The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-04-23
George Dawson ON America.

From the Edinburgh SCCtchman, Feb 90
Yesterday evening Mr.. George Daw-
son. of Birmingham, lectured in the
Queens street hall 70 the members of
the philosophical institute on America.
In the oustset he referred to the
strength of the English in the United
States, where it was settled that oar
language, laws, and literature would
forever be dominant. He had seen
nothing in American institutions he
would very much like to import. but
nothing certainly of which they need
be ashamed. The loud-b FASTING Yam
kee hardly existed; the American ger
tleman was as cultivated and refined as
the English gentleman, and what were
called the common people were vastly
better, with less rudeness, boorishness
and vulgar self-assertion than in this
country. The Americans were Jealous
of one another, and the consequence
was that the manners of the lower
classes were far finer than in England
or Scotland, and from one end of the
| Union to another a woman might travel
without trouble or insult. The rapid
and extreme changes of temperature to
which Americans were liable told in
many ways, not only on their constitu-
| tions, but on their institutions
| and thier climate tended to pro-
duce that brassy sound and nasaltv
with which they spoke English. The
| people were thinner skinned, more ex-
citable, and less satisfied, less quiet,
more restless, and more versatile than
| Brtons. They were proud of their
| free schools /; but the difficulty was how
far education should go. There was an
oil, !, e IL
teaching of the principles of political
| economy, and the consequence was that
some of the laws Of trades were worthy
of the middle ages. But, on the whole.
| the schools were gOod-well built, well
| attended, and well taught, with little
tendency, perhaps, to routine. The
America of the future must be in the
west, and the seat of empire in the
Mississippi valley. There were excel
lent low aud high schools for the blacks,
but he did not believe that education
would mako the negro useful citizen.
Negroes could never stand against the
Chinese as laborers but what was to
be done with them he did not know.
The peril besettiEg America just now
and 1T was a danger as great as any
which threatened the country during tbs
war-was how to restore the prepOn-
derancs of the whites in tho southern
states without taking away from the
negro what they were obliged to give
him-the franChise-or reducing him
back to bondage The curse of Amer
lea was its utter unspeakable political
corruption. Washington was den OF
thieves, where the senator was bought
and the legislator bribed aud the
whole thing was the biggest jobbery
this world has ever yet seen. But he
believed that corruption would be yet
cured. as it had been in Great Britain,
and he saw nothing to prevent America
becoming the greatest nation, and the
wonder of the earth.
SOME French ladies, friends of the
Empress Eugene, have lately been
working for her splendid carpet. Tt
is composed of number of squares,
each of which contains the armoriaI
bearings of the fair workers husband or
father. The squares, when they ere all
finished, are to be joined together by
bands of gold cloth, embroidered with
volets, the symbol of the dynasty of
Napoleon.