To remark, how little we are removed, in point of time, from the very epoch of our infancy in the scientific arts, as well as in some other attainments; when canals were first projected in Pennsylvania, to unite the rivers Susquehanna, Schuylkill, and Delaware, a gentleman was sent for from England, expressly to carry on the works. They were commenced; but it only served to prove that the country was not then mature for such undertakings, as, after the expenditure of a large sum of money, the project was dropped.

Only thirty years and some months have elapsed since that gentleman came over from England, to assist us; and at the present day it is certain, were a call to be made on us (allowing the supposition) to return the service in kind-it is certain, I say, that we could do it with great facility, and perhaps with no small credit to that department of the country's acquired practical knowledge. Engineers and Architects are numerous in the United States; men of acknowledged talent, uniting science with practical and successful business. Our bridges are, some of them, perhaps

not unworthy to be admired, as models for imitation, in almost any country. In short, let there be but a call made for the exercise of skill upon any object, through a vast range of ingenuity, particularly mechanical and of the useful, and I believe, an occasional reference to the office of our much respected friend at Washington, and inspection into some of its contents,* would be sufficient to bear me out in saying, it can almost instantly be supplied. You are of course no stranger to the character of Mr. Perkins's establishment in London, and perhaps know something intimately of his new discoveries in steam. Col. Fairman, a connexion in the engraving line, might formely be known to you in Philadelphia.

But, if the concurrent progress and diffusion of useful science, with the growth of this country in population and settlement of territory within so short a period, be very remarkable, the rapid increase of her capital to its present extent, it must be allowed, is as much or more so; for there can be no doubt it is to this very occurrence, that the nation's other acquisitions are in a great degree attributable. The disproportionate increase of wealth, whatever the amount of that disproportion was, which so favourably influenced our situation in other respects, may be traced to that lucrative course of foreign trade al

*This collection now forms an immense national museum of the arts, and presents a most interesting spectacle.

ready spoken of; which was prosecuted during some years of the period, and was such, in regard to extent of profit, as may not again occur; these United States having become, for a while, carriers, in a great measure, to the belligerent world, and having besides, the raw productions of her soil raised to an excessive price in the markets of Europe and elsewhere.

Capital, or in other words, available riches, whether for the purposes of agriculture, commerce, or manufactures, the general comforts of society, or the political strength and aggrandizement of the nation, must of necessity accumulate, in some degree or other, in any free state, where industry is duly exerted, even although the advantages of an external commerce should happen to be entirely wanting, until such time as the population becomes excessive, or beyond the soil's capability of furnishing to its numbers the means of sustentation and the other enjoyments. If the state possesses also a foreign commerce, her field of industry is widened, and her prosperity accelerated, according to the extent and opportunities of the same. With regard to the United States, as her foreign commerce at the epoch alalluded to, was great, and the opportunities which it afforded, almost, if not quite, beyond any example, so it may confidently be affirmed, that she realized a considerable excess of wealth, over and above that which would naturally have accrued to her from equally industrious exertions, had the times and sea

sons continued merely as before. And thus the nation was indebted, for the excess, to an accidental occurrence. On the other hand, a war of two years and a half with Great Britain, which was also an accidental occurrence, operated for the time it lasted, to check the accumulation of wealth, and carry us backward. In what degree or proportion we retrograded I do not decide; but we acquired, as a nation, some profitable knowledge and experience, even from that occurrence; in particular, a much more intimate acquaintance than we had before, with ourselves and the resources of our interior. Our strength too, having become great, and our stock been enlarged and multiplied, we could well spare something out of our abundance,

The population of the United States, it is reasonable to suppose, will about maintain the same proportional advancement as of late, for many years to come; the natural effect of industry and capital, employed upon lands selected out of a superabundance, furnishing an easy subsistence to the cultivator. So that by this condition of the country, population and agriculture will necessarily increase together, and probably their respective increments will be nearly proportional. The latter however, i. e. agriculture, will so regulate itself, that, in articles serving for food, the quantity produced will always be proportioned to the country's wants, together with such superfluity as any foreign demand can carry off. And, as to the raw materials for manufacture, whenever the quantity produced of these shall become excessive, so that an adequate price for the whole can no longer be obtained in the markets abroad, we shall then, notwithstanding, go on to produce those articles, and increase their amount, as before, by bringing successively into service, fresh increases to our lands under cultivation: but, from that moment, it is evident,