hitherto prevalent, as its professed object has been to regulate the commercial intercourse between different nations, has produced its effect in a way less direct and less manifest, but equally prejudicial to the states that have adopted it.

On this system, as it took its rise from the prejudices, or rather from the interested views of mercantile speculators, Mr Smith bestows the title of the Commercial or Mercantile System; and he has considered at great length its two principal expedients for enriching a nation; restraints upon importation, and encouragements to exportation. Part of these expedients, he observes, have been dictated by the spirit of monopoly, and part by a spirit of jealousy against those countries with which the balance of trade is supposed to be disadvantageous. All of them appear clearly, from his reasonings, to have a tendency unfavourable to the wealth of the nation which imposes them.-His remarks with respect to the jealousy of commerce are expressed in a tone of indignation, which he seldom assumes in his political writings.

"In this manner (says he) the sneaking arts of underling "tradesmen are erected into political maxims for the con"duct of a great empire. By such maxims as these, na❝tions have been taught that their interest consisted in beggaring all their neighbours. Each nation has been made "to look with an invidious eye upon the prosperity of all

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"the nations with which it trades, and to consider their gain as its own loss. Commerce, which ought naturally to be

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among nations as among individuals, a bond of union and friendship, has become the most fertile source of discord "and animosity. The capricious ambition of Kings and "Ministers has not, during the present and the preceding century, been more fatal to the repose of Europe, than the

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impertinent jealousy of merchants and manufacturers. "The violence and injustice of the rulers of mankind is an "ancient evil, for which perhaps the nature of human affairs "can scarce admit of a remedy. But the mean rapacity, "the monopolizing spirit of merchants and manufacturers, "who neither are nor ought to be the rulers of mankind, though it cannot perhaps be corrected, may very easily be prevented from disturbing the tranquillity of any body but "themselves."

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Such are the liberal principles which, according to Mr Smith, ought to direct the commercial policy of nations; and of which it ought to be the great object of legislators to facilitate the establishment. In what manner the execution of the theory should be conducted in particular instances, is a question of a very different nature, and to which the answer must vary, in different countries, according to the different circumstances of the case. In a speculative work, such as Mr Smith's, the consideration of this question did not fall

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properly under his general plan; but that he was abundantly aware of the danger to be apprehended from a rash application of political theories, appears not only from the general strain of his writings, but from some incidental observations which he has expressly made upon the subject. " So "unfortunate (says he, in one passage) are the effects of all "the regulations of the mercantile system, that they not only introduce very dangerous disorders into the state of the body politic, but disorders which it is often difficult to remedy, without occasioning, for a time at least, still greater disorders. In what manner, therefore, the natural system "of perfect liberty and justice ought gradually to be restored, we must leave to the wisdom of future statesmen and legislators to determine." In the last edition of his Theory of Moral Sentiments, he has introduced some remarks, which have an obvious reference to the same important doctrine. The following passage seems to refer more particularly to those derangements of the social order which derived their origin from the feudal institutions :

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"The man whose public spirit is prompted altogether by humanity and benevolence, will respect the established 66 powers and privileges even of individuals, and still more "of the great orders and societies into which the state is di"vided. Though he should consider some of them as in some measure abusive, he will content himself with mode

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"rating, what he often cannot annihilate without great vio"lence. When he cannot conquer the rooted prejudices of

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the people by reason and persuasion, he will not attempt "to subdue them by force; but will religiously observe what, by Cicero, is justly called the divine maxim of Pla"to, never to use violence to his country no more than to his parents. He will accommodate, as well as he can, his pub"lic arrangements to the confirmed habits and prejudices of "the people; and will remedy, as well as he can, the incon"veniencies which may flow from the want of those regula"tions which the people are averse to submit to. When he "cannot establish the right, he will not disdain to ameliorate "the wrong; but, like Solon, when he cannot establish the "best system of laws, he will endeavour to establish the best "that the people can bear.”

These cautions with respect to the practical application of general principles were peculiarly necessary from the Author of "The Wealth of Nations;" as the unlimited freedom of trade, which it is the chief aim of his work to recommend, is extremely apt, by flattering the indolence of the statesman, to suggest to those who are invested with absolute power, the idea of carrying it into immediate execution. Nothing " is more adverse to the tranquillity of a statesman (says the "author of an Eloge on the Administration of Colbert) than "a spirit of moderation; because it condemns him to per

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petual observation, shews him every moment the insufficiency of his wisdom, and leaves him the melancholy sense of his own imperfection; while, under the shelter of "a few general principles, a systematical politician enjoys a perpetual calm. By the help of one alone, that of a per"fect liberty of trade, he would govern the world, and would "leave human affairs to arrange themselves at pleasure, un"der the operation of the prejudices and the self-interests of "individuals. If these run counter to each other, he gives ❝ himself no anxiety about the consequence; he insists that "the result cannot be judged of till after a century or two "shall have elapsed. If his contemporaries, in consequence " of the disorder into which he has thrown public affairs, "are scrupulous about submitting quietly to the experiment, "he accuses them of impatience. They alone, and not he, are to blame for what they have suffered; and the prin

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ciple continues to be inculcated with the same zeal and "the same confidence as before." These are the words of the ingenious and eloquent author of the Eloge on Colbert, which obtained the prize from the French Academy in the year 1763; a performance which, although confined and erroneous in its speculative views, abounds with just and important reflections of a practical nature. How far his remarks apply to that particular class of politicians whom he had evidently in his eye in the foregoing passage, I shall not presume to decide.