The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1863-04-14

PROGRESS or COMMERCIAL SoKNcE-Irs
LATEST DEvELorxxNrs.-The traits that have
oonduced most to our success as a people are
our thirst of progress and impatienoe of the re-
straints of old fashioned theories and systems.
In the arts, in medicine, in philosophy and re-
ligion this has been especially the case. If in
the latter we have occasionally carried cur want
Of veneration to the verge Of skepticism, 1t has
helped us In other respects by stimulating us TO
q constancy of effort in the way Of improve
mont.
Up to the last forty years there was perhaps
no branch Of knowledge which had been.
deemed 90 little capable Of expansion or which
had remained 30 stationary a. that which
may now properly be digniaed by the name Of
commercial science. People transacted bush
ness and grew rioh after the fashion Of their
fathers; but they had but very imperfect ideas
Of the principles which regulate commerce, or
Of the system by which its results might
be reduced to certainties It was reserved for
one'of those original and practical minds which
seem capable Of applying themselves to every
thing and exoslling in whatever they undertake
to reform all this. Although an Englishman by
birth, and descendant of the Earls Of Airing
ton, james Arlington Bennett became O. much
distinguished for his devotion to bis adopted
country as for the versatility Of his talents and
his extensive requirements. He served with
credit In the war of 1912, was subsequently
major general amongst tho Mormons and then,
getting tired of the military profession, applied
himself with ardor to the pursuits in which his
tastes lay. But It was difficult to define the linn
its of these Poet painter, philosopher, states
man, fnancier aud rhetorician, he was like VIII
liers, Duke of Buckingham, everything at once
and all By turns" To him the mercantile oom-
munity Of this country owes its first great step
lished system Of bookkeeping which re-
duced to method, simplicity and clearncss the
confused, ill-digested and impsrfectly under
stood principles on which accounts were kept
in mercantile and public Offices, and for more
than twenty years 1t was the only one that was
praotised in this country. After life spent in
usefulness and in keen enjoyment to himself,
this accomplished man and public benefactor
ended his days upon his estate ON Long Island,
where his remains repose peacefully under the
monument which he had erected to his own me-
mory.
The system Of which he laid the foundation
has since received additions and improvements,
which, II they have not altered It's main prinoi-
pies, have contributed to enlarge the sphere Of
their application. A couple of weeks since
we published page of the annual sd-
vertisement Of "the Eastman State and Ma
tional Business College" To-day we de-
vote the same space 10 the advertisement
Of Messra Bryant, Stratton Il Co., whose chain
OF international commercial colleges extends
over tho leading cities of the United States and
Canada. and embraces In Its organization up
wards Of sixty professors and two thousand
business pupils. The heads of these important
establishments are straining every effort to
carry out the views and give the widest posi-
BILE extension to the system Of which Arlington
Bennett was the founder. The results Of their
labors are telling largely upon the business
capacities and usefulness Of our young men.
In addition to the satisfaction which the con-
sciousness of this fact must give them, they
also may look for their reward in monuments
of marble under willows Of their own planting.