perfectly safe and lawful way of killing the time, which, day by day, he found hanging on his hands. He had noticed, in his walks, a lawyer's office, and sitting within it, a quiet, demure-looking little man, with his chin on his hand, and spectacles on his nose. That place,'

said Jerry, to himself, must be a sanctuary; if I could but scrape an acquaintance there, it would be a great thing; it would be so interesting to hear him talk; lawyers know every thing, and a little more, they say; and may be he has nothing else to do.'

An opportunity soon offered. Having nothing else to do, Jerry endorsed a note for a neighbor, and in due time, much to his astonishment, was notified that the holder looked to him for payment.' He stepped into the little lawyer, to take advice. He found him poring over an old parchment deed, which he had slipped out of the drawer, into which he slipped the novel he was reading, as Jerry entered. A retaining fee, the advice required, which was, of course, to defend himself against the claim to the last extremity, and a familiar chat of an hour, completely broke the ice; and thenceforward, Jerry made the attorney's office a regular morning lounge. It was quite pleasant; the attorney was an agreeable little man; an agreeable pair of black eyes occasionally peered through a glass door, which divided the office from an adjoining sitting-room. An introduction to a pair of sisters, who formed part of the household establishment, soon followed; and as the attorney sometimes had a client, Jerry, who had nothing else to do, now and then strayed into the family apartment.

One day he was sitting in the attorney's office, as usual. The parchment deed lay upon the table; the spectacles were thrown back upon the forehead; and Mr. Coke, addressing himself very kindly to his friend, opened the following discourse:

Well, Jerry, my boy, when is it to come off?'

"Come off? what come off?'

'Oh, the wedding! It's no joking matter with me, I assure you. Tabby, I understand, is going to leave me! Ah, you sly dog! Why did n't you take my advice, eh?'

Jerry was thunder-struck!

The attorney proceeded. Never mind; I forgive you; you might have done worse, though I say it, who should not say it. Sharp fellow! little puss! Her ring on your finger! (There it was; how it came there, heaven knew, not Jerry ;) yours on hers. Well, the sooner the better, eh!'

To make the story short, Jerry' was into it.' He had nothing else to do, so they took him and married him; and the last time I went that way, the lawyer's office was in Jerry's front parlor; the rest of the family occupied the remaining part; and a couple of spoiled urchins kept the nursery in an uproar. I saw him afterward in the market, haggling for fish. 'Jerry,' said I, 'I'm glad to see you; how do you get along, now-a-days?'

'Bad enough!'

Howa wife, children, dog, cats; cupids, a brother-in-law, and nothing else to do?'

'Hush!' said he, with a tear in his eye; 'I'll be darned if I would n't rather go back to old Peeler, and learn to spell SERINGAPANTAM !'

P.

L I N ES

TO A

VERY DEAR FRIEND, WITH A PLAIN COPY OF BRYANT'S POEMS.

We have seen, in a former number, the influence of commerce upon mankind at large; upon the entire human race, in its collective form. If we now direct our thoughts to mankind, as divided into separate communities, or nations, we shall find that influence not less marked and operative. The discovery has not long beeu made, but it is made at last, that the real source of national prosperity, greatness, and

power, is the once contemned pursuit of commerce. Even rulers and monarchs, although generally the last to abandon errors, and to perceive great moral truths, have begun to entertain the idea that the power of an empire is not exclusively in its armies; that increase of territory, by conquest, is not prosperity; and that successful warfare is not glory. It is not probable that the civilized world will ever again produce a Napoleon, or civilized nations again engage in such a frightful series of butcheries and desolations as were the fruits of his ambition. The knowledge that the business of mankind, is to create, and not destroy, has slowly travelled upward, from the workshop of the mechanic, and the ware-house of the merchant to the study of the philosopher, the cabinet of the statesman, and the councilchamber of the king.

