without expressing our admiration of the spirit and manly feeling to which they are indebted for their origin. Their purpose, and it is an elevated one, is to withdraw the members from the influence of the feeling and habitswhich are the natural result of the routine of all professional pursuits; to illustrate those pursuits by philosophical observation and inquiry; to take up the conduct of education at that stage of its progress, where our ordinary guides leave us at our own disposal. In the mercantile profession, the advantages of such institutions are more obvious than in any other; under their influences, the merchant, if he be not numbered among the princes of the earth, may become what is still loftier and better-the intelligent friend of social advancement, the benefactor of his race.

We are persuaded that we cannot better instruct and gratify our readers, than by transferring to our pages the greater portion of this admirable discourse. No intelligent reader in our country would willingly confess himself unacquainted with the writings of Mr. Everett, nor require any description of the beautiful power by which he illuminates every subject that he touches. It is one of the finest characteristics of his eloquence, that fervid and lofty as it is, we never see it employed to throw a seductive coloring over extravagant positions or wild theories; the reader is not compelled to condemn what he admires; and if he wonders, it is only at the wide and various learning with which every topic is treated, and the originality which all assume beneath a master's hand.

In this address, Mr. Everett has done that for the science of political economy, which its professors have too generally failed to do; he has shown the direct, immediate, indispensable application of its principles to the ordinary business of life. It will be well for those who have been led to regard this science as unsettled in its principles, and unsatisfactory in its results, to study the illustration which is here given of the importance of those principles, in relation equally to the individual, and to the society of which he is a member. Many of them may be surprised to find that what they have been in the habit of regarding as fraught with danger, or deserving only of reproach. is but the seeming evil from which good may be educed.

In the beginning of the address, the author declares its object to be the discussion of a few of the elementary topics connected with commerce; in reference to which, there are some prevailing errors, and on which it is important to form correct judgments. These topics are, accumulation, property, capital, and credit; and they are successively treated in a manner which would be spoiled by an attempt at abbreviation Certain we are, that no reader will complain of the copiousness of our extracts.

I. Some attempts have been made of late years to institute a comparison between what have been called the producing and the accumulating classes, to the disadvantage of the latter. This view I regard as entirely erroneous. Accumulation is as ne

cessary to farther production, as production is to accumulation; and especially is accumulation the basis of commerce. If every man produced, from day to day, just so much as was needed for the day's consumption, there would of course be nothing to exchange; in other words, there would be no commerce. Such a state of things implies the absence of all civilization. Some degree of accumulation was the dictate of the earliest necessity; the instinctive struggle of man to protect himself from the elements and from want. He soon found such is the exuberance of nature, such the activity of her productive powers, and such the rapid development of human skill — that a vast deal more might be accumulated than was needed for bare subsistence.

This, however, alone, did not create commerce. If all men accumulated equally and accumulated the same things, there would still be no exchanges. But it soon appeared, in the progress of social man, that no two individuals had precisely the same tastes,

powers, and skill. One excelled in one pursuit, one in another. One was more expert as a huntsman, another as a fisherman; and all found that, by making a business of some one occupation, they attained a higher degree of excellence than was practicable, while each one endeavored to do every thing for himself. With this discovery, commerce began. The Indian, who has made two bows, or dressed two bear-skins, exchanges one of them for a bundle of dried fish or a pair of snow-shoes. These exchanges between individuals extend to communities. The tribes on the sea-shore exchange the products of their fishing for the game or the horses of the plains and hills. Each barters what it has in excess, for that which it cannot so well produce itself, and which its neighbors possess in abundance. As individuals differ in their capacities, countries differ in soil and climate; and this difference leads to infinite variety of fabrics and productions, artificial and natural. Commerce perceives this diversity, and organizes a boundless system of exchanges, the object of which is to supply the greatest possible amount of want and desire, and to effect the widest possible diffusion of useful and convenient products. The extent to which this exchange of products is carried in highly-civilized countries, is truly wonderful. There are probably few individuals in this assembly who took their morning's meal this day, without the use of articles brought from almost every part of the world. The table on which it was served was made from a tree which grew on the Spanish Main or one of the WestIndia islands, and it was covered with a table-cloth from St. Petersburg or Archangel. The tea was from China; the coffee from Java; the sugar from Cuba or Louisiana; the silver spoons from Mexico or Peru; the cups and saucers from England or France. Each of these articles was purchased by an exchange of other products the growth of our own or foreign countries-collected and distributed by a succession of voyages, of en to the farthest corners of the globe. Without cultivating a rood of ground. we taste the richest fruits of every soil. Without stirring from our fireside, we collect on our tables the growth of every region. In the midst of winter, we are served with fruits that ripened in a tropical sun; and struggling monsters are dragged from the depths of the Pacific ocean to lighten our dwellings.

