fort, and its value, a further active allurement to the clerks, to the public, and to strangers. We are glad to say that in this great object, the four associations we have referred to, have all met with the best success, having now, or being in course of providing, buildings every way worthy of their occupation.

The management of the Mercantile Library Associations is, like that of other associations, formed for corresponding purposes. In that of New York, the direction is entirely in the hands of the clerks, and they are about withdrawing entirely from the guardianship of the Clinton Hall Association, which seems no longer needed. We know no association composed of older men that is more creditably managed; their patrons seem to have the fullest confidence in their ability and discretion. The funds are well administered, and all their financial and other transactions are yearly exhibited in a printed report of much interest, and drawn up in a business-like manner. The reports are closely scanned by the members, and if any fault, real or supposed, is detected, the government speedily is made aware of the state of opinion thereto relating. We regret that the failure to receive the reports of the Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston Mercantile Library Associations, prevents us from giving several particulars in regard to those institutions.

none.

The management of the society's affairs by the clerks is a means of teaching them order, dignity, self-respect, business tact, and some aptitude even for political or other office. The disputes and collisions which sometimes occur, are not, if kept within limits, altogether undesirable. The exercise is much better calculated than the twaddling debates of the academy to sharpen the faculties. It has life, energy, and reality, where they have The contests for officers, so lively at least in the New York society, are not a fault, if the excitement is not allowed to run to an unreasonable extent. The control of revenues and property so considerable, gives a sense of responsibility, one of those things which it is most essential should be contracted, if it is to be had at all, while young. Caution is nourished, and the ambition of acting so as to gain the approbation of their benefactors and friends, is stimulated. The encouragement of these high motives and propensities is far better than any plan of securing the benefits of the superior wisdom of older councils; and the guardianship, therefore, which was well enough when the project was more doubtful, should now be, as far as possible, removed. In many places, however, where these institutions may be essayed, perhaps in most, it may be impracticable to conduct them at all, without giving to the merchants interested in them an active membership, as well as the clerks.

The terms of admission to the Mercantile Library Associations, are such as to place their advantages within the reach of the humblest clerk. To that of New York the initiation fee is One Dollar, and the same amount for the first six months; afterwards, fifty cents quarterly, in advance. Any member commencing business on his own account, may continue his membership by paying One Dollar semi-annually, in advance. Merchants may obtain a partial membership, having no votes, and being ineligible to office, by paying Five Dollars annually. Others may be admitted to the Library and Reading-room on the same terms. To the Boston Mercantile Library Association, full membership may be acquired by any person in mercantile pursuits, on payment of Two Dollars annually. In that of St. Louis, any person in mercantile pursuits may become a member, clerks paying Two

Dollars initiation fee, and seventy-five cents quarterly, in advance, and proprietors, Five Dollars for initiation, and Two Dollars and fifty cents semiannually, in advance: these may vote and become officers also. Others,

by paying Two Dollars and fifty cents semi-annually, in advance, become beneficiary members, having no vote and being ineligible to office. About one-third the members are merchant-proprietors, and nearly two-thirds are proprietors and beneficiaries.

All the reports represent the condition of the institutions respectively as exceedingly flattering, although there have been hard struggles on the part of some in times past. All are now established fixtures of their several cities-a part, as it were, of the municipal corporeity. For the past year their success has been more than ordinary. The number of members be longing to each of them; the total number added, and the net increase of the last year; the amount expended for books last year; the number of books added, and the total number of volumes belonging to the libraries; the receipts in net from lectures; and the total receipts and expenditure of the year,―were as given below:

According to the financial statements given, they are all clear of debt, making it a principle to pay as they go, and have balances of greater or less amount in the treasury.

The New York Association invested $1,500 from the proceeds of the last course of lectures; that of Boston, invested $1,650 from the same source, which increased their former amount of $17,600, invested in Railroad and Bank Stocks, to $19,250. The total property of the St. Louis Association is stated at $14,621 25, of which $11,270 22 is the value of the library.

But the most remarkable evidence of their increased prosperity, utility, and future prospects, is found in the general movement among them regarding new buildings. Inconvenience from the want of room is mentioned in all these reports as a very serious evil at present existing, or as having been just remedied.

