in Tammany; and a splendid monument has been erected over the grave of Fiske, which was inaugurated with an eulogy on his private virtues and public services. It may be doubted if the Beecher-Tilton scandal could have occurred in any other country. It is certain that no man could sit in the English House of Commons with such a reputation as belongs to dozens of American senators and representatives; and no Government in Europe, at this day, would dare to send as its representatives to other civilised nations such men as the American Government during the past ten years has sent to several countries in Europe.

The demoralisation of drunkenness produced by the war is very great. A million of soldiers were turned loose among the civil population-soldiers habituated to the life of camps and all the excesses of marauding armies living in an enemy's country. The city of New York has 7,181 licensed liquor sellers one to 140 of the population. The State of New York has 23,846 sellers-one to every 180 of its population. The cost of intoxicating drinks, in spite of the Maine Laws, local option laws, and extensive districts of total abstainers, is estimated, upon official statistics, to be from 800 to 1,000 millions of dollars a-year, including the loss of the labour of the army of 300,000 to 400,000 men engaged in the business. When we consider the amount of vice, crime, and misery that accompanies such a consumption of spirituous liquors, we cannot wonder at the revolt of the women of several States against such wholesale demoralisation.

In England it is expected that general education will put an end to drunkenness and crime. In America there has been general education for several generations. There are free schools over the whole country, and it is rare to find a native who cannot read, write, and cypher; but this general power to read, and myriads of books and newspapers, have not made an honest and sober population. Neither the manners nor the

morals of the people are as good as they were a hundred years ago. There were a higher character, more decorum, and more political purity in the national and State Legislatures in the days of Washington and Jefferson than there have been in the days of Lincoln and Grant. If what we see is the result of a century of enlightenment and progress, where will the close of another century-the Celebration of the Second Centennial Fourth of July-find the great American Republic?

A hundred years have brought America from General Washington to General Grant; but "It is a long lane that has no turning," and "When things get to the worst they begin to mend." The last proverb is full of consolation.

CHAPTER XLIV.

THE FUTURE OF AMERICA.

THE astronomer can tell us at what precise moment there will be an eclipse of the sun, or of one of Jupiter's satelites, a thousand, or a hundred thousand years hence. All the "scientists" of Europe cannot tell us what sort of weather we shall have next Sunday. All the statesmen cannot tell us what war will break out next year-unless they have determined to provoke or declare one. No one can say what may be the future destiny of England, France, or America; but we can look at facts and consider probabilities.

America is a country of vast extent and boundless resources, with an intelligent, enterprising, and rapidly increasing population. Without reckoning the recently acquired Russian territory of the North-west coast, extending from British Columbia to the North Pole, the States and territories of the American Union are spread over 24 degrees of latitude, and 58 degrees

of longitude. Their greatest length, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, is 2,600 miles; the greatest breadth, from Maine to Florida, 1,600; average length and breadth, 2,400 by 1,300 miles. The northern frontier is 3,300 miles; the Mexican 1,446 miles; the line of sea coast 12,609 miles; area 3,010,277 square miles, or 1,926,636,800 acres.

This land all lies in the temperate regions of the world, producing wheat, maize, oats, barley, rye, and abundance of fruits in the North; and wheat, rice, cotton, sugar, and all the luxuries of semi-tropical countries in the South. A great portion of the country is very fertile. In Colorado, in 1869, some farmers had ninety bushels of wheat on one acre; a thousand bushels of potatoes on three acres; a thousand bushels of onions on one acre. These are, of course, exceptional facts; but they show what can be done. There are single states that could furnish food for fifty millions of people. Were the United States but half as densely populated as Belgium, they would have a population of six hundred millions. The actual population is 43,000,000. A hundred years ago it was less than 3,000,000. The population has doubled every twenty-five years. Should it continue to do so—and while there are yet hundreds of millions of acres of fertile land to be occupied, and an abundance of all the necessaries of life, there is no apparent reason why there should be any change in the rate of increase —we can easily calculate the progress of population. In 1900 America will have ninety millions of people; in 1925, one hundred and eighty millions; in 1950, three hundred and sixty millions. The area of the United States may well support a larger population than that of the whole earth at the present

moment.

The mineral wealth of America is in some proportion to its agricultural capabilities. Coal is found in nearly all the States, and the coal fields, bituminous and anthracite, cover 200,000 square miles. Iron is found everywhere, in some cases in great

mountain masses of almost pure metal. There are lead and copper regions of extraordinary richness, tin, zinc, and the gold and silver of New Mexico and California are known to everybody.

The whole central belt of America, with a climate like that of the south of France and Italy, is very rich in fruits. Grapes grow wild, and apples, pears, peaches, and melons are produced in great abundance. I doubt if there is such a country for fruit in the world as California. In Oregon the climate is more equable than it is east of the Rocky Mountains, with less extremes of heat and cold than are found on the Atlantic Coast. The land is very fertile, and the rivers so crowded with fish that the export of salmon amounts to millions. In some of the higher central regions there is little rain, but the mountain streams supply water for irrigation and ensure abundant harvests, and the climate is wonderfully healthful. Consumption is almost unknown, and incipient cases soon recover.

Land, land, land! There is enough wild land in America for all the landless people in the world. Of the nearly two thousand millions of acres, only 410,000,000 acres in 1860 were occupied as farms, and only 163,000,000 acres were cultivated. There is still room in America for a thousand colonies in the loveliest, most fertile, and most salubrious regions in the world. If wealthy young Englishmen would explore Texas, New Mexico, and the Pacific slope of the Rocky Mountains, locate lands for colonies, and then go out as leaders of their less fortunate countrymen, it seems to me that it would be better than hunting, shooting, and lounging away their lives in Pall Mall and St. James' Street. If they prefer a more northern clime, and British institutions, there is the great fertile valley of the Red River of the North, and beyond it British Columbia. But it is not probable that England will have much to do with the government of any part of America fifty years hence. The control of the mother country is, even now, more nominal

than real. It may be doubted if England would attempt to hold by force any of her distant colonies; and the more she is willing to let them go, the more likely are they to cling to her with affectionate loyalty. Tightening the cords is the way to make them snap asunder.

In 1860, the revenue of the United States Government, drawn almost entirely from duties on imports, levied so as to give protection to American mines and manufactures, was, in round numbers, sixty millions of dollars, £12,000,000. The National Debt was at that time less than sixty-five millions— £13,000,000. It must be remembered, however, that each State had its own very moderate governmental expenditures, with governors' salaries of £100 to £1,000, with other things in proportion, and that some of the States had their own debts, having borrowed money to carry out public works. The National revenue of £12,000,000 was enough for army, navy, civil service, and the interest and reduction of the National Debt. It was an economical government. The salary of the President was £5,000 a year, one twentieth part of the insufficient revenue of the Prince of Wales. Then came the civil war; and in 1862 the expenditure rose to 461,000,000 of dollars; in 1863 to 700 millions; in 1864 to 811 millions; in 1865 the National Debt had increased to 2,800,000,000 of dollars £560,000,000. The interest on this debt was nearly five times as great as the total revenue in 1860. Taxation was therefore more than five times increased. Every thing was taxed. Excise, stamps, licenses, income tax,-every means was taken to raise a revenue. All prices increased in proportion. The burthen was so great, and the people so restive under it, that, with the fear of repudiation, measures were taken to pay off the debt as rapidly as possible; and it has already been much reduced. A few years of prosperity will pay the enormous cost of the war, and then the country may go on again in its normal, almost untaxed condition.