We in Scotland seem to have satisfied ourselves that this is 54 bird's-eye view of the united states. tlie best and most economical system in regard to schools. Now, formerly, in America, the people took very much the view which I have indicated — the original New Englanders did establish their ministers in the way which I have mentioned ; they did not leave their support to individual zeal, but, being generally in each settlement of one persuasion, they rated them- selves for the purpose ; and in truth that was exactly what was done by the early Reformers in Scotland. That was a system which was very successful for a very long period ; and if circumstances had not changed I think no one would have sought to change it. But circumstances have changed — have changed in America, and have changed in Scotland; and, owing to the progress of modern thought and modern freedom, it has come to pass that the people in New England are not all of one sect of religion, and the people of Scotland are not all of one sect. There is a division among the people on religious subjects, and that division is not unattended with considerable jealousy and rivalry, and, I am afraid I must say, sometimes some bad feeling. Now, in America, as soon as it was found that people were no longer unanimous, but that there was considerable division, the course they took was to abolish all State aid to all Churches, and to let every sect make their own arrangements with regard to their religious establish- ments. I have watched this subject with very great interest. In order to ascertain how this system worked I made it my duty to see whether the in- EELIGIO^. DO terests of religion suffered, or whether any other evils had attended the free system in America. I was entirely satisfied that religion had in no degree suffered ; on the contrary, the people of America are to the full as religious as any people in the world — as religious as the people of Scotland, and. that is saying a great deal. Not only is this so in the old settled States of New England, New York, and Penn- sylvania, but I found — I confess somewhat to my sur- prise — that it is so also in the Western and Southern States. We have an idea that in the West people are rather rough, and I had half -expected to find that after a certain point they had left a good deal of their religion behind them, but it really is not so. In St. Louis and Kansas, in the West, and Carolina and Georgia, in the South, they are very decorous and religious peojjle, with abundance of churches. The only drawback is that, as with us, there are some- times three or four different churches, when one would suffice, if people would only all agree to go to it; but as they don't agree I don't see that any great harm comes from their having separate churches — though I am not without hope that, as liberal feelings progress, they may agree, and unite on the original simple principles of Christianity, getting rid of theo- logical dogmas and difficulties. Well, then, if religion does not suffer in America for want of Establishments, I am quite sure that peace and good- will greatly benefit. I was immensely struck by the entire elimination of religion from pol- itics in that country, and the absolute want of any 56 bird's-eye view of the united states. inclination to hate one's neighbour on account of re- ligion. Every man does as to him seems best, and no other man hates him, worries hirn, or avoids his society on that account. Politically and socially America is not divided by religious cliques. Politics have no streak of religion in them ; a man lives as he likes, without being troubled by his neighbour ; and dies as he likes, without his neighbour inquiring to what persuasion he belonged. I confess, then, I now feel that I should like to see religion separated from politics. I should be glad to see that done in this country, when it can be done without creating an amount of disturbance and bad blood, which would make the cure worse than the disease. But I also feel this, that the existing Establishment in Scot- land is the least offensive religious establishment in the world, and is not an overwhelming evil. I can perfectly well sleep in my bed with the knowledge that the Church of Scotland still exists. I dare say the day is not very far distant when the thing may be done without the great change and great evils which some people seem to apprehend. I met a dig- nitary of the English Church in Canada — a Church which was disestablished by our countryman, Lord Elgin — and, I said to him, ' How do you get on in your disestablished character ? ' ' Well,' he said ; 6 we did not like it at all at first ; we thought ourselves very ill-used ; but now we have come to like it, and are quite convinced that it is best. Formerly there was great jealousy and dislike of us on account of our position ; now all that has passed away. Everyone POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 57 is most friendly. We were disestablished on liberal terms ; we have done the best we can for ourselves, and we get on very well indeed.' THE POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. I cannot properly explain to you in a few words the political system of the United States, nor can I quite compare the Congress with our Parliament. The functions of the two bodies are really quite dif- ferent. As I have already said, the United States are not one country, but forty countries, and the civil, criminal, and domestic laws of all sorts do not apper- tain to the central authority, but to the separate States, each having its own laws. Till one visits the country perhaps one hardly realises how completely this is the case. Neither in regard to marriage and inheritance, or the punishment of crimes, or the man- agement of railways, or anything else, is there any general law whatever ; the laws of each State are made by the separate Legislature of that State. Con- sequently, the Congress of the United States, having nothing to do with these things, is confined to the few functions which the Constitution vests in it, and which are, in fact, mainly financial ; for it is neces- sary to raise a sufficient revenue to support the army and navy*, and diplomatic service, and to pay the in- terest of the debt. The necessity of raising a customs revenue involves the question of the Tariff and the whole question of free trade or protection, which thus comes before Congress. The coinage and currency are 58 bird's-eye view of the united states. common to all the States, and are managed by Con- gress, which has also established common patent and copyright laws. It has power to establish a general bankruptcy law, and did pass a temporary law of the kind after the war, but it has expired, and there is none now. The Post-office is almost the only institu- tion beyond these which is common to all the States. I should mention, however, that, in connection with foreign commerce and the customs revenue, the United States undertake the charge of the principal harbours and the great rivers, and the expenditure connected with them — a circumstance which gives rise to a good deal of rivalry of local interests, and to considerable opportunities for exercising influence by means of the public purse. The revenue of the United States is mainly de- rived from three sources : the sea-customs and two great internal taxes, that on spirituous liquors and that on tobacco. The laws of all the States, except the old French colony of Louisiana, are based on the common law of England, to which reference is constantly made, al- though a great and varying body of statute law has been built up over it in the various States. Still very much of the old English system remains, and one is surprised to find old English institutions, which have been swept away, modified, or threatened in England, still surviving in most of the States. The reason is that some of the oldest of the English legal institutions and maxims, such as the grand jury, trial by jury in all cases indiscriminately (civil as POLITICAL 5TSTEM OF THE EXITED STATES. 59 well as criminal), unanimity of the jury, the non-ex- examination of the accused, and such like, have been preserved in the American Constitutions, which are considered to be much more sacred than ordinary laws. The United States have a written Constitu- tion, and each State has its Constitution. The State Constitutions have been revised and changed pretty often by special Conventions empowered to do so, but that of the United States has been very little changed — in fact, never revised, only added to at rare intervals ; and as all the subordinate Constitutions must fit into that of the United States, a certain amount e£ sameness and continuity of old maxims is preserved. These Constitutions, too, make the situa- tion different from ours ; for the Constitutions are, as it were, above the laws, and th.e judges, having the power to interpret the Constitutions, may and often do declare laws illegal ; so that Congress and the State Assemblies are not so omnipotent as our Parliament. Although no State laws nor even those of Con- gress can violate the United States Constitution, each State is recognised as a sovereign power, and does not admit that any judicial tribunal can enforce judg- ments against it. For instance, by the United States Constitution no law can be passed impairing the obli- gation of contracts, and any attempt to tamper by law with State debts is at once set aside ; but when, as is now the case in some States, the people find them- selves unable to pay, the Legislature simply fails to make provision for payment, and there are no means of enforcing claims. 60 bird's-eye view of the united states. I think a great many people in this country have the idea that the Americans have generally reduced their law to regular codes, but this is quite a mistake. Something has been done in that direction in New York and, I rather think, something in Louisiana; but, generally speaking, the laws are just as in Eng- land—common law plus the statutes. But there is a very useful system of digesting the laws common in America. Every few years the statute law is revised and reprinted by some competent man, and after ex- amination the volume is passed by the Legislature and issued by authority. These very useful volumes are called Revised Codes, but they are only collections of unrepealed laws. There is the Revised Code of the United States and the Revised Code of almost- every State. These volumes are certainly a great conven- ience — almost a necessity where people, having far- extended dealings or the management of great enter- prises, have to do with a number of States with differ- ent laws. I very much wish our law could be put in as popular a form. We particularly want that in Scotland, for the Scotch law seems to be a sealed book to everyone but a lawyer. Before going farther I will mention a few points, common both to the general Government and to the particular States, in which the American political system differs from ours. The Americans have no Ministries dependent on Parliament, and going in and out as they possess or lose the confidence of Parliament. Great executive power is vested in the President of the United States POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 61 and in the Governors of the particular States, who are elected by the people (directly or indirectly), for fixed terms of four or two years, and hold office for their term, whether they agree with their Legislature or whether they do not. The Ministers (if not simi- larly elected, as they are in most States) are the nominees of the President or Governor, cannot sit in the Legislature, and are altogether free from Par- liamentary control. Thus the Executive is not the creature of Parliament, but an altogether independ- ent power. True, both powers are derived from the same sources, but then it often happens that an Executive elected at one date and in one way is opposed to a legislative majority elected at another date. There are always two Houses of the Legis- lature. As in the United States so in each State there is a Senate as well as an Assembly. The lat- ter in some degree corresponds to our House of Com- mons, but the Senate is very different from . our House of Lords. The State Senate is elected by the people, the United States Senators by the Legisla- tive body of each State ; the members of the Senate hold office for longer periods — for four or six years — and besides an equal power in the Legislature have a considerable control over the Executive in regard to high appointments and some other matters. Thus the position of a Senator is one of much power and dignity, and is much sought after. I understand that the place of a United States Senator elected for six years- (and eligible for re-election), with a con- siderable salary and a good deal of power and 62 bikd's-eye view of the united states. patronage, is generally preferred to that of Governor of a State. Every State determines for itself the question of the franchise and the qualification of electors. Uni- versal suffrage is no part of the Constitution of the United States, and in fact, till a comparatively recent date, was by no means the general rule. It is only provided that the members of the United States Con- gress shall be returned by the same constituency as the most popular branch of the Legislature of the State returning the members. In practice, however, manhood suffrage has come to be the common rule, the only exception which I noticed being in / Massachusetts, where there is still an educational franchise. No man can vote unless he can read and write, and when I was there the Irishmen were being ' coached up ' to enable them to vote for General \ Butler. Woman suffrage does not find much favor in America ; there is nothing of the kind in any of the old settled States, and, so far *as I could gather, any agitators for it were even less successful than with us. In some of the far- Western Territories, however, something of the kind has been tried, and I came across an enthusiastic gentleman from the Territory of Wyoming, up in the Rocky Mountains, where, it seems, all political distinctions between the sexes have been abolished, and women are eligible to all public offices. He wanted to convert the other States to that system, and told of a case in which a husband and wife went to the poll against one another as rival POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 63 candidates without the slightest disturbance of their domestic harmony and good feeling. I confess, how- ever, that I was not convinced of the advantage of the system, nor are the American people. They show by their practice that women may have many privi- leges, and even usefully practise many professions, without seeking political power, or at all events with-' out obtaining it. You have all heard of the caucus system which prevails in America in regard to elections; that is, before going to the poll each party decides within itself who is to be its candidate. In fact, this system seems to have become almost universal. Everywhere there are what are called the l primary ' elections — i. e., the unofficial elections within the party, before the real election — and these primary elections are often conducted with at least as much heat and bitterness as the real election, sometimes much more so. There are various modes of arraiimno^ the caucus : sometimes the primary election is in the form of a ballot by the voters of the party to elect the candidate direct, but generally they elect de- legates, who meet in caucus and elect the candi- dates; and it is among these caucus delegates that jobbery and trickery is said often to j>revail, the more as, these elections being unknown to the law, abuses cannot be controlled by the law and the Courts. People are generally very much alive to the evils of their own system, and I certainly heard in America more abuse of the caucus system 'than praise of it. It was said that the best man was often ousted in 64 bird's-eye view of the united states. the caucus by a system of jobbery and underhand management, and that many independent men much preferred an appeal to the constituencies direct. I confess I was not able in my short visit to get to the bottom of the subject or to make up my mind about it. A general election took place while I was in America, and I noticed that in several States there were a good many i Independent ' candidates, who set at defiance the caucuses and went in against their nominees; and they not unfrequently won. This was the more practicable, because at present parties in America are in a very peculiar position. There are, as with us, two parties who have long existed under different names, and have for a good many years been known as Republicans and Democrats. But I failed to identify these two parties with our Liberals and Conservatives. At one time they were a good deal ranged on the question of Centralisation versus State-rights, the Republicans representing what we might call the Imperialist party, and the Demo- crats the State-rights party; now that question has been fought out and settled (as regards the claims of the Southern States and the institution of slavery), and it has nearly ceased to have practical impor- tance. It so happens that on the questions of the present day — the Tariff, the Currency, and some others — each of the regular parties is divided within itself, and it seems inevitable that there must be a new deal. It will, I should say, be a very good thing if it is so, for in some things the system of POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 65 party government is carried much further than with us, especially as regards appointments to offices which we call permanent and treat as such. A custom has sprung up in modern times of turning out all the officials when there is a change in the Executive Government, and putting in the men of the incoming party. And to this has been added a horrible sys- tem of raising a regular tax by a tariff levied on the salaries of all officials, towards defraying the election expenses of the party; for I am sorry to say that the practice of spending money on elections is growing rapidly — following our evil example. The subordinate office-holders under this system become the principal election agents, and political struggles become to a great degree a contest between rival factions of placemen and would-be placemen to a much greater degree than with us. The greatness of this evil is felt and acknowledged. But there is an extreme difficulty in getting rid of it when once in- troduced, because, one party having put in all their own men, it would require superhuman virtue in the other party to leave them permanently in possession. The thing can only be settled by a compromise, which the present President is anxious to effect, and a new deal of parties will be the best opportunity for it. At present parties in Congress are so evenly balanced that it is very difficult to put the placeman question out of sight. The same division of parties is carried into many of the State elections, and into some of the municipal elec- tions in the great cities. But I was happy to observe 66 bird's-eye view of the united states. that in other States the divisions are on other questions and other lines than the mere struggle between Re- publicans and Democrats, and I hope that this is a sign that a better state of things may be arrived at. I specially remarked two things as giving to American legislators a character different from our members of Parliament. First, they are all paid. This payment chiefly affects the members of Congress. They receive a handsome salary of 1,000^. per annum each — mem- bers of the Senate and Assembly equally — for their attendance during a portion of the year ; so that each Congressman is a regular salaried placeman. The members of the State Legislatures, on the other hand, only receive a moderate daily allowance for their expenses during the time of their actual attend- ance, which in very many States is only once in two years ; and they can hardly make much 'by the trans- action; so that they are not placemen in the same sense, and not so much professional politicians. Second, it is a very important practical feature in the situation that in most cases American Legislatures do not meet, like our Parliament, in a great social and commercial capital, where the great and grand and rich gather together for other purposes, and where fashionable swells and millionaire plutocrats are equally ready to add M.P. to their names, in one phase of their lives, and to migrate, in another, to a higher if not better place in the Upper House. As you know, the United States Congress meets, at Washington, which is in no sense a commercial city, POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. bi and had no social attractions, but was founded as a political centre only. Considerable amenities have lately been created there, but it can never be a capital in the sense of any great European capital, and people go their neither for pleasure nor for private business, but for political business only. So it is in most of the States. The Legislatures meet in rural towns, in a central position, not in the commercial capitals — for instance, the Legislature of New York at Albany, that of Pennsylvania at Harrisburg, that of Illinois at Springfield, and so on. Boston is the only great city that came under my observation in which a State Legislature meets. Richmond, in Virginia, has now grown into a considerable town, but is scarcely a great city ; and in most other States very secondary places have been selected. Consequently a man who goes to a United States Legislature goes either for love of country or for love of place and power, not for social privileges ; and when he does go he goes to work, not to give to legislation the time he can spare from other avocations. It is this character and position of the members that renders possible the feature which most dis- tinguishes the working of the American Legislatures from our own, viz., that most of the work is done in great committees, which practically amount to the House sitting simultaneously in several separate divisions at the same time. All the members having come in as working men of business, and having nothing else to do, are able to devote themselves regularly and systematically to work of this kind in 68 bird's-eye view of the united states. a way that would not be possible to many of our much -occupied or lightly-occupied members, who can only give to legislation occasional parts of evenings, or, if they do sit on special committees, attend or stay away as they please. The work which with us is done by the whole House being in America threshed out and settled in these committees, is in most cases accepted by the House at large without much further discussion. This is especially the case in the State Legislatures, the majority of which meet, as I have said, only once in two years, and the sitting of which is generally limited by the Constitution to a moderate period — ■ sometimes as little as fifty or sixty days, and generally not more than three or four months. Yet it seemed to me, looking over the volumes of the legislation of each session in several different States., that they get through quite as much legislation as our Parliament, and my impression of the system is altogether favour- able. The word ' politician' is used in a bad sense in America, as applied to people who make politics a profession, and are skilled in the arts of ' wire-pulling ' and such practices. In this country you certainly do not offend a man, or even a woman, if you say, 4 1 believe you are a great politician ? ' But if you say that in the States, the person you address fires up and assures you he is nothing of the kind. I think this use of the word is what has given rise to the idea, so prevalent in this country, that none of the best men in the States will have anything to do with politics, POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 69 and leave that to inferior persons ; but it seemed to me that the fact is not really so. It may be true as regards a good many plutocrats in New York and elsewhere, who can make more money in the great cities than by serving their country in out-of-the-way places ; and in New York (only, I think, in that city) there is springing up a class who live on realised wealth, and whose young men affect the jeunesse doree — drive four-in-hands, and so on. But it seemed to me that the great majority of the best Americans, while disclaiming the character of ' politicians ' in the American sense, take quite as much interest in politics as Englishmen do. Indeed, so far from the mass of educated people abstaining from politics, it is proverbial that there is an extraordinary craving for office ; that is, principally local office. All offices are elective, and elections are continually going on. The salaries are not large, but it is generally said that as soon as a boy ceases to play at marbles he begins to aspire to office. No doubt, for reasons which I have already given, a good many men such as would in this country accept a seat in Parliament cannot or will not go into Congress at Washington ; but many other good men of business, such as do not here get into Parliament, there get into Congress or into the State Legislatures. Lawyers are more numerous and prominent in the American Legislatures than with us, but the better class of American lawyers are generally able and good men ; and there being little of a con- centrated bar or legal head-quarters at Washington, the provincial lawyers are probably of a higher class 70 bird's-eye view of the united states. than are usually found in our provinces. I am in- clined, then, to believe that there is a great amount of ability in the United States legislative bodies ; but no doubt there is with this ability a great infusion of the ' politician ' element and character. Comparing the personnel and working system of Congress with our Parliament, I should judge in a general way (for I had no opportunity of watching the actual working of Congress) that there are advantages and disad- vantages on either side. The American Congress- men are, probably, on the average, more able men. Being paid men, bound to work, they do work harder, and by their system of committees work more effec- tually ; but they are not more honest, and are, on the contrary, more open to the imputation of jobbery and wire-pulling. I think that the American mode of electing the Executive authority and making it independent of Congress is inferior to our Ministerial system, and the political character of the appointments to subordinate civil posts is an evil of a very grave character. On the other hand, I am inclined to sup- pose that the great principles handed down by the founders of the Republic, and embalmed in the Con- stitution, have really given a high tone, a continuity of purpose, and a national dignity to the political system, in whatsoever hands it may be. American statesmen steer by permanent sailing directions, as it were ; and in this respect their work contrasts favourably with our hand-to-mouth haphazard sort of want of system. Their successful eiforts to reduce their public debt stand in favourable contrast to our POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 71 puny reductions ; and in regard to such questions as the public land, local government, and others which could be named, there has been for generations a con- tinuity of policy which we may well envy. This it is, I think, which preserves the character of American society, and prevents the plutocrat of to-day from becoming the aristocrat of to-morrow. Apart from the general Government of the United States, I had a special interest in, and paid particular attention to, the State Governments and system of local administration, constituting what I may call Home Rule in America. I was the more anxious to see the character of this Home Rule, because I am entirely convinced that the work of the British Par- liament is more and more overpassing the working power of the machinery ; that things are rapidly coming to a serious block, if not a dead-lock, and that something must be done. The number of sub- jects with which Parliament deals has immensely increased, while the working power has not increased, but has, on the contrary, considerably decreased, on account of Irish questions and other causes. There lias long been most undeniable ground of complaint that our Scotch business is not done — or, so far as done, is done in the small hours of the morning — in a way that is scarcely fair. I wanted to know, then, if such things are better done in America. While what I have said of the general administration of the United States compared with ours goes to show that after all there is but a balancing of pros and cons, on the other hand, as regards this Home Rule 72 bird's-eye view of the united states. I am bound to say that the result of very careful inquiry has been to convince me that the Americans have a very great advantage over us. It seemed to me that the State Legislatures are most useful institutions and that, through them, a very large amount of work is done, to the great benefit and satisfaction of their citizens, very much which with us is left undone altogether being there got through without hitch or difficulty. The mem- bers of these local Legislatures appear to be very respectable citizens. They are men sent up from among the people of the States, acting before and within the cognisance of their own fellow-country- men. Their laws are not always and altogether of the highest style of jurisprudence, but they are practical and useful, and if anything does not work well it is easily set right. They have an especial advantage in dealing with those local and minor matters which we class under the head of private bill legislation, and which with us is done in a very expensive and somewhat uncertain and unsatisfactory way. I had an opportunity of seeing and carefully noting the proceedings of one of the State Legisla- tures — not one of the most important States in the Union, but still a large State, and perhaps the best of the Southern States — and I was much pleased by what I saw. I have already mentioned several of the peculiarities of the American Legislatures which are common both to Congress and to the State Assem- blies, and I understand that in its forms and proce- POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE UNITED STATES. 73 dure the State Legislature which I saw very much re- sembled the Congress, and may be taken as a minor edition of it. The origin of the procedure is evidently English, but the practice has now much varied from ours, not only in the system of committees which I have mentioned, but also in the use of the previous question, or cloture, and in other ways. They have rules regarding the length of speeches and such mat- ters which very much abbreviate the proceedings when it is the general wish that a decision should be arrived at. The members of the Legislature seemed to be very sound, good, practical men, the senators being in every way equal to the men who might nil such a situation in most other countries with which I am acquainted ; while the Assembly, containing, besides a good many men of a high class, some rather rough farmers and such practical men, was apparently very well quali- fied to deal with the work before it. All seemed to go into their work with a will, and to get through it in a rapid, practical manner. Their speeches were short and to the point, and there was very little de- claiming. As a stranger I was received with very great courtesy, and was most obligingly put in the way of seeing and understanding what was going on. I shall always retain a very pleasant recollection of that experience of an American Home Rule Legisla- ture in actual operation and doing its ordinary daily work. You may well imagine what an American State Legislature is like if you suppose that here in Scot- land, instead of altogether uniting our Legislature 74 bird's-eye view of the united states. with that of Engl and, we had only sent delegates to London to deal with matters of Imperial concern, and had retained a Scotch Parliament at Edinburgh, to make all oar Scotch laws and control a Scotch ad- ministration. Scotland is just about the size and population of a good American State, say Pennsyl- vania oi\ Ohio. I think the Americans have very well hit off: about the right size for their States and Home Rule Legislatures — they are so large as to be free from the imputation of a petty parish-vestry kind of character, and at the same time not so large as to be unmanageable and incapable of dealing with details and local matters. I am inclined to suppose that, looking back into history, it is really the case that all successful repub- lican governments, as in Greece, Italy, Switzerland, and the United States, have consisted of small states joined together in union, and not of great central- ised states. My own impression is that in England and France we have attempted to centralise too much ; and on that account, if we were to begin again, I should probably be much in favour of sepa- rate Legislatures for the different parts of the empire. It would be much more difficult to institute anything- of the kind now. No doubt the country is hardly prepared for it. The Irish do not seem at all agreed what they want in this respect. I wonder they have never proposed to take as their model one of the States of the American Union; but if they did, and got something of the kind, I am afraid that they would fight among themselves. Ireland would have to be POLITICAL SYSTEM OF THE TOTTED STATES. 75 divided into at least two States. Instead of another Heptarchy, we must probably be content with divid- ing Parliament into Grand Committees, or some such scheme, when we get an Administration inclined to, deal radically with the matter, and not merely to nibble at its fringes. If this were done, one grand committee might take up Scotch business, another North Irish, another South Irish, another "Welsh, and two or three more the several departments of English and Imperial business. All American States are divided into counties, the counties being generally numerous and smaller than ours — often as many as 100 counties in a State ; but there are no representative bodies in the counties; they are only judicial and administrative divisions; and the chief interest is the periodical elections of the judges, magistrates, and county officers. Then in New England and other Northern States we have the well-known division of the whole coun- try into townships, corresponding to French and Ger- man communes or Indian village communities ; these have been well described by De Tocqueville. It must not be supposed, however, that this institution is universal in America ; it was wholly wanting in the Southern States, where there was only a loose sort of English parish system ; and recent efforts of Northerners in power in the South to introduce the township system there have not been successful. In the North the system is still in full vigour, and by all accounts answers admirably, both for administrative purposes and for the political education of the people. 76 bird's-eye view of the united states. The townships have certain officers with certain func- tions, but they do not delegate their powers to town councils or any representative body. Every impor- tant matter is decided by the citizens at large in pub- lic meeting assembled, much as in ancient Greece. Besides the popular and pleasant character of the institution it supplies a system of rural administra- tion on a small scale which is much wanted in this country. As respects the government of towns and great cities things seemed to be in most cases about on a par with this country. I have before alluded to the great abuses in New York, a municipality of immense size, and full of half-settled foreigners, and which is not to be taken as a fair specimen of American man- agement. On the whole people are probably more enterprising and go-ahead in American towns, and per contra oftener come to grief ; but in other respects I believe the administration is in most cases pretty well conducted. Ambitious enterprises and improve- ments have in some cases led to very heavy local taxation in the towns, from which you would do well to take warning. It is dangerous to pile up too much upon posterity in order to obtain present improve- ments : there are often two sides to these things, and they must be well considered. The speculative charac- ter of men and things in America and the temptations ottered by successful ventures and sudden rises are such that defalcations of town treasurers and such- like misfortunes are certainly more common than they are with us, I am glad to say ; and these scandals POSITION OF CANADA. 77 have tended to give us a bad idea of American hon- esty ; though, as I have already said, I do not think that in the main there is much more rascality than in other countries. Certainly the outward appearance of the towns, especially the second-rate country towns, gives one the idea of successful management. THE POSITION OF CANADA. I only passed through a part of Canada, and had. no opportunity of studying Canadian institutions on the spot ; but I heard a good deal about Canada, not only from Canadians whom I met, but also from many people in the States, who seem much impressed with the well-doing of Canada, and what is called the loyalty to the English connection. In truth, I believe that this connection really is extremely beneficial to the Canadians. There has sprung up among them a considerable feeling of, I will not call it jealousy and antagonism, but at least of rivalry and emulation, to- wards the United States ; and being a smaller people in close contact throughout a very long and little- separated border with a greater people, with whom difficult questions not unfrequently arise (e.g., the existing fishery question), they naturally set much store on English alliance and support. Moreover, their Government does seem to combine to a great de- gree the advantages of the American and the English systems. The Dominion Union of Canadian States is based on an effective Home Rule system very similar to that of the United States ; but the Canadians have, 78 bikd's-eye view of the united states. I think, an advantage in the adoption of our system of ministerial responsibility as compared with the American mode of appointing the executive author- ities. That, however, has not saved them from some financial scandals and abuses, and from a Protective system much less excusable than that of the Ameri- cans, inasmuch as their own production is much narrower and less varied, and by their protective system they wound in the tenderest point the Power to which they look for support. It is a decided ad- vantage to the Canadians that, while absolutely and entirely independent so far as their own Legislature and Government is concerned, and owning no allegiance whatever to the British Parliament, they are saved the agitation and difficulties of the American elections for President, by the appointment of a British Governor- General, always a selected and impartial man, taking no part in their politics, but a useful arbitrator and mediator in case of difficulty. The Governor-treneral is, in fact, a very cheap constitutional king, not subject to the accidents of heredity, but always a picked man — like a perpetual Leopold of Belgium, for instance. Canada, not having participated in the American war, is not subject to so heavy a taxation as that which the war has brought on the United States ; but then the Americans have by that war settled their political system, and find themselves on their own continent a united people, without an equal or, in point of population and power, a rival ; whereas in the presence of so much greater a Power the troubles of the Canadians may have yet to come. TAXATI0X EN THE STATES. 