I do not think the rule "By their fruits shall ye know them" can be applied to the public schools, in connection with the prevalence of crime, immorality, unbelief, or eccentric religion. But it is certain the system has not by any means secured that high level of general education, or what education is supposed to bring with it, which its friends claim for it in the States. There is reason to believe that the standard of morality has not been uniformly high in the political world, and that in the public intelligence the judiciary does not aspire to an absolute immunity from suspicion. Even in the old settled States, legislators from time to time may be found, who, seated among the good and wise, excite admiration akin to that which is aroused by the spectacle of a fly in amber. It has been observed by travellers that whatever affection may exist in families, it does not attain that keen sensibility and lasting power which is found in French domestic life. When American newspapers of the greatest influence and circulation write invectives against the corruption which prevails in places high and low, when writers of great intelligence and known character contribute similar articles to periodicals which possess the highest position in the literary world of America, a stranger may be permitted perhaps to say a few words respecting the impression produced upon his mind by what he heard and read on the subject when he was in the country, without it being alleged that he attempts to assail the principles of free government, or to make invidious charges or wholesale accusations against a nation. I know too well the force with which Americans could retort if they were so minded, and how they could point to the reports of election judges which set forth the prevalence of extensive bribery, led to the suspension of writs, and will perhaps end in the disfranchisement of some ancient and populous boroughs and constituencies in England, and to the speeches of Sir Henry James in Parliament, to cast any stone out of my glass house on that score; but I do not think it can be established that persons in a position at all analogous to that of the members of a State Legislature have been purchased wholesale in England, Ireland or Scotland, or that even a complete Borough Corporation had been bought up. Now, nothing was more common in the Far West than to hear it stated openly that Senator So-and-so had bought his place, and that Mr. So-and-so had purchased a State Legislative body in order to "get through" some railway or other scheme. That was accepted in fact as a matter of course, and not contradicted or questioned by any one. We heard from time to time of the sums which So-and-so would expend to buy his senatorship, and of the money actually paid to secure the passage of a line from the legislature of O---- and the like, whilst stories relating to the purchase of judges were common in the conversation of the hotels and cars.