This edifice stands on the north-west corner of Wall and Water streets, in this city. It was commenced in, or about 1782, by an Association of merchants and completed in, or about 1794, for the purpose of providing suitable accommodation for the common convenience, and centre for the daily intercourse, of the mercantile community.

 By the constitution under which such association was formed, 203 shares were subscribed for, at $200 a share, severally depending upon a life selected by each subscriber, who stated, in the memorandum accompanying such subscription, the age, sex, and parentage of the respective nominees, during whose natural existence he was to receive his equal proportion of the net income of the establishment.

Upon the death of the nominee, the subscriber's interest ceased, and his interest became thereby merged in the owners of the surviving nominees. The original shares were assignable, and held as personal estate, and the whole property was vested in five trustees, who were to be continued in the manner pointed out in the above constitution, and who were to hold the same until the number of such nominees were reduced to seven, when the holders of the shares, contingent upon these surviving nominees, become entitled to a conveyance in fee by trustees of the entire premises, to be equally divided between them.

The nominee himself did not necessarily have an interest in the Association; for each subscriber, in naming some person, generally a child looked to such as had the promise of "length of days."

The Plan of this Association originated from the scheme of Lorenzi Tonti, a Neapolitan, who introduced it into France in 1653, under Louis the XIV., and hence the word Tontine came to designate "a loan advanced by a number of associated capitalists for life annuities, with benefit to survivorship."

There is, however, a distinction between the present plan and the scheme of Tonti. His intent was the establishment of a company who should each contribute a like amount of capital, to be loaned to a responsible party, at a certain rate of interest, which was to be divided equally between the members of the same age; but where there was a diversity of age, according to a fixed ratio, the elder received more and the younger less. As the members died off, the survivors absorbed their respective interests, and when the last survivor died the borrower took the whole capital.

But in the plan of this Tontine Association, the owners of the seven surviving shares, depending upon a like number of lives, take the whole property in equal proportion to their surviving nominees; and, as in this case, all the nominees are dead, who represented several interests from the circumstance of their selection by different subscribers, the remaining shares are now respectively represented by, and depending upon, a similar number of lives, which, in May, 1851, were reduced to sixty.

The above constitution bears date on the 4th of June, 1794, but the nominations by the subscribers were not completed until March, 1795. The Association, in their preamble, named the building the Tontine Coffee-house, and it was thereby directed to be kept and used as a coffee-house. But on the opening of the Exchange, a little higher up in Wall Street, the interests of the shareholders demanding a change in this special appropriation, they applied to the Court of Chancery for permission to let the premises for general purposes; and by its decree in 1834 the above restrictions were removed.

Subsequently, doubts having arisen respecting the validity of the trusts, under which the trustees took and held the property in consequence of the Revised Statutes on the subject and Legislature, in 1843, passed an act confirming the same, and altered the name to the Tontine Building, and directed that the management of the affairs of the concern be by "The Committee of the Tontine Building," who receive, besides their other duties the income from the establishment, and divide the net proceeds on the second Tuesday in each month of May among the owners of the shares, depending on the nominees alive on the previous past day of the same month.

This Association, on the 4th of June, 1852 will have existed fifty-eight years. In examining the statistics in reference to the successive diminution of shares by death, the interesting fact is disclosed that the lapse of shares, from year to year, is in proportion, with slight variation, to the relative number of both males and females. The existence of so many of the nominees, after such a lapse of time, is admitted, by the compilers of annuity tables, here and abroad to be very unusual, if not unprecedented; but it should be recollected that the nominees originally selected were children of persons in easy circumstances; and that these were not, in general, subjected to the exposure and privations incident to the masses, the average of whose lives forms the basis of the usual calculations on this subject.

