and government, and of the different revolutions which they have undergone in the different ages and periods of society," would be too great a task for a great scholar of the ripest years and with all the accumulated materials of the present time, and it was altogether beyond the strength of a young man a century ago; not to say that he combined it with an account of the origin of the moral faculties, a theory of belles-lettres, and other matters. The delivery of that part of the course which was concerned with wealth and revenue may have been useful to him, | because it compelled him to bring his ideas on those subjects into a distinct form. Otherwise, being a bookish_man, he might have been too absorbed in bookish matters, and neglected what can only be taught by life for that which is already to be learned from literature. But at the time this was only a minor merit: the main design of the lectures was only an impossible aim at an unbounded task. of the advantage to Adam Smith of a residence at Glasgow. The most characteristic and most valuable tenets of Adam Smith are, when examined, by no means of a very abstract and recondite sort. We are, indeed, in this generation not fully able to appreciate the difficulty of arriving at them. We have been bred up upon them; our disposition is more to wonder how any one could help seeing them, than to appreciate the effort of discovering them. Experience shows that many of them the doctrine of free-trade for example - are very uncongenial to the untaught human mind. On political economy the English-speaking race is undoubtedly the best-instructed part of mankind; and, nevertheless, in the United States and in every English-speaking colony, protection is the firm creed of the ruling classes, and free-trade is but a heresy. We must not fancy that any of the main doctrines of Adam Smith, were very easily arrived at by him because they seem very obvious to So complex, however, is life, that this us. But, on the other hand, although such Scotch professorship, though in a super- doctrines as his are too opposed to many inficial view wasteful, and likely to exhaust terests and to many first impressions to esand hurt his mind by the constant efflux tablish themselves easily as a dominant of inferior matter, was, nevertheless, on creed, they are quite within the reach and the whole exceedingly useful. It not only quite congenial to the taste of an intelliinduced him to study as a part of his vast gent dissenting minority. There was a scheme the particular phenomena of whole race of mercantile free-traders long wealth, but it gave him an excellent oppor- before Adam Smith was born; in his time tunity of seeing those phenomena and of the doctrine was in the air; it was not aclearning how to explain them. It was cepted or established, on the contrary, situated at Glasgow, and Glasgow, though it was a tenet against which a respectable a petty place in comparison with its pres- parent would probably caution his son, ent magnitude, was nevertheless a consid- still it was known as a tempting heresy, erable mercantile place according to the and one against which a warning was neednotions of those times. The union with ed. In Glasgow there were doubtless England had opened to it the trade with many heretics. Probably in consequence our West-Indian colonies, as well as with of the firm belief in a rigid theology, and the rest of the English empire, and it had of the incessant discussion of its technical in consequence grown rapidly and made tenets, there has long been, and there is large profits. That its size was small, as still, in the south of Scotland, a strong we should think now, was to a learner tendency to abstraction and argument rather an aid than a disadvantage. A quite unknown in England. Englishmen small commerce is more easily seen than have been sometimes laughing at it, and an immense one; that of Liverpool or sometimes gravely criticising it for several London now is so vast that it terrifies generations; Mr. Buckle wrote half a volmore than excites the imagination. And ume on it; Sydney Smith alleged that he a small commerce, if varied, has almost heard a Scotch girl answer in a quadrille, as much to teach as a large one; the ele-" But, my lord, as to what ye were saying ments are the same though the figures are as to love in the abstract," and so on. smaller, and the less the figures the easier Yet, in spite both of ridicule and arguare they to combine. An inspection of ment, the passion for doctrine is still Liverpool now would not teach much more strong in southern Scotland, and it will than an inspection of Glasgow a hundred take many years more to root it out. At years ago, and the lessons of modern Glasgow in Adam Smith's time it had no Liverpool would be much more difficult to doubt very great influence; a certain numlearn. But the mere sight of the phenom- ber of hard-headed merchants were be ena of the commerce was but a small part | lievers in free-trade and kindred tenets. One of these is still by chance known to praised. One sect of philosophers praised us. But a Dr. Carlyle, whom Mr. Gladstone not it, as it seems to me, because they were unhappily described as a "gentleman cler- glad of a celebrated ally, and another begyman" of the Church_of_Scotland, tells cause they were glad of a celebrated oppous of a certain Provost Cochrane, to whom nent: the first said, "See that so great an Adam Smith always acknowledged his ob- authority as Adam Smith concurs with ligations, and who was the founder and us ;" and the second replied, " But see how leading member of a club "in which the very weak his arguments are; if so able express design was to inquire into the an arguer as Adam Smith can say so little nature and principles of trade in all its for your doctrines, how destitute of argubranches, and to communicate their knowl- mentative grounds those doctrines must edge on that subject to each other." From be." Several works in the history of phithis club Adam Smith not only learned losophy have had a similar fate. much which he would never have found in mere student of philosophy who cares for any book, but