It is time, indeed, that this great truth were universally acknowledged, for history has been teaching it these thousand years, in the successive rise and fall of empires. Of the great nations of antiquity, we find that the most rapid growth in power and prosperity, belonged to the most commercial; as Phoenicia, Carthage, and Egypt; and that when they fell, their ruin came not from within, but from the fierce assaults of enemies, superior in power. Their great

, ness had in itself the elements of duration; and although they were stricken down by the overbearing might of military dominations, it was not until after long and strenuous resistance, with numbers far inferior, proving the vigor and soundness of the principles on which their national existence had its foundation. The military empires, on the contrary, with the exception of Rome, were of short and uncertain duration. They had within themselves the seeds of dissolution, and crumbled into ruins with a rapidity of destruction generally commensurate with the celerity of their elevation. Even Rome itself was no exception to the rule, save only in the long continuance of its greatness; a greatness founded on the valor and warlike temper of its people, which every new conquest tended to diminish, by The introduction of luxurious habits, and the increase of means for their indulgence, gained by the robbery and plunder of the conquered. А

power

erected on such foundations could not be permanent. Its growth was unnatural, and at length it fell to pieces, as so many other warlike empires had done before it, through the influence of causes inherent in its elevation. The Romans, the Macedonians, the Assyrians, the Persians, all the conquest-seeking nations of antiquity, were mere robbers. They aimed at riches and dominion by the strong arm, and the rapacious spirit; and with the very attainment of their ends, the strong arm grew weak, and their illgotten wealth became the instrument of their destruction. The Carthaginians and Phænicians, and every other commercial people, grew in strength and prosperity with a wholesome and vigorous increase. The wealth they acquired was won by toil, and enterprise, and perseverance, and brought with it increase of knowledge and intelligence; and if they fell at last, they fell nobly, after a long and gallant defence, not by enervation and effeminacy, but by the enormous disparity of force against which they contended.

But without looking more deeply into the causes of ancient prosperity or ruin, as to which we labor under much uncertainty, by reason of the insufficient accuracy and fulness of historical record, we shall find abundant demonstration of our position, in those courses of events which approach nearer to ourselves in point of time, and of which we have fuller and more definite information. In the modern history of nations, then, we cannot fail to be struck with the manifest agency

of commerce, in the creation of national wealth and power; for wherever we find commercial activity and enterprise existing in vigor, we also find national strength and influence exhibited in a high degree; and a decline of this commercial activity immediately followed by a corresponding decadence of population and resources. Look at the states of Italy, for instance - Venice, Tuscany, the Florentine republic, Genoa, and the rest. Time was, when, despite their narrow territorial limits, they stood foremost among the nations in wealth and power; carrying on a most extensive commerce, their ships were found in every sea; their flags were respected,

their political influence was paramount, and their great men were proud to bear the title of merchant-princes. But in process of time they neglected the real sources of their power; their rulers began to assume more exclusively the character of princes, and to lay aside that of merchants; they engaged in wars of aggression; and with all this, permitting themselves to be rivalled in their trade by other nations, they descended very quickly to the miserable state of poverty and impotence in which they now exist. Spain, too, once the most commercial country in the world, was also one of the most prosperous and powerful. But in an evil hour the discovery of Columbus laid open to the Spaniards the delusive wealth of Peru and Mexico; and from merchants they became conquerors and robbers. They sought to gain riches by the sword, and ruin followed the accomplishment of their insane desire. Alike in its result, although different in its immediate character, is the evidence afforded by the empire of China. With a territory of immense extent and remarkable fertility; with a dense population, and amply provided with materials and facilities for large and profitable commerce; the genius of their government and of their political institutions has forbidden the Chinese to engage actively in foreign trade, and made them present the singular spectacle of a people refusing to participate in advantages which other nations are appropriating daily before their eyes; resisting the evidence of their own senses, and obstinately rejecting all the admonitions of experience. Their port of Canton, the only one which their jealous government opens to the ships of foreigners, is crowded with vessels from the remotest regions of the earth; yet they send out none; and even the trade which they permit, is so hampered with vexatious and absurd restrictions, that a very large portion of it is carried on clandestinely, and in defiance of laws that only serve to corrupt the people, and show the contemptible imbecility of the government that has the folly to enact, without the power to enforce. In truth, the whole commercial system of China appears to have been framed with the express design to discourage native commerce, by giving the utmost trouble to those who pursue it fairly and openly, and furnishing the strongest possible temptations to foreign smugglers; and we know that such has been the effect. The consequence is, that for centuries China has made no progress in civilization or power; and that, notwithstanding its vast population, and great natural advantages, it is at this moment one of the very weakest and most helpless of all empires; indebted for its existence, in its present form, and for such tranquillity as it enjoys, not to its own ability to defend itself, but simply to the forbearance of more powerful nations; arising partly from their sense of justice, partly from their mutual jealousy, but more than all, probably, from the obvious consideration that, teased and harassed as it is by the 'vermilion edicts' of the emperor, and the bombastic repetitions of the pang and the hoppo, the trade is more profitable now, to foreign nations, than it would be if placed on a different footing, by a change in the constitution and policy of the government.