79 Altogether I am not at all surprised that the Canadians are thoroughly loyal to the British con- nection — it suits them admirably. But it should be understood that they only own loyalty and allegiance to the British Crown, not by any means to the British Parliament and the British people. We need not flatter ourselves that Canada any more belongs to us than Hanover did when it was subject to the British Crown. My only doubt is, whether the connection is beneficial to us. I cannot quite see what we, the people and taxpayers of Great Britain, get for the political and military responsibilities which it imposes on us. I observe that, in opening the Canadian Parliament the other day, Lord Lome says, in his official speech from the Throne : ' By the readjustment of the tariff, with a view to increasing the revenue and developing and encouraging the industries of Canada, you will, I trust, be able to restore the equilibrium, and aid in removing the commercial and financial depression? That means that the British Governor- General sent from this country, is compelled by his position to recommend in so many words, protection for protection's sake — a policy which, right or wrong, is utterly opposed to the universal and most strong feeling of this country. I confess that I think that it is somewhat humiliating to us to continue the con- nection on these terms. TAXATION. There is a good deal of disposition among us to suppose that the Americans suffer from a very heavy 80 bied's-eye view of the united states. taxation. I hardly think this is so, except in particular localities. Of course the burden left by the war was enormous — that has disturbed everything, and made it necessary for a people formerly about the most lightly taxed in the world to submit to considerable taxation — the more as that taxation has been imposed, not only to pay the interest of the debt, but to pay off the capital. But, after all, the general taxation levied by the United States is not extremely onerous — not so much so as that which we raise, and much less than that raised in France and other countries. I have already mentioned what it consists of — an excise more moderate than our excise and tobacco duties, and a customs revenue which is only very burdensome be- cause it involves protection, and consequent enhance- ment of prices of a good many articles. The exemption of tea and coffee from all. duty is a notable concession by the Americans to the c free-breakfast-table ' view of life. No doubt the United States' taxation excludes provision for the local courts of justice and some other things which are provided by the States' Governments ; but the cost of those Governments (other than that incurred for railways and canals) is not large; on the contrary, they are very economi- cally administered ; and the State tax is generally not heavy, except in some of the Southern States. A good many charges are thrown on the counties, as is the case with us. But the county rates are also as a rule not very heavy. Nor are those of rural townships and villages or small towns excessive. It is only, I think, in some of the large cities, such as New York TAXATION IN THE STATES. 81 and Chicago, that the rate is very heavy, amounting sometimes to as much as 2£ to 3 per cent, on capital value, all charges — State, county, and city — included ; in fact, to six or eight shillings in the pound of the rental — a rate which naturally very much enhances the cost of living and doing business in those cities. On the other hand, we must remember that in some of our towns all our rates added together come to a good many shillings in the pound : and if to these be added a large part of our Excise, stamp revenue, Imperial income-tax and house-tax, and other items not paid in America, it may be doubted whether, even in the cities, an American contributes more, in proportion to his means, to the public administration of one kind and another than an Englishman does ; while it may be affirmed that out of those cities he contributes less. But, in addition to the prominence given to the taxation of some of the large cities of which foreigners see most, what, I think, makes Americans cry out and foreigners think them oppressed by taxation is, that almost all taxation of all kinds below that of the United States is in the form of a direct tax on prop- erty. Thus the Americans have less indirect taxa- tion and as much, or perhaps more, direct taxation on the whole than we have ; and as direct taxation is always more felt, their burdens are more evident and conspicuous, and have been especially felt at a time when property has been universally depreciated, both by the after-effects of the war and by the com- mercial depression, while taxation has been increased to meet debts and pay for great works undertaken in 6 82 bikd's-eye view of the united states. prosperous times. In the Southern States particularly, property has been very greatly depreciated, for the slaves were in themselves an immensely valuable pro- perty, and the land, though as well cultivated as be- fore, does not yet sell for high prices. There the taxation is often much complained of, and State debts are in a good many cases not met. By the constitutions of almost all the States all taxation must be imposed on all property equally, and consequently the direct taxation, State, county, and local, all takes the single form of a tax on property, both real and personal. There is, as a rule, no tax on incomes as distinguished from property; the capital value of the property must be returned, and then the taxes are a percentage on that. A war income-tax was at one time imposed by the United States, but that has been given up, and there is now no such tax, except in some of the Southern States which are in financial difficulties. There is no doubt that all real property is effec- tively taxed, but the question is how far personal property. is fully reached. I gather that the assess- ment is carried out with very various degrees of thoroughness. I was not able to go into the mat- ter exhaustively, but I understood that there is more or less evasion. Considering the enormous realised wealth of New York, the proportion of personal property returned in that State seems surprisingly small — much less than in either Massachusetts or Ohio. But the morality of New York City is, no doubt, below the average of America, and the ad- ministration there has been corrupt and lax. TAXATION IN THE STATES. « 83 While we, I think, go to one extreme in taxing the most precarious professional incomes at the same rate as incomes derived from realised property, the Ameri- cans seem to go to the other extreme, in exempting altogether incomes derived otherwise than from prop- erty. For instance lawyers and other professional men are not taxed on their receipts. Then there is, in most States, a poll-tax for edu- cation, to which I have before adverted ; it ranges from one to two dollars per head on ablebodied males, but is strictly confined by the Constitution to special purposes — generally altogether to education. A tax generally the resort of tyrannical governments is thus given a popular character. A burning question in America is the imposition of a dog-tax. It is alleged that sheep and other animals suffer terribly from the depredations of dogs ; but the tax being obnoxious to much popular objection, it is provided that where it is imposed for preventive purposes it also is to go for education. I think there is nothing in the Constitution to prevent the imposition of local taxes of an indirect character for State purposes, except that nothing may be done which involves anything of the character of a transit duty or interferes with trade and commerce ; but generally speaking nothing of the kind is at- tempted. In some States — as, for instance, Virginia — a State tax on the sale of intoxicating liquors has been imposed in addition to the United States Excise tax. But such revenues are, I think, quite exceptional. 84 bikdVeye view of the united states. THE LAND SYSTEM. I omitted to mention one very important subject which is reserved for the Central Government, viz., the disposal of the unoccupied lands. The original States of the Union had and retained the disposal of their own lands ; and the great new State of Texas, on coming into the Union, made a bargain that it should retain a similar power ; but with this excep- tion all the vast lands west of the Alleghanies, and out of which so many great new States and Territories have been formed, were considered to belong to the people of the United States as a whole, and are by them offered, not only to their own citizens, but to all foreigners who are willing to come and settle among them. It is under the system adopted by the central authority that wise rules have been passed and precautions taken to which I have already alluded, and under which land-jobbing and the monopoly of great areas is prevented. Great populations of free and independent small farmers owning their own land have been thus attracted to the soil of America. Only in exceptional cases and for special reasons is any public land sold in an unrestricted manner. It is reserved for bond fide settlers. Every citizen and every man willing to become a citizen of the United States is, under the homestead law, entitled to a free grant of 80 or 160 acres, according to the situation, provided he settles upon it and fulfils conditions ensuring that it is taken up for real cultivation, and not for speculation and sale. Or, again, he may buy THE LAND SYSTEM. 85 a similar plot or a larger one up to 320 acres at five or ten shillings per acre (according to situation), under less restrictive conditions, but still subject to precau- tions against land-jobbing. Where peculiar circum- stances exist — as, for instance, where large irriga- tion works are necessary to profitable cultivation — the land is sold in large blocks. And there has been a good deal of outcry of late regarding what is sup- posed to be a departure from the principle of the American land system in the grant of great quanti- ties of land to railway companies. Though there may have been a good deal of jobbing in particular instances, I doubt whether the general complaint is very well-founded. I have alluded to the want of roads in America. In the deep black soil of the Western Prairie States roads are not only absent but most difficult and expensive to make. Railways are the very life of the country. Vast new tracts have been and are being opened up by railways which otherwise could not have been approached, and value- less land is made valuable by railways, that close to the line being, of course, infinitely more valuable than that away from it. Hence, the value being created by the railways, I think it was far from an unwise system to pay for the construction of railways into unoccupied countries, where no one would otherwise make them, out of the value thus created. The sys- tem adopted was to grant to those who made the rail- ways every alternate square mile block along the line, the other alternate blocks being reserved for sale at an enhanced rate, or for homestead grants of smaller 86 bird's-eye view of the united states. area than elsewhere. Certainly the opening ont of the country has been thus secured, and I don't gather that a very large amount of land- jobbing has resulted ; for, the custom of the country being favourable to real settlement and small farms, the railways have gene- rally laid out their lands with that object, and dis- posed of them to bond fide farmers in lots of 40,80, 160, or 320 acres. I saw a good deal of the country thus occupied along the Illinois Central Railway, the best known case in which the system of railway grants was adopted, and certainly the result has there been a very excellent settlement of such farmers on farms suited to their means. It is only in some of the outlying tracts in the Far West that a few great estates have been got together and that one hears of farms on a magnificent scale ; but I gather that they are rather made to sell than anything else, and that the magnificent descriptions of them which have been circulated are of the nature of advertisements, with a view to their disposal in moderate lots. In Texas and some of the Far Western States land not suited for agriculture is, I believe, held in large grazing farms. In California the land was claimed in large blocks under old Spanish titles, which the United States Courts have declared to be valid, and by pur- chase of these titles large estates have been acquired, so that the tenure of land and structure of society is different there from other parts of the United States. The system of survey and registration of all the lands settled under the system which I have described THE LAND SYSTEM. "87 is admirable. The whole country is accurately sur- veyed and lotted off into square mile sections of 640 acres, with rectangular road-spaces dividing them. These are again divided into quarter sections of 160 acres, and these again, as occasion requires, into 80 and 40 acre sections ; so that every 40-acre plot can be accurately stated and traced by the use of a very' few figures in the simplest possible manner. After a few years' bond fide settlement and cultiva- tion all land is freely transferable, so that there is not the least practical difficulty in acquiring large farms, or even large estates, if, for purposes of large and high cultivation or systematic management, anyone wishes to acquire such by fair purchase, and not by mere land-jobbing and forestalling. In the older States plenty of large tracts are, in fact, in the market; so that it is not for want of opportunity if the large culture system is not often followed. The system of direct taxation which prevails in the United States is, on the other hand, very effectual to prevent large quantities of land being kept waste for jobbing or speculative purposes, since all private property of this kind is taxed, whether it is cultivated or not. Thus the land system of the United States is in great contrast to that of most of our colonies, where not only are great quantities of land monopolised by squatters and jobbers, but such tracts have been held almost exempt from taxation. In Australia these land questions seem to be very prominent ; but mean- time it appears that there the public land is being 88 bird's-eye view oe the united states. very rapidly sold away and the proceeds spent as revenue. In the United States not only is the public land reserved and local jobbing and improvident sale pre- vented, but, although free self-governing institutions within certain limits are given to the settlers in new territory, they by no means at once obtain the com- plete self-government which our colonies now usually have. As soon as there is a moderate population what are called Territories are formed. But these Terri- tories are under governors appointed by the President, the laws passed by their Legislatures are subject to the approval of Congress, and they are, as it were, kept in leading-strings till they arrive at a tolerable maturity, when they are converted into States, and admitted into the Union as such. Besides the public lands, the central Government reserves the function of dealing with the Indians, the old possessors or roamers over these lands; and con- siderable tracts (in one quarter what amounts to the area of a State, comprising, it is said, as good land as any in the Union) have been reserved for them. In Canada I believe that some of the tame Indians have been turned into tolerable farmers, and the wild ones keep up amicable relations with the Government. Tame squaws knit stockings about the Niagara Falls. In the States one sees very little of tame Indians. A number of young Indians from the West are being trained in a college in Virginia, who are to be sent back to carry civilisation to their tribes ; but mean- while these Western tribes are extremely trouble- THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 89 some. Though unwilling to settle down to work, they are far from deficient in energy, and show very decided talent in the use of firearms ; in fact, I be- lieve they are the best marksmen in America. They give an immense amount of very harassing occupation to the United States troops. Many people in Amer- ica say they have been very ill-used, and I believe that is so — not by the Government, but by people whom the Government cannot restrain ; and so they are driven into rebellion. At any rate, the moral is to show how troublesome a few savages can be when they learn the use of good firearms. The conditions of the savage world are already very much changed from what they were but a few years ago, and are rapidly changing still more now that free trade in- troduces cheap firearms everywhere. We must take full account of this in dealing with barbarian popu- lations. THE CURRENCY QUESTION. The Currency question is so burning and impor- tant in the United States, and of so much interest on this side of the Atlantic, that I will attempt to ex- plain briefly how it stands. The dollar — on which the United States monetary system is based — was originally a silver coin, the currency having been founded on the Mexican silver dollar. But almost ever since the E evolution the American system seems to have been in strictness bimetallic ; that is, both silver and gold were coined in any quantity for all persons who brought these 90 bird's-eye view of the united states. metals to the Mint, and both silver and gold coins were equally a legal tender. The debtor had the op- tion of paying either in silver or in gold ; and, as is necessarily the case under sucli a rule, lie of course always paid in the coin which happened to be cheap- est at the time. The silver dollar of this coinage is the l dollar of our daddies,' weighing 41 2 J grains troy, of which one-tenth is alloy ; and that is still the American silver dollar. Bat I gathered that in times before the war the Mexican dollar was more current than any coin of the United States. That, then, was the state of things up to 1862, the debtor having the option of paying in silver or in gold, and on that basis all contracts were made and loans contracted. In 1862, in consequence of the war, a very important change took place — the legal coins remained the same as before in theory, but in that and the following years very large quantities of inconvertible paper notes were issued and made legal tender equally with coin ' in payment of ail debts, public or private, except duties on imports and interest on the public debt. 7 These were the famous greenbacks. Legally debtors could then pay either in silver, gold, or greenbacks ; but, as greenbacks were speedily depreciated, and became cheaper to the debtor, all payments (save those excepted^) were made in greenbacks. Practically coin was not seen again in the United States till January 1 of the pre- sent year (1879), excepting only a small currency reintroduced of late years for small payments only. There was no term for payment of the greenbacks in THE CUEEENCY QUESTION. 91 coin ; but the constitutional legality of the Greenback Act having been disputed in the Courts, the Supreme Court decided that it was legal only under the neces- sity of war, and it seemed to result that the notes must be repaid as soon as the necessities caused by the war permitted. To make this clear an Act of March 1869 declares that ' the faith of the United States is solemnly pledged to the payment in coin or its equivalent of all the United States notes,' and c to make provision at the earliest practicable period for the redemption of the notes in " coin." : No more exact time was specified. Thus, then, the holders were solemnly promised payment as soon as possible in ' coin ; ' that is, either silver or gold. Meantime the interest of the interest-bearing debt had remained payable in coin of one or the other description. But the gold discoveries had rendered gold the cheaper metal, and the consequence was that everything payable in coin was as a rule paid in gold. This was the state of things when a new coinage Act was passed in 1873. Silver was not demone- tised : — the existing dollars still remained a legal tender ; but the new Act (looking, no doubt, to the prevalent use of gold, so far as any coin was used) dropped the silver dollar out of the new coinage, re- taining only smaller silver pieces, the legal payment of which was limited to a small amount. As, in truth, for most of the ordinary business and transac- tions of life, no coin at all was then used in the United States, little visible effect was produced by the new Act. But as very few silver dollars were in existence, 92 bikd's-eye view of the united states. and no new ones were to be coined, the eiTect certainly was that, in case of resumption of specie payments, gold, and not silver, must be the coin used. The Act of 1873 seems to have been put into the form in which it was ultimately passed at the last moment, and, under the circumstances of the time, was not of the highest interest, nor did it create any excitement. Two years later (in 1875) the Act for the resump- tion of specie payments was passed, providing that the United States notes should be redeemed on Jan- uary 1, 1879, in coin — nothing was said of the de- scription of coin. But about this time a great change began to take place in the relative value of gold and silver. Gold relatively went up in value and silver went down, as we all know. Then it was seen what a disturbance -of existing arrangements would be caused by the Act of 1873. An agitation on the subject soon commenced, and prolonged and excited discussions took place. It was not till February 1878 that the Act to restore the old silver dollar to the coinage received the President's assent. Even then it was restored in principle rather than in immediate practice. It was feared that if an unlimited coinage of silver dollars were at once permitted the holders of silver would establish monopoly prices and get all the profits, and therefore it was determined to brin^ in the silver dol- lar gradually. The Treasury were to purchase not less than 2,000,000 nor more than 4,000,000 dollars' worth of silver monthly, and to coin it for cir- culation. The Act also provided that, while silver THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 98 dollars should be a legal tender, an exception should be made ' where otherwise expressly stipulated in the contract.' A great outcry was made against this Act by the moneyed interests in the Northern cities and in Eng- land, on the ground that it deprived them of the dear gold coins which they expected to receive, and put them off with cheap silver coins. I must say that for the most part I cannot see that this reclamation was well- founded. It seems to me that none of the holders or creditors whose bonds date prior to the Act of 1873 can complain, for they certainly get exactly what they bargained for — viz., coin, either gold or silver — and this includes the whole of the public obligations of the United States. The only people who might seem to have a fair case are those who made contracts or lent money between 1873 and February 1878; but morally even they do not seem to have much case of hardship — they dealt in or lent greenbacks, which in 1875 were at a discount of 12 to 15 per cent., but which the act of that year prospectively restored to coin value. In 1876 the value of the greenback was rising very slowly, and throughout that and the follow- ing year while the Act for restoring the silver dollar was under discussion, it was evident enough that it would be restored, the particular form of the measure only being doubtful ; so that there was no surprise. Moreover, there has for the present come to the aid of the creditors the provision limiting the coinage of silver. The President and his advisers are unfa- vourable to the silver coinage, and I believe they 94 bied's-eye view of the united states. have coined as little as the law allows them ; conse- quently up to this time there is so little silver in cir- culation that it cannot take the place of gold. Re- sumption has been in practice effected in dear gold ; and the greenback of the past seventeen years has now become worth its nominal value in gold. Practically, then, the United States are at present in the same position as the States of the Latin Union, France and the rest; that is to say, although gold and silver coins are both legal tender, the quantity of silver coined is so restricted that gold is the real measure of value, and silver coin, so far as it cir- culates (and we know that it circulates largely in France), bears an artificial value far above its real intrinsic value. But there is this important differ- ence, that whereas the Latin Union fix a total limit to their silver coinage, the United States have only fixed the amount to be coined monthly. If the present law stands, silver coin must go on accumulat- ing, and in the end it must inevitably bring down the value of the dollar of account, cheap silver dol- lars displacing dear gold dollars. Under the existing law this is a mere question of time. To realise the importance of this question we must remember that it is not only a question of the currency, or of the payment of the public debts and obligations, but of all private debts and obligations. Every man who borrowed a dollar in 1864 must now pay back a dollar two an ■ a half times more valuable. Every man who borrowed a dollar in 1868 (after the war was well past and over) must pay back nearly one THE CURRENCY QUESTION. 95 and a half times ; every man who borrowed in 1875 or 1876 must pay 10 to 15 per cent, more; every man who borrowed in 1877 must pay 2 to 6 per cent. more. No doubt this is a heavy tax on debtors, and a great increase in the value the creditors can claim. There are so many debtors in the States that it is no wonder there is a strong feeling on the subject, the more so as the debtors are the mass of rural proprietors and others throughout the country, while the creditors are the capitalists in the large towns and in England. It is most unfortunate that the Act of 1873 was ever passed. If it had not been for that there could have been no ground of complaint, and the debtors would have bad the benefit of the cheap silver to which the law under which they incurred the debts entitled them. Then, again, if at the time of the passing of the Resumption Act of 1875 provision had at the same time been made for coining the silver dollar, no one could have reasonably complained. The greenback being then at about 15 per cent, discount, it could be no hardship to make it payable in silver coin, accord- ing to the original contract, for even that would have enhanced its existing value. There would thus have been a happy and easy transition from greenbacks to silver worth a little, but not very much more, than the greenbacks of 1875, without disturbance or difficulty. As it is the creditors claim their pound of gold under the Act of 18 73, and denounce the Act of 1878, which only returns to the state of things prior to 1873, as spoliation. It was the real hardship to debtors of a return 96 bird's-eye view of the united states. to a gold standard, excluding the old silver option, which produced the recent unreasonable and unsuc- cessful agitation for a return to greenbacks; but it curiously shows how much the question is one be- tween the farmers and people on one side, and the capitalists on the other, that the strength of the agi- tation was not so much in the indebted and depressed South as in the rich State of Massachusetts and the steady agricultural State of Maine, both model New England States. The return to silver money would be the less a hardship on creditors, as the authorised standard in America puts gold to silver at about 16 to 1, instead of 15^ to 1, the European standard; consequently the present cheapening of silver is a smaller departure from the old standard by upwards of 3 per cent. I may mention that one is apt to be puzzled by the existence of another authorised dollar coined in the U.S. mints, called the ' trade dollar.' It is larger than the standard dollar, weighing 420 grains, and is not a legal tender, being coined for use in China and Japan, where it was supposed that a dollar of that kind would be preferred. I believe it is not very successful. The present state of things has brought about this curious result, that the larger trade dollar, not being a legal tender, is not worth a dollar in America, while the smaller standard dollar, enhanced in value by its scarcity, passes for the value of a dollar in gold. That is quite an artificial state of things, and can hardly last. EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 97 AMERICA AS A FIELD FOR EMIGRATION AND INVEST- MENT. It may be of interest to some of you that I should tell you something of what I have gathered on the subject of emigration to America. I should be sorry to see you go, of course, but at the same time there is this to be said in favour of America, that to any man who goes there, and especially to a Scotchman or an Irishman, that country is not in any degree a foreign country. There are some peculiarities, but they are all on the surface, and you would soon get over them. It is wonderful how soon one adapts oneself to local customs and habits when the people and language are really identical with those of our own country. The manners of the Americans are our manners, their ways are our ways, and their hearts and sympathies are the hearts and sympathies to which we are accustomed. When we come to consider the question whether it is a good thing to emigrate to America, I would say, as a general rule, it is a country only for those who are willing to work with their hands, and work very hard indeed. It is not the place for a man who looks to earn his bread by his brains only, and with a moderate amount of work. No doubt if a man is ex- traordinarily clever he may get on in any part of the world ; and if such a one is well fitted to get on in this country, he may not improbably also get on in America, if he begins early. In America there is 98 bird's-eye view of the united states. much greater room for extension than here; but as a rule the people who earn their bread by their brains, instead of their hands, are not so well paid, and therefore average people of that class I would recom- mend not to go to America. I have been surprised at the low salaries paid there, and at the extent of the head-work done at a low rate of remuneration, al- though no doubt some people make large fortunes. If a man is not ready to work hard with his hands, if he hopes to earn his bread by his education and by head- work, I think, on the whole, unless he is very smart indeed, he had better stay at home or go to some of our colonies, and not try to rival the Americans, where the educated class are very keen and smart. After all if a man has moderate ideas and does not look to be a millionaire, some of the educated professions seem to be not yet over-stocked in this country — for instance, medical men are hardly procurable for Her Majesty's service — and there are many employments of various kinds throughout Her Majesty's dominions. To the man of the well-to-do classes with a few thousand pounds I would say that the land and the products would be somewhat strange to him, going from this country, and therefore, unless he lays out his money very judiciously, he might gain his ex- perience by losing it, the result, in a good many cases, of young men going out with money. If a man has money he should take care to look about him before he invests in America. There is a view taken by some of my acquaintances that a fine young man, Ayho does not care for indoor work, might farm in EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 99 America, and might thus make sure of an indepen- dent position. Now, in this respect there is a great deal of delusion. I do not think America is the place for every man who wishes to be a gentleman-farmer; the majority of that kind of whom I have heard have been unsuccessful. Land is cheap, but it cannot be used till houses have been built on it, fences erected, and the land itself improved in a great many ways ; and there is this fact, that labour is so dear that large farms, as a rule, do not pay. There are some large cattle farms which have paid, but these are the ex- ceptions, and have been of a speculative character. The only farms which surely pay are small farms worked by men who are willing to work with their own hands, and really to work hard. To men of that class I believe there is no country better than America, in which they may acquire an independent position, such as they would not have in this country, at a small cost, and with a small capital. Comparing, however, the condition of farmers in this country and in America, I must give it as my opinion that the average man who cultivates here 500 or 1,000 acres had better stay at home, or go somewhere else than to America. No doubt there is much room for improved farming in America ; at least many very competent Americans think so ; and a very energetic man who takes a lead in that way may make it succeed ; but he will be a sort of pioneer — he will not find things cut out to his hand. A man who takes to farming in America will not have the same comforts and society and civilised distractions that he has here. The dis- 100 bird's-eye view of the united states. tances are great, country neighbours few and rough, and servants scarce and dear. I have heard of many instances of ex-officers of the army and others who have taken to farming in America who, and still more whose wives, have had to go through hardships and hard work which they little thought of in their own country. On the other hand, some very pushing and energetic men have no doubt been successful as cattle- breeders and, in some of the far-away States, as wdieat- farmers on a large scale. In the wheat-growing tracts of the Red River of the North (in the far North- West of the States) and in the valleys of California, where great tracts of very rich and unincumbered prairie land have been obtained from railway compa- nies, Spanish grantees, and otherwise, the system is to lay in a great stock of machinery and keep a few men to take care of it ; then at sowing-time, and again at harvest-time, to hire great gangs of casual labourers, lumber-men out of work and others, to plough and sow in spring, and reap in summer, in great fields miles long. This is, however, a style of farming which is quite exceptional, and will not, I think, last very long. On the other hand, I would advise the small farmer with a little means — to whom I especially rec- ommend America — not to be too much led away by the prospect of getting a homestead grant for nothing in the farther parts of the country. I doubt whether such allotments can be taken up with advantage by men new to the country and climate, such as our countrymen of the class I describe. Successful set- tlements are, I believe, made by Scandinavians and EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 101 Germans, who are accustomed to a sort of communal arrangements and to a very rough life ; but a man who goes from this country, and who wishes to begin at once as an independent farmer, would, I think, do better to buy a ready-made farm. He may probably get a good one, with house and everything to his hand, at from 21. to 51. per acre. The most common size is 40, 80, or 160 acres, and he may enlarge that after- wards, if he is prosperous. If he has sons he may work a tolerable sized farm with his own family; if not, he may hire one or two farm labourers, and that class are readily enough procured, and do not receive very monstrous wages. Even the small farmer must not be too sanguine of a very brilliant success. The fact is that agricul- ture is now so largely spread and production is so en- ormous that, happily for the dwellers in older lands, food-stuffs are exceedingly cheap ; and, unless a farm- er has a special success in breeding or otherwise, he must be content to make a living by the sweat of his brow. But at any rate he will have a rough plenty — he need not want for a tolerable house and good food. He may well be an independent and self-respecting man. His children will be easily provided for, and he may enlarge his holding gradually. To a man not too ambitious and not in too great a hurry to be rich I believe that the life of a respectable farmer, owning his own land, in a country where he need call no man his superior, is happy, useful, and creditable. Now I come to the case of the labouring man willing to work hard for a good living. Any man ac- 102 bird's-eye view of the united states. customed to farm labour, or willing and able to take to that kind of work, can be sure of such a living in America. I have said that in these times labourers do not receive very extravagant wages, as at one time they did; but still they can earn higher wages than they do here, while food is cheaper, and a labouring man has better food. I have no doubt that on the whole such a man is immediately better off than he is at home ; and if he is prudent and saving he has certainly much better opportunities to rise. He may well hope to become an independent farmer after a time — a position to which, I fear, fewer and fewer farm-labourers rise in this country. The labourer, however, must, like the farmer, be prepared, if need be, to-go far afield, and must not grumble if he finds himself obliged to rough it a good deal for a time. He may have a good deal to learn, and experience some change in climate and habits. He muse not ex- pect to carry into remote ]3arts all the -ways to which he may have been accustomed. As regards the class of mechanics and others not willing to work on the land — artisans, navvies, miners, iron-workers, mill-workers, &c. — they are generally better off in America than in this country; but, owing to the depression of recent years, their position there is not so assured as that of those who are willing to labour on the land. During the bad times many American works have been stopped, and many good men, as well as a very great many indifferent and bad men, have been thrown out of employment and suffered much hardship. A good many of them have EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 103 given up their trades and taken to work on the land ; and business being now a little better, there is by no means so conspicuous a want of employment as there was. But still I could not advise people of- the