CHAPTER X. 



SECOND AND THIRD VISITS TO ENGLAND. 

 1865-1866. Age, 44-45- 



MR. YOUMANS sailed from Portland, with his wife 

 and sister, on April 15, 1865, the day when strong men 

 were crying on the streets and utter strangers wrung 

 one another's hands in grief over the dreadful news of 

 the murder of President Lincoln. The voyage was 

 dismal enough. There were no other Americans on 

 board, and nobody had a good word or a good wish 

 for the United States. The captain, in the hope of 

 being the first to reach England with the news, made 

 all haste. From Liverpool the party proceeded with- 

 out delay to London, where Youmans at once en- 

 tered upon the work entrusted to him by the Apple- 

 tons, of arranging with divers authors for the republi- 

 cation of their works in America. Incidentally he 

 took note of British progress in scientific education, 

 and projected a book which should have value as a 

 criticism of tendencies much stronger then than now 

 in American educational policy. He intended to show 

 that university education in England had been de- 

 veloped as the natural concomitant of an aristocratic 

 Government, swayed by adherence to old traditions 

 and by respect for social rank quite as much as for 

 merit. He held that this system of education, as 

 brought over to America and long established here, 



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