"O thou," says the Prophet Ezekiel, "that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant for the people of many isles; thy borders are in the midst of the sea, thy builders have perfected thy beauty. *** What city is like Tyrus? By thy great wisdom, and by thy traffic, hast thou increased thy riches." "Tyre," says the Prophet Isaiah, "the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth."

This first seat of commerce, united with navigation, was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, after a siege of thirteen years, but not until the Tyrians had retreated with their ships, merchandise, and people, to a neighboring island, whence they returned and rebuilt their city, to be again destroyed, and this time finally, by Alexander the Great, after a siege of seven months. That great man, perhaps irritated by this resistance, which seems long in his rapid career of victory, or more probably impressed by it with the power and wealth derivable from commerce, founded the city of Alexandria, to command that trade of the East which had principally sustained the opulence of Tyre. This new city, at the mouth of the Nile, first under the Ptolemies, and then under the Romans, surpassed for many centuries the ancient commercial renown of the Tyrians. It was also the seat of the arts and of learning. It was here that the seventy made that translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, known to us as the Septuagint. The Alexandrian library, consumed by the torch of Omar, has always been the regret of scholars. The duties on the imports and exports of Alexandria, under the Ptolemies, have been calculated by some writers to have reached the annual amount of two hundred and seventy-four millions of pounds sterting; but such figures are incredible. After the first devastation of its conquest by the Saracens, it regained something of its former trade, and never lost a certain degree of commercial importance. Should modern science, renewing the achievements of the Pharaohs, the Ptolemies, and the Caliphs, again reunite the waters of the Mediterranean and Red Seas, Alexandria, now the only remaining monument of the conquests of the mad boy of Macedonia," may again revive its ancient splendor.

Carthage was a colony of the Phoenicians, and vindicated the noble stock from which it sprung, both by its endurance in war, and the splendor and extent of its commerce. Its population has been computed as high as seven hundred thousand souls; exceeding the present numbers of the greatest city on this continent. One of its enterprises in navigation, was the sending an expedition of sixty ships, under Hanno, to explore new regions on the Atlantic Ocean. The Canary Islands, the westernmost limit of ancient navigation, were reached by its seamen. Carthage yielded at last to the military genius and fortune of Rome, but not until it had given proofs, in two wars the most obstinate recorded in history, that the spirit of an enlarged and generous commerce fortifies, rather than impairs, the high qualities of courage, fortitude, and patriotism.

The ancient Egyptians were not navigators.

The Greeks were not specially a commercial people, and they did not addict themselves to distant voyages. This may be attributed as much, perhaps, to the maxims of their philosophers, as to any cast of national aptitude for commerce. Xenophon has recorded his serious doubts, whether communities are benefited by commerce. Plato excluded merchants from his imaginary commonwealth. It is certain, at any rate, that the colonies founded by Greece in the Mediterranean, exhibited more com

mercial activity than the parent State; and the modern Greeks, scattered in many countries, control, at this day, no small share of the trade of the world. The ancient Greeks were, however, by no means ignorant of navigation. Homer has described the great fleet in which they sailed to the capture of Troy; although it will reduce our admiration of this naval force, to recollect that these ships were open boats, without decks, as were the ships in which the Greeks won, long afterwards, the famous battle of Salamis.

Arms,

The Romans disdained commerce. No man of rank, or birth, was allowed to engage in it. No Senator was permitted to own any vessel, beyond the requirements of transport for his own corn and fruits. agriculture, and politics, were exclusively the avocations of that proud people. Commerce, the handicrafts, and even the higher arts, they left to slaves, freedmen, and the people of their conquered provinces. The Roman Empire was, through those agencies, the theater of a vast commerce, from which the Romans, although they did not themselves engage in it, extracted immense revenues. When, after the battle of Actium, Egypt was reduced to the condition of a Roman province, Augustus Cæsar cherished and protected the commerce of Alexandria, and that city was second only to Rome, in grandeur and population. The fleet from Egypt furnished bread for the Imperial City. Pliny states the commercial revenue derived by Rome from Alexandria at a sum equal, in modern times, to twenty-eight millions of pounds sterling.

