the TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, CLINTON HALL, NEW- YORK. JANUARY, 1843. NEW-YORK: PRINTED FOR THE ASSOCIATION, By James P. Wright, No. 41 Pine Street. 1843. Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York Library ANNUAL MEETING The Twenty-second Annual Meeting of the Mercantile Library Associa- tion was held at Clinton Hall on Tuesday evening, January 10th, 1843. The meeting was called to order by the President, on whose motion Philip Hone, Esq., was called to the chair. The minutes of the last general meeting of the Association were read and approved. The Treasurer presented his Report of the Receipts and Expenditures of the past year, which was accepted. The President read the Annual Report of the Board of Direction, which was adopted, and ordered to be printed. On motion of Mr. R. E. Lock wood, it was Resolved, That the members of the Mercantile Library Association do hereby take this occasion of expressing their unfeigned sorrow for the removal by death of their late Librarian, Edward Cahoone, which melancholy event has occurred since the last Annual Meeting — cherishing a high respect for his memory, and bearing testimony to the faithful, intelligent, and amiable char- acteristics which were invariably manifested in his intercourse with the members, whether as an officer or as a man. A proposed amendment to Article 11, Chapter II., of the Constitution, re- quiring the Regular Nominating Committee to make their report four weeks before the Election, instead of three weeks, as now provided, was, after a brief discussion, laid on the table. A motion to amend Article 6, Chapter I., by striking out the requirement of a membership of at least one month to give any member the right to vote, was discussed at length by several members. The amendment was not adopted, less than two-thirds voting in the affirmative. Mr. Edmund Coffin addressed the meeting in support of a plan for a sys- tematic course of instruction for the members, by the establishment of Pro- fessorships for the delivery of Lectures on the Principles and Statistics of Commerce, Natural Philosophy and History, etc. On motion of Mr. J. H. Gourlie, it was Resolved, That the Board of Direction, which shall be chosen at the en- suing Election, be requested to consider the expediency of instituting Lectures by stated Professors, and report thereon to a meeting of members. On motion of Mr. E. H. Grandin, Resolved, That the thanks of this meeting be and are hereby tendered to Philip Hone, Esq., for the able and dignified manner in which he has pre- sided over our deliberations on this occasion. On motion of Mr. J. W. Greaton, Resolved, That the thanks of the members be tendered to John T. Rollins, Esq., for the able Report presented this evening, on behalf of the Board of Direction. On motion of Mr. Geo. C. Baker, Resolved, That our acknowledgments are eminently due to the officers of The Clinton Hall Association, in their individual and corporate capa- city, for the interest they have continued to manifest in the advancement and prosperity of our Institution. On motion, adjourned. ISAAC H. BAILEY, Recording Secretary. BOARD OF DIRECTION FOR 1842. JOHN T. ROLLINS, President, HENRY R. PRALL, Vice President, CUTHBERT C. GORDON, Corresponding Secretary, ISAAC H. BAILEY, Recording Secretary, SAMUEL K. SATTERLEE, Treasurer. DIRECTORS. SILVANUS MILLER, Jr., I WALDRON B. POST, Jr., CHARLES M. WHEAT LEY, WILLIAM H. GRENELL, REUBEN BURKHALTER, | DANIEL C. HYDE, BENJAMIN POMEROY, Jr. BOARD ELECTED FOR 1843. LEWIS Mc MULLEN, President, RICHARD BURLEW, Vice President, ANTHONY HALSEY, Corresponding Secretary, WILLIAM M. PARKS, Recording Secretary, JAMES A. WILLIAMSON, Treasurer. DIRECTORS. CHARLES M. WHEATLEY, JOHN O. STEVENS, CUTHBERT C. GORDON, JOHN A. CLARK, BENJAMIN POMEROY, Jr., JOHN T. LANMAN, HENRY G. SCUDDER. TWENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT, GENTLEMEN OF THE ASSOCIATION I The occasion for the yearly account of the affairs and doings of our Institution since the last Annual Report was pre- sented, recurs as a pleasing celebration of its continued prosperity and of the sure progress of its refining and dignifying influences. The statement of its past year's business becomes due with the satisfactory reflections of a term passed happily and safely to our Association, in times of remarkable distress in our mercantile community. Although reduced in our pecuniary income, and suffering thereby a share in the effects of commercial depression in our city, we still can go forward, successfully, in ministering to those higher wants of mental life which it has been for years our delight to find supplied within these halls. In making statistical and other statements, the Directors desire to be guided by the simplicity of facts, and to avoid assertions which might in any way overrate the numerical or moral degree of our strength, operations, or progress. The Treasurer's Re- port will show the difference in the total revenues, for the last year and the previous one, to be against the former. Unfortu- nately for our great object, the Library chiefly suffers the bad effect of such a decrease, by the necessary reduction of book purchases whenever the resources of the treasury diminish. Yet a large appropriation of funds has gone to maintain the continuance of our literary supplies ; and we have the pleasure to see that the money disbursed for new books and periodicals during this last year very considerably exceeds the outlay of the year previous. 