Florence, to testify their grief, and to condole with the republic upon so great a loss."

Where, it may be asked, can more splendid examples be found of the beneficial effects of commerce upon the character and the destiny of a community than in this commercial city, or the height to which man is capable of elevating his nature, than in these portraits of her distinguished disciple?

The natural effects of industry, perseverance, and frugality in the operations of trade, have been in no part of the world more clearly exemplified than in Holland, where commerce rose above the deficiencies of soil and the disadvantages of climate, and by the greatness of her trade she became so powerful that her navies swept the ocean, and she came near to teach Europe, on some occasions, from the recesses of her marshes, the maxim of the accomplished Sir Walter Raleigh, the sailor courtier— "Whoever commands the sea, commands the trade, whoever commands the trade of the world, commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself."

The learned author of the introduction to the translation of the Lusiad, in accounting for the decay of the commerce of Portugal, and the failure of success in carrying out the great plans which originated with Prince Henry, and were so gloriously accomplished by Vasco de Gama, places the policy of that kingdom in the following disadvantageous contrast to Holland. "The great population of Holland arises from its naval trade, and had the science of commerce been as well understood at the Court of Lisbon as at Amsterdam, Portugal, a much finer country, had soon become more populous and every way more flourishing than Holland now is." De Foe, in his excellent old-fashioned treatise "On the Commerce of England," cites the Dutch as the most striking instance, at the time he wrote, of national and individual prosperity resulting from the operations of commerce, and her handmaids, Industry, Prudence, and Economy. He says, "The Dutch must be understood to be, as they really are, the carriers of the world, the middle persons in trade, the factors and brokers of Europe; they buy to sell again, take in to send out, and the greatest part of their vast commerce consists in being supplied from all parts of the world, that they may supply all the world again. Thus they supply some nations with corn, others with ships, or naval stores for ships, others with arms and ammunitions of all kinds, such as powder, shot, shells, lead, iron, copper, cannon, mortars, &c.; others with fish, others with woollen manufactures, and the like; and yet they have neither corn, hemp, tar, timber, lead, iron, arms, ammunition, woollen manufacture, or fish of their own growth, the product of their own land or seas, or labor of their own people, other than as navigators and seamen, to fetch, find, and carry them.

The commerce of England is a subject with which my hearers are too well acquainted to permit my dilating upon it on this occasion. Her maxims of trade are ours; we have profited by her wisdom, and taken heed from her errors; she has taught us to find the road to national prosperity by protecting trade, and encouraging manufactures; and she has placed before us, in honorable relief, as an example for the imitation of our young men, the exalted character of an English merchant. But in making up our catalogue of the landmarks of commerce, I would briefly notice one, which, until within half a century, has always been one of the

most important marts of England. I allude to the port of Bristol; and the few details I propose to give will derive an increased interest from the fact of a recent revival of commercial spirit in that city, by the establishment of the noble line of steam-packets to New York, of which the favorite Great Western was the fortunate pioneer.

It is a curious fact in the history of the commercial world, that at a period subsequent to the separation of the United States from Great Britain, our commercial relations with Bristol were greater than those with Liverpool. I can myself remember when we had more vessels to the former than the latter port; not many certainly from either, but in those days Bristol was an important port and place of business, and Liverpool was little more than a fishing town. The decay of the one and the rise of the other may be accounted for from the greater facility of communication enjoyed by the latter with Manchester, and the other manufacturing towns of the kingdom, and perhaps by a little stronger infusion of Yankee enterprise in the character of her people. But the first is, in my judgment, balanced by the superiority of the maritime position of Bristol over that of Liverpool; and the second may be overcome by a judicious importation of some of the members of the Mercantile Library Association.

The commerce of Bristol, in the reign of Edward the Third, was nearly equal to that of London, for we find that on a requisition being made upon the different sea-ports of England, to furnish ships for the aid of the royal navy, in the siege of Calais, undertaken by the Black Prince, the quota of Bristol amounted to twenty-two ships, navigated by 608 mariners, while that of London was twenty-five ships and 662 mariners; and the records of that ancient city inform us, that in the year 1466, one of her merchants, named William Cannyngs, then mayor of Bristol, owned ten ships of an aggregate burden of 2853 tons, and employed 800 men for the space of eight years.

Some idea may be formed of the wealth and munificence of this great merchant, from the fact of his being the founder of the splendid church of St. Mary's Redcliffe, the proudest architectural ornament of Bristol. He is styled by Henry the Sixth, in a recommendatory letter written to the magistrates of Dantzic, his "beloved, eminent merchant of Bristol ;" and he deserves to be ranked in history as the rival, as he was the contemporary, of the magnificent merchant of Florence.

