The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-11-08
Through English Ewes.

terly Reuie1v contains an article entitled "Tht
American Centenniap' which does not, thu
purists in language will be glad to learn. trea
of the exhibition at Philadelphia, but does
treat OF the position and prospects of this
country. Nations as we'll as individuals like
to know what their neighbors think of them
and so the article is one which interests all OF
us. 1t is eminently fair in statement and
courteous in tone, but has about it that all
| of patronage and condescension which il
almost invariably assumed by Englishmen in
writing of foreign peoples and countries, and
which in this.case will provoke the American
| reader intoTa strong desire to kick the author
of the paper. However the air of superiority
does not materially detract from the interest
| and value of the review.
The author finds much to praise and little
to condemn. He recognizes that the state
ment frequently made that America is ex-
tending English institutions and English civ
ilization over vast territories is only partially
true, and that it is in reality Ne,o England
that is moulding and fashioning American
life. The New England political idea is, in
the words of Humboldt, 'the absolute and
| essential Importance Of human development
in its richest variety" or as this author
phrases it, faith in man, in his power
of development, in his capacity for
selfgovernment, in his right to grow.
The mission of America is the fulfillment OF
this idea. In carrying out this mission it has,
saws tho Ror;o,s uritar fourht tc,o r,oI,,.LI.
lessons to mankind. The one is that Re-
publican form of Government is a success. 1t
is usual to say that democracy is on its trial
in the United States. That may indeed be
the case, just as all human institutions NAV
be said to be on their trial; but it is neither
more nor less true than that English consti-
tutional monarchy is on its trial. The latter
has existed, in conjunction with a really pop
ular House of Commons and cabinet govern
ment, only forty-four years, as 1t cannot GER
tainly be dated further back than the Re-
form Act of 1882. We have yet to discover
what attitude democracy will take up towards
the crown and all lis necessary surroundings.
Now democratic government has existed
among the English people of America for up
wards of two hundred and fifty years. From
the very first settled democratic system was
established among the New England popula-
tions, system having the township, with its
select men, for its governmental unit. As
De Tocqueville says, the township was organ
lied before the county, the county before the
state, the state before the Union. The re-
publican system Of America thus rests upon
an elaborate system of local government,
which is in no sense artificial, but of natural
growth. Each office qualities for higher
one. Each citizen is well instructed both in
the principles and details of government, and
hence the permanence and stability of Repub-
lican institutions. A system which, founded
by few exiles in the bleak wilderness, has
expanded and adapted itself to the wants of a
nation of forty millions; which has survived
the terrible shock of gigantic civil war
which has even stood the greater strain of be-
Ing administered in many cases by ignorant
immigrants who had never been entrusted
with administrative or legislative functions in
their native European homes; such a system
has surely proved itself to be an enduring Ole.
The other lesson, and what the author
esteems the great contribution of America
to political science is the separation of church
and state. Coleridge was wrong, he says, in
saying that America had done nothing for
mankind in the domain of political philoso-
ply. If she had done only this, she would
be entitled to our LISTING gratitude. For she
has demonstrated conclusively that neither
church nor state suffers from this political
separation. She has proved beyond dispute
that religion can not only subsist. but can
provide for the spiritual wants of rich and
poor alike, of learned and ignorant, of the
inhabitants of great cities, of country vii
lagos, and of small communities of settlers
far removed from civilized life, without any
support from the secular power. In no other
nation at this hour is religion such mighty
force as in the United States of America.
There are seventy thousand churches, and TO
the wishes and opinions of both the members
and pastors of these churches great respect
is paid by the secular press. 1t is matter
of question whether it would pay the Lon
don papers to print the sermons delivered
every Sunday in the metropolis; yet this is
what is done every Monday by nearly all the
daily papers in New York, Boston, Chicago
and other American cities. This proves con-
clusively, if it proves nothing else, that the
| masses of the people are interested in re-
ligious things.
But still further than this, he says: al
though religion is such a mighty force, al
| though the churches are so numerous and in
fuential, the state is in no danger from the
influence of any of them, excepting that
great organization which has proclaimed war
against all free governments and modern ir-
stitutions, the Roman church. De Tocque-
vile expressed the surprise he felt when he
| saw the churches of America all arrayed on
| the side of progress, all in harmony with the
popular institutions by which they were sur
rounded; while in Europe the church was
allied with despotsm, and blind, unreason-
ing resistance to progress. With regard to
the hostility of the Roman Catholic Church,
it is evident that that hostility can only be
met and overcome by intellectual and spirit
ual forces. That church has its supporters
mainly amcng the most ignorant classes of
the community; it is, in fact, sustained by
the large Irish immigration: and none can
believe that it will ever find favcr among per-
sons of American birth and education, with
every one of whose early and deeply-rooted
convictions and-t may be-prejudices, it is
utterlr and irreconcilably at variance.
These are the two great lessons which, to
the impartial observer, the history of the
last hundred years in America teaches. 1t
behooves us Americans to continue the less
| ons.
| CHINA has its big trees as well as Califor-
mia, About thirty miles from Nikko, an
avenue of sugi, or cedar trees, begins and
with an occasional break where there is a
village, it reaches the whole distance to the
shrine of Lycyas the longest avenue of shade
in the world. These great trees are from five
to seven feet in diameter at the base, and
tower without a branch for fifty to eighty
| feet and then lift their heads fortv or fiftu