The New York report complains of their present Lecture, Library, and Class rooms at Clinton Hall, as altogether inefficient for the purpose. Over $10,000 was paid by them for the use of larger halls last year, for the lectures. In the Library, order cannot be maintained in the arrangement of the books, and enough for a library by themselves are stowed away in the garret. The Reading-room suffers in like degree, and in the geographical department there is no room to display the maps, charts, &c. Feeling that the time has come for a new arrangement, the Mercantile Library Associa tion have resolved to dispense with their connection with the guardian society, assume an independent position, and take a location up town, to which quarter they are impelled by the same movement of population which is carrying so many other institutions and organized bodies of different kinds in that direction. For this purpose they have purchased the Astor Place Opera House, where they will find room abundant for all their uses for

some years to come. Under these advantages, the expansion, which has been necessarily contracted in many respects by the existing evils of compression, which have been felt in some degree ever since 1840, will attain its full development, and we may expect hereafter a rapidity of growth and improvement hitherto entirely unapproached.

The Boston Association have found their present rooms entirely inadequate every department feels the restriction. But they will not be behind in providing for future accommodation. They are about to erect an edifice for their own exclusive use, located in a central part of the city, and to cost $50,000 or $60,000. Before commencing the project they thought it advisable to raise the small sum of $15,000 by subscription, of which amount, at the date of the report, $9,000 had been contributed by the merchants of Boston. Of course, the erection of the building may be regarded as secured.

The Young Men's Mercantile Library Association of Cincinnati, through cash investments when the building was erected, is the owner of the entire front second floor of the Cincinnati College edifice, lease free of rent in perpetuity. They have therein a Library room and Reading-room, each 45 by 60 feet, the library-room being shelved for 20,000 volumes, and accommodation capable of indefinite extension. The reading-room is shelved on one end for 1,500 volumes of bound newspapers, of which there are at present above 100 volumes. The arrangements are excellent and elegant. The present convenience has been attained by refitting and remodeling the rooms, in a series of improvements carried on during the last two years at an expense of $8,680, the funds for which were furnished by the merchants of Cincinnati for life memberships of $50 each.

The St. Louis Mercantile Library Association was started only six years ago with nothing, and was not incorporated until February, 1851; and before 1852, with 700 members and 7,000 volumes, it, with the rest, found its old rooms too contracted, although an enlargement had just been effected. In the same year, 1851, a start was made of the project for a new building belonging to the society itself. A capital stock of $45,000 being subscribed, an eligible building site was purchased at a cost of $25,500, to pay which 25 per cent of the subscription was called for. The building at that time designed to be erected, and probably now in progress, if not finished, was to be 105 by 127 feet, of four stories hight, built of bricks, and in the Italian style. The united size of the Library and Reading rooms, in the second story, was to be 80 by 64 feet. There was to be a lecture-room in the second story, 80 by 44 feet, and a grand hall in the third story, 105 by 80 feet, the largest, and probably the finest hall in the whole West. In the fourth story were to be a gallery of arts, 53 by 67 feet, and rooms for other purposes. The cost of the building was estimated at $70,000, or, with the ground, $95,000. It was proposed, in order to complete the project, to enlarge the subscribed stock to $100,000, and up to January, 1852, $70,000 of the total amount had been subscribed, leaving the success of the plan quite beyond doubt. All the profits derived from the property above six per cent, (ten per cent is the estimated return,) are to inure to the use of the association. It is estimated that in twenty-five years' time, they will have repaid the whole capital stock, and will then come themselves into unincumbered possession of a real estate property to the value of $100,000, and yielding an annual income of $10,000, which, added to an estimated

E

receipt from membership of $5,000, will afford an annual revenue of $15,000. But this may be calculating rather too much in advance.

The progress of the Mercantile Library Association of St. Louis is certainly most remarkable. "What an illustrious consummation of a work begun only six years ago!" is the proper expression of the directors in their annual report. Truly, the West has a just estimate of the advantages of education and of literature, and they are somewhat ambitious withal. What if some of our Eastern cities, priding themselves so much upon their institutions, and so patronizing toward all self-improving efforts of the ruder West, should wake up some morning and find it recorded in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, that the Mercantile Library Association of St. Louis maintains the leading, or at least the second rank among all such institutions of the country?

