of intellectual improvement upon the condition of men and of nations. Profound and general in its nature as the subject is, the observations upon it are, nevertheless, remarkable for their truth, perspicuity, and philosophical justness of conception, presenting to the mind a multitude of instructive results or conclusions, the fruit of enlarged study and a comprehensive understanding.

These orations belong to a class of writing, which is, we apprehend, peculiar in a great degree to our country. Many of the finest compositions, which our literature can boast, the most beautiful and highly-wrought in language, the most learned and profound in argument, are found among the orations written for public celebrations and anniversary festivals, and pronounced before large popular assemblies.

The fact is pregnant with important consequences. How remarkable is it, even regarded in the most limited view, as confined to the vast number of admirable religious discourses, which are continually proceeding from our pulpits,-not designed only for a few critical ears, not composed for the gratification of kings or courts, nor couched in the accents of courtly adulation,but prepared for the weekly instruction of the whole mass of the people indiscriminately, conceived in the spirit of gospel liberty, and aimed at the vices and corruptions of mankind with all that independence of expostulation and inquiry, which the institutions of a free country encourage and sanction. These alone are powerful engines of public good in the hands of upright ministers of religion. Their operation is discernible in all the conduct, manners, and opinions of the community. We insist less, however, upon this part of the argument, because wherever the blessing of cultivated reason extends, in every clime which the circling sun beams upon in his diurnal journey, and under whatsoever diversified form of devotion the pious feelings of various nations are developed, there, in some shape, are the great universal maxims of religion communicated to the people by public instructions or ceremonies;-although nowhere else but here, under the same happy auspices of unshackled freedom of opinion united with general intelligence.

But who shall undertake to appreciate the benefit of those constantly recurring commemorations of a lay character, signalized each one of them by the delivery of a popular address, which the occasion, the place, and the speaker conspire to render deeply impressive at the time, and permanently useful afterwards? To the praise of those be it spoken, with whose feelings it harmonizes, and to that of those who lend their talents to these occasions,—

individuals among the highest in the land, nay, the very highest, have not deemed it derogating from their character and rank to come forward and confer credit and usefulness on this interesting national custom. Long may they continue to bring themselves thus immediately in contact with the people, clothing the grand truths of modern science, and the grander principles of patriotism, in all the fascinating attraction, the lofty, enduring vigour of consummate eloquence!

Many have considered it an evil, that, among us, literary men, instead of being a distinct class, entirely separated from the active members of the community, are, with few exceptions, connected with some of the liberal professions or laborious pursuits of active life. Inconveniences there may be in this state of things; but we much doubt whether sufficient to counterbalance the advantages attending it. Why regret that our scholars are mingled with the mass of the world, animated by its interests, alive to its exigencies, and receiving from the temper of the times its very form and pressure? Why wish them to be excluded from the current of events, and buried under the dust of libraries, while the tide of time is hurrying its onward course, and speeding beyond the reach of their pursuit? When the wants of the country require it, we may be assured, that literature will have a large body of devoted and exclusive followers here, as in older countries. But we rejoice, that with us, into the busy walks of life enter men of the highest scientific qualifications, who, while their talents and acquirements are from time to time displayed in purely literary exertions, yet are quite as usefully employed in their ordinary occupations, in communicating enlarged and exalted principles of action to their associates in the stirring vocations of honest and liberal industry. And as a consequence of this it is, that the American press has within a few years teemed with brilliant and powerful orations, delivered upon public anniversaries, by individuals eminent for their political stations or their general respectability, but not less eminent for the literary attainments, by which they adorned lives occupied in the industrious discharge of the public and private duties, thrown upon them by their situation in society. Hence the number of these performances, in style of composition constituting the purest and finest models in our language, and in richness of thought bespeaking minds which have tried and confirmed the results of study by the unerring criterion of experience, and refined the lessons of practical wisdom by the aid of all the written precepts of ancient and modern lore.

The imagination is prone to dwell upon the glorious scenes of the public games of Greece, where the jealousies of rival republics were hushed, or only revived to kindle an honourable ambition, and where the wise and simple, the great and the lowly, alike bent before the altars of genius, and struggled in those ardent contests for physical or intellectual superiority, the fruits of which last were destined to enlighten the world. It was here that every thing breathed of the presence of republican institutions. Skill was opposed to skill, strength to strength, genius to genius, apart from the adventitious influence of wealth or station, and simply on the broad foundation of nature's democracy. The people, in the might of their multitude, and the pride of their concentrated power, were at once the competitors ior, and the arbiters of the palm of excellence. Like to the Greeks in political condition, and not less in the stimulus afforded to genius by the usages of the people, were the Italians in the early stages

of modern civilization. Nursed amid the turbulence of democracy, safely confiding in its own intrinsic energies for success, and unceasingly brought before the popular eye, and invested with public demonstrations of respect, genius was there evoked and sustained by an appeal to all the most irresistible inducements, which can be addressed to human passions. Dante, Petrarca, and Boccaccio; Machiavelli, Bembo, Guidiccioni, Alamanni, and Casa, many of the most illustrious names in Italian literature appear among the distinguished statesmen and magistrates of their time, uniting practical talents with continued literary cultivation. Add to this the occurrence of occasions like the solemn coronation of Petrarca in the Roman capitol, in the presence of congregated Italy; and we shall discern how it was that democratic institutions and refined taste acted and reacted upon each other, in imparting a temporary but splendid independence to the Italian republics, and in contributing to produce the great modern masters of literature, science, and the arts.

