USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > Municipal government history and politics, Vol. V > Part 29
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The State Constitutions, nearly all of which have been re- enacted or largely amended since 1834, remain inferior to the Federal Constitution, and the State legislatures are, of course (possibly with a few exceptions in the New England States), still more inferior to Congress.
Two great parties reappeared immediately after De Tocque- ville wrote, and except for a brief interval before the war when
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the Whig party had practically expired before its successor and representative the Republican party had come to maturity, they have continued to divide the country, making minor par- ties of slight consequence. Now and then an attempt is made to start a new party as a national organization, but it rarely becomes strong enough to maintain itself. The rich and educated renewed their interest in politics under the impulse of the Slavery and Secession struggle. After an interval of subsequent apathy they seem to be again returning to public life. The secret murmurs against democracy, whereof De Tocqueville speaks, are confined to a mere handful of fashion- able exquisites less self-complacent now than they were in the days when they learnt luxury and contempt for the people in the Paris of Louis Napoleon.
Although the newspapers are much better written than for- merly and those of the great cities travel further over the country, the multitude of discordant voices still prevents the people from being enslaved by the press. The habit of asso- ciation by voluntary societies continues to grow.
The deficiencies of the professional politicians, a term which now more precisely describes those whom De Tocqueville calls by the inappropriate European name of the governors, continue marked.
So, too, the House of Representatives continues inferior to the Senate, but for other reasons than those which De Tocque- ville assigns, and to a less degree than he describes. The Senate has latterly not maintained the character he gives it.
Whether American magistrates did ever in general enjoy the arbitrary power De Tocqueville ascribes to them, may be doubted. They do not enjoy it now, but in municipalities there is a growing tendency to concentrate power in the hands of one or a few officers in order that the people may have some one person on whom responsibility can be fixed. A few minor offices are unsalaried ; the salaries of the greater ones have been raised, particularly in the older States.
The methods of administration, especially of Federal admin-
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istration, have been much improved, but are still behind those of Europe, one or two departments excepted.
Government is far from economical. The war of the Re- bellion was conducted in the most lavish way : the high pro- tective tariff raises a vast revenue and direct local taxation takes more from the citizen than in most European countries.
Congress does not pass many statutes, nor do they greatly alter the law. Many legislative experiments are tried in the newer States, but the ordinary private law is in no such con- dition of mutability as De Tocqueville describes. The law of England suffered more changes between 1868 and 1885 than either the common or statute law of the older States of the Union.
The respect for the rights of others, for the regular course of law, for the civil magistrate, remains strong ; nor have the rich (at least till within the last year or two) begun to appre- hend any attacks on them, otherwise than as stockholders in great railway and other corporations.
-> The tyranny of the majority does not strike one as a serious evil in the America of to-day, though to be sure people are always foretelling the mischief it will do. It cannot act through a State legislature so much as it may have done in De Tocqueville's days, for the wings of these bodies have been generally clipped by the newer State constitutions. Faint are the traces which remain of that intolerance of hetero- doxy in politics, religion or social views whereon he dilates. Politicians on the stump still flatter the crowd, but many home truths are told to it nevertheless in other ways and places, and the man who ventures to tell them need no longer fear social proscription in the Northern or Western States, perhaps not even in the Southern.
The Republic has come scatheless out of a great war, and although the laurels of the general who concluded that war twice secured for him the Presidency, they did not make his influence dangerous to freedom. There is indeed no great capital, but there are cities greater than most European capi-
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tals, and the Republic has not been imperilled by their growth. The influence of the clergy on public affairs has declined : whether or no that of religion has also been weak- ened it is more difficult to say. But every body continues to agree that religion gains by its entire detachment from the State.
The negro problem remains, but it has passed into a new and for the moment less threatening phase. Neither De Tocqueville nor any one else could have then foreseen that manumission would come as a war measure, and be followed by the grant of full political rights. It is no impeachment of his judgment that he omitted to contemplate a state of things in which the blacks have been made politically the equals of the whites, while immeasurably inferior in every other respect, and destined, apparently, to remain wholly separate from them. He was right in perceiving that fusion was not possible, and that liberation would not solve the problem, because it would not make the liberated fit for citi- zenship. His remark that the social repulsion between the races in the South would probably be greater under freedom than under slavery has so far been strikingly verified by the result.
