1847.] Sketch of the Rise, Progress, and Influence of the Useful Arts. 87 of pride. The frizzled shall put on various fleeces, and the outward habit denote the inward parts." Can this have any allusion to the swimming motion and the India shawls of the present time? The fact that London was founded by King Lud, will account for our cockney neighbors always saying "My Lud," to their nobility. Many pieces of explanatory history, equally valuable with this, may be picked out of this chronicle of old. We have only attempted the office of the Indicator. SKETCH OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND INFLUENCE OF THE USEFUL ARTS. It would exceed our allotted space to attempt a full history of the origin and progress of the arts, as they gradually develope themselves in the remote ages of the world, or to trace in detail their progress from Egypt, the great mother of them all, their introduction into Phonicia and Greece, and to show how Rome the great mistress of the world, carried many of them to a very high degree of perfection, and through her great conquests, engendered a taste for them, and spread them wherever her conquering eagle winged its flight, and her victorious legions gave laws to mankind. No doubt exists that textile manufactures were in the earliest ages carried to great perfection. Homer tells us, that patterns of the most splendid figures and of the finest tissues, were woven by queens and courtly dames. In the sixth book of the Iliad, Hector thus deplores the future lot anticipated for his sovereign spouse: "Thy woes, Andromache, thy grief I dread, I see thee trembling, weeping captive ied, In Argive looms our battles to design, And woes of which so large a part was thine." And again, when she received the fatal news of Hector's death, she was thus employed. "Far in the close recesses of the dome, ers." well known to the Romans, and many The art of making woolen cloth was authors believe they were also acquainted with cotton, and manufactured armies and people. it into many articles of clothing for their Pliny informs us that Niceas of Megara first discovered the art of fulling woolen cloth, which up to his time had been made by the process of felting, probably derived from the Arabs, whose tents to this day are covered with that material. When the Romans first visited Gaul and Britain they found their inhabitants clothed with the skins of animals. The knowledge of the arts, such as then existed in Europe, was confined to the narrow limits of the Mediterranean. Within those limits civilization had greatly advanced, while all Europe, beyond the Straits of Gibralter, remained in abject barbarism. It is not certain that any textile manufactures were made in England before the sixth century, for though Cæsar mentions that the distant and less civilized Britons were clothed in the skins of animals, and thus leaves an inference that nowhere states such a fact. some of them were otherwise clad, he We have no positive accounts of the manufacture of woolen cloths having taken place in Europe to any extent until the tenth century, when it commenced in Flanders; but it did not reach England till the twelfth, where it was then carried by a number of Flemings, who were obliged to quit their own country from an encroachment of the sea in the year eleven hundred and eleven, and settled made in political science were very slow, no doubt exists that some of the most important movements made in that all-engrossing theme of modern times, commenced and kept pace with the advance themselves in some of the northern coun- ment of the useful arts. ties of England. But it was not until several centuries afterwards that the woolen manufactures reached any degree of perfection in England, and it is a well authenticated fact that up to the year 1667 all woolen cloth was made white in England and sent to Holland to be dyed. We learn from Voltaire, in his general history of Europe, that in the fourteenth century, France was so exhausted she could not make payment of the first installment for the ransom of her king, John, which was six hundred thousand crowns, so that they were obliged to recall the banished Jews, and sell them the privileges of living and trading in France. The king himself was reduced to the alternative of paying for the necessaries of his household in leather money, in which there was a little nail of silver. The "Annales Flandres" and many other his tories give a melancholy account of France at this period. Much of its land lay uncultivated and overgrown with briers and thorns, infested by wild beasts, and its people reduced to poverty and desolation, while, by way of contrast, Flanders and Brabant, from their internal industry, and more particularly, from the great comparative extent of the woolen manufacture, of which they exported largely, abounded in riches and plenty, and all kinds of merchandise, under the liberal patronage of Philip, styled the good Duke of Burgundy. Their cities were magnificent, their towns and villages wealthy, their houses well supplied with good furniture, and, in short, their whole people enjoyed plenty and abundance. History is replete with records of the truth that men remained sunk in ignorance, vice, and barbarism, just in the same proportion as the useful arts were neglected. As man began to be better clothed, and as the blessings of industry began to be disseminated, he became more