6 The number of members, as stated in the last Annual Report, was 3,868 Deduct subscriptions closed, which expired in 1841 and 1842, by provision of the 7th art. of the 1st chap, of the Constitution .... 352 Withdrawals in 1842 452 804 Added during the past year 308 496 Actual number of members 1st January, 1843 3,372 Of these there are Members paying annually $2 2,884 Do. do. $5 46 Stockholders of Clinton Hall Association 292 Honorary members 150 3,372 In relation to the Treasury, the Board has pleasure in direct- ing notice to the fact, that notwithstanding a decrease in the number of members, incident to the general depression in busi- ness, it has been enabled to apply to the most essential purposes, namely, the increase and preservation of the Library, upwards of $3,000, after paying current expenses and leaving a balance of 8355 53. For the year ending December 31st, 1842, the receipts have been $6,139 90 Expenditures 5,784 37 The institution is entirely out of debt. The system of cash dealings gives it a vantage ground which cannot be too" strictly kept in all its financial business. 7 The Library has come to be of an extent and value to make its management and growth the paramount object of our care. A false delicacy should not restrain us from speaking plainly of the abuses which our books surfer, from inconsiderate and mischievous ill usage, in the hands they pass through daily. The practice of increased vigilance for the past year has revealed from time to time some flagrant cases of the mal-treatment, des- truction, and mortifying loss of the property of the Institution. The Board cannot refrain from urging the formation of a stricter system for the detection and punishment of offenders in this way. It may safely be said, that no public library, at all ap- proaching ours in worth, is so little protected from these indis- criminate evil practices. Some of the mischief alluded to arises from our treating as one and the same the business of conducting a common circu- lating library and one of a more permanent kind, formed for purposes of study and research. With us, the greater liability of the former to damage opens the way for the progress and im- punity of its own abuses in the latter department. The protec- tive rules, made originally for a small establishment, are not now compatible with the preservation of our great abundance of good books. It is plain that our Library management needs not a little improvement, if we would have the costly materials, gath- ered with pains for our individual uses and enjoyment, properly kept and treated. It is just to state, that the frequent inexperience of each new and yearly Board of Officers, the short term of service of most of the Directors, and the brief leisure of the exclusively eligible clerk- members, are unfortunate causes of a want of precise and elaborate legislation for the current direction of the Library discipline. A rigid system, properly established and enforced would do much to cure the serious evils which, it is incumbent upon the Board to recommend, should be more effectually guard- ed against. It is suggested that the plan of separating the more perishable part of the books from the valuable main Library is worthy of experiment at the earliest convenient time. As matters now go on, the two characteristic extremes interfere seriously, and re- quire an equal care for their preservation. The lasting and the transient become clogs to each other. The latter are counted as 8 dear and indispensable for the future as the former. The sta- tistics of the Annual Reports, by representing volumes once got as always had. become exaggerated and delusive, and the manner of cataloguing, numbering, and recording loans of books, grows daily more cumbrous and worthless. If we make a common Circulating Library a distinct and neatly managed branch of our business, and give the volumes belonging to it a separate cata- loguing, numbering, or marking, a changeable and fresh stock of popular reading might always be available. This can properly include many grave and important new and old works, which a great demand requires should be largely supplied. All such works, of course, may likewise find their proportionate place in the main Library, with the books ' for all time,' which shall then, in their circulation, be under better observation and care. By allowing the sale or exchange of the short-lived attractions, from time to time, their cost to us maybe greatly reduced, while the reserved Library, besides being less impeded in its growth, -will happily improve more than ever in its usefulness, conve- nience, and circulation. In our present condition, this sub- ject may be dismissed in the words of a great Institution, some- what like ours, lately established in Europe. The Managing Committee of The London Library says : " Subscribers can- " not reasonably expect for their very moderate annual subscrip- " tion [£2 — the initiation fee is £6], to enjoy advantages which " can be obtained from a Circulating Library, only for a subscrip- " tion of many times the amount." In connection with this change in our internal economy, we are again reminded of our want of additional room, occasioned by the inconvenient overcrowding of our book-shelves. The new shelving, fitted up in October last, is reckoned to hold 2.500 volumes, and is of greater extent than that at present in the Reading Room. The