THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY 33a. MT4T BISKOKiGS Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. University of Illinois Library L161 H41 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates https://archive.org/details/moneyitsnaturehiOOkidd 'MONEY; ITS i NATURE, HISTORY, USES, AND RESPONSIBILITIES. NftD^iJork : III PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER, |||||| SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 200 MULBERRY-STREET. ■>. h'>U 1 w ^ .3, EDITOR’S PREFACE. ! — This book is an appropriate sequel to Itj No. 539 of this library, entitled “Money t Matters explained to the Young.” That volume, although written for the young, will be found well calculated to interest and instruct many who have passed the age of childhood. It will enable its read- ers, whether young or old, to proceed to the higher and more advanced discussions of this treatise with greater profit than Avould follow its perusal without such an introduction. The two works together will explain quite satisfactorily to all readers the most important truths con- nected with this great practical subject. 4 EDITOR’S PREFACE. Yet the two works were produced by different authors. While the former is of American, the present is of English origin ; hence many of its illustrations relate particularly to the commerce and history of Great Britain. In the revision, whenever it has been deemed necessary, the currency of for- eign countries has been changed to that of our own. In many cases, however, such changes have not seemed to he re- quired. It cannot be doubted by any that the subject of this book is a popular one. We hope that all who may read its pages will not only acquire useful infor- mation about silver and gold, but also concerning the duty and the proper mode of laying up treasures in heaven. New-Yobk, 1853. CONTENTS CHAP. p^GE I. THE money-maker: a short lesson in so- cial ANATOMY 7 II. money-making: how society gets rich 24 III. the chemistry of money : a few words about capital 54 IV. money current: a few words about gold, silver, and bank-notes 77 V. THE morals of MONEY: THE FALLACIES AND FAILINGS OF MONEYED MEN 138 VI. MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN : BENEVOLENCE SPEAKING BY EXAMPLE 174 APPENDIX— ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF SAVINGS’ BANKS.... 205 S , nly that he trench not on the rights of others. It were easy, did space permit, to vindicate these principles, and to show their superiority, especially when tempered by the precepts of Christianity, over those propounded by social theorists in our day. But we have brought these questions before our readers merely as they are connected with Money. Money is the power which sets in motion the springs of action which we have now described, or, to vary the simile, it is the life-blood which gives energy and warmth to the whole frame of the body corporate. Were society to be cast in the mold prescribed by the theories of Owen and others, money, it has been asserted, would no longer be required ; but in- extricable confusion, we may be assured, would inevitably follow any attempt to introduce a sub- stitute for it.^ As it now exists, money furnishes a short and admirable mode of distributing to "" The scenes of distress which occurred in Paris dur- ing the French revolution, when the government in- terfered with the purchase of bread, and distributed it in accordance with certain artificial regulations, powerfully illustrate the anarchy and confusion which would follow any attempt to do away with money as a distributory medium. 24 MONEY. each individual that exact portion of the wealth of society to which he can prove himself legiti- mately entitled ; it is adapted alike to the largest and the minutest operations ; so marvelous and multifarious indeed is its agency that it may be questioned which is more wonderful — the struc- ture of society itself, or money, which gives vitality to its diversified operations. CHAPTER II. money-making: how society gets rich. It is our object in the present chapter to show the mode in which society gradually becomes rich, and arrives at a state when the use of money as a circulating medium is required. This state of things is popularly supposed to be accomplished whenever a country abounds in gold and silver. We need hardly, however, re- mark that there is a certain amount of misappre- hension on this view of the subject. A country may possess heaps of gold, and yet, in one sense, be poor ; while another (as was the case with Scotland during the last century) may possess scarcely any bullion, and yet be rich in all that constitutes real material wealth. Gold and sil- HOW SOCIETY GETS KICK. 25 ver are, indeed — apart from their metallic uses — only the representatives of wealth ; and in de- voting our consideration, therefore, in the present chapter, to the mode in which society grows rich, we shall have to deal with a state of mat- ters, much of which precedes the use of the precious metals in any form. In contemplating society as it is exhibited in the history of mankind, we find it universally progressive. Sometimes this tendency has been manifested chiefly in a fruitless struggle with outward obstacles, and still oftener the process has been arrested in the lapse of centuries by some political catastrophe ; but its existence is unquestionable. A number of emigrants fix upon some suitable spot as their future home : let us mark the result. Their stock consists at first merely of a few tools and weapons ; these, and the strong arms which are prepared to wield them, are the young foundations of wealth and empire. Soon the forest resounds with the woodman's ax, and the first step is presently taken in the path to greatness ; a village of mud- cottages, interspersed with patches of cultivated land, which is covered, as autumn advances, with its first harvest. Visit the same spot after the lapse of fifty years : those rude huts have given way to streets of brick or stone ; over the 26 MONEY. tops of the few trees which still remain as the hoary representatives of a fallen dynasty, the domes and turrets of civic structures meet the eye, while all around we see the fruits of indus- try in a profusion of gardens, orchards, corn- fields, and meadow-lands. Let another half- century pass by, and what see we now ? A spacious city, a mart of commerce, the floor of whose exchange is trodden by merchants from every clime. Wherever we turn our attention is attracted by objects of public interest, from countless mast-heads we see waving the colors of all nations, while our ears are incessantly dinned with the noise of the steam-engine or the rattle of the loom. The houses of the wealthy abound in evidences of intelligence and taste, and even the poorest — survey his cottage, examine his stock of food and clothing, and then say how much better is he off, in many respects, than the first settlers who cleared the first acre, and ate their first thrifty meal beneath the shelter of a log or mud-cabin. This is the process which has taken place wherever men have dwelt together, from the time when ^‘Asshur went forth and builded Nineveh,” down to the latest settlement among the prairies of the “far west.” Wherever in- telligence and industry join hands, a career of HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 2Y prosperity commences, something is continually won from the earth over and above what is re- quired for present wants ; this serves as a step- ping-stone to a still greater surplus, which be- comes in time productive of one still greater. Not only does wealth increase, but a correspond- ing expansion takes place in the physical and intellectual resources of the state ; science, phi- losophy, literature, and art exhibit the signs of regular and rapid growth. Discovery succeeds discovery, and every day renders all natural re- sources more completely subservient to the wants of man; splendor rears its halls and palaces, sculpture molds its monuments and statues, while poetry diffuses all around the harmonies of song. If we compare man as he appears in this advanced stage of civilization with his former self, when he reared his hut on the edge of the ^brest, we experience the same impressions as ivhen the eye passes from the sapling oak of yesterday to the still blooming veteran of a thousand winters. We feel that a glorious crea- tion has slowly acquired birth and being — a creation finer, perhaps, even than the old moun- «;ains and bottomless seas ; a commonwealth of men, a congress of kings ; and this result has been attained, not by theory, not by a laborious induction of facts, not by adopting any artificial 28 MONEY. system, not even by aiming deliberately at its accomplishment, but simply by obeying the practical impulses with which the human bosom is inspired. But some would deny that a highly civilized condition is either the happiest or the most natural to man. 'The savage state is lauded as preferable to ours, or at least that normal stage of civilization when women were all clad in russet and men in sober gray;’’ when, according to a pleasant fiction, all had enough, and none had anything to spare ; when architecture soared no higher than the thatched-cottage, and mankind seemed as if they begged permission to squat” upon the earth’s surface, instead of grasping its dominion with a master’s hand. To this we re- ply, that whatever attractions such a state may seem to wear, it is indebted for them exclusively to our own fancy. This faculty is sufficiently affluent to connect ideas of romance with a com- pany of naked savages, and construct an arca- dian republic out of tomahawks and wigwams. But such conceptions are merely poetic dreams. Man, in an uncivilized state, is ignorant, sensual, superstitious, and we know that such qualities cannot comport with happiness. Equally ground- less is the supposition that in a savage state the wants and resources of mankind were ever accu- HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 29 rately balanced. It might, perhaps, be safely asserted, that the possession of a bare compe- tence is only possible when society has become civilized. Society itself never pauses, it always fluctuates between progress and decay, and those principles which do not lead to wealth will soon plunge it in poverty. Five hundred years ago England was incomparably poorer than it is at present, but it does not appear that the struggle for subsistence was the less arduous. The poor man found as much labor required to feed his children with beans and barley as the factory-operative experiences in providing his family with the finest wheat en flour. The hard- est day’s work an Englishman is required to un- dergo, and for which he is remunerated with a thousand domestic comforts, is not half so hard as that which barely suffices to keep the North American Indian above the point of absolute starvation. Still less can it be said that such a primitive state is natural to man. A state of nature, when man is the theme, is not composed of nakedness, ignorance, penury, and brutal coarseness. It might be so if, as some philoso- phers have thought, the progenitors of the hu- man race crawled out of the ground like snails, or made their way up to humanity through a dreary set of piscatory and apish transmigrations. 30 MONEY. It would then be reasonable to suppose that their first scale of living was not much higher than the beaver’s, though even on this supposi- tion it would not follow that any stage of im- provement, short of the very highest, is his final goal. But the circumstances which attended man’s introduction to his earthly abode were so refined that a savage state could never be any- thing but an unspeakable degradation, an un- natural state, which he was bound, as soon as possible, to quit forever. On looking back, we obtain in paradise a faint glimpse of our true social elevation. Then man was happy, his men- tal faculties vigorous, and his outward condition all that could be desired. Civilization came, arrayed in her native radiance, and lavished her treasures on the holy pair. True, sin poured its vial on the lovely scene, and our next glimpse of man presents him to us in a sadly altered state ; but his natural elevation is still that of his early days, which, by a long redemptive pro- cess, must be reached again. Hence every de- partment of human progress is beheld centering in the same design ; the consolidation of society, the growth of wealth, the cultivation of science and art, combine with the specific influences of Christianity in restoring man to that which alone can be regarded as his proper and natural con- HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 31 dition, in raising the entire race to that pitch of moral and physical perfection which marked the commencement of its career. The first step in the acquisition of wealth is a recognition of the rights of 'property. These rights are not factitious ; they do not exist by virtue of any social compact; they are inherent in our nature, and all they ask from us is a rec- ognition of their validity. No doctrine in the compass of social science is more important than this. It is the key-stone of the arch which con- ducts us across the foaming abyss of chaos, and lands us on the rock of order. Deny these rights, and society falls to pieces ; admit them, and little more than their consistent application is required to raise it to the highest state of material well-being. A recognition of the rights of