Lord Hartington on Saturday last distributed the prizes at the
East Lancashire Union of Mechanics' and Literary Institution, and told his audience that he had heard the Confederate leaders gravely attribute the vices and faults of the Yankees to too much edu- cation. Lord Hartington could not agree in the educational reason assigned, and even expressly discouraged his English audi- ence from trying the experiment of dense ignorance in order to be different from the Yankees ; but he implied a hope that they would try to be as different as they could without adopting so strong a remedy as that. He concluded with admonishing Mr. Cobden of the great error he had committed in saying that "not one of the citizens of the United States was the poorer for the war," which would have been a very excellent rebuke if the exact reverse thereof had not been true. It was Mr. Seward who made that very foolish remark, and Mr. Cobden who exposed its folly. Lord Hartington sat down, after predicting a financial collapse in the United States, —a prophecy which the good people present received with great applause, whether because it contributed directly to the progress of English education, which they had met to further, or because they thought it in itself an inspiriting and delightful remark,—as it were "one of the compliments of the season,"—we shall now probably never know.
Previous page
