10 



less other circumstances in which India is antipodal 

 to England, and regarding many, if not most of 

 which, moreover, the knowledge of the best informed 

 on Indian matters is deficient, sound Economists 

 will not dispute, that if the same laws which regulate 

 the system in England, without any allowance what- 

 ever being made for antagonism of ideas and differ- 

 ence of circumstances, be applied to India, they will 

 be met by disturbing influences quite sufficient to 

 upset the most accurate and nicely balanced calcu- 

 lations. 



For after all, what is a system of Political Eco- 

 nomy ? Surely it is not a compound of aphorisms, 

 or syllogisms ! Nor yet, the heaping up of a stan- 

 dard of infallible principles, to which all cases, 

 occurring in nations in all stages of civilization, may 

 be referred, as to an undeviating Law I I do not 

 think so. As I understand it, it is, from our pre- 

 sent point of view, simply the judicious application 

 of such general principles regarding the production 

 and distribution of wealth, &c., as experience has 

 approved, to the business transactions of a nation 

 [or the world], as will best tend to the greatest 

 development of individual industry, and be most 

 conducive to the public good [or the welfare and 

 prosperity of mankind]. And if this definition be 

 right, it is quite sufficient to demonstrate that this 

 Science must be most intimately bound up with what 

 is called Social Philosophy : that it is eminently 

 practical, and has nothing in common with system/ 



