158 ADAM SMITH. 



hibiting British ships to import from one country the 

 produce of any other. Again: when any tax is laid 

 upon one article of home-growth or manufacture, he con- 

 siders it right to lay an equal or countervailing duty 

 upon the importation of the same article. He also allows 

 that when any article has been unnaturally encouraged 

 by former prohibitions, or by the restriction of importa- 

 tion, justice, as well as policy, requires that the prohibition 

 or restriction should only be taken off " slowly, gradually, 

 and after a very long warning." Finally, he conceives it 

 just and right to retaliate on Foreign States, which have 

 restricted the dealing in our commodities by restraining 

 our people from dealing in theirs, providing we can thus 

 hope to obtain an alteration in their policy. But the 

 consideration how far such experiments are likely in any 

 case to succeed, he says, belongs not so much to the phi- 

 losopher or the lawgiver as to him whom he is pleased 

 to mention as the " insidious and crafty animal, vulgarly 

 called a statesman or politician, whose councils are di- 

 rected by the momentary fluctuation of affairs." (Vol. II. 

 p. 201.) I trust I may be excused for saying that my 

 councils were always directed by more liberal and per- 

 manent views than Dr. Smith himself on this one point 

 entertained; being always pointed to dissuade my 

 " brother animals" from any such retaliating process as 

 he approves, and to recommend liberal principles as more 

 likely in the end to remove the prejudices of Foreign 

 States. In one thing we all appeared quite to agree with 

 Dr. Smith, that " to expect the entire restoration of free- 

 dom of trade would be as absurd as expecting to see an 

 Oceana or an Utopia established." (Vol. II. p. 206.) 

 ii. The unreasonableness of general restraints upon 



