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chants themselves, instead of forming more correct notions of their own importance, have fallen in with the popular prejudice, and aped the manners of the military class. Hence, we find that merchants have sometimes settled their disputes with each other by duelling. That military men should do this may excite no surprise. Though, when we consider, that among the heroic Greeks and the martial Romans the practice of duelling was unknown, it can never be contended that this practice is necessary to maintain the personal courage of our military officers. On this ground we might also permit duelling among the common men. But if military men, when they have none of their country's enemies to shoot, wish to keep themselves in practice by shooting one another, they may allege that they are acting according to the principles of their profession. But nothing can be more out of character than for a mercantile man to be engaged in a duel. When a case came before the late

Lord Ellenborough, in which one merchant had attempted to provoke another to fight a duel,

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his Lordship observed, that merchants would be much better employed in posting their books than in posting one another.

One effect of the military spirit is, that it leads to cruelty of disposition. The Romans were cruel men, cruel towards their slaves, cruel towards their conquered enemies, cruel in their punishments, cruel in their amusements. No disposition is more opposed than this to the spirit of commerce, and yet, on some occasions, merchants have become the instruments of cruelty. Is there nothing cruel in selling spirituous liquors to half-civilised nations?—nothing cruel in supplying the munitions of war to untutored tribes who would otherwise remain at peace?—and was there nothing cruel in the African slave trade-a traffic that must be numbered among the blackest of our country's crimes, the most crimson of our national sins? Merchants should not only act honestly in their trade, but should also ascertain that the trade itself is an honest trade. For, although it be true, upon the ordinary principles of profit and loss, that honesty is the best

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But

policy, yet we should not practice honesty solely from motives of policy, nor infer the honesty of an enterprise from its apparent policy. Beware of taking a mere commercial view of questions of morality. Crimes the most atrocious have sometimes been profitable. you see not the whole of the balance sheet. There are items in the account which no arithmetic can express. What estimate will you place upon infamy of character, remorse of conscience, the retributive justice of God in the present life, and his vengeance in the next? Take these into your calculation, and then sum up the amount of your gains.

As commerce extends her sway, the military spirit may be expected to subside, and peace and equity prevail. Commerce will teach

mankind that it is their interest to live at peace with each other. Commerce will teach the slave owner that the man who keeps in bondage his fellow man, sins no less against his own interest than against the feelings of humanity and the injunctions of religion. Commerce will show to those who "sit in high

places," that the vulgar maxim, "honesty is the best policy," is as applicable to the affairs of communities, as to the transactions of individuals, and that what is morally wrong can never be politically right. Commerce will inculcate upon nations, that the prosperity of one people is not an injury, but an advantage to the others; that national greatness can arise only from superiority in industry and in knowledge; and that nations, like individuals, should seek each other's welfare, and endeavour to promote universal peace. When these sentiments are acknowledged, the Demon of national discord will be driven from the earth-the clangour of arms, and the shrieks of the vanquished, will be heard no more— and the Genius of War, in his dying moments, will surrender the palm of victory into the hands of Commerce.

LECTURE V.

THE COMMERCE OF THE ANCIENTS WITH THE EAST INDIES.

Origin of Luxury. India-Its Social Institutions. Productions-Spices-Precious Stones-Silk. Indian Commerce previous to the time of Alexander the Great. Conquests of Alexander. Alexandria founded. Conquest of Egypt by the Romans. Silk sold at Rome for its weight in gold. Conquest of Egypt by the Mahometans. Importation of Silk Worms into Europe. Discovery of the Passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope. Exportation of Bullion-Principles of the Foreign Exchanges. Conclusion.

AFTER having considered the commerce of ancient Egypt, Greece, Tyre and Carthage, and Rome, I shall now conclude this course of Lectures by a consideration of the commerce of the ancients with the East Indies.