A PPEN DI. 11g 
country no more than to his parents. He will accommodate, 
as well as he can, his public arrangements to the confirmed 
habits and prejudices of the people; and will remedy, as 
well as he can, the inconveniencies which may flow from the 
want of thofe regulations which the people are averfe to fub- 
mit to. When he cannot eftablifh the right, he will not dif- 
dain to ameliorate the wrong; but, like Soron, when he 
cannot eftablifh the beft fyftem of laws, he will endeavour 
to eftablith the beft that the people can bear.” 
Tues cautions with refpect to the practical application of 
general principles were peculiarly neceffary from the Author of 
“ The Wealth of Nations ;”’ as the unlimited freedom of trade, 
which it is the chief aim of his work to recommend, is ex- 
tremely apt, by flattering the indolence of the ftatefman, to 
fuggeft to thofe who are invefted with abfolute power, the idea 
of carrying it into immediate execution. ‘ Nothing is more 
a3 
ce 
adverfe to the tranquillity of a ftatefman (fays the author of 
an Eloge on the Adminiftration of Cotzerr) than a fpirit of 
moderation ; becaufe it condemns him to perpetual obferva- 
tion, fhews him every moment the infufficiency of his wif- 
* dom, and leaves him the melancholy fenfe of his own im- 
perfection ; while, under the fhelter of a few general prin- 
‘ciples, a fyftematical politician enjoys a perpetual calm. By 
the help of one alone, that of a perfect liberty of trade, he 
would govern the world, and would leave human affairs to 
arrange themfelves at pleafure, under the operation of the 
prejudices and the felf-intereft of individuals. If thefe run 
counter to each other, he gives himfelf no anxiety about the 
confequence ; he infifts that the refult cannot be judged of 
till after a century or two fhall have elapfed. If his contem- 
poraries, in confequence of the diforder into which he has 
thrown public affairs, are {crupulous about fubmitting quietly 
to the experiment, he accufes them of impatience. They 
ce ] 
alone, 
Account of 
Dr Smith. 
