Whether the definitions substituted for those of Adam Smith on the present occasion have removed the objections to them which Mr. Macculloch may have felt, I cannot be a competent judge; but even supposing them to have done this, I think I can confidently affirm that they have left other objections, beyond all comparison greater and more embarrassing. And on this point I would beg those of my readers who are inclined to pay attention to these subjects, seriously and candidly to trace the consequences to the science of political economy, in regard to its explanation and practical application, of adopting Mr. Macculloch’s definitions. They are not, indeed, all his own; but the very extraordinary extension which he has given to the term capital, the making of no distinction between directly productive consumption and consumption that is only indirectly productive; and the extension of the term labour, without any adjunct, to mean profits, fermentation, and vegetation, belong, I believe, exclusively to Mr. Macculloch; and, I think, it will be found that they are beyond the rest strikingly calculated to introduce uncertainty and confusion into the science. The tendency of some of our most popular writers to innovate without improving, and their marked inattention to facts, leading necessarily to differences of opinion and uncertainty of conclusion, have been the main causes which have of late thrown some discredit on the science of political economy. Nor can this be a matter of much surprise, though it may be of regret. At a period, when all the merchants of our own country, and many in others, find the utmost difficulty in employing their capitals so as to obtain ordinary profits, they are repeatedly told that, according to the principles of political economy, no difficulty can ever be found in employing capital, if it be laid out in the production of the proper articles; and that any distress which they may have suffered is exclusively owing to a wrong application of their capital, such as “the production of cottons, which were not wanted, instead of broad cloths, which were wanted.”[49] They are, further, gravely assured, that if they find any difficulty in exchanging what they have produced, for what they wish to obtain for it, “they have an obvious resource at hand; they can abandon the production of the commodities which they do not want, and apply themselves directly to the production of those that they _do_ want, or of substitutes for them;”[50] and this consolatory recommendation is perhaps addressed to a merchant who is desirous of obtaining, by the employment of his capital at the ordinary rate of profits, such an income as will enable him to get a governess for his daughters, and to send his boys to school and college.