IS 



Where are the seventy-two Hanse towns that in the 

 thirteenth century burst the iron bands of feudal tyranny, 

 and formed that powerful confederacy that for so long a 

 time engrossed the commercial wealth of Europe ? Most 

 of their names are blotted from the registers of mankind, 

 and the places where many of them stood cannot now be 

 pointed out to the inquiring traveller. But Flanders, on 

 the frontiers of the most warlike kingdom, and the scene 

 of their greatest devastations, by her domestic industry 

 rises superior to every adversity. The armies of Austria 

 and France have often laid waste her provinces, and rob- 

 bed her of every thing but her Agricultural and her Man- 

 ufacturing riches. With these resources, she continues 

 among the most opulent and populous of the continental 

 Dations. 



But we need not recur to the history of other countries 

 or other times. There is scarcely a part of the world 

 that exemplifies the truth of our position more forcibly 

 than the interior of New-England. Every obstacle is 

 here yielding to the all-subduing power of human indus*- 

 try. The most dreary morasses, the most rugged declivi- 

 ties are annually submitting to the diligence of our Farm* 

 ers ; and our tumbling cataracts are held in durance by 

 the perseverance of our enterprizing Manufacturers. If 

 in political economy one principle is better established 

 than any other, it is this, that country is the richest and the 

 most indepeiident, whose employment of capital and labour 

 furnishes the means of supporting the greatest population at 

 the least expense. With this principle in view, can any 

 doubt the policy of encouraging the objects of this So- 

 ciety ? 



Come, then, Fellow-Citizens ! Patriots ! ye who aro 

 connected to our soil by the ties tf ancestry, of fortune, 

 ©r of home — ye who reverence New-England as the land 

 of your birth, and identify with her hills and her vallies 

 the places of your earliest associations — ye who contem- 

 plate her advancement v;ith delight — come and devote a 



