ACROSS THE FERRY.*
IT is difficult to know with what books to class the one whose rather clap-trap title stands at the head of this notice. It is, of course, ostensibly a book of travels, but it deals so little with what is passed by the way, and records so minutely the buildings and in- stitutions of the cities visited, that at one moment we are inclined to place it amongst guide-books or gazetteers. At another, we are so much impressed with the large body of statistics it contains at intervals of a few pages, that we fancy its papers must have been pre- pared for that eminent society, which should immediately authorize the respected editor of the Leisure Hour to place M.R.S.S. after his well-known name. All through we are so struck with its couleur-de-rose view of the United States and everything belonging thereto, and with the tempting descriptions of the prosperity, physical, intellectual and moral, of everyone therein, that we could almost have fancied—had we not known the name of the author— that an agent of some United States' Immigration Company had offered a premium for the most attractive book on the great repub- lic, and that Dr. Macaulay had gone in and won. And still a further idea was constantly turning up in our mind,—that the American travels were only meant to subserve the purpose of instilling Evangelical proclivities into a large circle of English and Transatlantic readers. But to whatever class of works Across the Ferry snore properly belongs, it contains a large mass of information, and if a copious index had only been appended, as it should have been, and as we recommend Dr. Macaulay to see that it is in a new edition, it would form a:valuable book of reference on the subject of the United States. Whether all the information is equally important is another question, and we cannot help thinking that many of the figures might have been spared us ; they tend to nothing but to exhibit the rapid growth of the cities of the States, for which the single table at page 35 is ample ; and beyond this, all that is necessary is to show that the means of religious and intellectual instruction keep pace with the increase of population. The statistics of trade, railways, news- papers, &c., are only further and somewhat tedious illustrations of the same fact. It is wearisome to have to go over at every fresh city the increase of population, the number of churches of each sect, the schools, newspapers, trade, &c., and sometimes even the streets, warehouses, &c. Indeed, Dr. Macaulay has such a passion for figures, and such a childlike amazement when they reach millions, that we have even to encounter statistics of the visitors at the different watering-places, of the evergreens used for Christmas trees and decorations, &c. Let us take Chicago as an instance,—we have the dates of the first map, the first religious service, the first tax list, the first street, the first postmaster, the first newspaper, the first charter, the first census. Then we have the number of the white and coloured population, the increase every ten years to the present time, the statistics of the trade in wheat, in hogs, 1,953,372 were received in 1870 —cattle, wines, &c. ; then of the hog trade of the whole State, comparing that of each town ; then of the churches of Chicago, of the University ; of the size of the warehouses—one can store 11,000,0001 bushels of grain (that half- bushel is a stroke of the Doctor's humour, we are sure) ; of the hog yards,—in "the construction 22,000,000 feet of timber were used, at a cost of 1,675,000 dols. ;"—of the water-works,--20,000,000 of gallons daily ; —of the horse railways,-900 horses ; —of the fire— not the great one—" a boot and shoe store lost 250,000 dollars ;"- finally, of the schools, which are interesting, and not merely tire- some or amusing, and in which schools we are told that 40,000
• Across the Ferry. By Dr. Macaulay. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
pupils, "or one-eighth of the entire population," were enrolled in 1870. Then we turn the page, and have to begin all the same sort of thing over again at Cincinnati. But the author's power of wondering and admiring is inexhaustible ; the very spirit of a holiday pervades all that he says and does. We have not the pleasure of knowing him, and we hope he will not feel otherwise than complimented by our acknowledgment that from first to last we could not divest ourselves of the feeling that it was an en- lightened and judicial Pickwick that went beaming in radiant philanthropy about the streets of the great cities of the States ; that looked back, on landing, "with pleasant memory on the truly social and republican club that broke up in New York harbour, never all to meet again ;" whose "first mental remark "in the new country was "these Americans know how to use steam ;" who wondered whether it was New York or New Cork, he was so sur- rounded by Irish ; who mollified the grumpy Irish waiter who always brought him tough legs of fowl by remarking, in assumed brogue, "Pat, I think the hiss in this country have a great many ligs ;" who "lingered long and mused much" in the State House of Philadelphia, "and gazed with delight on the relics which are preserved in it ;" whose "first stroll was in company with the ghost of Benjamin Franklin ;" who followed an ac- quaintance so confidingly to a surprise of something new, and who so simply and readily pulled himself up into the proper frame of mind, and was genuinely pleased when, metaphorically speaking, the handkerchief was removed from his eyes, and he found him- self at a crowded meeting of working-men for mid-day prayer.
