or less degree every class of society, as a fixed, inherent principle in its structure; and as the women are thus, by tacit consent, vested in a great measure with the real power of rewarding or of punishing desert, and with the actual distribution of public opinion; it becomes the obvious interest of every virtuous man to render those persons who are to be the judges of his claims, as competent as possible to do him justice.

In this view, it is an object, not of mere theory and speculative benefit to society, but of practical importance to every one, and, above all, to the highly gifted and ambitious, to elevate the understanding, and improve every discriminating faculty of the mind and heart, of the opposite sex. I do not, of course, say that these feelings are present to all people's thoughts, or that men set systematically about raising the standard of female excellence with any such express view; but I have no doubt that these principles and motives do really form the mainsprings of this undoubted and universal action. That the husbands, brothers, and fathers of the English community do, in fact, exert themselves seriously to bring about the end alluded to, is most certain; the whole texture of society shows the extent of female influence, and we all know that the result is eminently powerful in its reaction upon the men, in every walk of life.

But such important influences as these can exist only where all things have had time to settle into their proper places, and where a thousand minor causes, many of them unseen and unsuspected, conspire to lend their assistance to the establishment of such general and permanent checks to vice on the one hand, and of bounties to virtue on the other; to say nothing of the boundless range of innocent enjoyments, and elevated views, as well as feelings, which can take their rise only in a system of manners thus chastened and regulated.

I shall only add, that I met with several instructive corroborations of these views, in the correspondent sentiments excited in the minds of some American travellers, who described to me their surprise on going to England, where nothing struck them so much, they assured me, as the different degree of power which the English ladies appeared to hold over society, compared to that exercised by those of their own country.

I have been told a hundred times that comparisons ought not to be made between so old a country as England, and so new a country as America; but I confess I never yet heard a single good reason why such comparisons should not be drawn, if the purposes of illustration were served thereby. If any thing offensive is aimed at by the comparison, or if the object be to raise one country, invi

diously, at the expense of the other, it is a very different affair, and then, certainly, comparisons are odious. But I cannot understand why any one, writing for the information of his own countrymen, should not make use of those resemblances or contrasts which strike his eye as existing between circumstances with which his readers are familiar, and those with which they are not acquainted, and are never likely to see. His object should be at least my object has been-to describe, not how things might, could, or should be, but truly how they are; or, to speak in language still more critically correct, what they seem to my eyes.

Now, if it shall appear that the most faithful way of doing this consists in drawing comparisons, why on earth should I not draw them? What is it that every other mortal is doing every hour of his life, when he wishes to illustrate his meaning to those he is conversing with, by reference to circumstances familiar to his auditors? And why should a traveller in an unknown country like America, be debarred of this common privilege? Because, forsooth! that country is young, and we are old! Why, this, independently of all purposes of mere description, seems one of the strongest reasons possible for instituting these comparisons, if we wish

to see whether any, and what advances have been made.

But there seems a fair enough argument, if so it can be called, in answer to objections on the score of national parallels-furnished, too, by the very parties making the difficulty-I mean the Americans themselves, who, if we are to judge from their own writings and conversation, are almost as fond of inviting such comparisons as if they had really nothing substantial to boast of, yet hoped to make us think better of them, by thinking worse of ourselves; and fancied that every thing subtracted from Europe, must, as a matter of course, be added to America.

CHAPTER IX.

Ar nine o'clock, on Saturday the 20th of October, 1827, one of our most active friends called to take us round some of the schools of Boston. We could not visit them all, for a reason which will be obvious enough when I state, from an official document in my possession-the School Report of 1826-that the number of these institutions in this single town of Boston is no less than two hundred and fifteen, though the population is somewhat under fifty thousand! We thought we did pretty well in visiting three out of this grand army. Two of these were for the instruction of boys, and one for girls, or Misses, as they are called, in contradistinction to females, which, I observe, is the term applied in the Reports to the girls in the poorer and less aristocratic institutions. With all the outcry against ranks and classifications, no opportunity, I observed, was ever omitted of drawing lines of distinction, wherever they could be safely traced.