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which has yielded so much wealth to Liverpool ; but had he, or Drake, 

 Raleigh, Frobisher, or Cooke, beeu as distinguished in the aunals of 

 war, as they are in those of commerce, it may safely be presumed, that 

 some town, or people, would have done honour to themselves by a 

 grateful acknowledgment of the benefits derived from such daring 

 enterprize. The ruling principle of commerce — the love of gain — of 

 course ignores all such gratuitous appreciation of the services conferred 

 upon her. 



Turning from the past, is there no hope that in the future commerce 

 may be more propitious'to the arts than the records shew that she has 

 been ? Faint traces of a change may, I think, be discerned. It must 

 be remembered, that, with the exception of the department of electricity, 

 most of the mechanical improvements of the day, by which commerce 

 is more directly benefitted, are but refinements upon inventions and 

 machines originated during the war. The locomotives on railways, for 

 example, were originally introduced by Trevithick, on a coal tram in 

 South Wales, as far back as 1808. But I would fain hope that we 

 may discern a growing desire to nurture a more kindly interest between 

 the several classes of the community ; to render less rigid and impas- 

 sable the icy barriers that divide the employed and the employer, that 

 they may cease to regard each other merely as instruments of personal 

 advantage ; and to unite all in bonds of friendship and good feeling. 

 Now the peaceful arts, especially the fine arts, depend for their perfect 

 development upon active sympathy ; and it cannot be doubted that had 

 more enlightened views prevailed, much greater progress in the arts 

 would now be obtained. But commercial men have applied too often 

 the test of pecuniary return ; to have been betrayed into the unguarded 

 patronage of objects which fill no line on the credit folio. The ad- 

 vancement of knowledge, the improvement of mankind, the encourage- 

 ment of fine arts and poetry, or the study of abstract science, have 

 usually been alien to the genius of commerce. 



The suggestions of science have only beeu deemed worthy of adop- 

 tion when they facilitate the acquisition of wealth, or the economy of 

 expense. Frequently advantages of either Idnd have been neglected 

 through ignorance : the test of pecuniary return having been applied 

 to education, and occasioned a very imperfect acquisition of knowledge. 

 There now appears to be a growing suspicion that the hitherto prevail- 

 ing test is not altogether infalhble ; that there is much of value to 

 which it cannot be applied ; and that intellectual study and consideration 

 for others should have their portion in every man's life, in order that 

 he may worthily act his part as a citizen, without reference to higher 



