In England and Scotland, in all classes, from the queen downward, no movements are so popular as those for the education and elevation of the poor; one is seldom in company without hearing the conversation turn upon them.

The conversation generally turned upon the condition of servants in America.  I said that one of the principal difficulties in American housekeeping proceeded from the fact that there were so many other openings of profit that very few were found willing to assume the position of the servant, except as a temporary expedient; in fact, that the whole idea of service was radically different, it being a mere temporary contract to render certain services, not differing essentially from the contract of the mechanic or tradesman.  The ladies said they thought there could be no family feeling among servants if that was the case; and I replied that, generally speaking, there was none; that old and attached family servants in the free states were rare exceptions.

This, I know, must look, to persons in old countries, like a hard and discouraging feature of democracy.  I regard it, however, as only a temporary difficulty.  Many institutions among us are in a transition state.  Gradually the whole subject of the relations of labor and the industrial callings will assume a new form in America, and though we shall never be able to command the kind of service secured in aristocratic countries, yet we shall have that which will be as faithful and efficient.  If domestic service can be made as pleasant, profitable, and respectable as any of the industrial callings, it will soon become as permanent.

Our next visit was to Sir William Hamilton and lady.  Sir William is the able successor of Dugald Stewart and Dr. Brown in the chair of intellectual philosophy.  His writings have had a wide circulation in America.  He is a man of noble presence, though we were sorry to see that he was suffering from ill health.  It seems to me that Scotland bears that relation to England, with regard to metaphysical inquiry, that New England does to the rest of the United States.  If one counts over the names of distinguished metaphysicians, the Scotch, as compared with the English, number three to one—­Reid, Stewart, Brown, all Scotchmen.

Sir William still writes and lectures.  He and Mr. S. were soon discoursing on German, English, Scotch, and American metaphysics, while I was talking with Lady Hamilton and her daughters.  After we came away Mr. S. said, that no man living had so thoroughly understood and analyzed the German philosophy.  He said that Sir William spoke of a call which he had received from Professor Park, of Andover, and expressed himself in high terms of his metaphysical powers.

After that we went to call on George Combe, the physiologist.  We found him and Mrs. Combe in a pleasant, sunny parlor, where, among other objects of artistic interest, we saw a very fine engraving of Mrs. Siddons.  I was not aware until after leaving that Mrs. Combe is her daughter.  Mr. Combe, though somewhat advanced, seems full of life and animation, and conversed with a great deal of warmth and interest on America, where he made a tour some years since.  Like other men in Europe who sympathize in our progress, he was sanguine in the hope that the downfall of slavery must come at no distant date.