4G On the Importance of 
the interest which the gloomy features of the 
age have procured for them. Amidst the un- 
certainty under which we labour, regarding 
the future fate of the civilized world, we may 
cherish the most confident assurance that the 
improvements made in this science never can 
be lost, and that they cannot fail to produce 
beneficial effects on the management of the 
great concerns of every civil community. 
The present imperfect state of some branches 
of the science gives occasional room for party 
debates ; but it is to be hoped that the time is 
not far distant when the subject will ve so fully 
explained, and information on it so generally 
diffused, that the opinions of every statesman 
who weuld maintai any portion of character 
with the public, must be sound and precise. 
When this takes place, the merits of every 
proposed regulation will be at once apparent. 
Crude experiments will no longer be resorted 
to, and the public supplies will be levied in 
such a manner as will best obviate all oppres- 
sion and inconvenience. 
My present intention is to offer a few re- 
yoarks on the j:rinciples by which we ought te 
estimate the importance of foreign commerce. 
For the sake of bemg clearly understood, I 
shall consider separately its influence on 
A 
