ME. HENEY VINCENT ON AMERICA.

Tuapeka Times, Volume II, Issue 101, 15 January 1870, Page 6

ME. HENEY VINCENT ON AMERICA.

Mr. Henry Vincent lately described his " Impressions of Three Extensive Journeys in the United States " to a large audience, in the hall of the Leeds Mechanics' Institute. He said he had made these journeys during these last three years, and that he had been attracted to America to see what Englishmen were doing on that side of the Atlantic to promote the cause of civilisation, to extend the blessings of education, and to create those social and national forces that were gradually amalgamating all the great races that from time to time were thrown upon that vast continent. It was impossible to judge of the American people, or the tendency of their institutions, in the remarkable population of New York ; but a stranger could not fail to perceive that there was school accom-

modation sufficiently extensive for all the native born children, and for all the foreign children, as rapidly as they arrived in the country. If there was one thing more than another that arrested the attention of the stranger at the outset, whatever prejudice he might have against the American people, it was this — that Amerioa was standing not upon the Eepublic alone, but was raised upon two grand forces which were the foundations of civilisation and justice in all lands — upon the forces of religion and upon the power of a popular education. (Applause). He found at once that the Americans, instead of being the rude people that some of our people had endeavoured to paint them, were affable and courteous, and full of kindness — asking a good many questions, which was a proof of a desire to gain knowledge ; — (Laughter) — and if one had the courage to ask questions in return, it would be found that the practice resulted in mutual advantage. (Hear, hear.) It was with great delight that ho found almost entirely — nay, he would say entirely — springing from the voluntary beneficence and patriotism of the people a readiness to assemble and levy taxes upon themselves by their own free and independent voting for the erection of schools, into which the poorest equally with the rich wore collected. He also found that prejudice against colour was gradually fading away — not so rapidly as one would wish — but with marvellous rapidity, when one remembered the force of that prejudice in the days that were gone. He must say, taking into consideration the claims in respect of taxation and otherwise that were made upon American artisans, that a well-paid mechanic in an English town was as well off as the operatives at the present moment in the more crowded districts of America ; and yet it must be remembered that these American working men, because of the extent of territory, were, in many cases, proprietors of their own half acre or quarter acre, and of their houses, for he discovered that there were two things the Americans detested and hated with a rabid hatred, and these things were rent and mortgages. (Hear, hear.) He spoke highly of Boston, and said it had given, as it were, the intellectual impulse to the great country in which it was situated. He vidited Little Concord, where there were two thousand inhabitants, and slept one night under the hospitable roof of Emerson, who had lectured, he believed, to the members of that institution some years ago. A brother of Emerson had told him that ho did not know a child within ten miles of Concord, unless it was sick, that was not in daily attendance at some school. The result of all this education was that one saw few, if any, poor localities. In some of the States there was steadily growing up a powerful industry, and what he was glad to see had grown up in that Institution — Schools of Art to educate young operatives in the knowledge of art ; for, in the future competition of the world, we must depend, not upon quantity only, but upon cheapness and beauty. America, by her education — by her pride, if they liked to call it so — by her resolve that her people should be abreast of the great requirements of modern times, was spending fabulous sums of money in educating artizans up to the very highest perfection in their art, and was not scrupling to offer large wa<?es to the representatives of mechanical ingenuity and beauty in Old England, and in the Continental nations. And, loving his country, he was anxious to- see manufacturers a,nd the middle and working classes everywhere combining to raise the standard of education in this country — to raise the standard of taste — so that Britain might sustain her high renown, and march closely at the head of the civilisation of the world. (Loud applause.) Look for instance at what Michigan had done. When it was formed it of its own free will set apart every tenth section of land — 640 acres — to found universities and schools ; and in the Ann Arbor University there were 1300 students with the finest staff of professors that money could procure from all parts of the world, all paving the way to a great scholastic future in that State. Of the progress of the other States which he visited, Mr. Vincent spoke in glowing terms, and said that while here and there he found existing some bitterness, there was an under-current in favour of eternal peace and harmony with Britain. We talked about the Yankee drawl, but there was greater variety of dialect in this little table of a country than there was in all the vast States of America. Because of the universal prevalence of education the people were taught a greater level of correct speaking than could be taught in this nation. Doubtless they swaggered, but they would not have come from this country if they did not swagger. And it was not the swagger of nonsense but of reality — a swagger of "Look at what we have done." It was nothing but the courage that came from getting on quickly. He did not know a man in Leeds who did not say " I began with nowt." (Laughter and applause.) So that it was a common feeling. In reference to emigration he said it was useless for dandies to go tp America, and that working men who were comfortably situated here should remain in the old country, No

man should go to America who was not prepared to do any kind of work — to work for nothing rather than be idle for nothing, for this was the spirit that was respected in America. (Hear, hear.) Should we, he asked in conclusion, look with a jealous or cold eye upon the expanding power of tha United States? Eather let us pray that there might arise statesmen in Britain and America who would feel that the true interests of civilisation consisted in bonds of union established not by treaty but" by mutual esteem between America and Britain, and all the colonies and all portions of the earth where men speak the English language. Let it be a union °that should not menace other countries, but should symbolise faith in God, belief in the peaceful progress of the world ; a determination to master poverty by industry, to overthrow vice by the power virtue, to disperse the force of barbarism by the enlightened forces of civilisation, to overthrow the foundations of wrong, not by the sword, but by the magnificent development of the moral and intellectual forces of the human race. (Loud applause.)