volumes on the main shelves, which were before thrust out of sight in many cases, have been brought fully into view and re-arranged, so as to expedite the finding of any work required. The accommodations, however, are not such as to provide space for the immediate certain increase to the present fulness of the Library. The peremptory necessity for further enlargement of shelf-room is apparent from the fact, that the recent increase is barely sufficient to provide for the many volumes before improperly bestowed in the obscure back y rows of the shelves. The entire space is now filled to its ut- most proper limit. As no provision, therefore, exists for the dispo- sition of more books, unless by a relapse into the former evil, new space for placing them should be found with as little delay- as possible. The Directors think it not amiss at this time to point the attention of their successors, and the members, to the pros- pect of seeing this fine Hall, in which we now assemble, availa- ble for new purposes, and, with proper alterations, filled with our highly-to-be-prized collection of books, which should have no hindrance to its becoming one of the very best in the coun- try. By converting this Lecture Room into a Library, it would furnish a spacious area in its midst for conversational inter- course, while, for the arrangement of a Museum and Cabinet, and for Reading Rooms of newspapers and periodicals, the apartments we now occupy would be most excellent. Such an expansion of our habitation would allow room ample for growth in every respect of size, attractions, and systematic utility. The Purchases of Books have been made with what discrim- ination the opportunities and knowledge of the Directors would allow. That much that is valuable to the student and to the reader for amusement has accrued to the Library during the year, a reference to the current catalogue will clearly show. The Board has availed itself as far as possible of what assist- ance the intelligence of its friends, members of the Association, and others, could give in this behalf. Owing to a lessened reve- nue, the contemplated addition of many important books, includ- ing some works in large and encyclopaedic forms, has been ne- cessarily delayed beyond the term of the expiring year. Unremit- ted pains should be continued in the acquisition of the older portions of literature. The members will appreciate rightly, without question, the worth of good books not of recent produc- tion, and the succeeding officers must see the benefit of increas- ing such a solid part of our literary material. In procuring for- eign publications, an important saving is made by ordering the works from Europe in the name of the Institution. The ex- emption from import duties, and the moderate commission paid on the purchases, make this method one of great economy to our funds. This plan recommends itself so strongly that its con- tinuance requires no urging. 10 The number of volumes in the Library, as stated in the last Annual Report, was 23,432 There have been since added, by purchase. . 1,185 " " " by donation.. 67 1,252 Total 24,684 It should be understood, that in the usual way of summing up our volumes, allowance is not made for the books worn out, dis- carded, and lost, since we began " numbering" them several years ago. Thus, owing to the defects of some part of the system of the Institution, the extent of the Library has been considerably over-estimated, and it is not easy to know what is near the true total number of volumes. Donations of Books, for which our thanks are rendered, have been received during the year from the following gentlemen, viz : Messrs. Henry Sherman, Henry G. Bohn, John Loines, Charles Lanman, Charles M. Wheatley, John McKeon, W. C. Redfield, A. T. Myrtle, Thomas W. Clerk, J. & H. G. Langley, R. H. McCurdy, N. J. Bowditch, James T. Fields, John G. McKean, Wiley & Putnam, James Jenkins, Jr., Henry S. Mc- Kean, Geo. C. Schaeffer, Greeley & McElrath, John G. Barker, and Doct. A. Sidney Doane. Also, from the following Institutions : The Salem Athenasum. The American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Boston. The Boston Athenaeum. The Boston Society of Natural History. The Middlesex Mechanics' Association at Lowell, Mass. The growth of the Library, since the compilation of the Sup- plementary Catalogue, may be considered . to require early atten- tion to the construction of an entirely new Catalogue of the whole contents of the establishment. Upon the arrangement and accuracy of this Manual depend much of the usefulness of a Public Library, and its facilities for furnishing at all times the literary matter of which it is the depository. 