32 BULLETIN OF THE ESSEX INSTITUTE. 



This extremely radical proposal, addressed to the con- 

 servatism of the mother country, naturally came to 

 nought. But the language used by Mr. Kingsley, — still 

 filling with distinction the Chair of Modern History at 

 Cambridge — shows the feeling which he, in common 

 with too few other leaders of English thought, entertained 

 towards us at the close of our war, and I ask your in- 

 dulgence in quoting from a letter of Mr. Kingsley to his 

 friend, Sir Charles Lyell, who also knew something of 

 us here in Salem from personal contact and observation. 

 These are am.ong Mr. Kingsley's words : — " When I did 

 myself the honor of lecturing in this University on the 

 History of the United States, I became painfully aware 

 how little was known and how little there could be known 

 on the subject. This great want has been since supplied 

 by a large addition to the University Library of Ameri- 

 can literature. I think it most important that it should 

 be still further removed by the residence among us of an 

 American gentleman." 



" Harvard University is a body so distinguished that an 

 offer of this kind is to be looked on as a very graceful' 

 compliment." 



"Of the general importance of the scheme, — of the 

 great necessity that our young men should know as much 

 as possible of a country destined to be the greatest in the 

 world, I shall say little. I shall only ask. If, in the 

 second century before the Christian era, the Romans had 

 offered to send a lecturer to Athens that he might tell 

 Greek gentlemen of what manner of men this new Ital- 

 ian power was composed, — what were their laws and 

 customs, their intentions, their notion of their own duty 

 and destiny, — would Athens have been wise or foolish in 

 accepting the offer?" 



These and other arguments in favor of an Americai> 



