Conrad Ferdinand Meyer - "Die Richterin"

Hamlin Garland - "Other Main Travelled Roads"

Harriet Stark - "The Bacillus of Beauty"

William Henry Gladstone - "The Hawarden Visitors' Hand Book"

Annual Bibliography of Commonwealth Literature 2007
This paper argues that discourses of love in Ghanaian market literature for youth offer a view into complex negotiations of agency and empowerment. Drawing on Deborah Durham's notion of youth as "social `shifters'" and Francis Nyamnjoh's conception of the "interconnectedness" of agency, I take Ghanaian market literature as one specific case of how African literature for youth foregrounds questions of continuity and change as African societies enter into increasingly complex global relations. In this literature for youth, received notions of love, often constructed out of impressions from American pop and hip hop music, carry new notions of agency that compete with existing "domesticated" forms. Authors like Ike Tandoh and Evelyn Tay employ discourses of love to offer youth alternative avenues for empowerment in a context of socio-economic disenfranchizement. In a creative process of "straddling", this writing both reveals and reproduces the contradictions that obtain in youth configurations of agency.

The Englishwoman in America

I >> Isabella Lucy Bird >> The Englishwoman in America




There is no established church or dominant religious persuasion in the
States. There are no national endowments; all are on the same footing, and
live or die as they obtain the suffrages of the people. While the State
does not recognise any one form of religion, it might be expected that she
would assist the ministers of all. Such is not the case; and, though
Government has wisely thought it necessary to provide for the education of
the people, it has not thought it advisable to make any provision for the
maintenance of religion. Every one worships after his own fashion; the
sects are numerous and subdivided; and all enjoy the blessings of a
complete religious toleration.

Strange sects have arisen, the very names of which are scarcely known in
England, and each has numerous adherents. It may be expected that
fanaticism would run to a great height in the States. Among the 100
different denominations which are returned in the census tables, the
following designations occur: Mormonites, Antiburgers, Believers in God,
Children of Peace, Disunionists; Danian, Democratic Gospel, and Ebenezer
Socialists; Free Inquirers, Inspired Church, Millerites, Menonites, New
Lights, Perfectionists, Pathonites, Pantheists, Tunkards, Restorationists,
Superalists, Cosmopolites, and hosts of others.

The clergy depend for their salaries upon the congregations for whom they
officiate, and upon private endowments. The total value of church property
in the United States is estimated at 86,416,639 dollars, of which one-half
is owned in the States of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. The
number of churches, exclusive of those in the newly-organised territories,
is about 38,000. There is one church for every 646 of the population. The
voluntary system is acted upon by each denomination, though it is slightly
modified in the Episcopalian church. In it, however, the bishops are
elected, the clergy are chosen by the people, and its affairs are
regulated by a convention. It is the oldest of the denominations, and is
therefore entitled to the first notice.

It has 38 bishops, 1714 ministers, and 105,350 communicants. It has 1422
churches, and its church property is estimated at 11,261,970 dollars. A
large number of the educated and wealthy are members of this body. Its
formularies, with the exception of some omissions and alterations, are the
same as those of the Church of England. Some of its bishops are men of
very high attainments. Dr. McIlvaine, the Bishop of Ohio, is a man of
great learning and piety, and is well known in England by his theological
writings.

The Methodists are the largest religious body in America. As at home, they
have their strong sectional differences, but they are very useful, and are
particularly acceptable to the lower orders of society, and among the
coloured population. They possess 12,467 churches, 8389 ministers, and
1,672,519 communicants, and the value of their church property exceeds
14,000,000 dollars.

The Presbyterians are perhaps the most important of the religious bodies,
as regards influence, education, and wealth. Their stronghold is in New
England. They have 7752 congregations, 5807 ministers, and 680,021
communicants. Their church property is of the value of 14,000,000 dollars.

The Baptists are very numerous. They have 8181 churches, 8525 ministers,
1,058,754 communicants, and church property to the amount of 10,931,382
dollars.

The Congregationalists possess 1674 churches, 1848 ministers, and 207,609
communicants. Their property is of the value of 7,973,962 dollars.

The Roman Catholics possessed at the date of the last census 1112
churches, and church property to the amount of 9,000,000 dollars.