civilized; and as the arts commenced to be extended and his labor became more valuable, his physical wants being better supplied, and his comforts secured, his attention was more and more turned to the bettering of his moral condition. Gradually he began to inquire into his political rights, and though the advances The prosecution of manufactures, even before the modern improvements in machinery, created a surplus beyond the consumption of the respective countries in which they were produced, and thus commerce first permanently commenced, flourished, and extended itself among those people, who had some one or more articles of manufacture to dispose of to other nations. Simply for a moment reverting to the trade carried on by the ancients-the Egyptians and the Phoenicians as arising from the dissemination throughout the Mediterranean of the treasures of Arabia, Ethiopia, and India, among which were the finest tissues of wool, we may recollect the account given in the sacred record that Solomon and David fitted out ships to Tarshish and Ophir, and brought gold and rich merchandise to add to their wealth and splendor. The textile fabrics of the Sidonians, and the purple cloths of the Tyrians were celebrated from the earliest antiquity. We come now to more moderr times. The commerce of the much celebrated republics of Venice and Genoa, and afterwards of the Hanse towns, consisted in a great degree of the manufacturers of that period. But in this rapid sketch let us pass on to that commerce of which we have the most authentic history-history, which does not admit of a doubt, and let us inquire where did that commerce take up its permanent abode, and how has it exerted its mighty influence for the civilization of man? Great as was the wealth and power of those eastern countries of whose magnificence we have such splendid records— what and where are they now? Where is imperial Rome? Where Venice, Pisa, Genoa? Where are Lubeck, Rostock, Wismar, and the rest of the one hundred Hanseatic cities; once the rulers of the destinies of mankind? Where are Spain and Portugal, the discoverers of the passage to India, by the Cape of Good Hope, and of the Western World? The answer is plain-their prosperity and glory have departed because they had no stable foundation in a domestic industry. What was Great Britain; but a few cen turies since? Let her own historians answer. According to Anderson's history of commerce, in the year 1260, a society of English merchants had privileges granted to them in the Netherlands, by John, Duke of Brabant, whither they carried English wool, lead and tin, taking in return, woolen cloths, linen and other manufactures, and the amount of this commerce is stated to have been in the 28th year of the reign of Edward III., in exports, but £294,184 17 2; and in imports £38,970 3 6. Sir William Temple remarks upon this:-"That when England had but a very small commerce, she was rich in proportion to her neighbors by selling so much more than she bought.' At this period, observes the historian, “the materials of commerce were increasing by the improvement of manufactures in various parts of Europe-the discoveries of the Portugese on the coast of Africa, excited a more enterprising spirit, and led in 1497 to the passage of the Cape of Good Hope, thus accomplishing the first maritime voyage to India.” This discovery made a great sensation throughout the commercial world, and had been preceded by another destined to be of much greater importance, namely, the discovery of America by Columbus in 1492. Great and important as was this last discovery, and destined, as it has since proved, to exercise a mighty influence upon the whole human race, a long time was suffered to elapse before any measures were taken to settle it by Europeans; for it was not until 1530, that the Spaniards landed in Peru, nor did the English attempt any settlement in America till 1607, when a colony was commenced in what was called Virginia, but which included a much greater extent of territory than the member of our Union bearing that name. From this period we must date the first entrance of the Anglo-Saxon race into the Western World. The seventeenth century had therefore commenced, before the slightest foundation was laid for the immense empire, which now contains twenty millions of souls, whose pride it is to boast that they are citizens of the United States. We cannot afford space to go fully into the policy which governed England with regard to her colonies in America, which soon began to receive large additions, and to rise into considerable importance. A colony had been planted at Plymouth, in Massachusetts, in 1620, and in a very few years the whole district of country, comprising the original thirteen States of this Union owed its colonial allegiance to Great Britain. By this time the mother country had turned its attention to manufactures; and a determination was formed to monopolize them as much as possible, and to render the whole world tributary to building them up and sustaining them. The experience which England had acquired, she was determined to preserve to herself, and with this view, she had enacted the most prohibitory laws against all other European nations: statute after statute was passed to favor British manufactures, and to preserve her homemarket to those of her own fabrication. This system she was not content to limit to Europe, but was determined