6 



intelligence to enable each to know what is best for 

 his own interests, must be premised. Neither the 

 one nor the other can be predicted of Indian traders 

 generally. Nor would I be understood to restrict 

 the circumstances under which conclusions drawn 

 from premises so based, will be true, to these cases 

 only. The laws and conditions by which proposi- 

 tions in Economic Science are determined, must be 

 recognized, accepted, and acted on by both parties 

 in their dealings, or they will be, in a great measure, 

 if not wholly, inoperative. And this must be ob- 

 vious : for, to take a case in point, suppose our 

 friend Smith, in full prescience, himself, of the 

 remedies which the principles of his science suggest 

 for the indisposition or malady under which his 

 trade may be suffering-, quietly to recline in his easy 

 chair, in the confident assurance that his distant 

 relative Jones, who alone possesses the means of 

 relief, will, for his own advantage, at once hurry to 

 his assistance and, from ignorance of Smith's 

 deplorable circumstances, or failing to see that his 

 interest lies in relieving his sufferings, or from any 

 cause whatever, Jones does not do so, Smith's trade 

 will, in ordinary course, languish, and ultimately 

 die. 



But leaving* this unfortunate victim of sound 

 principles in the slough in which he has been 

 involved by his own folly, let us attempt some 

 diagnosis of the disease of his trade. It is not 

 very long ago since the elder Smith, Adam Smith, 