property tends to the acquisition of wealth, by insuring to every man the fruits of his own labor. Self-interest is the main- spring of social life. The mechanic, the merchant, the capitalist all agree in this ; each consults his own welfare, each asks, ‘‘ What will be most profitable to myself?’"' and this de- termines the fate of every transaction. All the exchanges at this moment taking place in the various marts of Europe have been arranged in the full confidence that they will prove advan- 32 MONEY. tageous to both the parties concerned, and a reasonable ^oubt of this on either side would have prevented them from being made. In con- templating the movements of self-interest, we stand in the engine-house of the world, and be- hold the power which moves a large portion of the machinery of human affairs. It is not our object now to vindicate this principle ; we be- lieve it, as we have before said, when regulated by Christian principle, to be legitimate and most beneficent : but let us simply look to facts. What merchant would sit up early and late in his counting-house if he knew that at the year’s end he was not to have the disposal of the fruits of his toil? What operative would rise cheer- fully at the sound of the factory-bell, stint his meal-hours, and perhaps work on till near mid- night, if he had no hope of receiving proportion- ably higher wages ? What prudent farmer would spend all his capital in improving his land if he knew he would be deprived of it at the next rent- day ? Such conduct would, under ordinary circumstances, be in the highest degree un- reasonable. Since the chief motive to labor arises from the prospect of owning its results, whatever tends to promote the security of property may be regard- ed as a source of wealth. The stronger the HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 33 guarantee afforded that whoever expends his la- bor in any enterprise shall reap its fruits, the likelier is it that society will grow richer. To the superior stability of every species of right in free states may we ascribe the commercial eminence they have generally attained. Enter- prise shrinks into inactivity beneath the touch of despotic power. Naboth’s vineyard was lost when it attracted the cupidity of Ahab ; and it is mentioned as a rare instance of magnanimity in an absolute sovereign that F rederick the Great of Prussia permitted a windmill to stand within sight of the royal palace, out of deference to the owner. The peasantry of Wallachia are said to exist in a state of the most abject wretched- ness, and yet it is believed that most of them have a hoard of gold in the vicinity of their dwellings. They are driven to wear this show of poverty by the extortionate conduct of their governors, whose tenure of office depends upon the amount of money they are able to wring from the people. It is instructive to reflect that, while money is thus suffered to lie unproductive beneath the soil, the Danube, which flows in the immediate neighborhood, is almost unnavigable for want of capital. But it is not political cor- ruption alone which, by rendering property inse- cure, prevents the acquisition of wealth; faction, 3 34 MONEY. revolutions, wars, crime, will produce the same effect. So also will those social arrangements which prevent the outlay of capital, by with- holding proper security for its remuneration. After the rights of property have been recog- nized, the next step in the acquisition of wealth is the appropriation of the soil. It has been found that wherever the land is held in common, no considerable improvement takes place in the condition of the people. Tribes who depend for their subsistence upon the earth’s raw produce, retain the same savage character for ages ; while those who settle upon and cultivate some one spot soon become civilized. The New-Englander enjoyed no advantages over the aboriginal tribes of North America ; the climate and geographi- cal peculiarities of the country were the same to all; yet while our Anglo-Saxon brethren have grown in two centuries to the proportions of a great nation, the native population has become all but extinct. One reason of this is obvious. The Saxon proceeded at once to a division of the land, giving every man a fixed portion to possess and cultivate, while the Indian still retains the nomadic habits of his ancestors. A country whose inhabitants subsist on its spontaneous prod- uce, must be very thinly peopled. This single fact is full of gloomy inferences. Scarcely any HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 35 intercourse can take place among such a people ; the very law of their existence is separation, the presence of any considerable number at the same spot being absolutely forbidden by the capacities of the soil. Thus forcibly held asunder, they soon become positively hostile to each other ; strangers to the cementing influence of fellow- ship in productive industry, they resemble two beasts of prey contending for the same heap of ofial. But these evils are not the worst ; we discover a truly tragic depth of misery in the necessity which exists for a constant curtailment of the population, so as to keep it within the limits fixed by a scarcity of food, for it is well- rfemarked by Adam Smith, that although poverty tends, in the first instance, to multiply rather than • diminish the human species, yet it is ex- tremely unfavorable to the rearing of them to maturity. The thinness of the population in a poor country proves, not that fewer in proportion are born, but that a greater number die. The importance of the appropriation of the soil, considered as a step in social progress, springs from the fact that all our wealth is de- rived ultimately from this source. The most necessary articles of subsistence, such as wheat, rice, and potatoes, are the immediate fruits of agriculture. Good pasturage is necessary to 36 MONEY. supply US with milk, cheese, and the various kinds of animal food. We should soon have no skins, no leather, no woolen clothing, no beasts of burden, if there were no vegetable produce. Flax, cotton, tea, coffee, are derived from the same source, and without the mulberry-tree the silk-worm would soon perish. The most splen- did furniture with which our drawing-rooms are adorned, may he traced to its home in the forest or the mine ; our fairest crystals once lay hid in the obscurity of sand and it)ck. Even the treasures of genius, themselves drawn from a higher source, must be unhoarded by earthen instruments. The poet’s pen was once a goose’s quill, the artist’s pencil is drawn from the cam- el’s hide ; and the very material to whose care the painter consigns his imperishable productions once waved in the cotton-fields of Georgia, or gamboled on a sheep’s back among sunshine and flowers. Imagine these varied gifts of the earth withdrawn, and how wretched would our condition become ! But trace them to their home, and we find them all springing from the application of labor to the soil under the law of self-interest. The world’s market is stocked with wealth, because some millions of land-own- ers find it profitable to develop the capabilities of the soil. But let all appropriation cease, and HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 37 every portion of it be as much the property of one man as another, and all activity would cease too ; we should sink from wealth to competence, from competence to scarcity, and from scarcity to ruin. Next to the recognition of the rights of prop- erty, and the appropriation of the soil, the most important step in the acquisition of wealth is the division of labor. The first guarantees the en- joyment of the fruits of labor, the second con- verts into property the material to which labor is applied, while the third increases the produc- tiveness of labor itself. Dr. Adam Smith ascribes the discovery of the principle of divided labor to the advantages which men would soon expe- rience in confining their attention to one kind of work. Archbishop Whately objects to this view, that it accounts for the continued applica- tion of the principle, but not for its first adop- tion, and traces the arrangement to its being found that many operations of the same kind could be carried on at the same time, and by the same means. Thus a person who had occa- sion to fetch a bucket of water from the spring could carry two buckets Avith little additional trouble, A courier between two towns could convey two hundred letters almost as easily as one. If a man required a few wooden pales in 38 MONEY. order to fence his garden, he would find that when the tree was cut down and severed in the required lengths, it would cost him comparative- ly little more trouble to supply his neighbor with the same article. Thus the principle could not fail to be discovered at the very outset of civilization, and when once discovered it was too valuable a boon to throw away. The increased productiveness of labor through the distribution of its various branches among as many different workmen, arises, according to Adam Smith, from the superior dexterity which a person soon acquires when he confines himself exclusively to one set of operations, from the time which is saved by keeping to the same routine of work, and the greater inventiveness which is produced by directing the attention chiefly to one department. A single pin is valueless to a proverb, yet on its way to the toilet it passes through eighteen distinct proc- esses, each of which, in large manufactories, is a separate branch of labor, and the cost of pro- duction is diminished by this means more than two hundred and fifty times. The vast increase of wealth and convenience which may be ascribed to the adoption of this simple principle is beyond conception. If the reader happens to be a lady, will she reflect a moment upon the history of HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 39 the material which sometimes constitutes her morning-dress? That fine cotton fabric could only have been produced by the labor of thousands. How many were employed in cul- tivating the original plant; in sowing, tending, picking it, and at last shipping its produce to the ports of Europe. The ship which brought it over the Atlantic is itself the representative of a series of distinct trades, including the woodman, the miner, the nailer, the carpenter, the rope- maker, and the weaver. From the merchant’s warehouse to the draper’s shop how many meta- morphoses did the cotton undergo? Two or three preparatory dressings, as many sets of spinners, then the weaver, bleacher, and calico- printer. But each of these includes in itself a crowd of distinct professions. What a complica- tion of contrivances is the mechanism employed, from the steam-engine to the spinning- jenny, the loom and the printing-machine ! What a history might be written on the various chemical proc- esses alone ; the preparation of the mordants, the procuring of the drugs, and the mixing of the colors ! How many designers are employed to sketch those elegant patterns which often hold the fair purchaser in suspense between equal beauties, and how much skilled labor is re- quired to transfer those patterns to the wooden- 40 MONEY. block or the copper-roller, before they can be stamped upon the cloth ! A curious instance of the numerous processes required to bring to perfection some articles of mere luxury is found in the history of the more expensive kinds of tobacco-pipes. The material itself, which is called ecume de mer, is a kind of fuller’s earth fi’om the south of Crim Tartary. The first rude shape is given to the pipes on the ground where the ma- terial is first dug, by pressing them into a mold, and leaving them to harden in the sun. They are then baked in an oven, boiled in milk, and rubbed with soft leather. In this state they are taken to Constantinople, where they are bought by merchants, and sent in caravans to Pesh, in Hungary. They are then soaked for twenty- four hours in water, after which they are turned upon a lathe. From Pesh they are taken to Vienna, whence they are distributed through the markets of Germany. If a person who makes two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, adds to the riches of mankind, how large an accession of wealth is due to an arrangement which makes labor many hundred times more productive than it would have been without it ! That this ar- rangement does increase the productiveness of labor is unquestionable. If every man had to HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 41 make his own clothes, graze his own cattle, kill his own meat, how heavy and slow would be the progress of society! We do that best and quickest which we do oftenest. But not only is increased facility the result of the division of labor ; by concentrating our attention on one process we discern more easily new and better ways of doing it. Hence the use of machinery may be ascribed to the same principle. Let no one think otherwise of this than of a great bless- ing ; so long as it is not labor that man wants, but the fruits of labor, whatever increases the productiveness of labor must be a benefit to mankind, since it must tend either to multiply their comforts or diminish their toil. An objec- tion has been urged against the division of labor that, by simplifying the work of the operative, it makes him a mere machine, and weakens his intellectual powers by not calling them into exercise. In our opinion such an objection is groundless. We may rest assured that the mind will always