Up to this period my sympathies had been
with the North. I thought, and still think, that the North had no
alternative, that the war had been forced upon them, and that they
had gone about their work with patriotic energy. But this stopping
of an English mail steamer was too much for me.
What will they do in England? was now the question. But for any
knowledge as to that I had to wait till I reached Washington.
CHAPTER XVII.
CAMBRIDGE AND LOWELL.
The two places of most general interest in the vicinity of Boston
are Cambridge and Lowell. Cambridge is to Massachusetts, and, I
may almost say, is to all the Northern States, what Cambridge and
Oxford are to England. It is the seat of the university which
gives the highest education to be attained by the highest classes
in that country. Lowell also is in little to Massachusetts and to
New England what Manchester is to us in so great a degree. It is
the largest and most prosperous cotton-manufacturing town in the
States.
Cambridge is not above three or four miles from Boston. Indeed,
the town of Cambridge properly so called begins where Boston
ceases. The Harvard College - that is its name, taken from one of
its original founders - is reached by horse-cars in twenty minutes
from the city. An Englishman feels inclined to regard the place as
a suburb of Boston; but if he so expresses himself, he will not
find favor in the eyes of the men of Cambridge.