During the interruption of the commerce of Alexandria, resulting from its conquest by the Saracens, Constantinople maintained a connection with the East, through the circuitous channel of the Indus, the Oxus, the Caspian Sea, the Volga, and the Don. The trade of the East still continued to be the great prize of commerce, as it had been from time immemorial. It has continued to be so down to a very recent period, and, in the estimation of many, is so at this day. To control its most direct channel, was the leading motive of the invasion of Egypt by Napoleon. To secure it to us, by a railroad across the American continent, has been one of the ideas associated with that great enterprise, which Col. Benton has made familiar to the public mind. It is a noble idea, suited to his large grasp, and which he has made palpable by that magnificent rhetoric, in which he has had no superior in our language since Burke. The rich spices, the gorgeous stuffs, and the sparkling gems of the Indies, have always inflamed the imaginations, as well as excited the cupidity of the Western nations. The "wealth of the Indies," is one of our proverbial expressions. Milton could find no illustration more impressive with his readers, of the splendors of the throne erected for Satan :

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High on a throne of royal state,

Which far outshone the wealth of Ormus or of Ind."

The commerce of the East, which had been transferred from Tyre to Alexandria, and from Alexandria to Constantinople, passed next to those famous Italian republics, Pisa, Genoa, Florence, and Venice, which emerged, during the Middle Ages, from the downfall of the Roman Empire. It was the foundation of their wealth and power, which declined, when a new passage to the Indies, round the Cape of Good Hope, was opened by the Portuguese, at the close of the fifteenth century.

Poetry has said of Venice :

"Her daughters had their dowers

From spoil of nations, and the exhaustless East

Poured in her lap all gems in sparkling showers."

The wealth and power of these republics have passed away, but their glory is imperishable. In contrast with the scantiness of their territories, the extent of their conquests seems fabulous. Genoa, without soil enough to feed her people, founded flourishing colonies in the Black Sea. The Crimea, since contested by great empires, was a Genoese province, and monuments of their occupation yet remain. It was from a Genoese tower, that the defense of Balaklava, against the British army, was maintained. Venice, reclaimed from the marshes at the head of the Adriatic, maintained victorious war with the Grand Turk, then the terror of Christendom. The genius of these republics, ascendent in war, in the arts, and in learning, has, however, left its most prominent mark upon the history and condition of mankind, by its direction to navigation. It was a Genoese, who, seeking a new passage to the Indies, discovered the New World. The Florentine, Americus Vespucius, and the Venetians, John and Sebastian Cabot, by their immortal voyages, completed the work which Columbus had begun.

Let us turn now to more northern climes, whose elements and characteristics were at work, which have given to commerce its last, and, probably, final development.

The Hanseatic League, embracing Lubec, Brunswick, Bremen, Hamburgh, Dantzic, and Cologne, existed in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In the fourteenth century, Flanders was celebrated for its commerce and manufactures; and at Bruges, at that time, it is said that merchants from seventeen kingdoms had their settled domicils. In the contemporaneous literature of England, "Flemish account," is a frequent phrase to express overreaching and extortion, which proves that the successful merchants of Flanders did not escape the envy of their times.

Edward III. induced large numbers of artisans and merchants from Flanders to come over and settle in England, and, for a long time, the English were merely the followers and pupils of the Dutch in commerce. Even as late as the reign of James I., according to Hume, there were employed in the trade between England and Holland, six hundred Dutch ships, and only sixty English ships. It was not until the commencement of the eighteenth century, that England obtained that pre-eminence in commerce which made her at length the mistress of the seas. Her destiny, always glorious, is most happy in this-that when she yields the scepter, it will not be to aliens, or to enemies, but to a people springing from her own loins, speaking her own language, and displaying her own high qualities on a wider theater, and under more fortunate auspices.

How, and why has it happened, that the control of commerce has passed from the Mediterranean to the Baltic and the North Seas? In the first place, because manufactures, the arts, and civilization, have a constant tendency to progress northward, and can only find in the North their fullest development; and, in the second place, because commerce has become more closely dependent upon navigation, than in former times, and is, therefore, the natural possession of those Northern races, who are best able to overcome the perils and hardships of the ocean.

The causes which transfer commerce and manufactures from one region to another, are numerous, and sometimes obscure. Religion, race, government, conquest, and emigration, are the most conspicuous and obvious, Under the operation of these causes, sometimes acting in conjunction, and sometimes in opposition to each other, the local changes of human civilization and power have been various and irregular. There are, however, two general movements of the arts and population, which have been observed during the whole history of our race. The one is from East to West.

"Westward the star of empire takes its way."

