ing, it seldom failed to please and delight even those who were the objects of it. To his friends, who were frequently the objects of it, there was not any one, perhaps, of all his great and amiable qualities which contributed more to endear his conversation. And that gaiety of temper, so agreeable in society, but which is so often accompanied with frivolous and superficial qualities, was in him certainly attended with the most severe application, the most extensive learning, the greatest depth of thought, and a capacity in every respect the most comprehensive. Upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit."

The effect of such a testimony, from such a quarter, was to put to silence, and it is to be hoped, in a great measure to put to shame, the disgraceful cry which had been set up; yet it did not do so altogether. Some there were who still joined in it, and taking advantage, as might have been foreseen, of Smith's generous zeal, attempted to heap upon the living that obloquy from which he had rescued the dead. Dr. Horne, afterwards Bishop of Norwich, published a letter addressed to Dr. Smith, in which the spirit of the theologian is much more conspicuous than that of the Christian, veiled as it was under an affectation of humour and irony, that ill concealed the bitter feelings in which it originated. To this publication of Dr. Horne, Dr. Smith did not deem it at all necessary that he should make any reply. He felt that he had done enough, and that it would have been equally unworthy of himself and his cause, to have com menced a controversy with Dr. Horne upon the merits, personal or philosophical, of David Hume.*

Ir will scarcely be considered an exaggerated praise to say, that the " Wealth

Having acknowledged our obligation to Mr. Stewart in the opening of this Memoir, it is only

right that we should observe, that for several of the incidents which will be found in in it, we are not indebted to that eminent person; and that amongst other circumstances in the very barren life of Dr. Smith, of which he has made no mention, this very remarkable one of his conduct upon the death of Hume has been passed over in silence. For this omission we can be at no loss to account: it was

of Nations" may be regarded as, perhaps, the most valuable acquisition which was made to philosophy and to science in the eighteenth century. It is of course quite beyond the limits of this memoir to offer an abstract or analysis of this great work. But, as in reference to the "Theory of Moral Sentiments," it was deemed proper to say a few words upon the subject itself of which it treats, and upon the leading principle of that theory; so it may be allowed us to offer a very few observations, in the same manner, upon the " Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," unquestionably the greatest production of Smith's genius.

In the closing passage of the " Moral Sentiments," he had promised, in some future work, to give an account of the general principles of law and government, and of the different revolutions they have undergone in the different periods of society; not only in what concerns justice, but in what concerns police, revenue, and arms, and whatever else is the object of law; and to trace, in this way, those invariable principles which ought to run through, and be the foundation of the laws of all nations.

In the "Wealth of Nations" he undertook to redeem this pledge, as far as regards police, revenue, and arms, by tracing the source, and nature, and progress of national wealth.

The fundamental principle, dimly conceived indeed, but never established and insisted upon before, upon which Smith raised, as upon a rock, the Science of Political Economy, was, that labour is the source and origin of all wealth. "Labour," says he, "was the first price, the original purchase money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased;" and the mode by which the labour of man can be rendered most productive to his use and happiness is the problem to be solved by the economist.

Now the great cause of the increase in the productive powers of labour is found to consist in the division of labour-a division which arises in the first instance from the obvious suggestions of nature, and which, by giving birth in its progress to the institution of the various

dictated by the amiable solicitude for his friend's memory; and the apprehension that it might suffer from a revival of the asperities which his friendly zeal had excited. But a regard for truth prevents us from making a like omission,

arts, trades, and professions which exist in every advanced state of society, occasions that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people. But the effects of this principle have never in any society, or in any age of the world, been seen in their full extent, owing to the unjust and impolitic regulations which governments and legislators have at various times devised to control and thwart its operation. Instead of allowing every man to pursue his own interest in his own way, no society has ever yet been seen in which, from false views of policy, or from worse motives, extraordinary restraints have not been laid upon some branches of industry; while extraordinary privileges, equally injurious in their result, have been bestowed upon others.