11 In the month of April, Mr. Edward Cahoone, a most amiable and worthy officer of our Institution, died. His character needs no eulogy. The members of the Association will ever cherish the memory of his virtues. His faithfulness as an officer and his purity as a man have left their own record with all who knew him. To fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Cahoone, the Board selected from the many applicants for the Librarianship, Mr. Henry S. McKean ; and the Directors express their entire conviction, upon experience, that Mr. McKean is highly fitted, both by his education and abilities, for the place he now occupies. The Reading Rooms continue to be the interesting resort of the members generally, and of many non-resident visitors. This highly popular appendage to our Library is deserving of a cher- ishing regard, and demands to be looked to strictly for its due regulation. Inconvenience results from the want of a perma- nent attendant in these rooms, where the personal presence of a keeper would materially promote the comfort of visitors, and se- cure the perfect and necessary order of its furniture. It is hoped that ere long the Association will be enabled to make a judicious provision for this desirable improvement, for those most valuable works placed in these apartments are the least protected from abuse and injury. The Cabinet has received many important additions of spe- cimens of Mineralogy, Geology, and Conchology, with other ob- jects of interest, during the past year. The increasing taste for scientific investigation, and the recent important discoveries in Natural Science, render this collection doubly interesting. To the student of Natural History it is of value, as affording types of Genera which would not be easily determined by descriptions which are often ambiguous and per- plexing. In the early part of the year a case was procured for Geolo- gical Specimens and Fossils, in conformity with the suggestion in the last Annual Report. L2 That this interesting branch of our means of study and im- provement may be perfected, the Board must again revert to our confined space. Offers of valuable donations are made contin- gent upon their due arrangement and display, and the necessity is therefore urged for larger accommodations in this department also. Donations are acknowledged from the following gentlemen : Messrs. N. B. Wilbur, W. H. Pease, John H. Redfield, William Rankin, Charles M. Wheatley, D. C. Hyde, Drs. B. W. Budd, and A. S, Doane, Messrs. Sheppard, Brower, and Bradford. The Course of Lectures for 1S42-3 is given at the Broadway Tabernacle, in compliance with the request of many of the members of our Association, and by consent of the Clinton Hall Association. The insufficiency of the former Lecture Room, and the crowded state of the audiences, had imperatively demanded a change of place, and the experience of the past jus- tified it. It was apparent, however, that such a step would be attended with a great increase of expense ; but the Board deemed that, desirable as an income from this source may be considered, the main object to be recognized and sought, in the establish- ment of the Lecture system, was not of a pecuniary character ; and that the hope of revenue should yield, if need be, to the ne- cessities of the audiences and to a just observance of their rights. The Lectures should indeed produce a revenue adequate to meet their expense, but they ought not to be regarded as sources of pecuniary profit. They should sustain themselves, but, if profitable, the number of Lectures should be increased, or the terms reduced. The Board cannot withhold a remark upon the impolicy and injustice of the present provisions touching the delivery of Lectures. The officers of the Association are personally liable for the necessary contracts and engagements ; the Asso- ciation reaps only the benefits ; it is not subject to loss, and, by virtue of the existing contract with the Clinton Hall Associa- tion, it can in no wise (except perhaps by the law of the land), be held responsible. The risk assumed therefore is not, in mer- cantile parlance, a fair risk. The expectation of a wiser ad- ministration in this department, because of this personal respon- sibility, is unfounded. A regard to pecuniary results is a vir- 13 tual prohibition of freedom of action or enlargement of design. It cripples and fetters every plan of improvement which implies the assumption of increased responsibility, and it closes the ear to all jnst complaint and remonstrance. A design, therefore, of extending the benefits of the Lecture system, removing com- plaint, and remedying defects, must be undertaken at the per- sonal risk of the members of the Board of Direction ; and in view of this liability it should surely be no cause for surprise, that a systematic persistence in a disregard of the claims of jus- tice should obtain, or that parsimony and selfishness should usurp the place of that liberality and beneficence which should distinguish an Institution like this. Such a liability may like- wise operate seriously in dissuading many persons of most esti- mable character and influence from assuming the duties and re- sponsibilities of office. The Board therefore cannot withhold its expression of the unsoundness and impolicy of this feature of the contract with the Clinton Hall Association. It will be remembered that the surplus of the Lecture Fund, re- maining under the control of the Board of 1841, amounting to 8630, was permanently added, by a vote of that Board, to the funds of the Association, to which it had been some time previously loaned for its use. It may also be remembered that this amount had been received from the previous Board, with the suggestion that it might be used in the creation of a permanent Lecture Fund. The amount of S'350 S9, received by the present Board from its predecessors, is subject to a resolution that it shall be devoted to the specific purposes of a Lecture Fund : and whatever surplus may remain in the hands of this Board, will be handed to its suc- cessors, to be appropriated to the same object. While the Board regrets to state that the present Course of Lectures has not received that favor and attendance which its