All the forces that made for the maintenance of the Federal Union are now stronger than they were then, while the chief force that opposed it, viz., the difference of character and habits between North and South, largely produced by the existence of slavery, tends to vanish. Nor does the growth of the Union make the retention of its parts in one body more diffi- cult. On the contrary, the United States is a smaller country now when it stretches from the Bay of Fundy to the Gulf of California, with its sixty millions of people, than it was then with its thirteen millions, just as the civilized world was larger in the time of Herodotus than it is now, for it took twice as many months to travel from Persepolis or the Caspian Sea to the Pillars of Hercules as it does now to circumnavigate the globe, one was obliged to use a greater number of languages, and the journey was incomparably more dangerous.
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Before steamboats plied on rivers, and trains ran on railways, three or four weeks at least were consumed in reaching Mis- souri from Maine. Now one goes in seven days of easy trav- elling from Portland in Maine to Portland in Oregon. Nor has the increased number of States bred more dissensions. The thirty-eight states are not as De Tocqueville assumes, and this is the error which vitiates his reasonings, thirty-eight nations. The differences in their size and wealth have become greater, but they work more harmoniously together than ever hereto- fore, because neither the lines which divide parties nor the sub- stantial issues which affect men's minds coincide with State boundaries. The Western States are now, so far as popula- tion goes, the dominant section of the Union, and become daily more so. But their interests link them more closely than ever to the North, through which their products pass to Europe, and the notion once entertained of moving the capital from Washington to the Mississippi valley has been quietly dropped.
Before bidding farewell to De Tocqueville, let us summarize his conclusions and his predictions.
He sees in the United States by far the most successful and durable form of democratic government that has yet appeared in the world.
Its merits are the unequalled measure of freedom, as respects action, not thought, which it secures to the ordinary citizen, the material and social benefits it confers on him, the stimulus it gives to all his practical faculties.
These benefits are likely to be permanent, for they rest upon the assured permanence of
Social equality.
Local self-government.
Republican institutions.
Widely diffused education.
It is true that these benefits would not have been attained so quickly nor in such ample measure but for the extraordinary natural advantages of the New World. Nevertheless, these
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381]
natural advantages are but subsidiary causes. The character of the people, trained to freedom by experience and by religion, is the chief cause, their institutions the second, their material conditions only the third ; for what have the Spaniards made of like conditions in Central and South America ?
Nevertheless, the horizon is not free from clouds.
What are these clouds ?
Besides slavery and the existence of a vast negro population they are :
The conceit and ignorance of the masses, perpetually flat- tered by their leaders, and therefore slow to correct their faults.
The withdrawal from politics of the rich, and inferior tone of the governors, i. e. the politicians.
The tyranny of the majority, which enslaves not only the legislatures, but individual thought and speech, checking lit- erary progress, preventing the emergence of great men.
The concentration of power in the legislatures (Federal and State), which weakens the Executive, and makes all laws unstable.
The probable dissolution of the Federal Union, either by the secession of recalcitrant States or by the slow decline of Federal authority.
There is therefore warning for France in the example of America. But there is also encouragement-and the encour- agement is greater than the warning.
Of these clouds one rose till it covered the whole sky, broke in a thunderstorm and disappeared. Some have silently melted into the blue. Some still hang on the hori- zon, darkening large parts of the landscape. But how near may be the danger they threaten, and how serious, are ques- tions fitter to be discussed by Americans than by a European.
X
THE STUDY OF HISTORY IN
ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY STUDIES IN
HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE HERBERT B. ADAMS, Editor
History is past Politics and Politics present History - Freeman
FIFTH SERIES X
THE STUDY OF HISTORY IN
ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND
BY PAUL FREDERICQ Professor in the University of Ghent
Authorized Translation from the French by Henrietta Leonard, A. B. (Smith College)
BALTIMORE PUBLICATION AGENCY OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY OCTOBER, 1887
COPYRIGHT, 1887, BY N. MURRAY.
