trines, and are all valuable, if not for the science they contain, at least for the variety of learning and beauty of illustration in which they abound.

But Smith is not to be taken as an infallible guide. There are defects as well as excellencies in his work. Of the former, are commonly specified his want of precision in language, his irregular and confused arrangement, his frequent discusiveness, his departure in some cases from his own fundamental principles, his leaning to the doctrines of the Economists, and his great errors as to the nature of the value and the origin of rent, which modify, perplex, and distort several of his most radical conclusions.

These are, however, defects easily obscured in the splendor of those services which he rendered to his chosen science. Had he done no more than adorn a dry and distasteful subject with the blandishments of rhetoric, mankind would have been indebted to him for a vast amount of pleasure and instruction. But he did more. He was the first to appreciate the vital importance of carefully analysing the phenomena of wealth. He was the first to apply to them that experimental method which raised physical science from the dunghill to the temple. He was the first to detect and demonstrate the absurdities of those older systems which had so long held the world in bondage, reigning alike with supreme authority over the meditations of the philosopher, the plans of the merchant, and the prejudices oft he vulgar. He was the first to reveal, in the glory of its simplicity and beauty, the eternal doctrine of Free Trade. He laid hold of the matter at its roots. He dismissed from his mind all that others had done or fancied they had done. He began a career of independent investigation. He went thoroughly into its depths. He scattered the mists which had been collected in the dawn of thought. He put to flight the bug-bears and monsters conjured up by the warm imagination of heated partisans. He dragged to light all the mysteries that were thought to lurk behind the principles of commerce. He established on immutable foundations the safety, the profitableness, the moral uses, of an unrestrained prosecution of industry, and an unfettered intercourse among nations. That the restraints imposed upon commerce were an evil, that they were founded in the narrowest spirit of selfishness, and supported by the shallowest reasons of ignorance, that they were clogs to enterprise as well as obstacles to civilization, that they depressed the physical energies of a people, while they retarded their social advancement, in short, that they were unworthy of men, either as intelligent, benevolent, progressive, or even trading creatures, he proved by a logic so infrangible, and illustrations so clear, that to this day it has baffled the most ingenious intellects to resist the force of his reasonings or find a flaw in his doctrines. This is, then, his pre-eminent distinction. He was the apostle of Free Trade. As Paul had carried Christianity into

all the cities of the heathen world, and as Bacon had applied the torch of a true method to the logomachies of the schoolmen, so Smith lifted up the light of the glorious principle of Free Trade, in the midst of the hosts who rallied around the banners of monopoly and restriction. In this he has shown himself a benefactor of the race that must take rank among the greatest. And the higher the attainments of society in wisdom, charity, and justice, the more vividly will it retain the remembrance of his services and worth.

Of those who have followed in the path of Smith, there are two men, Malthus and Ricardo, to whom have been generally accorded the merit of the most distinguished place. The former, by his inquiries into the subject of population, and by the discussions to which those inquiries gave rise, opened a comparatively new field for investigation, and added to the number and interest of the problems which belong to the science. He attempted to unfold the relation which subsists between the procreating principle of human nature, and the productive powers of the earth. A long series of observations, drawn from the experience of man under all the circumstances of his condition, led him to the conclusion that the tendency of population is to outrun the means of its subsistence, and that consequently unless the productive powers of the soil were augmented, poverty, destitution, and famine were the inevitable lot of a certain portion of the human race. His view was fortified by numberless facts taken from the history of the ancient nations, of the ravages of diseases, of the desolations of war, and of the consequences of emigration. But the theory so boldly announced shocked the moral feelings of mankind; a host of opponents instantly rose up against it. They questioned the fundamental principles of Malthus, they denied his inferences, and to this day, they hold a divided empire with the modified opinions which later writers have introduced. Without attempting to decide the contest, it will be admitted by the adherents of both parties, that whatever may be said of the truth of Malthus's doctrines, they have awakened a new and keener interest in economical science, and expanded the sphere of its investigations. Mr. Ricardo, if he has not rendered the same, has rendered an equal service. By the acuteness and penetration of his intellect, by the mathematical accuracy of his logic, his searching and unsparing analysis, and the independence with which he has traced all the phenomena of wealth to their remotest relations, has won and deserved the rank of the most accomplished and influential modern teacher of the science.

The American writers upon Political Economy have made but few advances upon the developements of their English and continental predecessors. Here and there, questions have been started as to the truth of one or two particular doctrines, but generally, such as the science exists in foreign treatises, it has been received in this country. We cannot think, however, that the discussions, to which our recent

commercial experience has given rise, have unfolded certain applications of old truths, that are a vast improvement upon the principles which obtain in the old world. The carrying of the doctrines of free trade into the business of banking is a new, and, it strikes us, a most important, application of an admitted scientific fact. We are not informed to whom the honor of originally suggesting the idea is due, but we first met with it, enforced with great vigor of logic, in a political journal, the Evening Post, published in New York, under the editorial management of William Leggett, one of those fearless thinkers and writers of whom the world sees an example only two or three times in the course of a century, and of William Cullen Bryant, a gentleman distinguished alike for the grace and beauty of his poetry, the extent of his attainments, and the dignity and elegance of his prose writings. The suggestion itself is worthy of the profoundest attention of legislators, and that class of the community most interested in a sound and stable currency. No nation has had a more instructive experience on the subject of currency than the United States. One scheme of banking after another has been tried, with the same result, an utter failure. The plan of a national bank has been found to be inconsistent with the prosperity, morals, and liberties of the country. Banks created by the States, under a vast variety of regulations, have failed in accomplishing the prime object of their creation, that of furnishing a sound and equable circulating medium. There is, therefore, no other resort but to leave the business of discounting and circulating notes, where almost all other kinds of business are left, to the control of individual sagacity and enterprise. It is a gross mistake, as we view the matter, to suppose the interposition of the legislature to be more necessary here, than in the other branches of trade. Had we space, and did it consist with the design of the present article, this point could be made clear. Meanwhile let the following observations suffice:

1. Charters of incorporation, apart from political objections, are an endorsement, by the state, of the solvency and character of the corporators, which gives a fictitious value to their issues over and above what is due to them on account of their real and personal worth. This enables them to force more money into circulation than the natural wants of society require, and thus facilitates the fatal tendency to excessive speculation.

