Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

MERCHANTS.

Heav'n speed the canvass gallantly unfurl'd,
To furnish and accommodate a world!
To give the pole the produce of the sun,
And knit th' unsocial climates into one.

COWPER.

THIS numerous and respectable class of the community forms the most wealthy and respectable commercial body in the world: indeed the merchants of London have ever been celebrated for their inte grity.

They have long been justly considered as essential to our political existence. To their enterprise we are indebted for the delicacies of every clime; consequently they are instrumental to the comfort of society, though they have contributed to the effeminacy of the age, by the importation of exotic luxu

ries.

As public characters, the punctuality and credit of our merchants have long been established; and when any national exigence requires a contribution, the generosity of the mercantile body excels even that of the nobility.

In private life they generally are amiable characters. But, however estimable when detached from business, they seem to consider many evils connected with commerce as nceessary consequences, and therefore venal. When Commerce, that empress of luxury and dissipation, pours her treasures into a city, the people become selfish; and while Trade liberally rewards her votaries, she laughs at the scruples of conscience. What was once stigma

tised with the name of extortion, is now softened into speculation. Speculation is a sonorous word, applied with great success both in trade and philosophy; but its true meaning, in plain English, is IMPOSITION. The speculating merchant looks forward, and perceives that there will probably be a scarcity of an article of commerce: he hastens to purchase: the event justifies his expectation, and he sells his merchandize for perhaps double the price it cost.

But this is a very moderate monopoly. Let us for a moment turn our eyes Eastward, and we shall behold an inoffensive people deprived of their possessions by men whom they never injured, and who live in affluence and luxury on the spoils of the widow and the fatherless. What says Commerce? -they are all honourable men.

Are her operations in the West more benign?Ah, no! There myriads of our fellow creatures. who have been purchased at the "man-degrading mart," are compelled to earn the bitter bread of slavery!-Every feeling of agonised humanity is violated by the capricious cruelty and avarice of their merciless oppressors; and the soil which is productive of various luxuries, is besprinkled with human sweat and blood! Yet, this is justifiable in the eyes of commerce.

The spirit of enterprize in this vast city is astonishing. Cornfactors monopolise our grain; and even dairy-men prevent the waste of milk and butter, by enhancing the price of these necessaries!

Many slight deviations from rectitude are overlooked in civilized society. Perhaps the most pernicious evil which accompanies wealth is, the idea that every thing is purchaseable; that the integrity

and talents of men, and the chastity of women, may be sacrificed on the altars of Mammon; nay, that love and even friendship are venal. This assertion, though plausible, and in too many instances applicable, is not true; and it were much to be wished, for the honour of human nature, that its fallacy should be exposed by every lover of social happi

ness.

Those moralists who contend that mankind are happier in a state of agricultural and pastoral simplicity than in communities where commerce prevails, seem to have forgotten that "strength of mind is exercise, not rest;" and that we enjoy a thousand conveniencies and elegancies unknown to the untutored agriculturists of Otaheite, or even the Western isles of Scotland.

The merchant, indeed, whose whole life is spent in the bustle of trade, has but little time for reflection; and however censurable his traffic may appear, perhaps his business came into his hands by hereditary succession, and consequently habit has reconciled him even to the slave-trade. But, had he time to moralize, his conscious heart would tell him, that to communicate happiness to the bosom of oppressed humanity, would be of more value than the freight of his homeward-bound ships; he would awake from his golden dreams of imaginary felicity, and burst those chains so long rivetted on the limbs of men by hard-hearted Avarice.

Still, however, it will be found, that the cavils of mankind against the business of the merchant originate rather in envy at his prosperity, than from a desire to promote virtue. When the wisdom of our legislature shall abolish the traffic to Africa for

slaves, and when monopoly shall be prevented by restrictive laws, the merchants of this city will then manifest their superiority over those of every other nation, and contribute very essentially to the general happiness of the community.

The merchants and tradesmen of London are the most opulent and respectable in the world. Many of them, who have received a liberal education, and travelled to form commercial connections, are intelligent and enterprising; but the majority are rather confined in their ideas, and consider the art of accumulating wealth as the greatest human excellence.

In consequence of their frequent intermarriages with the nobility, the merchants of London are not only more refined, but more luxurious than their ancestors. Many of them are possessed of elegant villas in the circumjacent counties, to which they occasionally retire from the bustle of business; but the love of rural scenes, which is so natural to man, seldom predominates in the mind of the merchant, till he has realized an immense fortune. Indeed, the love of gain has become so habitual to several citizens, that they pursue that species of gambling called stock-jobbing, long after they have resigned the more arduous toils of commerce. The darling pursuit of the merchant is wealth, and he cheerfully devotes the whole energies of his mind to the attainment of that object.

The amusements of opulent citizens are similar to those of the nobility, whose fashions and follies the city dames and belles are emulous to imitate. They tread in the path defined by the arbitresses of the mode; and their expensive and crowded routs prove their strong propensity to pleasurable extravagance.

Another trait of their increasing passion for dissi pation, is the eagerness with which the wives and daughters of merchants annually visit the watering-places. There, freed from the restraints of domestic propriety, they boldly launch into the stream of high life; where, steered by Passion, they are often shipwrecked on the shoals of levity, or ingulphed by the quick-sands of vice.

The principle foible of the more respectable order of citizens is self-importance, assumed from a consciousness of the possession of riches. Their most shining qualities are probity and benevolence.

A great proportion of the opulent tradesmen of London, not having country seats, and their amusements being limited by the locality of their sphere of action, they naturally turn their attention to the enjoyment of domestic comfort. In this respect they are undoubtedly happier than any other mercantile people upon the globe. Indeed, the elegance and convenience of their houses and furniture, the excellence of their food, and their cleanliness of person and dress, are unparalleled.

« PředchozíPokračovat »