passengers twelve or fifteen miles an hour,* another step in social improvment is obtained, and that the present has gained a fresh triumph over the past. The money employed in the rail-roads would have remained idle, but for the project to which it has been applied. The shareholder gains eight or ten per cent. for his money, which places so much the more in his hands to employ in some new source of emolument. The traveller gains time and saves money in like manner with the speculatists to lay out elsewhere, ond the ironmaster and mechanic reap a profit also in their branches. It is evident (it is almost too common to remark it here again,) that the more time is saved, and profit made, the more profit will again be made of both. The bulk of the national wealth will be constantly receiving fresh accessions or rather reiterated circulations, to be applied to fresh labours of industry-money and time making more money and time. Now this could not happen in any thing like an equal degree, if the cash of the capitalists lay idle, and if he, without employing others, and pushing things on en masse, contented himself with a low and uniform rate of interest. Let us say what we may on the subject, the establishment of any new branch of trade, or the setting on of a manufactory, partakes in no small degree of the character of a speculation; indeed, commerce itself can be deemed little else. By increasing the national activity, we increase the aggregate wealth, and it cannot be denied that joint-stock companies are so far beneficial. But they must be confined to great things to be so. Mining, roads, railways, canals, bridges, and in short, works that kings and Governments formerly undertook, seem to be their legitimate objects. They must not grasp at or interfere with what the means of individuals, separately, can easily master: in that case they will be pernicious.

The activity of the bulk of the people, the bustle and occupation of all in every corner of the land, may not be an object in a country that is contented to stand still in prosperity, or to increase by imperceptible degrees, careless whether a rival or a neighbour overtakes it in its career; but for this country, every energy-every muscle of the public frame must be kept in exertion, until a preponderating access of wealth and power be acquired, sufficient to make the overtaking us a hopeless task. We must do this before we rest upon our oars. It is essential to the preservation of our high character among nations, which we must not merely maintain, but continue to raise higher. The joint stock company mania raised the spirits, and set in accelerated motion the life-blood of the commercial body; and when it becomes sobered down, it will be productive, (in the schemes which survive and were properly planned,) of additional profit to the nation. As to the gambling part of the affair, unhappily it is no novelty; the funds foreign and domestic have been, and will, in bargains for account, continue as heretofore a regular play at hazard. Adventurers in them clamour loud enough at rivals, and, as in the case of De Berenger, when an attempt is made to hit them with their own weapons, will barefacedly bring men into courts of law upon charges of which they themselves have a hundred times before

* A greater speed is believed to be practicable, but the enormous increase of the price of iron has for a time paralyzed those rail-road undertakings that are engaged in-may not good be, bond-fide, reasonably expected from this mode of carriage united with steam, of which it is impossible to foretell the extent ?

been guilty. Besides, in the present case, this adventuring excess arises out of the abuse of joint-stock companies, and not from the character of the things themselves. A "merchant's venture" is an old phrase, and the chance of profit and loss is connected with the larger part of all mercantile transactions. When a capitalist ventures his idle capital therefore in a bond-fide joint-stock speculation, he calculates that he may lose as well as gain ; and naturally imagining that as such undertakings, if conducted with integrity and honour, could not be carried on without data of probable success to proceed upon, he feels that he runs as little risk (always supposing the honourable nature of the concern in which he ventures, and excepting bubbles and cheats) as he would in a speculation of merchandise to pass across the seas.

In respect to joint-stock companies in foreign nations, and the employment of capital out of the control of our own government, a great deal more may be said than I can afford space for here. Much must depend upon the political aspect such countries hold. Those which are independent and free in government, that have every thing to fear and nothing to hope in a contest with Great Britain, and are bound to her in a certain degree by a sympathy in their free institutions, while they regard her as a support or rallying point for nations that have rent asunder the chains of despotism, are undoubtedly the most honourable in character, and the safest with which to be concerned. In France, the most enlightened and powerful of the European states, the interference of a capricious government, directly or indirectly, in works of magnitude paralyzes every thing. Utterly ignorant of the true principle of trade and manufacturing prosperity, every person who proposes a new undertaking and ventures his capital in it, may be ruined by the intermeddling of authorities in one way or another; for though the property be safe, if the channel to a market be shut up, or fanciful rules prescribed for the manufacturer cramping him on every side, the principal of such an adventurer must be for ever in jeopardy, and the profit precarious. Add to this the chance of war, which may be protracted for a series of years, and no return ever more arise. In the other European Governments, the caprice of the tyrant is the law, and property is at best in such cases only held by sufferance. Where property is held sacred, and right and law paramount, which only happens under popular Governments, commerce is tenfold more flourishing than it ever can be under despotisms; there, and there alone, can safe adventures be made.* Europe is not therefore so safe, and the States of this quarter of the globe, approaching so near to ourselves in power, and being so formidable to us in influence over their neighbours, it is not so politic to add to their means of offence, by risking property, of which the will of one man may at any time bereave us. In America, the northern States have free institutions, and no one would impugn the security of property under their laws; and this is (as far as it yet can be) the case with the southern. These new southern republics have every thing to hope from us, and could gain nothing by a contest. A long series of years must elapse before they can become formidable as enemies; while as friends and allies the in

Tyre and Carthage in ancient times, and even Greece, as well as Venice and the Italian States in modern, show this-to say nothing of Holland, England, and America.

