The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1857-12-09
MECHANICAL INDUSTRY.

We make the following extract from
the Address of Hon. N. P. BANKS, of
Massachusetts,, before the American In
stitute, New York city,
at was among the last of the public
declarations of Sir Robert Peel, that Eng
land owed to her mechanic industry the
power with which she had passed through
the wars of half century; that furnished
her exchcquer; that sustained her credit
floated her triumphant nayies, and placed
for time in her hands the trident of the
seas. The same clement of nation al wealth
in France and England enabled them to
breast and turn the tide of Russian aggres-
sion in the late war. Supreme in every
thing material, it has also attained the
dignity and elevation of the fine arts.
The grandest conceptions and creations of
genius, in sculpture, painting, poetry and
music, are repeated in perfect and num-
berless copies, until they are universally
known and appreciated How is it pos
sible to enumerate the multitude of bene-
ficent inventions that impart the elements
of science and truth to the young, and
make happy the declining moments of
honorable age; that spread before us,
morning and evening, in the daily news
papers, the transactions of every part of
the world, that accompanies us through
every moment of life, softening its cares,
deadening its sorrows, and frightening
its Joys, from the moment that the infant
presses the white breast of its mother, I'M
til that other moment when it moves up
ward on the inclined plane of life, until
a second time child--it gently falls upon
the bosom of God. What higher appeal
can be made to healthful ambition-w that
names upon the roll Of fame are dearer
to human hearts than those borne upon
thy roster-what nobler pursuit is open
to man than that of penetrating the mys-
teries of earth, air, fire and water in thy
service, sweet goddess of invention /! -
mother of peaceful industry and compan-
ion of liberty
While the apple grows the apple tree,
| And the wild wind blows DER the wild wood
| free,
-
And they cannot help growing and blowing
and flowing.
| Turns the heart of the world to thee.
The elements of our national We It'll
are far from their full development. Great
er changes than we have yet experienced
will occur, and individual fortunes more
gigantic than any yet accumulated will
be suddenly rolled up, to be as suddenly
dissipated. Nature does not pcrfectuate
gigantic ascensions of power in States or
men. Ponderous empires find their sol
vents, and overgrown individual fortunes
their proper distributors. In this ccun-
try as in England, mechanical industry,
so essential to the development of the
vast mineral resources of the continent.
and in the consumption of agricultural
products cannot fail to reward IFS agents
with the wealth that follows successful
enterprise. But it has higher claim to
our encouragement, in the fact that while
it does not shut out the accumulation of
such fortunes as will satiate ambition, it
affords more certain guarantee for the
equitable distribution of its profits among
all its disciples. While we cannot but
rejoice in the highest prosperity Of our
country, we ought not to forget that hap
piness springs rather from general distri
button than from great accumulation of
wealth in sing lc hands, and that those
pursuits which embrace the greatest num-
bers and distribute most equally the pro
fits of industry are the only sources to
which we can look for the happiness of
the people, for just government, and for
stable national prosperity"