classes to which I refer to go to America at present,' unless employment has been assured to them. I may say, while I am on this subject, that the successful artisan in America has, I think, much greater facili- ties for owning a nice home and garden of his own than in this country. There is one class of people who are in great de- mand in America, viz., domestic servants. I do not mean . male servants — I think domestic service is not the work for men — we require all .the thew and sinew of the nation for other work. But there is no doubt that America is a paradise for female servants. They are treated there as helps rather than servants ; and though it is necessary for them to work hard, still their employment is certain, and a really good servant may almost make her own terms. I have said that in recent years times have been somewhat hard in America, but I think there is a degree of exaggeration in that, because, though wages have been reduced, yet, on the other hand, the absolute necessaries of life are so much cheaper than they were as almost to make up for the difference. The ordinary labouring man, who in this country might earn 2s. 6d. or 3 s. a day, would in America earn a dollar ; a me- chanic who gets from 5s. to 6s. a day here would, if he succeeded in getting employment, earn consider- ably more, 104 bird's-eye view of the united states. I am afraid, however, that much of the advantage is lost owing* to the extravagant habits of the Amer- icans in regard to spending. The obligatory expenses, or even those necessary to the ease and comfort of a working man, are not so heavy as in this country ; but there is no doubt that all classes, high and low, have been to some degree spoiled by former prosper- ous times, and that they have not learned saving as they ought. Many think that recent hard times will have a very good effect on the habits of the American people, and in this I speak of the richer and more pretentious classes still more than of labouring men. On the other hand, many of the Germans and some other classes exhibit wonderful thrift, and are a model of careful and successful industry, by which they improve their position much more than some who may earn more and seem of a higher class. It must be felt that the absence in America of that wide social gulf between classes which so much exists in England is a great advantage to a working man who by skill and prudence rises to an indepen- dent position ; and the political system is certainly one which makes him feel that he has a better and more recognised place in the commonwealth. We cannot, too, shut our eyes to the fact that this is a risen country, where there is not apparent room for so much further rise as there is in America, with its illimitable opportunities for expansion; and in this respect the man who seeks to rise lias probably more to look to on the other side of the Atlantic. At the same time I cannot too often impress on EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 105 you that, while America is the place for the . man with a strong arm and a strong will to work — for the pushing and the energetic — it is most decidedly no place for the idle or the easy-going, or for men dis- contented with their lot, who think that a mere change of country will better it. There are too many of that sort in America already. This is the class which has suffered most from the want of em- ployment, and it is a class to which Americans are not inclined to be very tender. Any man who is not thoroughly self-reliant had better stay in the older and perhaps more indulgent country. There is this important consideration with respect to emigration, that many a man who hardly thinks that his own lot is improved by transplantation, and who sets against the advantages much that comes rather trying in the change, must feel that his chil- dren at least, growing up in America, will greatly benefit by the step which he has taken. To begin with, to the parents of large families the American educational system is a very great advantage. In all the best parts of America there is offered to all an excellent education, absolutely free, given to all chil- dren without distinction ; and the clever boy may not only thus learn the ' three R's,' but may go to the higher education, also given free, and qualify for higher work and a higher place than his father ever aimed at. If the son of a poor man is very ambitious he has certainly a better chance of being President of the United States than of being Prime Minister of England. And without looking; so hi^h as that, I 106 bird's-eye view of the united states. think there can be no doubt that not only the son of the energetic Scotchman and the prudent German, but also the son of the poor Irishman, brought up as an American citizen, has better prospects than in his own country. I won't say that this country has cul- minated and begun to go down — we have not, I hoj>e, come to that — but there is no doubt that, with very limited land and immense foreign competition in manufactures, we can hardly hope to hold a place relatively so far in advance of the world as we have in the past generations. We shall, I hope, still pro- gress in many ways, but it is almost in the nature of things that America must progress faster. I will sum up my views in regard to emigration to America as follows — taking the case of the aver- age man, not the exceptional man. If I were a young man with a moderate patrimony I would go and look about me in America, but would not invest my fortune there rashly ; it would be principally a question of temperament, and a choice between the safety and ease which such a man may have in his own country, or the adventure and the chance of making his mark which he may have in America. If I were a well-educated farm labourer, with a large family, I would certainly go. If I were an un- incumbered young farm-labourer or a young maid- servant without special ties in this country, I would go. If I were a young mechanic or mill-worker I think I should take the first favourable opportunity of go-' ing, and would take my chance for better or worse. EMIGRATION AND INVESTMENT. 107 A man of any other class I would not advise to go, unless lie feels a very special vocation for the adventure of American life. Clerks, professional men, shopkeepers, elderly mechanics and others of the working classes without a special engagement in America, may generally with greater advantage stay at home. All that I have hitherto said has principally had reference to emigration, and to the investment of capital taken out by those who themselves emigrate ; but perhaps I may say one word regarding the in- vestment of capital in America by people who do not emigrate, though that is a very difficult subject, and I should be sorry to give confident advice about it. No doubt the demand for money is greater in America than it is here, and the interest is higher; but on equal security the difference is not now very great. The United States Government can borrow at 4 per cent, as easily as we can at 3 \ — the security of that Government is, no doubt, as safe as any in the world. The New York money market is now a very large one, and investors there are glad to get moderate interest for safe investments. I think not fully 5 per cent, is to be got on first-class railway bonds and such-like securities, which give about 4 per cent, in this country. The difference between 4 and 4f may about express the degree to which in- terest is higher in America. All the second mort- gages, shares, &c, which bear higher interest, are more or less risky. It is true one is told that first-class mortgages on land are to be had at a 108 bird's-eye view of the united states. high rate of interest, but there is a good deal of diffi- culty about this — estates are not large, the titles are not always unconditional — most States reserve rights of wives, without whose consent the homestead can- not be alienated, and sometimes limited homesteads cannot be alienated at all. There is great variety in the laws of different States, and especially it should be noticed that in some parts of the country there is great uncertainty and liability to variation in the value of property, and a mortgage on estates one day said to be immensely valuable may more than exhaust the whole value another day. Some fine estates are made to sell, and I should be sorry to be the mort- gagee of a house in Chicago for half the value which it bore some years ago. It comes, I think, to this, that if a man with a good deal of money and a good knowledge of business devotes himself to the subject, he might invest his money well in this way in America ; or if you have a friend in America who is both competent and honest, and on whom you can thoroughly rely (but who in such matters can rely on anyone in these days ?), he may make a good in- vestment for you ; but it is not to be done by the or- dinary investor. As regards most of the State and city debts, and a variety of tempting investments of that kind, they require a very thorough knowledge of American pol- itics and finance, and I think that a man who has not that knowledge had better not touch them. FEELING T0WAKDS ENGLAND. 109 FEELING TOWABDS ENGLAND. Let nie now say one word more before I have done as regards the feeling in the United States to- wards England. Upon the whole I am quite sure that the people there feel kindly towards us ; in fact, ninety-nine out of the hundred do so, and perhaps the hundredth has no really hostile feeling. But there does still remain, among some of the Americans, a feeling that we did not behave well or kindly to- wards them during their great Civil War, and espe- cially some of these men are persuaded that it is due to our conduct that their mercantile marine has been destroyed. I will not deny that our miscarriage in permitting privateers to avail themselves of our ports and prey upon the commerce of the United States had something to do, for the time, with the destruc- tion of their mercantile marine ; but we have paid heavy ' smart money 'for that ; and I believe that the real cause of the continued decadence of the marine is, not what was done by the ' Alabama,' but the protec- tive system, which makes it impossible for a citizen of the United States to sail a ship abroad without pay- ing for it a great deal more than a citizen of Great Britain pays for his ship. However, I fear it is the fact that in connection with this subject a sore feeling does in some quarters exist. I am afraid that there are some peo]3le in some of the States who, in case this country were involved in war, would very readily undertake the enterprise and excitement of priva- teerino; against our marine. I do not believe that © © 110 bird's-eye view oe the united states. the central Government would willingly permit this ; but that Government is not strong enough to check all its citizens. If we could not prevent the i Alabama ' from going out of Liverpool can we be sure that the President of the United States could prevent ' Ala- bamas ' from going out from any port on the many thousand miles of seaboard of the United States \ This actual fact is certain, that, in view of the proba- bility or possibility of war with us, the Emperor of Russia has had several first-class cruisers built in Philadelphia, though he must have paid much more heavily for them than they would have cost in Europe; and the other day these cruisers were brought out and delivered over to the Russians with much parade. Happily this was after the immediate danger of war with Russia had passed. But that the vessels should have been built by Americans for the purpose for which they were intended seems to me to point to a very great danger. If we once got into a war there is no saying how far it might extend. If we ever go to war with Russia that country would strain every nerve, by means of such cruisers, to involve us with the United States ; and if once it comes to privateer- ing from United States ports there is all too much fear that sparks leading to a conflagration might be struck at any moment. I sincerely hope, by a -good under- standing, so terrible a calamity may be rendered al- most impossible ; and the word I say in conclusion, is, pray cultivate friendship, good-will, and amity with the people of the United States ; come to know- them well, and encourage them to know us well. THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. The paper on i Black and White in the Southern States,' which follows this, has appeared in the ' Fort- nightly Review,' and is now republished, with the kind permission of the Editor. 1 was, as I have there stated, led to look particularly into the relations be- tween the black and white races in the Southern States, for the sake of the lessons that might be learned as bearing on our management of British possessions where white and black races are intermingled. I do not here speak of our great dependency, India, where our system has been to rule both races by a Government avowedly absolute and despotic. In regard to that system I am one of those to be judged rather than to judge others ; but this at least I may claim, that the Indian administration of the past cannot be ac- cused of any habitual subordination of the rights and interests of the coloured races to those of the whites. Of our Colonies, beyond a few very casual visits, I have no personal experience, but as a member of Parliament, and also in connection with the coolie 112 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOUEED EACES. emigration from India to the Colonies, my attention has been during the past few years much directed to the management of our colonial possessions in tropical and semi-tropical regions. I cannot pretend to have mastered the details of the various colonies — the materials are not available. But the strong and broad glimpses obtained from official reports and Parliamentary papers and discussions have certainly led me to an unfavourable opinion of their adminis- tration as regards the treatment of the coloured races. In none of the Colonies does the Home Govern- ment exercise absolute and direct control, as in India ; in every case the colonists are admitted to some sub- stantial share in the government, whether in the shape of Constitutional Assemblies or of nominated Councils. Except to a limited degree in a portion of the Cape Colony proper (where, I believe, a very cred- itable and successful commencement has been made), there is no attempt to admit the coloured races to any share of political franchise — where there is any elec- tion of legislators or officials the election is in the hands of the white colonists only. And in the colo- nies called Crown Colonies the administration is al- most as much in the hands of a white oligarchy, for the Councils are mainly composed of the leading white colonists ; and the Colonial system is such (in this respect widely differing from that of India) that a large proportion of the official members of Council and other high officials are intimately connected by blood, business, and interest with the dominant race- of settlers. Whenever the views or interests of that THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 113 race conflict with those of the labouring population the safe-guarding of the latter rests principally with the Governor sent out by the Colonial Office. Not only, however, is he in many cases without sufficient power, but also the atmosphere and surroundings in which he lives are such, and the public opinion which is heard of beyond the colony is so one-sided, that it requires much more than common firmness to do jus- tice in excited times. Some governors have nobly done their duty ; some have more or less failed, to do so. I think one might point to cases in which the latter have gone off in a blaze of popularity and obtained pleasant promotion, while those who have taken the part of subject races have fared very dif- ferently. In the colonies where slavery once prevailed there is a hankering after compulsion to labour, which has, I think, given rise to injustice in many cases ; and even in colonies where there never was slavery, and where one would have supposed oligarchical abuses the least possible, recent official inquiries have dis- closed an astounding partiality in financial matters. Not only to this day have the revenues of Malta and Ceylon been largely derived from taxes on the im- ported food of the people (while the rich by compar- ison escape) to a degree with which the worst days of protection in England cannot compare, but it ap- pears that in Ceylon the internal cultivation of paddy or rice, the food of the poorest of the people, is subjected to a special tax from which the valuable products of the rich colonists are exempt. 114 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES, In our Colonies the disposition to compel labour has not affected the emancipated negroes nearly so much as in those of some other European countries. The negro has been to some extent under the protec- tion of a powerful philanthropic party in this coun- try ; and he himself, though good-natured and sub- missive up to a certain point, has shown that he can break out in an extremely dangerous w r ay when treated with injustice — we have had some exj)erience of that in Jamaica and elsewhere — and it is patent that the last negro outbreak in the Danish island of Santa Cruz was caused by extreme injustice in the attempt to limit wages and prevent free movement of the labourers. As a rule our colonists have probably more frequently failed to manage and utilise the free negro than greatly oppressed him. My own atten- tion has been more directed to the condition of the Indian labourers who have been substituted for the negro labour which has failed. Several inquiries by competent Royal Commissions in the past few years show that they have been treated with great unfair- ness in some of our colonies. In order to obtain the means of carrying on the coolie emigration the Government has been induced to sanction a system which would not be tolerated in the case of white labourers. In consideration that the expense is borne by the Colonies or the colonists, the labourers are bound down to labour for a teimof years. They do not engage themselves to masters whom they know, or to any individual, but are engaged to serve in the colony, and on their arrival are assigned to a master. THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 115 They are afterwards subject to be re-assigned and trans- ferred from one master to another, and from one estate to another, during the term of their indenture, without their own consent or voice in the matter. In short, call it as we may, and justify it as on the whole bene- ficial, if we can, there can be no doubt that it is a temporary, modified, and supervised slavery, so long as the obligation to labour lasts. The Indian Govern- ment have been careful to ascertain the voluntary character of the emigration, the fairness of the con- tracts, and the adequacy of the provision for the voyage ; but so soon as the coolie leaves India he passes out of their hands — the due execution of the contracts and the treatment of the coolie henceforth rest with the Colonial Administrations. It is evidently necessary that such a system, carried out in colonies where the masters are the dominant race, should be very jealously watched,'and there can be no question that the Colonial Office in England has always been actuated by a desire to protect the coolies. But there is great difference in the management of different colonies, and while some are good, abuses have crept into others. The Reports of the Royal Commissions, to which allusion has been made, show that in some instances the contracts made in India have not been fairly carried out, and that in several respects in- justice has been done. Great efforts have been made to remedy these evils, and I do not propose here to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the indenture system. What I have always strongly insisted on is, that at any rate after the indenture has 116 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. expired, the coolie is entitled to be treated as a free man on a par with any other of Her Majesty's sub- jects ; and my great complaint has been that Colonial authorities, under the guise of vagrancy laws and the like, have curtailed that freedom and equality to the extent of making the emancipated coolie's life un- endurable till he consents to re-indenture. To the disclosures contained in the Report of the Royal Commission on the coolie system in the Mauritius I chiefly refer, as showing both the injustice which may be done under Colonial law and the insufficient power of the English Colonial Office to control and remedy the injustice. Mauritius is the colony in which the system of coolie emigration is oldest and best established. It is no inaccessible place, but thoroughly well known. It is ranked in the official Colonial Office list as a Crown Colony of the first class, ' in which the Crown has the entire control of legislation.' Yet the Report shows that the Colonial Legislature Raided, by a Governor who took the side of the whites, and withheld information from the Home Government) was able in 1867 to pass the most monstrous laws — not disguised as general laws, but expressly directed only against the time-expired Indian emigrants who refused to re-indenture for long terms. These people were treated, not as free men, but (as the Colonial Office authorities have de- scribed it) as if they were ticket-of-leave convicts of bad character, adscribed to their localities, subjected to the most harassing police supervision and tyranny, heavily taxed for the benefit of Colonial officials, and THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED KACES. 117 oppressed by Colonial magistrates. One would have thought that, if this be really a Crown Colony, such disclosures had only to be made by such an authority as the Royal Commission to ensure an instant sweep- ing away of these injustices. I am sure no man ever presided at the Colonial Office with a greater desire to do justice than Lord Carnarvon; he immediately set; himself to do so, and he sent as Governor an old Indian administrator of whose desire to protect all classes there can be no question. But in truth, though Mauritius be a Crown Colony, as it is now constituted the Colonists have a majority in the Legislative Council, and Colonial views and ideas have much weight in the departments of the Colonial Office. Radical measures were not found easy ; it was deemed necessary in some shape to obtain the consent of and to a,ct through the Colonial Legislature. As a matter of fact several years passed in correspondence about draft bills ; up to the close of the last session of Parlia- ment the reformed legislation had not been passed ; I have only now learned that at last, at the end of 1878, the oppressive laws of 1867 have been repealed, and a new law passed which is a very great improvement. But even now the law does not treat the time-expired coolie as altogether free from restraint — he must be protected by a pass and by a photograph, which are to be surrendered to his employer whenever he takes sendee ; and he is still subject to certain rules and restrictions. While I write a very bad case of ill-treatment of coolies has been disclosed by papers presented 118 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED KACES. to Parliament regarding the "West India island of Grenada. A new Administrator went to that island in 1878, and a new Protector of Coolies had been appointed on probation in the early part of that year. In August the latter not only reported very illegal and cruel treatment of a recently arrived cargo of coolies, but denounced the whole system prevailing in the island, asserting that the persons in charge of the estates neither took care of the coolies nor paid them, nor provided for them when sick, and worked them to such a pitch that few would survive. He added that of 2,000 coolies formerly imported very few remained ; that ' the treatment they received was iniquitous,' and that it was ' sad to think what has become of the bulk of them.' The complaints of the Protector in regard to the newly-arrived coolies were fully confirmed. The Administrator took energetic and praiseworthy measures to rescue the survivors, but remarked that the Protector himself was not free from blame for having allowed this state of things to be possible, and complained of ' the spirit which seems to actuate him as evinced by his report, his failure to move about sufficiently, and his not going to live in the district where most of the emigrants are.' He adds, however : ' Indeed, the person whose house I had engaged refused to give possession on finding who it Nvas required for.' I should have thought the refusal of the planters to let the Protector live among them was rather a ground for vigorous measures to keep them in order. But the Administrator was satisfied that they had ' an earnest disposition '' to do what THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 119 was required ; and, ' as they are very* anxious to have an additional supply of immigrants, I see no reason why they should not have as many as they are able to pay for. ' Tt is stated that the Protector so recently appointed had been laid up by an accident. The Lieutenant- Governor of the Windward Islands, on the matter being referred to him, thought the Protector ' could not be altogether exonerated from blame.' 'But,' he added, 1 he is in many respects a good officer. He speaks Hindustanee, and is trusted and liked by the coolies. His unpopularity among the planters is in itself evi- dence that he discharged his duties conscientiously.' However, it was eventually settled to sret over the difficulty by superseding the obnoxious Protector who had spoken out too strongly. As he was only ' on probation ' he had no opportunity of defending himself. No inquiry was made into his allegations of past mismanagement ; but a new ordinance is to be considered by the local Legislature. The whole pro- ceeding certainly does not inspire me with confidence. I am one of those who believe that since we have, on one hand, in India great agricultural populations, docile, intelligent, and industrious, but constantly pressing on the means of subsistence, and on the other great possessions, which only require for their development such a population fitted for hot climates, it would be in every way beneficial from both points of view to encourage emigration from India, provided it be carried out on fair terms and the policy be accepted not merely to use the coolies as a substitute 120 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. for slave labour under planter-masters, but to facili- tate their free colonisation and settlement on the soil under a liberal* system similar to that adopted in the United States. Planters might then trust to a good free population for voluntary hired labour. It is impossible that the natives of India should distinguish between the British Government which they know in India, and the British Government of each colony ; and the better colonies suffer in credit and popularity for the faults of the bad. I hold, then, strongly to the view that we are not justified in encouraging and facilitating this emigration till we have much greater security for the treatment of the emigrants and an effective assurance that the personal freedom which (as distinguished from political freedom) they enjoy in India in an eminent degree shall not be abridged. In some of our Wes£ Indian Colonies there have very recently been important questions with respect to the management of the negro labouring population, but it is in the African Colonies that the questions relating to the African races are of the highest im- portance. Recent events have attracted very great attention to the subject, and have been the occasion of a mass of official information published in Blue- books, in which I have been much interested. I put aside external political questions, and now look to th© matter only as regards, the treatment of the large masses of indigenous blacks whom we either have found in the territories which we have acquired or have received under our protection and immediate or mediate control; for it appears that disturbances and THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 121 tyrannies beyond our borders have led to migrations of large numbers of natives and the settlement of many of them in our territories, or in Boer territory which we have since annexed. The great and long de- bated question in Africa seems to be, whether the natives who occupy large tracts almost exclusively are to be brought under civilised law or allowed to retain their own laws, more or less administered by their own chiefs. My own prepossessions have been entirely in favour of allowing the indigenes to retain their own laws, so far as they are not absolutely in- consistent with our system. That has been the prac- tice in India, in almost all things in the earlier days of our rule — and even when in later days we have come to regulate many things by codes common to white and black, we leave to every native class their own laws regarding marriage and inheritance, religious and social rites, and such-like matters. Since, how- ever, I have looked into the matter carefully I have seen reason to depart from this view as regards Africa, and rather to incline to a system which may lead us towards the state of things now found in America, where the Africans have been converted in manners, religion, language, and clothing, and assimilated to the white man's standard. The accounts we have of the African tribal administrations seem to be very un- favourable ; and though they are very often drawn from a hostile point of view, I must say that, looking to recent official summaries of native laws, as now administered in our Colonies, I do not think that they are such as it is desirable to retain. I do not here 122 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. enter on questions of marriage and the like ; but cer- tainly as regards property the system seems to nega- tive altogether individual ownership in a way which must be fatal to settlement and progress. The head of the kraal and of the house seems to have absolute control over all the property of the community, and that power descends undivided to a single heir, sub- ject only to the customary liabilities in respect of the maintenance of the members of the house. Individual property is, it would seem, not recognised. These people are not the possessors of an old civilisation and ancient laws, under which they have learned to manage their own affairs ; they are in no degree in the position of Hindoo and Mahomedan races in In- dia. They are mere barbarians, with some ill-defined customs which we have reduced to law. Even their tribes seem generally not to be well-established tribes under chiefs who are looked up to as the hereditary heads of clans and who carry a traditionary influence with them. African tribes seem to be mere casual aggregations of people under the chief of the day. We are constantly told that a modern people have been made up of ' broken tribes ' and fragments of all sorts. I should judge, then, that there is little of native law or rule which we are much called on to re- spect when these people come under our jurisdiction. On the other hand, if we would adopt the method of taming and civilising these people, I think what I have seen in America goes far to show how much good may result. The situation of the blacks in Africa is, of course, very different from that of their THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. 123 congeners in America; but through all differences I seem to recognise the same radical characteristics in the men and the women too. There seems always to be the capacity for making excellent labourers; and the tribes whom we have most effectually con- verted to our ways, such as the Fingoes, appear to exhibit very considerable capacities for improvement and civilisation. Altogether I see much reason to suppose that the African is quite at his best Avhen working with the example, guidance, and assistance of white men and following their ways. Of course one cannot have long experience of newly-acquired territories without feeling that changes must not be too violent and sudden, and that in many cases we must receive people to a certain extent on their own terms, and allow them to retain for a time many laws and habits which we do not ourselves think the best. But I incline, so far as I have seen, to believe that in the case of these African populations our ultimate aim should be, not to govern them under their own laws and religions, as we do the Indian populations, but to assimilate them as far as possible, and to make them a good agricultural and labouring popu- lation. At any rate, I hope that what I tell in the following pages of Africans so treated in America may furnish to the reader some material for forming an opinion on this point. I am greatly disposed to think that if, by a just and equal rule, we humanise and improve these Afri- can natives, protecting them from class tyranny of the white man on the one hand, and from their 124 THE MANAGEMENT OE COLOURED RACES. chiefs on the other, and teaching them to work as free men with the white man, great things may be achieved by these large populations in a vast country of great capabilities. The proof that South Africa has capacities is, that colonists can now afEord to pay wages which, seem much to exceed those paid in America. We may well hope that if they obtain a very large supply of the labour of humanised natives great prosperity may ensue and industry may be im- mensely developed, without any of those compulsory and unfair methods to which whites lording it over coloured races have sometimes been tempted to resort. I am sure no one can compare the present state of these African populations under their own tribal system with that of civilised Africans in America without feeling that such a change would be im- mensely beneficial to the native races of South Africa. From a selfish point of view I think we might especially look to such a consummation as beneficial to this country, because we have a very large and increasing class for whom it is becoming more and more difficult to provide : I mean the educated classes, somewhat above mere manual labour. I have said that I do not think America the country for that class — there I put it that the only farmer sure to succeed is he who holds the plough himself. After the early days of successful squatting have passed I suspect that most of our temperate colonies approxi- mate to a similar condition. It would be very desira- ble that there should be somewhere a field for the THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. 