find something to do. The simpler the work on which a man is employed, the more freely may he allow his mind to revert to other and more pleasing topics, and the greater the mental elasticity he will carry into his leisure hours. A person whose sole employment during twelve hours has been to see that a machine 42 MONEY. does its work properly, must be in a far better condition for spending an hour at night over some bracing book than if he had performed that work himself. Besides, there can be no antagonism between good tendencies. If the instrument to which we are mainly indebted for our social comforts becomes, in proportion to its perfectness, the means of intellectual annihila- tion to those who employ it, where would be the wisdom of the social architect ? But expe- rience confutes the objection. We venture to say that there is not a more intelligent body of operatives in the world than that part of the population of Lancashire and Yorkshire which is engaged in the cotton and woolen manufactures ; while farm -laborers, whose occupations exem- plify, on the authority of Adam Smith, the divi- sion of labor to the least possible extent, have always been reckoned to be, as a body, inferior in point of mental activity to the mechanics of our large towns. Should it be said that this superiority is owing, not to the division of labor, but to the better opportunities of mental culture afforded in our large towns, we reply that large towns themselves, with their numberless ap- pliances of civilization, are the offspring of this very principle, and that we find here an addi- tional proof that the conditions of wealth and HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 43 popular intelligence are not opposed, but are in- variably and indissolubly one. The division of labor leads at once to exchange. When every person provided in the best way he could for his own wants, he had no occasion to barter with his neighbor. His condition might not be one of comfort, but it was at least one of independence. As soon, however, as each con- fined himself to one department of labor, his independence was at an end. Yery few of his personal wants could be supplied by his own exertions, and for the rest he would have to seek the cooperation of others. The smith, for in- stance, who worked all day long at his forge, would make many more nails than he would re- quire for his own use, but he would stand in need of food and clothing — articles which could not be produced within the walls of his smithy. The farmer, the butcher, the grocer, would each find himself in a similar position ; they would respectively have more grain, more meat, and more sugar than they would be able to consume themselves, while each would stand in need of what the others could supply. In these circum- stances exchange would naturally take place. This process, however, is merely a matter of convenience. It does not increase the aggregate results of labor ; it simply aflfects their ownership, 44 MONEY. but at the same time it develops a new prin- ciple whi:h occasions a positive increase of wealth. It is plain that, since all wealth is the produce of labor, the productiveness of labor is just the measure of wealth, and whatever insures that labor shall always be expended so as to be most productive must be a valuable aid to social progress. This useful principle is competition. This principle, though acting with the greatest force in the most civilized communities, must have exerted a powerful influence even in the earliest times. Things soon began to be dis- tinguished as cheap or dear, and traders in- stinctively exercised their prerogative of carry- ing their commodities where they would fetch the most. If it were not for this wholesome check, no prudential obligations would lie upon the producer. He might turn his attention to pursuits for which he had no natural aptitude ; he would have no powerful motive to economy, industry, and self- culture ; secure of a market, whatever the quality or the amount of his own exertions, he would soon become careless and inactive. On such a system we should have no guarantee that society put forth one-half its energies, or that the energy it actually put forth was not wasted by being misapplied. Compe- tition renders these evils impossible. Its ten- HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 45 dency is twofold — to force both individuals and nations into those departments of effort for which they are most fitted, and to compel them to put forth the largest possible amount of skill and labor. Such coercion may not be altogether pleasant, but it is salutary ; as much so for the individual as for the state. A crusade has been waged for some time past, with a considerable measure of popular applause, against the principle of competition, and clamorous demands are made for its exclu- sion from the social code. No doubt competition is a principle which requires to be regulated by Christian maxims ; but we must demur to the propriety or even the possibility of complying with the above demand. The most direct way of acceding to it would be to fix the lowest price at which articles shall be sold ; but what would be the effect of such a step ? It would certainly enable the imprudent or inferior trades- man to sell his goods at more than their natural price, but the difference would be so much ab- stracted from the pocket of the purchaser. Not only would he have to pay more, but the extra price would indicate a corresponding amount of clear loss in the aggregate amount of social wealth, inasmuch as fewer inducements would be held out to ingenuity and effort. If such an 46 MONEY. arrangement were adopted in one trade, it ought to be allowed in all. The most incompetent craftsman ought to be allowed the privilege of fixing the exchangeable value of his productions. But it is plain that this would be a system of virtual pauperism, and that society would thus inflict upon itself a huge tax on behalf of those who least deserved such a boon. But instead of fixing the price of commodities, a more complicated expedient has been proposed. It has been suggested that, instead of each en- deavoring to surpass the rest, all should work in common, contributing to, and drawing upon, a common fund. This is pure socialism, the prin- ciples of which we have before noticed, and lit- tle danger need be apprehended from such a source. The principle which is now opposed to competition is cooperation, and to this our re- marks will be confined. The cooperative theory, if we may judge from recent experiments, is al- together distinct from socialism, and ought not to assume the same name. A number of indi- viduals belonging to a common profession agree to raise money among themselves, or on mutual credit, with a view to engage in business on their own account. Such an association may be some- what novel in its aim, but the principle on which it is founded has been carried out in numberless HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 47 instances by individuals who would have repudi- ated any approximation to socialism. It is, in fact, a joint-stock company, the members of which agree to work themselves, and so secure double profits. It is a mistake, however, to speak of cooperation and competition as things opposed. Competition is thoroughly coopera- tive, and the success of cooperation depends upon its being thoroughly competitive. A firm composed of fifty partners acts as much on the principle of competition as if there were only two. Among themselves they are cooperative, but the point at which they dovetail with socie- ty is and must be competitive. If, therefore, society can be rescued from its miseries only by putting down competition, it is evident that co- operative associations do not touch the case. To cooperative associations thus simply con- stituted, and resting for success entirely upon the excellence and cheapness of their produc- tions, no objection, as far as principle is con- cerned, can be preferred. The chief effect of such associations would be to add so many more to the existing number of competitors, and thus increase the severity of competition. But one all-important question yet remains, — Will they answer ? The prudential test is the only one which can be properly applied ; but this, we fear. 48 MONEY. must prove decisive. Destitute of special privi- leges, forced to obey the inexorable laws of po- litical economy, it is difficult to imagine how they can succeed, considering the peculiar per- ils to which they are exposed. Either the adop- tion of a too popular basis will prevent business being transacted with the requisite measure of rapidity and precision, or else the entire concern will be left to the discretion of a few individuals, in which case it will insensibly slide into their own hands. If we may take one with which we were to some extent personally acquainted as an illustration of the manner in which all are carried on, our hopes of their success would be far from sanguine. Every question was there settled by ‘‘ universal suffrage,” — a principle which, whatever it may be in politics, is obvious- ly inapplicable to business. Not a farthing was disposed of without putting it to the test of a lengthy discussion ; and very often, before the members determined what course to take, the time for action had gone by. It was also pain- ful to mark a jealousy of superior abilities, and a preference, in making official appointments, for men whom the rest could easily ‘^manage,” rath- er than those whose talents would be likely to insure success. Those members of the society whose intellects were not the brightest, were apt HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 49 to imagine that a plot lay hid beneath every proposal they could not comprehend ; yet still, tenacious of their rights as partners, they were determined that no measure should be adopted which did not force their assent, and thus they became a mere set of obstructives.” An in- telligent and highly-skilled mechanic, who once belonged to the association adverted to, assured us that if his own business were carried out on the same principles, it would not be worth a shilling in six months. The last step in the progress of wealth is in- ternational commerce. The immediate occasion of this is found in the difference which exists between the productions of various climes, and their general suitableness to the use of man. Perhaps no two soils can be found which, in re- turn for the same amount of labor, bring forth the same article in the same degree of perfec- tion. Countries consisting of low alluvial plains find pasturage most profitable ; those which en- joy a dry soil and clear atmosphere abound in grain. Some situations are peculiarly favorable to the vine ; others to flax, cotton, or the sugar- cane ; while others, owing to their mineral treas- ures and peculiar geographical advantages, are most suited to manufactures. While the produc- tions of different nations are so various, all men 4 50 MONEY. have nearly the same wants. The tea which pleases the Chinaman is a luxury in Britain; while British cutlery, earthenware, and textile produce find a ready market in any part of the earth. Providence seems by this arrangement to have provided for the friendly intercourse of mankind, and in proportion as it has been recog- nized and carried out have the best interests of mankind been promoted. The tendency of com- merce is to diminish the frequency of war, and, next to the special influences of the gospel, is the most powerful agent in the work of civilizing the globe. The pecuniary advantages of commerce con- sist in its enabling us to exchange articles which cost us little labor for others which, though per- haps equally inexpensive in the country where they were produced, would require here a much larger outlay ; and when two nations mutually exchange their cheapest productions for those which, if produced at home, would be the dear- est, the greatest possible addition is made in that instance to the wealth of the world. This state- ment admits of a simple illustration. It is well known that oranges are imported in large quan- tities into England from Spain and Portugal ; but it is not impossible to grow oranges here at home. By special care they may readily be pro- HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 51 duced in hot-houses, as the gardens of our no- bility attest ; but as they cannot be produced at nearly so low a rate as that at which they can be imported, their domestic cultivation is con- fined to the purposes of horticultural science. If they could not be produced at home for less than twopence a piece, while at Seville they could be purchased for a halfpenny, and the ex- pense of their carriage would not be more than their original cost, it is evident that by going to a foreign market we should effect a saving to the amount of one-half. If we had previously expended half a million annually in the growth of oranges, we should, by turning importers, save £250,000, and should be richer to precisely that amount. But it may happen that at Seville, while oranges are cheap, cotton cloth is dear. By manufacturing the article at home it might cost them twenty shillings a-piece, while we could afford to let them have it for one-fourth of that sum. Hence, instead of receiving pay- ment for their oranges in money, they would find it more advantageous to take the amount in goods of that description. These might be sold in Seville at least fifty per