In all such matters, however, New York is pre-eminently great.  All through the States suffering humanity receives so much attention that humanity can hardly be said to suffer.  The daily recurring boast of “our glorious institootions, sir,” always provokes the ridicule of an Englishman.  The words have become ridiculous, and it would, I think, be well for the nation if the term “Institution” could be excluded from its vocabulary.  But, in truth, they are glorious.  The country in this respect boasts, but it has done that which justifies a boast.  The arrangements for supplying New York with water are magnificent.  The drainage of the new part of the city is excellent.  The hospitals are almost alluring.  The lunatic asylum which I saw was perfect—­though I did not feel obliged to the resident physician for introducing me to all the worst patients as countrymen of my own.  “An English lady, Mr. Trollope.  I’ll introduce you.  Quite a hopeless case.  Two old women.  They’ve been here fifty years.  They’re English.  Another gentleman from England, Mr. Trollope.  A very interesting case!  Confirmed inebriety.”

And as to the schools, it is almost impossible to mention them with too high a praise.  I am speaking here specially of New York, though I might say the same of Boston, or of all New England.  I do not know any contrast that would be more surprising to an Englishman, up to that moment ignorant of the matter, than that which he would find by visiting first of all a free school in London, and then a free school in New York.  If he would also learn the number of children that are educated gratuitously in each of the two cities, and also the number in each which altogether lack education, he would, if susceptible of statistics, be surprised also at that.  But seeing and hearing are always more effective than mere figures.  The female pupil at a free school in London is, as a rule, either a ragged pauper or a charity girl, if not degraded, at least stigmatized by the badges and dress of the charity.  We Englishmen know well the type of each, and have a fairly correct idea of the amount of education which is imparted to them.  We see the result afterward when the same girls become our servants, and the wives of our grooms and porters.  The female pupil at a free school in New York is neither a pauper nor a charity girl.  She is dressed with the utmost decency.  She is perfectly cleanly.  In speaking to her, you cannot in any degree guess whether her father has a dollar a day, or three thousand dollars a year.  Nor will you be enabled to guess by the manner in which her associates treat her.  As regards her own manner to you, it is always the same as though her father were in all respects your equal.  As to the amount of her knowledge, I fairly confess that it is terrific.  When in the first room which I visited, a slight, slim creature was had up before me to explain to me the properties of the hypothenuse,