for the purpose of acquiring that popular applause and support, by which alone they can attain and preserve to themselves an influential and powerful position. Having no wellfounded opinions of their own, no clear view of the subject, or well-arranged and well-digested data from which they might derive a comprehensive judgment, they seek to rely on the opinions of other men. This inefficiency and looseness, they are glad to call and to dignify by the name of liberality, and to get a nation to believe that the issues of such imperception and admitted weakness of intellectual vision, constitute liberal and enlightened policy. Instead of persevering in an exploration and discovery of that which Lord Bacon has so philosophically described by the two words Leges legum,' that is, the natural law being first discovered, and being discovered and clearly laid down, then made the foundation of national law, it is sought to abandon the pursuit of a knowledge of natural law altogether, and to adopt that freedom of action in its place, which has no law at all appertaining to it. Again, the author writes as follows: "According to the idea of Political Economy which I have adopted, this science is not confined to any particular description of laws, or to any particular department of the general science of legislation. Among the means, for example, of advancing national wealth, what so efficacious as the laws which give security to the right of property, and check an inordinate inequality in its distribution? To secure these ends, is one great aim both of civil and criminal jurisprudence; and therefore, even those regulations which appear, on a superficial view, to be altogether foreign to the subject of national resources, may yet involve in their consequences the most effectual provisions by which national resources are to be secured and augmented. "The science of Political Economy, considered in its most extensive signification, as comprehending every regulation which affects the sum of national improvement and enjoyment, must necessarily induce discussions of a still more miscellaneous nature. Among its various objects, however, one of the most important is the solution of that problem which Mr. Burke has pronounced to be one of the finest in legislation to ascertain what the State ought to take upon itself to direct by the public wisdom, and what it ought to leave with as little interference as possible, to individual discretion' Its general aim (Political Economy is here referred to) is to enlighten those who are destined for the functions of government, and to enlighten public opinion with respect to their conduct; but unless it be previously ascertained how far the legitimate province of the Statesman extends, it is impossible to draw the line distinctly between those subjects which belong properly to the science of legislation, and those of which the regulation ought to be intrusted to the selfish passions and motives inseparable from human nature.” "I have dwelt longer on this subject, as I was anxious to point out its intimate connexion with the Philosophy of the Human Mind. The only infallible rules of political wisdom are founded ultimately on a knowledge of the prevailing springs of human action, and he who loses himself in the details of the social mechanism, while he overlooks those moral powers which give motion to the whole, though he may accumulate a mass of information highly useful in the pursuits of private life, must remain in total ignorance of those primary causes on which depend the prosperity and safety of nations." "Nor is it in this respect alone that the sciences of Morals and of Politics are related to each other; it is justly and profoundly remarked, in one of the oldest fragments now extant of Grecian philosophy, that, among the external circumstances necessary to the happiness of the individual, the first place is due to a well-constituted State, without which the rational and social animal is imperfect, and unable to fulfil the purpose of its being.' I shall afterwards endeavour to show that this observation applies with far less force to that part of the political order which depends immediately on the form of government, than to the system of Political Economy which that government encourages. At present I shall content myself with suggesting in general, in confirmation of the Pythagorean maxim just now quoted, that it is in the political union, and in the gradual improvement of which it is susceptible, that the chief provision has been made for a gradual development of our faculties, and for a proportionate enlargement of our capacities of enjoyment; insomuch that it may be confidently affirmed, that by the particular modification of the political order existing in any country, both the intellectual and moral condition of the great body of the people is infallibly determined.” * Again, he writes:-" What is the moral to which these reflections lead? Not, certainly, that laws are of little moment to national felicity; or even that they are of less moment than the theoretical plan of the government, but that without the vivifying spirit of an enlightened people, jealous of their rights, and determined to pursue them, the wisest political institutions are little better than a dead letter." † The enlightened reader cannot fail to discern that many noble and most valuable ideas are contained in the matter just presented to him. The author of these ideas has made the noble attempt to raise the minds of men above that dull and dark sphere of confused, impure, and confusing materialism into which the whole body of writers on Political Economy, who are received as the schoolmen of the science, * Dugald Stewart's Works, vol. viii. ch. i. pp. 16, 17, 18. have sunk, have become bewildered, and have been deprived of all that superior light and power of intellect by which alone correct reasoning, or demonstration, is to be accomplished. But notwithstanding this writer discerned so clearly the importance of introducing within the field of social and political science, the superior and sufficient light of moral law, and of bringing all economical courses to be tried by the unfailing potency of this law, yet we have to lament over his departure from it, his falling away from that very region of pure light from which he has declared that the lamp of truth is alone to be procured, and safe guidance is to be derived. This remarkable fact of departure and defection from the course so forcibly advocated by himself, has arisen from his attempt to treat of, and to elucidate, the science without having acquired an insight into those primary and fundamental principles which constitute the foundation of science, and from which alone correct reasoning can issue. Premises first simple premises he had not discovered. Nevertheless he wrote, he lectured, he commented, and he taught. Thus he became inextricably involved in that labyrinth which he has so well described as follows: "The only infallible rules of political wisdom are founded, ultimately*, on a knowledge of the prevailing springs of human action; and he who loses himself in the details of the social mechanism, while he overlooks those moral powers which give motion to the whole, though he may accumulate a mass of information highly useful in the pursuits of private life, must remain in total ignorance of those primary causes on which depend the prosperity and safety of nations." I have now to show that the author has immersed himself in that sad state of things which he has here described. * I submit that the word primarily ought to be substituted for ultimately. I will now lay before the reader the first comments which this writer has made having reference to the manner in which the science has been treated, and also to the science itself. The loose and contradictory manner of treating the subject, arising from the absence of all comprehensive knowledge of it, will be shown by the following passages:-"In treating of the various questions connected with the general title of National Wealth, I shall be obliged to confine myself to very partial views of the subject. The field is of immense extent; and one of the most interesting portions of it (that relating to the question about the freedom of trade) has been surveyed already by Mr. Smith, with so great accuracy, that little remains for me but to consider a few incidental questions which have not entered into his plan, and to examine such of his fundamental principles as seem to myself to require limitation or correction, or which have been disputed on solid grounds by political writers of a later date. An outline of his reasonings on this important article will be necessary for the sake of connexion; but I shall direct my attention more particularly to certain applications of the general doctrine, about which doubts have been suggested either by Mr. Smith himself or by later writers." "But although in my practical conclusions on the more important questions, I am disposed to agree with Mr. Smith, I shall have frequent occasions to differ from him widely on stating the first principles of the science, as well as in my opinion of the logical propriety of various technical phrases and technical distinctions which he has sanctioned with his authority.” * The passages just adduced present matter of a most important character, and that too connected with the chief part * Dugald Stewart's Works, vol. viii. ch. ii. pp. 44, 45. |