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vilized people. I think I have sufficiently shewn 

 the manner in which the present expedient would 

 operate unjustly towards a particular class of the 

 community, and injuriously towards all. But 

 even in cases where this cannot be so clearly dis- 

 covered, we may rest assured, that every positive 

 interference to promote, retard, or direct the in- 

 dustry of individuals, is at bottom prejudicial, 

 and will be attended in its course with more evil 

 than can be foreseen at the time. This great 

 truth has been established in the inestimable 

 work of Dr Smith, on grounds so sure, and by 

 an induction so patient and extensive, that sinct, 

 his time I do not think one exception has been 

 shewn to it, which can satisfy a sound and im- 

 partial mind. The only exception which he 

 himself has made, (the approval of a fixed rate 

 of interest for money,) is one of the few great 

 errors he has committed*. That we should ever 



* The three great branches of our policy, wherein we have* 

 chiefly attempted to regulate by positive institution the provisions 

 of nature, are our system of corn-laws, of poor-laws, and of laws 

 respecting usury. The consequence is, what might have been ex. 

 pected, in all of these systems, inconsistent doctrine, ineffectual ex. 

 pedients, and a constant desire to regulate by compulsive rules, 

 which are silently undone by the operations of nature. We leave 

 the road which is short, straight, and open before us, and exert 

 our ingenuity to clear and level the circuitous by-path which we 

 have perversely chosen. People wonder, that the regulations daily 

 multiplied in these systems do not reader them perfect at last, and 