There is church accommodation for about 14,000,000 persons, or
considerably more than half the population. There are 35,000 Sabbath
schools, with 250,000 teachers, and 2,500,000 scholars. Besides the large
number of churches, religious services are held in many schools and
courthouses, and even in forests and fields. The dissemination of the
Bible is on the increase. In last year the Bible Society distributed
upwards of 11,000,000 copies. The Society for Religious Publications
employed 1300 colporteurs, and effected sales during the year to the
amount of 526,000 dollars. The principal of the religious societies are
for the observance of the sabbath, for temperance, anti-slavery objects,
home missions, foreign missions, &c. The last general receipts of all
these societies were 3,053,535 dollars.

In the State of Massachusetts the Unitarians are a very influential body,
numbering many of the most intellectual and highly educated of the
population. These, however, are divided upon the amount of divinity with
which they shall invest our Lord.

The hostile spirit which animates some of the religious journals has been
already noticed. There is frequently a good deal of rivalry between the
members of the different sects; but the way in which the ministers of the
orthodox denominations act harmoniously together for the general good is
one of the most pleasing features in America. The charitable religious
associations are on a gigantic scale, and are conducted with a liberality
to which we in England are strangers. The foreign missions are on a
peculiarly excellent system, and the self-denying labours and zeal of
their missionaries are fully recognised by all who have come in contact
with them. No difficulty is experienced in obtaining money for these
objects; it is only necessary to state that a certain sum is required,
and, without setting any begging machinery to work, donations exceeding
the amount flow in from all quarters.

Altogether it would appear from the _data_ which are given that the
religious state of America is far more satisfactory than could be expected
from so heterogeneous a population. The New England States possess to a
great extent the externals of religion, and inherit in a modified degree
the principles of their Puritan ancestors; and the New Englanders have
emigrated westward in large numbers, carrying with them to the newly
settled States the leaven of religion and morality. The churches of every
denomination are crowded, and within my observation by as many gentlemen
as ladies; but that class of aspiring spirits, known under the name of
"_Young America_," boasts a perfect freedom from religious observances of
every kind.

There is a creed known by the name of Universalism, which is a compound of
Antinomianism with several other forms of error, and embraces tens of
thousands within its pale. It often verges upon the most complete
Pantheism, and is very popular with large numbers of the youth of America.

There is a considerable amount of excitement kept up by the religious
bodies in the shape of public re-unions, congregational _soirees_, and the
like, producing a species of religious dissipation, very unfavourable, I
should suppose, to the growth of true piety. This system, besides aiding
the natural restlessness of the American character, gives rise to a good
deal of spurious religion, and shortens the lives and impairs the
usefulness of the ministers by straining and exhausting their physical
energies.

To the honour of the clergy of the United States it must be observed that
they keep remarkably clear from party-politics, contrasting in this
respect very favourably with the priests of the Church of Rome, who throw
the weight of their influence into the scale of extreme democracy and
fanatical excesses. The unity of action which their ecclesiastical system
ensures to them makes their progressive increase much to be deprecated.

It is owing in great measure to the efforts of the ministers of religion
that the unbending principles of truth and right have any hold upon the
masses; they are ever to be found on the side of rational and
constitutional liberty in its extreme form, as opposed to licence and
anarchy; and they give the form of practical action to the better feelings
of the human mind. Amid the great difficulties with which they are
surrounded, owing to the want of any fixed principles of right among the
masses, they are ever seeking to impress upon the public mind that the
undeviating laws of morality and truth cannot be violated with impunity
any more by millions than by individuals, and that to nations, as to
individuals, the day of reckoning must sooner or later arrive.

The voluntary system in religion, as it exists in its unmodified form in
America, has one serious attendant evil. Where a minister depends for his
income, not upon the contributions to a common fund, as is the case in the
Free Church of Scotland, but upon the congregation unto which he
ministers, his conscience is to a dangerous extent under the power of his
hearers. In many instances his uncertain pecuniary relations with them
must lead him to slur over popular sins, and keep the unpalatable
doctrines of the Bible in the background, practically neglecting to convey
to fallen and wicked man his Creator's message, "Repent, and believe the
Gospel." It has been found impossible in the States to find a just medium
between state-support, and the apathy which in the opinion of many it has
a tendency to engender, and an unmodified voluntary system, with the
subservience and "high-pressure" which are incidental to it.