cent, cheaper than the home manufacture, and would involve a clear saving of one-half their annual outlay in cotton goods. Thus, in commerce, both parties are 52 MONEY. benefited, and their joint profits represent the clear increase which it contributes to the aggre- gate wealth of mankind. From the very earliest times it has been the practice of nations to exchange with each other. The silver with which Abraham bought the field and cave of Machpelah is called ‘‘ current money of the merchant and the Ishmaelites, to whom Joseph was sold, were carrying spices into Egypt. As exchange is mutually profitable, separation is the chief hindrance to commerce, and hence camels and ships were always its efficient pro- moters, the former bridging the desert, and the latter the sea. The Phcenicians were the navigators and merchants of the old world ; they were carriers and barterers for all nations. Tyre and Sidon were flourishing commercial cities in the time of Solomon, and both seem to have engaged with that monarch in several commercial enterprises. The celebrated Tadmor, whose ruins still prolong something of its former magnifi- cence, was probably built with the view of pro- moting the caravan-trade between Palestine and the Persian Gulf. From Eziongeber, a port on the Red Sea, a fleet, conducted by Syrian navi- gators, sailed to Ophir and Tarshish, and brought back to Solomon and the king of Tyre apes, ivory, peacocks, and gold. It is thought that HOW SOCIETY GETS RICH. 53 the Hebrew term hedil, in the book of Numbers, should be rendered tin. The brass’’ which was employed in making the utensils of Solo- mon’s temple, like that which was extensively used among the Greeks, was in reality bronze, or a mixture of iron and tin ; but this latter metal the ancients obtained exclusively from Spain or the British Isles. The Romans were never a mercantile people, and with the excep- tion of Alexandria, no city appears to have risen to special commercial eminence, till Venice rose amidst the waters of the Adriatic. The Crusades stimulated the desire for intercourse with the east, and poured a golden tide into the coffers of the wary merchants of St. Mark. Then, as in olden times, the treasures of India were brought to the shores of the Mediterranean, from whence they were carried by the Venetian ships to the various markets of Western Europe. The discovery of America in the fifteenth century opened a new field for commercial enterprise ; and the discovery of the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope, transferred for a time the commercial scepter to the Portuguese. On the emancipation of the Netherlands from the Spanish yoke, the flame of commercial enterprise burst forth in the United Provinces. The Dutch flag waved on the shores of Africa, Asia, and the new world, but in its 54 MONET. turn drooped before that of England. England has long been the commercial metropolis of the globe ; her ships are carriers for the world ; her manufacturing energy, seeking an outlet for itself, has opened channels of intercourse with the most distant and barbarous lands. But the English would not wish, if it were possible, to be alone in this magnificent work. Their brethren of the United States, true to their origin, and backed by natural resources, in some respects superior to those of Britain, will soon be by their side. Let both welcome each other to the post of honor, and inscribe on the flag which they jointly bear in the van of the world’s progress — ‘‘ One INDISSOLUBLY ONE IN JUSTICE AND LOVE FOREVER.” CHAPTER HI. THE CHEMISTRY OF MONEY : A FEW WORDS ABOUT CAPITAL. We have considered in their natural order of development the various steps which lead to the acquisition of wealth : we now proceed to con- sider the same subject in another and still more interesting point of view ; with regard, namely. THE CHEMISTRY OF MONEY. 65 to the two coefficients which always concur in its production. Capital and labor may be re- garded as twin powers, born at the same mo- ment, gifted with the same length of existence, fitted to accomplish in concert what neither could possibly accomplish by itself. So far from being opposed, they are necessarily cooperative, and whatever fluctuations await them in society, they must live or die together. Labor is the parent of capital, and capital is the soul of labor. De- stroy either, and the acquisition of wealth be- comes a vanishing dream. 1. What is capital ? We will suppose a num- ber of persons intent upon reclaiming fifty or sixty acres of that boggy land which abounds in the west of Ireland. The task we shall suppose is considered practicable. Appropriate manures are abundant and within easy reach. A certain method of procedure will assuredly bring this wet and rotten soil into a condition fit for bear- ing the best produce. But twelve months must pass away before any results can be ob- tained, and several years before the projectors’ expectations can be fully realized. How, then, shall the laborers be sustained in the meantime ? Their families will daily need food and clothing, they themselves will require tools to work with, as well as horses and carts for the conveyance 56 MONEY. of soil. The ground, as it is reclaimed, must be fenced off, and superfluous moisture carried away by means of drainage. It is certain that, how profitable soever the enterprise might prove, un- til these resources are provided from some quar- ter, it cannot possibly be undertaken. Laborers may offer themselves by thousands, some such employment may be their only refuge from ab- solute starvation ; but the condition is imperative — some person must find them implements and food ; deny this and they may perish in the midst of natural affluence. The necessity for capital is still more evident in the case of manu- factures, since here it is requisite to provide materials as well as tools and sustenance. To- morrow morning a hundred thousand persons will proceed to the factories of Manchester ; but what would they do if, on reaching their respective places of employment, they found no employer to receive them, no materials, no machines, no workshops ? Perhaps their first impulse would be to commence working for themselves ; but how many obstacles would rise in opposition to this design ! Factories must be erected, mate- rials purchased, and costly machines set up. When their ingenuity and labor had converted these raw materials into useful articles, they would be no nearer the end of their exertions THE CHEMISTRY OF MONEY. 51 till money or other commodities had been pro- cured in exchange. Even this might not prove a very easy matter. No doubt articles of real utility may generally be sold at some price, but there are seasons when this price would do no more than defray the cost of material, if it did even that, leaving nothing for the laborer ; and goods, if they are to remunerate the owner, must be kept back to await a higher demand. Hence labor is useless without some fund out of which the laborer can be provided with tools and materials, as well as sustenance for himself and family, till his labor has actually become productive ; and everything which furnishes those resources, everything which is employed in set- ting the laborer to work, whether it is fixed in buildings and machinery, or fioating in the shape of money between manufacturer and merchant, master and man, is called capital. 2. Let us now ask. How is capital produced ? The original source to which the production of capital must be ascribed, is the liberal return which, in the arrangements of our Creator, the earth makes to any one who bestows labor upon it. Referring to the illustration already adduced, if the produce of fifty acres, which we supposed a number of persons to be bent upon reclaiming from the bogs of Ireland, was only sufiScient to 58 MONEY. replace, without surplus, what had actually been expended in raising it, those persons would necessarily be obliged to confine their efforts to the quantity of land at first inclosed. Twelve months’ produce being only able to keep them during an equal period, they would live, to use an expressive saying, from hand to mouth, with nothing to spare. If this had been the case universally, not only could mankind never have grown rich, but, if the present laws which regu- late the increase of the human race had been in force, they must always have pined in misery, since there never could have been any surplus on which to maintain families, or maintain the laborer till his labor became remunerative. But Providence has ordained a very diflferent state of things. The produce of fifty acres is found sufficient not only to cover the cost of production, but to furnish a wide margin of profits. The Irish cultivators would find themselves at the year’s end not only repaid for the money which had been expended on food, clothing, and im- plements, but possessed of a considerable quan- tity of commodities to be disposed of as they saw fit. They might now look beyond their fifty acres ; having saved enough to support several additional laborers during the next twelve months, they might inclose a larger plot of ground, THE CHEMISTRY OF MONEY. 59 of which, at the end of the year, they would naturally possess the profits. It is plain that no limits need be set to such a process but those which spring from the capabilities of the soil. They might go on, bringing district after district into cultivation, until their farms inclosed all the waste land in the country. The annual surplus might then be turned into other channels, em- ployed in shipping, mining, manufactures, or any other remunerative pursuit, the aggregate amount always increasing, and its capacities accordingly always becoming greater. All existing capital arose in this manner. It was at one time or other saved out of the results of labor and pre- vious capital, and the earliest capital was that which God provided in the spontaneous produc- tions of the earth which sustained a sparse popu- lation during the first operations of agriculture. Capital thus springs originally from the pro- lific abundance of the earth’s natural resources — from the goodness of the Creator, who has ordained that wherever man puts forth his five talents they shall presently be increased to ten. It is useful, however, to regard it as savings, as the excess of income beyond expenditure, since the production of capital is thus exhibited in con- nection with our own personal efforts. When, in a primitive state of society, the husbandman, 60 MONEY. after replacing the com and clothing required while awaiting the harvest, found sufficient grain in his store-house to supply the wants of the coming season, he had so much capital ; and if the mechanic who receives twenty shillings weekly manages to put by two shillings out of that sum, he adds by so much to the national capital ; his weekly savings increase the fund which can be employed in the remuneration of labor. Every properly economical act has the same tendency. Every farthing legitimately rescued from expen- diture helps to provide a fund from which may be drawn the means of more largely increasing trade, and raising the demand for labor ; and money, however invested, whether in building- clubs, freehold land societies, an insurance office, or the savings’ bank, becomes an efficient servant to the commonwealth. Those institutions do not suffer it to lie idle ; it is at once put out to the most profitable use — that in which it will, in its turn, yield the largest increase to existing capital. 3. We have seen that capital thus produced has a natural tendency to accumulate ; let us glance at the chief circumstances which favor or retard its accumulation. One point most essen- tial to the accumulation of capital is the supply of cheap materials. Other things being equal, a THE CHEMISTRY OF MONEY. 61 countiy where the raw staple of manufactures is most abundant must beat its neighbors in the chase of wealth. It seldom happens, however, that this equality exists. We see here one of the many proofs of a harmony of interests per- vading the entire conditions of humanity. Raw materials being generally the products of agri- culture, are cheapest in a country but thinly populated. There, however, skilled labor is the dearest. In a populous country, on the other hand, labor is comparatively cheap, but raw materials are dear. Thus, in the United States cotton must be cheaper by the cost of carriage than it is at Liverpool ; but the superior cheap- ness of labor in England nevertheless enables that country to manufacture cotton goods at less cost than the Americans. Equal in importance with cheap material is the natural price of labor — that price which capi- tal can afford to pay and yet remain profitable. This price is regulated by laws as fixed as those which determine the relation of electricity and thunder, or the flow and ebb of the tides. La- bor, like every other commodity, like capital itself, finds its own level. Any attempt, by arti- ficial means, to raise it above that point, is as unwise as to resolve that water shall not freeze when its temperature sinks below freezing-point. 