125 more educated and enterprising class, who are more fitted to direct and utilise labour than to do the mere manual work. Such a field might, I fancy, be found in South Africa, if we could humanise a great labour- ing population and establish a state of things such that a young man of good education, good tact, and >real energy might successfully work a large farm or other enterprise with the aid of native labour. All this, however, is chiefly speculation. I only throw out these hints as showing the sort of problems I have had in my mind when I went to study ' the nigger question '.in America, with the result set out in the following pages. BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. During a recent tour in the United States I was particularly anxious to obtain information regarding the relation of the black and white races, not only because the subject is in itself of immense interest to commerce and humanity, but because it is of special interest to ourselves, called on to deal with masses of the black race in South Africa, and the possessors of many lands in which white and coloured races are intermingled. In some of our colonies it has been supposed that the free negro has shown a great indisposition to labour. On the other hand, cotton, the great staple of the Southern States, and formerly almost entirely raised by slave labour, has been pro- duced in larger quantity since emancipation than ever it was before. How, I sought to know, has that been managed, political disturbances and difficulties not- withstanding ? As regards political questions, too, I am much impressed with the belief that our management of territories where white and black races are intermixed has not always been successful. An oligarchical sys- tem of government generally prevails in our tropical BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 127 colonies, under which considerable injustice has, I think, sometimes been done to the East Indian la- bourers imported to take the place of the emanci- pated negroes. Except in the Cape Colony proper no political representation has been allowed to the coloured races. I was, then, very anxious to see the effect of the political emancipation of the negroes in the Southern States of the Union. In the course of my tour I have had opportunities of conversing with many men of many classes (and quite as much on one side of politics as the other), who have had the greatest experience of the blacks in various aspects — educational, industrial, political, and other. I am indebted to them for information given to me with a freedom, frankness, and liberality for which I cannot be sufficiently grateful ; to none more so than to many Southern gentlemen who have gone through all the bitternesses of a great war on the losing side and the social revolution which fol- lowed — men whose good temper and fairness of state- ment, after all that has passed, commanded my ad- miration. I have visited not only the towns but the rural districts of four of the principal States for- merly slave-holding, viz., Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia; and it so happened that I was in South Carolina ( the ne pins ultra of Southernism) on the day of the late general election. I have seen and conversed with the negroes in their homes and in their fields, in factories, in churches, and in political meetings, and I think I have also been able to learn something of a very prominent 128 .THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. part of the population — the negresses. I feel that a single tour must still leave much to be learnt, but I have honestly weighed and compared all the infor- mation I have obtained from different sources, and submit the general result for what it may be worth. If my conclusions do not in themselves carry much weight, I hope that I may perhaps succeed in indica- ting some points worthy of inquiry and discussion. THE CHARACTER AND CAPACITY OF THE NEGRO. The first and most difficult question is the capa- city of the negro as compared with other races. In one sense all men are born equal before God ; but no one supposes that the capacities of all men are equal, or that the capacities of all races are equal, any more than the capacities of all breeds of cattle or dogs, which we know differ widely. There is, therefore, no prima facie improbability of a difference of capa- city between the white Aryan and the negro race, though I believe there is no ground for presuming that white races must be better than black. It is unnecessary to try to distinguish between differences due to unassisted nature and those due to domestication and education. No doubt the varieties of wild animals found in different countries differ considerably ; but the differences due to cultivation seem to be still more prominent in the animals and plants with which we are best acquainted. It is enough to take the negro as he is, and his history and BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 129 surroundings need only be briefly glanced at in so far as they afford some key to his present position and immediate prospects. The negro race now in America is derived from an admixture of people of various African tribes, probably differing considerably among themselves, but all, it may be assumed, in a more or less savage and little civilised condition. They have all passed two or three generations in slavery to white men, during which period all traces of their various origin have been lost, as well as their original lan^ua^es and habits. And now, though variety of breed, affecting their capacity, may still to some degree be present, if we could trace it, I believe that it is impossible to do so, and that we must deal with them as a single, English-speaking people. They are also now all Christians ; and though some African traditions may linger among them, they have for the most part adopted the dress and manners of their white mas- ters, and have been greatly civilised. In this latter respect there is, however, a considerable distinction. One portion of the negroes has lived in parts of the country where the white population was numerous — equal to or more numerous than the blacks — and thus, working among and in very intimate contact with white people, has very thoroughly learned their ways, habits, and ideas. But there is a broad belt round the outer portion of the Southern States where the climate is very injurious to the white man, and almost impossible to the ordinary white labourer. In this tract, containing much of the most productive 130 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. country, the whole labouring population was and is negro, the few white men being, in slave times, only the masters and drivers, and in no degree the com- rades of the blacks. In these tracks we have a thick population not so completely converted. Their lan- guage is still to some degree a sort of pigeon or negro English, and they are still to some extent a peculiar people — perhaps less good workers than those more thoroughly educated by contact with whites, but prob- ably as a rule more simple and docile. It should be noticed, however, that considerable migrations have taken place in the troubles consequent on the war, and that there has been some intermixture of the two classes. At the time of emancipation the negroes were destitute of education to an excessive degree. Not only were means of education wanting to them, but after some local troubles which alarmed the masters most of the Southern States passed laws making it highly penal to educate a negro. These laws endured to the last, and under them the generation upon whom emancipation came grew up entirely without instruc- tion. The only educated persons of the race were the few free blacks who had obtained instruction in the North, and a very few favourite domestic slaves, whom their mistresses had to some degree educated, the penal laws notwithstanding. Since emancipation a good deal has been done to educate the negro. Many schools in which a superior education is af- forded have been maintained by benevolent North- erners, and the State Governments have set up, and BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 131 continue to maintain, several colleges in which the more ambitious and aspiring young blacks are edu- cated. For the education of the masses a public school system has been started in all 'the States, of which the blacks have a fair share. Owing, how- ever, to financial difficulties these schools are ex- tremely imperfect, being open but a small portion of each year — in some States as little as two months, and in none, I believe, more than about four months on an average. However, this is better than nothing. The negroes show a laudable zeal for education, and upon the whole I think that as much has been done as could be expected under the circumstances. During the last dozen years the negroes have had a very large share of political education. Considering the troubles and the ups and downs that they have gone through, it is, I think, wonderful how beneficial this education has been to them, and how 7 much these people, so lately in the most debased condition of slavery, have acquired independent ideas, and, far from lapsing into anarchy, have become citizens with ideas of law and property and order. The white serfs of European countries took hundreds of years to rise to the level which these negroes have attained in a dozen. Such has been the thoroughness of the meas- ures adopted in America. Another education has, I think, greatly affected the character and self-reliance of the negroes. I mean what I may call their religious education. Like most primitive races (the aborigines of India, for instance) they are inclined to take Christianity in a more literal sense than their more civilised fellow- Christians, who have managed to explain most of it away to their own satisfaction. And these negroes are by temperament extremely religious people of an emotional type. They like to go direct to God him- self, and are quite unwilling to submit to priests claiming to stand between them and God. Hence it is that the Catholic hierarchy has had no success with them, and j)robably never will have. Every man and woman likes to be himself or herself an active member of the Church. And though their preachers are in a great degree their leaders, these preachers are chosen by the people from the people, under a system for the most part congregational, and are rather preachers because they are leaders than leaders because they are preachers. In this matter of religion the negroes have utterly emancipated themselves from all white guidance — they have their own churches and their own preachers, all coloured men — and the share they take in the self-government of their churches really is a very important education. The preachers to our eyes may seem peculiar. American orators somewhat exaggerate and emphasize our style, and the black preachers somewhat exaggerate the American style ; but on the whole I felt considerably edified by them. They come to the point in a way that is refreshing after some sermons that one has heard. I did not witness any of the more active emotions in which I understand congregations sometimes indulge ; but the practice of emitting in a hearty way a sort of responses here and there during the sermon seemed BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHEKN STATES. 133 to me earnest and not unbecoming. I witnessed a convention of Baptist ministers (the blacks generally are Baptists or Methodists), in a rural church, and it was a pleasant sight. The ministers by no means had it all their own way. The whole country-side seemed to have come in to assist, both men and women — and they seemed to be making a time of it — camped about for the day. The prominent position taken by the negro women is a feature in which they are distinguished from some Oriental races. No doubt this has some ad- vantages, but also I shall have to note some attend- ant disadvantages — social, industrial, and political. In matters matrimonial the women are somewhat too in- dependent and light-hearted; and the men also being on this subject given to a rather loose philosophy, the marital tie is not so binding and indissoluble as it might be. Those who take an unfavourable view of the negro character are in the habit of speaking of these traits of their character in severe language, and dwelling much on their immorality and want of family affection. I think, however, that it is scarcely fair to judge them by too high a standard. The truth is that the Aryan family has hardly yet established it- self among the negroes, and it is not surprising that this should be so. In Africa we know that nothing of the kind exists ; there, no doubt, the progenitors of the American blacks lived under the loose polyga- mistic system still prevailing there. Under slavery the family could not be introduced — it was impossible that there could be much permanency of marital ar- 134" THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. rangernents when the parties were constantly liable to be, and very frequently were, sold away like cattle; and the relation between parent and child was espe- cially weakened, or rather not created. The parents were not really responsible for the children ; on the contrary, the women were sent to work, and the chil- dren were carefully tended by persons appointed by the masters for the purpose, like calves or lambs or any other valuable stock. Parents had little affection for children thus reared, and children owed no respect and obedience to parents. The family as we know it is, in fact, a novelty to the negro since emancipation, and such institutions are not perfected in a day. Still the evil is a very grave one, esj^ecially in regard to the relations between parents and children. I have heard many authentic stories of children who have deserted or neglected their parents in a shocking manner, and the more than American liberty of the children threatens to render the next generation less tractable and useful than their fathers bred in slavery. We can only hope that time and religious influences will more completely establish the family system. Though the exceptions are many, there seems already to be much that is good and kind in the relations of the blacks to one another. If in some respects, other than marital, the women are rather troublesome, it seems that in this as in other things they have rather exaggerated American ways than set up ways of their own. Seeing the liberty, equality, and privi- leges enjoyed by the free white women, the negro women insist that their position among their own race shall not be inferior. BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 135 One great difficulty in estimating the qualities of the negro race, as tested by education, &c, is, that since under the American system all who have any share of black blood are classed with blacks, a large proportion of those who have received the most educa- tion. in former days, and who most frequently become known as prominent coloured men, are mulattos of mixed blood ; so, in fact, are many of the students in the higher schools. Whatever the qualities of those whose blood is mixed in various degrees, they are evi- dently no safe index of the negro qualities and capa- cities, and it is necessary to be constantly on one's guard on this point when one generalises from expe- rience of individuals. As respects the mulattos there is much disposition to disparage them; but I am inclined to think that this is in great part due to their peculiar jDosition — they are rejected from all the society of the whites, and have not been accepted by the blacks as their natural leaders. The same tone of disparagement has generally been adopted regarding the Eurasians, the people of mixed blood in India ; yet I believe their failure is more due to an unfortunate position than to want of effective qualities. In early days Skinners and Gardeners were men of great mark, and the Eura- sian drummer-boys of the old sepoy regiments were physically fine men and good athletes. I understand that in the New Orleans country, under the French practice (which has not our Anglo-Saxon antipathy to intimacy with coloured races), many Creoles of mixed blood attained a far higher position than in other parts of the United States. 136 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. Reverting now to the capacities of the negro proper as we find him in America tinder the circum- stances which I have described, the general opinion of those engaged in the education of the race is, that while the younger children are as quick and bright as white children, they do on the average fall off in some degree as they get older. Yet this opinion is not given without some consideration and qualification ; the intellectual gulf between the two races does not seem to be very wide and evident. I am told on all hands that some pure negroes show an educational capacity quite equal to that of good whites. Nothing is more difficult than to estimate accurately qualities of this kind, especially when, as in this case, the two classes are not taught together, but separately ; and there has not yet been time to see much of the results of educating the blacks on a large scale ; but I think that in general terms the direction in which all ex- perience points is that which I have stated, viz., that on the whole they are behind, but not very far behind. When we look to practical success in life appear- ances seem at first sight less favourable to the blacks. I constantly asked, ' Have any individuals among them come to the front and achieved success in industrial pursuits, in commerce, or in the professions ? ' and I could not learn that they have. ' There were,' I said, ' before the war a number of free blacks, many of them educated ; have none of them distinguished themselves in practical life ? And since emancipation the negroes have for years had the upper hand in some of the Southern States ; have none of them come to the front BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 137 among their own race by the process of natural selec- tion which has raised men to greatness in barbarous and Oriental countries ? ' Well, as I have already mentioned, they have shown some capacity as preach- ers, and they seem to have some talent for oratory (though I believe that Frederick Douglas and one or two other well-known men are mulattos, not real negroes). As politicians some of them have done fairly well, and are now good and popular represen- tatives of their race ; but I don't think any of them have made a great mark. The politics of the Southern States, while negro majorities prevailed, seem to have been in reality entirely under the guidance of the white ' Carpet-baggers.' For the rest I have not been able to hear of a suc- cessful negro merchant — the shopkeeping business in the most negro districts is almost entirely in the hands of whites. I have scarcely found a negro who has risen in the mercantile world higher than an apple-stall in a market. Certain professions they almost monopolise throughout the Union — waiters and barbers, and in some parts ship-caulkers ; but I found very few negro lawyers, and no doctors. All over the world it is curious to notice how ready people are to entrust the care of their souls to very unsafe home-rulers, and how much less trustful they are of their bodies. When I have put these failures to the friends of the negroes they reply that allowance must be made for very great disadvantages — even in the North, they say, the free negroes were subjected to a social 138 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. ostracism which made their success in commerce and the professions almost impossible. And as regards the South, they say, ' Since emancipation how short a time has elapsed ! — people enslaved and denied educa- tion cannot rise in a day.' In all this there is much truth. Still I cannot help thinking that if the race had been a very pushing and capable one, the men educated in the North would ere this have made more way in the South. ' Do you think,' I have said, ' that if they had been Chinamen they would not, in spite of all these disadvantages, have found their w x ay to the front in some directions ? ' I think it is admitted that to some extent this is so. The negroes are certainly not a race remarkable for energy and force under dif- ficulties. The only question is whether they are very deficient in these qualities. As respects mercantile qualities, we may remember that there are many ex- cellent races who show no aptitude that way and permit alien races to usurp the mercantile functions. In the Southern States the white Americans them- selves are very much ousted from the business of small storekeepers by the Germans, who are to the manner born. What is more disappointing is the failure of the negroes, so far, as superior artisans and in all that re- quires accuracy and care. As it is expressed, they are not responsible — they cannot be depended on. In slavery times some of them were pretty good artisans, and many of them, in the South, are now fairly good carpenters, bricklayers, and blacksmiths. But they seem hardly to have progressed in this respect since BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 139 emancipation. A man who will do his carpentry so far well enough will not fit the pieces accurately; and in factories which employ black labour they do not rise to the higher posts. In the North the trades unions are so strong, and the jealousy of the negroes on the part of foreigners, Irish and others, is so great, that they would not have a fair chance ; but in the South they labour under no such disadvantage, and employers rather prefer negro labour ; yet in practice they don't seem to be able to trust the blacks beyond a certain point. In mechanical shops the blacks do the manual labour, but are hardly trusted to work engines. ' Perhaps a negro might learn to work the engine,' an employer said to me, 'but I never could be sure that he would not go to sleep on the top of it.' In tobacco factories the labour is almost exclu- sively negro, and many of them are very well paid for labour requiring considerable skill ; but I noticed that for certain work, the weighing and making up the packages and such-like, white men were always employed. I was in all these cases assured that no black man could be trusted to be accurate. Yet they make very fair cotton-farmers, and much of their handiwork in various branches of industry is quite good. On the whole, I think it must be considered that at present, whether from natural defects or from want of cultivation, they are to a certain extent inferior to white men in the qualities which lead to the higher grades of employment. On the other hand, they have a very remarkable good nature and good temper, 140 THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED RACES. much docility, and great physical power and endu- rance — qualities that admirably fit them for labourers. Considering from how low and oppressed a condition they have been lately raised, and how infinitely higher their position now is, it is hardly ground for disappointment that they do not immediately rise in large numbers to the higher grades of society. They have now opportunities of education which will enable them to rise, if they are fitted or when they are fitted for it. For the present we may deal with them in their existing position as the labouring population of the Southern States. THE NEGROES AS A LABOURING POPULATION To understand the relations between the whites of the South and the blacks, as labourers and farmers, ^Ye must go back a little. In later slave times — in the States, at least, to which my inquiries were chiefly directed — the slaves were not worked out like omnibus horses ; in fact, the capital sunk in slaves was so heavy, and produce had become so cheap, that the principal source of profit was what . was called the ' increase ' of the slaves — the breeding them for the market or for new plantations opened in the more Western States. As in breeding-farms for other kinds of stock, the human stock was carefully, and, on the whole, kindly treated ; and although the sell- ing off the young stock as it became fit for the market was a barbarous process, still, the family relations being so weak as I have described, those who re- BLACK AND WHITE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 141 mainecl did not feel it so much as we should ; and I think it may be said that the relations between the masters and the slaves were generally not unkindly. One old gentleman in Carolina dwelt much on the kindness and success with which he had treated his slaves, adding as the proof and the moral that they had doubled in twenty years. Then it must be remembered that in all the older States the whole of the land was private property — there was no unowned land available to squatters — and through all the political troubles the rights of property have been maintained inviolate ; neither by mob violence nor by class laws have they been inter- fered with. In some limited portions of the Southern States, occupied early in the war by United States troops, a good deal of the property of absent seces- sionists was sold for non-payment of taxes in a way which the Southerners call confiscation, but this was clone by the authority of the United States Govern- ment. The Carpet-bagger and Negro State Govern- ments and Legislatures never seriously infringed on the rights of property. After the war the Southerners accepted the situa- tion as few but Americans can accept a defeat, and, instead of throwing up their hands and crying to heaven, sought to make the best of the lands that re- mained to them. It seemed not impossible that, the property in slaves being written off as lost, the land might be as cheaply and effectively cultivated by hired labour, if the negroes could be got to work ; at any rate it was a necessity to get it cultivated some- 142' THE MANAGEMENT OF COLOURED EACES. how. The negroes, on the other hand, found that they must work or starve ; and the feeling between them and their former masters being, as I have said, not un- friendly, the matter was arranged in one way or another. Under the old system there were no great estates in the English sense — that is, very large properties, let to tenants. The large plantations were what we should call large farms, several hundred acres — up to, say, a thousand or fifteen hundred — being cultivated by the owner with slave labour. Some of the old owners, and some Northerners and Englishmen who purchased encumbered estates at a cheap rate, at first tried to maintain this system with hired labour, but the result has been to show that, as in almost all the States of the Union, large farming does not pay as well as small farming, and consequently the large farms have for the most part been broken up or let to small farmers. There is a general concurrence of opinion, and not of opinion only, but of the most practical experience, that the blacks make admirable labourers when they are under sufficient supervision. On public works, and all undertakings carried on under professional superin- tendence, nothing can be better or more effective than their labour. They are physically exceedingly fine men ; they stand any climate and any weather, and are quite ready to do a good day's work for a mode- rate day's pay, provided it is fairly and regularly paid. I heard of no case in which when such work has been offered to them they have preferred to squat down in idleness ; that allegation asrainst the ne WHITE IN" THE SOUTHERN STATES. 181 the withdrawal of the United States troops the Carpet- baggers were entirely routed and put to flight, and Wade Hampton assumed the undisputed government. He has certainly had much success. His party claim (I believe with justice) that he has done much to re-, store the finances, promote education, and protect blacks and whites in the exercise of peaceful callings. As regards political matters, his policy amounts, I think, to this ; — it is in effect said to the blacks : ' If you will accept the present regime, follow us, and vote Democratic; we will receive you, cherish you, and ,give you a reasonable share of representation, local office, 5 a week, fifty cents a clay being the wages for common hands, They are very regular and well-behaved. Some men work well too. but they are not so good as the women. They work eleven hours a day. By the way. I may mention that I have met some people who speak rather in a depreciatory way of the morals of the charming young ladies who do the mill-work in Kew England factories ; but I have not visited these latter, and cannot say whether this is a libel. So blacks are employed in the mills here. The manager says they are nut "responsible.* He has not tried them — perhaps they might do well enough under superintendence. Before the war there were. I understand, several small mills success- fully worked by slaves. It would not be possible to work black and white women together. The white women would not submit to it : they are far more intolerant than the men. I made the acquaintance of a gentleman in the iron- mongery trade. Mi*. D . who gave me much assistance. He says he has a good many English goods. ZVo one can rival the English in cutlery and some other things, but the larger machinery is made best in America. I was also intro- duced to Mr. N . a Charleston man. settled here as a cotton-buyer. He seems to think that the negroes have hardly so good a chance in Georgia as in South Carolina. They are the majority of the population about here, and most of the cotfc >n is raised by their labour — principally on shares and cotton-rents — but it is not a very satisfactory- svstem. The farming is poorly dune, and the negroes are apt to change about a good deal. There are a good many Irish in these parts, especially in the upper parts of the country : but they are mostly rather a low type — people who come up from the Kbrth in search of work. They are employed on the streets and ditches of the town, and to a considerable extent on the railways : but the white men do not work better than the blacks, and get just the same pay. This is confirmed by gentle- men who have charge of railways and have had experience of both classes of workmen. The climate of Augusta is hot in summer, but mild in winter. Mr. X took me for a drive to Somerville. an elevated spot, with very pretty houses, and where the climate is very good. Aikin, which I have already mentioned, is a similar place, not very far distant. "We saw some cotton grown by white planters near the town, and had some talk with them. The fields we saw were very produc- 348 . my jouena£. tive : the yield would be about a bale an acre. They sa} r the cotton sometimes suffers from drought ; but they have this advantage in this climate, that if the first bloom is lost they get a large second bloom later in the season, and that is the case this year. The most productive cotton-lands are in Cen- tral and South-west Georgia — principally the Hatter lands, where the rivers run out from the higher country. They say, however, that the farther north and the higher up cotton can be made to grow, with the aid of stimulant manures, the better its quality is. Most of the whites in this State own land. The poorer whites are generally either in the upper country or in the poorer parts of the low country. People here will not admit wdiat I had been told else- where, that, compared to other Southern States, Georgia is prosperous. Things, they say, are in a bad way, and property has much depreciated. They admit, however, that things are better than they were ; but there is still great complaint of want of money, in consequence of which the rate of interest is excessive. They say that responsible men with much property have had to give 2 per cent, per month for loans, and have still to pay 8 or 10 per cent, per annum. From Augusta I travelled to Atlanta, the present political capital of Georgia. The first part of the line went for a long way through a little cultivated country, abounding in pines and scrub-oaks, the cultivation being only occasional and rather poor. This somewhat surprised me after what I had heard of the quantity of cotton grown in this country, but it illustrates what I had before been^ several times told, viz., that the railways very generally run along the ridges, and that thus in travelling by railway one sees the least favour- able specimens of country. Thirty or forty miles out of Augusta, however, cotton became very abundant, growing on undulating ground. All the way on to Atlanta the country was a good deal undulated and varied, with a good deal of wood. This seems the general character of the greater part of these Southern States ; and after all but a fraction of the whole country is cultivated. As we got on we came to a dis- trict considerably elevated, about Barnet and Crawfordsville, and I noticed that in this fine healthy-looking country there was a considerable white population. A large proportion of the cottages we passed here seemed to be inhabited by whites. These cottages generally are very miserable-looking dwell- GEORGIA. 349 ings, according to our ideas, but they seemed to be full of healthy children. There are a good many blacks also. I un- derstand that in the country we have been passing through the population is about equally divided between blacks and whites. To the south of this line are the great cotton-pro- ducing districts, where the black population prevails ; but to the north, again, where the country rises considerably, there is a portion of Georgia which is quite a white man's country, and now contains a large white population. There are, I understand, flourishing places there, such as Athens and Gainsville ; and quite recently that country has been im- mensely opened out by a new line of railway running from Salisbury, in North Carolina, to Atlanta, through the higher tracts. That country seems to have been exceedingly isolated before it was penetrated by railways. They say that the tobacco produced there after being packed in hogsheads was literally rolled down to Augusta and other civilised places, not so very long ago. I noticed many cattle as we passed along, but they did not seem to be in very good condition. I am told that they are rather a poor breed, and do not give much milk ; and I can testify that they eat tough ; but great efforts are now being made to improve them. I made the acquaintance in the train of Mr. Stephens, a Senator of this State, going up to the Legislature, Avhich is now in session, and had a good deal of talk with him. He is a nephew of the well-known Alexander Stephens, the Vice- President and brains of the Confederacy, who is himself a Georgian, from this part of the country. His accounts of the country and people tally pretty well with what I have before heard. He repeats and emphasises the complaint about scarcity of money. The State, he says, is very far from pros- perous, and in consequence the fields, very many of which are a good deal exhausted from long cotton cultivation, are not sufficiently manured nor cultivated so well as they should be. He says that comparatively few blacks own land ; they do not save money to buy it. On the contrary, they are generally obliged to get advances to carry them through the season in the cultivation of their small farms. By law the proprietor has a lien on the crops for his rent and advances ; and when the accounts are settled at the end of the season the black farmers are often behind and have nothing to get ; and then next year they either go on in the same way or 350 MY JOURNAL. go off somewhere else. -I have since, however, met men who declare that they have kept their old slaves on their land, except, perhaps, that just at first most of them may have gone off for a year or two to prove their independence, and then returned and settled down. The common rent is two bales of cotton — that is, about 900 lbs. for as much land as a mule can work. The whites in this part of the country generally have land of their own, and work fairly well. [Near Mr. Stephens' there is an old settlement of Catholic Irish, who are now good farmers. The cattle do not suffer from want of grass ; there is plenty of it ; and Mr. Stephens does not doubt that the breed will be improved. He explained to me about the grass which is prevalent here what interested me much, namely, that it is really the East Indian grass known in that country as ' Dhdop grass ; ' that is, sun-grass. I had already noticed in the Southern States that the grass reminded me very much of what I had seen in India, and it seems there is no doubt that it is an importation. It was introduced from India into the Bermudas, and from Bermuda into the States, whence it is called -Bermuda grass. It is considered to be first-rate fodder, and is only too plentiful ; that is to say, it is not easily kept out of the culti- vated fields. It does not injure wheat, as it is kept down b}^ the cold until the wheat is up ; but the cotton being sown later, it is very troublesome to that crop, and necessitates much weeding. At first, when it spread over the country, as it did very rapidly, it created quite a panic, and much depreciated the value of the cotton-lands, but now people have discovered that it is so good a grass that they are glad to have it. I asked Mr. Stephens about Georgian politics. He says that after the war for a time they were allowed to manage their own affairs ; then the Constitution of 1868 was forced upon them by the Federal Government, and for a short period the Republicans were in power in the State, but apparently by no means an irreconcilable Republican party. The Governor of those days was a Northern man, who had been settled in Georgia before the war, was ' a good rebel ' during the war, and generally liked. In 1870 the Democrats again got the majority, and kept it — so much so that they have now almost everything throughout the State. There are now only two blacks and five or six Republicans in the Legislature, but GffiOKGIA. 351 there are many Independent Democrats. He talks as if the blacks are not politically irreconcilable, as in Sonth Carolina, but amenable to influence and money ; they can be managed well enough, if only a little money is available. The Indepen- dents have not established a separate policy ; they have only stood in opposition to the Caucus system of the party. He showed me a speech of Dr. F , one of the Independents just elected to Congress, setting forth the principles upon which he stood as being distinctly Democratic. Dr. F , however, seems to be decidedly ' greenbacky.' He is very strong in favour of silver, but he is also for a ' sufficient, but not excessive paper issue,' so as to bring up values and save debtors. I suspect the Independents in these parts are certainly in the main Greenbackers. Apparently they have generally got the Republican vote. One Independent is, however, de- scribed as a ' Bourbon Democrat.' Bourbons are the high- handed party, who would like to act as the Bourbons did. Mr. Alexander Stephens still lives, in poor health, as has always been the case, but his intellect is as bright as ever, and he is a member of Congress for the district of Georgia in which he resides. He is, in fact, practically an Independent, though he accepted the Caucus nomination. He is now entirely for a moderate and conciliatory policy. He is also very strong for silver, and would have both an unlimited coinage of that metal and the issue of silver certificates. I am told by some people that a strong repudiation feeling is growing up both in the South and in some parts of the North. By the Constitution of the United- States, States can- not repudiate their -debts, but they can refuse to make any appropriation to pay the interest. Georgia has just had a new Constitution, with a good many changes, and the present Assembly has recently met for the first time under this new Constitution. Mr. Stephens says, however, that the changes are not of an important poli- tical character. I aked him about the homestead law protect- ing the debtor, and he gave me an account which interested me much. Under the old law of this State the homestead up to fifty acres of land, with the necessary implements and pro- visions, were absolutely protected from execution for debt, and the right could not be waived ; so that no mortgage or any- thing else took away this privilege. Under the Constitution of 1868 the homestead privilege was extended to the value of 352 MY JOURNAL. $2,000 realty or $1,000 personalty. It was hoped in this way to save the indebted Georgians from their "creditors, but the Supreme Court of the United States declared that this pro- vision was contrary to the United States Constitution so far as it purported to have retroactive effect ; and so the Georgians, finding that it had no effect to save them from past debts, and took away their credit for the future, have reduced the amount under the recent changes. The right can now be waived, and so small proprietors are enabled to mortgage their property and raise money upon it. Atlanta is in an elevated region, about 1,100 ft. above the sea. It is now a great railway centre and a prosperous place ; but, as I am to remain here some days, I am disappointed to find that it is not at all a pretty or nice town ; very inferior in amenities to all the other Southern towns I have seen. It is, in fact, anew brick-built town ; with no trees in the streets, but abundant mud, for there is now a good deal of rain. As in all American towns, there are some nice enough villa suburbs, but there is no river or open ground near. The principal hotel, the Kimball, is crammed full, and I had diffi- culty in getting in. It is a fine large establishment, with a great hall in the centre, which is immensely crowded. I have here realised for the first time what American spitting is. It really requires some nerve to walk across the hall. This is about the busiest season of the year for the cotton traffic and mercantile business generally, besides that the Legislature is in session. I understand that the climate of this elevated region is very good. At present, on account of clouds and rain, it is rather warm and muggy for the season of the year. The next day I went to the Houses of Legislature in the Capitol, and was very civilly treated. I was voted the floor of both Houses. Access to the floor seems to be pretty free to a good many people, to say nothing of the ample galleries, where there were on this occasion but few spectators. I spent most of my time to-day in the Senate, which is comparatively a small body ; but I looked into the Assembly also. The de- bates seemed to be of an ordinary, commonplace character. In the early part of the session a good deal of the business is formal, very many of the bills being brought in, read a first and second time, without much debate, and referred to com- mittees. Evidently all the forms of these American Legisla- tures were originally derived from our Parliament. They GEORGIA. 