I. THE MERCHANT; HIS CHARACTER, POSITION AND DUTIES.-The Mer- cantile Pursuits; How Estimated; Agencies of Commerce; What the Merchant Should be; Character and Duties of the American Mer- II. CONTESTS FOR THE TRADE OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. Western and Atlantic Railroads; Struggle of Eastern Cities to Reach the West; What is New Orleans Doing? Shall She Retain the Western Trade? What Steps are Necessary? Best Method of Facilitating the Trade of By BUCKNER H. PAYNE, Esq., of Louisiana, III. THE BATTURE FORMATION IN FRONT OF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS.—— Movements of the Councils of the Second and Third Municipalities; Report and Address of SAMUEL J. PETERS, Esq,, etc., etc., IV. THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER IN THE OLDEN TIME.-A Genuine Account of the Present State of the River Mississippi and of the Lands on its Banks from its Mouth to the River Yazous, 1776, (with Notes by the EDITOR V. Geology of THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.-Revolutions and Changes in the Valley and Lake Country; The Gulf of Mexico and Consequences of a Canal Passage Through the Isthmus; General Discussion of the By Dr. J. W. MONETTE, of Mississippi, VI. COMMERCE, RESOURCES, ETC., OF OHIO.-Settlement of the State; Mi- nerals; Population; Manufactures; Railroads; Canals; Growth and VII. MERCANTILE BIOGRAPHY.--Biographical Sketches of JAMES COEUR, of France; DE MEDICIS, of Florence; Roscoe, of England, VIII. RAILWAY SYSTEMS AND PROJECTS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA.-Advantages of Railroads; Velocity; Railroads in England, Belgium, France, Ger- 103076 98 112 many, Prussia, Austria, Russia, and the United States; Safety of Rail- roads; Length of Railways in America; System of; Railroad Commu- nication with the West First Projected in South Carolina; Mobile and Ohio Proposed Railroad; Railroads in Louisiana; Road Proposed through IX. THE POST SYSTEM.-Antiquity of Post Roads and Conveyances; Origin By J. S. DUKE, Esq., of New Orleans, . X. COMMERCIAL JURISPRUDENCE.-Right of Assignee in Bankruptcy to Dis- Opinion by Hon. GEO. EUSTIS, New Orleans, XI. THE RELATIONS OF MAN TO SOCIETY, According to Domat, 149 . 160 2. Export and Import Trade with Foreign Countries, 3. Comparative Re-Export of Foreign Merchandize for the years 1845 and 1846, 174 1. Maine; Massachusetts; Michigan; Iowa; Maryland; Indiana; Kentucky; Ohio; Pennsylvania; New York; Missouri; Arkansas; Louisiana, . 177-179 Histoire de la Louisiana, par Charles Gayarre, vol. II.; etc., etc. 183 THE COMMERCIAL REVIEW. VOLUME III.] FEBRUARY, 1847. [NUMBER II. Art. I.—THE MERCHANT,—HIS CHARACTER, POSITION, DUTIES. The business of the Merchant is in a very high degree useful and honorable. He is the promoter of enterprise, the encourager of agriculture, the friend of peace. He diffuses from country to country, from continent to continent, the comforts of civilized life, the luxuries of art, the practical, substantial benefits of science and knowledge. He is the patron of industry in all its departments, and without his ceaseless energy, every pursuit, in the multitude of human employments, flags and decays. He builds a village into a mighty city-remove him, and tower and temple fall to the ground. It is his active enterprise that whitens the ocean with the sails of a thousand ships, and stems the currents of mighty rivers with the gigantic power of steam. In vain does the farmer labour in the finest climate, on the most fertile soil, if he is beyond the reach of that mercantile agency without which his products are worthless. This character, so useful, so elevated, has not been hitherto properly appreciated by the world. It has been the fashion with mankind to bestow their admiration and eulogy on the destroyers, not the builders of national prosperity. The gigantic homicides who strike off a hundred thousand heads at a blow, or level in the dust cities, which have been the abodes of wealth and refinement for centuries-these have long been the prime favourites of our race, and poets and historians are yet busied with the exploits of Scipio, and Mummius, and Cæsar, and Zingis Kahn, whilst the Astors and Barings of other days are long since forgotten. The first place in rank and dignity even now in modern Europe is assigned to the descendants of those feudal lords |