after a separation of ten years. Should I not be able to do justice to an assembly such as I have the honor of appearing before, to the objects embraced in this discourse, the discussion of which has been assigned me, yet I have at least this no small advantage, that I may speak, not only from books, but from real life; not as a distant observer, but from immediate observation and personal experience, of a country, which, by the leading of Divine Providence, has become a second beloved home, without on this account weakening in the least my love and attachment to my bodily and intellectual home--Switzerland and Germany.

America!--As I utter the word I feel that it will leave none of my hearers indifferent; that in each one who is not confined to the narrow circle of his own personal being, and of his native land, but, as becomes a person of cultivation, has an interest in the destiny of mankind, in the future history of the world and the Church, it will awaken deep sympathies or antipathies, joyous hopes or depressing fears; in fine, a wonderful commingling of lively and gloomy thoughts and misgivings. And truly is this the case more and more; the nearer Europe and America are drawn each year, by the means of intercourse of modern times, that sport with time and space, the stronger and more decidedly they act and re-act upon cach other. For as the Eastern Hemisphere sends her superfluous thousands and millions in swelling streams over the Atlantic, so on the other hand the Western Hemisphere continually gains in conscious influence, be it for good or bad, upon the Old World. Especially is this true of the great North American Confederacy, which we have here especially in view, the free citizens of which call themselves in an emphatic sense simply Americans, and are everywhere so known, in the confident anticipation, that they are destined to be the lords of the New World. Already have the United States, not only by their manufactures and commerce, but by the beginning of an independent literature and the power of public opinion, especially by the example of her political and religious institutions, become an undeniable power in moderu history, which

makes itself more felt from year to year in the further development of Europe. They have indeed already begun to contribute their part in the civilization and christianization of Africa by the hopeful negro-republic Liberia, and to the regeneration of Asia by Evangelical Missions in the Orient, and treaties of commerce with the East Indies, China and Japan. With this general interest is associated also the personal participation on the part of large numbers from all parts of Europe, on account of their sons and daughters, their brothers and sisters, acquaintances and friends, who have exchanged the old world for the new, and have thus formed many individual bonds of attachment between the two.

But where shall I begin, and where shall I end? The older one becomes, the more does he feel how difficult and hazardous it is to pass universal judgment upon whole lands and nations. For every nation, in which there is vital power, is a microcosm in which are mirrored the different tendencies and shadings of our whole race; an advance in wisdom and experience is also an advance in the foresight and modesty of our judgment. This is true in a very special sense in reference to the subject before me, which has been made subject to the most contradictory judgments, whenever this or that subordinate point may have become the leading measure. I desire you especially to reflect, that a complete representation of the condition and circumstances of America requires at the same time a correct picture of all Europe, which sends over its good and bad forces from all its countries. In the short time allotted to me, you will naturally expect but an imperfect sketch; in this I will confine myself to such matters of moment, that may remove, or at least soften, certain widespread, and to me in my short visit multiplied contradictory judgments. Permit me to speak 1) Of the size and growth; 2) The political; 3) Social; 4) Cultivation and Learning; 5) Churchly and Religious Circumstances of the United States of North America, with especial reference to the Germans.

I

1. SIZE AND GROWTH.

If there is one fact in modern history which makes an epoch, it is the discovery, or rather the re-discovery of America by Columbus. It, with the invention of printing found out about a half century before, opened an unbounded prospect for the future. But both had their full meaning only in the great spiritual fact of the Reformation, which they as heralds' preceded, just as at the present day the immense discoveries in steam-power and rail-roads open up a new epoch in the history of the world and the Church; seem to be unconsciously preparing for the general fraternization of the nations by the bands of civilization and of the everlasting Gospel. The States of Central and South America settled by Roman Catholics from Spain and Portugal, have either remained stationary or gone backwards. But that part of North America taken possession of by German Protestantism, has developed itself with unexampled rapidity, and will become one of the greatest and most powerful nations of the earth, if it thus goes forward yet for fifty years, and is indeed that already as to its fundamental outlines.