From an interesting article on the subject of this association, published by the Journal of Commerce about a year since, we make the following extract:__

"There are few, however, whose age links them to the olden time, when it was the chief centre of the commercial interests, who cannot recall scenes within its walls 'the like whereof we ne'er shall see again.' A public meeting convened within its roof, sent forth a decision which was almost universally respected. As a single instance of this let us turn back for forty years, when the habit of distributing expensive scarf's to bearers and others at ordinary funerals was so prevalent, that many poor families were sorely pinched to provide this necessary mark of respect for a departed relative. Some benevolent individuals, seeing the evil influence of such a fashion, called a meeting at the Coffee-house, when nearly two hundred of those whose weight of character gave force to their decisions, signed a pledge to abstain from the custom of distributing scarf's, except to the attendant ministers and physicians. This was the death-knell of the oppressive fashion. In matters of more vital moment, when great public interests were at stake, a voice has gone out from the said Coffee-house, which, like a recent echo from Castle Garden, has been heard throughout the length and breadth of the land. Some of the noblest charities, too, which the world has ever witnessed, received their first contributions beneath this time-hallowed roof.

"But the history of this organization is highly instructing in another point of view. The longevity of the nominees has been remarkable, we believe, beyond any similar experiment of the kind ever witnessed. It is true that the circumstances, under which their names were selected, would naturally lead us to expect for them a longer average period of existence, but this average has been so far extended as to be quite extraordinary. Of the 203, whose names were handed in about fifty-seven years ago, 60 still survive! Of these, the youngest is about 58 and the oldest 79.

 This is about one-third greater longevity than the average of European estimates. Only five of the nominees died in 1850, or one in every 15, which, considering their average age, was very remarkable. In this connection we may digress for a moment to speak of the greater age which the majority of people in easy circumstances throughout this State attain, as compared with those of other countries. About fifteen years ago, a gentleman, then President of the New York Life insurance and Trust Company, wishing to ascertain some particulars upon which to base calculations for a safe rate of premiums for life insurance, addressed 5,000 circulars with tabular forms annexed, to as many different families, asking that the tables be filled, and returned to him. Of these about 3,000 were returned completed, showing an average longevity greater than was ever before exhibited in an actual compilation since 'the days of man was shortened.' Unfortunately the papers have not been preserved, but they were forwarded to London at the time they were first recorded, and excited universal astonishment. It is easy to see that from the character of those who would answer the Circular, the families must be selected from among those whose circumstances were most favorable to longevity; but they embraced all professions and occupations, and bore the marks of great care in preparation."

The subscribers who originated the scheme, and their companions of those days, have left to their successors, however, a better legacy than the old coffee-house, a name for integrity and probity, an example of industry, liberality and promise-keeping, which cannot be valued too highly. May their spirit never be wanting in those who bear the enviable name of New York merchants, which they render so illustrious.

The view accompanying this article, of this interesting old building, (taken in 1777) which is said to be nearly the only one left standing in Wall street, which was erected during the last century, will present, to many, reminiscences connected with this busy thoroughfare, like those associates, with the pleasant faces of long absent periods, again returned to greet us with their welcomes and their smiles. Here it is said, died the renowned Cook, that eminent tragedian, whose delineations of the tragic muse, in his day, was without competition; surrounded by many of his contemporaries, "patrons of the house, who continued with him in that last act in the drama of his eventful life. Hither men from every section of the country were attracted by its reputation; and they regarded a visit to the Tontine, in those days, as essential to the comforts and agreeability of their temporary sojourn in this city.

Mark now the changes which a few short years have produced in this growing and populous metropolis. The spirit of the age is in the breathings of the iron horse, and in the glowing movements of the wonder-working Press. Here, night and day, George F. Nesbitt & Co., from their extensive steam-printing and stationery establishment, supply the wants of this vast commercial community with promptitude and dispatch, and have added to the renown of this relic of a past age, by their well-appointed, efficient and thoroughly established printing-house, which transmits through the commercial houses of this city and elsewhere information connected with the trade, the resources, the supplies, and the wants of almost every part of the habitable globe.