Walter R. Jones, who had been, and was then, associated with me in nearly all the public matters that have occupied a great portion of my time for years past. On the last day of these four, Mr. Jones wrote a letter to Mr. Lawrence-(it was the last letter he ever wrote)—and I said to him, "I will put it in the post-office myself, so as to be sure it gets there before the mail closes ;" but before that letter reached Mr. Lawrence the next morning, the hand which penned it was cold in death, and before five months had finished their term, he to whom it was addressed, had bid a last adieu to earth. Such is life, and such are its changes-such the uncertainty of its duration. Mr. Lawrence was but three months and twenty-nine days older than Mr. Jones. They were both "remarkable men." I have said that Mr. Lawrence was taught industry and economy-a lesson that cannot be too well learned. Mr. Appleton says, in his memoir, that on the arrival of Abbott Lawrence in Boston he had less than three dollars in his pocket, and this was his fortune. This he quotes from the diary of his brother, Amos. That sum was at that time considered an abundance for a young man, under the circumstances. Had his father thought that more was necessary, he would have given it to him, for he was liberal in making all needed provision for his children -he was a good man, and was blessed with a most excellent family. Of five sons who grew up to manhood, only one, the youngest, Samuel, now survives. If the entire history of that family could be written, it would yield fruits for centuries.

I have had laying beside me, on my desk, for several weeks, the Newburyport Herald of Sept. 4th, 1855, in the margin of which is a pencil mark, pointing to an extract from a sermon preached the next Sabbath (26th of August) after the death of Abbott Lawrence; the preacher, the Rev. F. D. Huntington, in closing his discourse, said :

"Alike in their personal and private probity, side by side in their vigorous and thrifty economy, agreed in their cordial, distinguished, far-sighted patronage of science, which their own lot precluded them from mastering, and one also in their honest faith in the Gospel of Christ, and their consistent respect for its institutions, the proportions of excellence in these two brothers were differently distributed. If the one just taken reached a higher distinction of civic rewards and affiuent hospitalities, the other found more than a compensation in his stricter simplicity of life, his tranquil and spontaneous joys, his love of little children, and his own child-like sympathy on every suffering and gladness he met.

"Both of them believers in the law and commandments of the King of kings; and the ambassadorship of the one from the world's foremost Republic to its highest court, was offset in the grateful benedictions that came from the street sides, and plain school-rooms, and lowly hovels, to greet the apostolic countenance of the other. Both died with conscious and meek submission to God's will. Both will rest in venerated graves, and live in fragrant memories. Builders themselves of earthly cities, and closely identified with our best municipal fame, their removal strikes deeper the chilling feeling, that here we have no continuing city. But good deeds, like theirs, re-animate us with the conviction, that even in the climate of this world, righteousnes is immortal, and that the benefactors of man are witnesses for heaven."

I may add, that the children of Deacon Lawrence were educated in the strictest observance of the Sabbath, the fruits of which were a most abundant yield.

Yours very truly,

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, June 5th, 1856.

E. MERIAM.

THE MERCHANTS' FUND OF PHILADELPHIA.

The "Merchants' Fund" was incorporated in January, 1854, for the purpose of furnishing relief to indigent merchants of the city of Philadelphia, especially such as are aged and infirm. The affairs of the Association are under the direction of a Board, consisting of a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary, Treasurer, and fifteen additional managers. The managers are divided into two classes, whose terms of service are to be respectively one and two years, but they may be re-elected. This Association gives without respect to age, creed, or country, and in such a way that a proper pride of character is preserved on the part of the recipient. His feelings, made keenly sensitive by misfortune, are not wounded by exposure; nor is he taken away from his home, and his remaining domestic ties, to be shut up in an almshouse.

From the second annual report of JOHN M. ATWOOD, the President of the Association, we extract the subjoined account of its doings during the past year :The Treasurer's report exhibits the receipts for the past year from all sources as amounting to $2,228 25; and disbursements, exclusive of investments, for same time, $1,663 19; leaving a cash balance to credit of the fund of $189 87. The permanent investments of the society now amount to $2,700.

During the past year there has been an accession of 187 new members to the society. The whole number is now 464; of whom 70 are life, and 394 annual contributors-a small proportion, indeed, of those whose willing association may be confidently expected upon a personal presentation of your benevolent designs. Of the whole number of the beneficiaries, two received special aid suited to the peculiar circumstances of their cases. One has come into the receipt of an income from another source, which renders further aid unnecessary. Two have been removed by death, leaving seven still dependant upon the fund. It may be a matter of interest to record of the two deceased, that the last use of their pens was to indorse the checks which covered the amount of their semi-annual appropriations-only a few days before their death. Of these and of all the other cases where your benefactions have brought relief in days of decrepitude and sorrow, it may be affirmed, that had the total expenditure been made at the cost of any single individual of the many to whom Providence has given the means and opportunity, it would be a privilege cheaply purchased.