The United States, as is known, date their self-subsisting national existence to the declaration of independence of 1776, and are therefore not yet an hundred years old. At that time there were thirteen, now there are already thirty one well organized States, besides territory, which is uninhabited, or at least thinly inhabited, out of which can be easily formed a dozen new States, each as large as a German Kingdom. The whole area of the United States, since the new acquisitions of Texas, California and New Mexico, includes now not less than three millions of English square miles, is also nearly as large as the whole continent of Europe, whilst in variety of soil, climate and products it exceeds every other division of countries of like compass upon the globe. In a similar ratio has the population increased. Towards the close of the last century the Union scarcely numbered three millions; there are now already twenty-five millions of population, the increase of which will be naturally much promoted by its general pros

perity and by early marriages. But to these are associated yearly many hundred thousands of emigrants from all parts of the old world, especially from England, Ireland and Germany, and lately has also an emigration set in even from an opposite direction, namely from distant China, that, invited by the gold digging of California, it sends from its bosom of 360 millions an increasing quota over the Pacific Ocean to the mart of St. Francisco, and to the banks of the Sacra

mento.

We have here before us one of the most remarkable and significant facts of modern times. One is fully justified in calling this stream of emigration, which goes forth cheerfully in a friendly manner, without the sword and the shedding of blood, a wandering of nations. It has no warlike tendency as the advance of the German tribes to the threshhold of the middle ages; it is not the work of a religious enthusiasm, as the crusades; but for the most part the consequence of private want, and, at least in the case of Ireland, popular want, and a striving after more freedom of movement, and after a bettering of their outward and inward condition. With the German there is superadded that "Heimweh nach dem All," that cosmopolitan attraction, which can just as well be called his spiritual strength, as his political weakness. But above all ought we recognise in this grand emigration movement from East to West and the contrary, the march of history itself and the hand of an all wise Providence, who conducts all for the best which here, as for two hundred years ago in Europe, breaks up new paths, opens new and unbounded prospects for the further development of humanity and the Kingdom of God.

The basis of American population is represented in the emigrants from England and Scotland. In later times the emigration from Ireland to America has become stronger than that of all European countries put together, so that a formal exodus, yea, a threatened dying out of the Celtic race and of Romanism in Ireland has already been spoken of. But now, the German has overtaken the Irish emigration, and will doubtless far exceed it in the future. At the port of New York

alone for the last few years there have arrived annually 100,000 Germans; and, as I am told by well informed persons, in this year, owing partly to the usual causes, partly to the threatening storm of a general European war,-which may God in mercy prevent-it may reach a half million, and mainly to America.

Let them go in God's name, and grant, that at least your prayers and your blessings may accompany them; Americans will welcome them all; the worthy ones certainly, but even the bad ones they will not cast off, in the hope, that in the new world they may also become new persons, and not verify the old adage: Coelum non animum mutant, trans mare qui currunt. They will all, and many millions more, find room and employment enough in the measureless, yet uncultivated districts, abounding in the most fruitful soils; in the yet inexhaustible coal and iron mines, of which Pennsylvania alone is said to possess more than the whole continent of Europe; in the numberless canals, steamships and rail-roads; in the building of villages and towns, which start forth as the creations of a dream, so that the imagination can scarcely find names any more, but old ones must be re called almost to confusion; in the most flourishing trade and industry of all kinds, and in the bosom of a nation, full of the keenest enterprising spirits, and of untiring activity. The Atlantic coast, which is the most densely populated part, and as yet the theatre of North American history, and already counts towns of a half million inhabitants, is nevertheless, compared with European countries, sparsely peopled. The Western coast on the Pacific Ocean, Oregon and California, is scarcely yet opened up to the prospect of the world, and has room for whole Kingdoms. The Mississippi valley, that is, the boundless rich river district between the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains, which constitutes the proper body of the United States, and which numbers as yet only four million of inhabitants, is alone capable of conveniently nourishing a hundred million of people.

We must, however, remind emigrants of one thing; prepare yourselves for all kinds of privations, and rely not upon chance