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T1IE NATURE AND CAUSES OF

inodation and subsistence of a great number, and importsthat of a very few only. The inhabitants of the one mustalways enjoy a much greater quantity of subsistence thanwhat their own lands, in the actual state of their cultivation,could afford. The inhabitants of the one must always enjoya much smaller quantity.

This system, however, with all its imperfections, is, per-haps, the nearest approximation to the truth that has yetbeen published upon the subject of political economy, and isupon that account well worth the consideration of every manwho wishes to examine with attention the principles of thatvery important science. Though in representing the labourwhich is employed upon land as the only productive labour,the notions which it inculcates are perhaps too narrow andconfined; yet in representing the wealth of nations as con-sisting, not in the unconsumable riches of money, but in theconsumable goods annually reproduced by the labour of thesociety; and in representing perfect liberty as the only ef-fectual expedient for rendering this annual reproduction thegreatest possible, its doctrine seems to be in every respect asjust as it is generous and liberal. Its followers are very nu-merous; and as men are fond of paradoxes, and of appear-ing to understand what surpasses the comprehension of or-dinary people, the paradox which it maintains, concerningthe unproductive nature of manufacturing labour, has notperhaps contributed a little to increase the number of its ad-mirers. They have for some years past made a pretty con-siderable sect, distinguished in the French republic of lettersby the name of The Economists. Their works have cer-tainly been of some service to their country; not only bybringing into general discussion many subjects which hadnever been well examined before, but by influencing in somemeasure the public administration in favour of agriculture.It has been in consequence of their representations, accord-ingly, that the agriculture of France has been delivered fromseveral of the oppressions which it before laboured under.The term during which such a lease can be granted, as willbe valid against every future purchaser or proprietor of theland, has been prolonged from nine to twenty-seven years.The ancient provincial restraints upon the transportation ofcorn from one province of the kingdom to another have beenentirely taken away, and the liberty of exporting it to all fo-reign countries has been established as the common law of