creased with the greatest rapidity; and that, so far from being inimical to improvement, we are really indebted to the principle of increase for most part of our comforts and enjoyments, and for the continued progress of arts and industry.2 The real difficulty does not, therefore, lie in discussing matters connected with this science, in the statement of general principles, or in reasoning fairly from them; but it lies in the discovery of the secondary or modifying principles, which are always in action, and in making proper allowance for their influence. Food is indispensable to existence; and it may, therefore, be laid down as a general principle, that this necessity on the one hand, and the difficulty of getting food on the other, tend to make every man die of hunger. Such, however, and so powerful are the countervailing influences, that not one individual out of 10,000 dies of want; and such being the case, a theory which should overlook these influences would not, we think, be good for much. We have had occasion, in several parts of the following work, to regret that the evidence to which La population de la Bohème a triplé en 70 ans. Elle s'est elevée de 1,361,000 âmes à 4,040,000 dans l'intervalle de 1762 à 1835; et jamais ses habitans n'ont joui d'une plus grande aisance. -(Degerando Bienfaisance Publique, i. 204.) A similar progress, though not always in quite so striking a degree, has been made during the same period in most Continental states, and in Great Britain and the United States. And Ireland would have been no apparent exception to the principle, but for the pernicious toleration given to the mendicant agitation by which she has been so long disturbed and disgraced. 2 See the chapter on Population in this work. it is in our power to appeal, is insufficient to enable any certain conclusions to be come to with respect to some of the more important questions involved in the application of the science. Generally, indeed, we may predicate, with considerable confidence, the more immediate results that would follow the adoption of any novel system of measures; but it is extremely difficult, or rather, perhaps, impossible, without an extensive analogous experience, to foretell its remoter consequences; because we must, in the absence of such experience, be necessarily in the dark respecting the nature and influence of the modifying principles which a change of measures would no doubt bring into action. Notwithstanding the pretensions so frequently put forward by politicians and economists, some of the more interesting portions of the sciences which they profess are still very imperfectly understood; and the important art of applying them to the affairs of mankind, so as to produce the greatest amount of permanent good, has made but little progress, and is hardly, indeed, advanced beyond infancy. Initiatos nos credimus dum in vestibulo hæremus. Nor, considering the totally different circumstances under which society is now placed, from those under which it was placed in previous ages, and the consequent want of applicable experience, is this deficiency of knowledge to be wondered at. The LEGES LEGUM, to which Lord Bacon says appeal may be made, to learn quid in singulis legibus bene aut perperam positum aut constitutum sit, have yet, in great measure, to be ascertained. However humiliating the confession, it is certainly true that, owing to the want of information, not a few of the most interesting problems in economical legislation are at present all but insoluble and it must be left to the economists of future ages, who will, no doubt, be able to appeal to principles that have not yet developed themselves, or that have escaped observation, to perfect the theoretical, and to complete or reconstruct the practical part of the science. 66 But, however we may differ from Mr Senior in our view of the principles of the science, and the mode of its application to the business of life, we cordially agree in all that he has stated as to the duty of every one who attempts to explain its principles, or to show how they should be applied :— Employed as he is upon a science in which error, or even ignorance, may be productive of such intense and extensive mischief, he is bound, like a juryman, to give deliverance true according to the evidence, and to allow neither sympathy with indigence, nor disgust at profusion or at avarice; neither reverence for existing institutions, nor disgust at existing abuses; neither love of popularity, nor of paradox, nor of system, to deter him from stating what he believes to be the facts, or from drawing from those facts what appear to be the legitimate conclusions." We have endeavoured as well as we could to conduct our investigations under a deep sense of the obligations so forcibly set forth in this admirable paragraph. Where, however, the subjects are so very difficult, and the evidence not unfrequently conflicting, incomplete, and questionable, we doubt whether we have been always sagacious enough to arrive at a "true deliverance." But we have done our best to avoid error; and while we have not hesitated to speak with the utmost freedom of the institutions, systems, and opinions we have had to review, we are not conscious of having, in any instance, allowed our judgment to be warped by personal feeling or political prejudice. LONDON, Nocember 1842. b MR M'CULLOCH'S PUBLICATIONS. Besides this Treatise, Mr M'CULLOCH has published the following 1. A DICTIONARY, PRACTICAL, THEORETICAL, AND HISTORICAL, OF COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL NAVIGATION. Illustrated with Maps and Plans. A New Edition, in one very thick and closely printed vol. 8vo. London, 1849. N.B.-A Supplement to the edition of 1847 may be had separately. 2. A DICTIONARY, GEOGRAPHICAL, STATISTICAL, AND HISTORICAL, of the various Countries, Places, and principal Natural Objects in the World. Third Edition. 2 thick vols. 8vo. Illustrated with Maps. London, 1849. N.B.-A Supplement to the previous edition may be had separately. 3. A DESCRIPTIVE AND STATISTICAL ACCOUNT OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, exhibiting its Extent, Physical Capacities, Population, Industry, and Civil and Religious Institutions. Third and greatly improved Edition, 2 thick vols. 8vo. London, 1847. 4. SMITH'S WEALTH OF NATIONS; with a Life of the Author, Notes, and Supplemental Dissertations. New Edition. 1 vol. 8vo, double columns. London, 1846. 5. A TREATISE ON THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF TAXATION AND THE FUNDING SYSTEM. 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1845. 6. THE LITERATURE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY: a Classified Catalogue of Select Publications in the different Departments of that Science; with Historical, Critical, and Biographical Notices. 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1845. 7. A TREATISE ON THE SUCCESSION TO PROPERTY VACANT BY DEATH; including Inquiries into the Influence of Primogeniture, Entails, Compulsory Partition, Foundations, &c., over the Public Interests. 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1848. |