terest of both countries is simultaneous. We would see England the heart of free nations; they deriving support in time of infancy from her protecting power, and linking their future destinies with hers. We rejoice to observe her late approximation to friendship and alliance with such, and her standing aloof from the besotted and criminal objects which the vices and tyranny of the arbitrary governments of Europe are ever leading them into. The past interference of England in these unprincipled quarrels impeded the march of her power, and kept her down until the late fortunate change in the cabinet emancipated her from the old and slavish policy, and taught the advocates for the old system, that while she might be friendly with every state, she possessed strength and spirit enough to act in "her own orbit," and to enter into friendly connexion with nations whose governments assimilated more in freedom to her own. What has been the result but continued prosperity? What would be the result of returning to the late policy, but impoverishment and discontent? Free states are those, then, in which, if it be advisable to adventure at all, property is more secure, and likely to accumulate in a rapid ratio. It is probable that the employment of the immense superfluous capital of England, which is not needed at home, will give her a strong hold in those countries where it acts to any great extent. Thus some of the companies in America have taken her mines to share half the profits: these mines, if abandoned in consequence of a contest with Great Britain, would again fill with water, overpower the unscientific native managers, and be idle, impoverishing the natives equally as much as their late revolution did, and throwing thousands out of employ. Here then is a link of interest, binding directly and indirectly a state to Great Britain; while the latter, in exports to her advantage, and an influx of the produce of the industry of the members of her community abroad, no matter in what shape, whether in goods or gold, must feel a reciprocal tie to peace on her part.

Freedom in trade is the true source of its prosperity, as liberty is of the prosperity of a nation and her advance in knowledge. Let it be free in every shape-a chartered libertine, like the air. If but onefourth of the joint-stock speculations are effected, they will be sources of new branches of industry and wealth, and the bubbles and fraudulent schemes of the unprincipled will be soon forgotten. We must not confound them together. There are some seriously carrying into effect with the best prospects; and as far as the foresight of the experienced can go, and the opinions of men duly qualified to judge have weight, they are as likely to succeed as similar undertakings, and have a chance of giving returns, in all events, above those of Waterloo-bridge. In considering the present question as is often the case, joint-stock companies have been censured too indiscriminately; the want of precedent to judge of them sadly astounded the gray beards. A deliberate examination of the subject, the dismissal of prejudice, and separation of the fraudulent bubbles from the sound and reasonable class of adventures, is the only way to form a correct judgment respecting them. Even now it appears that while the fraudulent schemes are dissipating or fallen in the market, those of real value keep firm. The passion for such speculations is subsiding. Those who have suffered have only themselves to blame for their credulity in not making, as they might have done, due

examination into the plans in the support of which they are sufferers; while those who scrutinized them as they should have done, and made precautionary calculations, cannot have exposed themselves to very great loss; and even then the community may reap considerable bene fit. Our monied men, ere they hazard their superfluous cash, have never been before told in our day, that even their lynx eyes require t be sharpened in pursuit of their own interest; and this class composes nine-tenths of the gainers and losers by the joint-stock mania. L.

THE TIRUMPH OF SCIENCE.

I DREAM'D I stood beside the sea,

At evening when the heavens were bright—
The moon, in vestal purity,

Look'd through the veil of day's last light-
The wave lay calm, the breeze had fled,
And elemental life was dead.

None could believe deceit so fair-
That ocean ever false could be;
For stars in beauty slumber'd there

As 'mid their heaven's tranquillity.
At last I thought if thus the deep
Were wrapp'd in everlasting sleep!

And what the mariner could do

Whose ship lay stagnant far from shore,

With dark Atlantic depths below,

And sails that should be fill'd no more,

His eyes uplifted in despair,

And lips that moved in fruitless prayer.

Not a lone sea-bird wheeling near,
Nor vulture snuffing gaunt decay,

Whose scream of discord would be there
Music to break the agony

Of suffering nature in an hour,

When silence held destruction's power.

Day following day-Hope's little shine

Faint growing till his last hour came,
And on his decks he dropp'd supine,
And famine quench'd life's wasting flame;
While where he fell his bones would be,
Till his ship rotted on the sea.

Years pass, and there the fragments stay,
Floating just where they part and fall

Upon the slumbering ocean-they

Man's gaze might to their story call;
But man must never spread again
His sail upon the sullen main.

Where died the mariner, his tale

Would perish with him fathoms down;
To grasp his name, would memory fail,
Oblivion burying his renown

In depths more deep and seas more wide
Than those in which the seaman died!

"Twere better meet the storm to me,

Than thus to perish :-rock and shore
May wreck the few, but none could flee
Their doom if ocean ceased to roar,
Of those who with the wild winds sweep,
And bear glad tidings o'er the deep.

As thus I thought, I scarce could brook,
Without a thrill of fear, to see
The shining sea so calmly look,

Answering the night's serenity-
When sudden, with a hollow sound,
A ripple curl'd the ocean round.

Upheaving o'er her head the wave,
A female form of beauty rose;
Nought seem'd to break, of grave or gay,
The majesty of her repose;

Her tresses on her shoulders set,
Seem'd not with wave or sea-foam wet.

Her eye was mild, her forehead high,
A glory flash'd around her brow;
She seemed a being of the sky,

Of air, and of the deeps below:
There was a character of all,

Breath'd on her form erect and tall.

Her hand a letter'd scroll contain'd

In unknown characters of gold,

With rings enwreathed that perhaps explain'd Her immortality, and told

That she would live and wing her way

To heaven, when earth should pass away.

'Twas science, and she bade me see
The wonders that her wisdom plann'd;
And there was many a mystery

Reveal'd of ocean, air, and land

Of worlds where thought can scarcely range, Orbit, and period, full, and change.

"The ocean-depths are mine," she said, "I mount the air, the earth descend,

By me the lightning's flash is led,

My arm can rocks and mountains rend; The strength of millions to my hand, Comes at the signal of command.

"Nor calm, nor storm, nor rock shall more Arrest the hardy seaman's course;

The elements my power adore,

And man I've taught to curb their force,

With vapour over storms prevail

And mock in calms an idle sail!"