General Lee, now held (confiscated, it is said) by | and entered railway cars which stood awaiting our the Central Government. A portion of it has been converted into a cemetery; and fifteen thousand soldiers are buried there. Beneath a granite monument, near the entrance, lie two thousand nameless slain, who fell at the fatal battle of Bull Run, and during the subsequent retreat to the Rappahannock. We touched at Alexandria on the Virginian side, a bustling, manufacturing town, with a large negro population. A few miles further down, as I sat listlessly under the awning upon deck, I was startled by the sudden tolling of a bell overhead. Looking up, I saw the eyes of every passenger turned toward a white building on the summit of a wooded ridge, a mile or so from the shore. One of the tallest of the Yankees, noticing my perplexity, stepped close up to me and said, pointing sideways with his thumb to the aforesaid building: "'Guess, stranger, that was the greatest man ever the earth saw." "What man do you mean?" I asked modestly. I shall never forget that stare, as he scanned me from head to foot. "What man do I mean? Why, where was you raised? Of course, I mean George Washington ;" and he turned away with a look of mingled pity and contempt. It was indeed Mount Vernon, once the home, now the tomb, of Washington. There the great general and his wife Martha lie side by side beneath a plain building of brick. Through a grated door one sees the sarcophagi which contain their ashes. Every steamer that plies on the Potomac tolls its bell as it passes that hallowed spot. But it surely does not speak much for the patriotism and the independence of the great Republic, that a tax should have to be levied upon passengers for the maintenance of Washington's tomb. Dense After passing Fort Washington, the signs of life on the banks of the river became fewer. Here and there a log-hut on the shore, with a group of black children basking in the sun; or a solitary boat mirrored in a little bay, with a motionless negro fisherman for its only occupant. woods-not stately primeval forests, but a scraggy second growth-fringe the river, and clothe the undulating uplands behind far as the eye can see. At Aquia Creek, some fifty miles below Washington, we landed on a temporary wooden quay, arrival. Our journey now struck me as not a little perilous. A single line of rails is laid on a narrow, new embankment, which is carried for miles through shallows of the river, across long reaches of quaking swamp, over slimy gullies, bridged here and there by rude, creaking timbers. I watched the shaking of the bank, and the ominous quivering and boiling of the morass, as the heavy train passed slowly along; and as I did so, the fearful catastrophes I had often read of came up to my mind with painful vividness. At length we reached the solid ground of Virginia, and swept on with increasing speed through its forests and little clearings. As we approached Fredericksburgh, I was standing on the platform beside the brakeman, who was describing to me, in his odd negro dialect, the scenes and details of that memorable battle-field, when all of a sudden, on rounding a bluff, the whistle sounded ominously, and the engine-bell rang. "Him be danger ring," cried my companion, as he screwed up his brake. In a few seconds the train was at a dead stop; on going forward to ascertain the cause, I found the stoker driving a herd of cattle from the line. After returning to my place, the brakeman informed me, confidentially, that the "cow-catcher" might turn over one or two, but he guessed "him could not fix a herd." I was heartily glad when, after a hot, dusty ride, I found myself safe in the depôt at Richmond. RICHMOND AND THE WAR. Richmond, the pride of Virginia, the queen of the South, is fallen. War has dealt hardly with her. Many of the finest buildings are shattered and desolate. Long gaps of blackened ruins are seen at intervals in her best streets. And one cannot help observing the look of sadness and listlessness about the people, as if they were just awaking from a painful dream. One of the brightest and gayest of American cities has been changed into a place of mourning. Three out of every four of its old families and merchants are ruined. Its young men were almost exterminated; and many of those who survive are maimed and crippled. But even war could not rob Richmond of its magnificent site. It deserves its name; for in the richness and beauty of its natural scenery it is not one whit behind its English prototype, | slavery as it formerly existed in the Southern Richmond on the Thames. States of America. I do not intend to say a single word in favour of that system. In principle and practice it was, under every form and guise, a social evil and a national disgrace. But with all that, it would be a monstrous injustice to the slave-holders of the South to assume that slavery was always, or generally, or often, of the Uncle-Tom type. Not unfrequently there was far more of genuine Christian sympathy and kindness shown to the negro slave, than is shown to the white servant in this free land of ours. With my own eyes I saw proof in the little colony that still clings around the family of Brook Hill, refusing to go away. I went about freely among them. I entered their houses, and found them clean and comfortable-far more so than the generality of labourers' cottages in England. I conversed with the mothers and grown-up females and children, all of whom had received an excellent elementary education