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results were obtained in the study of the English and other European languages.

With regard to English, however, it must be allowed that, if the word were changed to "American," great part of the criticism that now suggests itself would become nugatory; for it is certain that in many respects a totally different language is taught on this side of the Atlantic and on that, the Americans being supported, as they allege, by "excellent authority" in many cases of pronunciation, use of words, &c. which sound exceedingly strange to English ears.

This difference of speech is a very great misfortune when Americans come in contact with English people; for it habitually gives the latter an impression that the former are very much less educated than is probably the case.

I found myself constantly misled in this way when I first came to America, hearing the most barbarous English and the most deplorable pronunciation from many whom I found afterwards to be really learned men and women. The same curious defects are apt to run through the tone, the expressions, and in some cases the handwriting of Ameri

cans, who thus do themselves great injustice with Europeans by habitual deficiency in those things which we are wont to regard as the signs and seals of polite education; while, in fact, the women at least on the Western side of the Atlantic are, as I believe, more thoroughly educated on the whole than those on our own shores. They are certainly far better mathematicians, and have often studied classics. and physical science to an extent that is comparatively rare in England.

If we look for the very highest scholarship, which will be exceptional everywhere, I suppose that American Universities can hardly compete with those of England; nor should we probably be willing to exchange the education received by some of our boys and girls for anything we could find across the Atlantic; but if we examine the results attained in the two countries for all classes and both sexes generally, and inquire on which side inclines the balance of average education, we have, I fear, little chance of successful comparison with America, and must be willing, in all honesty, to yield the palm to her system of Public Schools.

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CHAPTER VIII.

AND LAST.

THE two features of American education as above described which strike an Englishman as characteristic, are, the union of all classes in the same schools, and of both sexes in the same colleges; the first being nearly universal throughout the Northern States ; the second still exceptional, and, as regards public opinion, still on probation.

I. To the public schools of America is certainly due the merit of securing a high average of education throughout the Northern States; an average higher, perhaps, than has been attained by any other nation. That no disadvantages attend the system of mingling all classes in school can hardly, I suppose, be maintained, though it may be thought that the advantages greatly preponderate. It is, of course, very hard accurately to assign effects to causes, but it certainly suggests

itself to the European observer, that the general deterioration of the national language may be a result of mingling all classes of children in the same schools; incorrectness of speech being caught by one from another, till there is really no class left whose language can be a standard for that of others. bably, the fact that the Pilgrim Fathers came originally from the middle and lower ranks of English society has something to do with the evil, but the present system must be very favourable to its perpetuation.

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I do not know how far we may assign to the same cause the general want of national polish, which places Americans as a people at so great a disadvantage. I have heard an American friend trace this rather to the Puritan and Quaker spirit widely diffused in early times, which was so resolute in its struggle after stern simplicity, as to consider the graces of courtly life only another form of its vices.

There is, probably, some truth in this suggestion; but that many parents of the higher class (if such a term may be allowed in America), do consider the public schools to be prejudicial to the manners of their chil

dren, is shown by their more frequent adoption of the system of private tuition, especially for their girls.

It seems to me reasonable that, whatever may be the original cause of American brusquerie, it cannot but tend to its perpetuation that children of all classes should be thrown together with no more than ordinary school restraints, those more gently nurtured being naturally apt to catch, almost unconsciously, less desirable manners from their rougher companions.

Be this as it may, the fact remains. The lower classes in America do not acknowledge, nor do the higher classes (with some few exceptions) assert, that "manners make the man; " and so, while straightforward morality is earnestly inculcated, and good and kindly feeling assiduously cultivated, almost no stress is laid on the external laws of politeness, which with us are so often useful in making men "affect a virtue if they have it not." If an American is polite, it is generally because his nature is so essentially courteous as to be a law unto itself, and though every one will allow that this genuine product

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