Be this as it may, the clergy of the United States deserve the highest
honour for their high standard of morality, the fervour of their
ministrations, the zeal of their practice, and their abstinence from
politics.




CHAPTER XIX.

General remarks continued--The common schools--Their defect--Difficulties
--Management of the schools--The free academy--Railways--Telegraphs--
Poverty--Literature--Advantages for emigrants--Difficulties of emigrants--
Peace or war--Concluding observations.


At a time when the deficiencies of our own educational system are so
strongly felt, it may be well to give an outline of that pursued in the
States. The following statistics, taken from the last census, show that
our Transatlantic brethren have made great progress in moral and
intellectual interests.

At the period when the enumeration was made there were 80,958 public
schools, with 91,966 teachers, and 2,890,507 scholars; 119 colleges, with
11,903 students; 44 schools of theology; 36 schools of medicine; and 16
schools of law. Fifty millions of dollars were annually spent for
education, and the proportion of scholars to the community was as 1 to 5.

But it is to the common-school system that the attention should be
particularly directed. I may premise that it has one unavoidable defect,
namely, the absence of religious instruction. It would be neither possible
nor right to educate the children in any denominational creed, or to
instruct them in any particular doctrinal system, but would it not, to
take the lowest ground, be both prudent and politic to give them a
knowledge of the Bible, as the only undeviating rule and standard of truth
and right? May not the obliquity of moral vision, which is allowed to
exist among a large class of Americans, be in some degree chargeable to
those who have the care of their education--who do not place before them,
as a part of their instruction, those principles of truth and morality,
which, as revealed in Holy Scripture, lay the whole universe under
obligations to obedience? History and observation alike show the little
influence practically possessed by principles destitute of superior
authority, how small the restraint exercised by conscience is, and how far
those may wander into error who once desert "Life's polar star, the fear
of God." In regretting the exclusion of religious instruction from the
common-school system, the difficulties which beset the subject must not be
forgotten, the multiplicity of the sects, and the very large number of
Roman Catholics. In schools supported by a rate levied indiscriminately on
all, to form a course of instruction which could bear the name of a
religious one, and yet meet the views of all, and clash with the
consciences and prejudices of none, was manifestly impossible. The
religious public in the United States has felt that there was no tenable
ground between thorough religious instruction and the broadest toleration.
Driven by the circumstances of their country to accept the latter course,
they have exerted themselves to meet this omission in the public schools
by a most comprehensive Sabbath-school system. But only a portion of the
children under secular instruction in the week attend these schools; and
it must be admitted that to bestow intellectual culture upon the pupils,
without giving them religious instruction, is to draw forth and add to the
powers of the mind, without giving it any helm to guide it; in other
words, it is to increase the capacity, without diminishing the propensity,
to do evil.

Apart from this important consideration, the educational system pursued in
the States is worthy of the highest praise, and of an enlightened people
in the nineteenth century. The education is conducted at the public
expense, and the pupils consequently pay no fees. Parents feel that a free
education is as much a part of the birthright of their children as the
protection which the law affords to their life and property.

The schools called common schools are supported by an education rate, and
in each State are under the administration of a general board of
education, with local boards, elected by all who pay the rate. In the
State of Massachusetts alone the sum of 921,532 dollars was raised within
the year, being at the rate of very nearly a dollar for every inhabitant.
Under the supervision of the General Board of Education in the State,
schools are erected in districts according to the educational necessities
of the population, which are periodically ascertained by a census.

To give some idea of the system adopted, I will just give a sketch of the
condition of education in the State of New York, as being the most
populous and important.

There is a "state tax," or "appropriation," of 800,000 dollars, and this
is supplemented by a rate levied on real and personal property. Taking as
an authority the return made to the Legislature for the year ending in
1854, the total sum expended for school purposes within the State amounted
to 2,469,248 dollars. The total number of children in the organised
districts of the State was 1,150,532, of whom 862,935 were registered as
being under instruction. The general management of education within the
State is vested in a central board, with local boards in each of the
organised districts, to which the immediate government and official
supervision of the schools are intrusted.

