along with it, for want of a better mode of arriving at the truth, and comprehending the whole of it, he might take a single instance or example. Let him look at a ship of Grecian construction, and compare it with some specimens of modern naval architecture. Certainly one of the most celebrated maritime expeditions in the world, was that undertaken by the Greeks to Colchis-not, I suppose, by any means wholly fabulous. The ship in which the adventurers sailed, was the Argo, described as magnificent in her proportions, as well as exquisitely finished, and altogether of such worth as finally to attain the distinction of having her name, as if for a perpetual memorial, written on the heavens among the stars. This stately ship was forced to make a tedious circuit on her return home, after the immediate objects of the voyage had been accomplished; and it is remarkable, that a part of this circuit was a journey on solid ground, or over the mountains and valleys that lie between the Danube and the Adriatic. Of course, the carrying was equitably divided between the parties to the enterprise. The ship bore the navigators by water, and the navigators bore the ship by land. So, too, one of the most famous naval battles recorded in history, was the fight between the Greeks and Persians, at Salamis, into which the Greeks brought three hundred and eighty ships-all, of course, mighty men-of-war, but not a deck, nor a quarter of a deck, among them all. "Look on this picture, and then on this." Think of the moving mountains of wood and iron, which compose one of our ships of war, of the larger class --the Pennsylvania, for example her lofty decks, rising tier upon tier- her enormous length-the fearful height between her top mast and hold—the batteries she carries, and the army of men that musters within her walls. Or take an instance from our commercial marine - one of our own beautiful liners, for example-or, if you please, the Great Western, as a specimen of her class, and typifying the latest triumph of human skill and human power, over those most formidable obstacles, which broad oceans, capricious gales, and raging tempests, have always interposed to the intercourse of distant nations and peoples, and thence to the progress of mankind in general cultivation and improvement.

But not to dwell on this point, and considering navigation as now in the act of approaching all the perfection of which the imagination can conceive it to be capable; let us recur, for a moment, to the consideration of the subject of internal improvements-of improved facilities for intercourse and communication through or by way of the land.

The agency of commerce, in this department, has been conspicuous from the beginning. We have an instance or two, in its early history, to illustrate the promptness with which it lays hold of the idea of internal improvements, as essential to the success of its own enterprises. To say nothing of the celebrated canals of ancient Egypt, when Alexander the Great had opened the trade of India to the Greeks, and the Europeans generally, at the city of Alexandria, to be carried on by way of the sea, and the Arabian gulf, his next concern was to open the same great magazine of supplies, by some convenient route, to his Asiatic subjects, situated about and above the sources of the Tigris and the Euphrates. For this purpose, he commissioned his officer Nearchus, in command of a competent fleet, to explore and examine the coast-wise course of navigation, between the mouth of the Indus and the entrance to the Persian gulf. One serious obstruction he knew existed in another part of the proposed route, namely: at the mouth of the Euphrates, in the cataracts, so called, which the jealous and narrow-minded Persians, in their time, had caused to be constructed, as an effectual barrier against the

approach of strangers to their territory, in that direction. Now this obstruction Alexander proposed and was prepared to remove, however difficult — the first example, it is believed, on record, of a plan to free the channel of a river from impediments to its navigation, whether natural or artificial. This was, comparatively, in the infancy of the world, as well as of commerce. At X a later period, after the race in Europe, which, in the lapse of time, had grown up to the stature of incipient, though uncouth and awkward manhood, had been struck back again into mere childishness, ignorant, stupid, and ferocious; and when the first glimmerings of returning intelligence and civilization began to appear, another instance occurred of a grand conception for a work of internal improvement. This was the conception of Charlemagne, who, by subduing, and uniting together, under his own sway, a large number of hitherto independent, and jealous, and jarring tribes and nations, prepared the way for a renewal of the intercourse and commerce between various points and places in Europe, which had existed under the dominion of Rome. To favor the interests of commerce, and the improvement of his people still more, he formed the magnificent project of opening a direct communication between the German ocean and the Black sea, by uniting the waters of the Danube and the Rhine. Unhappily, the low state of scientific attainment and skill at that day, would not allow of the execution of the work.