2. Every capitalist has a natural right to dispose of his property and his credit in the manner he thinks best, provided he does not infringe the equal rights of others; and, according to the acknowledged principles of free trade, while promoting his own advantage is most likely to advance the interest of the community at large.

3. Under a free system, men of known worth and wealth only could establish confidence enough to procure a free circulation for their bills.

VOL. VIII. NO. XXXIV.-OCTOBER, 1840. T

4. Such men are the best qualified, having a great interest at stake, to decide upon the claims of men applying to them for accommodations.

5. Banking would be more precisely adjusted to the business of the country, because there would be fewer inducements to, and no opportunities for, excessive issues, personal liability and interest lessening the former, and unlimited competition destroying the latter. And— 6. The greater part of the ordinary circulation would consist of the metals, while paper would be appropriated to its rightful sphere, the heavier transactions of trade.

These principles, too briefly stated perhaps to be apprehended in all their force, we hold to be no less important than correct, and are destined to a general adoption by society, if not by the power of reasoning, by the compulsion of circumstances. Artificial modes of business-and what can be more artificial than our systems of banking ?—inevitably lead to vicissitudes and calamities that prepare the way for more natural arrangements. The long series of terrific explosions to which our commerce has been exposed, cannot close so long as the chief cause is permitted to remain. That cause is the attempt to regulate, through the awkward contrivances of legislation, what if left to itself would work as smoothly and beneficially as the unperverted mechanism of the human system. The interference of quacks and bunglers is the signal for derangement.

There is enough in these brief historical references to show us that the advancement of society consists in the gradual approaches made to a general adoption of the doctrines of economical science. As it has thrown aside one restraint after another, and ascended step by step in the scale of well-being, it has only illustrated the truth of those great principles which science had long before developed. Theory has ever anticipated practice; for the deductions of individual men precede the convictions of the mass. It is on this account never dangerous for society to strive to realize the condition which just reasoning proves it is capable to attain. So far from being dangerous, indeed, it is the dictate alike of wisdom and of policy to pursue the course indicated and sanctioned by admitted scientific principles. In Political Economy, for instance, we are of opinion that it would be for the highest good of society, to put in instant practice the important maxims composing the body of that science. We believe it would be good, because the relations of society would in that way be brought into closer correspondence with truth. He might take any one of its doctrines, and by showing its intimate connexion with the physical welfare, as well as with good order and morality, satisfactorily elucidate this point. The single principle of free trade is full of examples. That principle has a vital relation to much that concerns the happiness and moral elevation of man. It is important in its application to both the internal and external arrangements of a nation. Its practical acknowledgment would tend to the develope

ment and perfection of individual character. By throwing men upon their own energies for success, it would accustom them to the practice of self-dependence and train them to habits of perseverance and economy. They would learn to value that labor which was the only source of their distinction. All modes of industry would be found to be equally necessary to comfortable social existence; which would depress those jealousies springing from the supposition of the superiority of one class over another, and beget a mutual respect among those who were alike contributing to the necessities and enjoyments of their fellows. But the most valuable influence of freedom in the choice and prosecution of pursuits would be in equalizing human conditions. There is something in men that renders them averse to the contemplation of a great disparity in the social state of beings obviously designed for a political state of equality. Distinctions, whatever may be the cause that produces them, breed ill-will and discontent, separating classes from all interchange of sympathies, and making the one arrogant and overbearing, and the other envious, restless, and bitter. So strong are these feelings that the most powerful restraints of education and self-discipline are often too weak to overcome them. To unite a society, therefore, to diffuse through it universal and permanent friendly feelings, to soften manners, to introduce courtesy in intercourse, the laws, customs, and methods of trade which fetter one man while they facilitate another must be altogether abrogated. Place men upon an equal footing, as to the advantages of social life, and you cement the bonds of society and refine the tone of its manners. By creating a greater mutual dependence, you increase mutual respect.

And the same is true in regard to the intercourse of nations. Nothing has done more to separate distant people, than the restraints laid by the policy of government upon the most perfect freedom of commerce. It has converted the world, from what it should be, the home of a vast family of brothers, into a slaughter-house for indiscriminate and reckless butchery. This truth has not been dwelt upon enough by political writers, and can not be too strongly impressed upon public attention. Let us, therefore, devote the remainder of this paper to a brief consideration of the connexion of free trade with the advancement of national civilization and peace. The restraints imposed upon commerce are, we repeat, productive of the worst moral effects. Tariffs, navigation laws, duties, restrictive regulations of whatever name, and for whatever purpose they are established, are hostile to the highest interests of all the parties concerned. The very base upon which they rest is laid in falsehood and ill-will. systems of restrictions begin with the idea that nations are of necessity adversaries. Whereas the truth is, that nations are naturally friends. Every arrangement of Providence indicates that they were intended to live in harmony. Nations are but aggregates of individual beings, endowed with the same affections, hopes, and fears, subjects of

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