Account of 

 Dr Smith. 



no BISTORT of the SOCIETT. 



Of the truth of thefe remarks, enlightened politicians feem 

 now to be in general convinced ; for the moft celebrated works 

 which have been produced in the different countries of Eu- 

 rope, during the laft thirty years, by Smith, Quesnai, Tur- 

 got, Campomanes, Beccaria, and others, have aimed at the 

 improvement of fociety, — not by delineating plans of new con- 

 flitutions, but by enlightening the policy of actual legislators. 

 Such fpeculations, while they are more eflentially and more ex- 

 tenfively ufeful than any others, have no tendency to unhinge 

 eftablilhed inftitutions, or to inflame the paflions of the multi- 

 tude. The improvements they recommend are to be effected 

 by means too gradual and flow in their operation, to warm the 

 imaginations of any but of the fpeculative few ; and in propor- 

 tion as they are adopted, they conlolidate the political fabric, 

 and enlarge the bafis upon which it reds. 



To direct the policy of nations with refpect to one mod im- 

 portant clafs of its laws, thofe which form its fyftem of politi- 

 cal ceconomy. is the great aim of Mr Smith's Inquiry: And 

 he has unqueftionably had the merit of prefenting to the world, 

 the moft comprehenfive and perfect work that has yet appeared, 

 on the general principles of any branch of legiflation. The 

 example which he has fet will be followed, it is to be hoped, 

 in due time, by other writers, for whom the internal po- 

 licy of ftates furnifhes many other fubjects of difcuffion no 

 lefs curious and interefting ; and may accelerate the pro- 

 erefs of that fcience which Lord Bacon has fo well de- 

 fcribed in the following paffage : " Finis et fcopus quern 

 " leges intueri, atque ad quern juffiones et fanctiones fuas 

 " dirigere debent, non alius eft. quam ut cives feliciter de- 

 " gant ; id fiet, fi pietate et religione recte inftituti ; moribus 

 " honefti ; armis adverfus hoftes externos tuti ; legum auxilio 

 " adverfus feditiones et privatas injurias muniti ; imperio et 

 " magiftratibus obfequentes ; copiis et opibus locupletes et flo- 



" rentes fuerint. Certe cognitio ifta ad viros civiles proprie 



3 " fpectat: 



