76 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



motive to induce the native mannfacturcrs to produce any thing 

 better. As the foreign article can no longer enter into competition 

 "with him he contents himself with manufacturing and selling as 

 much of the inferior domestic product as he can, and the only 

 competition which arises is who will sell the cheapest below the 

 artificial price to which the foreign article has been raised. 



While such laws, therefore, are a great pecuniary benefit to the 

 manufacturer, they do not raise the standard of the manufactures 

 of the nation. It is curious to observe that the arguments made 

 use of in our time in favor of a protective policy, are of the same 

 general character as those employed in the middle ages in favor of 

 the exclusive system of guilds, a system which, though designed to 

 encourage trade and protect it, proved to be, in reality, one of the 

 greatest obstacles to its progress. In fact, agriculture, commerce 

 and manufactures have been more frequently retarded than bene- 

 fited by legislation, as trade and everything which depends upon 

 it, may be compared to the rivers that convey its products, which 

 serve the great purposes of nature best when they are left to find 

 their own way and work out their own channel. 



In this country I fear that little is to be expected from govern- 

 ment, and that which is done must be done as in Great Britain, by 

 the corporative action of societies. Societies, however, depending 

 solely upon the annual subscriptions of members, are involved in a 

 constant struggle for existence, and unlesss they have an income 

 derived from- a permanent source, their future is always precarious. 

 The London Society of Arts has this security in numerous legacies, 

 which have been left to it by enlightened individuals, who have 

 had the sagacity to see the importance of extending the sphere of a 

 society, the aim of which has been the development of new sources 

 of national wealth, creating thereby new fields for the employment 

 of labor ; a course as much to be commended as leaving legacies to 

 charitable institutions, whose office it is to relieve that poverty 

 which springs, in so large a degree, from the want of employment. 

 The bounty which is bestowed to prevent poverty, being a more en- 

 lightened and comprehensive charity than the alms which is merely 

 given to relieve it when it exists. 



We have become a great agricultural and commercial nation, and 

 as we are a very inventive and ingenious people, with an especial 

 aptitude for the mechanic arts, there is no reason why we should 

 not also become a great manufacturing people. To do so, however, 

 we must resort to the same means that other nations have tmployed, 

 and I have sulficienlly indicated what these means have been. 



This metropolis is the commercial, the monied and the industrial 



