The bread which I consume myself, or give to a menial servant, is a part of the general produce of the country, and may not be different from that which is advanced to a manufacturer or agriculturist. When I or my servant consume the bread, it performs a most necessary and important service, no less than the maintenance of life and health; but in obtaining this service my wealth is _pro tanto_ diminished. On the other hand, if I give the same kind of bread as wages to a manufacturer or agricultural labourer, it will not, with regard to me, perform so necessary an office as before, but it will perform an essentially different one with regard to my wealth, it will increase my wealth instead of diminishing it. In an inquiry into the causes of the wealth of nations, does not this difference in the functions which the same advances perform require to be marked by a particular appellation? Accordingly, both in the language of common conversation and of the best writers, revenue and capital have always been distinguished; by revenue being understood, that which is expended with a view to immediate support and enjoyment, and by capital, that which is expended with a view to profit. But in the language of Mr. Macculloch, in the passage above quoted, it is the capacity to perform particular functions, and not the habitual performance of them, that justifies particular designations. A coach-horse, drawing a chariot in the Park, has the capacity of being employed in a brewer’s dray or a farmer’s waggon: “whatever difference may really obtain in the two cases, the identity of the horse is not affected; he is equally possessed, in the one case as in the other, of the capacity to assist in production; and so long as he possesses that capacity, he ought to be viewed, independently of all other considerations, as a portion of the capital of the country.” This appears to me to be very little different from saying that a man who is capable of being made to perform the functions of a judge ought to be denominated a judge; because, whether he sits on the bench or in the court below, the identity of the man is the same; he is equally possessed, in the one case as well as the other, of the capacity to assist in the decision of causes, and so long as he possesses that capacity he ought to be viewed, independently of all other considerations, as one of the judges of the country. It is said, that the French are astonished at the small number of judges in England. If this kind of comprehensive nomenclature were adopted, their wonder would soon cease.