The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-06 00:00:00

711 E GERMANS IN AMERICA.

The position now taken by the Germans in Ame-
rica could not be better indicated than by the cen-
tennial celebration of HUMBOLDT'S birth. In New
York the demonstration was on a grand and impos-
ing scale. The houses were decorated with flowers
wrought into inscriptions, and fluttered with tri-
colour flagsas well as with the Stars and Stripes ; the
streets were filled with processions, and resounded
to the music of their bands. Artillery thundered,
and lager foamed in tankards. Poems were recited,
orations delivered, statues unveiled or decorated by
girls, all over the Union. Grand as were the cere-
monies-in New York, they were equally imposing
in Boston, in Philadelphia, in Baltimore, and espe-
cially so in St. Louis and Chicago. At Richmond,
HUMBOLDT'S bust was exhibited in the theatre, and
at Boston a fund was raised for the establishment
of a HUMBOLDT scholarship in the museum of Com-
parative Zoology. AGAssiz, after a concert in.the
Musicllall, read an interesting account Of HUM-
BOLDT'S work. Throughout the States the 'Germans
communicated their enthusiasm to their fellow-
citizens, and ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT, at least for
that day, was the national idol: These German
displays, contrast most favourably with those of the
Irish ; the neat, appropriate, imposing, and the
orderly, with the shabby gentility, the aspiring aim
and the ridiculous effect of a Fenian procession.
The estimation in which the Germans are held com-
mands the public respect and sympathy, which can-
not be accorded to an organization always breathing
battle and revolution, yet achieving nothing but the
murder of a few policemen. It has been a fortu-
nate circumstance for England as well as for Ame-
rica, and the world generally, that the tide of Ger•
man emigration has flowed so strongly to the United
States. Before the civil war in America, a real
living danger threatened the two great sections of
the Anglo-Saxon race. Then thelrish were a conside-
rable power,And imbued with a fanatical hostility to
England. There were questions in dispute to excite
both nations, and America was all tVe more reek-
' less from its ignorance of what war meant. The
dim memory of gallant sea-fights and triumphs on
the Lakes, alone remained of the war of 1814, and
the nation was in that mood that a small affair
might have precipitated a contest. The struggle
between the North and South interposed, causing
the blood-letting to take place in another direction,
and although there was danger immediately after,
it was in a modified degree, which has continued
steadily to diminish. A few years hence the posi-
tion will assume a new aspect. The Germans will
have swamped the Irish, and a large English emi-
gration will by that time be flowing freely into the
Union, for the next great exodus will be fiom
England. We have had the Irish ; we have now the
German ; and we soon will have the British.
Those who see most of the mass just above the la-
bouring population, know how deeply it is pene-
trated with the ilea of emigration, the restless
movement which precedes the exodus and always
first felt among them. Added to this is the constant
falling away in America from the ranks of the most
Irish of those of the number best qualified to push
their way. The more American they become the
better they perceive that the faction—fer so it is—
is not. qualified to gain the respect and esteem of

any people, and the greater becomes their desire to
be disconnected from it. The more it lases its best
men, the more disreputable it becomes ; the more
powerless and contemptible ; while it would take
much that is noble to give respectability to a cause
which strives by illegal means to obtain a senseless re-
venge on an existing generation, for crimes com-
mitted by their forefathers. That the Germans
have not a greater influence in politics is in itself a
proof of what good settlers they make. Had they re 7
mained in rowdy bands in the large towns they would
have been felt strongly and directly in the legisla-
tures ; but as a rule they have located themselves in
batches over the country,and become absorbed in ag-
ricultural and industrial pursuits. But though their
influence has not as yet been felt like that of the
Irish, who have been skilfully organized into a poli-
tical machine, it will increase daily. As they have
no non-American objects for which to strive, it may
not be so plainly visible abroad, but it may be relied
on to be thrown into the scale against Fenianism,
which will soon only be found on the pages of history.
On one point, but that is a very serious one, are the
Germans at variance with the tone of American
feeling ; and, we regret to say, that it was displayed
in the HUMBOLDT celebration. Rationalism has
made but little progress among Americans, who as
a people are much more deeply imbued with a
sense of religion than their English cousins ; there-
fore many of the devices which the Germans then
flourished aloft on banners, were calculated to
offend, as an outrage on the general religious be-
lief of the public.—Anylo-American Times.