In how different a spirit was conceived and executed the great work before us, is exhibited in every page. Smith aimed at, and he has succeeded in reducing that to a science, which had before been a succession of contrivances and devices, where no principle was ever referred to, and in which it was long supposed that science and principle could have no place. The origin and continuance, indeed, of many of the most barbarous and oppressive institutions which tend to repress the energies of mankind, are to be traced very often to accidents, expedients, and prejudices, which belong as much to the people who are made to suffer from them, as to the laws and rules which have sometimes been the mere instruments of their establishment. To correet the policy of both was the object, and will be the lasting consequence, of his book. It was not by framing new forms of government, but by enlightening the policy of actual legislators, (as Mr. Stewart has well remarked,) that Dr. Smith, and other distinguished men of the last and present age, have attempted to ameliorate the condition of society. He endeavoured to shew, in one important branch of legislation, how much of the evils which affect its prosperity may be remedied by wise policy, and how much is the result of those higher and unalterable laws, by which the course of

Even the capacious mind of Mr. Fox is said to have been sceptical with regard to some of the truths unfolded by Adam Smith; and within a much more recent period, we may remember that an illustrious statesman, now no more, spoke in Parliament, of the "application of philosophy to politics" as a thing having the air of paradox, and which it required a tone of apology to refer to.

human affairs is determined, and the operation of which, since they cannot be controlled, must be patiently endured.

An illustration of this may be found in that important part of his work wherein he treats of the causes which determine the rate of wages. When the economist describes, for instance, the manner in which the value of labour is affected by the combination laws, the apprentice laws, and the law of settlement,-he explains the mischief produced in all cases by their operation; in the injury sustained under them by the labourer himself, from their evident violation of that natural liberty and justice which is his right; in the inequality which they occasion in different departments of industry, and in different places, from their interference with that essential order and prosperity which would otherwise ensue from allowing every man, as long as he observes the rules of justice, to pursue his own interest in his own way. Thus far of the inexpediency and absurdity of such arrangements with respect to society at large; and of the influence which bad regulations or injurious laws may have in affecting the condition of the labourer, and that of the community of which he forms a part. But, when he comes to explain how, under all circumstances, and in every society where even the rights of individuals are most respected by the spirit of its government and its legislation, the general rate of wages must always depend upon the relative quantity of labour seeking employment, and of capital having employment to give that it is a law of economy, resulting from a law of nature, that where labour is superabundant in proportion to capital, there it will necessarily be cheap; or, in other words, wages will be low-and that, on the contrary, where capital accumulates rapidly, and exceeds the supply of labour in the market, there labour will be dear, or, in other words, that wages will be high-when he has deduced this vital and important truth, and suggested thereby to the labourer, that on himself must mainly depend his ultimate prosperity, and that his condition for better or for worse is determined in this way by laws with which no human legislation can interfere, except in the removal of restrictions and prohibition, the political philosopher has done more for the peace and good order of society; and more to re move the sources of ill will, and promote a right understanding of their relative

position and duties in its different members; between labourers and their employers, between subjects and their government-more than can be achieved by the force of exhortation in a hundred volumes, or the force of power in a hundred armies.

But the complete development of the principle of the division of labour, it must be borne in mind, requires that the fullest and freest scope be allowed to competition, which is, in other words, the entire freedom of commercial intercourse. What the inhabitants of the different provinces of a great kingdom are to each other by the division of their employments, and the interchange of their commodities; so are the various people of the different countries of the globe. They are all bound. together by the same great law, the use and benefit which they may derive from the exercise of each other's skill, and the produce of each other's labour; and this economy of nations would be as obvious as it is in the case of a single people, if bad politics, springing out of bad passions; if ambition and the love of conquest, and the glare of military glory, which compose for the most part the history of nations, had not blinded men to their true interests, and corrupted the common sense and virtue of mankind.

To recommend this unlimited freedom of commercial intercourse; to shew how the restrictions which have been put upon it have in all cases defeated the object in view, and must continue to do so from the nature of things; to shew that the ordinary impulses we obey in pursuance of our own selfish interest, and which might seem to have no other end, are made, by the wise order of the great Author of our being to point far higher, and to be conducive in their results to the good of the society, as much as to that of the individual, or even more so, (for the advantage we plan for ourselves often escapes us, when that to society remains ;) to shew, in the intercourse of nations as of men, “that true self love and social are the same," and that mutual wants, by the all-wise economy of Providence, were made to minister to mutual happiness;-that the instinctive desire by which every man is actuated, of improving his own condition (laws and government having no other province than that of taking care that, in pursuit of this end, he trenches not on the right of his neighbour), is the simple but solid

basis on which has been reared and secured the everlasting progress of nations in every age:-Such were the enlightened doctrines which it was the purpose of Smith's work to enforce; and it is obvious that all legislation which proceeds upon an ignorance or contempt of these laws, is to the body politic, just what the prescriptions of a physician would be to the natural hody, who knew nothing of the animal economy, its functions, or its structure.

