LAW IN POLITICS. 377 



than their contemporaries at the time. It may 

 well be supposed, that Adam Smith's opinions on 

 freedom of labour must have been influenced by- 

 personal observation of the working of such laws 

 in the case of a man who, though still obscure, 

 was even then appreciated by those who knew him 

 for ingenuity and resource. 



In looking at restrictions such as these, there 

 was nothing then to suggest to Adam Smith 

 the consequences which might arise from the 

 entire freedom of labour, when that labour was 

 placed under new conditions. He had no know- 

 ledge, and he could then have no conception 

 what these new conditions were to be. Yet 

 they were being silently prepared and determined 

 in the very years in which he spoke and wrote. 

 His friend Watt was a principal agent in the great 

 impending change. But Watt was not alone. 

 Other minds were working at the same time whose 

 labours were to match with a curious fittingness 

 into his. Indeed, the work which was going on in 

 those years is only one example of a law of which 

 many other examples may be found. It is an 

 order of facts observable in the progress of Man- 