It cannot be necessary to allude to other cases of the like kind, with those just referred to, in ancient or early times, to show what was then the tendency and spirit of commerce; and this lecture has already been drawn out to too great a length, to admit of any thing more than a naked reference to the wonderful progress which works of internal improvement have made, and are making, in modern times, in all the civilized quarters of the globe. The improvement of natural river channels, and the construction of artificial ones; with the more recent device of reticulating the broad surface of extended territories and districts of country with rail-roads, are leading to consequences of which the first and faintest effect only are beginning to be felt; but which, in their ultimate and grand features. have as yet been but most imperfectly imagined. Foreign commerce, from the very necessity of things, is greatly dependent upon, and limited by, domestic and internal trade. And as domestic and internal trade must always depend, for its extent and its prosperity, on means and facilities which can only be afforded by liberal and enlightened systems, and works of internal improvement; so may these systems and works be deemed secured and guarantied to the world, by the very interests of commerce, as well as by the generous, and enterprising spirit which is commonly known to actuate it. What has been already done in this matter in the several countries of Europe, and in the United States the more commercial communities among them being always on the lead is the pledge and earnest of the efforts and the successes which are certainly to follow. The command of Heaven to man, that he should subdue the earth, will never have its answer in complete obedience, till he shall have conquered, and all but annihilated, the spaces that intervene between the seas and the centres of territories and continents, and between the various extremities of the land, and points of departure and approach, for the population and the business that must swarm and swell upon its surface. That this consummation must sooner or later be realized, it would be most unreasonable to doubt, in the face of all the enterprise, activity, energy, and skill, which so eminently characterize this age of the world. The human intellect is awakened and aroused-and no where more thoroughly than among our

VOL. I. NO. I.

3

selves-its condition, in general, is becoming freer every day, and with freedom, it gains power-a power which is learning to display itself in acquiring a just dominion over material things, and asserting and vindicating a proud superiority and mastery over physical obstructions, difficulties, and disabilities, placed, for obvious and wise reasons, in the plain pathway of his advance towards that point of dignity and excellence, which is clearly attainable, but only so through severe discipline and patient cultivation.

No one, I am sure, can be more sensible than I am, how very limited and imperfect is the view I have presented of the advantages and influence of commerce, and its connexion with the past, and the anticipated progress of civilization. The subject, as all must have seen by this time, is quite too vast and gigantic in its proportions, to admit of compression, with any show of justice, within the proper boundaries of a single occasion like the present. There are several considerations of deep interest connected with it, to which no allusion even has been made while the topics which have been touched upon, have only been touched, not handled. The influence of commerce, not only as it is the source of liberal profits, and generally of great aggregate wealth. to the class of merchants themselves—the use of which is always distinguished by singular generosity; but also as it stimulates to industry and enterprise in the other grand departments of business-opening the way and the only way to wealth in them, by opening markets to them by affording them a vent for surplus commodities, without which there would be no surplus production, no profits, and no accumulation. The influence of commerce, in enabling men to congregate in large towns and cities, which otherwise could not possibly be subsisted and sustained, leaving to the fields only such portions of the entire population as are essential to their profitable cultivation, instead of crowding those fields with herds which, without commerce, would occupy only to crop them, as the beasts do, for a present and bare subsistence-enabling men, I say, to congregate in cities, which, with all the vices and impurities that necessarily yet belong to them, always have been, and must be, the chief seats of refinement and civilization in every land, where wealth aggregates and centres-where literature, polite learning, and the fine arts, flourish - where manners are polished-where intellect is alive and active- where sympathy and benevolence have an ample field for untiring exertion, and in which exertion never tires- where virtue is of vigorous growth, because it is obliged to flourish in spite of the tainted atmosphere it dwells in, or die—where morals have a strong cast, because they exist in the very presence of seduction and crime. and where piety, and faith, and honor, and manhood, and nobleness, and generosity, all put on a positive and resolute bearing and quality, because they are called to occupy their spheres, and exercise themselves in the face of the boldest infidelity, and before the sworn enemies of all the orderly, decent, and legal institutions and customs of civil society. Again; the influence of commerce, in favor of human liberty, as its whole history, if examined, would show, in resisting the exactions, and breaking down the artificial and oppressive distinctions of the feudal system - - in demonstrating, as it did in Italy, and in the free cities of Germany, and elsewhere, the power and capacity of men to establish and maintain independent communities, to form confederacies, and to govern themselves, — in raising up a new class in society - men who could carve out fortunes for themselves, without the sword-men who could command, without being born to command- men who were competent to business, to public business, because they were bought up to business-men who showed that there was some value in other things, as well as in lands-that the lord