In most of the cases the appropriations required have been small, averaging less than two hundred dollars each; but small as they have been in pecuniary amount, they have been sufficient; and we close another year of the Merchants' Fund with the glad reflection that no proper application for its aid has been made in vain, and no objects are known to the committee which have not received their attention.

The regulations which forbid whatever might attract notice to any of the beneficiaries, and which clothe its gifts with double value, in thus sparing the recipients a sense of humiliation, the keenness of which only they can realize who have fallen from prosperity into like stricken fortunes, these regulations, so proper and humane, necessarily hinder us from giving details, which would add greatly to the interest of these reports. None would wish it otherwise. Each case has its own sad history, but all are marked by those circumstances of calamity which bring them within the special regard of our institution. As heretofore, the claims of the aged have been particularly recognized. The present beneficiaries are all aged, and have all passed their threescore years and ten; have, it is believed, gone through life with unstained reputations, and with the loss of prosperity, have retained the respect due to worth, although associated with present poverty and humiliation.

We have no stronger grounds on which to base an appeal. Here are age, want, and infirmity-always infirmity, and often sickness. The burden of advanced years, heavy in its best estate, is often alleviated by a combination of circum

stances, which Providence throws around a favored individual. The light of a home, cheered by the affectionate care of loving children, and of social intercourse, with all the means of comfort and intellectual enjoyment which competence can furnish, these are the lot of some. But take them all away, and in their stead place loneliness and want; the consciousness of utter helplessness and destitution contrasted with the remembrance of former strength and prosperity, perhaps of affluence and high position, and here, if anywhere, does carnest sympathy find room for its largest exercise. To meet circumstances like these the Merchants' Fund was originated, and is quietly fulfilling its mission of love and mercy. It offers to the profession a channel through which the sufferings of their unfortunate brethren may be reached and alleviated in the best manner; relieving, without degrading, as a brother assists his brother in his need.

If, at the outset of the undertaking, there were doubts of its expediency or feasibility, experience has dispelled them; and should its claims upon the merchants of Philadelphia be met with any just appreciation of their interests and importance, we may anticipate for this institution a long and bright career of usefulness. Of the bestowment of such a patronage we will not permit ourselves to doubt. It is no idle charity which provides the life-boat on a dangerous coast to save the shipwrecked mariner, nor in view of the perils of fortune in a profession so proverbially dangerous as our own, can we lightly esteem a provision which brings solace and succor to many hearts ready to perish.

We earnestly hope the example of the Merchants' Fund Association of Philadelphia will be followed in all our large commercial cities, for it is, in our judgment, a charity of unquestionable utility and excellence.

MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK.

We are indebted to Mr. GEORGE C. WOOD, the accomplished President of this associaion, for a copy of its thirty-fifth annual report. From this report it appears that 1,733 members have been added to the association, a number far greater than that of any year since the foundation of the institution. The number of withdrawals, 434, is the average of the last five years, whilst the accounts closed in conformity with the constitution have been somewhat larger. The receipts of the association have been $16,994 86; expenditures, $16,863 29; leaving a balance of $131 57. The reporter says:-" The unprecedented pecuniary success of the lectures the past winter, resulting in a net gain of $2,499 66, has enabled your Board to carry out their plans, place the property of the association in complete order, add 3,004 volumes to the library, besides remitting to London $400 for the purchase of recent standard books, not to be procured in this country (and not yet received;) also to defray the entire cost of the new supplementary catalogue of some 200 pages." The total number of volumes in the library is 46,383. Four hundred volumes have been ordered from London, which are not yet received. The number of visitors to the library and reading-room has averaged 750 daily. Each volume in the library has had an average of nearly four readers. The institution for the savings of merchants' clerks, has more than one million of dollars deposited. The total increase of the property of the association since the last annual report has been $15,954.

THE LANDLORD, BROKER, AND MERCHANT, ON SUNDAY.

HENRY WARD BEECHER, who "thunders and lighteus" in the Plymouth Church, at Brooklyn, to "overflowing houses," fires away at the money doings of merchants and business men, who attend church to hear or sleep over “divine

mysteries" and "doctrine." As it is not to be supposed the coat will fit any reader of the Merchants' Magazine, we venture to give a brief phillipic from his pungent pen on "secular" vs. "practical preaching."

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We have no doubt that a rigorous landlord, having sharked it all the week, would be better pleased on Sunday, to doze through an able Gospel sermon on Divine mysteries, than to be kept awake by a practical sermon, that among other things, set forth the duties of a Christian landlord. A broker who has gambled on a magnificent scale all the week, does not go to church to have his practical swindling analyzed and measured by the New Testament spirit.' A merchant, whose last bale of smuggled goods was safely stored on Saturday night, and his brother merchant, who, on that same day, swore a false invoice through the Custom House-they go to church to hear a sermon on faith, on angels, on the resurrection. They have nothing invested in these subjects, they expect the minister to be bold and orthodox. But if he wants respectable merchants to pay ample pew rents, let him not vulgarize the pulpit by introducing commercial questions. A rich Christian brother owns largely in a distillery, and is clamorous against letting down the pulpit to the vulgarity of temperance sermons. Another man buys tax titles, and noses about all the week to see who can be slipped out of a neglected lot. A merchant that piles his craft with unscrupulous appliance of every means that win, he too wants doctrine' on the Sabbath, not those secular questions. Men wish two departments in life; the secular and the religious. Between them a high wall and opaque, is to be built. They wish to do what they please for six long days. Then stepping the other side of the wall, they wish the minister to assuage their fears, to comfort their consciences, and furnish them a clear ticket and assurance for heaven. By such a shrewd management, our modern financiers are determined to show that a Christian can serve two masters, both God and mammon, at the same time.”