The system comprises the common schools, with their primary and upper
departments, a normal school for the preparation of teachers, and a free
academy. In the city of New York there are 224 schools in the receipt of
public money, of which 25 are for coloured children, and the number of
pupils registered is given at 133,813. These common or ward schools are
extremely handsome, and are fitted up at great expense, with every modern
improvement in heating and ventilation. Children of every class, residing
within the limits of the city, are admissible without payment, as the
parents of all are supposed to be rated in proportion to their means.

There is a principal to each school, assisted by a numerous and efficient
staff of teachers, who in their turn are expected to go through a course
of studies at the Normal School. The number of teachers required for these
schools is very great, as the daily attendance in two of them exceeds
2000. The education given is so very superior, and habits of order and
propriety are so admirably inculcated, that it is not uncommon to see the
children of wealthy storekeepers side by side with those of working
mechanics. In each school there is one large assembly-room, capable of
accommodating from 500 to 1000 children, and ten or twelve capacious
class-rooms. Order is one important rule, and, that it may be acted upon,
there is no overcrowding--the pupils being seated at substantial mahogany
desks only holding two.

The instruction given comprises all the branches of a liberal education,
with the exception of languages. There is no municipal community out of
America in which the boon of a first-rate education is so freely offered
to all as in the city of New York. There is no child of want who may not
freely receive an education which will fit him for any office in his
country. The common school is one of the glories of America, and every
citizen may be justly proud of it. It brings together while in a pliant
condition the children of people of different origins; and besides
diffusing knowledge among them, it softens the prejudices of race and
party, and carries on a continual process of assimilation.

The Board of Education of New York has lately thrown open several of these
schools in the evening, and with very beneficial results. The number of
pupils registered last year was 9313. Of these, 3400 were above the age of
16 and under 21, and 1100 were above the age of 21. These evening-schools
entailed an additional expense of 17,563 dollars; the whole expenditure
for school purposes in the city being 430,982 dollars. In the ward and
evening schools of New York, 133,000 individuals received instruction.
Each ward, or educational district, elects 2 commissioners, 2 inspectors,
and 8 trustees. The duties of the inspectors are very arduous, as the
examinations are frequent and severe.

The crowning educational advantage offered by this admirable system is the
Free Academy. This academy receives its pupils solely from the common
schools. Every person presenting himself as a candidate must be more than
13 years of age, and, having attended a common school for 12 months, he
must produce a certificate from the principal that he has passed a good
examination in spelling, reading, writing, English grammar, arithmetic,
geography, elementary book-keeping, history of the United States, and
algebra. This institution extends to the pupils in the common schools the
advantage of a free education in those higher departments of learning
which cannot be acquired without considerable expense in any other
college. The yearly examination of candidates for admission takes place
immediately after the common school examinations in July. There are at
present nearly 600 students under the tuition of 14 professors, and as
many tutors as may be required. The course of study extends over a period
of 5 years, and is very complete and severe. Owing to the principle
adopted in their selection, the pupils, representing every social and
pecuniary grade in society, present a very high degree of scholarship and
ability. In this academy the vestiges of antagonism between the higher and
lower classes are swept away. Indeed, the poor man will feel that he has a
greater interest in sustaining this educational system than the rich,
because he can only obtain through it those advantages for his children
which the money of the wealthy can procure from other sources. He will be
content with his daily toil, happy in the thought that, by the wise
provision of his government, the avenues to fame, preferment, and wealth,
are opened as freely to his children as to those of the richest citizen in
the land.

In order to secure a supply of properly qualified teachers, the Board of
Education has established a normal school, which numbers about 400 pupils.
Most of these are assistant-teachers in the common schools, and attend the
normal school on Saturdays, to enable themselves to obtain further
attainments, and higher qualifications for their profession.

Under this system of popular education, the average cost per scholar for 5
years, including books, stationery, fuel, and all other expenses, is 7
dollars 2 cents per annum. This system of education is followed in nearly
all the States; and while it reflects the highest credit on America, it
contrasts strangely with the niggard plan pursued in England, where so
important a thing as the education of the people depends almost entirely
on precarious subscriptions and private benevolence.