to extend it to her colonies, to keep also their market exclusively to herself, and to prevent them, under the heaviest penalties, from attempting even the manufacture of a "hob-nail" within her limits. Accordingly, in 1763 it was perceived there was a danger that the manufacture of hats might be supplied by one colony to another, and it was accordingly enacted by Parliament, that no hats or felts in any of the plantations should be exported from any one of them; nor should be laden on any horse, cart, or other carriage with that intent, under forfeiture thereof, and of five hundred pounds for any such offence. In 1711 it had been enacted that persons should not cut down any tree in any British province in America, of the growth of 24 inches diameter, without the Queen's license was first granted, under the penalty of one hundred pounds. In 1721 an act was passed prohibiting the wearing of any printed Indian calicoes in Great Britain; and for the encouragement of buttons of silk and mohair, an act was passed prohibiting buttons or button-holes from being made of any other materials. In 1722 it was also enacted, that no copper ore should be shipped from America to any other foreign port, without being first landed in Great Britain. An account of the colonies, published in London in 1731, has the following summary. In writing of New-England the author says: "From thence also, as from all other continental colonies, we receive all the gold they can spare, none of which ever returns to them, for we give them in exchange all manner of wearing apparel, woolens, cast-iron, and linen manufactures;" and the author's conclusion is, that England gains one million of pounds sterling annually by this traffic, and that by the aid of the colonies alone she maintained at least eighteen thousand seamen in the fisheries. In 1732 a company had been formed for the settlement of Georgia, and a report was made to Parliament by said company in which are found these characteristic sentences: "This report is intended to set forth any laws made, manufactures set up, or trade carried on in the colonies, detrimental to the trade, navigation, or manufactures of Great Britain;" and again, "It were to be wished that some expedient might be fallen upon to divert their thoughts from undertakings of this nature, so much the rather, because those manufactures in process of time may be carried on to a great degree unless an early stop be put to their progress ;" and the report goes on to state "that it was thought right from time to time to send general questions to the several governors in America, that we may be more exactly informed of the condition of said plantations, among which were several that related to their trade and manufactures, that they might not interfere with those of the mother country." Accordingly, they sent such questions to New-York, New-Jersey, New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, and the several answers from the governors are given. In 1745 a law was passed that it should not be lawful for any person to wear any cambric or French lawn in England. In 1759 an act was passed to prevent British subjects in the Levant from shipping any French woolen goods within the limits of the Turkey or Levant Company. Nor could any cloths be imported within these limits, except they were accompanied by a sworn certificate that they were of the manufacture of Great Britain. Thus was the whole policy of England exclusively to foster and protect her own manufactures and trade, and more especially to restrict the colonies by every means in her power from attempting every species of manufacture. But there is a point at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue, and that point was at last reached by the passage of the stamp act and the tax upon tea. We have thus seen in what a state of bondage were the energies of this people while they remained colonies of Great Britain. Their pursuits were limited, their inventive powers were smothered, their skill was undeveloped, their industry was paralyzed. They felt, nevertheless, that stirring within them which emboldened them to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors, in a doubtful contest, that they might rid themselves of these shackles, and assume self-government. It was to exercise the right of thinking and acting for themselves that they had sought an asylum in the western world-they had known and felt that men, under the monarchical gov ernments of Europe, were neither permitted to enjoy their civil nor their religious rights; the principle, therefore, that lay deepest in their minds, was to raise themselves in the rank of nations, to secure to them the right to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience, and to establish an equality of human rights. They had proclaimed to the world the new and then startling doctrine that men were capable of self government, and had proved that the energies of a dauntless people, determined on the establishment of human rights, could place them on a broad and indestructible foundation. By a sad experience they had been taught that as colonies they were kept in a state of vassalage to their trans-Atlantic masters, restricted in their home pursuits, their commerce confined within narrow limits, and every vexatious system adopted to make their labor subservient to the growth and splendor of the mother country. Had a liberal