[356:1] It was in the most aristocratic quarters that these innovating doctrines were best received; for in them was the greatest amount of education, and its influence was not at that time paralyzed by general prejudices against innovation. They were more in favour with the Tories than with the Whigs. Indeed, Archdeacon Tucker, one of the boldest speculators on the economy of trade, was in state politics one of the most uncompromising Tories of his age. Fox, on the other hand, said of the "Wealth of Nations," that "there was something in all these subjects which passed his comprehension, something so wide that he could never embrace them himself, or find any one who did." But in the French treaty, and in other measures regarding trade, Pitt was in the fair way of putting them into legislative practice, when, being arrested by the French revolution, he entertained thenceforward a bitter enmity of innovation; an enmity to which, in the department of political economy, his party became the heirs, preserving the succession down nearly to the present day, when, at least by their leader, old prejudices have been already in a great measure, and are likely soon to be altogether repudiated. [357:1] P. 126. [358:1] It is not intended to be maintained that Hume's Political Economy is immaculate, but merely that in the majority of instances he has fixed certain truths which later inquiries have not shaken. The following passage, along with much that is received as true doctrine, contains some observations, such as those on the tax on German linen, and on brandy, which modern economists would pronounce to be heterodox. The question of a gold or a paper currency was one which Hume did not profess to decide. He described with considerable impartiality the advantages and the disadvantages of both mediums of exchange. "From these principles we may learn what judgment we ought to form of those numberless bars, obstructions, and imposts, which all nations of Europe, and none more than England, have put upon trade, from an exorbitant desire of amassing money, which never will heap up beyond its level, while it circulates; or from an ill-grounded apprehension of losing their specie, which never will sink below it. Could any thing scatter our riches, it would be such impolitic contrivances. But this general ill effect, however, results from them, that they deprive neighbouring nations of that free communication and exchange which the Author of the world has intended, by giving them soils, climates, and geniuses, so different from each other. "Our modern politics embrace the only method of banishing money, the using of paper credit; they reject the only method of amassing it, the practice of hoarding; and they adopt a hundred contrivances, which serve to no purpose but to check industry, and rob ourselves and our neighbours of the common benefits of art and nature.