As all commerce rests upon accumulation, so the accumulation of every individual is made by the exchanges of commerce to benefit every other. Until he exchanges it, it is of no actual value to him. The tiller of a hundred fields can eat no more, the proprietor of a cloth factory can wear no more, and the owner of a coal mine can sit by no hotter a fire, than his neighbors. He must exchange his grain, his cloth, and his coal, for some articles of their production, or for money, which is the representative of all other articles, before his accumulation is of service to him. The system is one of mutual accommodation. No man can promote his own interest without promoting that of others. As in the system of the universe every particle of matter is attracted by every other particle, and it is not possible that a mote in a sunbeam should be displaced without producing an effect on the orbit of Saturn, so the minutest excess or defect in the supply of any one article of human want, produces an effect - though of course an insensible one on the exchanges of all other articles. In this way, that Providence which educes the harmonious system of the heavens out of the adjusted motions and balanced masses of its shining orbs, with equal benevolence and care furnishes to the countless millions of the human family, through an interminable succession of exchanges, the supply of their diversified and innumerable wants.

II. In order to carry on this system of exchanges, it is necessary that the articles accumulated should be safe in the hands of their owners. The laws of society for the protection of property were founded upon the early and instinctive observation of this truth. It was perceived, in the dawn of civilization, that the only way in which man could elevate himself from barbarism, and maintain his elevation, was by being secured in the possession of that which he had saved from daily consumption, this being his resource for a time of sickness, for old age, and for the wants of those dependent upon him, as well as the fund out of which, by a system of mutually beneficial exchanges, each could contribute to the supply of the wants of his fellow-men. To strike at the principle which protects his earnings or his acquisitions, to destroy the assurance that the field which he has enclosed and planted in his youth will remain for the support of his advanced years that the portion of its fruits which he does not need for immediate consumption will remain a safe deposit, under the protection of the public peacee-is to destroy the life-spring of civilization. The philosophy that denounces accumulation, is the philosophy of barbarism. It places man below the condition of most of the native tribes on this continent. No man will voluntarily sow that another may reap. You may place a man in a paradise of plenty on this condition, but its abundance will ripen and decay unheeded. At this moment, the fairest regions of the earth-Sicily, Turkey, Africa, the loveliest and most fertile portions of the East, the regions that, in ancient times, after feeding their own numerous and mighty cities,

nourished Rome and her armies

are occupied by oppressed and needy races, whom all the smiles of heaven and the bounties of the earth cannot tempt to strike a spade into the soil, farther than is requisite for a scanty supply of necessary food. On the contrary, establish the principle that property is safe, that a man is secure in the possession of his accumulated earnings, and he creates a paradise on a barren heath; alpine solitudes echo to the lowing of his herds; he builds up his dykes against the ocean, and cultivates a field beneath the level of its waves, and exposes his life fearlessly in sickly jungles and among ferocious savages. Establish the principle that his property is his own, and he seems almost willing to sport with its safety. He will trust it all in a single vessel, and stand calmly by while she unmoors for a voyage of circumnavigation around the globe. He knows that the sovereignty of his country accompanies it with a sort of earthly omnipresence, and guards it as vigilantly, in the loneliest island of the Antarctic sea, as though it were locked in his coffers at home. He is not afraid to send it out upon the common pathway of the ocean, for he knows that the sheltering wings of the law of nations will overshadow it there. He sleeps quietly, though all that he has is borne upon six inches of plank on the bosom of the unfathomed waters; for even if the tempest should bury it in the deep, he has assured himself against ruin, by the agency of those institutions which modern civilization has devised for the purpose of averaging the losses of individuals upon the mass.