of manors was no better or wiser, than the lord of ships, of money, and of merchandise, and that the world might be benefitted quite as much by industry and noble virtues, as by idleness and noble blood-in short, that the world, after all, was not made for kings and barons, but for generations of free-born men to dwell in and to enjoy. And again; the influence of commerce, in favor of the gentle virtues and arts of peace, and against the trade and the calamities of horrid war, an influence which has been felt, first, in teaching men that they may have a better and more profitable occupation, by turning their thoughts to productive industry, and acquiring the means of surrounding themselves with the comforts, conveniences, and luxuries of quiet life; then, in rendering wars of territorial conquest or personal ambition, at least in countries highly commercial, difficult if not impossible; then, in showing that negotiation is better than blood in composing disputes, and that treaties and compacts between nations are quite as rational and effectual a way of defining accurately their mutual rights and obligations, and bringing them to a good understanding with each other, as ramparts and bristling cannon, lines of circumvallation, sorties and attacks, the tramp of armies, the shock of battles, the desolation of homes, habitations, and countries; an influence, in short, on the part of commerce, which, as it increases in power and importance, and in an intelligent understanding of its own great interests, and the higher interests of government and society, is more likely than any thing else I am acquainted with, short of the universal sway of the simple and unaffected spirit of christianity, to put an end to all wars-such only excepted, perhaps, as may be waged for the only cause that was ever worth fighting for the independence of nations, and the freedom of mankind. All these topics, and others that might be adverted to, which are a part, and an essential part, of the subject in hand-all of which, it would be necessary to investigate and develop, in order to show how intimately and essentially, commerce is connected with the progress of civilization—all must be passed by with the slight and very unsatisfactory notice of such as have been named and referred to all. I can do no more, in conclusion, than to commend them all, with the whole subject, to such attention and thought as they may seem to deserve. I think it must be seen, that commerce, while it has done much, very much already, to benefit the world, is still in commission as the minister and apostle of other benefits and higher advantages-that there is not an interest in the whole range of life and society, to which its influence does not, or may not, reach, in one way or another, and to which it is not, or may not, in some degree, be of essential service. Education, religion, freedom, morality-the diffusion of wealththe diffusion of the useful and ornamental arts-the diffusion of knowledge. the dissemination of religious light and truth -the extension and cultivation of taste and refinement - a free, happy, and improving personal intercourse between country and city, between different parts of the same country, and between different countries-these things are all of them more or less within the province of commerce-at least, none of them are wholly beyond its power and influence. Let its influence be felt, then, not as it must be in spite of itself, but as it may be by exerting it. The carrying-trade of the world is in the hands of commerce; but let her carry as she has done, and more abundantly, other commodities than those which are bought and sold — in her broad beak, let her carry the olive, to drop it among men, wherever there are victors over moral degradation to be crowned, or wherever there is strife or contention to be healed; and under her strong white wings, and in the volumes of vapor which she breathes forth, let her bear ample stores of ripe seeds, like the down which is borne on the wind, to scatter them broadcast wherever she

moves; seeds which shall spring up in green plants, in bud and blossom, in flower and fruit, to feed the growth of improvement in all forms -the growth of virtue and intelligence, of taste and civilization, in all lands.

Nor are other departments of life and industry, as all are to participate in the humanizing advantages of a growing and extended commerce, without a deep interest in its successes and its prosperity. Of course, commerce, as I have said, cannot flourish without their aid. That aid, however, is to be supplied through increased activity and enterprise in their own proper spheres. It is the beautiful order and arrangement of Providence, that those who labor assiduously in their own callings, promote in the end the general advantage much more effectually, than could be done by any direct interference with the proper pursuits of others. The prosperity of a community, and its advance in improvement and happiness, are not committed exclusively to single hands, or to particular classes. Every profession and every employment has its share assigned it in so great a work. Eloquence has its share; instruction has its share; invention has its share; literature has its share; and labor, in its thousand forms, has its full share. The same great end is always in view, or it should be, to make men at once wiser and happier. And, though he may not know it, the workman with the hammer, and the smith that smites the anvil, labor eff ctively it may be in an humble degree for this same cause of human advancement; and the pale student and the learned doctor can do no more, and do no better, than labor for the same cause. No people can become and continue refined and intellectual, unless their physical wants and comforts are fully provided for; and hence, the very ditcher himself is no unimportant actor in this universal drama. And, perhaps, there is no one lesson in life more necessary to be learned than this: that men are every where mutually dependent on each other, and so are trades and occupations; that they deserve each others respect, however widely separated their spheres of action, and need each others sympathy, confidence, countenance, and support; that all are embarked in the same broad bottom-borne on the same heaving tide the same bending sky over them all, and the same port and haven forever before them all; that those who work the ship, and those who command-those who tug at the ropes and set the sails, and those who calculate her latitude and hold the tiller, are all, and equally, indispensable to the success of the voyage; and that the prosperity and the happiness of the whole company will be promoted and secured, just in proportion as all, in their own proper spheres, shall perform their own proper duties, with resolution, with promptness, and with scrupulous fidelity.

ART. III-ACCUMULATION, PROPERTY, CAPITAL, AND

CREDIT.

An Address, delivered before the Mercantile Library Association, at the Odeon, in Boston, September 13th, 1838. By EDWARD EVERETT.

THE association, the celebration of whose eighteenth anniversary gave occasion to this address, is, we believe, the oldest of the kind in our country, though, as might be expected, from the relative extent of the two cities, inferior in its resources and in the number of its members to that which has been so successfully established here. We cannot allude to these institutions,