MONTHLY 



JOURNAL OF AamCULTURE. 



VOL. III. MAY, 1848. NO. 11. 



MARSHALL P. WILDER, 



PRESIDENT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



If there is any one class of citizens which deserves at the present moment 

 especially the respect and admiration of their countrymen, it is, perhaps, the 

 merchants of Boston. 



To indomitable energy and enterprise, in acquiring wealth, they add a 

 spirit of wisdom and philanthropy, and a faith in the progress of Man in the use 

 of it, which at once does honor to tiie city in which they live, and raises the char- 

 acter of commercial pursuits more than all the honors of knighthood. 



It would be making too long a catalogue Avere we to enumerate even the most 

 conspicuous public benefits which Massachusetts has derived from this intelli- 

 gent and high-minded class of her sons. Numberless public charities have been 

 founded and supported : public and free schools planned and sustained ; lectures 

 given to the public ; new worlds of thought opened to the blind ; the deaf and 

 dumb brought into correspondence with their fellow men ; poor artists sent 

 abroad to develop their Heaven-bestowed talents ; colleges richly endowed, and 

 a great Scientific School opened cheaply to every citizen of the Commonwealth 

 for instruction in sciences applicable to all the useful industries of life. 



This, and much more, has been done by a liberal application of the wealth, 

 produced by their own industry, by the merchants of Boston. It would be a 

 pleasing task to designate those who have thus most successfully proved that 

 they understand the true uses and true obligations of wealth. But we are 

 obliged at this moment to confine ourselves to a single illustration of the benefits 

 which a merchant, engrossed with business, may confer ou his countrymen, 

 when actuated by this large spirit of usefulness to his race. 



Pearl-street, in Boston, completely rebuilt within a few years, presents to the 

 eye two continuous lines of fine warehouses — beautifully and fittingly built, in an 

 appropriate architectural style, of neatly-dressed granite. Enter with us one 

 of these stores at the beginning of the street ; ascend into spacious apartments 

 where on every side are seen boxes and bales filled with the productions of the 

 active looms of New-England ; pass through counting-rooms where various clerks 

 poring over huge ledgers tell of a widely extended business; and finally penetrate 

 to a third office. In this inner vestibule of the house of trade, sits, before a desk 

 covered with a large correspondence, a merchant thoroughly devoted to his calling. 

 In his countenance you see only the engrossing cares of Commerce, and his ample 



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