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Show 12 INTRODUCTION. ration, and the ca~ses that are foreseen are liable to great variations in their strength and efficacy, an accurate yet con1prehensive attention to facts is necessary, both to prevent the tnultiplication of erroneous theories, and to confirn1 and sanction those that are just. Th.e science of _political economy is essentially practical, and applicable to the co1nn1on business of hutnan life. There are fe\v branches of hutnan kn?'vled?e 'vhere false vie\vs tnay do tnore hann, or JUSt vte\vs more good. I cannot agree, therefa~ ·~, w~th a \vriter in one of our 1nost popular cntic~l JOurn~ls, 'v ho considers the subjects of population, bullion, and corn la\vs in the san1e Iio·ht as the scholastic questions of the n1iddle ao·es ~nd puts marks of achniration to thetn expressi;e ~f his utter astonishn1ent that such perishable stuff should ·engage any portion of the public attention.* In the very practical science of political econotny perhaps it might be difficult to n1ention three subjects more practi?al th~n those unfortunately selec:ed for a con1panson wtth scholastic questions. But In fact, n1ost of the subjects \vhich belono· to it are peculiarly applicable to the con11non ~oncerns .of n1ankind. What shall 've say of all the questions relating to taxation, various and extensive as they are? It will hardly be denied that , they con1e home to the business and boson1s of mankind. What shall we say of the laws ,vhich regulate exchangeable value, or every act of pur.., * Quarterly Review, No. xxix. Art. viii. t....- .· INTRODUCTION. J3 chase and exchange 'vhich takes place in our n1arkets? 'Vhat of the laws vvhich regulate the profits of stock, the interest of money, the rent of land, the value of the precious tnetals in different countries, the rates of exchange, &c. &c. ? The study of the la\VS of n·ature is, in all its branches, interesting. Even those physical la\vs by vvhich the n1ore distant parts of the universe are governed, and over which, of course, it is impossible for man to have the slightest influence, are yet noble and rational objects of curiosity; but the laws \vhich regulate the n1ovements of hun1an society have an infinitely stronger claim to our attention, both because they relate to objects about \vhich \Ve are daily and hourly conversant, and because their effects are continually n1odified by human interference. There are son1e en1inent persons so strongly at-tached to the received general rules of political econon1y, that, though they are avvare that in practice some exceptions to then1 n1ay occasionally occur; yet they do not think it \vise and politic to notice them, for fear of directing the public attention too much and too frequently to exceptions, and thus vveakening the force and utility of the general rules. It is, for instance, one of the most general rules in political econon1y, that governn1ents should not interfere in the direction of capital and industry, but leave every person, so long as he obeys the 1a\VS of justice, to pursue his o-vvn interest in his O\Vn way, as the best security for the constant |