Whether this holiday frame of mind, this readiness to be de- lighted, is the most fitted for judicial observation, however, is to be doubted, and we think Dr. Macaulay is not always quite fair to England in the comparisons he draws. He draws them, of course, that we may benefit by the experience and ability of our Trans- atlantic cousins; but it seems to us that the comparisons are some- times uselessly invidious, and that they are made by the solitary light of United States' statistics ; our author having, perhaps, for- gotten that he had never looked as carefully into those of Old England. In speaking, for instance, of the churches, schools, and houses of the poor, of their numbers, space, and commodious- ness, he seems to overlook the important fact that land and timber in America are, as compared with England, of very trifling value. This cheapness of land and materials, and the vastness of distance to be travelled, will account again for the rapid extension of rail- ways, without having recourse to the greater industry or public- spiritedness of the Americans. And in the same way, when an equal population is spread over a surface twenty-two times as large, newspapers—the great number of which in the States Dr. Macaulay evidently thinks a convincing proof of superior enlighten- ment—must be infinitely more numerous, without affording any more information to a large, than a small number would to a compact, population ; and the character of the provincial American press is passed over in silence, though the "best journals in the great cities" are spoken of highly ;—in doing which Dr. Macaulay takes the opportunity of castigating— not by any means too severely—the New York Herald, and of speaking, with deserved reproach, of the personality and sensationalism indulged in by the United States' Press in general. Again, in speaking of the railway arrangements, which are on the whole certainly admirable, and in many ways far in advance of ours—though much that previous travellers have told us over and over again is here recapitulated—it is an injustice to our authorities, and a great exaggeration, to say that our luggage arrangements are so bad that "gangs of thieves live by stealing luggage at the stations." Even the vice that nighly flaunts in the streets of some parts of our English towns, and which is several times compared most unfavourably to the aspect of United States streets, would appear far less when spread over the vast area which, in American cities, represents the same population ; and New York certainly is not less wicked than London. On the point of national industry, Dr. Macaulay again gives judg- ment, fashionable life apart, in favour of America. We can scarcely conceive, however, of any nation in which the middle- classes could work harder than they do in England, and preserve soundness of mind and a fair degree of health. Dr. Macaulay sums up by saying that on education, pauperism—on which subject, by the bye, significantly enough, he never touches—the relations of capital and labour, and other matters, the States "have solved problems that bailie the rulers and philanthropists of Europe." We might observe as to education, that the vast proportion of the population has poured into their cities to find a scheme ready for them, made in quieter times and with the aid of modern civiliza- tion, by a few of their wisest predecessors, instead of having to
battle out a system with thousands of unenlightened and divergent opinions ; and as to pauperism and the relations of capital and labour, that when the cry is still, and always has been, for more labour, America has not reached the point where these questions become the terrible difficulty that they are in the over-populated countries of the Old World. But what are we to do when our author silences all our arguments by assuring us that "it is idle to say that there is vast difference in conditions of cities in America, where all is comparatively new, and where there is plenty of room for the population"?
Dr. Macaulay wrote before the interpretation of the Treaty difficulties arose, and believes that with the destruction of slavery and the revival of good feeling towards England, America will rise to "unprecedented greatness,"—a conclusion in which we heartily join, though, with our author, we see the rock-ahead of United States' legislation,—the tremendous admixture of nation- alities and religions.
