Account of 
Dr Smith. 
110 HISTORY of the SOCIETY. 
Or the truth of thefe remarks, enlightened politicians feem 
now to be in general convinced ; for the moft celebrated works 
which have been produced in the different countries of Eu- 
rope, during the laft thirty years, by Smiru, QuEsNnal, TuR- 
GoT, CAMPOMANES, BEccartA, and others, have aimed at the 
improvement of fociety,—not by delineating plans of new con- 
{titutions, but by enlightening the policy of adtual legiflators. 
Such f{peculations, while they are more effentially and more ex- 
tenfively ufeful than any others, have no tendency to unhinge 
eftablithed inftitutions, or to inflame the paffions of the multi- 
tude. The improvements they recommend are to be effected 
by means too gradual and flow in their operation, to warm the 
imaginations of any but of the fpeculative few ; and in propor- 
tion as they are adopted, they confolidate the political fabric, 
and enlarge the bafis upon which it refts. 
To direé& the policy of nations with refpe& to one moft im- 
portant clafs of its laws, thofe which form its fyftem of politi- 
cal ceconomy, is the great aim of Mr Smirn’s Inquiry: And 
he has unqueftionably had the merit of prefenting to the world, 
the moft comprehenfive and perfect work that has yet appeared, 
on the general principles of any branch of legiflation. The 
example which he has fet will be followed, it is to be hoped, 
in due time, by other writers, for whom the internal po- 
licy of ftates furnifhes many other fubjects of difcuffion no 
lefs curious and interefting; and may accelerate the pro- 
grefs of that fcience which Lord Bacon has fo well de- 
fcribed in the following paflage: ‘ Finis et fcopus quem 
leges intueri, atque ad quem juffiones et fanctiones fuas 
dirigere debent, non alius eft, quam ut cives feliciter de- 
gant: id fiet, fi pietate et religione recte inftitati; moribus 
honefti ; armis adverfus hoftes externos tuti; legum auxilio 
adverfus feditiones et privatas injurias muniti; imperio et 
magiftratibus obfequentes ; copiis et opibus locupletes et flo- 
rentes fuerint. Certe cognitio ifta ad viros civiles proprie 
3 “* {pectat ; 
