Carey. ] 206 [Nov. 17, 
endowed, and so long and zealously devoted to a search after truth, is 
entitled to all the confidence that authority can give, and justly claims 
most studious attention, 
Having rendered his best personal services to the subject which he had 
so much at heart, he further evidenced his earnestness and solicitude for 
its still more formal and more adequate treatment by offering a prize of 
$500 for a treatise upon the law or doctrine of Christian charity, accom- 
panying the offer with a general outline directory of the plan of the re- 
quired work, indicating its essential points ; among which are to be noted 
the organization of labor ; international trade in its effects upon the re- 
wards of domestic labor ; the subject of public education ; the law of 
charity as applying to the poor, the suffering, the imprisoned, the vicious, 
the insane, the intemperate, the dangerous, &e., &e. 
I am not aware that any work of real merit was secured by the liberal 
reward offered. No such book having been published, it is presumable 
that no response was made. 
There remains yet to be considered, in such manner as my limits allow, 
another and a highly important division of the service rendered to the 
public by Mr. Colwell, in an official position to which his high reputa- 
tion called him in the 65th year of his age. In June, 1865, he was ap- 
pointed upon the Commission, authorized by Act of Congress, ‘to in- 
quire and report upon the subject of raising by taxation such revenue as 
may be necessary in order to supply the wants of the government, having 
regard to, and including the sources from which such revenue should be 
drawn, and the best and most efficient mode of raising the same.’’? In 
the service imposed by this appointment he continued till the midsummer 
of 1866, when the work assigned was finished and fully reported. The 
labor thus undertaken and performed interrupted and even ended the ac- 
tive literary pursuits and practical work of his life. His family, whose 
tenderly affectionate watchfulness makes them the best and most compe- 
tent witnesses, attribute to his exacting and exhausting toil in the duties 
of this position that failure of his health which soon afterwards obliged 
him to relinquish, in great measure, his life-long pursuits both as student 
and as writer. 
Tn the Report of the Revenue Commission, communicated to Congress 
in January, 1866, and published in a large octavo volume by authority of 
the House of Representatives, may be found the special reports of Mr. 
Colwell on ‘‘The Influence of Duplication of Taxes upon American In- 
dustry—upon the Relations of Foreign Trade to Domestic Industry and 
Internal Reyenue--upon Iron and Steel—and on Wool and Woolens.’’ 
‘wo other reports of his, one upon High Prices and their Relations with. 
Currency and Taxation, and another, upon Over-importation and Relief, 
are not included in this volume. How he executed the work which fell 
to his share of the duties of the Commission, it is enough to say that he 
did it to assure us of finding therein the fullest discussion of those vastly 
comprehensive subjects, based upon the most ample store of statistical 
facts, and arrayed with that force which the soundest theoretical princi- 
