gation Act thus baneful to them, and watched its whole operation, with the keenness of resentment, animosity, and a sense of wrong, they must be supposed to be the very best authority in reference to its origin and history; and it was because they knew Downing to have been its contriver, as well as for some other, and better reasons, that they held his name in especial reproach. By considerations of general probability then; by the positive declaration of John Adams; and also the declaration of James Otis, made by the latter in a court of law, in a premeditated, elaborated, and most momentous argument—an argument in which the whole British colonial and maritime policy was thoroughly investigated-the American revolution depending upon the issue of the trial; by the confidence we feel that John Adams and James Otis could not have been mistaken on such a point; and by the certainty, from their manner of speaking, that they must have uttered the settled and universal sentiment and belief of the colonists, on a subject which was discussed and investigated, with the most minute, critical, and sensitive curiosity and perseverance, by every generation of New-England,-we are, it seems to us, all but compelled, by this accumulation of evidence both presumptive and positive, to the conclusion that George Downing not only procured the re-enactment, at the Restoration, but first suggested the introduction of the British colonial and commercial system, as contained in the Navigation Act of the Long Parliament.

While, in some other respects, the conduct of Sir George Downing may have impaired the glory of his name, let him have the credit that is his due. If he did devise the measure and the system under review, he must be allowed to have exerted an influence upon the course of human affairs such as but few individuals of our race have ever exerted. As citizens of the new world, we may take a natural and reasonable satisfaction in the thought, that the genius which put forth this mighty energy was kindled by a spark struck out in our American wilderness, and that old England was rescued from destruction, and placed in the path to power and glory, by one who was reared under a New England education, and sent forth among the first fruits of our most ancient college.

Before concluding this treatise, justice to the subject and to the reader require us, we think, to state, that the British colonial and commercial policy, as developed in the Navigation Act of 1651, is viewed by many eminent writers and statesmen with very different feelings from those with which we contemplate and have now presented it.

The system of policy which the act expressed and introduced, was always regarded with aversion and indignation by the North American colonies. It was restrictive, vexatious, and injurious to them, and as such they remonstrated against it until remonstrance was exhausted, and then they resisted it by force. It was, more than any thing else, the cause of the war of American independence. The system was necessary to the British empire, but it was oppressive to the colonies; and the colonies did right in resisting it by all peaceful means, and when such means failed, with the sword. For having made this resistance, they are entitled to the thanks of their posterity and of the world.

But it seems to us that, standing where we do, it becomes us to avoid, as far as possible, receiving from the generations that have preceded us the feelings and passions which we may even honor them the more for having experienced; to keep ourselves aloof from all bygone excitements

and controversies; to look at the collisions and movements of the past with calm indifference; and to explore the history of nations and of the race, exclusively, in such a point of light as to see reflected from them the wisdom of that Providence, which conducts his own beneficent designs towards their ultimate fulfilment, by employing and overruling the passions and devices of men and of governments, as well as the forces and laws of his physical creation. Events and transactions are to be contemplated in their general and comprehensive relations, and in their final issues. Looking back upon the critical state of England at the time when the Navigation Act was passed, it seems to us clear, that it was the dictate of the duty of self-preservation on the part of that nation to enforce it throughout her dominions. If it led to the discontents that resulted in the American revolution, what citizen of this free republic does not rejoice at it? And, as it determined the vibrating question, whether England or Holland should take the lead in shaping the destinies of the modern nations, surely no intelligent member of the human family can regret it. What a disastrous close would have been put upon the prospects of literature, liberty, and reform, had England been crowded out of existence, and the Dutch become undisputed and perpetual possessors of the world!

There was one fatal circumstance about the Dutch, which would have prevented any wide-spread benefit resulting from dominion exercised by them. They had no language-no native literature, that would have answered the ends of the necessary circulation of knowledge throughout an universal empire. The great minds of that nation spoke to the world, and to each other, in a tongue unknown to their countrymen. The wisdom of Grotius was deposited in a dead language. The private, familiar, epistolary correspondence between him and his learned countrymen, and among themselves, was conducted in the same language.* This was the case, too, even in their conversation. An anecdote is related of the late celebrated scholar, Ruhnkenius, which happily illustrates the poverty and barrenness of Dutch vernacular literature. Having been born in Pomerania, the German was his native language, which he lost in his long residence in Holland. He never acquired the Dutch, as it presented nothing to attract his notice, and he had no occasion to employ it either as an author, professor, or companion in the only circles in which he associated— those of learned and academical men. The consequence was, that this great linguist, in the last years of his life, could not speak any living language. His very thoughts run in Latin, which he wrote and spoke with perfect facility, and which became, as it were, his mother-tongue.t