JOHN MURPHY & CO., PRINTERS, BALTIMORE.
NOTE BY THE EDITOR.
The unavoidable and indeed prudent delay of certain long-promised municipal studies and the very agreeable change of thought introduced by Mr. James Bryce in his recent paper on "The Predictions of Hamilton and De Tocqueville," have induced the editor to modify his plans for the remainder of the present Series. He takes great pleasure in presenting to his countrymen the interesting Notes and Impressions of Professor Paul Fredericq, of the University of Ghent, concerning Advanced Instruction in History in England and Scotland. These suggestive observations have been admirably translated into English by a former pupil, a graduate of Smith College, Miss Henrietta Leonard, of Philadelphia, the first lady contributor to these Studies. Professor Fredericq is the first contributor from the Continent, as Professors Bryce and Freeman were the first from England, and Dr. Bourinot the first from Canada.
The Sixth Series in double numbers will be published together in a bound volume early in the year 1888 and will be entirely the work of Johns Hopkins University graduates. Subject : "THE HISTORY OF COOP- ERATION IN THE UNITED STATES." Price $3.00, bound in cloth uniform with previous volumes. The entire set of Six Annual Series is now offered in a hand- some Library Edition for $18.00; with the three Extra Volumes, " New Haven," " Baltimore," " Philadelphia," altogether nine volumes, $22.00.
Address all orders to the
PUBLICATION AGENCY,
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.
5
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
I .- UNIVERSITIES OF SCOTLAND
9
II .- CAMBRIDGE AND OXFORD.
12
III .- HISTORICAL INSTRUCTION AT CAMBRIDGE.
16
IV .- THE STUDY OF HISTORY AT OXFORD.
32
V .- HISTORICAL INSTRUCTION IN LONDON
48
VI .- CONCLUSION
50
7
THE STUDY OF HISTORY
IN
ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.
In April, 1884, the University of Edinburgh celebrated its three hundredth anniversary with a festival not soon to be forgotten by those who had, as I had, the good fortune to be present.
I took the opportunity that a trip to Scotland afforded, to observe the methods of advanced instruction in history in that country, and, afterward, to pursue the investigations in England, before returning to Belgium. M. Van Humbeck, our late minister of public instruction, entrusted this task to me in order to complete the information gathered on my two previous missions, in 1881 and 1882, to Germany and Paris.1
I .- UNIVERSITIES OF SCOTLAND.
Scotland has four universities : Edinburgh, Glasgow, St. Andrew's and Aberdeen.2 The first is particularly flourish- ing, and is noted for its Medical Faculty.3
1 See author's articles De l' Enseignement supérieur de l'histoire en Allemagne (Revue de l'instruction Publique en Belgique, Vol. XXIV, pp. 18-53, and Vol. XXV, pp. 79-92) and De l'Enseignement supérieur de l'histoire à Paris (Revue internationale de l'enseignement, Paris, July 15, 1883, 61 pages).
" In round numbers there were at these four universities in 1884: At Edinburgh, 3,300 students; at Glasgow, 2,000; at Aberdeen, 900; at St. Andrews, 250.
3 I visited only the universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, whose manage- ment is excellent and whose corps of professors counts, especially at Edin- burgh, savants of European reputation.
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The Study of History in England and Scotland.
I was astonished to find that history is in reality excluded from the curriculum of Scottish universities. At Aberdeen and St. Andrew's it has not the slightest notice, save cursorily in the department of Latin, Greek, and English literature. At Edinburgh and Glasgow there is a single course, called " Constitutional Law and History," that is taken only by law-students, and is a course in jurisprudence rather than in history. But the fact that at Edinburgh the professor in charge of this department, Mr. J. Kirkpatrick, wears the title, Pro- fessor of History, marks a little progress and implies hope for the future.