from Mrs. Stewart herself. Their religious knowledge was remarkable, and their simple faith very striking. They are devotedly attached to their mistress; and they consider themselves a part of the household. I was much impressed with the courtesy with which they were uniformly treated by master and mistress, and, indeed, by all the members of the family. The older women are never addressed by name; they are called "mammy" or "aunt," and the older men invariably "uncle." I was somewhat startled when I first heard the venerable butler addressed as "Uncle Anthony." It is, in truth, a patriarchal establishment, carrying one away back in thought to the days of Abraham and Job. Modern civilization, springing from a fuller comprehension of the grand teachings of Christ and his apostles, has gradually taught nations, sometimes a little reluctant to learn, the fundamental injustice of the system of slavery; yet we ought to be careful lest, under the grand name of liberty, we should foster institutions, and tolerate practices, almost as degrading in their character, and as fatal in their ultimate issues, as American slavery. Virginian hospitality has been long proverbial in America, and I had pleasant practical experience of it the moment I entered Richmond. My old friend, Mr. Stewart, chancing to hear I was coming, drove to the train to meet me; but finding I had already left the depôt, he followed, going from hotel to hotel, examining the names in the visitors' book, until, at last, he found me. Then and there he insisted I should accompany him to his charming residence at Brook Hill. I can never forget the happy days I spent there, where high culture and Christian love combine to throw a hallowed radiance round the family circle. The accounts I got of the war were very touching and very graphic. Brook Hill was the scene of some sharp fighting. On its grounds, within pistol-shot of the windows, was one of the outer defences of Richmond, commanding a leading road, and a lovely valley. In the final struggle, just before the capture of the city, an action took place in the woods round the house, and during it the ladies carried in and tended some of the wounded. The house was plundered by the Northern troops; but, by the good hand of God upon them, the family escaped personal injury. It was intensely interesting, and yet sad, to hear their story of that four years' struggle. During most of the time they were shut out from the rest of the world. All the luxuries, and many even of the necessaries of life, were taken from them. Their clothes in rags; their shoes worn out; their food scanty and bad; their property lying desolate; and they themselves-delicate women, and tender young girls-toiling from morn to night, and often from night till morning again, making up every available article into clothes for the soldiers in the field, and for the sick and wounded in the hospitals. Independent altogether of the merits of the question at issue, no man, who knows anything of the details of the war, can deny that the people of the South, men and women alike, displayed a heroism which has perhaps never been surpassed. A RELIC OF SLAVERY. At Brook Hill, I saw for the first time what may be considered a relic and representative of THE DECORATION OF SOLDIERS' GRAVES. Wednesday, the 15th of May, was a sad and solemn memorial day in Richmond. It was the day dedicated to the memory of the soldiers who fell in battle, and to the decoration of their graves. The ladies of Brook Hill had prepared crosses, crowns, wreaths, and bouquets of the choicest flowers and evergreens. They carried them in to that great cemetery which rises so picturesquely over the rapids of the James River, and in which are said to lie some thirty thousand of the slain. With their own hands they placed them, so gently and so lovingly, upon the graves of the unknown dead. Those graves bear no name, and no record; it was enough that they whose ashes sleep in them died fighting for their country. It was with a feeling almost of pride I took part in the ceremony. Those soldiers may have been wrong; they may have been, as some affirm, rash and reckless; they may even have been, as the Northerns believe, rebels: but no man with a human heart can refuse to them the tribute of praise for a heroic struggle in defence of what they, at least, believed to be the liberties of their fatherland. The cemetery is tastefully laid out in plots adapted to the natural undulations of the ground. Each grave has a number, corresponding to one in a general register, where the name of the occupant, if known, is inscribed. In the centre of all, crowning the hill, is a massive pyramid of solid granite, with inscriptions in Latin and English. When the graves were all strewn with flowers, and the trees and surrounding monuments ornamented with crosses and garlands, and the cemetery crowded with people, mostly in mourning attire, and when a long file of volunteers, in the gray Confederate uniform, had marched up the central avenue, with slow step, arms reversed, and muffled drum, and formed in hollow square round the pyramid, it was one of the most imposing and affecting spectacles I ever witnessed. GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the South met at Richmond on Thursday, the 16th of May. I was requested by Dr. Plumer, the Moderator, to take part in the opening exercises. The Assembly met in a new church, just erected in place of one which had been burned during the siege. From my seat on the platform-pulpit I had a