At a meeting held in Rochdale on Thursday, to wel-
come Mr. T. B. Potter back from the United States, Mr. Bright made an interesting speech on America,—the enor- mous resources it possesses, and its vast size. He said that the United States contain a dozen Germanys, or fifteen Frances, or twenty-five United Kingdoms ; and that Texas alone contains a greater area than Germany, or Austria, or France, or any other purely European State. And then he went on to glorify the Americans, in spite of the nonsense which Ile ad- mitted they often talk, for their extremely sober, and wise, and patriotic action ; for not insisting on having kings or emperors ; for not allying the Church with the State ; for making so vast an effort to abolish slavery ; and for reducing so rapidly the National Debt, when once they had incurred it in that great cause. The one political take-off to American wisdom Mr.
Bright regarded as their protective tariff. But, as he frankly admitted, the United States are not really very well known to Englishmen at all, and perhaps there are germs in their society more characteristic and more dangerous than even a protective tariff. For our parts, we should regard the great variety and great laxity of the laws of marriage, as a much more characteristic and serious danger to American life and civilisation than a protective tariff.
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