they spoke are forgotten; but the stars that shone for them are shining for us; the same eclipses run their steady cycle; the same equinoxes call out the flowers of spring and send the husbandman to the harvest; the sun pauses at either tropic as he did when his course began; and sun and moon, and planet and satellite, and star and constellation and galaxy, still bear witness to the power, the wisdom, and the love of Him who placed them in the heavens, and upholds them there.

MR. GEORGE PEABODY.*

MR. PRESIDENT:

I SUPPOSE you have called upon me to respond to this in teresting toast, chiefly because, a few years ago, I filled a place abroad, which made me in some degree the associate of your distinguished guest, in the kindly office of promoting good-will between the two great branches of the AngloSaxon or Anglo-Norman race, (for I do not think it matters much by which name you call it,) "the fair mother and the fairer daughter," to which the toast alludes. At all events, I had much opportunity, during my residence in England, to witness the honorable position of Mr. Peabody in the commercial and social circles of London; his efforts to make the citizens of the two countries favorably known to each other; and generally that course of life and conduct, which has contributed to procure him the well-deserved honors of this day, and which shows that he fully enters into the spirit of the sentiment just propounded from the chair.

To the prayer of that sentiment, Sir, I fully respond, desiring nothing more ardently in the foreign relations of the country, than that these two great nations may be rivals only in their efforts to promote the welfare and improvement of mankind. They have already done, and they are

Speech at the dinner given in honor of George Peabody, Esq., by the citizens of the old town of Danvers, on the 9th of October, 1856.

†The following is the toast, to which Mr. Everett was called upon to reply:"England and America, Pulchra mater, pulchrior filia, long may they flourish in the bonds of peace, rivals only in their efforts to civilize and christianize the world."

now doing much, at home and abroad, to promote that end by the arts of peace. Whenever they coöperate they can sweep every thing before them;- when they are at variance, and pull opposite ways, it is the annihilation of much of the moral power of both. Whenever England and America combine their influence in promoting a worthy object, it moves forward like a vessel propelled by the united force of wind and steam; but when they are in conflict with each other, it is like the struggle of the toiling engine against the opposing tempest. It is well if the laboring vessel holds her own; there is danger if the steam prevails that she may be crowded under the mountain waves, or, if the storm gains the mastery, that she may drift upon the rocks.

It is very obvious to remark, on this occasion, and on this subject, while you are offering a tribute of respect to a distinguished man of business, that these two great nations, which are doing so much for the advancement of civilization, are the two leading commercial nations of the world; and that they have carried navigation and commerce to a height unknown before. And this consideration, Sir, will serve to justify you and your fellow-citizens, if they need justification, for the honors you are bestowing upon the guest of the day, as it will the other communities in different parts of the country, which have been desirous of joining in similar public demonstrations of respect. Without wishing to disparage the services which command your respect and gratitude, in the walks of political, military, or literary life, it is natural, in a country like the United States, where commerce is so important an interest, that you should be prompt to recognize distinguished merit in the commercial career; a career, of which, when pursued with diligence, sagacity, enterprise, integrity, and honor, I deem it not too much to say, that it stands behind no other in its titles to respect and consideration; as I deem it not too much to say of commerce in its largest comprehension, that it has done as much in all time, and is now doing as much, to promote the general cause of civilization, as any of the other great pursuits of life.

Trace its history, for a moment, from the earliest period.

In the infancy of the world, its caravans, like gigantic silkworms, went creeping, with their innumerable legs, through the arid wastes of Asia and Africa, and bound the human family together in those vast regions as they bind it together now. Its colonial establishments scattered the Grecian culture all round the shores of the Mediterranean, and carried the adventurers of Tyre and Carthage to the north of Europe and the south of Africa. The walled cities of the middle ages prevented the arts and refinements of life from being trampled out of existence under the iron heel of the feudal powers. The Hanse Towns were the bulwark of liberty and property in the north and west of Europe for ages. The germ of the representative system sprang from the municipal franchises of the boroughs. At the revival of letters, the merchant princes of Florence received the fugitive arts of Greece into their stately palaces. The spirit of commercial adventure produced that movement in the fifteenth century which led Columbus to America, and Vasco di Gama around the Cape of Good Hope. The deep foundations of the modern system of international law were laid in the interests and rights of commerce, and the necessity of protecting them. Commerce sprinkled the treasures of the newly-found Indies throughout the western nations; it nerved the arm of civil and religious liberty in the Protestant world; it gradually extended the colonial system of Europe to the ends of the earth, and with it the elements of future independent, civilized, republican governments.

But why should we dwell on the past? What is it that gives vigor to the civilization of the present day but the world-wide extension of commercial intercourse, by which all the products of the earth and of the ocean—of the soil, the mine, the loom, and the forest-of bounteous nature, creative art, and untiring industry, are brought by the agencies of commerce into the universal market of demand and supply. No matter in what region, the desirable product is bestowed on man by a liberal Providence, or fabricated by human skill. It may clothe the hills of China with its fragrant foliage; it may glitter in the golden sands of Califor

nia; it may wallow in the depths of Arctic seas; it may ripen and whiten on the fertile plains of the sunny South; it may spring forth from the flying shuttles of Manchester in England or Manchester in America, the great world-magnet of commerce attracts it all alike, and gathers it all up for the service of man. I do not speak of English commerce or American commerce; such distinctions enfeeble our conceptions. I speak of trade in the aggregate—the great ebbing and flowing tides of the commercial world - the great gulf-streams of traffic which flow round from hemisphere to hemisphere, the mighty trade-winds of commerce which sweep from the old world to the new,— that vast, aggregate system which embraces the whole family of man, and brings the overflowing treasures of nature and art into kindly relation with human want, convenience, and taste.

In carrying on this system, think for a moment of the stupendous agencies that are put in motion. Think for a moment of all the ships that navigate the sea. An old Latin poet, who knew no waters beyond those of the Mediterranean and Levant, says that the man must have had a triple casing of oak and brass about his bosom, who first trusted his frail bark on the raging sea. How many thousands of vessels, laden by commerce, are at this moment navigating, not the narrow seas, frequented by the ancients, but these world encompassing oceans! Think next of the mountains of brick, and stone, and iron, built up into the great commercial cities of the world; and of all the mighty works of ancient and modern contrivance and structure, the moles, the lighthouses, the bridges, the canals, the roads, the railways, the depth of mines, the titanic force of enginery, the delving ploughs, the scythes, the reapers, the looms, the electric telegraphs, the vehicles of all descriptions, which, directly or indirectly, are employed or put in motion by commerce; and last, and most important, the millions of human beings that conduct, and regulate, and combine these inanimate, organic, and mechanical forces.

And now, Sir, is it any thing less than a liberal profession, which carries a quick intelligence, a prophetic forecast, an