III. It is usual to give the name of capital to those accumulations of property which are employed in carrying on the commercial, as well as the other business operations of the community. The remarks already made will enable us to judge, in some degree, of the reasonableness of those prejudices, which are occasionally awakened at the sound of this word. Capital, is property which a man has acquired by his industry, or has, under the law of the land, become possessed of in some other way; and which is invested by him in that form, and employed in that manner, which best suit his education, ability, and taste. No particular amount of property constitutes capital. In a highly prosperous community, the capital of one man, like the late Baron Rothschild, at London, or of Stephen Girard, at Philadelphia, may amount to eight or ten millions; the capital of his neighbor may not exceed as many dollars. In fact, one of these two extraordinary men, and the father of the other, passed from one extreme to the other in this scale of prosperity; and the same law which protected their little pittance at the outset, protected the millions amassed by their perseverance, industry, and talent.

Considering capital as the mainspring of the business operations of civilized society as that which, diffused in proportionate masses, is the material on which enterprise works, and with which industry performs its wonders, equally necessary and in the same way necessary for the construction of a row-boat and an Indiaman, a pair of shoes and a rail-road — I have been at some loss to account for the odium which at times has been attempted to be cast on capitalists, as a class; and particularly for the contrast in which capital has been placed with labor, to the advantageous employment of which it is absolutely essential.

I have supposed that some part of this prejudice may arise from the traditions of other times, and the institutions of other countries. The roots of opinion run deep into the past. The great mass of property in Europe, at the present day, even in England, is landed property. This property was much of it wrested from its original owners, by the ancestors of its present possessors, who overran the countries with military violence, and despoiled the inhabitants of their possessions; or still worse, compelled them to labor as slaves, on the land they had once owned and tilled as free men. It is impossible, that an hereditary bitterness should not have sprung out of this relation, never to be mitigated, particularly where the political institutions of society remain upon a feudal basis. We know from history, that after the Norman invasion, the Saxon peasantry, reduced to slavery, were compelled to wear iron collars about their necks, like dogs, with the names of their masters inscribed upon them. At what subsequent period, from that time to this, has any thing occurred to alleviate the feelings growing out of these events? Such an origin of the great mass of the property, must place its proprictors in some such relation to the rest of the community, as that which exists between the Turks and Rayas, in the Ottoman empire, and may have contribu. ted to produce an hereditary hostility on the part of the poor, toward the rich, among thousands who know not, historically, the origin of the feeling.

It is obvious, that the origin of our political communities, and the organization of society among us, furnish no basis for a prejudice of this kind against capital. Wealth, in this country, may be traced back to industry and frugality; the paths which lead to it, are open to all; the laws which protect it, are equal to all; and such is the joint operation of the law, and the customs of society, that the wheel of fortune is in constant revolution, and the poor in one generation, furnish the rich of the next. The rich man, who treats poverty with arrogance and contempt, tramples upon the ashes of his

father or his grandfather; the poor man, who nourishes feelings of unkindness and bitterness against wealth, makes war with the prospects of his children, and the order of things in which he lives.

