3^^ 



printers of Ireland reprefent, that the paper made in the country 

 was wholly infuiTlcient to fupply the confumption. The tax was impo- 

 fed ; the printing trade, in this country, was nearly deftroyed, and thus 

 the paper manufadure was injured, not advanced, by the duty. 



Doftor Adam Smith obfervcs, " that can hardly be called improvi- 

 " dence in ftates and communities, which is prudence in an individual." 

 And, hence he would infer, that dates, like individuals, fliould repair 

 to purchafe thofe articles of manufafture of which they ftand in need, 

 wherever they can procure them cheapeft. "It is the maxim of every 

 " prudent mafter of a family, never to make at home, what it will 

 " cofi: him more to make than to buy." — But the coraparifon between 

 the individual and the community does not fcem to hold entirely ; and 

 if any fair diftin6lions between them can be taken, the attempt of 

 Doftor Smit/j, to apply the rules of private domeftic economy to grand, 

 political and commercial regulations, muft fail. I fay this, fuppofing it 

 to be the facV, according to Smith's hypothefis, that individuals, in the 

 ordinary dealings of life, uniformly refort, for the purchafe of fuch 

 manufaftures as they want, to the market, where they can procure 

 them, on the cheapeft terms. This ftrift economy in buying, is far, 

 from being uniformly, or even generally purfued, in the courfe of or- 

 ninary life. — The faft, (as every perfon mutl be fenfible,) is, that, in 

 the dealings of individuals, there are many confiderations, which con- 

 troul the principle of faving in price, — fucli as connexion, — neighbour- 

 hood — friendfliip — the accommodation of long credit — the profpeft of 

 reciprocal advantage, in the fale of fome commodity, in which the pur- 

 chafer himfelf deals. Such, evidently, are the motives, by which the 

 majority of individual purchafers, in private life, are governed, and, 

 among farmers, it is obvioufly the praftice of families, to manufaflure 

 at home, many parts of their apparel 



But, fuppofing, contrary to the experience of every man who looks 

 around him, that the individual goes to purchafe what he wants, where- 

 ever he can procure it for the leaft politive fum, without attempting 



to 