We might enlarge upon this branch of the proofs in support of our position; taking the instance of every kingdom and country in the world, and showing that its wealth, power, and influence bear a direct ratio to its commerce; but the enumeration would occupy too much space,

and we limit ourselves to the two most commercial nations of the earth, Great Britain and the United States ; each presenting, but in a different way, the most striking and remarkable illustration of the principle for which we are contending. In the first, we behold one of the greatest powers, occupying the very

first rank among the nations, and until very recently holding a sort of recognized supremacy upon the ocean, without any one natural advantage which should secure to it this amplitude of power and dominion. A mere island, of such narrow limits, compared with the other great powers of Europe, that in territorial extent it holds almost the very lowest place; unfavorably situated, at the corner, as it were, of the eastern hemisphere; with a climate very far from delightful, and a soil, fertile indeed, but extremely limited in the range of its productions ; without forests for shipping, or mines of any thing except tin and coal; with scarcely any streams affording water power for the driving of machinery; and, in short, as little indebted to nature for the elements of prosperity and greatness, as the least potential of the petty kingdoms; this small island has for centuries taken the lead of all the world in activity, population, wealth, power, influence, and even splendor; laying every quarter of the globe, every land and every sea, under contribution; wielding the sceptre of dominion over an empire, that, like the tricksy spirit of Shakspeare, ‘ puts a girdle round about the earth, and giving laws to millions upon millions of every race and language under heaven. It boasts a navy, which, until within the last twenty years, was greater than those of all the other

powers united, and more than once has maintained long and successful war, single-handed, not only against the most powerful and warlike of the continental powers, but against several of them in combination ; and finally, in its last and greatest struggle, it was able to resist, and ultimately to overcome, the greatest soldier of modern times, before whose power all the other kingdoms of Europe had gone down in succession, and whose vast armies at one time included legions from almost every nation between the Baltic and the Mediterranean, the Atlantic ocean and the continent of Asia.

Such is the power of England; and the wealth by which it is supported is of the same gigantic measure.

And this wealth and power are the immediate fruit of commerce. By commerce, the latter is acquired, and the former is sustained ; and so long as the commercial supremacy of England is kept up, so long will that little island continue to be the first among nations the arbiter of empires, and the wonder of mankind.

The illustration afforded by our own country is not less remarkable, although of a somewhat different nature. The amazing influence of commerce upon the growth of nations is exemplified in our history, not by overcoming disadvantages, but by the astonishing rapidity of its operation. We have every thing desirable or necessary for the attainment of prosperity and power. Immense extent of territory, , unsurpassed fertility of soil, inexhaustible variety of productions, abundant forests, navigable rivers, mines of coal, iron, copper, lead,

VOL. XIV.

16