才 A moment's consideration, will show the unreasonableness of a prejudice against capital, for it will show that it is the great instrument of the business movements of society. Without it, there can be no exercise on a large scale of the mechanic arts, no manufactures, no private improvements, no public enterprises of utility, no domestic exchanges, no foreign commerce. For all these purposes, a twofold use of capital is needed. It is necessary, that a great many persons should have a portion of capital; as for instance, that the fisherman should have his boat; the husbandman, his farm, his buildings, his implements of husbandry, and his cattle; the mechanic, his shop, and his tools; the merchant, his stock in trade. But these small masses of capital, are not alone sufficient for the highest degree of prosperity. Larger accumulations are wanted to keep the smaller capitals in steady movement, and to circulate their products. If manufactures are to flourish, a very great outlay in buildings, fixtures, machinery, and power, is necessary. If internal intercourse is to diffuse its inestimable moral, social, and economical blessings through the land, canals, rail-roads, and steam-boats, are to be constructed at vast expense. To effect these objects, capital must go forth like a mighty genius, bidding the mountains to bow their heads, and the valleys to rise, the crooked places to be straight, and the rough places plain. If agriculture is to be perfected, costly experiments in husbandry must be instituted by those who are able to advance, and can afford to lose the funds which are required for the purpose. Commerce, on a large scale, cannot flourish without resources adequate to the construction of large vessels, and their outfit for long voyages, and the exchange of valuable cargoes. The eyes of the civilized world are intently fixed upon the experiments now making to navigate the Atlantic by steam. It is said that the Great Western was built and fitted out at an expense of near half a million of dollars. The success of the experiment will be not more a triumph of genius and of art, than of capital. The first attempts at the whale-fishery, in Massachusetts, were made from the South Shore and the island of Nantucket, by persons who went out in small boats, killed their whale, and returned the same day. This limited plan of operations, was suitable for the small demands of the infant population of New England. But the whales were soon driven from the coast; the population increased, and the demand for the product of the fisheries proportionably augmented. It became necessary to apply larger capitals to the business. Whale ships were now fitted out at considerable expense, which pursued this adventurous occupation from Greenland to Brazil. The enterprise thus manifested awoke the admiration of Europe, and is immortalized in the well known description, by Burke. But the business has grown, until the ancient fishing grounds have become the first stations on a modern whaling voyage; and capitals are now required sufficient to fit out a vessel for an absence of forty months, and a voyage of circumnavigation. Fifty thousand dollars are invested in a single vessel; she doubles Cape Horn, ranges from New South Shetland to the coasts of Japan, cruises in unexplored latitudes, stops for refreshment at islands before undiscovered, and on the basis, perhaps, of the capital of an individual house, in New Bedford or Nantucket, performs an exploit which, sixty or seventy years ago, was thought a great object to be effected by the resources of the British government. In this branch of business, a capital of twelve or fifteen million of dollars is invested. Its object is to furnish us a cheap and commodious light, for our winter evenings. The capitalist, it is true, desires an adequate interest on his investment; but he can only get this by selling his oil at a price at which the public are able and willing to buy it. The "overgrown capitalist," employed in this business, is an overgrown lamplighter. Before he can pocket his six per cent., he has trimmed the lamp of the cottager, who borrows an hour from evening to complete her day's labor, and has lighted the taper of the pale and thought-worn student, who is outwatching the bear," over some ancient volume.

In like manner the other great investments of capital- whatever selfish objects their proprietors may have-must, before that object can be attained, have been the means of supplying the demand of the people for some great article of necessity, convenience, or indulgence. This remark applies peculiarly to manufactures carried on by machinery. A great capital is invested in this form, though mostly in small amounts. Its owners, no doubt, seek a profitable return; but this they can attain in no other way than by furnishing the community with a manufactured article of great and extensive use. Strike out of being the capital invested in manufactures, and you lay upon society the burden of doing by hand all the work which was done by steam and water, by fire and steel; or it must forego the use of the articles manufactured. Each result would in some measure be produced. A much smaller quantity of manufactured articles would be consumed, that is, the community would be deprived of comforts they

now enjoy; and those used would be produced at greater cost by manual labor. In other words, fewer people would be sustained, and those less comfortably and at greater expense. When we hear persons condemning accumulations of capital employed in manufactures, we cannot help saying to ourselves, is it possible that any rational man can desire to stop those busy wheels, to paralyze those iron arms,