also in part perhaps ac- no sect, and wants only to know the truth, quired the influential and so to say practi- will nowadays, I think, find little to intercal way of explaining things which so much est him in this celebrated book. In Adam distinguishes the "Wealth of Nations." Smith's mind, as I have said before, it was Mr. Mill says he learned from his inter- part of a whole; he wanted to begin with course with East-India directors the habit the origin of the faculties of each man, and of looking for, and the art of discovering, then build up that man- just as he wished "the mode of putting a thought which to arrive at the origin of human society, gives it easiest admittance into minds not and then build up society. His "Theory prepared for it by habit;" and Adam of Moral Sentiments" builds them all Smith probably gained something of this out of one source, sympathy, and in sort by living with the Glasgow merchants, this way he has obtained praise from for no other book written by a learned friends and enemies. His friends are the professor shows anything like the same school of "moral sense thinkers, bepower of expressing and illustrating argu- cause he is on their side, and believes in ments in a way likely to influence minds a special moral faculty, which he laborilike theirs. And it is mainly by his syste-ously constructs from sympathy; his enematic cultivation of this borderland be-mies are the utilitarian school, who between theory and practice that Adam lieve in no such special faculty, and who Smith attained his pre-eminent place and influence. But this usefulness of his Scotch professorship was only in the distant future. It was something for posterity to detect, but it could not have been known at the time. The only pages of his professional work which Adam Smith then gave to the public were his lectures on moral philosophy, in what an Englishman would consider its more legitimate sense. These formed the once celebrated "Theory of Moral Sentiments," which, though we should now think them rather pompous, were then much praised and much read. For a great part, indeed, of Adam Smith's life they constituted his main title to reputation. The "Wealth of Nations" was not published till seventeen years later; he wrote nothing else of any importance in the interval; and it is now curious to find that when the "Wealth of Nations" was published, many good judges thought it not so good as the "Theory of Moral Sentiments," and that the author himself was by no means certain that they were not right. The "Theory of Moral Sentiments" was, indeed, for many years, exceedingly set themselves to show that his labor has been in vain, and that no such faculty has been so built up. One party says the book is good to gain authority for the conclusion, and the other to gain credit by refuting its arguments. For unquestionably its arguments are very weak, and attractive to refutation. If the intuitive school had had no better grounds than these, the utilitarians would have vanquished them ages since. There is a fundamental difficulty in founding morals on sympathy; an obvious confusion of two familiar sentiments. We often sympathize where we cannot approve, and approve where we cannot sympathize. The special vice of party spirit. is that it effaces the distinction between the two; we sympathize with our party, till we approve its actions.. There is a story of a Radical wit in the last century who was standing for Parlia ment, and his opponent, of course a Tory, objected that he was always against the king whether right or wrong, upon which the wit retorted that on his own showing the Tory was exposed to equal objection, since he was always for the king whether right or wrong. And so it will always be. Even the wisest party men more or less sympathize with the errors of their own side; they would be powerless if they did not so; they would gain no influence if they were not of like passions with those near them. Adam Smith could not help being aware of this obvious objection; he was far too able a reasoner to elaborate a theory without foreseeing what would be said against it. But the way in which he tries to meet the objection only shows that the objection is invincible. He sets up a supplementary theory- a little epicycle that the sympathy which is to test good morals must be the sympathy of an impartial spectator." But, then, who is to watch the watchman? Who is to say when the spectator is impartial, and when he is not? If he sympathizes with one side, the other will always say that he is partial. As a moralist, the supposed spectator must warmly approve good actions, and warmly disapprove bad actions; as an impartial person he must never do either the one or the other. He is a fiction of inconsistent halves; if he sympathizes he is not impartial, and if he is impartial he does not sympathize. The radical vice of the theory is shown by its requiring this accessory invention of a being both hot and cold, because the essence of the theory is to identify the passion which loves with the sentiment which ap proves. But although we may now believe the "Theory of Moral Sentiments" to be of inconsiderable philosophical value, and though it would at first sight seem very little likely to contribute to the production of the "Wealth of Nations," yet it was, in fact, in a curious way most useful to it. The education of young noblemen has always been a difficulty in the world, and many schemes have been invented to meet it. In Scotland, a hundred years ago, the most fashionable way was to send them to travel in Europe, and to send with them some scholar of repute to look after their morals and to superintend their general education. The guardians of the great border nobleman, the Duke of Buccleugh, were in want of such a tutor to take him such a tour, and it seems to have struck them that Adam Smith was the very person adapted for the purpose. To all appearance an odder selection could hardly have been made. Adam Smith was, as we have seen, the most absent of men, and an awkward Scotch professor, and he was utterly unacquainted with the Continent. He had never crossed the