excellence and the selection of a more commodious and central room had promised, (the number of subscribers being less than to the previous Course.) yet no doubt is entertained of the policy and necessity of the change of place : and the conviction is estab- lished, that a Course of Lectures of equal merit, delivered in Clinton Hall upon equitable principles of admittance, would not have afforded a revenue sufficient to defray the expense. The Board is happy to express its convictions, nevertheless, of the successful service of popular lectures in withdrawing at- 14 tention from resorts of frivolous or vitiating amusements, in fos- tering a love of literature and more rational pursuits, and in suggesting fruitful topics of study and investigation. Besides, Lectures have proved highly beneficial in their social influence ; and in whatever distrust they may be held by the thorough stu- dent, this service alone affords ample argument for their insti- tution. While the pursuit of literature is presented as a task, and mercantile life, affording but limited leisure, asks for relaxation and amusement, and it is also the tendency of engrossing occu- pation to crush the love of study, it must be apparent that such means of popularizing literature become indispensable, and are legitimate and commendable objects to an Association of such elements and intentions as our own. Therefore it is, that the present Board would commend this department to the warm re- gard of the members, and to the thoughtful care and protection of its successors. The Board would take this occasion to state, that in the selec- tion of Lecturers, a regard has been had solely to their moral worth, their intellectual attainments and literary reputation ; that the Institution has been, and ever should be, most jealously guarded from the narrowness and partizanship of sectarian or political influence ; and that the preponderance of one or another school of Lecturers is an entirely accidental result of assiduous applications made to an equal extent in all quarters for men of high reputed ability. Acknowledgments are due to The Clinton Hall Associa- tion for its kind permission to deliver the present Course at the Tabernacle, and also for the constant courtesy which has per- vaded its intercourse with the Board during the past year. The Classes are in continued operation in various branches of important useful instruction. Our members should not light- ly esteem, or be insensible to, the unusual advantages they enjoy in this department for the excellent and economical acquirement of much valuable knowledge, which, without such opportuni- ties, most of us, probably, would be obliged to forego entirely. The French Class is under the tuition of Mons. Simonne. 15 The Spanish Class continues to be instructed by Don Carlos Rabadan. The German Class, established at the commencement of the year, under the care of the late Professor Nordheimer, is now suspended for want of pupils. Mr. Kaufmann, the appointed successor of Professor Nordheimer, bears the character of an able scholar and a highly qualified teacher. The Board is happy to commend him to any of the members wishing instruction in his native tongue. The Class in Penmanship continues under the charge of Mr. A. H. Wheeler, and the Book-keeping Class is instructed by Mr. C. C. Marsh. Members may receive, as usual, from these two gentlemen, the necessary training for mercantile life which they are so well qualified by their skill and abilities to give. A Class in Vocal Music was formed in the month of November, and is now receiving instruction from Mr. Jas. F. Warner, a gen- tleman of high professional repute as an accomplished and suc- cessful teacher. The lessons are given at Mr. Warner's Music Rooms. His aptness at imparting a practical and theoretical knowledge of this inestimable art is acknowledged by those who, as his pupils, are the objects of his zealous interest. The study of Vocal Music is commended as a healthful and invigorating practice for every constitution. Music has, how- ever, a much better influence to boast ; for it has been justly af- firmed, by a high authority, that " this delightful and dignified " recreation is calculated, more than any other, to promote con- " cord, to bind young hearts in the closest sympathy, and to foster " a community of sentiment, which may endure and eventually " sustain them in coming years ;" that " it is this art which im- " parts that inmost, that indispensable warmth, whence the will "derives an energy, hope a brightness, enthusiasm a strength, " that the efforts of reason alone would ever fail to impart ; that " it is this art which fortifies the resolution, and ennobles the aims " of its votaries."