a 



Dr Smith. 



APPENDIX. 119 



" country no more than to his parents. He will accommodate, Account of 

 " as well as he can, his public arrangements to the confirmed 



* habits and prejudices of the people ; and will remedy, as 

 " well as he can, the inconveniencies which may flow from the 

 " want of thofe regulations which the people are averfe to fub- 

 " mit to. When he cannot eftablifh the right, he will not dif- 

 " dain to ameliorate the wrong ; but, like Solon, when he 

 *' cannot eftablifh the beft fyftem of laws, he will endeavour 

 " to eftablifh the beft that the people can bear.'' 



These cautions with refpect to the practical application of 

 general principles were peculiarly necefTary from the Author of 

 " The Wealth of Nations ;" as the unlimited freedom of trade, 

 which it is the chief aim of his work to recommend, is ex- 

 tremely apt, by flattering the indolence of the ftatefman, to 

 fuggeft to thofe who are inverted with abfolute power, the idea 

 of carrying it into immediate execution. " Nothing is more 



* adverfe to the tranquillity of a ftatefman (fays the author of 

 " an Eloge on the Adminiftration of Colbert) than a fpirit of 

 " moderation ', becaufe it condemns him to perpetual obferva- 

 " tion, (hews him every moment the infufficiency of his wif- 

 " dom, and leaves him the melancholy fenfe of his own im- 

 " perfection ; while, under the fhelter of a few general prin- 

 li ciples, a fyftematical politician enjoys a perpetual calm. By 

 11 the help of one alone, that of a perfect: liberty of trade, he 

 " would govern the world, and would leave human affairs to 

 *' arrange themfelves at pleafure, under the operation of the 

 " prejudices and the felf-intereft of individuals. If thefe run 



counter to each other, he gives himfelf no anxiety about the 

 " confequence ', he infifts that the refult cannot be judged of 

 " till after a century or two fhall have elapfed. If his contem- 

 " poraries, in confequence of the diforder into which he has 

 " thrown public affairs, are fcrupulous about fubmitting quietly 

 " to the experiment, he accufes them of impatience. They 



" alone, 



