ome sufficiently peopled to test the adaptation of its present
form of government to a thickly populated country; in the meantime,
there seems scarcely a limit to her increase in wealth and prosperity.
Her present gigantic stride among the nations of the world appears but
an invisible atom, if compared with the boundless resources she
encircles within her borders, not the least important of which is that
mass of energy and intelligence she is, year by year, sowing broadcast
throughout the length and breadth of the land, the Church and the School
ever following in the train, and reproducing those elements to which she
owes her present proud position.

My task is now done. I have endeavoured, in the preceding pages, to
convey some general idea of the places I visited, and of the objects
which appeared to me most worthy of notice. I have touched but lightly
on Cuba, and I have not dwelt at any great length on the prosperous and
rising colony of Canada. My remarks have been chiefly on the United
States, which, differing in so many points from, the country of her
birth, and occupying so conspicuous a place among the nations, presented
the most extended field for observation and comment. I have on all
occasions stated plainly the impressions produced upon my mind. I have
freely remarked upon all those topics which, being public, I conceive to
be the legitimate field for a traveller's criticism; where I have
praised, or where I have condemned, I have equally endeavoured to
explain my reasons. I have called attention to facts and opinions
connected with my own country, where I thought similar points in the
Republic might help to throw light upon them. Lastly, I have endeavoured
to explain the various causes by which hostile feelings towards this
country are engendered and spread abroad among a certain portion of the
community; and I have stated my firm conviction, that the majority of
the highest order of intelligence and character entertain a sincere
desire to perpetuate our present friendly relations.

In conclusion, I would observe, that the opinions and feelings of a
nation should not be hastily drawn from the writings of a passing
traveller, or from the casual leaders of a Free Press. Man is ever prone
to find fault with his neighbour, because the so doing involves a latent
claim to superior intelligence in himself; but a man may condemn many
things in a nation, while holding the nation itself in high esteem. The
world is