" 1

riches and the power of that country.' This reference to national power as the object and aim of national policy shows as always the influence on the mind of Adam Smith of historical development. That the reference is not merely a polite tribute to popular sentiment is shown by the application to the Navigation Laws. Here the leading idea is that though these laws may be prejudicial to the wealth of the nation they are to be approved on the very ground that "defence is of more importance than opulence." Writing of the famous Navigation Act of 1660 he points out that though England and Holland were not actually at war the most violent animosity subsisted between the two nations. is not impossible, therefore, that some of the regulations of this most famous Act may have proceeded from national animosity. They are as wise, however, as if they had been dictated by the most deliberate wisdom. National animosity at that particular time aimed at the very same object which the most deliberate wisdom would have recommended -the diminution of the naval power of Holland, the only naval power which could endanger the security of England." The application of this remarkable passage to the present time mutatis mutandis is too obvious to need comment.

"It

It is no doubt quite true that it was this very part of the old commercial policy which was first seriously attacked and modified by Huskisson (1825) and eventually the whole system was abandoned 2 Book IV. chap. ii.

1 Book II. chap. v.

more than fifty years ago. Adam Smith also himself condemned the navigation acts so far as the colonies were concerned.

§ 6. National Military Training as Part of the Education of Youth.

But for the present we are concerned only with the ideas of Adam Smith on nationality and the advancement of national power. These ideas are even more forcibly illustrated, and have a much more intimate bearing on present problems as they are set forth in the chapter on the education of youth.1

One of the popular ideas on Adam Smith, founded apparently on a confusion between Adam Smith and Cobden, and a misunderstanding even of Cobden, is that he was a man who loved peace at any price, loved all countries more than his own, and hated the very idea of war. As a matter of fact, as shown in this chapter, Adam Smith regarded a military training as one of the most essential parts of the education of the youth of the nation. "The art of war is certainly the noblest of all arts." "A coward, a man incapable either of defending or revenging himself wants one of the most essential parts of the character of a man. Even though the martial spirit of the people were of no use towards the defence of the society, yet to prevent that sort of mental mutilation and deformity and wretchedness which cowardice necessarily involves in it from spreading themselves through the

1 Book v. chap. i. part iii. article 2.

great body of the people would still deserve the most serious attention of government; in the same manner as it would deserve its most serious attention to prevent a leprosy or any other loathsome or offensive disease, though neither mortal nor dangerous, from spreading itself among them."1

Again, after describing the advantages of natural liberty, he goes on to indicate broadly the most important functions of the state; the first duty imposed is that of defence-" the duty of protecting the society from the violence and invasion of other independent societies"; and this is spoken of as one of the duties of the state, "plain and intelligible to common understandings." In treating of the expenditure of the state the first charge made on the revenue is for the expenses of defence; and in dealing with this topic he applies, according to his custom, the historical method and discusses the merits and demerits of militias and standing armies, and shows an intimate acquaintance with the "noblest of all arts."

§ 7. The Soldier and the Statesman Compared.

In the final addition to the Moral Sentiments, to which references have already been made, the glory of war is introduced in the discussion on the character of virtue. Adam Smith compares the

relative merits of the statesman who is at the head of one of the great political parties with the soldier 1 Book v. chap. i. part iii. article 2. 2 Book v. chap. i. part i.

who has the conduct of a great national war. "The leaders of the contending parties, though they may be admired by one half of their fellow-citizens, are commonly execrated by the other. Their characters and the merit of their respective services appear commonly more than doubtful. The glory which is acquired by foreign war is upon this account almost always more pure and more splendid than that which can be acquired in civil faction."1 "The hero who serves his country successfully in foreign war gratifies the wishes of the whole nation, and is on that account the object of universal gratitude and admiration."

2

It must not be supposed, however, that the nationalism of Adam Smith was mainly dominated by ideas of territorial expansion and military glory. In this very chapter, which gives his final views on national policy, we are told that the leader of a political party may sometimes render to his country a service much more essential and important than the greatest victories and the most extensive conquests. “He may re-establish and improve the constitution, and from the very doubtful and ambiguous character of the leader of a party he may assume the greatest and noblest of all characters, that of the reformer and legislator of a great state; and by the wisdom of his institutions secure the internal tranquillity and happiness of his fellow-citizens for many succeeding generations."

1 Moral Sentiments, part vi. section ii. chap. ii. "Self Command."

2 Ibid.

See also chap. iii. on

C

§ 8. Adam Smith and Burke-Idea of

Historical Growth.

Adam Smith and Burke were close friends, and had much in common in their general ideas of political philosophy. The former is so well known as the destroyer of old systems, and the latter as the most thorough opponent of revolutions, that the fundamental agreement between the two thinkers may seem surprising. But Adam Smith himself is reported to have said of Burke that "he was the only man he had met with who thought as he did on the chief topics of political economy without previous communication."1 And following on the passage quoted above from the last words of Adam Smith, we find an appreciation of the historical growth of a great state which is in exact harmony with the dominant idea in Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (published in the same year (1790) as this last edition of the Moral Sentiments). "The man," writes Adam Smith, "whose public spirit is prompted altogether by humanity and benevolence will respect the established powers and privileges even even of individuals and still more those of the great orders and societies into which the state is divided. Though he should consider some of these as in some measure abusive, he will content himself with moderating what he often cannot annihilate without great

1 Burke said of the Wealth of Nations when published: "Excellent; a dry abstract of which would convey no juster idea of it than the skeleton of a departed beauty would of her form when she was alive."-Prior's Life of Burke, p. 61 (George Bell, 1882).