But we do not wish to carp, nor even to moderate Dr. Macaulay's enthusiasm for his new friends, and we must remember that his papers were written on his travels,—apparently for the Leisure Hour, though he does not say so on the title-page,—and before the beauty of the first blush of novelty had given place to the effect of a thoughtful reconsideration. And some of the most valuable information he gives us is certainly in favour of the States. He seems to establish, with fresh evidence, that, whatever the cause, religion enters more really and intimately info the life of the people than it does here, and that education is far more widely diffused, penetrates more deeply into the lower strata of society, and is more equal in kind for all classes, binding all ranks together by similarity of knowledge, and by intercourse during the years of instruction. Amongst lesser matters, we have an interesting account of the wise Game-laws of the States, and of the admirable railway system, which we should do well humbly to copy from our American cousins. And Dr. Macaulay does not by any means desert the British flag. There are remarks on the superiority of the monarchical system, and on some of the glaring defects of the republican one ; and he points out specially the evil effects on morality and on public order and confidence, of the arrangement by which all officials, down to the very lowest, may be changed with a change of President, instead of, as with us on a change of ministry, only the leading members of Government.
A weak point in Dr. Macaulay's book is a suspicion of bigotry which runs through it. Roman Catholicism is always called "Popery;" in lists of churches, the Roman Catholic are called "mass-houses." The opposite extreme of opinion is treated no better ; Unitarians have to bring up the rear, after Moravians and Jews, lumped with " Universalists and various sects of divers names and opin- ions." We belong to the Broad Church, and have no interest, except in the cause of truth, in drawing attention to Dr. Macau- lay's remarks; but undoubtedly of the opinions of this sect of Christians (Unitarians) the editor of the Leisure Hour shows a gross, and we may almost say a culpable, ignorance. He says :— " They call themselves Christians, for the number is small of those who avow themselves Deists, or even Socinians." And he adds, "But with a large proportion the Unitarian profession is only a tribute paid to social position but the thing is fast degenerating into a hollow sham. Nominally there are still more Unitarian than any other kind of churches in Boston in fact, the cold, cheerless system is fast breaking up it is like an iceberg which has floated into
warmer latitudes." We fancy Dr. Macaulay has not con- sulted Boston Unitarians about the condition of their church in that city, nor any well-informed Unitarian anywhere about the opinions held by his sect ; and we recommend any Unitarian reader we may happen to have to communicate with the doctor on the subject. The Evangelical spirit is present also in other ways. We hear of "that earnest and energetic Evangelist, D. L. Moody." Sunday newspapers are inveighed against. Calvinism is called "clear light," and we have extracts from prayers and sermons that have taken our author's fancy, and in the case of the baptismal prayer we cannot say that we go with the doctor in admiration of Mr. Ward Beecher's sickly metaphor, "May their children's lives be spared unto them. And yet, if it is beat that they should fly away before the summer is over, we pray that they may fly as birds and sing in the branches of the tree of life. And se may they sing that their bereaved parents shall hear by faith their call, and come towards them every day, step by step," &c. A little further on, however, we heartily agree with Dr. Macaulay in his stricture on Mr. Beecher's tendency to attack theologians and caricature their methods of salvation. And then, again, we
cannot follow the doctor's views of the atonement and of the absurdity of man's endeavours "to make himself more worthy of receiving divine mercy and grace." On social subjects Dr.
Macaulay is broad, on religious subjects, narrow but strong, so that we wonder his degree is not that of D.D., or at least LL.D., instead of M.D.
But we must conclude our notice of a book full of suggestive matter for remark. May we draw attention to an evident error as to Boston population in the table on p. 36? And may we ven-
ture to quote a funny story, the only one Dr. Macaulay vouchsafes us, from an American newspaper, but which we knew to be of Irish parentage ?—
" A dory is told in Washington of a well-known senator who is notorious for taking two cocktails in succession before breakfast. One morning when the senator was practising at the 'Metropolitan Bar,' a friend put to him the pertinent question, Senator, why do you take two cocktails as a custom? Won't one tone you ?' The senator drew him- self up: 'I will tell you why I take two cocktails. When I have taken one, it makes me feel like another man. Well, you see, I'm bound by common courtesy to treat that man, so I take a second.'"
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