353 have, however, much need of brevity, for in this State the Legislature sits biennially, and is limited to a session of forty days unless it is continued by a two-thirds vote. They conse- quently from time to time limit the speakers by a vote of the House ; generally the limit is ten minutes in the Assembly and half an hour in the Senate ; but often by a simple vote it is reduced to live minutes or extended. Then they have and fre- quently use ' the previous question,' or cloture. They certainly get through a great deal of business — far more, I am told, than does Congress. It seems to be tolerably well done, though sometimes rather hastily. About half the Senate and one- third of the Assembly or House are lawyers, and very many of them are ambitious of drawing bills, so there is no difficulty on that score. At present there are no regular parties, the Democrats having it all their own way. Evidently, however, the Independents are very largely represented ; in the late elections they have got nearly half of the seats in Congress for Georgia. They are not united in any pronounced policy as regards the blacks, but lay themselves out for black votes, and there is thus a division with regard to the blacks which has a wholesome effect. I liked the style of the men I saw. Many of the Senate appeared to be superior men, and the representatives in the Assembly seem to be a decent-looking set — only an exceptional man here and there had his legs on the table. I am told that nearly every man in the Senate is a speaker. The Americans certainly go in for oratory more than we do. Their style is peculiar. They have a way of emphasising the last word of every sentence and the last sentence of every subject. However, on every-day subjects the speakers I heard bringing on motions or discussing them seemed to be reasonably brief and not excessively loud. The halls are large, and the acoustics p not very good ; so that, besides not being accustomed to our quiet English ways, it would be difficult for a man to make himself heard, amid the buzz of a good many people moving about the floor, without speaking pretty loud. Conspicuous among those moving about were the candidates for the Judgeships of the Superior Courts, who are to be elected in a day or two, and who were going from member to member soliciting votes. ■ Lobbying ' is strictly forbidden by a special article of the Constitution, but that provision is certainly not observed, unless, indeed, it be considered that canvassing ivithin the House is not 'lobby- 23 354 MY JOUKNAL. ing.' It is the habit of American Legislatures to have a roll-call upon many occasions. Members are not allowed to absent themselves so easily as with us. To-day there was a roll-call at the commencement of business in the Senate, but it was dispensed with in the Assembly by a motion. Prayers were said by a chaplain, who happened to be an Episcopalian, but the duty is taken, turn and turn about, by the ministers of various denominations. The pay of the legislators is not high, and has lately been reduced. It is only a daily allow- ance while the session lasts, and hardly covers expenses ; so there is no temptation to do much legislation on that ground. Afterwards I was introduced to Mr. Colquitt, the present Governor. He puts it that everything in Georgia is done by the representatives of the people, not by the people them- selves. That, I take it, is the great difference between tlie Southern system and that of the Xorth, where the popular township is the basis and original unit of the political sys- tem. The Governor and others whom I met, and who have had experience of Congress as well as of local Legislatures, say that the latter work better and give more satisfaction than does Congress ; but a Senator who heard this view inter- posed with the caution, ' You must look inside, here and else- where, in regard to legislation : there is too much of " Tickle me, and I'll tickle you." ' It seems that at this moment there is a secret committee sitting on some large disbursements in regard to which imputations have been made against the Governor. At the hotel I met a planter of extreme Democratic views, strongly opposed to Independents and all other defec- tors from the party. He thinks niggers are only made to be slaves. They work well when compelled, but will do nothing without compulsion. He has himself a farm of 500 acres, and no man has worked harder than he has ; but he cannot make a living — with the price of cotton so much down and wages not down the cultivation is a dead loss, and he is disgusted with the world. Between us, however, we made out the moral to be that a farm so large as his does not pay, especially when the owner does not like niggers. He is now dividing it up. Part he has given to his sons, and part he is selling. He admits that men with small farms, who work themselves and can look well after -two or three nigger servants, may live. GEOEGIA. oOO In the evening^ I walked out into the country and saw some of the country people. I interyiewed a small black farmer who has a farm of twelye acres, in the midst of the woods. He was a slave. After emancipation the owners of this land, who were relations of his former mistress, allowed him to squat and clear this patch, on the understanding that he was to pay rent when he could. Presently the land was sold, and the new owner makes him pay four dollars an acre — a heavy rent ; but he does not seem to complain, as the land is near the town. He has eight acres in cotton, and expected to have got three or four bales or more ; but there has been much drought this year, and he has little more than two bales. One bale I saw screwed up and ready for market, but he is keeping it back -for a better price. He gets along pretty well ; but many others are worse off, wages being low and employment precarious. He explains, however, that what he calls low wages is Mtj cents a day, or sometimes sixty or seventy cents, when work can be got. He is a strong Republican in his politics, but says that many of his fellow-blacks are won over to the other side. Altogether, though quite uneducated, he seemed to be a good and intelli- gent specimen. Next day I made the acquaintance of Mr. O , the Superintendent of State Schools, a thorough old Southerner, who literally ' never set foot on free soil ' till his own State was made free ; and to this day he has never been in the Northern States. He is now, however, very zealous in favour of progress and education. I- went to hear a lecture given by him in the evening. He says he began by being strongly against education, but now finds it is the only way of dealing with the people under present circumstances, and he only wants money to carry it out. The State has behaved very handsomely in maintaining a black college, where 200 young negroes receive Avhat he thinks only rather too high an edu- cation. The educated blacks look to be politicians, preachers, and teachers. The effect is not unlike the higher education in India, the only difference being that there the educated natives look to being lawyers, while here they look to be politicians. Mr. O maintains that, imperfect as they are, the ordinary country schools are doing much good — three months' schooling is better than nothing: the seed is being sown. In most of the large towns and one or two 356 MY JOUKNAL. counties, they have a superior system, and keep the schools open much longer. A man in Mr. O s position is not at all situated like one of our inspectors of schools. He is a poli- tical office-holder as much as one of our Ministers, and his lecture was, in fact, a political speech of a departmental char- acter. He appealed especially for funds for his department. He and others want to introduce a special drink-tax, such as that called in Virginia the 'Moffat tax,' which, he says, would yield a large sum ; and he is also very strong for a dog- tax, to go in aid of education. For an out-and-out Southern man he seems extremely reasonable. He says, with hosts of other Southerners, he considers the war is ended, and they do not want to renew it, but want to make the best of the existing situation. Another day I spent principally in the House of Repre- sentatives. The galleries were very well filled, many ladies being there, and on one side many blacks. The interest is principally on account of the election of the United States Senator, which is to take place this day, although there is no opposition. The proceedings were of an ordinary kind, but a fair debate of some length arose, in which the speaking was brief and to the point. The House was quite patient, but at last the ' previous question ' was moved and the pro- ceedings brought to a close. The members seemed generally very quiet ; there was little ' Hear, hearing ; ' and when at last a hit was made it was recognised by stamping and ap- plause such as we have at public meetings. The members generally were respectable-looking and well-dressed ; only a few were in rural-farmer sort of clothes. I noticed nothing very American except a good deal of spitting. In debate there was a little less strictness than in our own Houses of Parliament — more interruption and questions put by one speaker to another — but still parliamentary form was suffi- ciently maintained to remove the proceedings from any im- putation of a parish-vestry character. The business seemed to be well got through in a simple and dignified way. When the time came for the election of the Senator the two Houses came together in joint session. There was then a roll-call, and each member rose in his place and gave his vote. There is no ballot in this election. I was introduced to an ex-member of Congress, Mr. P — — . He comes from the extreme north-east of this State — the GEORGIA. 357 hilly country, where the gold-mines are worked. It seems that all the north of Georgia was acquired from the Indians when they were moved beyond the Mississippi in the present century. Their lands were purchased by the State of Georgia and divided up in forty-acre lots ; and thus it is that small white farmers owning their own lands are very numerous in that part of the country. Now there are no lands belonging to the State except irreclaimable swamps. Some of the mines are now to a considerable extent worked by convict labour. It seems that a very large number of blacks are sent to prison, and that they are generally hired out. In slave times little was thought of petty pickings — such as taking a turnip from a field — but now such things are very severely punished. I asked Mr. P about the jury system. lie admits that few blacks are put upon juries, except in the United States Courts, but he declares that the blacks prefer white jurors and gen- erally challenge those of their own race, because the latter are bloodily inclined, and are always for hanging culprits. They do not like poor whites, and prefer those who have owned slaves — the latter generally have a sympathy for the blacks. Mr. P says that the forms and style of the Legislature here very much resemble Congress, and the rules are much the same. In the session of 186S-9 there were two sides, much as there are in Congress. The whites at first expelled the blacks from the Legislature, alleging that they were not eligible to sit there ; but the blacks were restored by the au- thority of Congress. In spite, however, of some struggles at this period, this State did not suffer much from Republican rule. The men in power were capable men, and the best men of the State lent a hand. Some people seem to think that the Constitution of 18G8 was better than the new one which has just been inaugurated. There being no townships in this State, the counties are divided into militia and education dis- tricts. The militia districts are an old institution, and they are used as a convenient arrangement for other purposes also. As in other States, many special local bills are passed by the State Legislature, such as bills to authorise a particular county to raise a special education tax, or to deal with the 'fence question ; ' to stop the sale of liquor in particular places, or to give the inhabitants the option of doing so. I have been inquiring regarding the liquor laws prevailing here ; they are somewhat complicated, but I make them out to be as follows : — 358 MY JOURNAL. First, the United States levy and excise duty on all spirits, and also a quarterly duty for licenses to sell ; but for retail sale a man must also get a license from the State of Georgia. These licenses are given by the Probate Judge or Judge-Ordi- nary, who as a rule gives them to every person of good char- acter and who can give sufficient security for his conduct. For this local license another license fee is levied, which goes to the funds of the county. The Legislature may, and often does, grant to corporate towns authority to levy these license fees on their own account, and they generally charge much higher rates in the town than in the country. For instance, the local license tax for liquor-shops in this part of the country is 825 in rural places, but $300 hi Atlanta. In places where the sale of liquor is prohibited by law every kind of sale is prohi- bited. There is no exception in favour of wine merchants or grocers ; but private persons are not prevented from importing their own liquors from distilleries in other parts of the country. I visited Colonel P , a gentleman to whom I had an in- troduction, and who is a very old institution here. His family had much property in Pennsylvania, but he came up here a long time ago, and acquired land which had been bought from the Indians ; he was, in fact, one of the first settlers in Atlanta. He says that large tracts of land situate in central Pennsylvania, by which his family expected to make their fortunes, were eventually sold for a dollar an acre, the people having gone "West, not caring to cultivate the poorer lands in that part of the country. During the war Colonel P did a large business in blockade-running, for which he had facilities in being President of one or two Southern railways, and he seems to have made much money in that way. Besides much property and a large model farm in this State he has a ' ranch ' in New Mexico, looked after by one of his sons. Altogether he seems to have been a great speculator and enterpriser. He is evidently now a thorough Southerner in feeling. He thinks the negro first-rate to ' shovel dirt,' a function for which he was made, but no good for much else. He must be ' kept in his place,' as it is the fashion to say in Georgia. In accordance with the common opinion here, he says that the cultivation of cotton has been overdone, and the soil exhausted by overcropping. Many people are now emigrating to Texas ; and, besides the white people who go there, a good many unattached blacks have GEORGIA. 359 been carried off to the South- Western States by people who have embarked in enterprises in that direction. He, like others, says that the attempt to carry on large farms in this part of the country has not been successful. They are now being divided up, but the division is arrived at more by the partition of estates among the members of families than by selling to negroes. This is a healthy country, and the popu- lation increases. The Southern gentlemen now work much better than they did. According to some, however, the whites work only because they must; and the negroes work too, although they had rather not. Colonel P says the ne- groes are not fitted to hold farms. The renting system leads to deterioration of the land. A negro lets it run out, and only cultivates the best part. People are going back from this renting system, and prefer moderate-sized farms of their own, upon which they can employ two or more negroes and look after them well. He talks with horror of the immorality of the negroes, and is altogether pessimist upon this subject. He and others are strong on the badness of the free and inde- pendent young negroes who have grown up since the war. The old ones have some virtues ; but you cannot strike them now, and similarly they cannot and do not strike and disci- pline their children, who are growing up unbroken and un- controlled. It does seem as if there was some ground for apprehension on this score. Colonel P took me to see some great iron-works. All seemed to be agreed that for manual labour, in this climate at any rate, the blacks are better than the whites, and in the works here the ordinary labour is exclusively done by black men. They would not have white men if they could get them. If the negro is kept in his place and is made to work he does very well, but he is not fit to rise higher ; he has no ' judgment,' and does not make a skilled mechanic. The Georgian who is head of the office at these works takes entire- ly the • same view as Colonel P , or goes even farther. According to him the negro is unthrifty to the last degree, drinks and dances, is dishonest and immoral. He says he knows South Carolina, and is sure that the negroes who have farms on the Islands there cultivate them miserably. They have only some garden-patches ; few of them go to the phos- phate works regularly. They labour only for a few days at a time when they are driven to it by the necessity to get a lit- 360 MY JOURNAL. tie money. That is the other side of the shield. On the other hand, an Ohio man, who superintends the iron manu- facture, tells quite a different story. He says that there are instances here of negroes developing much mechanical skill and conducting themselves very well. He has one who is a very superior mechanic, but he is kept working under an in- ferior white. He doubts if the negroes will be allowed to rise. There are no regular trades unions against them, but there is a general view that the negro must be kept in his place. No doubt most of them are somewhat wanting in judgment. According to the Georgian the negroes cannot see straight. As carpenters they always will fit their work crooked. The Ohio man, however, says that a good many are not only quite good workmen, but also thrifty and dis- posed to save, and have by saving come to own their own houses and a little land ; but he says that they are frequently ousted on questions of title. There are many pettifogging lawyers about always ready to get up a case, civil or criminal, against a negro. The blacks are sent to the chain-gang very readily ; when men are wanted for the chain-gang they are always got. He concurs, however, to some extent with what I had been told about the indiscipline of the younger negroes. He has some who have been to prison, and the chain-gang discipline certainly improves them. He prefers to take a young man who has served for a time in the chain-gang. In the evening at the hotel I had some talk with Geor- gians of the upper class, with the general result that their opinions are unfavourable to the negroes, who are, they say, of an extremely migratory disposition. They wander about too much. If a man is discharged he does not care ; he steals till he gets another job. A farmer sitting by, however, interposed to say that in the last three or four years they have much improved. He says he has a good deal given up the cultiva- tion of cotton, going in for other things, and finds that with a moderate number of negro hands he can do very well. People here do not seem to have adopted the South Carolina J3lan of fixing the negroes by selling them small patches of land. Judge C , a sensible man who has a considerable estate, seems from what he says to get on pretty well with the negroes upon it. He likes the share plan, provided that he keeps the management and direction entirely in his own hands, and pays the cultivators their share of the crops, instead of GEOEGIA. 361 tlieir paying him. Some of them do very well. They have a house and small enclosure of land for vegetables and provi- sions for themselves, and then, with a mule supplied by him, a man will cultivate perhaps forty acres, haK in corn and half in cotton. He gives them half of the corn and one-third of the cotton for themselves, or the value of it. I have been looking over some of the statistics of Georgia and South Carolina with reference to the coloured population, but I fancy they are not very reliable, and they are not made out on a uniform plan, so as fully to admit of comparison. In South Carolina they have had a census of their own subse- quent to the United States census, and claim a population exceeding that arrived at by the United States in IS 70 by some two hundred thousand. According to their census there are in South Carolina, in round number-. 350,000 whites and 575,000 blacks. In Georgia there has been no recent census. The United States census of 1870 gives 639,000 whites and 545,000 blacks. People here say that after emancipation there was a very great .mortality among the blacks, especially among the women and children, yet this statement is hardly reconcilable with the census returns. The Georgia census of 1860 gave 465,000 blacks, which number was increased to 545,000 in 1870. The increase now must be more rapid, there being no special mortality, except, perhaps, to some degree, from want of sufficient care of infants. The number of tax-polls according to the last return is — whites. 126,985 ; blacks. 83,900 : but I understand that the full number of tax- polls has not yet been got at. The numbers have been in- creasing a great deal. The blacks pay taxes upon 501,000 acres out of upwards of thirty-seven millions of acres, but that includes all land, cultivated and waste. Of a total of 6,804,437 acres of 'improved land' the returns give 176,915 acres as cultivated by blacks as proprietors. Heading the local papers next morning I observe that they do not report the debates of the Legislature : they only give the proceedings, with the briefest notice of each speech. To-day I again visited the office of the Comptroller- General and that of the Superintendent of the Geological and Agricultural Departments. The Comptroller-General is the head of the Department of Ee venue. There is no income- tax in Georgia, only the usual property-tax, also the poll-tax for education, and a special tax on lawyers, doctors, dentists, 362 MY JOURNAL. and billiard-keepers, in tlie nature of a license fee. The counties collect a pedlers' tax, which seems to be principally in the interest of the storekeepers. In towns there are special taxes under the Acts of Incorporation. In Atlanta they tax storekeepers on the amount of sales. The question of the drink-tax, on the Yirginian model, and of the dog-tax, is now being raised in the Legislature. At the Agricultural Department the general lie of the country was explained to me. A great deal of Georgia is elevated, and from the higher lands the country slopes down- wards. The old-established towns are generally situated where the rivers run out into the low country at the head of the navigation, where are also the principal cotton-lands. Lower still come the pine-barrens and swamps, and then the Sea Islands. The broad pine-belt extends not only through the States which I have visited, but round through Alabama and Mississippi and well into Texas. The Superintendent states, what 1 had been before told, that in the lower country all the best lands had come into the possession of the rich slave-owners, while the poorer whites are principally found on the inferior lands ; that is, the pine-barrens, which, he says, are not really bad land. There is a sandy surface something like that in Prussia, but clay underlies the surface, and that holds fertilisers well. Georgia was certainly much more democratic in its origin than Virginia or South Carolina. When a great part of the State, especially all the upper part, was acquired by successive purchases from the Indians, the land of Georgia belonging to the State itself not to the United States, each new acquisition was marked out in parcels and apportioned by lot to the people of the State. Many of these lots were not occupied, and were purchased for a song by the richer people. To this day, in fact, many of the lots have not been occupied, and the purchasers do not know where they are. These are what are called ' wild lands ; ' and there is a ' Wild Land ' Office, the business of which is to find out these uncul- tivated lands and to tax them — for hitherto they have not been properly taxed. Before the war there was in this State an extreme jealousy of interlopers. So far from encouraging new immigrants, the Georgians wished to keep them out and to keep all the lands for themselves. All this is now changed — they are delighted to sell their lands when they can find purchasers, and new-comers are exceedingly welcome. GEOEGIA. 363 We are now having rain, which, I am told, is not unusual in November, and is generally followed by a week of clear frost. That is the hog-killing season. From the middle of December to the middle of February there is generally quite a rainy season — only a little snow coming at the last. In spring they generally have good showers, and in the early summer there are frequent thunder-showers. There is gene- rally heavy rain in August and a dry autumn. The present Legislature is much bent on economy. They not only want to reduce the number of Circuit Judges — a question which I heard debated — but also do not like the cost of the Agricultural and Geological Departments. The farmers especially object to the Agricultural Department as useless. I had again a good deal of talk with several men. They all stoutly maintain that Georgia deserves credit as having set an example to other States in the treatment of the negro. After the war, instead of refusing to take any part in affairs, as the white leaders of some States did, they accepted the situation, sent their best men to the Convention that was then held, and managed to get things arranged, so that they did not fare very badly. After one legislative term, in which parties were pretty equally balanced, they got the complete control. Since then their policy has been justice to and im- provement of the negro. One statement took me quite by surprise, and I have not been able to verify it. They assert that at this moment there are more drilled negro militia than there are of whites. They say that from the first they thought they could manage the blacks best by drilling, disciplining, and trusting them ; that the militia is far better than the secret clubs, and that they know well they can take the arms from the blacks when they wish to do so. I notice that there is in the papers to-day the report of an official committee upon the militia. They want to have it regularly organized, with pecuniary assistance from the State, a Georgian flag, and several other ambitious things. That looks as if those who framed the report wished to go very far in the way of State independence. I have been looking over the report of the Adjutant-General of South Carolina regard- ing the withdrawal of arms from the Black National Guards. He says that arms were issued indiscriminately to the people, and it was necessary to take them away from those who were not qualified to use them. He also complains that under an 364 MY JOURNAL. Act of 1874 companies called Rifle Clubs have been organised, which are not part of the military establishment of the State, and which interfere with the due organisation of the National Guards. He suggests confining the National Guards to the great cities, as is, he says, the case in other States. The gentlemen to whom I have been talking dwell much on what they have done for the education of the blacks. When pressed as to what else they have done for them they rather deal in generalities, talking of their good and con- ciliatory treatment. They say the blacks are now quite con- tent and willingly go with the whites. They would be all right but for the interference of carpet-baggers, and, above all, of the ' New England school ma/rms? These they declare to be the pest of the world, putting false ideas of equality into the heads of the blacks, especially the black women, whom all agree in describing as the most troublesome of the race. Some time ago, they say, a black woman would only accept the place of cook in the character of a lady-help. Now that they have got rid of the Northerners, a black woman will con- duct herself as an ordinary cook. They admit that they have done nothing special to settle the negroes on land, as has been done in South Carolina. They had not thought of the advan- tage of fixing them down ; but they declare that they are quite ready to sell land to them if they will only be thrifty and save money for the purpose, as some in fact do. But they say that the blacks like society, their wives like dress and dances and shows, and being free to do as they liked they sought to obtain these advantages of freedom in the towns. Now many have gone back to the country. They have as much land as could be expected in so short a time. I could not, however, obtain any explanation of the fact shown by the statistics, that there has been scarcely any increase in the negro ownership of land in the last two or three years. It must be a long time, they say, before the negroes generally hold land. Gradually they may acquire it, but for the present most of them must be tenants or labourers. I have not been able to carry the question further than that. I had been told that in one county there was a Granger's League — a combina- tion not to sell land to negroes — and that the negroes there- upon check-mated the land-owners by themselves making a league to leave that county. My friends deny any knowledge of the Granger's League, but they admit to have heard of the GEORGIA. 3G5 black league in Houston County. They admit that very many whites have disgraced themselves by failing to pay wages earned by the black labourers. That has been a general com- plaint everywhere, but things, they say, are in that respect not so bad in Georgia as in several other States. They tell stories of the childish character of the negro — but he works well. There is no better worker when he is at it, only he is always liable to the temptation to sit up at night to dance and frolic. He is given to spout ridiculously in church, and to steal and lie, and he is very bad in love matters. He is very stupid in his crime, and is always found out, and so it is that he always gets into the penitentiary when the police would never detect a white man. I confess I am more and more suspicious about the criminal justice of these southern states. In Georgia there is no regular penitentiary at all, but an organised system of let- ting out the prisoners for profit. Some people here have got up a company for the purpose of hiring convicts. They pay 825,000 a year besides all expenses of food and keep, so that the money is clear profit to the state. The lessees work the prisoners both on estates and in mines, and apparently main- tain severe discipline in their own way, and make a go.od thing of it. Colonel P , who is not very mealy-mouthed, admits that he left the concern because he could not stand the inhumanity of it. Another partner in the concern talked with great glee of the money he had made out of the convicts. This does seem simply a return to another form of slavery. Here, too, I am told that there is a greater separation of the white and black castes than there was before the war. Now there is complete separation in churches and schools. It was a black member who moved and carried in the legis- lature that the two classes of schools should be. for ever sepa- rate. The separation is the doing of the blacks. They do not like association on terms of inferiority. A man to whom I talked to-day says that cotton can only be profitably cultivated by blacks. It is their habit and edu- cation to cultivate cotton and it gives them constant employ- ment all the year round in a way which the white men do not like. The southern white man feels the necessity of labour now and does labour, but he is better at raising corn and such things than cotton. I had a good deal of talk with Governor Browne, a very 366 MY JOUKNAL. shrewd and remarkable man. He is a self-made man, but was Governor of Georgia for eight years down to the close of the war. He seems to have been engaged in blockade-run- ning, and to have made a good deal of money in that way ; and since the war, like all the great men in this country, he is president of railways and mining companies. He is evi- dently very much respected and still quite sustains his repu- tation of being a very long-headed man. He has been a great deal over the States, has had properties and specula- tions in many other states besides his own. I talked to him about the condition of some of the Southern States which I have not visited. He says that Alabama soon got the gov- ernment into its own hands, though not quite so soon as Georgia, and is now pretty quiet and peaceful, though suffer- ing from the low price of cotton ; for that is a very great cotton state. Both Mississippi and Louisiana have had troubles like those of South Carolina. The feeling between blacks and whites seems to be worse in Mississippi than in any other state. In Mississippi the best cotton grows on the ridge of highish land near the river ; behind that there are impracticable swamps, and back beyond that again comes higher land on which cotton is raised throughout the whole length of the state. In Louisiana sugar is doing better than it was, but owing to the liability to frost it is cultivated at a great disadvantage as compared to Cuba. The great trouble of the Southern States is the debt, most of which was con- tracted to promote railways. Governor Browne says that the coloured French Creoles of Louisiana, or at any rate the higher class among them, took part with the whites, and having lost their property are now generally Democratic. He does not know that any prominent men among them have attempted to become the political leaders of the blacks. They still prefer the white man, and in the New Orleans country the latter to some extent recognise them and admit them to their society to some degree. In the evening I took tea with Colonel P and his family. Though he is, I believe, a rich man, he lives in a very simple style, as does everyone here. All the governors of these states seem to be really poor men who now live in cottages, but they are also men of some family and considera- tion in their states. Colonel P is full of stories of the way in which money was made in the war by blockade-run- GEORGIA. 367 ning and suchlike business, especially by those who had com- mand of the railways. The sharpest people among the South- erners seem to have gone in for blockade-runnings which they found much more profitable than fighting. As to the war. Colonel P says that at first the Southerners put a splendid set of men into the field — they had long been preparing for it — but almost all those were killed or disabled, and then, what with inferior men and pressed men. their armies were not at all what they had been. As the war went on. the Southern armies became much worse while the Xorthem armies became much better. As long as they had only to fight in front, they did very well, but their position was much altered when the Federals got possession of the line of the Mississippi. Then came Sherman's march and much destruc- tion of cotton, which the Federals made contraband and seized, while the Confederates burnt it to prevent it from fall- ing into the hands of the other party. There was thus much Buffering in the Southern States and a great want of many luxuries, such as coffee and sugar. Under these circumstances half of Lee's men deserted and came to look after their fami- lies, and so at last the South turned out to be an empty shell. Colonel P says that hi these parts no one drinks tea — coffee is universally drunk, generally with sugar and with- out milk. In the evening I went to hear General Gordon, the newly- elected senator, who gave an address. He was very eloquent and successful, but I thought too much in the style of an energetic preacher. I understand now where the negro preachers get their style. General Gordon's discourse was principally a very strong attack upon the Independents. He seemed to advocate extreme views — { a solid South,' and so on. They had got State after State, and now South Carolina too, and they would not go back. Shame to those who broke their own ranks. After the meeting I fraternised with several legislators at the Kimball, and had two or three invi- tations to * take a drink.' All were very civil and cordial and inclined to talk of England as their model. That seems quite the fashion here. I met a man who is canvassing for a judgeship, and who has. he said, been up till one or two in the morning for several nights in succession at that work. The next day I went to the election of judges by the combined Houses in joint session. It is done in the same way 368 . . MY JOURNAL. as the election of senator and is a dignified enough kind of proceeding, each member rising as his name is called and giving his vote. The salary of a jndge is $2,500 (say 500Z.) a year, and there is tremendous canvassing for the place. They say this canvassing is absolutely necessary ; the greatest lawyer in the United States would not be elected if he did not work hard for it. So much is this so, under the present system, that many people say that they prefer the former plan when the Governor nominated with the consent of the Legislature, or even when the judges were elected by the people who are too numerous to be canvassed. There were very hot contests for the judgeships and inferior offices, but when the election w r as over I heard everyone say that the man he worked for had been elected. I visited the editor of the small weekly Independent paper published here, or as some call it the republican paper. He did not speak at all bitterly. When Governor Bullock was elected as a republican there was a good deal of ' bull-dozing ' on the part of the Democrats, but now things have settled down. The principal fault of Governor Bullock was that he was elected by the black vote. The general opinion seems to be that there was no truth in the charges on account of which he was driven aw r ay. There is still a little bull-dozing and a good deal of influence bribery and whisky used to back the regular Democratic candidates. The blacks are always ready to vote for any man who goes against the regular Democratic ticket. This gentleman, however, joins in the general state- ment that Georgia treats the blacks fairly well. If willing to vote Democratic they will be well enough treated. He says it is true that the blacks have been armed and encouraged to take their part as militiamen. Fair j astice is given to them in the courts ; there is a disposition to treat them as not very responsible children. In the last sessions one white man was convicted of murder when two blacks were acquitted. The blacks are treated more fairly in the settlement of their ac- counts at the end of the year in Georgia than in other states. In lower Georgia there is still some unfairness, and in some other states the blacks are certainly very unfairly treated in this matter. They are so improvident that they must get ad- vances to support them during the cultivating season, and both storekeepers and landowners - stick it on ' to them terribly when the account is made out at the end of the season. GEOEGIA. 