* * The forming of a Music Class, in connection with the Institution, is not a novel or fanciful experiment. The Lyceums and other Associations like ours, in the cities and towns of England, have classes in Vocal and Instru- mental Music, Elocution, etc. A Report of one of the Manchester Lyceums 16 The Twenty-second Anniversary of the Association was celebrated at the Broadway Tabernacle, on the 9th of Novem- ber last. A chaste and eloquent oration upon Commerce was pronounced by Charles Eames, Esq., followed by a Satirical Poem, written by Park Benjamin, Esq., for the occasion, and delivered by him with very happy effect. These exercises were listened to by an intelligent auditory with warmly expressed admiration. A number of the members and friends of the Association, in- cluding several invited guests and many ladies, afterwards par- took of a dinner at Niblo's Garden, at which Philip Hone, Esq., presided. The company retired, highly gratified with the novel and intellectual character of the entertainment. The last Annual Report stated that a Tablet had been erected to the memory of John W. Stebbins. As the Committee en- trusted with the business did not provide for the expense of the work, the Board (possessing no power to use the funds of the Association for such purpose), was compelled to supply the required amount by other means. By donations from several members and friends of the Asso- ciation, the sum of 8170 was collected, and the deficit, $80, was temporarily furnished from the funds arising from the present mentions that " at the celebration of its thirteenth anniversary the Vocal Music Class interested the company with songs and glees." In another, " the amusements, generally furnished by the members and friends of the Institu- tion, consist of instrumental music, singing, and recitation." In many other English Associations, similar to ours, the study of Music, especially Vocal Music, has greatly increased. The social necessities and susceptibilities of the Mercantile Library Association are beginning to be much talked of. Can there be anything better, in this way, cultivated amongst us, than that " con- cord" and that " community of sentiment," which the authority quoted above (Mainzer) so earnestly declares are preeminently promoted and fostered by this " delightful and dignified recreation ?" The machinery of our classes is simple, and easily managed. The de- partment, by its present system, is capable of any degree of extension in its educational purposes and its organization. The Class-branch is made in many kindred Institutions abroad, to provide means for learning thoroughly whatever art, science, or language, it is well ascertained, will be voluntarily studied by a sufficient number — the subscribed funds of the Institutions going, in part, to support the expense of instructors, etc. 17 Course of Lectures. This amount remains to be replaced by fu- ture subscriptions. The two Scholarships conferred upon our Institution by Columbia College, are now filled by Messrs. Charles Reynolds and William J. Frost : one of them becomes vacant in October next, and the other in October, 1S45. It is well that the mem- bers should be aware when these valuable gifts become open to new candidates, as it is important that sufficient previous time should be given for qualification. The intercourse of this Association, during the past year, with Institutions of our city, with those of Brooklyn, Newark, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, has been of a useful and happy character, and is worthy of continuance and encouragement. The Board now surrenders into your hands, gentlemen of the Association, the trusts confided to it, with a consciousness of their great value, and of the necessity of their jealous guardianship, and with the earnest hope that they may be committed in all serious- ness to its successors, — and that among the future fruits of an Association of such worth as ours, a more sober discrimination may supply the place of that turbulent spirit of party strife which has abounded in the popular elections of our country, and infected our own choice of officers. Indeed, the prevalence of this spirit has suggested doubts, in the minds of the thoughtful and judi- cious, of the soundness of the paramount influences of our Insti- tution. But it should be our highest pleasure to express the conviction that our Association is accomplishing its true office by its in- creased capacity to minister to the intellectual wants of its mem- bers, and, by its silent but efficient agency, to elevate and dignify the life and character of our Clerks ; for it is mainly through the reinforcement of their cultivation that the moral, intellectual, and social character of the merchant is to be purified and sus- tained. By the means and appliances here presented, the mental pri- vations of clerks may be relieved at a cost hardly appreciable, and the evils incident to the allurements of a crowded city life, 18 the engrossing demands of business, the formality and unconcern of commercial relations, and the absence of salutary restraints, may find their readiest preventives and most sufficing remedies. Yet, beneficent as are the ministrations of our Institution, ac- cessible as are her stores of knowledge, and inexhaustible as are her treasures, to the indolent or the inactive they are as if they were not. They demand more than a passive regard, and, to those who have not learned the lesson of self-helpfulness and the need of self-culture, no wisdom of legislation can supply the want of adequate motives and genuine impulses. We should be urged, therefore, to a more active individual interest in our In- stitution, and studious improvement of the accumulated facilities it so liberally affords. In conclusion, the Board would present prominently to the con- sideration of the Merchant, the fact of the practical effectiveness of knowledge, and the daily business need of mental discipline and cultivation, of faithfulness and integrity, as demanding for this Association, even upon the score of common policy, his more cheering countenance — his more cordial favor and sup- port. 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