Mr. Kirkpatrick, who kindly furnished me these details, arranges his course in constitutional law and history-chiefly English-as follows : he requires of his pupils, who are law- students, four recitations and one hour of written work, each week during the summer term. The subjects treated are the points the professor has discussed, in relation to which the pupils have read indicated portions of such well-known authors as Stubbs, Hallam, May, Freeman, Molesworth, Gneist, and Guizot.
I give, as illustrations, the questions used in two of these written examinations.
First examination, Wednesday, 23d May, 1884: 1. What is the domain of constitutional law? 2. Describe briefly the political organizations of the Anglo-Saxons about the middle of the eleventh century. 3. How does the feudalism estab- lished by William the Conqueror differ from the feudalism of the Continent? 4. What were the chief articles of the charter of Henry I .? 5. How were the evils of feudalism aggravated during the reign of Stephen ? 6. What were the principal stipulations of the Constitutions of Clarendon ?
Ninth and last examination, Wednesday, 21st July, 1884 : 1. Enumerate the rules of constitutional law contained in the Bill of Rights (1689) and in the Act of Settlement (1701). 2. Give the history of religious toleration in England from
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the time of William III. to 1858. 3. How was the pro- cedure in trials for high treason reformed under William III. and Queen Anne? 4. Give a brief outline of the question of exclusion of place-men from Parliament between 1701 and 1782. 5. Mention some characteristic acts proving the auto- cratic disposition of George III., and relate briefly the affair of Wilkes. 6. Name and explain briefly the consequences that followed the passage of the Reform Act in 1832, and show concisely the reforms effected by that law.
These written exercises are evidently mere repetitions of the professor's lectures. He corrects the papers and marks and ranks the students according to their merit. At the end of the term a prize, consisting of books, is given to the best two, and the names of all that have obtained at least seventy-five points out of one hundred are published in a rank-list. The professor also suggests one or two subjects for essays to be pre- pared independently. Prizes are awarded for the best of these. About thirty students choose this course.
At this elementary stage there can be no question of study- ing sources and inculcating methods of scientific research. The most that can be done is to inspire the desire of reading certain text-books and great works relating to the history of English constitutions. The easy written examinations at regular inter- vals keep the students on the alert, but do not urge them to individual research. They belong more properly to elemen- tary teaching.
This incomprehensible exclusion of history from Scottish universities cannot continue. A new act of Parliament is in preparation which will enlarge the roll of the Faculty ; let us hope that history will thus obtain the recognition it receives in the universities of all civilized countries, and which it long ago deserved in the country of Robertson, Walter Scott and. Carlyle.
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The Study of History in England and Scotland.
[394
II .- CAMBRIDGE AND OXFORD.
No university on the Continent can impress the visitor as do time-honored Cambridge and Oxford. The two towns are scarcely more than villages like Göttingen; but the noble monuments of learning that abound there would furnish architectural glory for great cities. The English-Gothic style shines there in all its splendor. Where is it possible to find, save perhaps at Bruges or Nuremberg, such a cluster of masterpieces of secular mediæval architecture ? And to their picturesque grandeur the charming gardens, parks stocked with deer and meadows dotted with venerable trees add enchanting beauty.
Whole streets are lined with handsome structures, the col- leges or halls, most of them as large as the great Lycées de Paris. There are twenty-four at Oxford1 and at Cambridge seventeen, each of them possessing a fine garden, a chapel that is often a handsome church, a noble dining-hall, a library often very rich, and one or several interior courts. In several of the colleges of Gothic style, these courts are bordered by cloisters, rivalling the most celebrated on the Continent; they would befit a monastery of the Middle Ages, but no monks are to be met there. Students and professors go to and fro in the morning, their heads covered with black, square-topped caps ornamented with a silk tassel,2 like a Polish lancer's cap; they wear smartly over their jackets a gown of black woolen stuff,3 which suggests the flowing mantle of the seventeenth century, and is still the ceremonial costume of professors in
1 At Oxford there are twenty-one colleges properly so-called and three halls, smaller and less important than the colleges.
2 At the Norwegian University at Christiana the students wear a black head-gear of the same kind with the long silk tassel. At least such was the dress of their deputies whom I saw in 1877 at the fourth centennial celebration of the University of Upsala.
