FAIRS-AMERICAN INSTITUTE. THE PROTECTION OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY.

AN

ADDRESS

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

AMERICAN INSTITUTE,

DURING THE

NINETEENTH ANNUAL FAIR,

OCTOBER 6th, 1846,

By HARMAN C. WESTERVELT, Esq.

His corn, his cattle, were his only care,

And his supreme delight a country fair.-DRYDEN.

NEW YORK:

JOSEPH H. JENNINGS, PRINTER, 122 NASSAU STREET.

1846.

ADDRESS.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :

The 19th annual fair of the American Institute, which has been recently opened for the inspection and reward of the products of home ingenuity and native enterprize, we trust will continue to merit the favorable impressions which have been steadily hers for so many successive years. In fact, while useful labor and industry continue to meet with a protecting care, they must ever maintain a controlling influence throughout our land; and the fruit of the orchard-the crops of the farm-the results of the factory-the pursuits of the merchant, and the invention of the artizan, will progress and increase, some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred fold.

We propose, in the present address, to make but a limited reference to the origin and design of fairs as they have existed in the old countries, from time immemorial, that we may be enabled to show by contrast, the different motives by which they have been controlled from those whose anniversaries we continue to commemorate.

The definition of the word fair, is a greater kind of market; which in England is a privilege granted for the speedy and commodious arrangements of procuring, buying and selling such articles as a place may be in need of.

In the German a fair is called messe, which also signifies a mass. High masses on particular festivals collected great numbers of people, and from them probably originated the first markets.

Fair is also derived from a French word, foire, which signifies the same thing. By some the word foire is taken from the Latin forum, meaning a market; by others it is derived from the

Latin, feriæ, because fairs were anciently held in places where the feria was held-such is at least the significancy of the Lexicon.

We, however, find that in Roman antiquity feria were certain holydays on which proclamation was made by a herald or officer at arms whose business it was to proclaim peace or war. At the command of the Rex sacrorum or flamines, all persons were expected to abstain from business, and whosoever was found violating the command was severely fined. The feria were both public and private. They were observed in private by particular persons or families on account of birth days, funerals, &c. The public celebrations were of various descriptions; of these the feria latine were feasts at which a white bull was sacrificed, and the Latin and Roman towns provided each a set quantity of meat, wine and fruits, and during its continuance the Romans and Latins swore eternal friendship and allegiance to each other, and on separating they were in the practice of carrying home a piece of the victim to every town.

This festival was instituted by Tarquinius 2d, when he overcame the Tuscans and made a league with the Latins proposing to build a common temple to Jupiter Latialis, at which both nations might meet and offer sacrifice for their common safety.

At first this peculiar solemnity lasted but one day, but it was at different times extended to ten. It was held on the Albon mount, and celebrated with chariot races at the capital, where the victor was honored with a copious draught of wormwood drink-the qualities and palatable nature of which at this remote period of time we must leave others to analyze.

The ancient nundina or fairs of Rome were kept every ninth day; afterward the same privilege was granted to the country markets, which were previously under the power of the consuls. (Abuthnot on coins.)

Nundina is the name which the Romans gave to a series of letters from A. to H., which they used in their calendar. These letters were placed and repeated successively from the first to the last day of the year, and one of the letters always expressed the market days or the assemblies called nundinæ, &c., because they returned every nine days.

The country people after working eight days came to town on the ninth day, to sell their commodities and to inform themselves of what related to religion and the government.

Thus the nundinal day being under A., on the 1st, 9th, 17th and 25th of January, &c., the letter D. will be the nundinal letter the following year.

Fairs and markets as existing in Europe are institutions appropriated to the exhihition or sale of one or more species of goods, hiring servants or laborers, &c., but fairs are commonly attended by a greater concourse of people, for whose amusement various exhibitions are got up.

To give them a greater degree of solemnity they were originally, both in the ancient and modern world, associated with religious festivals. In most places they were held on the same day with the wake or feast of the Saint to whom the church was dedicated, (Jacob's Law Dic.; Art. Fair,) so that matters of business and devotion were transacted all at the same time and place.

It was always customary to hold most fairs and markets on Sundays, which custom though prohibited by several kings, (particularly by Edward I.,) was yet held up till the reign of Henry VI., when it was effectually suppressed. In many places they are still kept in the church yard.

In the old monastic times, those religious votaries, the monks of (Maxtoke, in) Warwickshire, attended Sturbitch fair, near Cambridge, to lay in their yearly necessaries and supplies, although 100 miles distant.

The antiquity of fairs appears to have extended to far distant ages, and wherever they have existed, whether ancient or modern, they appear to have evinced a corresponding degree of industry, happiness and success.

The foundation of the ancient city of Tyre, according to Josephus, was laid about 1255 years prior to the Christian era. In the reign of King Hiram, who flourished about the time of David and Solomon, this splendid city was probably at the full height of her

renown.

Her walls, buildings, towers and temples, her wise men, her pilots and mariners, her army and men of war, together with her manifold resources, formed a striking characteristic among the splendors of the East. Tyre was great, powerful and luxurious, and "her builders had perfected her beauty."

"Syria was her merchant by reasons of the multitude of the wares of her making; they occupied in her fairs with emer