This movement has been permanent, although fortuitous in its cause. The East being, as is often said, "the cradle of the human race," its spread was necessarily towards the West. A different local origin would have given a different direction to its migrations. The second general movement from south to north, is not fortuitous, but depends upon causes the operation of which is inevitable. In the rude and early periods of our history it was only in warm climates, where the natural fruits of the earth are abundant, that population could attain a sufficient degree of density to give birth to cities and any considerable degree of civilization. Northern races, in a state of nature, or not far removed from it, are hunters, or at best pastoral in their pursuits, and their population is necessarily sparse. The discoverers of America found cities in the warm regions, but in the north only scattered and wandering tribes. It is so in Asia now, where Oriental civilization, such as it is, has its chief seats in regions favored by the sun. On the Mediterranean, the first seats of population were in Phoenicia and Egypt, whence the arts spread northwards, first to Greece and then to Italy, whence the great power of the Roman Empire carried them still further north. It is only in an advanced condition of the arts that man is able to provide himself abundantly with the shelter, the clothing, and the various comforts and conveniences of life, which alone render cold regions habitable by other than rude and barbarous nations. But when once the conquest of the north has been achieved, then the same cold which was the greatest enemy and evil of the race becomes its best friend. With the means and appliances to protect himself against its rigors, man finds in cold, when not excessive, the best preserver of health and the best stimulant to exertion. In the present age of the world, it is not cold but heat which the wit of man has not devised the means of escaping, with its debilitating lassitude and deadly influence upon life and strength, which seems to oppose to progress an insurmountable physical barrier. The civilized races of ancient times, without sawmills to cheapen the materials for habitations, without chimneys, without glass windows, without stoves, without coals, and with textile fabrics only obtainable by the expensive processes of manual labor, were confined to the lower latitudes. A more advanced civilization has carried our race into regions and climates too rough for its infant feebleness, but which are best adapted to develop the fullness of its matured strength. Thus most truly, and by no fortuitous accident, does northward "the star of empire take its way," and this destiny can have no change and no reflux. Southern civilization was always in danger from northern irruption, and frequently fell a prey to its overwhelming force. Northern civilization, uniting strength with the arts, need fear no foreign violence, and the causes which will ac

complish its downfall, if at length it must meet the fate of all things human, are deep hidden in the womb of time.

Navigation has been so much improved in modern times that it may be said to be a modern art. The use of rowers, indispensable with the ancients in the management, and much relied on in the propelling of vessels, would excite the ridicule of modern sailors. The ship of the ancients was furnished with but one mast, and the forward sail, or jib, to govern its movements, was square, as represented in paintings and on coins. They could sail within seven or eight points of the wind, but had no idea of working to the windward by successive traverses. Rudders, hinged to the stern-post, were not used until the thirteenth century. The mariner's compass, enabling the navigator to keep the open sea, instead of creeping along the coast, came into use about the year 1400, and was followed a century later by the discovery of the variation of the needle. In 1569, Gerard Mercator published his chart. The first account we have of the log, to ascertain the rate of a ship's sailing, is in a tract published at Leyden in 1599. Logarithms were invented in 1015, by Napier, a Scotch nobleman, and applied to navigation in 1620, by Edward Gunter. Mercator's map and Gunter's scale are still in use. The magnitude of the earth, and the length of a degree of a great circle upon it, were determined by Richard Norwood, an Englishman, with great accuracy, in 1635. There is no evidence that any mode of determining position at sea by astronomical observations was in use until the Middle Ages. The method of determining longitude by lunar observations is commonly ascribed to Dr. Maskelyne, appointed Royal Astronomer of England in 1765, and who died as late as 1811. This method, however, is founded upon the “Lunar Tables," published in 1755, by Tobias Mayer, a native of Wurtemberg. As late as 1817, it is stated to have been a matter of congratulation that a national armed vessel of the United States, on a voyage to Europe, had on board one man who understood lunar observations. Our navy officers are now better instructed. The construction of a chronometer of sufficient accuracy to determine longitude was achieved in 1765, by John Harrison, a Yorkshireman, a carpenter by trade. His instrument, tested on a voyage from England to Jamaica and back, fixed the longitude within eighteen miles, and he received the reward of twenty thousand pounds sterling, offered by Parliament on condition that he explained the bases of his invention, which were chiefly two; first, the principle of the different expansibility of different metals under the influence of heat, applied to the construction of pendulums and balance-wheels; and second, the going fusee, by which the movement of a clock, or watch, is not interrupted by the operation of winding up.

The mathematical problems connected with the motion of a ship upon. the curves of the globe task the subtlest analytical powers of the human mind. The works published on that subject in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were numerous, learned, and ingenious, and exhausted that department of navigation as a matter of strict science. Our own Bowditch, however, in his "New American Practical Navigator," published in 1807, by the accuracy of his tables and the simplicity of his rules, deserved the credit which he has enjoyed. His work now, after the lapse of half a century, is still standard authority in our own marine, and is largely used by European navigators.

In other departments of navigation, the construction and working of