policy been pursued by Great Britain; had its skill and capital been at that time sent to this country to be employed freely in any and every way most advantageous to the colonies; had a common cause been then made, it was then the time, when living under the same laws, and acted upen by the same feelings, England should have adopted a liberal policy; and had she so acted, it may be well questioned what would have been our condition at this period-but upon that it is useless to speculate. In the mysterious wisdom of Providence it has been ordered otherwise, and these homes of a free nation were established. Let us now take a short review of the occurrences which immediately followed the government which was first organized, and its entire failure-the adoption of our present constitution, and the action under it. Our ancestors having proved by their valor that they were worthy of a free government, and having for ever severed the political connection with England, the peace of 1783 acknowledged their rights, and established for the colonies, complete political independence of the mother country. Has a social and economical independence been equally established? Let us revert for a moment to some of our experience, and see what always have been, and always will be, the effects of placing ourselves at the mercy of foreign legislation, by withdrawing the shield of protection from American labor. We take the ground of protection to American labor of all and every kind. We assume that the low price of labor in Europe is one of its greatest social evils, and one against which our institutions were intended to guard the whole population of the country. We propose, therefore, to show in the sequel, that this attempt was a total failure under the confederation-that this failure created the necessity for the Constitution, and was the cause of its adoption. Nay, we propose to go much further, and to show, that until our labor was properly protected, the permanent prosperity of the country was not secured. The advantages of our neutral position during the wars incident to the French Revolution, however great they may have proved, grew out of that neutrality, and at the general peace in 1815 we were a second time plunged into great ruin, from which nothing extricated us but the protection from time to time given to the labor of the country. of goods could be purchased at a price much cheaper than they could be made here, and the system of our would-be wise political economists was in full operation. Such of our citizens as had previously embarked in any kind of manufactures, were reduced to bankruptcy and ruin. Our workmen skilled in the arts were consigned to idleness and its long train of disastrous consequences. Real property ceased to be of much value. Rents fell to almost nothing. Nor did those who embarked in mercantile pursuits share a better fate; for the people being idle could not pay for the goods purchased, and consequently most of the merchants failed. Let us appeal to a few sketches of that eventful period, taken from the pages of some of our historians who have left it faithfully described, to prove to us a useful and instructive lesson. Dr. Hugh Wilkinson gives the following statement: "In every part of these States the scarcity of money has become a common subject of complaint. This does not seem to be an imaginary complaint, like that of hard times, of which men have complained in all ages of the world. The misfortune is general, and in many cases is severely felt. The scarcity of money has become so great, and the difficulty of paying debts has become so common, that riots and combinations have been formed in many places, and the operations of civil government have been suspended. Goods were imported to a much greater amount than could be paid for." 66 In Minot's history of the insurrection in Massachusetts, we have the following: Thus, from the cessation of labor, was But to our experience! At the close the usual means of remittance by articles of the war of the Revolution, we were the growth of the country cut off, and governed by the Articles of Confederation. little else than specie remained to answer We then had what is falsely called Free the demands incurred by importations. Trade in the fullest operation. Our The scarcity of specie arising from this ports were open, with scarcely any duties, cause was attended with evident effects. to the vessels and merchandise of all na- It checked commercial intercourse tions. In Pennsylvania the duties were throughout the community, and furnished two and a half per cent.; but these were reluctant debtors with an apology for nugatory, for Burlington, New-Jersey, withholding their dues, both from indiwas a free port, and large portions of viduals and the public. On opening our goods were there entered and clandes- ports, an immense quantity of foreign tinely carried across the Delaware into merchandise was introduced into the Pennsylvania. From almost all nations country, and people were tempted by the of Europe large shipments were made to sudden cheapness of imported goods, and this country, and we were inundated with by their own wants, to purchase beyond foreign goods. We made literally no- their capacity to pay. Into this indisthing for ourselves, and thus industry of cretion they were in some measure beevery kind was paralyzed; every species guiled by their own sanguine calculations |