commanding view of the vast audience. The members of the Court sat mostly in front, but among them there was a fair sprinkling of ladies. Dr. Plumer is a man of commanding presence, far above the average stature, erect in figure, graceful in address, with hair and long beard white as the snow-drift. His features are massive, his eyes black and piercing, shaded by heavy black brows. A painter might select him as a study for Abraham. His sermon was a plain statement of gospel truth, with an eloquent and powerful practical conclusion. While preaching, he held in his right hand a large palm-leaf fan, which he occasionally used with great vigour, causing his flowing beard to wave about as if in a storm. This is customary, indeed it is a necessity, in the South, where the temperature of the church not unfrequently rises to 100° Fahr. And fans are not confined to the pulpit; each pew has a full complement. When one looks over the congregation, as I did, the effect is inconceivably droll. Everything is in motionfans, hair, beards, ribbons, feathers, flowers-in fact, all the lighter appendages of person and dress. The Assembly is composed of about one hundred and twenty delegates, representing an aggregate of nine hundred congregations. Most of the delegates were very young men ; but there was a decorum and a quiet dignity about them, indicating high culture and deep Christian feeling. The Moderator was treated with the utmost deference. His ruling was never questioned. In debate the speeches were brief and pointed, and the greatest courtesy was shown to opponents. I saw no struggle for precedence, no disputes about points of order, no interruptions of those addressing the House, no noise or confusion. There was, perhaps, in some respects, a want of life in the speakers, and a lack of interest in the spectators; yet still the whole conduct of business, and the tone of the House, impressed me as a true type of a Christian Assembly met for the promotion of Christian love and truth. The various reports on Church work and progress were encouraging, considering the lamentable events of the past few years. The war had sadly thinned the ranks of the young men, and largely cut off the supply of candidates for the ministry. In fact, the requirements of the army had emptied the colleges. Now, however, the Theological Colleges are again filling up; and there is an earnestness shown by ministers and students, and a liberality displayed by the people at large, which are sure guarantees of ultimate success. Theological students all receive an allowance from a special fund of the Church, proportional to their wants, so that they may be able, free from worldly care, to devote their entire time and strength to their work of preparation. It seems to me that such a plan, under judicious management, cannot fail to raise up a staff of godly and efficient pastors. I inquired particularly as to the points which have rent the great Presbyterian body in the States, separating the North from the South. There is no fundamental doctrine or principle of ecclesiastical order at issue. The two Assemblies seem to be one in all respects except political sentiment, engendered by the late war, and fostered, as it appears to me, by a resolution which stands on the books of the Northern Assembly, reflecting upon the action of the South. But surely the past might now be forgotten; surely every reference to it calculated to give offence might be blotted out from the Records of Christ's Church. The North, strong in its integrity, and proud of its triumphs, can afford to be generous. Kindness would heal the breach, and win back to union. What a noble aspect would a great United Presbyterian Church present to the world, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico; and having its missions in every country under heaven! ORIGIN OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN AMERICA. I was, for several reasons, deeply interested in this question. Not quite two hundred years ago the foundations of Presbyterianism were laidlaid, too, on the soil of Virginia-by Francis Mackemie. He was an Irishman, born near Ramelton, County Donegal; educated in the University of Glasgow; and licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Lagan, near Londonderry, in the year 1681. Sent to America as a missionary, he commenced his labours on the banks of the Potomac, and soon afterwards organized the church of Snow Hill, Maryland. Journeying southward, he found, we are told, on Elizabeth River, Virginia, "a poor desolate people mourning the loss of their ministers from Ireland," who had died during the previous summer. He preached to them, and founded several congregations, some in Virginia, some in Maryland, and some as far south as Carolina. Feeling that the work was too great for one man, he went to England for help, and returned in 1705 with two assistants. On his return he, and those who were with him, were opposed, persecuted, and imprisoned by the authorities. It was only after a ten years' conflict he succeeded in procuring a legal license to preach; and even then the British rulers placed every possible obstacle in his way. The tyranny which drove the Pilgrim Fathers from the shores of England, and forced many of the Presbyterian colonists to fly from Ulster, then ruled in Virginia, and did its best to exterminate evangelical Protestantism. But Mackemie persevered. When ordered by Cornbury, the governor, to cease preaching within his territory, he answered in the spirit of the apostles, "I