English Channel in his life, and if he had been left to himself would probably never have 393 done so. But one of the guardians was Charles Townshend, who had married the young duke's mother. He was not much unlike Mr. Disraeli in character, and had great influence at that time. He read the "Theory of Moral Sentiments," and Hume writes to Adam Smith: "Charles Townshend, who passes for the cleverest fellow in England, is so taken with the performance that he said to Oswald he would put the duke under the author's care, and would make it worth his while to accept of that charge. As soon as I heard this I called on him twice with a view of talking with him about the matter, and of convincing him of the propriety of sending that young nobleman to Glasgow; for I could not hope that he could offer you any terms which would tempt you to renounce your professorship. But I missed him. Mr. Townshend passes for being a little uncertain in his resolutions, so perhaps you need not build much on this sally." Mr. Townshend was, however, this time in earnest, and the offer was made to Adam Smith. In our time there would have been an insuperable difficulty. He was a professor of great repute, they were asking him to give up a life-professorship that yielded a considerable income, and they would have hardly been able to offer him anything equally permanent. But in the eighteenth century there was a way of facilitating such arrangements that we do not now possess. The family of Buccleugh had great political influence, and Charles Townshend, the duke's father-in-law, at times possessed more; and accordingly the guardians of the young duke therefore agreed that they should pay Adam Smith £200 a year till they should get him an equal office of profit under the crown son apparently more unfit for the public service could not easily have been found, but in that age of sinecures and pensions it was probably never expected that he should perform any service. An arrangement more characteristic of the old world, and more unlike our present world could hardly have been made. The friends of the young duke might, not unnaturally, have had some fears about it; but, in fact, for his interests it turned out very well. Long afterwards, when Adam Smith was dead, he wrote: "In October, 1766, we returned to London, after having spent near three years together without the slightest disagreement or coolness; on my part with every advantage that could be expected from the society of such a man. We continued to live in friendship a per till the hour of his death; and I shall always remain with the impression of having lost a friend whom I loved and respected, not only for his great talents, but for every private virtue." Very few of Charles Townshend's caprices were as successful. Through life there was about Adam Smith a sort of lumbering bonhomie which amused and endeared him to those around him. To Adam Smith the result was even better. If it had not been for this odd consequence of the "Theory of Moral Sentiments," he might have passed all his life in Scotland, delivering similar lectures and clothing very questionable theories in rather pompous words. He said in after life that there was no better way of compelling a man to master a science than by setting him to teach it. And this may be true of the definite sciences. But nothing can be conceived worse for a man of inventive originality than to set him to roam over huge subjects like law, morals, politics, and civilization, particularly at a time when few good data for sound theories on such subjects are at hand for him to use. In such a position the cleverer the man, the worse are likely to be the consequences: the wider his curiosity and the more fertile his mind, the surer he is to pour out a series of gigantic conjectures of little use to himself or to any one. one-eyed man with a taste for one subject, even at this disadvantage, may produce something good. The limitation of his mind may save him from being destroyed by his position; but a man of large interests will fail utterly. As Adam Smith had peculiarly wide interests, and as he was the very reverse of a one-eyed man, he was in special danger; and the mere removal from his professorship was to him a gain of the first magnitude. It was of cardinal importance to him to be delivered from the production of incessant words and to be brought into contact with facts and the world. And as it turned out, the caprice of Charles Townshend had a singular further felicity. It not only brought him into contact with facts and the world; but with the most suitable sort of facts, and for his purpose the best part of the world. A est elevation, the time of the first Napoleon. The political power of the first empire was almost unbounded, but it had no intellectual power; under it Paris had ceased to be an important focus of thought and literature. The vehement rule which created the soldiers also stamped out the ideas. But under the mild government of the old régime, Paris was the principal centre of European authorship. The deficiency of the old régime in eminent soldiers and statesmen only added to the eminence of its literary men. Paris was then queen of two worlds, in that of politics by a tradition from the past, and in literature by a force and life vigorously evidenced in the present. France therefore thus attracted the main attention of all travellers who cared for the existing life of the time; Adam Smith and his pupil spent the greater part of their stay abroad there. And as a preparation for writing the "Wealth of Nations," he could nowhere else have been placed so well. Macaulay says that "ancient abuses and new theories" flourished together in France just before the meeting of the States-General in greater vigor than they had been seen combined before or since. And the description is quite as true economically as politically; on all economical matters the France of that time was a sort of museum stocked with the most important errors. By nature then, as now, France was fitted to be a great agricultural country, a great producer and exporter of corn and wine; but her legislators for several