To supply this deficiency, abilities are required of a far superior cast to any possessed by the writer of the following pages; yet after having given to this subject his best consideration--after the aid which he has derived from the works of the above-mentioned eminent writers--and after the valuable experience which a few late years, abounding in facts, have yielded to the present generation--it will not, he trusts, be deemed presumptuous in him to state his opinions on the laws of profits and wages, and on the operation of taxes. If the principles which he deems correct should be found to be so, it will be for others more able than himself to trace them to all their important consequences. The writer, in combating received opinions, has found it necessary to advert more particularly to those passages in the writings of Adam Smith from which he sees reason to differ; but he hopes it will not on that account be suspected that he does not, in common with all those who acknowledge the importance of the science of Political Economy, participate in the admiration which the profound work of this celebrated author so justly excites. The same remark may be applied to the excellent works of M. Say, who not only was the first, or among the first, of continental writers, who justly appreciated and applied the principles of Smith, and who has done more than all other continental writers taken together, to recommend the principles of that enlightened and beneficial system to the nations of Europe; but who has succeeded in placing the science in a more logical, and more instructive order; and has enriched it by several discussions, original, accurate, and profound.[1] The respect, however, which the author entertains for the writings of this gentleman, has not prevented him from commenting with that freedom which he thinks the interests of science require, on such passages of the "Economie Politique," as appeared at variance with his own ideas. CONTENTS. CHAP. Page I. _On Value_ 1 II. _On Rent_ 49 III. _On the Rent of Mines_ 77 IV. _On Natural and Market Price_ 82 V. _On Wages_ 90 V*. _On Profits_ 116 VI. _On Foreign Trade_ 146 VII. _On Taxes_ 186 VIII. _Taxes on Raw Produce_ 194 VIII*. _Taxes on Rent_ 221 IX. _Tithes_ 225 X. _Land-Tax_ 232