262 ADAM SMITH. 



of ancient origin ; for the Romans had first by one 

 and then by the other expedient, before the end of the 

 second Punic war, made the coin worth nominally 

 two-and-twenty times more than it originally was. 



Incited by a view of the dangers of taxation, perpe- 

 tuated by public debts, Dr. Smith strongly recommends 

 the increase of such taxes as are most according to prin- 

 ciple, and fall in with the four general maxims already 

 stated; but above all, he recommends in what he admits 

 to be a kind of " New Utopia," but not more useless and 

 chimerical than the " old one," a general union of the 

 whole empire, by giving both Ireland and all the colo- 

 nies representatives, and thus making all parts of our 

 dominion contribute to a fund for paying off the debt 

 which was contracted for the government, and the de- 

 fence of them all. This plan with its details, closes the 

 work. The recommendation as regards Ireland has 

 been successfully adopted and carried into execution. 

 It was soon made clear by the events of the American 

 war that no such incorporation of the distant provinces 

 could be effected. Mr. Burke, in a speech on conci- 

 liation with America, adverted to such a plan and said, 

 "A great flood stops me in my course. Opposuit 

 natura. I cannot remove the eternal barriers of the 

 creation."* No representative Government ever can 

 be maintained, when the delegate and his constituents 

 live on the opposite shores of the Atlantic. 



Having now finished the analytical view of this great 

 work, the opinion may, in conclusion, be expressed, 

 which all men are now agreed in entertaining of its 

 prodigious merits. It may truly be said to have 

 founded the science of Political Economy, as it exists 

 in its new and greatly improved form. Many preced- 

 ing authors had treated different branches of the sub- 



* Works, iiL 91. 