In expressing satisfaction in the prevalence of England over Holland, it must not be supposed that we approve of all the proceedings of that nation in extending her empire. Her operations upon China, and in India, appear to be in conflict with the great principles of righteousness and benevolence. All other nations have a common interest in checking that abuse of her naval power to which her commanders are prone. It becomes this country, in particular, to watch her movements, and resist her attempts to impair the protection of our flag at sea, or to encroach upon our soil. The political writers and statesmen of Great Britain have taken pains to awaken and keep alive the most unnatural sentiments of ill-will, in their gov

* "Præstantium ac eruditorum vivorum Epistolæ." Amsterdam, 1704. + North American Review, vol. xii. p. 12.

ernment and among their people, towards this country, which ought to be regarded with a sort of maternal pride, love, and gratification, by England. It is due to that spirit of independence, self-respect, and freedom, which we have derived as a most precious patrimony from our mother-country, to protect ourselves from the effects of her hostility or her disrespect, and to compel her to relinquish her unjust claims upon our territory, and to abstain from interference with our lawful commerce in all parts of the world. If we thus vigilantly and resolutely guard our own rights from her grasp, we may contemplate with composure the mighty strides she is now making towards universal dominion; and we may rejoice that, if the lust of empire, of wealth, or of glory, is permitted to send forth fleets and armies to subjugate the world, these passions are developed in a nation which, wherever she carries her arms, necessarily carries with them the best of arts, laws, institutions, and a spirit of liberty, which must finally bless her subject provinces more than her ambition, her avarice, or her pride, can curse them.

It is owing to the Navigation Act, that Great Britain has been enabled to make the unparalleled approaches she is now making towards universal empire. The operation of that act has made her the selected nation to spread civilization and Christianity, by spreading her conquests and her settlements over the globe. It has done more for her, than Alexander, or Cæsar, or Napoleon, were able to do for Greece, or Rome, or France. That legislative enactment has proved mightier than armies. It rescued the earth from the benumbing clutch of Holland, and has made England the wonder of the modern nations. By its gradual operation, it has imparted to her a maritime and commercial strength, which has enabled her securely to plant her colonies, and with her colonies, her literature, liberties, and religion, all over the globe. Proceeding from that

"Pale, that white-fac'd shore

"Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring tides,"

these inestimable blessings, all wrapped up as they are in the English language, have thus been communicated to every quarter of the earth. That language will be spoken, not only in the British realm, but at length throughout the world. It is already established, here and there, over the whole map of the globe. North America is secured to it; so is the vast continent of New-Holland. It will pervade Hindostan, and ascend the Ganges to Central Asia. It is, at this moment, planting itself on the shores of China. It is fixed at the Southern extremity of Africa, is spreading around its entire western coast, under the auspices of American and British colonization, and will soon be made, by the sway of British commercial enterprise and national ambition, to penetrate to the mysterious recesses of that mighty continent. It is lodged within the impregnable bulwarks of Gibraltar and Malta on the southern borders of Europe, and is scattered by innumerable British and American travellers and merchants over the entire surface of the civilized nations. Throughout the Pacific and Indian oceans the same language is everywhere obtaining a foothold.*

* The substance of this treatise, particularly the view here given of the probable universal diffusion of the English language, as one of the final results of the Navigation Act, was first presented to the public, in the form of a lecture, in 1836. It was gratify. ing to find the same view, by a different and entirely unknown writer, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, CCLXXV, Sept. 1838, p. 318. "Whatever objection," says the

Not

But the most beautiful and beneficent operation of the policy of the Navigation Act remains to be mentioned. While it secures to one language universal diffusion, it has prevented any one nation's ever obtaining universal dominion. It provides, at once, for the extension and the dismemberment of the British empire. By its severe pressure upon the North American colonies, and its vexatious restrictions upon their trade, it kept alive and nourished that spirit of discontent which finally exploded in the American revolution, a precedent, which, when the hour of matu rity comes, will be surely followed by the other vast provinces of the British empire. This result cannot be avoided, for its energetic causes are contained in the spirit of liberty and independence enshrined in the English language, institutions, and laws. Why does the philosopher and philanthropist delight to contemplate the American revolution? because it led to the establishment of certain particular forms of government in these United States; but for more comprehensive and worldembracing reasons. A phenomenon never before witnessed is now exhibited. The same language is spoken by two of the first-rate powers of the world. That language unites them by a bond that can never be broken, which rests not on treaties, and which war itself cannot sever. England and the United States sit over against each, in either hemisphere, and by their commercial enterprise, and naval power, the ascendancy of the English language, and of the great principles of representative government, liberty, law, and religion, it contains, is secured. It is spreading and will ever continue to spread, gathering islands and continents in its grasp, and conveying the spirit of freedom, the light of science and truth, and the sacred flame of Christian love and piety to every nook and corner of the habitable globe.