With a gratuitous and comprehensive educational system, it may excite some
surprise that the citizens of New York and other of the populous cities
are compelled to supplement the common schools with those for the
shoeless, the ragged, and the vicious, very much on the plan of our Scotch
and English ragged-schools. Already the large cities of the New World are
approximating to the condition of those in the Old, in producing a
subsidence or deposit of the drunken, the dissolute, the vicious, and the
wretched. With parents of this class, education for their offspring is
considered of no importance, and the benevolent founders of these schools
are compelled to offer material inducements to the children to attend, in
the shape of food and clothing. At these schools, in place of the cleanly,
neat, and superior appearance of the children in the common schools, dirt,
rags, shoeless feet, and pallid, vicious, precocious countenances are to
be seen. Nothing destroys so effectually the external distinguishing
peculiarities of race as the habit of evil. There is a uniformity of
expression invariably produced, which is most painful. These children are
early taught to look upon virtue only as a cloak to be worn by the rich.
This dangerous and increasing class in New York is composed almost
entirely of foreign immigrants. The instruction in these schools is given
principally by ladies of high station and education. It is a noble feature
in New York "high life," and in process of time may diminish the gulf
which is widening between the different classes, and may lessen the
hideous contrasts which are presented between princely fortunes on the one
hand, and vicious poverty on the other.

Taking the various schools throughout the Union, it is estimated that
between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000 individuals are at this time receiving
education.

To turn from the social to the material features of the United States:
their system of internal communication deserves a brief notice, for by it
their resources have been developed to a prodigious extent. The system of
railways, telegraphs, and canal and river navigation presents an
indication of the wealth and advancement of the United States, as
wonderful as any other feature of her progress. She contains more miles of
railway than all the rest of the world put together.

In a comparatively new country like America many of the items of expense
which attend the construction of railways in England are avoided; the
initiatory expenses are very small. In most of the States, all that is
necessary is, for the company to prove that it is provided with means to
carry out its scheme, when it obtains a charter from the Legislature at a
very small cost. In several States, including the populous ones of New
York and Ohio, no special charter is required, as a general railway law
prescribes the rules to be observed by joint-stock companies. Materials,
iron alone excepted, are cheap, and the right of way is usually freely
granted. In the older States land would not cost more than 20_l._ an acre.
Wood frequently costs nothing more than the labour of cutting it, and the
very level surface of the country renders tunnels, cuttings, and
embankments generally unnecessary. The average cost per mile is about
38,000 dollars, or 7600_l._

In States where land has become exceedingly valuable, land damages form a
heavy item in the construction of new lines, but in the South and West the
case is reversed, and the proprietors are willing to give as much land as
may be required, in return for having the resources of their localities
opened up by railway communication. It is estimated that the cost of
railways in the new States will not exceed 4000_l._ per mile. The termini
are plain, and have been erected at a very small expense, and many of the
wayside stations are only wooden sheds. Few of the lines have a double
line of rails, and the bridges or viaducts are composed of logs of wood,
with little ironwork and less paint, except in a few instances. Except
where the lines intersect cultivated districts, fences are seldom seen,
and the paucity of porters and other officials materially reduces the
working expenses. The common rate of speed is from 22 to 30 miles an hour,
but there are express trains which are warranted to perform 60 in a like
period. The fuel is very cheap, being billets of wood. The passenger and
goods traffic on nearly all the lines is enormous, and it is stated that
most of them pay a dividend of from 8 to 15 per cent.

The primary design has been to connect the sea-coast with all parts of the
interior, the ulterior is to unite the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. At the
present time there are about 25,000 miles of railway in operation and
course of construction, and the average rate of fare is seldom more than
1_d._ per mile. Already the chief cities of the Atlantic have been
connected with the vast valley of the Mississippi, and before long the
regions bordering on Lake Huron and Lake Superior will be united with
Mobile and New Orleans. In addition to this enormous system of railway
communication, the canal and river navigation extends over 10,000 miles,
and rather more than 3000 steamboats float on American waters alone.

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