We love to recur to these two epochas in the history of intellect, because if a parallel for the condition of the ancient Greeks and the Italians of the middle age ever existed, or ever can exist, it is to be sought in America. The same popular impulses operate here with like efficacy and vigor. Intellectual power is put in motion by like political causes, having the like tendency to throw all high capacity into the great market of merit, the service of the people. And here the current is alike evidently setting in favour of the encouragement of spoken eloquence, as the most effective medium of intercourse between the educated and the

uneducated classes. It is not indicated merely in the abundance of the business oratory of the bar, of our legislative bodies, or of village politics. Nor is it only visible in the splendid exhibitions of talent, which impart forensic or parliamentary eminence to those gifted men, whose fame is identified with the nation's. We may discern it as clearly in the popular enthusiasm, with which elaborate occasional discourses are constantly received by the mixed and promiscuous concourse, assembled on each succeeding anniversary of public societies or of important political events. Proudly may we anticipate the probable consequences of such an enthusiasm. As illustrations of it, we have only to reflect on the influence which orations like Mr Gould's, or like Mr Verplanck's, delivered before the New York Academy, and Mr Everett's before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Massachusetts, must exert upon the literary taste of the community. Or, to select still stronger illustrations, let us consider the inspiring and elevating effect upon the people, produced by Mr Webster's Plymouth and Bunker Hill orations, or Mr Everett's Plymouth and Concord orations, spoken amid the very scenes, hallowed by the recollections most glorious to Americans, and calculated to awaken all the noble emotions which can warm an American bosom.

MISCELLANY.

PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.

XIII. PRODUCTIVE INDUSTRY IN ITS RELATION TO THE PUBLIC WELFARE.

THE more the national industry is diversified, and the more the number of its productive employments is multiplied, the greater is the demand for the products of labour in each employment.

This increases the profits of industry; the profits of industry increase the demand for labour; this raises the wages of labour, and the labour of the country is thereby more fully drawn into action.

Each successive new employment tends to increase the profits of existing employments. This it does in two ways; first, by diminishing competition in these employments; and, secondly, by furnishing additional consumers for their products. Thus, while the new employments augment the aggregate profits of the others, they diminish the number to participate in them, and cause thereby a much greater share of profit to go to each individual attached to them.

In this country, it is obvious that industry is not so productive, as it would become by being divided into a greater number of different employments. At present, about eight tenths of our population are attached to agriculture, while five tenths would probably produce an abundant supply for both the home and foreign demand for consumption, were there any profitable employment for the other three tenths. The fact of so large a portion of our labour being unemployed, or only partially employed, leads to the question to be determined by government, whether it would not be promotive of national prosperity to encourage the production of every commodity, whatsoever it may be, which we possess as great natural advantages for producing, as the nations do from whom we now import the commodity. Any additional labour, which might be called into action by adequate encouragements to the establishment of our new branches of industry, would, besides benefiting all the present branches, produce a gain for the nation to the whole value of their labour, be it more or less.

If we possess greater advantages than other nations, would it not be better policy to endeavour to profit by them ourselves, than to give them up to foreign nations, that we may partake in the smaller advantages, which they have to offer in return?

Inequalities of condition arise among men, from the inequalities there are in their natural, physical, moral, and political advantages. The individual, however, who possesses superior advantages, let them arise from whatever cause they may, is, in conformity to the moral constitution of human nature, disposed to avail himself of them to the greatest extent he justly can. An individual, therefore, who, with a view to gain, should cast all which constituted his superior advantage into a common stock, that he might share equally with those who contributed little or nothing, would be considered as destitute of common understanding.

So with respect to nations, some possess greater natural, moral, and political advantages than others. Now if the nation which possessed all these advantages in a greater degree than any other, should, under the influence of the visionary notion, that by each nation's making its peculiar advantages common to all, all would be gainers by it, give up its own superior advantages for the sake of sharing in the inferior ones of other nations, although in so doing it might imagine itself pursuing a very liberal policy, yet it would deserve the reproach of acting with a total ignorance of its own interests.

Industry contributes to the happiness of man in two ways; first, by the gratifications which the possession, use, and consumption of its products afford him; secondly, by the useful occupations, professions, and pursuits, to which the desire to possess these