It has lately been the custom to speak with contempt of joint-stock associations, although it is to such bodies that England is indebted for her greatest and her grandest undertakings. The Bank of England, which has been called the bank of the world,—the railways, which bear comfort and civilization to the remotest hamlets,—the canals, which convey our commerce and irrigate our lands,—our docks, which contain the wealth of the East and of the West,—our life-assurance companies, which comfort many a desolate hearth and home,—are the result of joint-stock companies. The evil is passing; but the good is permanent. A similar outcry is always raised against projectors and speculators. Swift employed his pen in ridiculing them; Scott introduced one to turn him into contempt; Addison employed his fine genius in satirizing them; Steele wrote one of his best essays on them. The smaller herd of wits have swelled the cry; and they to whom mankind are preëminently indebted are named with contempt, and treated with derision. The projectors of all great works have been disdainfully regarded at one period or another. The men who first planned our bridges have been neglected; the promoters of railways, which are now paying well, and rejoicing our rural homesteads with the polish and the luxury of cities, were a by-word to the mass. And yet the finest minds of the day are employed in projecting. The discoverer of steam-power was a projector; Arkwright was only a projector; Thomas Gray was the same. What does not England owe to men who bore the burden and the heat of the day in the introduction of projects, which, once household luxuries, they have made household necessities! The cottage of the poor is comforted, the mansion of the rich is gladdened, with works for which projectors were ridiculed and speculators ruined. We cannot cast our eyes around without these works meeting our view. They add a grace to our persons, they cheapen our luxuries, they adorn our homes. The mere man of routine thinks it a sacred duty to laugh at those of whose services he is glad to avail himself; while the banker, the merchant, and the moneyed tradesman first treat him as an intruder, and then buy shares in the discovery they disdainfully rejected. The world is rich in the names of those who have benefited and been neglected by their fellow-men.