And while the language of England is thus becoming more and more diffused, her power to oppress the world will, at the same time, gradually be reduced by the successive emergence of her colonies to independence. The United States have led the way. All North America will soon follow. In due season New Holland will join in the august procession of continents advancing to secure and enjoy the blessings of rational systems of selfgovernment, of equitable laws, of regulated liberty, and of pure Christianity. In the dim distance of future centuries we behold Africa and Asia coming forth from the darkness of ignorance, and from the degradation of superstition and despotism, and we hear them proclaiming from all their vast regions, in one voice, and that our own native tongue, their grateful enjoyment of the social, political, moral, and religious privileges which have been bestowed upon us. But the vision of a world recovered from the confusion of Babel, and merged into one united, free, enlightened, happy, and virtuous brotherhood, is too glorious, grand, and sublime, for our faculties of description or of imagination to delineate. While we relinquish the attempt, we may rest in the reflection, that it is not a creation of the vain fancy of man, but the sure promise of God.

writer, "may be stated on theory to this system, [the Navigation Laws of Great Britain,] there can be no question that experience has demonstrated its practical expediency, as it had raised the British naval and colonial power, in no very long period, from inconsiderable beginnings to an unparalleled state of grandeur and power, and laid the fouDdation for the inevitable spread of the British race and language through every quarter of the habitable globe."

ART. II.-THE SOCIAL INFLUENCE OF TRADE,

AND THE DANGERS AND DUTIES OF THE MERCANTILE CLASSES.'

*

I HAVE selected for the subject of our consideration this evening, the Social Influence of Trade, and the Dangers and Duties of the Mercantile Classes. The subject, though lying somewhat apart from the studies of my profession, has always to me been peculiarly attractive. The influences of trade are so interwoven with the history of mankind, with the progression, civilization, physical comfort, and moral condition of the race, that they meet the student and the philanthropist at every turn, and solicit from him, if he have any philosophical curiosity, a thorough investigation into the science of the production, the distribution, and consumption of wealth. The history of trade and of war is in substance the history of mankind. They have constituted almost the only intercourse of nations, and the lust of gain and of conquest, have both been made use of by an overruling Providence to subdue and civilize mankind, and to spread Art, Science, and Plenty into all lands. The merchant, while planning the distant voyage to some barbarous coast, with no higher purpose than to increase his wealth, and the general leading his forces into the wilderness where no civilized foot has trod, are equally the instruments in the hands of a higher Power of ministering to the gradual improvement of the world.

Trade has been the great means of civilizing and, improving mankind, because it is the first thing which rouses them from the indolence and apathy of savage life. Show to man some comfort or luxury which he can obtain by the exchange of the fruits of his toil, and he will no longer be all day dozing in the shade, while his wife provides for him a miserable subsistence. He is up with the dawn, and the hope of gain stimulates his activity to latest eve. In short, he is a savage no longer. Trade touches him with her magic wand, and transforms him into a new creature. She cleanses him from his filth and negligence, she clothes him in seemly and decent apparel, she spreads out his little garden into a wide plantation, and in the end, transforms his hut into a palace. And it is no less indispensable to the support of a high civilization than it is in its production. In short, it is to the welfare of mankind what the circulation is to the body, its life and health. Any obstruction of it is disease—a total cessation of it, paralysis and death.

Trade has ministered to the good of mankind in ways innumerable, by being the chief instrument in the accumulation of wealth. Wealth is not that private and exclusive good which some suppose. It is a common fund, even when in private hands, for the benefit of all. Trade contributes to its accumulation in two ways, in stimulating industry and production to the greatest extent, by keeping all who are able to labor employed; and then by drawing even a moderate profit from each, it swells the income of the factor beyond all reasonable demands of expenditure. If the merchant did not become rich, half his social utility would be destroyed. That

A lecture delivered before the Mercantile Library Association of Baltimore, by the Rev. G. W. BURNAP, and now first published in the Merchants' Magazine, by request

of the Association.