As an unknown man to you, I have been paid a most graceful compliment when I received an invitation from your honourable University to deliver a lecture under its auspices on a subject relating to commerce. I have since ascertained that to one or two kind friends I am indebted for the pleasure I feel in being here to-night at your invitation. That pleasure is not unassociated however from apprehension, for no matter how much I may believe in what I say, others may have different views. I trust, however, that I may at least interest you in a subject which engrosses my entire attention; which has such romantic surroundings, and which so well repays the student, as the Influence of Commerce on Civilization. I have found it difficult to condense what I have to say in a mere paper. Volumes would not exhaust the subject. I feel proud in being privileged to address an assemblage of University men. Though now a commercial man, may my remarks, as I am a University man also, not now be out of place, as Horace says, “Nota quae sedes fuerat columbis”.

I have in my paper endeavoured to give a short history of the Influence of Commerce on Civilization, and, during the course of the paper as I have endeavoured to put it to you, I have quietly tried to portray the varying influence, one over the other, between the conflicting good and bad in commerce and civilization, since history began.