62 MONEY. When wages can ascend above any given rate, they necessarily will ascend above it, and the at- tempts to prevent this would be as futile as to stop the progress of the tides. Strikes are not necessary to ascertain the proper price of labor. When capital can afford higher wages, it soon becomes its interest to offer them. It would, too, be well if the forcible measures which are frequently put in operation to raise wages were simply unsuccessful ; but in proportion as they are persevered in they cripple capital, they di- minish the only fund which can pay wages, and the entire carrying out of the theory on which they are based would consummate the ruin of trade and the commercial downfall of the coun- try. National prosperity is not guaranteed by any special law. No two petty shop-keepers in a country village are more thoroughly competi- tive in their mutual relations than, for example, England and the United States. O Facilities of cheap and rapid intercourse are an important auxiliary to the growth of capital. The goods of a manufactimer, except the very small portion he may retain for his own use, are only valuable as they can find a market, and the expense of sending them to market must be reckoned into the cost of production. Cartage forms a familiar item of expense in building THE CHEMISTRY OF MONEY. 63 operations, and every farmer reckons that the virtual price of manure depends upon the dis- ^tance he may have to send for it. In some countries the want of roads presents insuperable barriers to commerce. The interior of Mexico, for instance, abounds in vegetable produce, which would find a ready sale for exportation if it could only be brought down to the coast ; but such are the difficulties in the way of inland communication, that the price of wheat is often found to be doubled within the compass of a few miles. The principal obstacle to the cultivation of cotton in India is the want of cheap and easy modes of conveyance. In bringing it over the vast plains of Hindostan, so large an addition would be made to its original cost, as to leave no chances of its competing successfully with that which we import from th§ United States. The immense sums invested in highways, canals, and railroads, present in a very striking light the ex- pensiveness of carriage. At the close of 1850 there were six thousand three hundred miles of railway in operation in Great Britain, which had been executed at an average cost of $200,000 per mile, involving a total expenditure of $1,250,- 000,000. The railway receipts for the year 1851 amounted to $75,000,000, a great part of which was spent in merely changing the localities of 64 MONEY. things, without adding anything to their intrinsic value. We see here the immense advantage of cheap intercourse. An arrangement which would diminish the expense of carriage one-half, would add from one source alone between seven and eight millions annually to the national wealth. But speed is as important an element in locomo- tion as cheapness ; or rather, a slow process cannot be cheap. While goods are in the act of transfer they are dead to commerce ; they are of no use to the buyer, the seller, or any one else. It would be deemed a great sacrifice to lend a person $250,000 for three months without interest, yet goods in passing from place to place resemble money thus lent. Every tradesman knows the value of quick returns.’^ $2,000, if it can be turned over three times in the course of twelve months, wil^ be more profitable than $5,000 which returns to the coffers of its owner only once in that period. The invention of rail- ways, by shortening the time of transit, tends to promote quick returns. A merchant who orders goods of the manufacturer may now receive them, sell them again, and make another pur- chase with the money obtained in exchange in less time than would formerly have elapsed be- fore their delivery. 4. Let us now glance at the relation which THE CHEMISTRY OF MONEY. 65 exists between capital and the remuneration of labor. This is an important aspect of the sub- ject, and one which borrows peculiar interest from the circumstances of the present time. When the workman is told that cheap labor is essential to the accumulation of capital, he is apt to ask indignantly. Whether labor is to be bound hand and foot in order to be offered as a victim at the shrine of capital ? Whether the poor man is to toil for a mere pittance in order to make a rich man richer? Such bitter recrimination is altogether groundless ; it is the fruit of a misun- derstanding. The interests of capital and labor are not antagonistic ; it is not necessary to offer the one as a holocaust to the other. The cheapest labor which can be wanted is labor at its natural price, and a higher price than this cannot be asked without damaging the interests of the em- ployer, and, through him, the workman. It is difficult to say whether a proceeding which fet- ters capital, and thus renders it less accumulative, is more injurious to the master or the workman, since it tends to destroy that without which wages of any amount are impossible. The accumulation of capital tends directly and necessarily to raise the rate of wages, un- derstanding by that term the command of the conveniences of life which a man receives in re- 5 MONEY. turn for his labor. Sometimes a higher pecuni- ary equivalent may be obtained in some branches of labor during the infancy of capital, before the principle of competition has come fairly into play ; but competition, in proportion as it lowers the nominal rate of wages, increases their exchangea- ble value by lowering the price of commodities. Rapidly accumulating capital must evidently have the double effect of increasing the demand for labor, and sharpening the struggle for cheap- ness. If the profits of the past year enabled one thousand employers each to put $25,000 into his business, they would instantly want more men, since $25,000,000 more money would have to be expended in the erection of work-shops, the purchase of materials, and the payment of labor. If they found a sufficient number of per- sons to suit their purpose already unemployed, there would be so many less to compete with those who are in employment; but if all were already employed, they would have to attract workmen by giving higher wages. Thus every addition which is made to the capital of the country tends directly either to keep wages from sinking, or to raise them higher. But such an augmentation of capital reacts upon the real remuneration of labor in another way. A thou- sand manufacturers, each employing more money THE CHEMISTRY OF MONEY. 61 and more hands, will produce a greater quantity of goods, and this increased production, unless the demand increase in the same ratio, must render them cheaper. No doubt competition acts on wages too, by forcing the employer to economize in every direction, but its tendency to depress wages is trivial compared with its cheapening power. There is a limit below which the price of labor cannot sink, but no limit has yet been found to the cheapness of production. By improvements in agriculture, mechanical in- ventions, and an extended market, we know not what luxuries may be brought within the reach of the working-man. In this respect a vast change has taken place within the present century. Is not the home of the industrious and provident artisan, in many cases, a palace compared with what it would have been fifty years ago ? Pine has given way to mahogany ; he treads on carpets instead of sand. When weary he reclines on a sofa, or throws himself, it may be, in his spring- bottomed arm-chair. His own dress is of superfine broadcloth, and his wife regards silk as no special luxury. If he is a reading man, every month brings him a packet of magazines ; and perhaps at times he recreates his family by the sea-side. Such things could not have been done formerly ; they are the direct 68 MONEY. result of capital and competition, the share which has accrued to labor from the increase which has taken place in the national wealth. The action of capital, as one of the fa ply to all the best means of doing it. Few per- sons comprehend all the bearings of a bargain so well as a disinterested spectator ; and he ap- proaches the nearest to such a character who uses the world without being enslaved by it, and in whose mind the interest of present things is properly balanced by the interests of futurity. One reason why private prayer is so little resorted to by men of business is, that its ob- servance is seldom made a matter of arrange- ment. It is left to chance, and is generally deferred to the end of the day, when both mind and body are ordinarily so enfeebled as to render it of little use. But this should not be. Inde- pendently of evening devotion and that ejacula- tory prayer which ought to be interwoven through the whole business of life, a part of the day, in which the mind and body are freshest, should be set apart for communion with God. What season could be more appropriate for this than early morn ? What more beautiful than, before the intrusion of worldly cares and tempta- tions, to fortify the mind by the perusal of the divine word, and supplication for grace to help us in the hour of need ? Business is irritating ; 174 MONEY. mistakes, disappointments, losses, are daily oc- curring to task the temper ; how wise, then, before entering upon it, to ascend the mount of celestial fellowship, and seek strength from Christ to honor him through the day ! Such a course would make our piety burn brighter, and Christians, through the medium of business, would be the means of recommending religion most powerfully to the common-sense and com- mon sympathies of mankind. CHAPTER VI. MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN ! BENEVOLENCE SPEAKING BY EXAMPLE. We have spoken of the fallacies and failings of moneyed men ; but a more pleasing duty remains now for us, namely, the contemplation of money as a talent laid out upon right principles for the service of the great Creator. The possession of money has been often coveted even by men des- titute of religious principles, who recognized it as a powerful instrument for the amelioration of society. How much more, then, must this great talent commend itself to the Christian, as the MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. 175 agency by which his Master’s cause may be largely advanced ! Let the worldling long for affluence, that he may gratify avarice, sensuality, luxury, political ambition, or a fastidious taste — ■ the Christian, blessed with wealth, can show him a more excellent way. By the aid of this talent, he knows that he may make war against igno- rance, intemperance, ungodliness, and the mon- ster evils that infest society. At home there is disease to heal, modest merit to reward, strug- gling industry to foster, and, above all, the glo- rious gospel to diffuse. ‘‘By money,” to use the language (slightly modified) of a vigorous writer, “ he may open a set of books with Heaven, becoming the Lord’s steward for man’s redemption from suffering and crime, laying up his treasures where neither moth, nor rust, nor thieves can approach them. Not a cultured imagination alone, but reason, conscience, relig- ion — all have taught him that the finest and most elegant of all the arts is to paint smiles upon the wan cheeks of suffering infancy; to quench the demon fire of passion that blazes from the eye of precocious wantonness, and kindle in its stead the serene light that radiates from, a fount of inward purity ; to hang round and preoccupy the chambers of the juvenile mind with all types and images of loveliness 176 MONEY. and excellence ; and to build up all tbe glorious faculties, as in colossal architecture, to some nearer resemblance to the divine original. Rea- son, conscience, religion — all have taught him that when starving babes shall no longer wail for sustenance upon the starving mother’s breast ; when blasphemy and obscenity shall no longer be the lullaby with which the intemperate father or mother lulls infancy to sleep ; when parental wickedness shall no longer teach falsehood to the youthful tongue, and theft and violence to the youthful hand ; when the infinite woes and agonies of earth, which its superfluous wealth and its wasted time might largely prevent, shall cease to be — then may opulence seek its gratifi- cation in festivity, or in capricious self-indul- gence, without incurring enormous guilt.” Example, however, is by far the best teacher of admitted, but unpracticed truths. Lucid statements and powerful arguments may be useful in extending the bounds of conviction ; but if the conscience already admits the validity of any precept, then the most effectual method of extending its practical influence is to present it enshrined in some living form. Such a mode of winning attention has many advantages. It is unobtrusive ; it does no violence to prejudice ; instead of taking the garrison by storm, it invites MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. l77 an honorable capitulation. Sometimes a person will be withheld by a feeling of pride from acknowledging himself beaten in controversy, but even pride is disarmed by the voiceless force of example. Some persons are so constituted, that when others point out to them any error, they begin at once to disprove the charge, and will rather continue wrong than consent that another shall set them right. Such conduct is censurable. Surely he who faithfully points out our faults, and helps us to amend them, is our best friend. Even if our bitterest enemy choose to favor us with criticisms on our conduct, pro- vided only he speak the truth, we shall have to thank him for his pains. But example effects its object by avoiding these dangers. Its rebukes are silent ; it fights with Socratic weapons, and makes its antagonists their own conquerors. Happily for the world, it is not