Four New Addresses (review) [pp. 280-289]

284 Four New Addresses. [MAY,
steam-engine was due to researches into the expansibility of gaseous bodies. The electric fluid
had been coming round the world since the stars
first sang together, to one American we owed the
recognition of its existence and properties, and
to another we owe the invention of the magnetic
telegraph, though a few years since electricity
was considered so far removed from the possibility of practical application, as to be regarded
merely as a field for curious and amusing experiments! The security of our lives and properties
at sea is in like manner dependent upon trigonometrical calculations, and upon the highest and
most difficult speculations of astronomy. Thus
the stars which gem the blue depths of heaven
lend themselves to the common wants of men;
and the ends of knowledge are brought together
to render us habitual service."
We might profitably continue our quotations
from Mr. Holmes' Address, but our limits bid us
turn to the second publication which we propose
to notice. This is the Introductory Lecture of
Professor De Bow on taking the chair of Political Economy, Commerce and Statistics in the
University of Louisiana. Professor De Bow's
taste in polite letters and accustomed lucidity of
style, (as shown in the editorial management of
the "Commercial Review,") had prepared us to
expect no little gratification from this lecture, nor
have we been at all disappointed. The design
of it is an exposition of the studies pursued in
his peculiar department of the University, and
he proceeds to give a most interesting sketch of
the History of Commerce from the earliest ages.
Of English commercial enterprise, Mr. De Bow
says:
"Edward III. was the father of English commerce. Before his reign no advances of any
character had been made in that country to extend its foreign intercourse, but Edward set himself in earnest to build up and establish the kingdom. He invited over from Flanders artisans
and workmen, who may almost be said to have
originated the manufacturing system of England.
It is not a little curious to consider the motives
which were held out to this enterprising body of
men, as they are furnished for us in a venerable
record. They were told that in England " they
should feed on fat beef and mutton till nothing
but their fullness should stint their stomachs, that
they should have buxom wives, seeing the richest yeoman in England would not disdain to
marry their daughters unto them." The products of the labors of these craftsmen, feeding
upon "fat beef and mutton," to respectable corpulency, became soon known, and famous in the
markets of all Europe.
"Feudalism began now to totter in the rapid
progress of the merchant interests, and went out
in that last battle on the heath of Gladsmoor,
when Warwick, its great representative-the
proud Baron —the "King maker"-fell, like a
huge tower, under the vigorous stroke of the
Merchant King.
"Ho! what a gigantic struggle was theregrander and more awful, says Bulwer, than all
individual interests, were those assigned to the
fortunes of this battle, so memorable in the Entglish annals; the ruin or fall of a dynasty, the fall
of that warlike Baronage of which Richard
Neville was the personation-the crowning flower-the greatest representative, and the last; associated with memories of turbulence and excess
it is true, but with the proudest and grandest
achievements in our history-with all such liberty as had been achieved since the Norman C onquest, with all such glory as made the island famous-here with Runnymede, and there with
Cressy-the rise of a crafty, plotting, imperious
despotism, based upon the growing sympathies
of craftsmen and traders; and ripening, on the
one hand, to the Tudor tyranny, the republican
reaction under the Stuarts, the slavery and the
civil war; but, on the other hand, to the concentration of all the vigor and life of genius into
a single strong government; the graces, the arts,
the letters of a polished Court; the freedom, the
energies, the resources of a commercial population, destined to ride above the tyranny at which
it had at first connived, and give to the emancipated Saxon the markets of the world."
Referring to our own country Mr. De Bow
most justly claims for her the proud supremacy
of the seas-not indeed as riding the waves with
the greatest navy, or boasting more guns than
the older governments of Europe, but as directing the keels of a thousand argosies upon missions of peaceful adventure, and effecting those
interchanges of products with distant climes,
which do more than treaties can ever accomplish,
to cultivate kindly relations among the many
branches of the human family. In this regard
we are confessedly the first nation on earth. Mr.
Burke and the ill-natured English tory magazine of our day admit our pre-eminence as
the carriers of the world. After alluding to the
amazing growth of New York and New Orleans
as the two great emporia of TRADE, Mr. De Bow
thus sums up the influence and importance of the
merchant classes:
"Whether for Britain, for France, or for Russia, for the South Seas and the Pacific, or for
Republican America, there is but one voice now,
and that cries for TRADE. Buy or sell are the
pregnant words in every language under heaven.
The Rialto is the centre of the world's negotiations. For this navies float upon the ocean-for
this grave embassies receive audience from the
Tamahamah of the Pacific, or talk Chinese with
the potentates of the Celestial Empire!
"Commerce is a natural guardian of the arts
and sciences. Under its influence the highest results have been stimulated. To what, for instance, can the astonishing progress and perfection to which astronomy has been carried be attributed, more than to the ever-arising wants of
navigation? The solution of the problem of the
latitudes and longitudes has been promised, at
284
Four New Addresses.
[MAY,