civilization would lie retarded—how slow would be the progress of brotherhood, humanity, and true religion! In the days previous to the use of the magnet and the successful adventures of Columbus, when non-intercourse seemed the rule of the world, and heavy tariffs kept nations apart, then national strife almost universally prevailed, and the common tie of humanity seemed completely severed. Gradually, during the succeeding centuries, ships have multiplied, tariffs and imposts have been relaxed, and now we have just commenced a new era in the world's history; and "Free Trade" seems about inaugurating, under the Divine Providence, a new evangel to men. And what already is the result? Why, in every land the masses of the population are being made more comfortable, and are becoming blessed. Take the single article of tea: there are persons here who have seen the time when tea was a luxury, and now it is a common staple in nearly every civilized land on the globe. Take sugar: why, even after the common use of tea, for a long time, sugar was used by few. And now the poorest laborer in England or Scotland, the backwoodsman far away in the western wilds of America, the emigrant on the coast of New Zealand, or here, on the shores of Africa, can daily at his meals enjoy the pleasurable exhilaration of the—
"Cup which cheers, but not inebriates,"
made still more pleasurable by the sweets of the cane.
Thus it is that commerce, providentially, has become a beneficent agency for the good of man. And thus it should be: what I mean by this is, not that
