PREFACE. By all who are acquainted with the most recent and most noted works on Political Economy, it will be readily admitted that the science is at present in a very unsettled and unsatisfactory state. There is indeed scarcely a single doctrine-if we except that of commercial freedom, as explained long since by the French economists-upon which there is a perfect and uniform, or even a general agreement, among the numerous sects and schools into which this science is now divided. Almost all Dr Smith's doctrines have been controverted and rejected separately by one or another, whilst every one still assents and adheres to the greater part of them, and whilst all still continue to bestow on their author the highest eulogiums. For although every different school and sect finds a fault, and picks out a feature to condemn, in the "Wealth of Nations," it so happens that where one finds a deformity, another finds a beauty; so that the greater part of that work is still approved of by the majority, and still it is deemed worthy of the highest commendations. |