282 [Assembly 



that they were often held beyond the time allowed by their char- 

 ters, and in the reign of Edward III, an act of parliament was 

 passed forbidding this excess. After this we find them the fre- 

 quent subjects of legislation in England, and so esteemed for the 

 prosperity they conferred, as to be the occasion of bitter reclama- 

 tions between the Londoners and the country people, the former 

 having attempted a monopoly of the institution to the detriment 

 of the inland trade and the enlargement of their own. In the 

 reign of Henry VII. this difficulty was adjusted by act of parlia- 

 ment. 



We have thus rapidly sketched the progress of fairs ffom their 

 origin in Italy to a period when they had become generally adopt- 

 ed in Europe, and did our limits permit, we might show by a 

 comparison of the several countries that political power was al- 

 ready allied with commercial prosperity, and that those cities 

 which possessed the elements of strength in the greatest degree 

 were those most celebrated for the trequency and the extent of 

 their lairs. Antwerp is a signal illustration of this truth. In 

 the beginning of the sixteenth century she was perhaps the great- 

 est commercial city of the continent, and made so, confessedly by 

 this cause alone. 



But how different were the objects which originated and sus- 

 tained the fairs of Europe from those which animate the kindred 

 institutions of America. In fact the only points of similarity 

 would seem to be the outward appearance and the name. A vast 

 collectioxi of merchantable articles, which nature and art com- 

 bine to furnish, are collected in one spot. The aggregate is term- 

 ed "a fair," and here ends the resemblance. The motive of the 

 one was gain by sale or barter ; the objects of the other are to 

 stimulate home industry, to diffuse information, to award the 

 meed of praise and patronage to native genius, — in fine, to urge 

 onward by the power of associated mind the elements of our na- 

 tional progress. Associations like this are well worthy of our 

 age and country. They form no inconsiderable portion of that 

 moral influence which the Union is now exerting upon the world. 



Among the earliest incorporations for this object is the Ameri- 

 can Institute. How genial and how mighty have been its results, 