369 I had a call from Mr. TV , a Scotch-Irishman settled here. He was bred a cotton-spinner, and emigrated when cotton-spinning came to an end in Ireland. He had mills here before the war, since which time he has acquired large landed property. Before the war he employed in his mills negroes and negresses along with some free whites. That was not* an uncommon practice, and they did very well : but since eman- cipation the blacks have not been employed in the mills. He also took me to see a friend, another Scotch-Irishman, who came out with nothing, and now has a large dry-goods store, and seems a prosperous man. Atlanta is a new place, and there are a great many self-made men in it. This gentleman, though not very long out, fought on the Confederate side in the war. He showed me his goods ; most of them are of American make, but many of them English. The mills in these parts, he says, make capital woollen goods for common use. Georgian wool is used, but it is not well cleaned, and the finer woollen goods come from England. They make a capital kind of mixed goods which are very largely used, and are quite cheap. Iso doubt the best woollen clothes are ex- cessively dear in this country, but he declares the Americans will beat us in cottons. The ' domestics ' made in the Xorth are far better than the same class of goods from England. He says that the enormous progress of American manufac- tures in the last ten years is patent and astonishing. The Americans are extremely ready to invent or imitate, and he thinks English manufactures are doomed to decline. Southern white labour is as cheap and good as any labour of the kind in the world. The white mill- workers are a good class of people, and very often own their own houses, or if not the mill-owners take much care in providing houses and comforts for them. Mr. "W does not farm himself but manages his land entirely by letting it out. He has both black and white tenants. One black man, a respectable Methodist elder, runs ten ploughs ; yet he is not very provident. He is always liable for a heavy account for advances during the year, and does not seem to save. Some blacks, however, are provident ; they generally pay their rent quite well, there is no serious difficulty about that. The ginning mills are all rented out as well as the land. In this way he gets fair interest for his monev with some trouble. In some respects he might prefer 24 370 MY JOUKNAL. the blacks to white tenants, but they are very migratory. That is the universal complaint. They do not like to stay long anywhere. However, Mr. ~W does not find that they let the land down badly. They are bound to repair the fences, &c, and they do it. He finds, however, that he has too much land, and he thinks of selling. He has another large estate in the Sea Island country, which he took for a bacl debt, but now he gets nothing from it. Some negroes squat on it, and cultivate patches, and fish. He might get* some rent from them, but it would not be enough to repay the trouble and cost of collection. I think Georgian land- owners might well try to locate these blacks as has been done in the Beaufort country. Mr. W , however, hopes to make his low country estate into a cattle farm. To-day I noticed a very large number of small farmers bringing cotton to market in their waggons. Most of them were whites, driving themselves, and evidently quite labour- ing men. They had one or two blacks with them, but not very many. There were also a few black farmers. The blacks whom I questioned were mostly tenants upon the share system. They appeared to me rather a low class, and their answers to my questions quite tallied with the accounts I had had of their migratory habits. They generally had not re- mained very long in one place. The white farmers seemed good-looking men, but poorly clad. They looked like poor Irish farmers. They came in covered waggons, in which they live and sleep, and some of them had their wives and children with them in the waggons. I am told a good many people from these parts have gone to Texas, both white and black ; some of them have come back again. I receive a good many visits from people who have seen my name in the newspapers. Altogether there is a general disposition to treat me civilly and to lionise me in a small way here. As they say, an English traveller and M.P. is rare up here. This evening I had a talk with a nice gentleman-like elderly man, member for Athens and a strong Independent. He gave me the views of that party in opposition to those of General Gordon. He explains the evils of the caucus system. Generally everything is settled by half-a-dozen jobbers, and without any reference to the electors at large. If need be he says let us have a primary election, but there are many objec- GEORGIA. 371 tions to it. It has no law or check of any kind, and should only be resorted to to decide between Democrats when a Radical stands, and the seat is in danger. That not being the case in Georgia the caucus system is totally uncalled for, and is a mere abuse to give power to jobbers. Therefore it is that there has been a successful uprising of the people against it. Moreover, the system, he says, is a gross breach of faith with the black voters, who are excluded from the caucus. He says the Independents get a fair proportion of the black votes, but not by any means all, as the other party pay largely for votes and otherwise coerce and influence the voters. He dwells on the heaviness of taxation in conse- quence of the debts of the State and the need of economy ; but when I asked him for particulars regarding the heaviness of taxation he seemed to refer rather to municipal than to general taxation. It is very much what I have heard in other quarters. Here the State tax is 40 cents in the 100 dols. of capital value besides 10 cents to form a sinking fund to get rid of the debt. The county taxation is not heavy, but there is heavy taxation in the towns, often amounting to $2'50 per cent, on capital value. I cannot quite make out how the value of personal property is got at — in that respect the tax is certainly much evaded. As is the case with us, rich men often live in fine villa houses outside the towns, and so escape the town taxation. Under the present constitution new laws and appropriations, and elections by the Legislature require an absolute majority of the whole House to be present and vote for the measure. They say that the position of United States Senator is generally preferred to that of Governor of a State. General Gordon gives a reception this evening in the form of a great wine party to the members of the Legislature. I am told that in Washington and Philadelphia and some other great cities it is common enough to have men's receptions of this kind, from which ladies are excluded. They have fine suppers and wines, and everything that is brilliant. The next day I started by rail for Calhoun, about eighty miles north of Atlanta. I am suprised by the goodness of the country, and the large extent of cultivation. I am told that cultivation extends a long way on either side of the line, especially along the course of the rivers. There is also much 372 MY JOURNAL. forest, as is the case in all this country. There is very little rise after leaving Atlanta, the highest point is not more than 1,200 feet above the sea. . This railway line is very largely advertised as the ' Great Kenesaw Route,' which takes its name from the Kenesaw Mountain ; and on the pictorial advertisements the Kenesaw Mountain is very magnificent indeed ; but when I came to see the reality it turned out to be a very moderate hill — perhaps 500 feet above the surround- ing country. We crossed several rivers, which now run to- wards Mobile and the Gulf of Mexico. As we got on, the level of the country became lower, and several of these rivers are navigable, especially for a considerable distance upwards. It is also hoped to make them navigable downwards, so that we are in a much less sloping country than that which drains towards the Atlantic, and there is complaint of want of water-power for saw-mills and other machinery. The culti- vation is various ; there is a good deal of cotton, but also a good deal of corn and wheat. They say anything will grow here, but no one thing grows so well as it does somewhere else. I went to pay a visit at a farm of Colonel P 's, near Calhoun, now occupied by his son, Mr. P. P ; and I was very hospitably entertained by young Mr. P and his wife, a pleasant young lady from Philadelphia. Mr. P himself was at school in England, and they both seem very nice and refined people. As usual, they live in a very simple way, and have not many servants. American ladies, who live in the country, manage to do a great deal themselves without detracting from their dress and demeanour. There is a stock farm here, of which old Colonel P is very proud. There was a Jersey bull, said to'be splendid, some rather thin Jersey cows, a good many Merino sheep, and a large flock of Angora goats. They grow tolerable turnips, and Mr. P has a successful field of lucerne. There is a great deal of game about here. I saw many of the small American partridges, sometimes called quails. They sit capitally to dogs, rise in regular coveys like partridges, but fly more like quails. There are also some rabbits about, which looked not unlike English rabbits, running with cocked tails, showing the white. There are many wild turkeys in this country ; they are, however, very shy birds, keep in the woods, and are seldom seen. Tame turkeys are very abundant in these Southern States, and poultry in general is abundant and good. Much GEORGIA. 373 of it is kept by small farmers, and is a great assistance to them. I drove out a good way into the country, over varied sort of ground — some fertile bottoms, and a good deal of higher land. The lower and richer land is principally given ,to cereals. It does not do well for cotton. The cotton-plant grows large and strong, but is not productive there ; whereas in the higher red lands the plant is small, but is often covered with cotton from top to bottom. The lower lands generally belong to the large proprietors. "Wherever there are large proprietors there were slaves, and there are now black labour- ers. Most of the work in the upper country is done by the whites themselves. I saw some good specimens of people of this class. Most of them own their own land, but some rent, and some go as labourers, getting $8 or $10 a month and ra- tions. I liked the look of these people. They are decidedly fair with no tinge of swarthiness. Many of them have Scotch names — Campbell, Mclntyre, Macinroy, and so on ; but they did not know their origin. They came up from the Carolinas and Virginia, and did not emigrate direct to this part of the country. Most of them live in miserable houses, but some of the houses are quite good. Even some considerable proprie- tors live in poor log-houses. It is said that some of these peo- ple hold on to too much land when they had better sell ; and if a purchaser comes they ask too much. Some of the smaller tenants live in places unfit for an Irishman, with no windows, and showing much daylight between the logs. I never saw such poor places, except Irish turf huts. I asked one man about it. ' Yes,' he said, laughing ; ' you cannot call it a house, but as we have so much air inside we do not catch cold when we go out.' This man was a poor labourer, and he had half-a-dozen nice-looking children in his wretched one-roomed hut. The children, however, looked very well. These people seemed altogether a fair-spoken and quite laborious popula- tion. From the higher parts of the ground that I visited, I saw a high range of hills standing out very distinct to the north- east. It seems as if the main Alleghanies come to a sudden end near this. We met many farmers with bullock-waggons coming down from the upper country. They do not grow cot- ton there, and scarcely ever had any negroes. They grow bet- ter corn and wheat than in the lower land, and much better 374 MY JOURNAL. apples ; and would get on well enough if it were not for the United States whisky-blockade, of which they much complain, as interfering with their industry in that article. In the lower grounds I came upon a few negro farmers, but they were only renters ; none of them owned land. One man had got some uncleared woodland on a three years' lease, the arrange- ment being that he should pay nothing for that time, but after that should pay a rent. There is much good timber in all this country. It is a limestone country about here, but the hills above are sandstone. Mr. P thinks that the small farmers make a living without working so hard for it as the English labourer. Even during the civil war, though cut off from all external commerce, they got on pretty well, raising their own necessaries, and being independent of all outside. They themselves admit that the smaller farmers still get on well enough, so far as living is concerned. They raise enough for themselves, and their women weave their clothes; they have few wants beyond these. People here complain that the pretended free-schools are a farce. They are very poor schools, and not enough of them. In any case, the parents are obliged to pay at least half of the cost. I asked if the preachers came expensive, and was told that some take a salary, some do not. One Baptist minister runs a fine farm and preaches for nothing. After completing a very pleasant visit to Mr. P 's farm, I started in the morning to go on to Dalton, in the north- west part of Georgia, towards iennessee, where the water- shed changes towards the Mississippi. I saw much timber- trade going on upon the rivers and the railways. There were some very fine walnut logs, much white oak, and also pine and other wood. It is feared that the good timber near the rail- way will soon be exhausted, but there is plenty of it a little farther off. There are no signs of anything like a mountain pass ; the road runs through an easy country. There is, in fact, a great gap between the hills. At Dalton I had a beautiful day, and utilised it by taking a long walk into the country, where I saw much of the southern white people, visiting a good many of their farms. I also came across some blacks. The whites seemed to be a pleasant-looking people, though they had still the appearance of being poor. Most of them own land, but some rent, and some go out as labourers. A few of them hire one GEORGIA. 375 or two blacks as labourers. They say the blacks are not so good workers as the whites, and they will only take them at cheaper rates. These blacks work very well when they are sharply looked after, but they will waste time whenever they get the chance. I looked over the log-cabin of a small white farmer, and it was about the lowest thing of the kind I have seen. On account of the want of water-power and the scarcity of saw-mills, most of the cabins here are built of very rough logs, and very imperfectly boarded within. This one had no window, but very many casual openings in the wall, and even in the roof. It consisted of one room, with a light shed attached to it behind, which was used for cook- ing, etc. The farmer was away, but I found his wife, a very nice-locking young woman, with a baby and a boy of twelve, an orphan whom they seem to have adopted. He could read print, he said, but not write. The woman did not seem to realise that the house was particularly bad. Her husband is only a renter, but he built this hut himself two years ago. She had a loom, and was weaving. She says she makes her husband's and her own every-day clothes, but they have to buy Sunday clothes and some other things. There was also a spinning-wheel, as is generally the case here. She says she spins some thread when it is wanted, but they buy most of the thread. I was inclined to pity her primitive inno- cence and ignorance, and tried to draw her out by asking her questions on subjects in respect to which I was not very much at home. At last she burst out with a smile, ' Whoy, it seems that you do'ant know nothink.' I felt that she had the best of it on her own subjects. Within reach of the railway there are a good many blacks, but I understand that the few there were in the higher parts of the country have left it. I talked to an old black man who occupied one of a cluster of very poor huts. He said that his former mistress had given some of her ex- slaves five acres each of woodland, to clear and hold rent-free for life. It certainly seems that, in these older States at any rate, the relations between the former masters and the blacks are often not unkindly, and the masters sometimes do things of this kind. My old friend says he got on well enough when he could work, but now he is past work, and seems rather doubtful of the advantages of freedom. However, he and the others seem to form a sort of little community in 376 MY JOUENAL. the woods. The able-hodied men cultivate, the women raise chickens and take in washing ; and one way and another they manage to get along. On the road I met a very intel- ligent and plucky-looking black bringing in his produce to market in his waggon — principally peas. His family were with him. He has two mules, and seems well-to-do. He rents land on a four years' clearing lease, and when that is up he hopes to buy land for himself. ' Don't you think that is best ? ' he says. These blacks seem to talk and put questions in a more simple way than the whites. This man says he found the main fences, but himself put up his house and the cross fences. He will get no compensation for his improve- ments when he goes ; he must leave all those behind. This is, perhaps, the reason why the huts are so bad. His sons are growing up and marrying, and have farms of their own. He himself has re-married with a widow with four children. As he pleasantly remarks, his sons are going off into the world, and he must have some one to work for. In the afternoon I went up a hill to see the country. There is evidently a complete break in the hills here. A flat tract stretches over into the valley of the Tennessee River. The Alleghanies proper terminate to the east, but a fresh set of hills, not so high, commence again on the west, and one of them is 'look-out mountain' over Chattanooga, where the famous battle was fought. The hilly ridge, I un- derstand, runs westward, through [Northern Alabama. At Dalton I saw a party of very tidy, well-set-up-looking blacks playing base-ball, in a very vigorous way, with one or two whites mixed with them. The bowler, at any rate, was, to all appearance, a white man, as were several of those sitting and looking on. Altogether at this place I thought I saw more of fraternisation between blacks and whites than in most places. Chattanooga is not far off in Tennessee. I got a Chatta- nooga paper, and have been reading it with reference to Ten- nessee politics. It seems that in Chattanooga the Republicans have a majority, but the town politics appear more to depend upon local and personal questions. At Memphis it seems that an Independent was elected district attorney. He has ap- pointed a coloured man as his deputy. This has created a great sensation, and the orthodox Democrats point to it as showing that the Independents are nothing but traitors in dis- THE RETURN JOURNEY. 377 guise. Altogether I gathered, that Tennessee is a country in which there is a considerable mixture of parties. It is by no means wholly Democratic and anti-black. East Tennessee, hi fact, is a white man's country. Dalton is quite a country place, but there are nevertheless one or two very tolerable hotels, at one of which I was very well treated, and had good food. The ' vin du pays ' of this country seems to be buttermilk ; everyone drinks it at meals. THE RETURN JOURNEY. I had hoped, if possible, to get as far as Xew Orleans, and thence back by the valley of the Mississippi, but the outburst of yellow fever this year has been unprecedently severe, and on account of the lateness of the frosts it continued far beyond expectation. The country is scarcely yet free from it, and the places which have suffered from it are quite disorganised. Even Chattanooga, near this, has suffered very greatly, and things have not yet returned to their usual condition. I had therefore given up the idea of making that tour, and resolved to use the rest of my time to dip into Tennessee and West Virginia, and spend a few days in "Washington, Philadelphia, and Xew York. Here, however, I saw in the papers that Parliament was summoned for the discussion of subjects in- teresting to me, and finding that the train in which I had taken my passage to Knoxville, in Upper Tennessee, was going on to Washington, I took a sleeping-berth, and continued my journey. This line runs on the western slope of the Alleghanies. From the glimpses I got in the night I saw no signs of a mountainous region. At dawn we had entered Virginia, but we were in a projecting angle of the State west of the water- shed, and geographically a part of the Kentucky country which it adjoins. Here I at once saw we were in a great grazing country. The land was undulating and to some degree hilly, fenced off into large grass parks. The grass at this season is short, but seems close natural grass. Some of the higher parts looked like good sheep walks, and there were a good many sheep, but many more cattle, which at this time of the year were principally in the lower pastures ; I saw many herds of large line well-bred looking cattle, shorthorns and the like ; also many good horses. There was a good deal of wood in 378 MY JOURNAL. parts, but most of the grass land was clean and free from stumps or weeds. There was a hard frost this morning, and a little snow on the higher parts of the road, but the weather was bright and clear and became warmer in the middle of the day. Some corn is grown in this country, but it is mostly in grass. The same style of country continued as we ran on, passing over several ridges and crossing several streams, but we came to nothing very precipitous or difficult all the way to the highest point crossing the Alleghanies. "We then passed through a valley skirted by high hills down to the Virginia ' Piedmont ' country, as it is called, on the eastern slope of the range. There seemed to be a decided change as soon as we crossed the watershed — redder soil, much more cultivation of wheat and corn, less pasture — and what there is seems to be more made up of artificial grass. We kept on through the Piedmont country pretty near the hills, and much accented, and so continued till dark. In the evening the country seemed to be getting flatter. The hills are a good deal cleared in parts, but there is still a great deal of wood upon them. There were some good grazing grounds, and a good many cattle and horses on this eastern slope, but it is not so much a grazing country as that to the west. This country looks at the worst now, the grass being brown, the trees without leaves, and the fields ploughed up, but I dare say in the spring it merits the encomiums which the Virginians are in the habit of bestowing upon it. Throughout the route to-day the houses of the white inhabitants sermed better than those I had previously seen. They gave one the idea of pretty well-to-do farmers, and there were a good many houses which seemed quite up to the pretensions of small squireens, or gentleman-farmers. All along the route I noticed more blacks than I had expected to see in this higher country. Probably the vicinity of the rail- way accounts for that ; but even away from the railway sta- tions there seemed to be a good many black families, living in huts as miserable as those I had seen farther South. Prob- ably the blacks are mere labourers and dependents. The eating at the stations where we stopped for meals seemed always very tolerable, and I noticed that in this coun- try there is good fresh butter. I cannot understand why they cannot have it in the civilised North. Even at Washington in the best hotels and everywhere else they have nasty salt butter ; and at New York one or two people seem only re- THE KETUKN JOURXEY. 879 cently to hare made quite a discovery by making good fresh butter, which they can sell at a dollar a pound, for it is a rarity. I slept at Washington, and spent most of the next day there. The weather was lovely, and the place bright and lively-looking. People are evidently beginning to assemble for the ensuing meeting of Congress, and one sees many smart, well-dressed women in the streets. The trees, however, have lost their leaves, which takes off from the beauty which I noticed in the place a few weeks ago. I went to the Treasury, where they kindly gave me the official papers on the silver question. It seems clear that up to 1873 silver was a complete legal tender, and that anyone might bring silver to be coined and get silver certificates at once. I went again to see my friend General E , of the Educational Department, and met at his office a Xew Hamp- shire member of Congress, who seemed shocked at the idea that I was going to take my Southern experiences as a spe- cimen of the United States. He insists that the Northern States are very different. There, he says, the township sys- tem is in full force — that is, in ]N"ew England — the people at large frequently meet together in Township Assembly to vote for school and other arrangements, and to control the expen- diture. Certainly I feel I have still to do Xew England, if I live and have another opportunity of visiting the States. I visited the Agricultural Department, and saw General D , the head of it, who is very enthusiastic over his work, though somehow there seem to be a good many scoffers about the Department. They have a capital -collection of all sorts of produce, and are now making great efforts to introduce useful plants and new products. General D hopes to acclimatise the bamboo. He is trying the Japanese variety, which stands frost. There seems no doubt that the tea-plant thrives in the Southern States; but people have not really learnt how to manufacture tea. The Liberian coffee is a va- riety of the coffee-plant, which, it seems, unlike the Arabian plant, will stand an ordinary tropical climate, and bears well, even down to the level of the sea, within the tropics. It struck me that in India we ought to take advantage of the experience of the United States — for instance, to obtain improved varieties of Indian corn and other plants. There was again a very good sunset to-day. Washington seems to have a specialty fur simsets. 380 MY JOURNAL. In the evening I took passage in the sleeping-cars for New York. The Pullman was a good deal crowded, and a crowded Pullman is decidedly not comfortable. I met a great traveller who had spent twenty-eight nights in the cars during the last six weeks, and he confirms what I had sus- pected, that under such circumstances as we had this night it is a mistake to secure a lower berth. The upper berths, for those who can climb up, are much moi% airy and comfortable. This gentleman is a resident of the city of Mexico, which, he says, is a place of 250,000 inhabitants, and quite civilised. We reached New York in the morning. I again went to the Windsor. There are now a great many winter residents there, but the place is quite quiet. The weather in New York is not yet good winter weather. They have had it un- usually warm for the season, and it is now raw and rainy. I called on Mr. P , a gentleman to whom I owe much kindness, and went with him to the business part of the city — 4 down town,' as they call it. Here I had some talk with several good financial authorities on American railways. Their tone about them is generally unfavourable — the moral of the very safe men is that no shares are safe. They say that the capital value of the lines is generally in the books at a much higher figure than that at which they could now be made, and that the only safe things are the first bonds of the very best lines. These lines, they say, are at least worth the amount of the first bonds. According to them if the shares of a railway are above par then you may with tolerable pru- dence buy the first bonds, and that is all. The bonds are liable to be paid off after a certain time, but some of them run for as long as thirty years, and, as they say, that is much farther than anyone looks forward in this country. In the evening I dined with Mr. O , and met Gene- ral B a name well known in the war. He is a New Englander, from Rhode Island. He says that though, no doubt, as I had before been told, land in New England had fallen much in value, and some of it had gone out of culti- vation, there has been quite recently considerable signs of improvement in New England farming prospects, and a rise again in the value of the land, in consequence of many people who have been driven from commerce in the bad times having come back to the land. He, too, says that many Irish have bought land in New England, and they do not do badly. He THE RETURN JOURNEY. 881 gives the same account as I had heard before of the good working of the New England township system. He says there are not usually any commons, only village greens ; but he knows some instances of considerable common pastures which were originally reserved. One or two still remain ; others have been divided up or sold by a vote of the town- ship. It seems clear that in America commons are quite exceptional, and not the habit of the country. The people whom I meet here dwell much on the effect of the Southern election practices, and the attempt to make a solid South, in producing a solid Korth on the other side of the question. Mr. , who has had much experience of the States on the Mississippi, gives an account of them which tallies pretty well with what I had already learned. He says the relations between the whites and blacks are ordinarily good enough, and they would get on sufficiently well together if it were not for political difficulties, which in Mississippi and Louisiana are considerable. The blacks make capital la- bourers. His experience is that on Southern railwa}^ he gets more work done for sixty cents than for a dollar in the Isorth. He has had much railway experience in several States in which he has had occasion to get Bills passed and various measures sanctioned. I asked him about the honesty of the local Legislatures. He says some new States have been rather bad, but that for some years in the States through which his lines passed they have not been approached for money. The effect of the provision in the Illinois Consti- tution against special legislation in favour of corporations has really been considerable. The law is carried out in 'prac- tice. People who want privileges can only get tlfem under the general laws applicable to all. I have not yet looked up the particulars as to the way in which these things are managed in Illinois and other States ; but in Georgia, where they have a provision of the same kind, I understand that the general laws for the granting of charters and the like having been passed, people who want them apply to the Courts which adjudicate the question. Mr. O says there is still more planting on a large scale in Mississippi and the adjoining countries than in the Atlantic States, and he instances people who, he says, are there doing well, cultivating on a large scale with hired negro labour. The lands near the river in Missis- 382 MY JOUKNAL. sippi are very fertile and good, and there is a large popu- lation; but in the central part of the State, where the railways run, the land is inferior, and the population scat- tered. In Louisiana the good sugar-cane lands are in the extreme south, and outside of the swamp and forest belt — apparently in a tract corresponding in situation to the Sea Islands of the Atlantic coast. Mr. O is very enthusi- astic, and determined to make the railway connecting North and South, in the Yalley of the Mississippi pay. He has great faith in the necessity of a North and South traffic. Food-stuffs must necessarily come from North to South, and sugar, fruit, and other things, from South to North. Below Cairo the traffic is principally by river, but then it is an enormous traffic ; they w T ould be content if they got one- tenth of it on the railway. The next day I visited some of the sights of New York with Mr. O . We went to the ' Fulton ' market, one of the principal markets in New York, where the supply of game, poultry, &c, for ' Thanksgiving Day,' which is to come off to-morrow, is enormous, and the variety exceedingly great. The ' Thanksgiving Day ' was a New England insti- tution, to commemorate the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. It gradually extended to the neighbouring States, and to those of the North-West ; and after the war President Lin- coln made it a national holiday, though I daresay the South- erners heartily wish that the Pilgrim Fathers had gone to the bottom of the sea before they ever landed at all. How- ever, now ' Thanksgiving Day ' seems to be the great family feast of the year. In the market there was a very great quantity of American game. Wild turkeys are quite com- mon, and immense, large, fine birds they are. The quail (whether they are quail or partridge) are in immense profu- sion. I also found in this market English pheasants, grouse, and hares, imported from Europe. They also import here the common white European grapes which we see on our fruit-stalls. We lunched at a famous restaurant in the mar- ket. Ladies frequently go there alone. That is not contrary to custom here. A dish of rabbit was specially recommended, and I tried the American rabbit. There is generally a preju- dice against eating it. Most people of the higher class will not eat rabbit, though they eat squirrels. Rabbits, however, are for sale everywhere. I did not think my rabbit particu- THE BETUE^ JOITENEY. 383 larly good. It is not very like one of onr own. The flesh seemed to be darker and softer. In the evening I dined with Mr. P , and met some pleasant people. We had a good deal of talk about New York politics. Mr. Cooper, a man of the highest position and character, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making, is Mayor-elect of New York. It is a very great step in advance to have a man of his character in the place. He is a bright and clever man, of large independent means, and above all suspicion of jobbery and corruption. The taxation of New York is certainly heavy. At present the tax for city and county purposes is two dollars and seventy cents upon capital value. . The port charges are also heavy. Heavy taxation and charges do a great deal to drive trade to other ports. Real property is said to be fully assessed ; in fact, they say that since the shrinkage of values it is more than fully assessed. The heavy taxation is the cause of the high rents. Rents are higher here than in London, but then the owner pays the taxes, not the occupier. Personal property is taxed ; nominally at any rate ; but I have not yet been able to get anything reliable regarding the assessment of personal property ; how it is really made and how far it is evaded. I understand a man is not required to make a return of his personal property unless he chooses. He is assessed at the amount at which he is estimated by the assessor, and if he objects he has to prove that the assessment is wrong. I gather that in truth a comparatively small amount of personal property is assessed in New York. I understand that prac- tically a man with more houses or offices than one may elect where he will be taxed upon property which is not local. For instance, a man with a large property in foreign Funds might keep his securities in a place where taxation is light, and be taxed upon them there, supposing that in reality he is taxed upon them at all. It might, in fact, be economical to keep a country house for the deposit of his securities. Perhaps, however, there is not much personal property of this kind. United States bonds are exempt from taxation, and railways are taxed before the dividends are paid. In New York politics it is the Catholic element which causes most of the difficulties — that is felt more in New York City than anywhere else. The bad pavement of the streets ar> many other evils are attributed to the excessive corruption 384 MY JOURNAL. wliicli lias distinguished the Administration of the city. Here also there seem to be quite as many complaints against the prisons as with us. They say that many rogues spend most of their lives in prison. The New York papers seem to be now very generally writing against the liquor laws of 1857, which were, in fact, imposed upon the city by the three mil- lion country people of the State, and are much more restric- tive than the city people like. There is a Sunday-closing law, and an attempt to confine the sale of liquor to bona fide hotels with a certain number of beds, and so on. But in this respect the law is quite evaded — two or three beds are set up in pub- lic-houses as a mere make-believe. I have not had time to see anything of New York winter society or of the fashionable people. I do not see so many signs of wealth as I had expected to see in this famous city, nor do I observe so many smart and elegantly dressed ladies in the streets as I had rather expected to find, after all one has heard of the dressy elegance of the American ladies. But then the weather is unfavourable, and perhaps American ladies are not so much given to walking as ours are. How- ever, as New England remains to be seen another day, so also I hope to see something more of New York and Philadelphia, and the country parts of these States, if I return to America. Meantime, before I turned back I had completed the object for which I was so anxious — to see something of the relations between whites and blacks in the Southern States ; and hav- ing done that and completed a visit which I have much en- joyed, I am now content to conclude it, and to trust to the chance of seeing more another day. In the morning I embarked early in the Republic, a steamer of the White Star line, not so large as the Germanic, but still a fine vessel. While the steamer was hauling out for the start I was interviewed by a reporter of the ' New York Herald ' regarding Afghanistan. We soon got off and were fairly on the homeward voyage. There are few passengers at this season of the year, and scarcely one of these American. This is not the season when Americans visit Europe. I have been talking with some gentlemen on board about the beef trade. It seems that, dead or living, it costs about a penny a pound to send beef to England. The live cattle are as yet almost all brought over on deck. They are nailed up in tight narrow pens, in which they stand and cannot lie THE RETURN JOURNEY. 