yet devoid of great examples. Flattery is hateful, but it is possible to be extravagant in deprecation as well as in praise. Our impression of human imperfection leads us sometimes to speak as if there were no Christian excellence left among us ; as if the triumphs which divine grace can win over the selfishness of man’s heart were? the exclusive trophy of apostolic times; and those heaven-born principles were extinct, which in- 12 178 MONEY. duced the fishermen and publicans of Galilee to leave all at the invitation of the great Teacher, and induced the early converts to sell their possessions,’^ and count their temporal happiness and wealth but loss for Christ.” But such is not the case. Carping skeptics, who wish to reconcile their real hatred of Chris- tianity with some measure of respect for its Founder, may denounce the religion of the present day as so much ill-disguised hypocrisy ; but nevertheless it is impossible to deny the ex- istence among us of characters which, though, like everything human, far from being perfect, exhibit a measure of excellence which nothing but religion received into the heart as a vital reality will satisfactorily explain. It is not a boast — of such things God forbid that we should glory ! — it is an averment made in sheer self- defense, that Christian men, while falling, and in the estimation of no one more than themselves, far below the standard of holiness revealed in Christ, frequently make sacrifices for the welfare of mankind such as infidelity could never prompt. These sacrifices too are made, not under the influence of any sentiment which could be branded as fanaticism, but by men whom the skeptic is bound to respect — who exhibit in their common life intelligence as extensive, a MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. lY9 logic as severe, a shrewdness as all-observant, and a temperament as sober as his own. Our object, however, is not to obviate the cavils of the skeptic, but to stimulate the Chris- tian to greater excellence ; and this we propose to do by bringing to his notice two or three instances of departed worth, which may be the means, perhaps, of keeping before his eye, and thus rendering familiar to him, a standard to which he has not yet attained. It is a salutary employment to muse upon the excellences of those now gone to their reward, till they expand before us into life-like reality. Such visions be- come our best companions ; they accompany us into the crowded city, stand by us in the press of business, .speak to us words of counsel audible to none besides, and continually admonish us to follow them even as they followed Christ. One of the most decisive tests of a person’s Christian liberality is afforded by the question — How much (not in absolute amount, but as com- pared with what remains) does he give to God ? To apply this test, however, it is necessary to recognize clearly the characteristics of Christian benevolence. It is easy to give away a great deal, and give it also to excellent objects, and yet to give nothing to God, Here the motive de^ cides all. Christian beiievplence springs from a 180 MONEY. sense of God’s ownership in ourselves and in everything we possess. It recognizes this fact: God is the sovereign Master of all things : man is but the recipient and steward of his bounty. He whose hand joined cause and effect, endowed us with those faculties which enable us to amass wealth, and constituted that agreement between our organization and external objects which is the source of so much pleasure, can never relin- quish his right to the proprietorship of the world. He lays his hand at once on every atom; his omnipotence ever rests' in immediate contact with unsentient beings, and secures abstract admira- tion and entire subservience to his will. Man was intended to be no less under this control, but his subjection must be voluntary. What God enforces from material nature man must give. Bowing with all his possessions at the footstool of Infinite mercy, it is incumbent on him to say — “ Lord, I am thine ; these also are thine ; I can call nothing my own ; teach me the duties of my stewardship ; let me know what thou wouldest have me do.” The chief motive, however, which induces the Christian to give his property to God is expressed by the apostle in one sentence — The love of Christ constraineth us.” The life of Christ was one sweet, overpowering manifestation of divine MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. 181 love. His sympathies extended themselves to every form of wretchedness ; the poor, the hungry, the diseased, the disconsolate, were the objects on whom he poured the treasures of his compassion ; while in the last act of his self- sacrificing career he gave the noblest instance of disinterestedness which the world ever saw. Love to Christ makes us like Christ. There is a transmuting power in love ; it is the souTs al- chemy ; it melts and fuses us into its own pure forms. Christ loved man ; this is the chief ele- ment of his surpassing beauty ; we cannot, there- fore, love him without loving man too. Hence love is the soul of Christianity, without which, however vast our knowledge or great our powers, we are but ''as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.’’ Springing from such motives, Chris- tian benevolence is necessarily distinguished by the manner in which it is exercised. Christ pre- scribed this in one simple rule : — When thou doest thine alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth giving for the sake of giving, not for the sake of being seen to give ; giving from duty, not expediency ; a benevo- lence which would be satisfied if all its gifts were received in the dark, and no subscription -list chronicled the name of the giver. But it is by the spirit, not the letter, of this precept that we 182 MONEY. are bound. True, there is a peculiar charm in the private exercise of charity. How rich a treasure, shut up in the silence of oui; bosom, is a benevolent action, which has caused, perhaps, the widow’s heart to leap for joy, or assisted some one to grapple successfully with difiiculties which would else have crushed him ! But in many cases such a method of giving is not de- sirable. Secrecy is not required in order to present a munificent donation on Christian prin- ciples ; on the contrary, it may be often neces- sary, for the sake of example, that a gift should be publicly bestowed. In such a case it is a spiritual triumph to give it publicly, and yet feel that no part of the motives flowed from the anticipated publicity. If a person has any ap- prehension that his heart will be vain of his munificence, it is doubtless advisable in such cir- cumstances to expend it privately ; but it would be far better if his principles were strong enough to give publicly, and yet permit him to feel no self-complacency in the act. It is difficult to prescribe minute rules for giving; we are by no means presumptuous enough to attempt the task. Still, there are certain principles of giving which are obviously wrong, and there are certain modes of giving which clearly prove that the principles acted on MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. 183 are those very wrong ones. Who, for example, has not been struck with the uniformity of ac- counts which characterizes the subscription-lists of our religious institutions ? Those guineas in single file,^^ which would lead us to suppose that the donors had been laid on a Procrustes’ bed, and their affluence clipped down or extended to the same bulk. But is it so ? Should we not often find that one of those guineas proceeded from a purse which could easily have spared a dozen more, while the other, perhaps, was the offering of a piety so believing and earnest that it set aside the considerations which might pos- sibly have been a justification for giving less ? If benevolence always proceeded from true love to Christ, our subscription-lists would soon wear a different aspect. There would be less of the contagion of giving proceeding from without, less desire manifested to ‘Mo the same as others,” and more of that self-reckoning, conscientious spirit which asks, “ How much owest thou unto my Lord ?” Giving would insensibly become a holier act, fraught with the richest blessings to the giver. An entire change might then take place in the mechanism of Christian effort. Spe- cial appeals — appeals so forcible that they leave scarcely anything to the force of inward prin- ciple, might then be laid aside. Ease and free- 184 MONEY. dom would be infused into the onward move- ments of the Church of Christ. Instead of impressment, philanthropy would fall back on its army of volunteers. Again, how often do we see uniformity under another aspect — an individual giving precisely the same sum at periods of his life when his circumstances were very different ! At the commencement of his career, when yet struggling with slender capital, and the uncer- tainties of a business not yet established, he gave as much as he gives now after his exertions have long been crowned with affluence. Since that former period how many mercies has he received from the divine hand ! How many who began the race when he did soon failed, and were snatched away by death from their opening prospects of success, but he has been spared to reap the fruit of his industry ! Day after day for thirty years or more he has been kept from fatal accidents, endowed with all but uninter- rupted health, crowned with every domestic felicity ; his table has been spread with luxuries, his ships have crossed the ocean in safety, his warehouses and factories have been spared the devouring flames ; and yet, with such an accu- mulated debt to the Father of mercies, he gives no more to aid in the diffusion of truth and hap- piness through the world than he did when he MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. 185 had not contracted a thousandth part of those obligations. God has placed in the hand of his servant a thousand-fold more wealth than he formerly intrusted to him, but he has spent the increase upon himself, and thus embezzled his Master’s money. Who can estimate the sinful- ness of such a course ? It is equally pernicious in its influence on himself and others. It is unjust to his fellow-men whose debtor he is ; but it is more than this — it is infidelity to God, who will not fail to institute a scrutiny into the way we have expended the talents intrusted to our care. To be wealthy is to be made God’s steward, and for every shilling we are responsible to him. Thomas Wilson, of Highbury, has left a name which will long be remembered among those who have felt and discharged the responsibilities of wealth. It was his distinction,” says one who knew him well, ‘^to occupy singly, and alone, without all doubt or competition, the first place for usefulness in the denomination to which he belonged. He not only stood alone, but far above others, in that active, liberal, and well- directed zeal on which the prosperity of any cause so much depends. At the age of thirty- four he retired from business. His fortune at that time was not what the world would call large, considering his previous position in life, 186 MONEY. and he appears to have been induced to take that step by a strong desire to devote himself to the cause of Christ. Perhaps ‘ business/ as secu- lar avocations are termed in common parlance, had never been quite congenial to his taste ; but this itself was probably owing to the strong bias of his mind toward direct spiritual effort. Such an abandonment of worldly occupations may not be proper in every case ; some have felt it a duty to continue in them in order that they might have more to consecrate to schemes of usefulness. We cannot but admire the man who, after having acquired an ample fortune, resolves,, instead of retiring into ease and seclu- sion, to undergo the fatigues of business that he may have more property to consecrate to the welfare of his fellow- men ; but it is still more admirable to see a man, like Mr. Wilson, give up business that he may hereafter work exclu- sively for the spread of religion. Here we see the ardor of his piety — the depth and sincerity of his Christian principles. From the very first it was evident that Mr. Wilson had not aban- doned his former pursuits for the sake of ease ; he brought into his new avocations all the method, earnestness, and regularity which char- acterized him in the old. The house he occu- pied in Artillery-place had only one front-room MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. 187 on the ground-floor. ‘ This/ says his son, ^ was used by my father as a place for carrying on his private and public concerns, and was gener- ally called the counting-house, where he sat a great part of the day, devoting many hours to transact what he had determined henceforth to make his business — the happy, joyful business of doing good — and to which he attended with all the energy and vigor which he had learned and practiced in his secular calling.’ ” It is difflcult to estimate the amount of busi- ness in connection with the cause of Christ which Mr. Wilson took into his hands. A mere list of the places of worship which he originated, and the cost of which he in a great part defray- ed, would give a surprising view of the extent of his exertions ; yet those which he devoted to this branch of labor were but a part of his never- ceasing activity. He was always accessible ; always ready to aid by his friendly counsel. He took a lively interest in most of the movements of the day. He was one of the originators of the Bible Society, the Tract Society, and the London Missionary Society. In his post as treasurer of Hoxton Academy, he was indefati- gable in promoting the preaching of the gospel. The very year after he undertook the office two hundred fresh names were added, through his 188 MONEY, exertion, to the subscription-roll of the institu- tion, and in a few years the number of students augmented sixfold. The objects to which he chiefly devoted himself were those which prom- ised to be most fruitful in spiritual results. Firmly believing in the sufficiency of the gospel, when applied by the Holy Spirit, to regenerate the world, he supported in preference to others those schemes which were most adapted to spread its influence. The good he accomplished in this way is beyond the power of calculation. If his personal exertions are the most valuable and suggestive part of the offering he consecra- ted to the service of his Master, his benefactions in money were considerable : three enterprises of usefulness in the metropolis alone, undertaken and completed in the course of ten years, cost him £25,000. This munificence is the more striking inasmuch as it was given out of fixed income, and was the fruit of resolute economy. In this point of view his conduct speaks power- fully to others. To see a man economizing the resources of a handsome, though at the com- mencement of his useful career by no means an exuberant income, relinquishing the equipage and other appendages of wealth, and contenting himself with the simple habits of men possessed of not half his means, in order that he might MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. 189 have the more to dispense ; to see this same man having an office, employing a clerk, and going to the scene of his benevolent occupation, there to be accessible to all who wanted his money or his counsel ; and all this with the same constancy, punctuality, and untiring perseverance as any merchant in the metropolis goes to his counting- house, was a scene which perhaps had no paral- lel, and it still has none !” Thornton is an illustrious name in the annals of Christian benevolence. John Thornton was a distinguished merchant, whose chief desire in business, as Mr. Wilson’s was in leaving it, seems to have been to lay a richer offering on the altar of his Divine Master. He was a member of the Established Church, but his love to Christ and his cause was far greater than his attachment to any particular community. Like Mr. Wilson, he devoted a considerable portion of his wealth to the training of young men for the Christian ministry. Among those who were the recipients of his bounty in this form was the Rev. John Newton, so well known as the friend of Cowper, and author of the Olney Hymns. A close friendship sprang up between these two excel- lent men. Mr. Newton became one of his al- moners. He annually received the sum of £200 to dispense in works of mercy, and during his 190 MONEY. entire residence at Olney drew more than £3,000 from the funds of his generous benefactor. His conscientious fidelity in regarding his property as a stewardship is finely illustrated in the following incident : — A clergyman called upon him one morning to receive a promised contribution to some good cause. While waiting in an outer room, he was informed that Mr. Thornton had just received information of a serious failure, in- volving the loss of no less a sum than £20,000. The applicant could not help regretting his ill- timed visit, and on being introduced to Mr. Thornton, apologized for calling at such a mo- ment. ‘^My dear sir,” the latter exclaimed, ‘‘ the wealth I have is not mine ; it is the Lord’s — and if he is going to take it out of my hands, it is a reason why I should make good use of what is left.” With this remark he doubled his promised subscription. The virtues which dis- tinguished in so eminent a manner John Thorn- ton, descended to Henry, his third son. The effect of the training he had received under his parental roof were visible in him from his earliest years. At the commencement of his business career, the responsibility connected with the possession of wealth occasioned him much seri- ous thought. He then solemnly vowed that a certain proportion of his entire income should MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. 191 ever after be devoted to the cause of Christ. Throughout his whole life he rigidly adhered to this resolution. While he remained unmarried he gave away six-sevenths of his income, amount- ing to not less than £9,000 a year; and when he afterward became the head of a numerous family, his annual benevolence never amounted to less than £2,000. A private account was kept of his various disbursements for charitable objects, proving that he gave on system, and was discriminating as well as liberal. The poor and needy were not the sole sharers of his in- come. The fair and reasonable exigencies of those in less humble situation were always met by him with equal generosity and delicacy.’* The philanthropy he practiced was not more striking than the philanthropy which he taught. His house was the resort of men whose names have become eminent in the religious and politi- cal world. Wilberforce, Macaulay, Grant, Venn, Gisborne, Simeon, and Henry Martyn, were among his frequent guests, and were accustomed to look up to him with affection and respect. Gifted with a sound and discerning judgment, ‘‘ he sent his hearers to their homes instructed in a doctrine cheerful, genial, and active — a doc- trine which taught them to be sociable and busy, to augment to the utmost of their power the 192 MONEY. joint-stock of human happiness, and freely to take and freely to enjoy the share assigned to each by the conditions of that universal partner- ship. And well did the teacher illustrate his own maxims. The law of social duty, as ex- plained in his domestic academy, was never ex- pounded more clearly or more impressively than by his habitual example.’’ But his high and stainless integrity was one of the most striking features of his character. Purer hands, perhaps, were never engaged in the transaction of com- mercial affairs. He was not only free from many obliquities of conduct which are observed in persons who yet maintain a fair reputation in the Christian world, but he was scrupulous almost to a fault. Information having reached him of the failure of a near kinsman, he was led to inquire how far credit might have been given to his rel- ative, however unauthorized by him, in reliance upon his reputation and resources, and judged it right to cover the liabilities of the defaulter out of his own coffers. A short time before his death, a mercantile house having obtained from his firm without his knowledge large and im- provident advances, became so seriously embar- rassed that their bankruptcy was urged upon him as the only hope of averting from his own house the most serious losses. He resisted the MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. 193 proposal on the ground that those who had given undue credit had no right to call upon others to divide the loss. To the last farthing he discharged the liabilities of the insolvents, at a cost of more than £20,000. He died in the bosom of a home, says his biographer, which was happy in his pres- ence, from whose lips no angry, morose, or impa- tient words ever fell — on whose brow no cloud of anxiety or discontent was ever seen to rest. Normand Smith, an American tradesman, furnished an interesting example of conscientious giving, and, in the memorial of his life by Dr. Hawes, his actions yet speak’ ^ to stimulate and encourage others. He was the elder son of a numerous and pious family, thus teaching us the lesson already presented in the case of Thomas Wilson and the Thorntons, that domestic piety is the school of the Christian graces. His bus- iness was that of a saddler. His father assisted him with capital at the commencement, but his in- dustry and perseverance soon enabled him to re- pay the loan. At first his expectations of success were very moderate. To support his family in comfort was the utmost limit of his hopes. Still, while his business was in its infancy and his in- come small, he set apart a portion for the service of Christ. In doing this he experienced the re- ward which God has promised to him that sow- 13 194 MONEY. eth plentifully. His business succeeded ; at the end of the first year its profits were much larger than he had expected ; at the end of the second year they were still greater ; the third and fourth year closed with a similar result. Such success would have been eminently dangerous to many men ; they would have regarded it simply as an inducement to launch out further into trade, and aim at still greater accumulations. Are there not many who might, with too much reason, date a long career of religious declension from their first prosperous year of business ? Not thus was it with Normand Smith. The Christian tradesman may see in him how wealth may be sanctified and made the means of promoting his piety. Finding himself getting rich, he instantly put the question to his heart, What does God intend me to do with my money ? The reflec- tions to which he was thus led resulted in a re- vival of religious principles and motives within him. He resolved, after making proper provis- ion for the wants of himself and family, to give the rest to the cause of Christ. Like Mr. Wil- son, he questioned whether he ought not to leave his business, in order to devote himself more entirely to the service of religion, but the decision to which he ultimately came was ad- verse to such a step. The spirit which dictated MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. 195 this decision may be inferred from a passage from his journal in reference to it : — The Lord has made the path of duty plain to me. For a year I have been much in doubt as to the duty of continuing my present business. My mind has become settled ; I have determiiied to con- tinue in it, and, I trust, not in order to grow rich. I dare not be rich ; I would not be rich ; they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare. It is my intention to continue in business that I may serve God, and with the expectation of getting to give.’’ This intention he conscien- tiously carried into effect. Henceforth he was not only diligent in business,” but studiously economical in his expenses — to save money for the cause of Christ. John Wesley’s maxim in reference to wealth was : Get all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” Perhaps the best exemplification of this maxim is to be found in the life of the late Mr. Samuel Budgett, of Bristol, a member of the denomination which bears the name of that eminent man. The Memoir of Mr. Bud- gett, from the pen of the Rev, W. Arthur, is an armory of counsels and cautions to the man of business. Two lessons in particular may be drawn from it, namely, that rigid justice in get- ting may be combined with bounteous liberality 196 MONEY. in giving, and that the severest application to worldly pursuits may be combined with the most fervent anxiety for the attainment of spiritual blessings. The latter of these is very important. How many believe it impossible to be at once a thorough man of business and a thorough Chris- tian, and that one or the other must be abandon- ed ! This dangerous skepticism is rebutted by a single glance at the life of a man like Mr. Bud- gett. In the first place, none can deny that he was eminently successful in business. He began his career in the capacity of shopman to his brother, with forty pounds salary — this was his commencement. At the end of three years he was made a partner — ^junior partner of a small retail shop. In thirty years after we see him at the head of one of the largest mercantile houses in the west of England, turning over nearly three-quarters of a million annually in ready cash. Nor is this result surprising when we consider the man. Enterprise, caution, method, accuracy, punctuality, perseverance, shrewdness — all these elements of the thorough man of busi- ness — were found in him : so that his success seemed to flow naturally from the exertions he put forth. If any man had no time for relig- ion,^’ surely it was he. And yet religion was his life ; here he found motives to industry. MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. 