The expedition of Sebastian Cabot, in which the northern part of the continent of America was discovered, was fitted out by the private means of the merchants of Bristol; and her commercial eminence and the loyalty of her inhabitants are further testified by the fact that she furnished Elizabeth with four ships of war, to aid in swelling the triumph of her arms over the invincible armada of Spain.

The overthrow of the trade of Venice, the source of her wealth and the foundation of her power, was occasioned by the great commercial confederacy called the Hanseatic League, and her monopolies were broken up by the discovery of a passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope. Before the period of her decadence, her merchants were princes-now her princes are paupers.

As no country has cultivated more successfully than ours the science of commerce, so none furnishes prouder examples of its beneficial results. Its benign influence invigorates every department of industry, and enriches every corner of our wide-spread land; it causes "the desert places to

blossom as the rose," and invites our rivers to pour into her lap the products of agriculture and the improvements of the mechanic arts. Every great city acknowledges its obligation to trade, and every hamlet ascribes to it a large proportion of its comforts; but I trust I shall be excused in alluding in a particular manner to a sea-port town of Massachusetts, which I have recently visited for the first time. I desire to express my admiration of the beautiful town of New Bedford, and my gratitude for the hospitality of its inhabitants; in which tribute, inadequate as it is, my friends on that ocean isle called Nantucket, around the corner from "Cape Cod,” and next door to "the Vineyard," must kindly consent to participate.

New Bedford is the most striking instance in our country, and perhaps in any, of successful commercial enterprise. She dates no further back than the era of the revolution; she has been devoted to but one branch of foreign commerce: the leviathan of the deep has been her sole aim and object, and the sperm whale and the right whale the only variety of her pursuit. Yet so well has this pursuit been followed, and so ably and effectually have her hardy sons labored in their vocation, that she numbers at present 13,000 inhabitants, exclusive of 4,000 the population of Fairhaven, over the way; two hundred and eighty vessels belong to the port, and her registered tonnage ranks third in the United States; her splendid edifices dedicated to the worship of Jehovah, and to secular objects, attest the public spirit of her citizens, while the superior style of their private dwellings and grounds prove that taste and refinement are not incompatible with the pursuits of trade and the habits of industry; and the visiter among them must indeed be fastidious if he finds not occasion to praise the hospitality which sheds a light upon the path of his sojourning, or the destitute wayfarer to return thanks for the oil of comfort which they are ever ready to pour into his wounds.

But where shall we look for a nobler example of the beneficial influence of foreign and domestic commerce than in our own beloved city? Although from causes, the recapitulation of which would be unsuitable to the present occasion, and about which some difference of opinion may possibly exist, her star shines not as brightly as it was wont, she possesses within herself a recuperative principle which will not fail, in due time, to restore her natural, vigorous, and healthful tone; and if, as is alleged by some, the recent embarrassments of her trade and the reverse of fortune which many of her merchants have experienced, are to be attributed to an overweening spirit of speculation, and the desire to do too much has led to an indiscreet extension of confidence; let us hope that the lessons of experience may not be lost upon us, that when the "golden days of commercial prosperity" shall return, they may not bring with them the alloy of improvidence and mismanagement.

The merchants of New York, embracing as well such as buy and sell at home, as those "who go down to the sea in ships," upright and intelligent as they generally are, are undeniably prone to what is understood by the term overtrading; unlike the same class of persons in Europe, who plod on, generation after generation, in the same track, pursuing the same line of business, occupying the same premises, knowing no change but the succession of son to sire, and content with the steady accumulation of the small but regular profits of trade, we are too apt to be swept away by the current of success into the ocean of speculation. The desire to get rich fast, makes us disregard the means of doing it safely; and habits

of extravagance are induced by the visionary calculations of prospective wealth; but the city of New York is above all others the offspring of commerce; to the enterprise, ability, and liberality of her merchants, she owes her present commanding position. Queen of the western world, her throne is established upon the pillars of trade, and mercantile honor is the jewel of her diadem. Her rapid rise and present condition may be cited to prove the truth of the axiom laid down by an author whom I have before quoted:* "In a word, it appears by innumerable examples that trade is the life of the world's prosperity, and all the wealth that has been extraordinary, whether of nations or cities, has been raised by it.”