THE STORES OF PROTECTIVE UNIONS AND WORKINGMEN.

The failure of the Boston House of Equity, an establishment designed, we believe, to supply workingmen and persons of limited or small means, has elicited from the Herald of that city, some sensible remarks on the subject. The success of the plan, and we have taken some pains to inquire into its working, does not appear to be very encouraging, and we are inclined to think that, with few exceptions, the class of persons benefited by these institutions, is comparatively small, and that they would fair quite as well by the ordinary system of trade, with the wholesome competition necessarily growing out of individual enterprise. The Herald, it should be understood, is ahead in its circulation of the Boston journals, and goes among the people who patronize Protective Unions. The Herald remarks :—

Among the vast number of stores opened in various sections of our country under the names of "Protective Unions," there are very few successful. Their difficulties arise mainly from the want of a knowledge of human nature on the part of those who orignate such stores. Trade is as much an art as any artisanship whatever. To know how to buy to advantage, requires great skill in the knowledge of markets, and a steady and constant exercise of supervision. This cannot be expected in those who have not been brought up in a practical knowledge of business.

And, moreover, when the workingmen and other classes attempt to organize for the purpose of buying their own articles of consumption more cheaply than such can be purchased of our regular traders, they are to apt to place their stores under the control of some one of their number, who has no other qualification than his loud talk about the manner in which the traders may be circumvented, and the company may be supplied with goods vastly cheaper than such goods can be obtained of the regular traders. Such vociferations are seldom or never qualified

to remedy the evils upon which they descant. They are generally men, who never having made a dollar themselves, are wholly unfit to be intrusted with the property of others. And yet, such are placed in the charge of the kind of property we have mentioned, because their boasting of what may be done, has given them favor among credulous people.

There is no doubt that much might be done by a proper organization to reduce the prices of any of the great staples of life, by proper association for the purpose. Take flour and coal, for example. From fifty to an hundred families might join and order one or more cargoes of these articles at a proper season of the year. But such orders should be given by and through some shrewd and responsible commission merchant, who knows of whom to purchase the best article and at the lowest price. And besides, the company thus purchasing should require every member thereof to pay cash down on the arrival of the articles for such portion thereof as he takes. No deviation from this rule should be allowed on any pretext.

Many of our friends consider the trader to be one who makes money out of the community without rendering any equivalent. This is an entire mistake. There is not a successful trader among us who does not undergo more trouble and worriment of mind than any successful artisan. And the proportion of merchants who finally succeed in their business is not equal to that of the mechanics who succeed in artisanship. General Dearborn, many years ago, demonstrated that but a very small percentage of our traders pass through their commercial life without at some period of their career, failing in business, and though an attempt has been made, recently, to controvert the General's position, by saying that of over an hundred signers to a manifesto respecting country bank bills, which was executed in 1808, about half of these signers were successful, this reply is inconclusive, because we are not told how many of that half had sometime in the course of their lives. And further for such a purpose as that manifesto was made, the very ablest and wealthiest of the merchants would be taken, and such are not a criterion of the whole class.

If, then, but a very few of our traders who are brought up to the business, succeed, how is it possible that raw hands placed over the charge of "Protective Union" stores can manage the concerns of the companies which own them, without final bankruptcy to such companies? It would be much more beneficial if those who carry out the protective union system would employ some one who had been brought up in trade to manage their concerns-one who not only understood business himself, but who would select assistants who understood theirs. In such a case the protective union operations might effect the desired end, which they never can do under their present management.

The poorer classes are not blamable when they make efforts to get the necessaries of life at the lowest possible prices. Having small means, and buying in very small quantities, they necessarily get articles which are poor in quality, very frequently short weight, and they generally have to pay an enhanced price, be cause of the small lot which they purchase at a time. It is natural that they should seek to make their small earnings go as far as possible, and that when they are dissatisfied with the extortions practiced too generally upon the poor, they should endeavor by a joining of purses to get their articles in larger quantities and cheaper. But such combinations are not always successful, and mainly for the reason that they do not intrust their funds with the right persons.

THE COD FISHERS AND FISHERY AT ST. JOHN'S.

BAYARD TAYLOR, the young but already distinguished American traveler, thus describes the modus operandi of the business at St. John's. Mr. Taylor is generally more reliable in his statements that many of the travelers of the "olden" or modern times. His quiet humor will, however, sometimes "stick out," as the reader will notice in the last statement of the following extract from his letter on the Cod Fisheries :