generations had endeavored to counteract the aim of nature, and had tried to make her a manufacturing and an exporting country. Like most persons in those times, they had been prodigiously impressed by the high position which the maritime powers, as they were then called (the comparatively little powers of England and Holland), were able to take in the politics of Europe. They saw that this influence came from wealth, that this wealth was made in trade and manufacture, and therefore they determined that France should not be behindhand, but should have as much trade and manufacture as possible. Accordingly they imposed proThe greater part of his three years hibitive or deterring duties on the imporabroad were naturally spent in France. tation of foreign manufactures; they gave France was then by far the greatest coun- bounties to the corresponding home mantry on the Continent. Germany was di-ufactures. They tried, in opposition to vided and had not yet risen; Spain had the home-keeping bent of the French fallen; Italy was of little account. In one character, to found colonies abroad. respect, indeed, France was relatively These colonies were, according to the greater than even at the time of her great- maxim then everywhere received, to be markets for the trade and nurseries for all united into one), and in those which the commerce of the mother country; are said to be reckoned foreign, there are they were mostly forbidden to manufacture for themselves, and were compelled to import all the manufactures and luxuries they required from Europe exclusively in French ships. Meanwhile, at home, agriculture was neglected. There was not even a free passage for goods from one part of the country to another. As Adam Smith himself describes it: many local duties which do not extend beyond a particular town or district. There are some such even in the provinces which are said to be treated as foreign, particularly in the city of Marseilles. It is unnecessary to observe how much, both the restraints upon the interior commerce of the country, and the number of the revenue officers must be multiplied, in order to guard the frontiers of those different provinces and districts, which are subject to such different systems of taxation." And there were numerous attendant errors, such as generally accompany a great protective legislation, but which need not be specified in detail. "In France, the different revenue laws which take place in the different provinces, require a multitude of revenue officers to surround, not only the frontiers of the kingdom, but those of almost each particular province, in order either to prevent the importation of certain goods, or to subject it to the payment of certain duties, to the no small interruption of the interior In consequence, the people were excommerce of the country. Some prov- ceedingly miserable. The system of taxinces are allowed to compound for the ga-ation was often enough by itself to cause belle or salt-tax. Others are exempted from great misery. "In the provinces,” says it altogether. Some provinces are ex- Adam Smith, "where the personal taille empted from the exclusive sale of tobacco, on the farmer is imposed, the farmer is which the farmers-general enjoy_through afraid to have a good team of horses or the greater part of the kingdom. The aids, oxen, but endeavours to cultivate with which correspond to the excise in En- the meanest and most wretched instrugland, are very different in different prov-ments of husbandry that he can." The inces. Some provinces are exempted numerous imposts on the land due from from them, and pay a composition or toe peasantry to the nobles had the same equivalent. In those in which they take place and are in farm, there are many Íocal duties which do not extend beyond a particular town or district. The traites, which correspond to our customs, divide the kingdom into three great parts; first, the provinces subject to the tarif of 1664, which are called the provinces of the five great farms, and under which are comprehended Picardy, Normandy, and the greater part of the interior provinces of the kingdom; secondly, the provinces subject to the tarif of 1667, which are called the provinces reckoned foreign, and under which are comprehended the greater part of the frontier provinces; and, thirdly, those provinces which are said to be treated as foreign, or which, because they are allowed a free commerce with foreign countries, are in their commerce with the other provinces of France subjected to the same duties as other foreign countries. These are Alsace, the three bishopricks of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, and the three cities of Dunkirk, Bayonne, and Marseilles. Both in the provinces of the five great farms (called so on account of an antient division of the duties of customs into five great branches, each of which was originally the subject of a particular farm, though they are now effect even then-most of the country was practically held in a kind of double ownership; the peasant cultivator had usually, by habit if not by law, a fixed hold upon the soil, but he was subject in the cultivation of it to innumerable exactions of varying kinds, which the lord could change pretty much as he chose. "In France," continues Adam Smith, so oddly contrary to everything which we should say now, "the inferior ranks of the people must suffer patiently the usage which their superiors choose to inflict on them." The country in Europe where there is now, perhaps, the most of social equality was then the one in which there was, perhaps, the least. And side by side with this museum of economical errors there was a most vigorous political economy which exposed them. The doctrines of free-trade had been before several times suggested by isolated thinkers, but by far the most powerful combined school of philosophers who incessantly inculcated them were the French économistes. They delighted in proving that the whole structure of the French laws upon industry was utterly wrong; that prohibitions ought not to be imposed on the import of foreign manufactures; that bounties ought not to be |