Will She Insist On A Right To Trade
With Charleston And New Orleans?
I always answered that she would
insist on no such right, if that right were denied to others and
the denial enforced.
England, I took upon myself to say, would not
break a veritable blockade, let her be driven to what shifts she
might in providing for her operatives. "Ah! that's what we fear,"
a very stanch patriot said to me, if words may be taken as a proof
of stauchness. "If England allies herself with the Southerners,
all our trouble is for nothing." It was impossible not to feel
that all that was said was complimentary to England. It is her
sympathy that the Northern men desire, to her co-operation that
they would willingly trust, on her honesty that they would choose
to depend. It is the same feeling whether it shows itself in anger
or in curiosity. An American, whether he be embarked in politics,
in literature, or in commerce, desires English admiration, English
appreciation of his energy, and English encouragement. The anger
of Boston is but a sign of its affectionate friendliness. What
feeling is so hot as that of a friend when his dearest friend
refuses to share his quarrel or to sympathize in his wrongs! To my
thinking, the men of Boston are wrong and unreasonable in their
anger; but were I a man of Boston, I should be as wrong and as
unreasonable as any of them. All that, however, will come right.
I will not believe it possible that there should in very truth be a
quarrel between England and the Northern States.
In the guidance of those who are not quite au fait at the details
of American government, I will here in a few words describe the
outlines of State government as it is arranged in New Hampshire.
The States, in this respect, are not all alike, the modes of
election of their officers, and periods of service, being
different. Even the franchise is different in different States.
Universal suffrage is not the rule throughout the United States,
though it is, I believe, very generally thought in England that
such is the fact. I need hardly say that the laws in the different
States may be as various as the different legislatures may choose
to make them.
In New Hampshire universal suffrage does prevail, which means that
any man may vote who lives in the State, supports himself, and
assists to support the poor by means of poor rates. A governor of
the State is elected for one year only; but it is customary, or at
any rate not uncustomary, to re-elect him for a second year. His
salary is a thousand dollars a year, or two hundred pounds. It
must be presumed, therefore, that glory, and not money, is his
object. To him is appended a Council, by whose opinions he must in
a great degree be guided. His functions are to the State what
those of the President are to the country; and, for the short
period of his reign, he is as it were a Prime Minister of the
State, with certain very limited regal attributes. He, however, by
no means enjoys the regal attribute of doing no wrong. In every
State there is an Assembly, consisting of two houses of elected
representatives - the Senate, or upper house, and the House of
Representatives so called. In New Hampshire, this Assembly or
Parliament is styled The General Court of New Hampshire. It sits
annually, whereas the legislature in many States sits only every
other year. Both houses are re-elected every year. This Assembly
passes laws with all the power vested in our Parliament, but such
laws apply of course only to the State in question. The Governor
of the State has a veto on all bills passed by the two houses.
But, after receipt of his veto, any bill so stopped by the Governor
can be passed by a majority of two-thirds in each house. The
General Court usually sits for about ten weeks. There are in the
State eight judges - three supreme, who sit at Concord, the capital,
as a court of appeal both in civil and criminal matters, and then
five lesser judges, who go circuit through the State. The salaries
of these lesser judges do not exceed from 250 pounds to 300 pounds
a year; but they are, I believe, allowed to practice as lawyers in
any counties except those in which they sit as judges - being
guided, in this respect, by the same law as that which regulates
the work of assistant barristers in Ireland. The assistant
barristers in Ireland are attached to the counties as judges at
Quarter Sessions, but they practice, or may practice, as advocates
in all counties except that to which they are so attached. The
judges in New Hampshire are appointed by the Governor, with the
assistance of his Council. No judge in New Hampshire can hold his
seat after he has reached seventy years of age.
So much at the present moment with reference to the government of
New Hampshire.
CHAPTER IV.
LOWER CANADA.
The Grand Trunk Railway runs directly from Portland to Montreal,
which latter town is, in fact, the capital of Canada, though it
never has been so exclusively, and, as it seems, never is to be so
as regards authority, government, and official name. In such
matters, authority and government often say one thing while
commerce says another; but commerce always has the best of it and
wins the game, whatever government may decree. Albany, in this
way, is the capital of the State of New York, as authorized by the
State government; but New York has made herself the capital of
America, and will remain so. So also Montreal has made herself the
capital of Canada. The Grand Trunk Railway runs from Portland to
Montreal; but there is a branch from Richmond, a township within
the limits of Canada, to Quebec; so that travelers to Quebec, as we
were, are not obliged to reach that place via Montreal.
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