An Autumn Tour

in the

United States and Canada.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY-THE UNITED STATES.

THERE are few of the usual attractions to tempt the ordinary tourist to America. The voyage across the Atlantic is always rather formidable, the cost of travelling is high especially since the Civil War, and the country has but few antiquities or historical memorials, -its cities and public buildings being mere copies of those in Europe. Even its natural beauties, great as they are, have scarcely enough speciality about them to tempt the traveller to undertake the voyage and the many hundred miles of wearisome travel necessary to reach them.

Yet, to the thoughtful and intelligent English traveller, there are, I think, ample inducements to be offered. It must surely be interesting to see this vast territory, so lately a part of the mother country, being gradually settled and peopled-to mark how the energy and ability of the race to which he himself belongs have, in so short a time, built large cities, cultivated great tracts of country, covered them with a network of railways and canals, and introduced all the modern ap-. pliances of science and civilisation into what was but a few years ago an uncleared wilderness—above all, to observe the development of English laws, social customs, and political principles, under totally different circumstances from those under which they originated.

Whether I may class myself amongst the thoughtful and intelligent or not, such, at any rate, were the motives that had long made me anxious to visit the United States; and though the time which I was able to devote to my visit was unfortunately but too short, still I trust I have brought away some clear impressions of the country and people, which are in the main truthful, as they certainly are honest. I went with every disposition to be pleased and with no pre-conceived theories to

maintain. I did not go altogether ignorant of the geography, history or politics of the country; and therefore, necessarily, I had formed opinions on many points. But I may fairly say that I held those opinions in abeyance, and though many have been confirmed, others have been considerably modified or altogether changed.

If it be objected that a traveller has no right to record his impressions after so short a visit, it may be replied that while a longer residence will of course give greater value to his remarks, yet those very peculiarities which are most important to be noticed will elude his observation as he becomes accustomed to them. Thus, though his picture would, in the latter case, be more highly finished, it would probably be wanting in sharpness of outline, and in the very individuality which makes it a portrait.

Perhaps an Anglo-Indian is more competent to a task of this sort than the ordinary Englishman. His ultra-English experience stands him in good stead; he has been accustomed to view things from a different stand-point, and to judge of them to a great extent apart from English prejudices. In many respects, however, no two countries

present a more striking contrast to one another than India and the United States: the one, so intensely conservative that even five hundred years count but little in modifying the physical aspect of the country or the social character of the people; the other, so progressive that it is difficult for the annalist to keep pace with its rapid growth. The one, a country whose history reaches back into the far-distant past, with a civilisation, art and science of its own, however corrupt and degraded at present, with a dense population of many different races, under the government of a handful of foreigners, who rule it with a despotism tempered only by their own sense of justice and duty; the other, a country whose history is not yet a hundred years old, with a civilisation, religion, customs and even political ideas brought second-hand from Europe, and whose small population, increasing yearly at a prodigious rate, and drawn from many distinct nationalities, yet converts them all into one homogeneous people, governed entirely by themselves.

In one respect, certainly, I found it an advantage, while in America, to have lived many years in a country like India—I was better able to realise the great distances and

vast extent of the States. The Englishman who has never quitted England, or even if he has only travelled on the European continent, has great difficulty in appreciating the magnitude of a single country which is larger than all the kingdoms of Europe put together. But having travelled 1,500 miles continuously on the Indian railways, I could at least comprehend the meaning of a journey more than twice as long from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.

I had also travelled sufficiently in other countries, besides Great Britain and India, not to waste time in visiting what could be equally well seen in Europe-or in attempting to see too much; and I endeavoured to guard myself from the common fault of every traveller, that of generalising too much from individual instances.

Before attempting to give an account of my tour or of my impressions of the country and people, I shall take the liberty of offering to the reader a little general information about the United States, with which he may or may not be already acquainted.

The United States of America comprehend an area of more than three and a half millions