Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-11-27
FROM OUR EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENCE
LONDON, OCTOBER 90, ls47.

LONDON, OCTOBER 20, 1871.
It's dicultto imagine more interesting spot on the
earth's surface than the London Royal Exchange
What has originated within its bounds narrow as
they are, has had greater effect upon the concerns
of humanity than the battle of Waterloo produced,
or the Congress of Vienna decreed. The COM
merce which has been carried by the winds of hea-
every and to every shore, at the bid
ding of the merchants who daily hrong its area and
its piazZas, has done more to civze mankind, ex-
tend knowledge, and promote happiness than all the
councils of the church, all the labors Of mission
aries, and all the exertons of philanthropists The
assertion is not made rrevereny, or without pro-
per sense of what is due to the zeal, or what has
been accomplished by tife labors of the pious and
good. But it is the wings of commercial enter
prise that bears the missionary TO his distant and
dangerous sphere of action, carries the school
master abroad" and facilitates the dissemination of
religious truth, physical knowledge, and moral and
political improvement. Surely, then, the place
where the energetic and enlightened promoters Of
this commerce have principally assembled, where
their plans have been matured, and from where
their peaceful edcts have been issued is an interest
ing one to the enlightened lover of his species to
the patriot who contemplates with pride the charac-
ter Of his countryman the British merchant, and to
the citizen of the world who reioices in the ad-
vancement Of his fellow man in knowledge, virtue,
and happiness From the days of the royal mer-
chant, Sir Thomas Gresham, and the reign OF Eliza
beth, to the days of the Earrings and the Rohs-
childs and the reign of Victora-a period of nearly
three hundred years-has the small paved area of
the Royal Exchange been the resort of the mer-
chants of England, and the place where the mer-
chants of every other country in the world having
commercial relations with England-and what coun-
try has not ?-'' most do congregate." That man
is not to be envied who pay his first visit to
such place, so full Of timehonored recoections,
without feeling that his foot treads no common
ground; and that the wealth of nations and the
well-being of his fellow men have been controlled
and influenced by the deliberations of those whose
feet have rod that ground during the three last pre-
ceding centuries. Suppose it possible that the
Royal Exchange, with all its congregated inmates
and all their concerns, should, on any given day,
be blotted out of existence, where and what would
be the commerce of the world? A watch with
broken handspring, a steam-engine with bursted
boiler, or ship without its rudder, would be but
inadequate representatives of the commercial world
without the Royal Exchange and the London
merchants.
But, Justly celebrated as these British merchants
for their wealth. their enterprise, their probity,
and their intelligence and influential as they have long
been, now are, and will long continue to be- through
the exercise of these attributes, upon the mercantile
interests of the world there is yet higher position
in which they are to be contemplated. They are
the conservators of peace, the and arteries
of nations power and nations wealth. From
among them have arisen men Of the purest patriot
ism and the loftiest public spirit-men who, like
Walworth, have protected the Crown, and, like
Barnard and Beckford, have daredAhe frowns of a
sovereign in defending the rights of the people.
From among the merchants of London may be
selected men OF eminence in every science aud the
patrons OF every art; men of literature and TASTE
Of the loftest Christian virtue, the most liberal and
benevolent dispositions, and the most expanded
philanthropy.
This praise of the English merchants is not rem
dered them in derogaton of their brother merchants
both in the old world and the new, but simply in
connexion with the place of their daily assembage,
and the association which visit to that spots can
not fail TO give rise to. The mercantile character
throughout the world is the safeguard Of the worlds
peace and the worlds happiness. Debase that
and you endanger all the best interests of mankind
What is an emperor, ponif or king, what are
princes nobility, or gentry, when properly estima-
ed and compared with an enlightened, enterprsing,
and high-principed mercantile community! Agr-
culture furnishes the food of nation manufactures
supply employment; but, without commerce, the
first would languish, and the second be, in great
measure, destroyed. An agricultural people must
be poor people without commerce. A manufac-
turing people will but barely exist without it, But
,Cith it, and the due combination Of the other two
elements, nations become rich, powerful, and en-
lightened. Nay commerce alone has given nations
proud elevation in the world, for short time at
least, although, probably, never an enduring one.
Great Britain blends the three interests more init
mately than any other nation of the present day !;
and il is proud thing for citizen of the United
States to say, but he may say it truly that seventy
years of Independent existence have placed his
country in the second place, among the nations of
the earth, in commercial Importance rapidity of
progress unparalleled in the history of the world !!
The causes Of this success will be easily compre-
hended by an unprejudiced inquirer but the sub
ject would be foreign to the present purpose.
The existing crisis, when British merchants in
London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Glasgow are
suspendng payment almost every day, may not be
judged very appropriate time for this audatory
notice; and probably some of those-nay, even the
most prominent AMONG them, who have failed to
meet their engagements, may be Justly accused of
want of prudence and sound judgment in the spe-
cuations which have led 10 their commercial en-
barrassments. All this may be conceded !; and a
charitable allowance for human infrmity contend
ing with period of peculiar difficulty will account
for all that has occurred without any impeachment
OF the probty, intelligence, and generally cautious
enterprise Of the English merchant. The great
mercantile heart of England is sound Famine
and peculiar circumstances have put the times ont