neither can nor dare do so." "Then you must go to jail" and to jail he was sent. Eventually he succeeded, for God was with him. In 1706 he organized the first Presbytery in America. It consisted of seven ministers; and its first extant record is of a meeting held at Freehold, New Jersey, for the purpose of ordaining Mr. John Boyd. From this small beginning has sprung the great Presbyterian Church of the United States. It was with no little interest that I, a fellow-countryman of Mackemie, took part in a General Assembly meeting near the spot where that devoted missionary first preached the gospel on American soil. One may well say, "It is the Lord's doing, and wondrous in our eyes." EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA. Virginia, though in deep mourning, and notwithstanding the wreck of her agricultural and commercial industry, is making a noble effort to keep abreast of the North in the education of the young. Dr. Ruffner, the State Commissioner, is a man of enlarged views and great administrative skill. With that kindness and courtesy which characterize American officials, he placed in my | trying circumstances in which they are placed. Before the end of the first year the schools numbered 2900, the teachers 3000, and the pupils 130,000, in an aggregate population of about a million and a quarter. In 1870, less than 12,000 coloured children were attending school, though the coloured population amounted to 512,841; but, in consequence of the liberality of the whites in providing school accommodation, the coloured pupils had in 1871 increased to 39,000. hands public documents, and gave me free access to the schools, and indeed to all sources of information. He is a strong advocate of a system of education free to all, and supported by a tax levied upon all. He maintains that, as the whole community reaps the fruit of education, the whole community should support it. He maintains, besides, that when every man is taxed for it, every man will feel that he has a right to take full advantage of it. No such idea can enter into the mind of any man as that his children are being educated by public charity. And, besides, when all are admitted to the schools on the same terms, that distinction of classes, marked by a gradation, or entire remission, of fees, which is often so galling to the minds of sensitive children, is entirely avoided. Another important effect of the free system he mentioned: when the children of the middle and upper classes frequent the state schools, their parents and guardians will take care that the training given shall be sound and thorough. The great difficulty in the way of education in Virginia is the mixed population. Separate schools must be maintained for the two races; for the whites will not permit their children to attend a school to which negroes are admitted. "I have," says the Governor of the State in 1870, "in years past, and under the most favourable circumstances, witnessed a fair and impartial trial of the experiment, and it proved an utter failure. The true interests of the coloured people themselves demand that they should be provided with separate schools." The Free School System was introduced in the beginning of 1870; and the Report on Public Instruction states that, "except in one district, in which the coloured people voted adversely, the question of levying a local tax for providing school accommodation has been carried by a large majority in every case. In one large and wealthy district, the coloured people, who are in the majority, left the question of the school tax to be entirely decided by the whites, who were the property-holders. Not a coloured vote was cast on the question, and the whites unanimously I voted the tax." This is a noble testimony to the patriotism of the Virginians, considering the THE PEABODY DONATION. I have had occasion frequently to mention in these papers acts of princely generosity towards the cause of education in the United States; but probably none of them equals that of George Peabody. His letter announcing the gift is dated Washington, February 7, 1867, and contains the following noble passage:—“I feel most deeply that it is the duty and privilege of the more favoured and wealthy portions of our nation to assist those who are less fortunate; and with the wish to discharge, as far as I am able, my own responsibility in this matter, as well as to gratify my desire to aid those to whom I am bound by so many ties of attachment and regard, I give to you the sum of one million of dollars, to be by you and your successors held in trust, and the income thereof used and applied in your discretion for the promotion and encouragement of intellectual, moral, or industrial education among the young of the more destitute portions of the Southern and South-Western States of the Union." Union." "In July 1869," the Report says, "Mr Peabody added to his donation a second million in cash, and a large additional amount in deferred securities." Mr Peabody's donations to this fund amounted altogether to the enormous three millions and a half of dollars. What an example is this to England's prince-merchants of Christian liberality and lofty patriotism! sum of RELIGION IN THE SCHOOLS OF VIRGINIA. Dr Ruffner's admirable Report contains some interesting and suggestive remarks in regard to the place and use of religion in the public school. "It is now generally admitted," he says, "that the State cannot properly teach religion. It does not follow, however, that all incidental allusions |