385 down They are said to gain flesh on board if the weather is good, but in bad weather they are sometimes almost all lost. They are knocked about, and it becomes necessary to throw them over. Vessels are now being constructed to carry cattle under cover. As regards dead meat they can carry about sixty tons of meat in a 300-ton chamber, specially fitted for the purpose. They bring over whole sides, hung up in the chamber — not the choice pieces only. They seal up this chamber and refrigerate it. On the return voyage the cham- ber is opened and the space used for any other cargo. On the voyage home the vessels go south of the Xew- foundland Banks, running due east for the first thousand miles, after which they turn north-east. The first four days we had good weather, and we should have had it all the way at this season. It is commonly said that at this season of the year the voyage home is ' down hill ; ' but as ill luck would have it we had to encounter a strong easterly gale, which much retarded us, and caused the loss of a whole day. The voyage to Queenstown occupied upwards of nine days. 25 386 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. STATE CONSTITUTIONS. I have been looking over some of the past and present Constitutions of some of the States, as set forth in the 8 Charters and Constitutions of the United States,' by Poor, in two large volumes. MASSACHUSETTS. Under the original Massachusetts Constitution of 1780 there was to be complete religious toleration ; but all townships were bound to keep up Protestant ministers of religion. There was equality among Protestant sects ; for though every man was bound to pay a church-tax, he might pay to the minister of his own sect, if there were any in the township ; if not, then to the common minister. People were bound to attend church, and in some of the New England States church membership was necessary to the exercise of the franchise. The original franchise-law in Massachusetts required a property qualification of 31. per annum. The ' select men ' of towns and all representatives and officials were bound to make oath of belief in the Chris- tian religion. By an amendment passed in 1822 the suffrage was given to all adult males who have resided and paid taxes, and the oath of office was altered so as to exclude the declaration of religious belief. In 1833 the obligation to support Protestant ministers was abolished, and henceforth every Christian sect was at liberty to elect their own ministers, and to do as they like. By an amendment passed in 1857 the franchise is restricted to those who can read in the English language and write their names, and that is the still existing rule. The Constitution of Massachusetts has not been materially VIRGINIA. 387 changed since the war. All hereditary privileges are for- bidden. Liberty of the press, the free right of all citizens to the possession of arms, and the free right of assembly are guaranteed. The Legislature consists of a Senate of 40, and a House of Representatives of 240 members, both elected ^by the people. The Governor has a veto, unless overruled by a two-thirds vote in each House. Office-holders are not allowed to sit in the Legislature. The Executive power is vested in an elected Governor and an Executive Council of eight persons whose advice is necessary for the doing of certain things. Judges and other judicial officers are appointed by the Governor and Council. The Judges are to hold during good behaviour, unless it is otherwise prescribed by law. The Justices of the Peace are appointed for seven years, and are eligible for reappointment. The University of Harvard is established and endowed by the Constitution, and there is a general provision enjoining the encouragement of education. No moneys raised for education are to be given to any parti- cular religious sect. VIRGINIA. Every edition of the Constitution of Virginia, including the last now in force, commences with the old recital of grievances on account of ' the detestable and insupportable tyranny ' of George III., who had sought to destroy the liberties of the people in many ways, and among others ' by prompting our negroes to rise in arms among us — those very negroes whom by an inhuman use of his negative he had refused us per- mission to exclude by law ; by endeavouring to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages,' and so on. Then comes the Bill of Rights, consisting of seventeen articles adopted in 1776 and live more added since the civil war. Most of the State Constitutions seem to retain the Bill of Rights, in a more or less modernised form, as a sort of inner kernel of the Constitution. Here is the present Vir- ginian Bill of Rights, which retains the old articles and language. The modern portions are printed in italics ;-— 388 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. BILL OF RIGHTS. A Declaration of Rights, made by the Representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled hi full and free Conven- tion, lohich rights do pertain to them and their posterity, as the basis and foundation of government. 1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. 2. That this State shall ever remain a member of the United States of America, and that the people thereof are part of the American nation, and that all attempts, from whatever source or upon whatever pretext, to dissolve said Union or to sever said nation, are unauthorised, and ought to be resisted with the whole potcer of the State. 3. That the Constitution of the United States, and laws of Congress passed in pursuance thereof, constitute the supreme law of the land, to which paramount allegiance and obedience are due from every citizen, anything in the Constitution, ordinances, or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 4. That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them. 5. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of govern- ment, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest de- gree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and that when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these pur- poses, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalien- able, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such a, manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal. 6. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community but in consideration of public services; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge to be hereditary. 7. That the legislative, executive, and judicial powers should be separate and distinct; and that the members thereof may be VIRGINIA. 389 restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating the bur- thens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections, in which all or any part of the former members to be again eligible or ineligible, as the laws shall direct. 8. That all elections ought to be free, and that all men, hav- ing sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for public uses, without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not in like manner assented for the public good. 9. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights and not to be exercised. 10. That, in all capital or criminal prosecutions, a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favour, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty; nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty, except by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers. 11. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor exces- sive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted. 12. That general warrants, whereby an officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be granted. 13. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred. 14. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bul- warks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments, and any citizen may speak, write, and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty. 15. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe de- fence of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided as dangerous to liberty, and that in all cases 390 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. the military should be under strict subordination to, and governed by, the civil power. 16. That the people have a right to uniform government; and, therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of, the Government of Virginia ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof. 17. That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, and virtue, and by a frequent recur- rence to fundamental principles. 18. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by rea- son and conviction, not by force or violence; and, therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion accord- ing to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other. 19. That neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as lawful imprisonment may constitute such, shall exist within this State. 20. TIi at all citizens of the State are hereby declared to possess equal civil and political rights and public privileges. 21. Tlie rights enumerated in this Bill of Rights shall not be construed to limit other rigJits of the jieople not therein expressed. The declaration of the political rights and privileges of the inhabitants of this State is hereby declared to be a part of the Constitution of this Commonwealth, and shall not be violated on any pretence whatever. Up to 1850 the franchise was confined to whites, with a property qualification. In 1850 the property qualification was given up, and all adult white males obtained the franchise. By provisions added in the same year no emancipated negroes were permitted to remain in the State ; or, if they did, they were liable to be again reduced to slavery. The Legislature was for ever forbidden to emancipate any slave, or the descend- ant of any slave ; and it was empowered to restrict by law the power of individuals to emancipate slaves. By the post- War Constitution, put in force in 1870, all disqualifications of negroes are swept away— the franchise is given to all classes, without any property or other qualifica- tion. But there is in this and other Southern States a pro^ vision disqualifying all persons convicted of fighting a duel from voting or holding office ; besides the disqualification to VIEGINIA. 391 vote of all persons convicted of felony or petit larceny. The Governor and Lieutenant-Governor are elected by the people for four years; but the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Treasurer, and. Auditor are elected by joint vote of the two Houses. The Senators and Delegates (members of the Lower House) are elected for four and two years respectively. The Legislature meets once in two years, and remains in session not more than ninety days, unless it is extended, by a three- fifths vote, for not more than thirty days longer. That is the utmost limit. The Judges are elected by joint vote of the Houses of the Legislature for twelve, eight, and six years, according to the class of Judge. The county and city officers, i. e. Sheriff, Mayor, Attorney for the Commonwealth, County Clerk, County Treasurer, and so many County Commissioners of Revenue as may be provided by law, are elected by the people for four or six years ; and all city, town, and village officers not specially provided for are to be similarly elected. Counties are divided into magisterial districts, each of which is to have three jus- tices of the peace, a constable, and an overseer of the poor, elected for two years. There is now a regular provision for education. Each magisterial district is divided into school districts. The Legislature is required to provide a uniform system of free public schools, to be complete by the year 1876, and is authorised to make such laws as shall not permit parents and guardians to allow their children to grow up in ignorance and vagrancy. There is to be a literary fund, made up of the proceeds of all forfeited or waste lands, a capitation tax, and an annual tax on all property, of not less than one, or more than five, mills, in the dollar (that is, on the capital value). The militia consists of all able-bodied men; but only volunteer corps are classed as ' active militia,' the rest as fc reserved militia.' Taxation is to be equally imposed on all property, and a tax may be imposed on incomes in excess of $600, and on licenses for the sale of ardent spirits, theatrical and circus companies, menageries and other shows, itinerant pedlers, commission merchants, brokers, and on all other business which cannot be reached by the ad valorem system. All public, charitable, religious, and educational property may be exempted from the property-tax. A curious instance of the way in which minor matters 392 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. are sometimes mixed up with greater ones in these Consti- tutions is a provision that no tax shall be imposed on any citizen for the privilege of taking oysters, but the sale of oysters may be taxed. No debt shall be incurred by the State except to meet casual deficits, to redeem previous liabilities, to repress in- surrection, or to defend the State in time of war (rather wide and elastic provisions) ; and every debt incurred must be accompanied by provision for a sinking fund. Payments of debts incurred by the usurping authorities during the war is strictly forbidden. The credit of the State is not to be granted to any person or corporation. The State is not to subscribe to any company, nor to be a party to any work of internal improvement, nor to engage in carrying on any such work. The homestead privilege extends to the value of $2,000 of real or personal property, but this shall not interfere with sale of the property in virtue of a mortgage. The Legis- lature is to pass laws regarding the setting apart and holding homesteads in future. ILLINOIS. The Constitution of Illinois is supposed to be a model of modern wisdom. Some distinguished Englishmen have, I believe, taken part in moulding it to its present shape, and much philosophy and learning have been bestowed on it. Under the original Constitution of 1818 every adult white male had the suffrage, but blacks were excluded both from the suffrage and from the militia. Under the amended Constitution of 1848 the Legislature was authorised to make laws to prohibit persons of colour from immigrating into the State. It was not till 1870 that all colour distinctions were abolished. By the original Constitution, sect. 16 of every township (that is, one mile square) was set apart for education, and a whole township was granted for the support of a seminary of higher learning. The United States also agreed to set apart for education 5 per cent, of the price of all public lands sold within the limits of the State. . . Illinois. 393 The present Constitution is that of 1870. It is rather long, but I append all the essential parts of it, omitting only those which are not of general interest and importance. It may, I think, be of interest to my readers to see the most improved form of an American State Constitution. It com- mences with a Bill of Rights, laying down general principles in a modernised form ; but as in their general effect these are not radically different from the Virginian Bill of Bights, which I have already given, I omit this part of the Illinois Constitution. For the rest I leave it to speak for itself : — CONSTITUTION OF 1870. Adopted in Convention May 13, 1870; ratified by the people July 2, 1870; in force August 8,'l870. Preamble. — We, the people of the State of Illinois — grate- ful to Almighty God for the civil, political, and religious liberty which He hath so long permitted us to enjoy, and looking to Him for a blessing upon our endeavours to secure and transmit the same unimpaired to succeeding generations — in order to form a more perfect government, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the State of Illinois. ARTICLE III. DISTRIBUTION OF POWERS. The powers of the government of this state are divided into three distinct departments — the legislative, executive, and judi- cial; and no person, or collection of persons, being one of these departments, shall exercise any power properly belonging to either of the others, except as hereinafter expressly directed or permitted. ARTICLE IV. LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT. § 1. The legislative power shall be vested in a general assem- bly, which shall consist of a senate and house of representatives, both to be elected by the people. 39 1 STATE CONSTITUTIONS, ELECTION. § 2. An election for members of the general assembly shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, in the year of our Lord 1870, and every two years thereafter, in each county, at such places therein as may be provided by law. When vacancies occur in either house, the governor, or person exercising the powers of governor, shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. ELIGIBILITY. § 3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have at- tained the age of twenty-five years, or a representative who shall not have attained the age of twenty-one years. No person shall be a senator or representative who shall not be a citizen of the United States, and who shall not have been for five years a resident of this state, and for two years next preceding- his election a res- ident within the territory forming the district from which he is elected. No judge or clerk of any court, secretary of state, at- torney-general, state's attorney, recorder, sheriff, or collector of public revenue, member of either house of congress, or person holding any lucrative office underthe United States or this state, or any foreign government, shall have a seat in the general as- sembly : Provided, that appointments in the militia, and the offices of notary public and justice of the peace, shall not be con- sidered lucrative. Nor shall any person, holding any office of honour or profit under any foreign government, or under the government of the United States (except postmasters whose an- nual compensation does not exceed the sum of $300), hold any office of honour or profit under the authority of this State. § 4. No person who has been, or hereafter shall be, convicted of bribery, perjury, or other infamous crime, nor any person who has been or may be a collector or holder of public moneys, who shall not have accounted for and paid over, according to law, all such moneys due from him, shall be eligible to the general as- sembly, or to any office of profit or trust in this state. APPORTIONMENT SENATORIAL. § 6. The general assembly shall apportion the state every ten years, beginning with the year 1871, by dividing the population of the state, as ascertained by the federal census, by the number 51, and the quotient shall be the ratio of representation in the Illinois. 395 senate. The state shall be divided into 51 senatorial districts, each of which shall elect one senator, whose term of office shall be four years. The senators elected in the year of our Lord 1872, in districts bearing odd numbers, shall vacate their offices at the end of two years, and those elected in districts bearing 1 even numbers, at the end of four years; and vacancies occurring by the expiration of term, shall be filled by the election of sena- tors for the full term. Senatorial districts shall be formed of contiguous and compact territory, bounded by county lines, and contain, as nearly as practicable, an equal number of inhabitants; but no district shall contain less than four-fifths of the senatorial ratio. Counties containing not less than the ratio and three- fourths, may be divided into separate districts, and shall be en- titled to two senators, and to one additional senator for each number of inhabitants equal to the ratio contained by such coun- ties in excess of twice the number of said ratio. MINORITY REPRESENTATION. §§ 7 and 8. The house of representatives shall consist of three times the number of the members of the senate, and the term of office shall be two years. Three representatives shall be elected in each senatorial district at the general election in the year of our Lord 1872, and every two years thereafter. In all elections of representatives aforesaid, each qualified voter may cast as many votes for one candidate as there are representatives to be elected, or may distribute the same, or equal parts thereof, among the candidates, as he shall see fit; and the candidates highest in votes shall be declared elected. TIME OF MEETING AND GENERAL RULES. § 9. The sessions of the general assembly shall commence at twelve o'clock noon, on the Wednesday next after the first Mon- day in January, in the year next ensuing the election of mem- bers thereof, and at no other time, unless as provided by this constitution. A majority of the members elected to each house shall constitute a quorum. Each house shall determine the rules of its proceedings, and be the judge of the election returns and qualifications of its members; shall choose its own officers; and the senate shall choose a temporary president to preside when the lieutenant-governor shall not attend as president or shall act as governor. The secretary of state shall call the house of rep- resentatives to order at the opening of each new assembly, and 396 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. preside over it until a temporary presiding officer thereof shall have been chosen and shall have taken his seat. No member shall be expelled by either house except by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to that house, and no member shall be twice expelled for the same offence. Each house may punish, by imprisonment, any person not a member, who shall be guilty of disrespect to the house by disorderly or contemptuous be- haviour in its presence. But no such imprisonment shall ex- tend beyond twenty-four hours at one time, unless the person shall persist in such disorderly or contemptuous behaviour. § 10. The doors of each house, and of committees of the -whole, shall be kept open, except in such cases as, in the opinion of the house, require secrecy. Neither house shall, without the consent of the other, adjourn for more than two days, or to any other place than that in which the two houses shall be sitting. Each house shall keep a journal of its proceedings, which shall be published. In the senate at the request of two members, and in the house at the request of five members, the yeas and nays shall be taken on any question, and entered upon the journal. Any two members of either house shall have liberty to dissent from and protest, in respectful language, against any act or resolution which they think injurious to the public or to any individual, and have the reasons of their dissent entered upon the journals. STYLE OF LAWS AND PASSAGE OF BILLS. § 11. The style of the laws of this state shall be: " JBe it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly." § 12. Bills may originate in either house, but may be altered, amended or rejected by the other; and on the final passage of all bills, the vote shall be by yeas and nays, upon each bill separately, and shall be entered upon the journal; and no bill shall become a law without the concurrence of a majority of the members elected to each house. § 13. Every bill shall be read at large on three different days, in each house; and the bill and all amendments thereto shall be printed before the vote is taken on its final passage; and every bill, having passed both houses, shall be signed by the speakers thereof. No act hereafter passed shall embrace more than one subject, and that shall be expressed in the title. But if any subject shall be embraced in an act which shall not be expressed in the title, such act shall be void only as to so much thereof as shall not be so expressed; and no law shall be revived or amended ILLINOIS. 397 by reference to its title only, but the law revived, or the section amended, shall be inserted at length in the new act. And no act of the general assembly shall take effect until the first day of July next after its passage, unless, in case of emergency (which emergency shall be expressed in the preamble or body of the act), the general assembly shall, by a vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, otherwise direct. DISABILITIES. § 15. No person elected to the general assembly shall receive any civil appointment within this state from the governor, the governor and senate, or from the general assembly, during the term for which he shall have been elected; and all such appoint- ments, and all votes given for any such members for any such office or appointment, shall be void; nor shall any member of the general assembly be interested, either directly or indirectly, in any contract with the state, or any county thereof, authorised by any law passed during the term for which he shall have been elected, or within one year after the expiration thereof. PUBLIC MONEYS AXD APPROPRIATIONS. § 16. The general assembly shall make no appropriation of money out of the treasury in any private law. Bills making ap- propriations for the pay of members and officers of the general assembly, and for the salaries of the officers of the government, shall contain no provision on any other subject. § 17. No money shall be drawn from the treasury except in pursuance of an appropriation made by law, and on the presen- tation of a warrant issued by the auditor thereon; and no money shall be diverted from any appropriation made for any purpose, or taken from any fund whatever, either by joint or separate resolution. The auditor shall, within sixty days after the ad- journment of each session of the general assembly, prepare and publish a full statement of all money expended at such session, specifying the amount of each item, and to whom and for what paid. § 18. Each general assembly shall provide for all the appro- priations necessary for the ordinary and contingent expenses of the government until the expiration of the first fiscal quarter after the adjournment of the next regular session, the aggregate amount of which shall not be increased without a vote of two- 398 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. thirds of the members elected to each house, nor exceed the amount of revenue authorised by law to be raised in such time; and all appropriations, general or special, requiring- money to be paid out of the state treasury, from funds belonging to the state, shall end with such fiscal quarter: Provided, the state may, to meet casual deficits or failures in revenues, contract debts, never to exceed in the aggregate $250,000; and moneys thus borrowed shall be applied to the purpose for which they were obtained, or to pay the debt thus created, and to no other purpose; and no other debt, except for the purpose of repelling invasion, suppressing insurrection, or defending the state in war (for payment of which the faith of the state shall be pledged), shall be contracted, unless the law authorising the same shall, at a general election, have been submitted to the people, and have received a majority of the votes cast for members of the general assembly at such election. The general assembly shall provide for the publication of said law for three months at least before the vote of the people shall be taken upon the same; and provi- sion shall be made, at the time, for the payment of the interest annually, as it shall accrue, by a tax levied for the purpose or from other sources of revenue; which law, providing for the pay- ment of such interest, by such tax, shall be irrepealable until such debt be paid: And, provided, further, that the law levying the tax shall be submitted to the people with the law authorising the debt to be contracted. § 19. The general assembly shall never grant or authorise extra compensation, fee or allowance to any public officer, agent, servant or contractor, after service has been rendered or a con- tract made, nor authorise the payment of any claim, or part thereof, hereafter created against the state under any agreement or contract made without express authority of law; and all such unauthorised agreements or contracts shall be null and void: Prodded, the general .assembly may make appropriations for expenditures incurred in suppressing insurrection or repelling invasion. § 20. The state shall never pa}% assume or become responsible for the debts or liabilities of, or in any manner give, loan, or ex- tend its credit to or in aid of any public or other corporation, association, or individual. PAY OF MEMBERS. § 21. The members of the general assembly shall receive for their services the sum of $5 per. day, during the first session held under this constitution, and 10 cents for each mile neces- * ILLINOIS. 399 sarily travelled in going to and returning from the seat of gov- ernment, to be computed by the auditor of public accounts; and thereafter such compensation as shall be prescribed by law, and no other allowance or emolument, directly or indirectly, for any pur- pose whatever, except the sum of $50 per session to each mem- ber, which shall be in full for postage, stationery, newspapers and all other incidental expenses and perquisites; but no change shall be made in the compensation of members of the general assembly during the term for which they may have been elected. The pay and mileage allowed to each member of the general as- sembly shall be certified by the speaker of their respective houses, and entered on the journals and published at the close of each session. * SrECIAL LEGISLATION PROHIBITED. § 22. The general assembly shall not pass local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say: for — Granting divorces; Changing the names of persons or places; Laying out, opening, altering and working roads or highways; Vacating roads, town plats, streets, alleys and public grounds; Locating or changing county seats; Regulating county and township affairs; Regulating the practice in courts of justice; Regulating the jurisdiction and duties of justices of the peace, police magistrates and constables; Providing for changes of venue in civil and criminal cases; Incorporating cities, towns or villages, or changing or amend- ng the charter of any town, city or village; Providing for the election of members of the board of super- visors in townships, incorporated towns or cities; Summoning and impanelling grand or petit juries; Providing for the management of common schools; Regulating the rate of interest on money; The opening and conducting of any election, or designating the place of voting; The sale or mortgage of real estate belonging to minors or others under disability; The protection of game or fish; Chartering or licensing ferries or toll bridges; Remitting fines, penalties or forfeitures; Creating, increasing or decreasing fees, percentage or allow- ances of public officers, during the term for which said officers axe elected or appointed; 400 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. Changing the law of descent; Granting to any corporation, association or individual the right to lay down railroad tracks, or amending existing charters for such purpose; Granting to any corporation, association or individual any special or exclusive privilege, immunity or franchise whatever. In all other cases where a general law can be made applica- ble, no special law shall be enacted-. § 23. The general assembly shall have no power to release or extinguish, in whole or in part, the indebtedness, liability or obligation of any corporation or individual to this state or to any municipal corporation therein. IMPEACHMENT. § 24. The house of representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment; but a majority of all the members elected must concur therein. All impeachments shall be tried by the senate; and when sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be upon oath, or affirmation, to do justice according to law and evidence. When the governor of the state is tried, the chief justice shall preside. No person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the senators elected. But judg- ment, in such cases, shall not extend further than removal from office, and disqualification to hold any office of honour, profit or trust under the government of this state. The party, whether convicted or acquitted, shall, nevertheless, be liable to prosecu- tion, trial, judgment and punishment according to law. MISCELLANEOUS. § 26. The state of Illinois shall never be made defendant in any court of law or equity. § 27. The general assembly shall have no power to authorise lotteries or gift enterprises for any purpose, and shall pass laws to prohibit the sale of lottery or gift enterprise tickets in this state. § 28. No law shall be passed which shall operate to extend the term of any public officer after his election or appointment. § 29. It shall be the duty of the general assembly to pass such laws as may be necessary for the protection of operative miners, by providing for ventilation, when the same may be re- quired, and the construction of escapement-shafts, or such other ILLINOIS. 401 appliances as may secure safety in all coal mines, and to provide for the enforcement of said laws by such penalties and punish- ments as may be deemed proper. § 30. The general assembly may provide for establishing and opening roads and cartways, connected with a public road, for private and public use. § 31. The general assembly may pass laws permitting the owners or occupants of lands to construct drains and ditches, for agricultural and sanitary purposes, across the lands of others. § 32. The general assembly shall pass liberal homestead and exemption laws. ARTICLE V. EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT. § 1. The executive department shall consist of a governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor of public ac- counts, treasurer, superintendent of public instruction, and attorney-general, who shall, each, with the exception of the treasurer, hold his office for the term of four years from the second Monday of January next after his election, and until his successor is elected and qualified. They shall, except the lieu- tenant-governor, reside at the seat of government during their term of office, and keep the public records, books and papers there, and shall perform such duties as may be prescribed by law. § 2. The treasurer shall hold his office for the term of two years, and until his successor is elected and qualified, and shall be ineligible to said office for two years next after the end of the term for which he was elected. He may be required by the governor to give reasonable additional security, and in default of so doing his office shall be deemed vacant. ELECTION. § 3. An election for governor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, auditor of public accounts, and attorney-general, shall be held on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of November, in the year of our Lord 1872, and every four years thereafter; for superintendent of public instruction, on the Tuesday next after the first Monday of November, in the year 1870, and every four years thereafter; and for treasurer on the day last above mentioned, and every two years thereafter, at such places and in such manner as may be prescribed by law. 26 402 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. ELIGIBILITY. § 5. No person shall be eligible to the office of governor, or lieutenant-governor, who shall not have attained the age of thirty years, and been, for five years next preceding his election, a citizen of the United States and of this state. Neither the governor, lieutenant-governor, auditor of public accounts, secre- tary of state, superintendent of public instruction nor attorney- general shall be eligible to any other office during the period for which he shall have been elected. GOVEENOE. § 6. The supreme executive power shall be vested in the governor, who shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed. § 7. The governor, shall, at the commencement of each ses- sion, and at the close of his term of office, give to the general assembly information, by message, of the condition of the state, and shall recommend such measures as he shall deem expedient. He shall account to the general assembly, and accompany his message with a statement of all moneys received and paid out by him from any funds subject to his order, with vouchers, and at the commencement of each regular session, present estimates of the amount of money required to be raised by taxation for all purposes. § 8. The governor may, on extraordinary occasions, convene the general assembly, by proclamation, stating therein the pur- pose for which they are convened; and the general assembly shall enter upon no business except that for which they were called together. § 9. In case of a disagreement between the two houses, with respect to the time of adjournment, the governor may, on the same being certified to him, by the house first moving the ad- journment, adjourn the general assembly to such time as he thinks proper, not beyond the first day of the next regular ses- sion. § 10. The governor shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the senate (a majority of all the senators selected concurring, by yeas and nays), appoint all officers whose offices are established by this constitution, or which may be created by law, and whose appointment or election is not other- wise provided for; and no such officer shall be appointed or elected by the general assembly. § 11. In case of a vacancy, during the recess of the senate, ILLINOIS. 403 in any office which is not elective, the governor shall make a temporary appointment until the next meeting of the senate, when he shall nominate some person to fill such office; and any person so nominated, who is confirmed by the senate (a majority of all the senators elected concurring by yeas and nays), shall hold his office during the remainder of the term, and until his successor shall be appointed and qualified. No person, after being rejected by the senate, shall be again nominated for the same office at the same session, unless at the request of the senate, or be appointed to the same office during the recess of the general assembly. § 12. The governor shall have power to remove any officer whom he may appoint, in case of incompetency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office; and he may declare his office vacant, and fill the same as is herein provided in other cases of vacancy. § 13. The governor shall have power to grant reprieves, com- mutations and pardons, after conviction, for all offences, subject to such regulations as may be provided by law relative to the manner of applying therefor. § 14. The governor shall be commander-in-chief of the mili- tary and naval forces of the state (except when they shall be called into the service of the United States), and may call out the same to execute the laws, suppress insurrection, and repel invasion. § 15. The governor, and all civil officers of this state, shall be liable to impeachment for any misdemeanor in office. VETO. § 16. Every bill passed by the general assembly shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the governor. If he approve, he shall sign it, and thereupon it shall become a law; but if he do not approve, he shall return it, with his objections, to the house in which it shall have originated, which house shall enter the objections at large upon its journal, and proceed to reconsider the bill. If, then, two-thirds of the members elected agree to pass the same, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other house, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of the members elected to that house, it shall become a law, notwithstanding the objections of the governor. But in all such cases the vote of each house shall be determined by yeas and nays, to be entered on the journal. Any bill which shall not be returned by the governor within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, 404 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. shall become a law in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the general assembly shall, by their adjournment, prevent its return, in which case it shall be filed, with his objections, in the office of the secretary of state, within ten days after such ad- journment, or become a law. LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR. § 18. The lieutenant-governor shall be president of the sen- ate, and shall vote only when the senate is equally divided. The senate shall choose a president, pro tempore, to preside in case of the absence or impeachment of the lieutenant-governor, or when he shall hold the office of governor. OTHER STATE OFFICERS. § 20. An account shall be kept by the officers of the execu- tive department, and of all the public institutions of the state, of all moneys received or disbursed by them, severally, from all sources, and for every service performed, and a semi-annual re- port thereof be made to the governor, under oath; and any officer who makes a false report shall be guilty of perjury, and pun- ished accordingly. § 21. The officers of the executive department, and of all the public institutions of the state, shall, at least ten days preceding each regular session of the general assembly, severally report to the governor, who shall transmit such reports to the general as- sembly, together with the reports of the judges of the supreme court of the defects in the constitution and laws; and the gov- ernor may at any time require information in writing, under oath, from the officers of the executive department, and all officers and managers of state institutions, upon any subject relating to the condition, management and expenses of their respective offices. FEES AND SALARIES. § 23. The officers named in this article shall receive for their services a salary to be established by law, which shall not be in- creased or diminished during their official terms, and they shall not, after the expiration of the terms of those in office at the adoption of this constitution, receive to their own use any fees, costs, perquisites of office, or other compensation. And all fees ILLINOIS. 