It is sad, again, to see thousands of persons trying to improve their positions by means which have just the opposite effect, I mean by strikes, by refusing to use machinery, and by trying, in various ways, to resist the production of wealth. Working men have made a political economy of their own: they want to make themselves rich by taking care not to produce too much riches. They, again, see an immediate effect of what they do, but they do not see what happens as the after result. It is the same with the question of Free Trade. In England we have at length learned the wisdom of leaving commerce free. In other countries, and even in the Australian Colonies, laws are yet passed to make people richer by preventing them from using the abundant products of other lands. People actually refuse to see that wealth must be increased by producing it where it can be produced most easily and plentifully. Each trade, each town, each nation must furnish what it can yield most cheaply, and other goods must be bought from the places where they also can be raised most easily. Political economy teaches us to look beyond the immediate effect of what we do, and to seek the good of the whole community, and even of the whole of mankind. The present prosperity of England is greatly due to the science which Adam Smith gave to the world in his "Wealth of Nations." He taught us the value of #Free Labour and Free Trade#, and now, a hundred years after the publication of his great book, there ought not to be so many mistaken people vainly acting in opposition to his lessons. It is certain that #if people do not understand a true political economy, they will make a false one of their own#. Hence the imperative need that no one, neither man nor woman, should grow up without acquiring some comprehension of the science which we are going to study. #3. Divisions of the Science.# I will begin by stating the order in which the several branches or divisions of the science of economy are to be considered in this little treatise. Firstly, we must learn what wealth, the subject of the science, consists of. Secondly, we proceed to inquire how wealth is used or consumed; nothing, we shall see, can be wealth, unless it be put to some use, and before we make wealth we must know what we want to use. Thirdly, we can go on to consider how wealth is produced or brought into existence; and how, in the fourth place, having been produced, it is shared among the different classes of people who have had a hand in producing it. Briefly, we may say that political economy treats of (1) #The Nature#, (2) #The Consumption#, (3) #The Production#, and (4) #The Distribution of Wealth#. It will also be necessary to say a little about #Taxation#. A part of the wealth of every country must be taken by the government, in order to pay the expenses of defending and governing the nation. But taxation may come, perhaps, under the head of distribution.