ON THE MORAL POWER OF THE PRESS.

BY WM. CAREY, H. C. M. A. R. B. A., H. M. A. N. Y. &c.

THE prodigious advance of Europe in all the arts of war and peace since the discovery of typography in 1441, is a proof of the vast importance of that art to mankind; it, also, inculcates the wisdom, wherever an opportunity occurs, of actively employ ing the press to promote local advantages and the general welfare. The wonderful influence of this mighty engine extends to the interests of every class, from the King to the peasant. The sound and free exercise of its function is as necessary for the security of the throne and the prosperity of the community, as the free circulation of the blood and breath of the lungs, are to the health of the body. The various diurnal, weekly, monthly, and quarterly publications have greatly multiplied and diffused its benefits. The information, which they so rapidly convey from county to county, and kingdom to kingdom, of every new improvement and invention, extends the action and sphere of our agriculture, manufactures, trade, commerce, navigation, and every department in which human genius, ingenuity, enterprise, and industry can find room for exertion. The members of all professions however learned, have it in their power to increase their funds of knowledge from these epitomes of science and amusement; and the humble cottager or mechanic in his lodgingroom, finds hints in them to render his daily labours more speedy and profitable; and lessons to instruct him in his rights and duties.

The history of the last four centuries furnishes a succession of memorable proofs that the press possesses a power, when honestly and ably exerted, to exalt, and, when abused, to degrade and subvert, whatever it steadily advocates or denounces. Almost all the gradual changes, in that period, which have produced an improvement of manners and customs in England, and on the continent of Europe, have been either wholly wrought, or mainly assisted by its influence. Those countries, where it was earliest introduced, and most freely used, have received the greatest advantages, of which England, though late in receiving it, is a signal instance. No extreme of bad taste, error, or ignorance, can long withstand its well-directed energies.

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This estimate does not exceed reality. The general course of daily experience proves it is no more than the expression of a sincere conviction, in agreement with public opinion. In all orders and degrees of men, we find some of the ablest individuals writing, printing, and publishing, to promote the interests of their own particular station, art, or employment. We see each, with a centripetal force, resorting to the same engine as an universal means of accomplishing their proposed object. However different in pursuit, theory, or practical usage, they all agree in one point, of bringing the press to bear on the main obstacles to their progress. They launch this intellectual thunder with the same confidence that an experienced general batters the strongest fortifications of his enemy, with his most powerful ordnance.

It is not necessary to illustrate these observations by particular instances in the practice of the numerous Societies long existing in the old and new world, for the promotion of learning and the sciences, by means of the press. There are two, whose recent establishment in London, forms a memorable era in the British annals. Each includes a valuable portion of the high rank and dignity, the talent, property, wisdom, and public and private virtue of the united kingdom. If there are some shades of difference in their systems, that discrepancy places in a stronger light their separate agreement in opinion, that their arduous and comprehensive object can only be effected by the same means, that is, by entering into an offensive and defensive alliance with the press. Their sublime aim, to dispel the mists of ignorance and error, to teach men their true interests, and to make the millions of this great kingdom as one in Christian charity and useful knowledge, called for an almost omnipotent organ. They have put that organ into weekly requisition, and have already worked a great change for the better in various orders of the population. Numbers, who, heretofore, stumbled in the darkness of prejudice, now walk in the light of truth. The act of their formation, and the efforts of these two inestimable Societies must have arisen from a conviction that the useful capabilities of the press had not been sufficiently exerted before; and that its powers were still more available for the common-weal to an extent beyond immediate calculation.

From a similar conviction of its sovereign efficacy to contribute to the same noble end, the press has been, for some time, employed by the Society of Friends, a class of straight-forward men, whose unblemished integrity, vigilant industry, and habits of order and regularity, afford a living example, wherever they are established. Long distinguished for the good sense and certainty, with which, when having any object in view, they proportion the means to the end, they have contributed a fund for printing and gratuitously distributing moral tracts to lessen the amount of social evil and promote the practice of Christian