WRITINGS OF DR. SMITH.

XGV

The limits of this Memoir make it impoffiblefor me to examine particularly the merit of Mr.Smith’s work in point of originality. That hisdoftrine concerning the freedom of trade and ofindustry coincides remarkably with that which wefind in the writings of the French Oeconomifls,appears from the flight view of their fyftem whichhe him self has given. But it furely cannot be pre-tended by the warmeft admirers of that fyftem, thatanyone of its numerous exp oh tors has approachedto Mr. Smith in the precision and perspicuitywith which he has hated it, or in the scientific andluminous manner in which he has deduced it fromelementary principles. The awkwardness of theirtechnical language, and the paradoxical form inwhich they have chosen to present some of theiropinions, are acknowledged even by those whoare moh willing to do juhice to their merits ; where-as it may be doubted with refpeftto Mr. Smith’sInquiry, if there exifts any book beyond the circleof the mathematical and physical sciences, whichis at once fo agreeable in its arrangement to therules of a found logic, and fo accessible to the ex-amination of ordinary readers. Abftrafling entire-ly from the author’s peculiar and original spe-culations , I do not know, that upon any fubjedfwhatever, a work has been produced in our times,containing fo methodical, fo comprehensive, and