We shall, at other times, take notice of the progress of the Mercantile Library Associations of the country, and so far as we have the power, advertise their benefits to the community at large, and especially to those to whose peculiar advantage they primarily refer. We wish to see their influence extended, until one leading idea in the plan of every young man coming from country to city in search of a clerkship, shall be before starting, to attach himself at once to a Mercantile Library Association. In doing this, he would provide himself with one of the most efficient preservatives against the many temptations to which the country youth is exposed in the city, and would afford to his friends at the old home, one of the best guaranties that could be given of his own prudent behavior, and of his eventual quali fication to assume, in the new home, a position of usefulness, respectability, and honor.

Art. IV. TRAITS OF TRADE-LAUDABLE AND INIQUITOUS.

CHAPTER IX.

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT,

In reviewing the course of trade for the last five hundred years, one cannot but admire the spirit of liberality which has occasionally been shown towards the Merchant. One case in point occurs in England during the reign of Edward III., which has hardly been surpassed in our own progressive age. An old letter has been preserved by Hakluyt, which was given by the ministers of this venerable monarch, written in several languages, and addressed to "all kings, princes, and persons in authority." An extract of extraordinary interest is as follows: "If it be right and equity to show humanity to all men, doubtless the same ought chiefly to be showed to merchants, who, wandering about the world, search both the land and the sea, to carry such good and profitable things as are found in their countries, to remote regions and kingdoms, and again to bring from the same such things as they find there, commodities as their countries bring not forth to them, as also that they may be partakers of such things whereof they abound. For the God of heaven and earth, greatly providing for mankind, would not that all things should be found in one region, to the end that one should have need of another; that by this means friendship might be established among all men, and every one seek to gratify all."

The very quintessence of a Christian Commerce is contained in this brief extract. Had such a spirit been ever since enforced and perpetuated, the whole world would have been vastly more advanced in wealth and civilization.

But yet the contrast afforded by two hundred years is marvelous in the extreme. The merchant is no longer a wandering wayfarer, who must buy the favor of "all kings, princes, and persons in authority!" On the waters, every latitude from frozen north to the unknown regions of the south, and every longitude on the globe is whitened by the sails of ships that excel in fleetness the summer's cloud. Huge steamers, setting winds and waves at defiance, are rushing in all directions over the briny waters, and penetrating every river, bay, and inland lake. On the land, roads of iron are stretched across continents, spanning the rivers, tunneling the mountains, from sea to sea. Thereon, with a speed far more than fabulous, belching forth flames and smoke, "the horses of fire and chariots of fire" unite the scattered villages in an unbroken street, and make the great forests appear like the edges of paradisiacal gardens.

Shall the question now be asked: "Canst thou send the lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are?" The lightnings are literally chained and at the service of man. It would now be no surprising feat to "girdle the earth in forty minutes'" time-really nothing extraordinary to girdle it in forty minutes less than no time. Cities in different climates, and with seas between, report each other's traffic at noon, and hearken to the murmur of each other's hourly moods and momentary impulses. The statesman rises to speak, and his eloquence, clear and strong, penetrates space with the rapidity of thought, and his words have gone to the ends of the earth as soon as they have fallen from his lips.

Does drouth parch the broad fields of a nation, and famine stalk forth to devour its people, a thousand ships laden with plenty speed their way on their errand of mercy, and the monster is kept at bay. Is a country stifled with population, and torn with Chartist riots, and perplexed with the problems of industry and poverty, broad Ophirs appear at the antipodes, and the transit to peace, plenty, and freedom, is rapid and relieving. The transmission of people, products, intelligence, customs, ideas, interests, is now the prevailing practice of the age. Civilization is every where seeking a common level. A place for the superfluous fruits, labor, leisure, and talent, is the demand.

The locomotive spirit of Commerce drives savage life away from its haunts, or absorbs it to usefulness and progress. Imbecility is prostrated and overrun. Action, intense action, teems in all the arteries of social life. Every grade and quality of genius is inspired to greater achievements. Servitude, unpaid, unwilling servitude, must disappear. A new heart is given to labor, and it lifts up the spirit and ennobles the man.

“Two men I honor, and no third. First, the toilworn craftsman, that with earth-made implement laboriously conquers the earth and makes her man's. Venerable to me is the hard hand; crooked, coarse; therein, notwithstanding, lies a cunning virtue, indefeasibly royal, as of the scepter of this planet. Venerable too is the rugged face, all weather-tanned, besoiled with its rude intelligence; for it is the face of a man living manlike. Oh, but the more venerable for thy rudeness, and even because we must pity as well as love thee! Hardly entreated brother! For us was thy back bent, or us were thy straight limbs and fingers so deformed. Thou went our