It is amusing to look back upon the state of the trade of New York, and the modes of conducting business within a brief period of less than fifty years, and contrast them with the present condition of things. I have no ambition to claim your respect or reverence as a sage of antiquity. On the contrary, I fear I may have given you occasion this evening to remark that I am young enough to learn a great deal; but my connection with business commenced so early in life, that I can describe these matters with tolerable accuracy. I was a lad in the retail drygoods store (shop we called it then) of my brother, in William street. Goods were imported principally from London. The ships (only two or three in number) made two voyages a year; and when they arrived, and the packages were opened in the warehouses of Mr. Waddington, Rowlett & Corp, or Douglas & Shaw, notice was sent to the shopkeepers, who went down to Pearl street, and each selecting the articles he wanted, the whole importation was bought up; and a bill of five hundred dollars would have brought down upon the purchaser the jealousy of his neighbors, and occasioned serious alarm to the importer.

It is a fact difficult to realize, that at the time I am speaking of, French drygoods were unknown in New York. I distinctly recollect the first package of French kid gloves, and for several years after the peace, English lutestrings were the only silks in use. The ladies will find it diffi

cult to imagine such a state of destitution, and may, perhaps, thank their stars that they were not born in so dark an age, when the possession of a silk gown was a luxury that few arrived at, and its advent in the family an event of sufficient importance to be chronicled with the birth of a child, or the setting out of a husband on a voyage to Albany.

Those were the days of frugality and carefulness; and as we are now in a gossiping humor, I will relate an anecdote to prove it. A relation of mine, a merchant in the Dutch trade, who had then been a resident of New York fifteen or twenty years, had in his possession a silk umbrella of uncommonly large proportions, which attracted the notice of a friend in company, who said to him in jest, "I should not be surprised to hear that you had brought out that umbrella with you from Holland." "You have guessed right," he replied; "I did bring it when I came to this country, and have had it in constant use ever since; but I sent it once during the time to Holland to be newly covered." Now this gentleman was liberal and charitable, but he took good care of his umbrella, and died worth a million of dollars.

In the days of which we have been speaking, there was but one bank in the city, the Bank of New York, in Pearl street, then Hanover Square,

* Defoe.

of which Mr. William Seton was cashier, and Mr. Charles Wilkes first teller. Those were the blessed days of specie currency; and if you will indulge me, and laugh with me instead of frowning at me, I will describe how pleasantly it worked. The few notes which were given out by the merchants and shopkeepers (and the sequel will show how few they must have been) were collected of course through the bank. Michael Boyle, the runner, (how delightfully do his jocund laugh and pleasant countenance mix up with the recollections of my early years!) called, several days before the time, with a notice that the note would be due on such a day, and payment expected three days thereafter. When the day arrived, the same person called again with a canvass bag, counted the money in, half-dollars, quarters, and sixpences, (those abominable disturbers of the people's peace, bank notes, were scarcely known in those days,) carried it to the bank, and then sallied out to another debtor; and so all the notes were collected in this great commercial city, and in such a circumscribed circle did its operations revolve. Well do I remember Michael Boyle, running around from Pearl street to Maiden Lane, Broadway, and William street, (the business limits of which district, happily for him, did not extend north of the present Fulton street,) panting under the load of a bag of silver, a sort of locomotive sub-treasurer, or the embodiment of a specie circular.

But where would New York have been if the channels of its trade had remained so circumscribed—the bounds of its enterprise so contracted? Economy and prudence are virtues worthy of all praise in individuals, and carefulness is the pilot to preserve us from the dangers which beset the voyage of human life; but the prosperity of commerce springs from individual enterprise, and public spirit keeps pace with the success of private undertakings. The spirit of trade has infused itself into all our institutions, given activity to every branch of industry, developed our resources and improved our advantages, bound our citizens together in a mutual intercourse of good offices, made available the gifts of nature, found employment for the artisan, and rewarded the labors of the man of science. These are the blessings of trade, and abundantly has New York participated in them. What though she has experienced a momentary check, she must resume the noble impulse which has hitherto sustained and carried her forward. Without commerce, and the generous confidence on which credit is founded, where would now have been the religious, charitable, and scientific establishments with which our city abounds; where her seminaries of education, public and private, and where the noble institution in whose service we are now engaged, and whose present condition and future prospects cause the hearts of its founders and early friends to swell with pride and exultation? In vain should we now look for long vistas of elegant private dwellings, the abodes of taste and refinement, and public squares rivalling in magnificence those of the great cities of Europe, in a portion of the city which, within the recollection of some of our citizens, was almost a day's journey from home; the shouts of welcome would not resound from our wharves at the almost daily arrival from foreign ports of our unrivalled line of packets; and those splendid travellers on the great deep, evincing, under the influence of British skill and enterprise, the successful application of a new element to the purposes of commerce and national intercourse, would have been strangers to our shores; and massy columns and porticoes of granite and marble, rivalling