422 EDWARD DESOR. 



stimulated fresh inquiry and opened up new lines of thought. His 

 school is nowhere numerous : it may be doubted whether it is destined 

 for long life ; but it is everywhere earnest and independent, provocative 

 of discussion, and thus finally serviceable to the truth. It has been 

 well said by one of his warmest supporters that his system is an intel- 

 lectual ferment of the strongest kind. It is no small service to have 

 communicated this leavening influence to political economy at the time 

 when the orthodox school of economists appeared to have finished 

 their work. 



It is also to be said that Mr. Carey rendered an important service 

 by the direction which he sought to give to the discussion of the pro- 

 tective system. In this great debate it has been the failing of the 

 friends of free trade to keep their attention fixed, often exclusively, 

 on the gain which freedom offers to the consumer. The questions of 

 added stimulus to producers, of more rapid societary movement, of ear- 

 lier diversification of pursuits, and of quickened thought, all result- 

 ing in fresh gain in productive power, have been little considered by 

 them. The <:ains thus promised by protection have seemed to its oppo- 

 nents to be indirect and contingent, and to lie outside of the economic 

 range. But it was upon such gains as these that Mr. Carey's mind 

 was constantly bent. The home market was to him of chief impor- 

 tance, because with its growth he believed would grow the power of 

 association, the rapidity of exchange, the intellectual capacity of indi- 

 viduals, and the power and harmony of the whole society. In deal- 

 ing with these considerations political economy rises into a higher 

 region of thought than that with which it is apt to content itself. 

 Whatever Mr. Carey's error in supposing that the logical result of 

 these lofty speculations must be the vindication of the policy of pro- 

 tection, the world is permanently the gainer by his stimulating attempt 

 to show where the highest truths are to be sought. 



EDWARD DESOR. 



Edward Desor was born in Friedrichsdorf, near Homburg, in 

 1811. He died on Feb. 23, 1882, at Nice, where he spent the winter. 

 His father was a manufacturer. The son, French by descent, though 

 born in Germany, united the science and literature of both nations, 

 and spoke both languages with facility. After studying law at Hei- 

 delberg and Giessen, he fled to France in 1832 on account of political 

 movements, and devoted himself to natural history with Eifer in Paris. 

 His first work was the translation of Ritter's Geography. Elie do 



