different
landings as it rose. It reached the roof with a spring, and the
place was gone. There was nothing to stop it. Our people were sure
that it would be another Chicago. The night was fine and frosty,
with a light north-easterly breeze against which the fire was
advancing. We stayed an hour or two. There seemed no danger for Mr.
Peabody's bank. He was evidently, however, extremely harassed and
anxious, as he held the bonds of innumerable merchants whose
property was being destroyed. I thought I was in his way, and left
him, and came home to tell the family what was going on. After I
left the fire travelled faster than ever. Huge rolls of smoke
swelled up fold after fold. The under folds crimson and glowing
yellow from the flames below, sparks flying up like rocket stars. A
petroleum store caught, and the flames ran about in rivers, and
above all the steel blue moon shone through the rents of the rolling
vapour, and the stars with an intensity of brilliant calm such as we
never see in England. It was a night to be eternally remembered."

A great many Irish families were made homeless by this fire, and
Froude subscribed seven hundred dollars for their relief, thereby
encouraging the rumour that he was in the pay of the British
Minister whom he disliked and distrusted most. Froude's final view
of America and Americans was in some respects less favourable than
his first impressions. He was struck by the difference between their
public and private treatment of himself, between their conversation
and the articles in their press. "From what I see of the Eastern
States I do not anticipate any very great things as likely to come
out of the Americans. Their physical frames seem hung together
rather than organically grown .... They are generous with their
money, have much tenderness and quiet good feeling; but the Anglo-
Saxon power is running to seed, and I don't think will revive.
Puritanism is dead, and the collected sternness of temperament which
belonged to it is dead also."

This language seems strange, written as it was only seven years
after the great war. Froude, however, considered that there was much
hysterical passion in the policy of the North, and he shared
Carlyle's dislike of democratic institutions. Moreover, he was
disappointed with the result of his mission. The case seemed so
clear to him that he could not understand why it should seem less
clear to others. He believed that if the priests could have b