to arrest that

falling stream, which works while it babbles? What is your object? Do you wish wholly to deprive society of the fruit of the industry of these inanimate but untiring laborers? Or do you wish to lay on aching human shoulders the burdens which are so lightly borne by these patient metallic giants? Look at Lowell. Behold the palaces of her industry side by side with her churches and her school-houses, the long lines of her shops and warehouses, her streets filled with the comfortable abodes of an enterprising, industrious, and intelligent population. See her fiery Sampsons roaring along her railroad with thirty laden cars in their train. Look at her watery Goliahs, not wielding a weaver's beam like him of old, but giving motion to hundreds and thousands of spindles and looms. Twenty years ago, and two or three poor farms occupied the entire space within the boundaries of Lowell. Not more visibly, I had almost said not more rapidly, was the palace of Alladin, in the Arabian tales, constructed by the genius of the lamp, than this noble city of the arts has been built by the genius of capital. This capital, it is true, seeks a moderate interest on the investment; but it is by furnishing to all who desire it the cheapest garment ever worn by civilized man. To denounce the capital which has been the agent of this wonderful and beneficent creation, to wage war with a system which has spread and is spreading plenty throughout the country, what is it but to play in real life the part of the malignant sorcerer in the same eastern tale, who, potent only for mischief, utters the baleful spell which breaks the charm, heaves the mighty pillars of the palace from their foundation, converts the fruitful gardens back to their native sterility, and heaps the abodes of life and happiness with silent and desolate ruins?

It is hardly possible to realize the effects on human comfort of the application of capital to the arts of life. We can fully do this, only by making some inquiry into the mode of living in civilized countries in the middle ages. The following brief notices, from Mr. Hallam's learned and judicious work, may give us some distinct ideas on the subject. Up to the time of Queen Elizabeth in England, the houses of the farmers in that country consisted of but one story and one room. They had no chimnies. The fire was kindled on a hearth of clay in the centre, and the smoke found its way out through an aperture in the roof, at the door, and the openings at the side for air and light. The domestic animals - even oxen-were received under the same roof with their owners. Glass windows were unknown, except in a few lordly mansions, and in them they were regarded as moveable furniture. When the dukes of Northumberland left Alnwick castle to come to London for the winter, the few glass windows, which formed one of the luxuries of the castle, were carefully taken out and laid away, perhaps carried to London, to adorn the city residence. The walls of good houses were neither wainscoted nor plastered. In the houses of the nobility the nakedness of the walls was covered by hangings of coarse cloth. Beds were a rare luxury. A very wealthy individual would have one or two in his house: rugs and skins laid upon the floor were the substitute. Neither books nor pictures formed any part of the furniture of a dwelling in the middle ages; as printing and engraving were wholly unknown, and painting but little practised. A few inventories of furniture, dating from the fifteenth century, are preserved. They afford a striking evidence of the want of comfort and accommodation in articles accounted by us among the necessaries of life. In the schedule of the furniture of a Signor Contarini, a rich Venetian merchant living in London in 1481, no chairs nor looking-glasses are named. Carpets were unknown at the same period: their place was supplied by straw and rushes, even in the presence chamber of the sovereign. Skipton castle, the principal residence of the Earls of Cumberland, was deemed amply provided in having eight beds, but had neither chairs, glasses, nor carpets. The silver plate of Mr. Fermor, a wealthy country gentleman at Easton, in the sixteenth century, consisted of sixteen spoons, and a few goblets and ale-pots. Some valuations of stock-in-trade in England, from the beginning of the fourteenth century, have been preserved. A carpenter's consisted of five tools, the whole valued at a shilling; a tanner's, on the other hand, amounted to near ten pounds, ten times greater than any other, -tanners being at that period the principal tradesmen, as almost all articles of dress for men were made of leather.

We need but contrast the state of things in our own time with that which is indicated in these facts, to perceive the all-important influence on human comfort of the accumulation of capital, and its employment in the useful arts of life. As it is out of the question for the government to invest the public funds in the branches of industry necessary to supply the customary wants of men, it follows that this must be done by

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