3 At Cambridge I saw also blue gowns. At Glasgow the toga was of a bright red.
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Belgium and Holland ; but the English gown is shorter and more convenient than the latter, being made of lighter material.
After luncheon at one o'clock, all these learned caps and grave gowns disappear. In the gardens and through the streets of the town in every direction rove the students, in the gay costume of their college or club. The English student, faithful to the golden maxim, mens sana in corpore sano, de- votes at least two hours a day to physical exercise in the open air. In winter he plays foot-ball ; in season he rows, plays cricket, tennis and lawn-tennis, or takes long excursions by carriage, on horseback, or perched on his bicycle, the vehicle being furnished at night with a little lantern and a gong for the benefit of pedestrians.
It is necessary to have seen these handsome young fellows, tall, slender, supple, muscular, browned by exposure, bending rhythmically to their oars or returning with vigorous stroke the white lawn-tennis ball, in those wide gardens with their carpets of fresh green unknown to us, in the shade of oaks, beeches and lime-trees older and more majestic than the noblest on the continent-it is necessary to have admired this goodly youth, in order to pity adequately the students of other coun- tries, shut into great dirty cities, poorly lodged, rarely taking long walks, finding recreation only in heated ale-houses reek- ing with tobacco-smoke and stale odors of beer and alcohol.
In the evening the English students again put on their square caps and their gowns, to dine with their fellows and tutors in the college refectory,1 usually a handsome Gothic
1 Each student takes breakfast and luncheon in his own rooms, which consist of a good-sized study, a small sleeping-room, and a lumber-room called at Oxford the "scout's hole," and at Cambridge the "gyp-room." There is one servant for every six students, who takes care of the rooms and brings the meals. I visited the rooms of a student at Pembroke College, Oxford. There were a few books in sight, cards of invitation encircling the mirror, portraits of famous actresses, and three silver cups won in the athletic contests so high in favor with the youth beyond the Channel. It was evi- dently not to the room of a "reading man" that chance conducted me.
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The Study of History in England and Scotland.
hall, ornamented with historic portraits and emblazoned win- dows.1 After this repast they go to their rooms or those of friends to spend the evening, or to society-rooms, where the principal journals and reviews are to be found.2 They never set foot in an alehouse. They return at nine o'clock to their college, being subject after that hour to a fine. By entering but a minute late they are exposed to severe penalties.
Each college is under the management of liberally payed officials, chosen from among the most distinguished men the university has produced. This is especially the case with the director or master. His assistants, called tutors, have over- sight of the conduct of the students; they likewise have direction of the written examinations, indicate the books to be consulted and the courses to be pursued, give out written exercises, give private lessons, and even provide courses of study to supply deficiencies in the regular course.
The tutors thus relieve the professors of the tedious and exacting preparations of examination-papers. Free from this care the professor arranges his instructions as he thinks best. At Oxford he gives from time to time a state lecture, at which the Masters, ladies, and the public are present. As a rule he teaches as do the professors of the College of France, at Paris,
1 This dinner is very elaborate. I dined twice with the tutors at Balliol College. The menu consisted of two dishes of fish, two of meat, and dessert. They drank at choice beer, ale, sherry, port, bordeaux. Continental students have no idea of such daily feasting. It is well to add that parents pay about £200 a year for their sons' living at Oxford and Cambridge, although the vacations are very long. Poor students are exempted from such expense and live at about £80 a year. They are called "unattached students." They are the exception; at Oxford they number from 200 to 300 out of the 2,500.
2 With Mr. Arthur Evans, son-in-law of Prof. Freeman, I visited the "Union" at Oxford, a general society of the students. I found a hand- some lecture-hall, a smoking-room, restaurant, a room for writing and a large debating-room, in which are held public discussions always closed by vote. It is a true club, well-organized upon a larger scale than the prin- cipal aristocratic societies of Belgium.
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without being restricted to a special course. The college, how- ever, could not be more watchful over the pupils entrusted to it; for its reputation is at stake, surrounded as it is by numerous and no less ambitious rivals.
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