197 precepts for his guidance, a refreshing stream of comfort and hope, a sphere in which his moral energies might find employment. Relig- ion in him was not a separate faculty ; it leav- ened all his actions and pervaded his whole na- ture. Business and religion were to him perfect- ly compatible with each other. His warehouse was a place of prayer ; there a spot was conse- crated to devotion, and there the master gather- ed his men around him, and led them in prayer to the Giver of everything good and perfect. How many Christians abandon the prayer-meet- ing when business grows upon them ! Mr. Bud- gett did not ; he was foremost in the means of grace as in the means of wealth, and thus spir- itual riches kept pace with his temporal gains. But in the use he made of his wealth we see the most conspicuous illustration of his piety. His liberahty in giving surpassed perhaps his diligence in getting. His charity was overflow- ing. He distributed with discrimination and liberality, and without ostentation, in the estima- tion of those who were near spectators of his liberality, fully £2,000 a year. His biographer thinks this too high as an average ; but if it was anything approaching that sum, what an exam- ple of giving does it place before us ! His be- nevolence had few crotchets. It was the off- 198 MONEY. spring of genuine principles. He loved to do good ; and in whatever direction it was possible to do this, there he might be found. His gen- erosity was not confined to specially religious objects. To these, it is true, he gave largely. The gospel appeared to him, as it must to all who truly understand it, the one great lever by which mankind are to be raised from sin and its attendant misery, and every organization which was adapted to extend its influence found in him a ready friend. But he appreciated the tempo - ral necessities of those around him, and delight- ed to alleviate them. During the distress ot 1847, he paid large sums in wages to extra hands in order to provide them with food. Many a poor person has he helped by a timely pres- ent to surmount the little disasters of humble life, and many more have been indebted to him at the outset of their career for friendly counsel and pecuniary aid. The successful merchant,’’ the type of a class not unusually the object of envy in the neighborhood where they reside, was greatly beloved. The interest he took in the welfare of the lowest and roughest of the popu- lation led them to regard him with respect. Their demeanor in his presence proclaimed their conviction that he was, in the language of Scrip- ture, ‘‘a good man.” ‘‘Mr. Budgett was a MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. 199 neighbor to the inhabitants of Kings wood ; thou- sands of his gold and thousands of his hours were given for their weal, and to the last his care was for the maintenance of those means of grace which had been so much blessed.’’ He did not pass with unconcern through the uncivilized dis- tricts which surrounded the scene of his money- making enterprises. He felt, and justly too, that there lay a missionary sphere for him : those men were to be won by kindness and candor to the side of religion ; those boys were to be instructed and trained so as to become a blessing rather than a curse to society; those squalid dwellings were to be changed into clean- ly abodes by the refining power of example, counsel, and Christian piety. To grow rich in such a neighborhood, to build up a glittering pile of wealth in the midst of so much ignorance and vice, without laying himself out for useful- ness proportioned to his increasing means, ap- peared to him unworthy of a religious man. He could not do it; at least he did not do it. The indefatio^able man of business was found working within the shadow of his own residence as the earnest philanthropist, the steady friend of the poor, the originator of every movement by which the temporal and spiritual welfare of his neighbors might be advanced. 0 that such 200 MONEY. an example were universally followed by our men of wealth ! How speedily would many social evils vanish ! ‘‘ The wilderness and the solitary place’^ indeed would soon be glad 1” But it is not the wealthy alone upon whom the obligation of Christian benevolence descends ; this is the common inheritance of the followers of Christ. Perhaps nowhere are the obligations of giving better illustrated than among those less affluent members of the Christian Church with whom an act of generosity is also perforce one of self-denial — who have to economize in order to give. A pleasing instance of this kind may be mentioned as of recent occurrence. Last year, a lady, a member of a Church in London, died bequeathing £600 to one of the principal missionary societies. The missionary cause had been dear to her. During her life the secreta- ries of the Society referred to were in the habit of seeing her at the Mission House every six weeks or two months. On these occasions she always had some suggestion to make by which the funds might be increased, and several times in the course of the year brought a sum — never less than £10 — as her own contribution. This, the reader will say, was munificent. How many thousands who profess the same attachment to the schemes of Christian piety, and enjoy exten- MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. sive means, are content to do mucli less ! yet t lady never at any one period of her life poss< ed more than £60 per annum. She gav in the sight of God ; she abstained from pers al enjoyment to forward his cause ; and no having passed to that heavenly state where is joy and perfection, one cannot but belie that there must be some stars in her crown ' fleeted from the sanctity of her mode of givin This is an illustration of what all, to a great or less extent, may do. Some part of every i come, however small, should be set aside domg good. This should be placed among t common ends of life, to be promoted, not b; what may be casually left when every other cal has been supplied — by the crumbs which fal from the table — but by the first-fruits of our in dustry. An instance of exalted Christian philanthropy more remarkable in some respects than those w have already referred to, is found in the early history of Robert and James Alexander Hal DANE. These were extraordinary men, endowe ’ with strong mental capacities, and, above all a large-heartedness which led them to devot themselves with burning and inextinguishabl zeal to the service of Christ. Their joint lives will be regarded hereafter as marking an import- MONEY. era in the spiritual condition of their native , and were not without an important bearing he general progress of the cause of Christ, bert Haldane inherited the estate of Aithrie, r Stirling — a place of such beauty that a otch nobleman rather extravagantly remarked it that it was a perfect heaven upon earth/’ th an ample fortune and the advantage of a tinguished descent, the world opened to him career of great promise ; but God opened his es to behold a better inheritance, and made willing to count all earthly gain as dross at he might obtain it. Immediately after his )nversion he began to feel a deep interest in e spiritual welfare of others. Circumstances irected his sympathies in the first instance to be heathen world. It was the time when An- rew F uller, on behalf of the Baptist Missionary ociety, then recently formed, was delivering his trong and stirring discourses in the churches of Scotland. It is a striking illustration of the sefulness of that eminent man, that his pulpit ddresses were the means of determining to such istinguished liberality two such men as Thomas ilson of Highbury, and Robert Haldane of ithrie. The subject of missions sank deep into he heart of the latter. He began to think it is duty to go himself to Bengal to labor for the MODELS FOR MONEYED MEN. conversion of the Hindoos, and to consecrate property to the work. He ruminated over project for six months, mentioned it to his who cordially approved it, and then went to L don to confer on the subject with several, e nent men, whom he was anxious to obtain as c leagues in the work. His plan was to sell estate, and defray the entire outfit of the missi then £3,500 was to be given to each minis who should accompany him, as a temporal p vision for their families, while £25,000 was to invested for the future sustenance of the miss' Circumstances finally prevented the carrying of this design, but the zeal in which it origina proved its genuineness by the works it straig way induced him to undertake at home. In c( junction with his brother, he made Scotland scene of his missionary labors ; and in lYOS s the estate at Aithrie, that he might have m money to devote to the purposes of evangel tion. What a spectacle of primitive simpli was thus given by these two distinguished m^ How full of earnestness and faith was their duct ! Christianity,’’ exclaimed Robert H dane, is either everything or it is nothin and in the spirit of this sentiment he spent his li He expended thousands in spreading the gos among the population of Scotland, and rous MONEY. essing Christians everywhere to a truer sense eir duties by the zeal with which he dis- ged his own. It must be noticed in connec- with these self-denying exertions at home, he carried the heart and the aim of an apos- nto everything he did. It was in consequence visit he paid to Geneva that the remarkable ival of evangelical sentiments took place among students at the university of that city, which to the conversion of several men of distin- ^hed eminence in after years in the Church of ist, among whom may be mentioned Drs. ssen, Malan, and Merle d’Aubigne, the cele- ted historian of the Reformation. Thus ex- ive are the means of usefulness which lie in hands of a single individual, who anxiously lends the talent intrusted to him in the fear to the glory of God. What would be the It if similar devotedness were manifested by he followers of Christ ! it be the reader’s happy privilege to tread heir steps, and to experience the sweetness n entire surrender of the soul to Him ‘‘ who, ugh he was rich, yet for our sakes became r, that we through his poverty might be rich !” APPENDIX. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF SAVINGS' BANKS. In the main body of our work we have noticed the institution of savings’ banks. The merit of inventing these useful depositories for the savings of the poor has been frequently claimed for En- gland. The subjoined notice from volume iv. of the Bankers’ Magazine shows, however, that they were known in other countries before the time of their establishment in Great Britain: — It is probable that during the last and pres- 3nt centuries there have been more public writ- ers whose works have directly tended to attract general attention to the means of ameliorating the condition of the poor than during any previ- ous centuries. No arrangement, however, next to providing employment for the poorer classes, and by it the means of present subsistence, was so important as that affording them the oppor- tunity of husbanding their resources to form a provision against declining age and future neces- 206 MONEY. sities. Such an arrangement, at first only par- tially effected by the institution of the Friendly Societies, would, it was expected by the found- ers of deposit hanks for the safe custody and increase of small savings belonging to the indus- trious classes, have been completed through the medium of these institutions ; but although large sums have been from time to time accumulated in them, the proportion belonging to the poorer classes has, it is feared, been a very small item. Among the principal advocates for the founda- tion and extension of savings’ banks, as displayed in their various works on the subject^ may be named Rose and Colquhoun in England, Ber- noulli and De Candolle in Switzerland, Krause and Malchus in Germany, and Delessert and Prevost in France. It has been stated by a German writer that the first savings’ bank in Europe of which there is now any public record was established at Berne in Switzerland, in lYSY ; that about the same time another was established in Geneva ; and that in the year 1792 a third was establish- ed at Basle. From that period the savings’ banks in Switzerland have gone on gradually in- creasing. As regards England, it appears cer- tain, although there has been some controversy on the subject, that the first institution here, ap- APPENDIX. 20Y proximating in its character to the existing savings^ banks — though on private, not national security — was established in the year 1798, at Tottenham, in the neighborhood of London. Subsequently similar institutions were founded, namely, at Wendover, in 1799 ; at West Calder and at Ruthwell in^ Scotland, in 1807 and 1810 ; at Bath, in 1808 ; at Edinburgh, in 1813 ; and at London and other places in 1816. The dates of the first acts of Parliament by which the gov- ernment undertook at the public expense and on national security the support of savings’ banks are the 11th and 12th of July, 1817 ; and within a few months of that period there were about one hundred savings’ banks in England. This number has gone on gradually increasing ; and on the 20th of ISTovember, 1842 — the date up to which the printed parliamentary return on the subject was made up — it amounted to five hun- dred and sixty-two in the United Kingdom. ‘‘It was not until the year 1818 that France imitated the example of Switzerland and England in the establishment of savings’ banks, the first institution of the sort in that country being open- ed in Paris on the 15 th of November in that year. “ Others were very soon afterward established in the different provinces ; and the total number 208 MONEY. of them on the 31st of December, 1844, was three hundred and thirty-two, exclusive of the Paris Savings’ Bank and its branches. In addi- tion to Switzerland, England, and France, sav- ings’ banks for the poorer classes have been es- tablished within the last few years in almost all the other countries of Europe.” That these institutions have exerted a most favorable effect on the temporal welfare of the communities into which they have been intro- duced, cannot be doubted by any who have at- tentively considered their effects upon the hum- bler classes of society. They are now established in nearly all our American cities ; and thousands of persons, who would run great chances of losing their money if they undertook to keep it themselves, make safe deposits in these banks, and receive regular interest upon the sums deposited. THE END. i ,