405 that may hereafter be payable by law for any service performed by any officer provided for in this article of the constitution, shall be paid in advance into the state treasury. ARTICLE VI. JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. § 1. The judicial powers, except as in this article is otherwise provided, shall be vested in one supreme court, circuit courts, county courts, justices of the peace, police magistrates, and in such courts as may be created by law in and for cities and in- corporated towns. SUPREME COURT. § 2. The supreme court shall consist of seven judges and shall have original jurisdiction in cases relating to the revenue, in mandamus and habeas corpus, and appellate jurisdiction in all other cases. One of said judges shall be chief justice; four shall constitute a quorum, and the concurrence of four shall be necessary to every decision. § 3. No person shall be eligible to the office of judge of the supreme court unless he shall be at least thirty years of age, and a citizen of the United States, nor unless he shall have resided in this state five years next preceding his election, and be a res- ident of the district in which he shall be elected. § 6. At the time of voting on the adoption of this constitu- tion, one judge of the supreme court shall be elected by the electors thereof, in each of said districts numbered two, three, six and seven, who shall hold his office for the term of nine years, from the first Monday in June, in the year of our Lord 1870. The term of office of judges of the supreme court, elected after the adoption of this constitution, shall be nine years; and on the first Monday of June of the year in which the term of any of the judges in office at the adoption of this constitution, or of the judges then elected, shall expire, and every nine years thereafter, there shall be an election for the successor or successors of such judges, in the respective districts wherein the term of such judges shall expire. The chief justice shall continue to act as such until the expiration of the term for which he was elected, after which the judges shall choose one of their number chief justice. § 7. From and after the adoption of this constitution, the 406 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. judges of the supreme court shall each receive a salary of $4,000 per annum, payable quarterly, until otherwise provided by law. And after said salaries shall be fixed by law, the salaries of the judges in office shall not be increased or diminished during the terms for which said judges shall have been elected. CIRCUIT COURTS. § 12. The circuit courts shall have original jurisdiction of all causes in law and equity, and such appellate jurisdiction as is or may be provided by law, and shall hold two or more terms each year in every county. The terms of office of judges of circuit courts shall be six years. § 14. The general assembly shall provide for the times of holding court in each county, which shall not be changed, except by the general assembly next preceding the general election for judges of said courts; but additional terms may be provided for in any county. The election for judges of the circuit courts shall be held on the first Monday in June, in the year of our Lord 1873, and every six years thereafter. § 16. From and after the adoption of this constitution, judges of the circuit courts shall receive a salary of $3,000 per annum, payable quarterly, until otherwise provided by law. And after their salaries shall be fixed by law, they shall not be increased or diminished during the terms for which said judges shall be, respec- tively, elected; and from and after the adoption of this constitu- tion, no judge of the supreme or circuit court shall receive any other compensation, perquisite or benefit, in any form whatsoever, nor perform any other than judicial duties to which may belong any emoluments. § 17. No person shall be eligible to the office of judge of the circuit or any inferior court, or to membership in the ' board of county commissioners,' unless he shall be at least twenty-five years of age, and a citizen of the United States, nor unless he shall have resided in this state five years next preceding his election, and be a resident of the circuit, county, city, cities or incorporated town in which he shall be elected. COUNTY COURTS. § 18. There shall be elected in and for each county, one county judge and one clerk of the county court, whose terms of office shall be four years. But the general assembly may create districts of ILLINOIS. 407 two or more contiguous counties, in each of which shall be elected one judge, who shall take the place of, and exercise the powers and jurisdiction of county judges in such districts. County courts shall be courts of record, and shall have original jurisdiction in all matters of probate, settlement of estates of deceased persons, appointment of guardians and conservators, and settlements of their accounts, in all matters relating to apprentices, and in pro- ceedings for the collection of taxes and assessments, and such other jurisdiction as may be provided for by general law. § 19. Appeals and writs of error shall be allowed from final determinations of county courts, as may be provided by law. PROBATE COURTS. § 20. The general assembly may provide for the establishment of a probate court in each county having a population of over 50,000, and for the election of a judge thereof, whose term of office shall be the same as that of the county judge, and who shall be elected at the same time and in the same manner. Said courts, when established, shall have original jurisdiction of all probate matters, the settlement of estates of deceased persons, the ap- pointment of guardians and conservators, and settlement of their accounts; in all matters relating to apprentices, and in cases of the sales of real estate of deceased persons for the payment of debts. JUSTICES OF THE PEACE AND CONSTABLES. § 21. Justices of the peace, police magistrates, and constables shall be elected in and for such districts as are, or may be, pro- vided by law T , and the jurisdiction of such justices of the peace and police magistrates shall be uniform. STATE'S • ATTORNEYS. § 22. At the election for members of the general assembly in the year of our Lord 1872, and every four years thereafter, there shall be elected a state's attorney in and for each county, in lieu of the state's attorneys now provided by law, whose term of office shall be four years. GENERAL PROVISIONS. § 29. All judicial officers shall be commissioned by the gov- ernor. All laws relating to courts shall be general, and of uni- 408 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. form operation; and the organisation, jurisdiction, powers, pro- ceedings and practice of all courts, of the same class or grade, so far as regulated by law, and the force and effect of the process, judgments and decrees of such courts, severally, shall be uni- form. § 30. The general assembly may, for cause entered on the journals, upon due notice and opportunity of defence, remove from office any judge, upon concurrence of three-fourths of all the members elected, of each house. All other officers in this article mentioned shall be removed from office on prosecution and final conviction for misdemeanour in office. ARTICLE VII. SUFFEAGE. § 1. Every person having resided in this state one year, in the county ninety days, and in the election district thirty days next preceding any election therein, who was an elector in this state on the first day of April, in the year of our Lord 1848, or obtained a certificate of naturalisation before any court of record in this state prior to the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1870, or who shall be a male citizen of the United States, above the age of twenty-one years, shall be entitled to vote at such election. § 2. All votes shall be by ballot. § 3. Electors shall, in all cases except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their at- tendance at elections, and in going to and returning from the same. And no elector shall be obliged to do military duty on the days of election, except in time of war or public danger. § 4. No elector shall be deemed to have lost his residence in this state by reason of his absence on business of the United States, or of this state, or in the' military or naval service of the United States. § 5. No soldier, seaman or marine in the army or navy of the United States shall be deemed a resident of this state in conse- quence of being stationed therein. § 6. No person shall be elected or appointed to any office in this state, civil or militar} T , who is not a citizen of the United States, and who shall not have resided in this state one year next preceding the election or appointment. § 7. The general assembly shall pass laws excluding from the right of suffrage persons convicted of infamous crimes. ILLINOIS. 409 ARTICLE VIII. EDUCATION. § 1. The general assembly shall provide a thorough and ef- ficient system of free schools, whereby all children of this state may receive a good common school education. § 2. All lands, moneys, or other property, donated, granted or received for school, college, seminary or university purposes, and the proceeds thereof, shall be faithfully applied to the ob- jects for which such gifts or grants were made. § 3. Neither the general assembly nor any county, city, town, township, school district, or other public corporation, shall ever make any appropriation or pay from any public fund whatever, anything in aid of any church or sectarian purpose, or to help support or sustain any school, academy, seminary, college, uni- versity, or other literary or scientific institution, controlled by any church or sectarian denomination whatever; nor shall any grant or donation of land, money, or other personal property ever be made by the state or any such public corporation, to any church, or for any sectarian purpose. § 4. No teacher, state, county, township or district school officer shall be interested in the sale, proceeds or profits of any book, apparatus or furniture used or to be used in any school in this state, with which such officer or teacher may be connected, under such penalties as may be provided by the general assem- bly. § 5. There may be a county superintendent of schools in each county, whose qualifications, powers, duties, compensation, and time and manner of election, and term of office, shall be pre- scribed by law. ARTICLE IX. REVENUE. § 1. The general assembly shall provide such revenue as may be needful by levying a tax, by valuation, so that every person and corporation shall pay a tax in proportion to the value of his, Jier or its property — such value to be ascertained by some person or persons, to be elected or appointed in such manner as the general assembly shall direct, and not otherwise; but the general assembly shall have power to tax pedlers, auctioneers, brokers, hawkers, merchants, commission merchants, showmen, jugglers, 410 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. innkeepers, grocery keepers, liquor dealers, toll bridges, ferries, insurance, telegraph and express interests or business, venders of patents, and persons or corporations owning or using fran- chises and privileges, in such manner as it shall from time to time direct by general law, uniform as to the class upon which it operates. § 2. The specification of the objects and subjects of taxation shall not deprive the general assembly of the power to require other subjects or objects to be taxed in such manner as may be consistent with the principles of taxation fixed in this constitu- tion. § 3. The property of the state, counties, and other municipal corporations, both real and personal, and such other property as may be used exclusively for agricultural and horticultural societies, for school, religious, cemetery and charitable purposes, may be exempted from taxation; but such exemption shall be only by general law. In the assessment of real estate incumbered by public easement, any depreciation occasioned by such easement may be deducted in the valuation of such property. § 6. The general assembly shall have no power to release or discharge any county, city, township, town or district whatever, or the inhabitants thereof, or the property therein, from their or its proportionate share of taxes to be levied for state purposes, nor shall commutation for such taxes be authorised in any form whatsoever. § 7. All taxes levied for state purposes shall be paid into the state treasury. § 8. Count}' authorities shall never assess taxes, the aggre- gate of which shall exceed 75 cents per $100 valuation, except for the payment of indebtedness existing at the adoption of this constitution, unless authorised by a vote of the people of the county. § 9. The general assembly may vest the corporate authorities of cities, towns and villages, with power to make local improve- ments by special assessment, or by special taxation of contiguous property, or otherwise. For all other corporate purposes, all municipal corporations may be vested with authority to assess and collect taxes; but such taxes shall be uniform in respect to persons and property, within the jurisdiction of the body impos- ing the same. § 10. The general assembly shall not impose taxes upon municipal corporations, or the inhabitants or property thereof, for corporate purposes, but shall require that all the taxable property within the limits of municipal corporations shall be taxed for the payment of debts contracted under authority of law, such taxes ILLINOIS. .411 to be uniform in respect to persons and property, within the jurisdiction of the body imposing the same. Private property shall not be liable to be taken or sold for the payment of the corporate debts of a municipal corporation. § 12. No county, city, township, school district, or other municipal corporation, shall be allowed to become indebted in any manner, or for any purpose, to an amount, including existing in- debtedness, in the aggregate exceeding five per centum on the value of the taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the last assessment for state and county taxes, previous to the incurring of such indebtedness. Any county, city, school district, or other municipal corporation, incurring any indebtedness as aforesaid, shall before, or at the time of doing so, provide for the collection of a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on such debt as it falls due, and also to pay and discharge the principal thereof within twenty years from the time of contracting the same. This section shall not be construed to prevent any county, city, town- ship, school district, or other municipal corporation, from issuing their bonds in compliance with any vote of the people which may have been had prior to the adoption of this constitution in pur- suance of any law providing therefor. ARTICLE X. COUNTIES. § 1. No new county shall be formed or established by the general assembly, which will reduce the county or counties, or either of them, from which it shall be taken, to less contents than 400 square miles; nor shall any county be formed of less contents: nor shall any line thereof pass within less than ten miles of any county seat of the county or counties proposed to be divided. § 2. No county shall be divided, or have any part stricken therefrom, without submitting the question to a vote of the people of the county, nor unless a majority of all the legal voters of the county, voting on the question, shall vote for the same. § 3. There shall be no territory stricken from any county, unless a majority of the voters living in such territory shall peti- tion for such division; and no territory shall be added to any county without the consent of the majority of the voters of the county to which it is proposed to be added. But the portion so stricken off and added to another county, or formed in whole or in part into a new county, shall be holden for, and obliged to pay its proportion of the indebtedness of the county from which it has been taken. 412 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. COUNTY GOVERNMENT. § 5. The general assembly shall provide, by general law, for township organisation, under which any county may organise whenever a majority of the legal voters of such county, voting at any general election, shall so determine; and whenever any county shall adopt township organisation, so much of this con- stitution as provides for the management of the fiscal concerns of the said county by the board of county commissioners, may be dispensed with, and the affairs of said county may be trans- acted in such manner as the general assembly may provide. And in any county that shall have adopted a township organisa- tion, the question of continuing the same may be submitted to a vote of the electors of said county, at a general election, in the manner that now is or may be provided by law; and if a majority of all the votes cast upon that question shall be against town- ship organisation, then such organisation shall cease in said county; and all laws in force in relation to counties not having township organisation, shall immediately take effect and be in force in such county. No two townships shall have the same name, and the day of holding the annual township meeting shall be uniform throughout the state. § 6. At the first election of county judges under this consti- tution, there shall be elected in each of the counties in this state, not under township organisation, three officers, who shall be styled " The board of county commissioners," who shall hold sessions for the transaction of county business as shall be provided by law. One of said commissioners shall hold his office for one year, one for two years, and one for three years, to be determined by lot; and every year thereafter one such officer shall be elected in each of the said counties for the term of three years. COUNTY OFFICERS AND THEIR COMPENSATION. § 8. In each county there shall be elected the following county officers: County judge, sheriff, county clerk, clerk of the circuit court, (who may be ex-officio recorder of deeds, except in counties having 60,000 and more inhabitants, in which counties a recorder of deeds shall be elected at the general election in the year of our Lord 1872,) treasurer, surveyor and coroner, each of whom shall enter upon the duties of his office, respectively, on the first Monday of December after their election; and they shall hold their respective offices for the term of four years, ex- cept the treasurer, sheriff and coroner, who shall hold their ILLINOIS. 413 offices for two years, and until their successors shall be elected and qualified. § 9. The clerks of all the courts of record, the treasurer, sheriff, coroner and recorder of deeds of Cook county, shall re- ceive as their only compensation for their services, salaries to be fixed by law, which shall in no case be as much as the lawful com- pensation of a judge of the circuit court of said county, and shall be paid, respectively, only out of the fees of the office actually collected. All fees, perquisites and emoluments (above the amount of said salaries) shall be paid into the county treasury. The number of the deputies and assistants of such officers shall be determined by rule of the circuit court, to be entered of record, and their compensation shall be determined by the county board. § 10. The county board, except as provided in section 9 of this article, shall fix the compensation of all county officers, with the amount of their necessary clerk- hire, stationery, fuel and other expenses, and in all cases where fees are provided for, said compensation shall be paid only out of, and shall in no instance exceed, the fees annually collected; they shall not allow either of them more per annum than 81,500, in counties not exceeding 20,000 inhabitants; 82,000 in counties containing 20,000 and not exceeding 30,000 inhabitants; 82,500 in counties containing 30,000 and not exceeding 50,000 inhabitants; 83,000 in counties containing 50,000 and not exceeding 70,000 inhabitants; 83,500 in counties containing 70,000 and not exceeding 100,000 inhab- itants; and 84,000 in counties containing over 100,000 and not exceeding 250,000 inhabitants; and not more than 81,000 addi- tional compensation for each additional 100,000 inhabitants: Provided, that the compensation of no officer shall be increased or diminished during his term of office. All fees or allowances by them received, in excess of their said compensation, shall be paid into the county treasury. § 11. The fees of township officers, and of each class of county officers, shall be uniform in the class of counties to which they respectively belong. The compensation herein provided for shall apply only to officers hereafter elected, but all fees established by special laws shall cease at the adoption of this constitution, and such officers shall receive only such fees as are provided by general law. § 12. All laws fixing the fees of state, county and township officers, shall terminate with the terms, respectively, of those who may be in office at the meeting of the first general assembly after the adoption of this constitution; and the general assembly shall, by general law, uniform in its operation, provide for aud 414 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. regulate the fees of said officers and their successors, so as to reduce the same to a reasonable compensation for services actually rendered. But the general assembly may, by general law, classify the counties by population into not more than three classes, and regulate the fees according to class. This article shall not be construed as depriving the general assembly of the power to reduce the fees of existing officers. § 13. Every person who is elected or appointed to any office in this state, who shall be paid in whole or in part by fees, shall be required by law to make a semi-annual report, under oath, to some officer, to be designated by law, of all his fees and emolu- ments. ARTICLE XI. CORPORATIONS. § 1. No corporation shall be created by special laws, or its charter extended, changed or amended, except those for chari- table, educational, penal or reformatory purposes, which are to be and remain under the patronage and control of the state, but the general assembly shall provide, by general laws, for the organisation of all corporations hereafter to be created. § 2. All existing charters or grants of special or exclusive privileges, under which organisation shall not have taken place, or which shall not have been in operation within ten days from the time this constitution takes effect, shall thereafter have no validity or effect whatever. § 3. The general assembly shall provide, by law, that in all elections for directors or managers of incorporated companies, every stockholder shall have the right to vote, in person or by proxy, for the number of shares of stock owned by him, for as many persons as there are directors or managers to be elected, or to cumulate said shares, and give one candidate as many votes as the number of directors multiplied by the number of his shares of stock shall equal,- or to distribute them on the same principle among as many candidates as he shall think fit; and such directors or managers shall not be elected in any other manner. § 4. No law shall be passed by the general assembly granting the right to construct and operate a street railroad within any city, town or incorporated village, without requiring the consent of the local authorities having the control of the street or high- way proposed to be occupied by such street railroad. ILLINOIS. 415 BANKS. § 5. No state bank shall hereafter be created, nor shall the state own or be liable for any stock in any corporation or joint stock company or association for banking purposes, now created, or to be hereafter created. No act of the general assembly authorising or creating corporations or associations with bank- ing powers, whether of issue, deposit or discount, nor amend- ments thereto, shall go into effect or in any manner be in force unless the same shall be submitted to a vote of the people at the general election next succeeding the passage of the same, and be approved by a majority of all the votes cast at such election for or against such law. § 6. Every stockholder in a banking corporation or institu- tion shall be individually responsible and liable to its creditors, over and above the amount of stock by him or her held, to an amount equal to his or her respective shares so held, for all its liabilities accruing while he or she remains such stockholder. § 7. The suspension of specie payments by banking institu- tions, on their circulation, created by the laws of this state, shall never be permitted or sanctioned. Every banking associa-* tion now, or which may hereafter be organised under the laws of this state, shall make and publish a full and accurate quar- terly statement of its affairs, (which shall be certified to, under oath, by one or more of its officers,) as may be provided by law. § 8. If a general banking law shall be enacted, it shall pro- vide for the registry and countersigning, by an officer of state, of all bills or paper credit, designed to circulate as money, and require security, to the full amount/ thereof, to be deposited with the state treasurer, in United States or Illinois State stocks, to be rated at 10 per cent, below their par value; and in case of a depreciation of said stocks to the amount of 10 per cent, below par, the bank or banks owning said stocks shall be required to make up said deficiency by depositing additional stocks. And said law shall also provide for the recording of the names of all stockholders in such corporations, the amount of stock held by each, the time of any transfer thereof, and to whom such trans- fer is made. RAILROADS. § 9. Every railroad corporation organised or doing business in this state, under the laws or authority thereof, shall have and maintain a public office or place in this state for the transaction of its business, where transfers of stock shall be made, and in 41 G STATE CONSTITUTIONS. which shall be kept, for public inspection, books, in which shall be recorded the amount of capital stock subscribed, and by whom; the names of the owners of its stock, and the amounts owned by them respectively; the amount of stock paid in, and by whom; the transfer of said stock; the amount of its assets and liabilities, and the names and place of residence of its officers. The direc- tors of every railroad corporation shall, annually, make a report, under oath, to the auditor of public accounts, or some officer to be designated by law, of all their acts and doings, which report shall include such matters relating to railroads as may be pre- scribed by law. And the general assembly shall pass laws en- forcing by suitable penalties the provisions of this section. § 10. The rolling stock, and all other movable property be- longing to any railroad company or corporation in this state, shall be considered personal property, and shall be liable to ex- ecution and sale in the same manner as the personal property of individuals, and the general assembly shall pass no law exempt- ing any such property from execution and sale. § 11. No railroad corporation shall consolidate its stock, pro- perty or franchises with any other railroad corporation owning a •parallel or competing line; and in no case shall any consolidation take place, except upon public notice given, of at least sixty days, to all stockholders, in such manner as may be provided by law. A majority of the directors of any railroad corporation, now incorporated or hereafter to be incorporated by the laws of this state, shall be citizens and residents of this state. § 12. Railways heretofore constructed, or that may hereafter be constructed in this state, are hereby declared public highways, and shall be free to all persons for the transportation of their persons and property thereon, under such regulations as may be prescribed by law. And the general assembly shall, from time to time, pass laws establishing reasonable maximum rates of charges for the transportation of passengers and freight on the different railroads in this state. § 13. No railroad corporation shall issue any stock or bonds, except for money, labour or property actually received, and ap- plied to the purposes for which such corporation was created; and all stock dividends, and other fictitious increase of the cap- ital stock or indebtedness of any such corporation, shall be void. The capital stock of no railroad corporation shall be increased for any purpose, except upon giving sixty days' public notice, in such manner as may be provided by law. § 14. The exercise of the power, and the right of eminent domain, shall never be so construed or abridged as to prevent the taking, by the general assembly, of the property and franchises ILLINOIS. 417 of incorporated companies already organised, and subjecting them to the public necessity the same as of individuals. The right of trial by jury shall be held inviolate in all trials of claims for com- pensation, when, in the exercise of the said right of eminent do- main, any incorporated company shall be interested either for or against the exercise of said right. § 15. The general assembly shall pass laws to correct abuses and prevent unjust discrimination and extortion in the rates of freight and passenger tariffs on the different railroads in this state, and enforce such laws by adequate penalties, to the extent, if necessary for that purpose, of forfeiture of their property and franchises. ARTICLE XII. MILITIA. § 1. The militia of the state of Illinois shall consist of all able- bodied male persons, resident in the state, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, except such persons as now are, or here- after may be, exempted by the laws of the United States, or of this state. § 2. The general assembly, in providing for the organisation, equipment and discipline of the militia, shall conform as nearly as practicable to the regulations for the government of the ar- mies of the United States. § 3. All militia officers shall be commissioned by the governor, and may hold their commissions for such time as the general as- sembly may provide. § 4. The militia shall in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their at- tendance at musters and elections, and in going to and returning from the same. § 5. The military records, banners and relics of the state, shall be preserved as an enduring memorial of the patriotism and valour of Illinois, and it shall be the duty of the general assem- bly to provide, by law, for the safe keeping of the same. § G. No person having conscientious scruples against bearing arms shall be compelled to do militia duty in time of peace: Pro- vided, such person shall pay an equivalent for such exemption. 27 418 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. ARTICLE XIII. WAREHOUSES. § 1. All elevators or storehouses where grain or other pro- perty is stored for a compensation, whether* the property stored be kept separate or not, are declared to be public warehouses. § 2. The owner, lessee or manager of each and every public warehouse situated in any town or city of not less than 100,000 inhabitants, shall make weekly statements under oath, before some officer to be designated by law, and keep the same posted in some conspicuous place in the office of such warehouse, and shall also file a copy for public examination in such place as shall be desig- nated by law, which statement shall correctly set forth the amount and grade of each and every kind of grain in such ware- house, together with such other property as may be stored therein, and what warehouse receipts have been issued, and are, at the time of making such statement, outstanding therefor; and shall, on the copy posted in the warehouse, note daily such changes as may be made in the quantity and grade of grain in such warehouse; and the different grades of grain shipped in separate lots shall not be mixed with inferior or superior grades without the consent of the owner or consignee thereof. § 3. The owners of property stored in any warehouse, or holder of a receipt for the same, shall always be at liberty to ex- amine such property stored, and all the books and records of the warehouse in regard to such property. § 4. All railroad companies and other common carriers on railroads shall weigh or measure grain at points where it is shipped, and receipt for the full amount, and shall be responsible for the delivery of such amount to the owner or consignee thereof at the place of destination. § 5. All railroad companies receiving and transporting grain in bulk or otherwise, shall deliver the same to any consignee thereof, or any elevator or public warehouse to which it may be consigned, provided such consignee or the elevator or public warehouse can be reached by any track owned, leased or used, or which can be used, by such railroad companies; and all rail- road companies shall permit connections to be made with their track, so that any such consignee, and any public warehouse, coal bank or coal yard, may be reached by the cars on said rail- road. § 6. It shall be the duty of the general assembly to pass all necessary laws to prevent the issue of false and fraudulent ware- ILLINOIS. 419 house receipts, and to give full effect to this article of the consti- tution, which shall be liberally construed so as to protect pro- ducers and shippers. And the enumeration of the remedies herein named shall not be construed to deny to the general as- sembly the power to prescribe by law such other and further remedies as may be found expedient, or to deprive any person of existing common law remedies. § 7. The general assembly shall pass laws for the inspection of grain, for the protection of producers, shippers and receivers of grain and produce. ARTICLE XIV. AMENDMENTS TO THE CONSTITUTION. § 1. Whenever two-thirds of the members of each house of the general assembly shall, by a vote entered upon the journals thereof, concur that a convention is necessary to revise, alter or amend the constitution, the question shall be submitted to the electors at the next general election. If a majority voting at the election vote for a convention, the general assembly shall, at the next session, provide for a convention, to consist of double the number of members of the senate, to be elected in the same manner, at the same places, and in the same districts. The gen- eral assembly shall, in the act calling the convention, designate the day, hour and place of its meeting, fix the pay of its mem- bers and officers, and provide for the payment of the same, to- gether with expenses necessarily incurred by the convention in the performance of its duties. Before proceeding, the members shall take an oath to support the constitution of the United States, and of the state of Illinois, and to faithfully discharge their duties as members of the convention. The qualification of members shall be the same as that of members of the senate, and vacancies occurring shall be filled in the manner provided for fill- ing vacancies in the general assembly. Said convention shall meet within three months after such election, and prepare such revision, alteration or amendments of the constitution as shall I" e deemed necessary, which shall be submitted to the electors for their ratification or rejection, at an election appointed by the convention for that purpose, not less than two nor more than six months after the adjournment thereof; and unless so submitted and approved by a majority of the electors voting at the election, no such revision, alterations and amendments shall take effect. § 2. Amendments to this constitution may be proposed in 420 STATE CONSTITUTIONS. either house of the general assembly, and if the same shall be voted for by two-thirds of all the members elected to each of the two houses, such proposed amendments, together with the yeas and nays of each house thereon, shall be entered in full on their respective journals; and said amendments shall be submitted to the electors of this state for adoption or rejection, at the next election of members of the general assembly, in such mannw as may be prescribed by law. The proposed amendments shall be published in full at least three months preceding the election, and if a majority of the electors voting at said election shall vote for the proposed amendments, they shall become a part of this constitution. But the general assembly shall have no power to propose amendments to more than one article of this constitu- tion at the same session, nor to the same article oftener than once in four years. SEPARATE SECTIONS. MUNICIPAL SUBSCRIPTIONS TO EAILEOADS OE PEIVATE COEPOEATIONS. No county, city, town, township or other municipality, shall ever become subscriber to the capital stock of any railroad or private corporation, or make donation to or loan its credit in aid of such corporation: Provided, however, that the adoption of this article shall not be construed as affecting the right of any such municipality to make such subscriptions where the same have been authorized, under existing laws, by a vote of the peo- ple of such municipalities prior to such adoption. THE END. L*5Ao"'S