The Inaugural Oration at Laying the First Stone of the London Institution. MY LORD MAYOR; MY LORD CARRINGTON, EVERY person, who heard the eloquent and dignified address of the right honourable the lord mayor, on his placing the FIRST STONE OF THE LONDON INSTITUTION, must join me in regretting that, to his many other attentions to this institution, his lordship does not add that of addressing you, on your return from the interesting ceremony. This, the managers of the institution have desired of me; and in obedience to their wishes, I now request your attention to a few words, which I shall offer to your consideration on THE ADVANTAGES WHICH SCIENCE AND COMMERCE DERIVE FROM EACH OTHER. But I beg leave to premise what I shall say upon it, by a short account of the formation of the institution, and the views of those, with whom the design of it originated. I. ABOUT ten years ago, some gentlemen of high rank in commerce, and distinguished by their enlarged and cultivated understandings, projected the institution, on whose account you have this day been convened. Considering the mercantile eminence of their country; persuaded that, whatever increases the splendor, increases equally the strength and activity of commerce, and contemplating the example of almost every other European nation, they thought it due to the dignity and glory of the empire, that her commercial metropolis should be graced by a literary and scientific institution, on a liberal and extensive plan. They judged that such an establishment would bring science and commerce into contact; and that, by their approximation, each would draw forth and invigorate whatever there might be of latent energy or power in the other. Under this impression, they submitted their views to the consideration of their fellow citizens, and solicited the co-operation of their munificence. The design was universally approved; and a subscription of about 70,000 l. immediately raised, within the walls of the city of London and her commercial environs. The portion of land which has just been honoured with your presence, was purchased from the corporation of London, with a view of erecting upon it a building, suited to the purposes of the institution. I am authorized to add, that the gentlemen, who treated with the corporation for the purchase of it, speak, in high terms, of the liberality of their proceedings. Presuming on this liberality, and addressing myself to it, may I, an unauthorized individual, intimate an humble wish-(but a wish generally entertained),-that some arrangement may be made with the corporation of the city of London, by which the Gresham lectures shall be attached to the London Institution? and, in conformity to sir Thomas Gresham's wise and beneficial intentions, thus made really and actively conducive to the general diffusion of science and literature. This must be the wish of every one, to whom these are dear; or who reverences the memory of the venerable founder of the lectures; or who feels the respect always due to the ashes, which still speak, of the illustrious dead. II. THAT the union of science and commerce produces public and individual happiness, and elevates, in the rank of nations, the countries that are blessed with them, would, if it required proof, be better shown by history than argu ment. The spacious provinces, which now compose the Ottoman empire, were once the seat of science and commerce. Then, they were dignified by wisdom and valour; and, for a long time, were the fairest portion of the christian world. Of their science and commerce they were deprived by their invaders; and, in consequence of it, sunk into a state of abject misery, which no tongue can adequately describe :- Large territories dispeopled, goodly cities made desolate, sumptuous buildings become ruins, glorious temples subverted or prostituted, true religion discountenanced and oppressed, all nobility extinguished, violence and rapine exulting over all, and leaving no security, except to abject minds and unlooked on poverty*. Such is the state of a country, which hath lost her commerce and science. Would you behold a country in the full possession of them? Contemplate your own :—the number and magnificence of her cities, the high state of her agriculture, the activity of her manufactories, the easy intercourse between all parts of the nation; her grand foundations, both for learning and charity, the graceful dignity and conciliating ease of high life, the countless decencies of the middle ranks, the cheerful industry of the lowest, the general veneration for the constitution, the general obedience to law, the general devotion to their country. Such is England! If it be inquired by what means she hath attained this height of glory and prosperity, much, it must be answered, is owing to that happy union of science and commerce, for which, in every part of her history, she has been eminently distinguished. * See sir George Sandys's Account of the Ottoman Empire. III. Now, science and commerce are mutually dependent on the other; each assists each, and each receives from each a liberal return. That the commercial successes of a nation tend directly to promote literature, the sciences, and the arts, admits of no doubt. On this part of my subject, I shall do little more than appeal to your own observations. In the course of last summer, many of you have visited the scene of the most glorious and eventful victory that modern history has to record. I request them to recollect the long line of magnificent towns in Belgium, through which they passed, in their road to that memorable spot, or on their return; the many public edifices of exquisite and costly architecture, which they observed in them, and the numberless paintings and works in marble, gold, silver, iron, and bronze, with which these abound.—I beg them to recollect, that, during two hundred years, all these cities have been in a state of decline: they may then judge what they were in the day of their prosperity. Now, every thing which I have mentioned, was raised or collected by the fostering hand of commerce. For, till the imprudent conduct of the dukes of Burgundy and the house of Austria, drove commerce to Amsterdam, the Netherlands were her favourite seat; and all these monuments of art and science owe their existence to the commercial acquisitions and well-directed munificence of the burghers of Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp, Bruxelles, and Louvaine. The architecture, painting, and scuplture, which adorn the cities between the Alps and Middle Italy, equally owe their existence to the burghers of Lombardy. Had it not been for her commerce, Venice would never have had the school of painting, for which she is so illustrious. Had not the family of the Medici, afterwards allied to so many royal houses, and the parent of so many sovereign princes, been successful merchants, half, perhaps, of the precious remains of antiquity which we now possess, would not have reached us. A single ship, freighted with spices, brought to Lorenzo di Medici, from the east and Greece, two hundred manuscripts, eighty of them, of works, at that time unknown in Europe, Nor should we forget the merchant kings, to whom, as the best managers of it for the public, the British Nation confides her East Indian commerce. It would be difficult to point out a period, during which, more valuable communications have been made to the learned world, than that which has elapsed since the Institution for inquiring into the antiquities of the arts, sciences, and literature of Asia, was established in Bengal. Far be it from us, to deny or undervalue the obligations which learning and science owe to the monarchs of the earth, or to the ranks which immediately approach them. To these, much, very much, do learning and science owe: but, were they not themselves continually enriched by the commercial part of the community, scanty indeed would be their means of remunerating or encouraging the possessors of either. IV. On the other hand, science has ever been ancillary to commerce. Not a step can commerce safely take, either in her most simple or her most complex operations, unless the sciences of number and measure attend her. Nor, should it be forgotten, that many even of those rules, "Which boys can read and girls can understand,”—POPE. are the result of the most profound and laborious investigation; and that the midnight lamp has, over and over again, been lighted to the scientific men, by whom they were discovered. |