As in the "Theory of Moral Sentiments," in treating of the moral constitution of man, he had been careful to distinguish the efficient from the final cause of our passions; he carried the same enlightened philosophy into all his investigations of human affairs, and shewed, as he beautifully expresses it, “that what is taken for the wisdom of man, is in reality the wisdom of God." There are numerous passages in his writings in which he inculcates the same sentiment, and enlarges on the folly of those speculators, who, in disregard of that wisdom, are constantly aiming to modify, by positive institutions, the natural order of society ačcording to some arbitrary standard, instead of allowing it to advance in that course which is sure to conduct it, in the end, to the highest state of advancement of which it is susceptible. "Man," says he, in one of his early unpublished manuscripts, "is generally considered by statesmen and projectors, as the mate rials of a sort of political mechanics. Projectors disturb nature in the course of her operations in human affairs, and it requires no more than to let her alone, and give her fair play in the pursuit of her ends, that she may establish her own designs." "Little else," he adds, in another passage of the same paper, "is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things. All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel, or which endeavour to arrest the progress of society, at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical." It is in this spirit that political economy must be studied, if it is to maintain that rank among the moral sciences which it deserves, and in which it was placed by its founder. It would, undoubtedly, be unfair to deny that any

thing has been added to this science since the publication of the "Wealth of Nations." But if it were admitted that some errors of Smith have been pointed out by subsequent inquirers, it will hardly be allowed that one or two corrections of doctrine in particular points make anything like amends for what political economy has lost of late in public estimation by the different spirit which has dictated, and the different tone which has breathed through some publications of a more recent date. The subjects of which this science treats have occupied a very increased degree of the attention, in the last few years, of speculative men, of all parties. They have done more than this. The science has attracted the attention of public men and statesmen. It has been referred to in parliamentary discussions; and what would have been most gratifying to its great expounder, some of its leading principles have been recognised and acted upon in important, and we trust, in permanent legislative enactments. There has been mixed up with these debates, it is true, much that might have been well spared, without loss to the credit of the assemblies in which they have taken place, and much interested and ignorant opposition has been arrayed against every amendment of the law; but nothing has been said or done by the most ignorant and most interested opponent of the progress of sound, political, and commercial freedom, which would so much have grieved the author of the "Wealth of Nations," as the arrogant and intolerant spirit, the daring paradox, and dogmatical propositions which have been promulgated by some of his pretended followers.

It is not needful to say more upon this point; but we think it requisite to say so much, for the benefit of those who know nothing of the "Wealth of Nations," and nothing of political economy; and in order that they may not be turned away by any spurious disciples of the science, from the study of a work, of which it has been truly said,-" that, abstracting entirely the author's peculiar and original speculations, there is no book, perhaps, in any language, containing so methodical, so comprehensive, and so judicious a digest of all the most profound and enlightened philosophy of the age."

The title which Smith adopted for his work, admirable as it is, and expressive of the nature of his investigations; and

the introduction, in which he presents a luminous outline of his method, give no indication of the many masterly collateral disquisitions contained in it; because, in so comprehensive a subject, it was not easy to express, nor is it always obvious for the reader to perceive, the reference they bear to the investigations with which they are associated. These disquisitions, however, form very often the most interesting and valuable portion of the book, to those especially who, having less relish for the study of some branches of political economy, are pleased when they find its reasonings made applicable to purposes of more general philosophy. We would instance the whole of the first chapter of the fifth book, as being of this description; and more especially Art. II. and III. of Part the 3rd, entitled, "Of the Expense of the Institutions for the Education of Youth, and of the Expense of the Institutions for the Instruction of People of all Ages."

It may be remembered too that in every science, the most important and interesting truths are very often such as are obvious to every capacity, and when clearly stated admit of no dispute; whilst those parts of it which are least valuable, and most liable to angry controversy, are happily such as comprise doctrines purely speculative, and which, if they are of difficult comprehension, may be safely left uncomprehended. Now, if this is true of any science, it is true of political economy: there are thorny and vexatious questions included within its range, but we doubt if, in any of the moral sciences, there are so many well ascertained truths of great and practical importance which may fairly be said to lie, with candid reasoners, beyond the reach of controversy.

SECTION 6.-From the publication of the "Wealth of Nations" until the death of Dr. Smith.

THE two following years after the publication of the "Wealth of Nations" were spent chiefly in London; and Dr. Smith, as well he might, after ten years almost unremitting and severe application, relaxed his powers in the pleasures of society, and mingled with the many eminent men who were then at the head of wit and literature in the capital. Dr. Johnson, Burke, Gibbon, Beauclerk, Reynolds, and the other members of the