These, and many such like instances, seem to us contrary to the usual progress of real knowledge.The experience of what true science is, has accustomed us to expect that in this, as in other branches of inquiry, the farther we advance the larger and larger a compass 'of undeniable facts should present themselves, that we should be able more and more evidently to connect phenomena, that seemed at first disjointed and isolated, and that, the indistinctness of distance being removed, truth should stand clearly before us.Deceived in our anticipations, we feel like travellers who find.the straight and well-beaten path on which they entered, becoming more devious and faint the farther they journey, leaving the habitations of men, and leading to barren and dangerous wastes.Though we can trace no error, we begin to suspect that there is one, and that somehow or other, we have taken the wrong direction.
Dugald Stewart has a remark on the abstract philosophy of David Hume, that seems not inapplicable to this, so termed, abstract science.It is well known, that that skeptical philosopher deduced, pretty clearly, from Mr.Lock's principles, that the human mind was a mere bundle of sensations.
the professor observes, that, before any formal refutation of the doctrine appeared, it might have been sufficient answer to it, that it was so contrary to the experience of ever}, one, as to make it more reasonable to suppose an error, either in the premises or deduction, though that error might not be discoverable, than to believe that the metaphysicians were right, all the rest of mankind wrong.Such an answer is, I suspect, that which is now present to the minds of very many, in regard to the strange dogmas of the prevailing school of political economy.They regard them as a sort of practical demonstratio ad absurdum of some fundamental fallacy in the science.
Reasoning from Adam Smith's principles, his followers, in more than one instance, bare arrived at conclusions differing considerably from his.
He looked on parsimony as the great generator of wealth; they rather hold an opinion similar to that of Mandeville, that to consume largely is an essential part of the process, consumption and rcproduc6on being represented by them as the two springs, by the rapid play of which the general prosperity is advanced.The doctrine, as it has been maintained; has the advantage or disadvantage of being somewhat paradoxical; but omitting the consideration of this circumstance, it is worth while to examine whether or not, when applied to practice, it has brought about the anticipated results.Of the many instances that might be produced of events of this class turning out contrary to the predictions of the votaries of the science, I select one from the "Cours d'Economie Politique" of Mr.Storch, a work which, according to Mr.Macculloch, stands at the head of all those on Political Economy ever imported from the continent into England.
That author brings forward Ireland, as an example of great prosperity, and very rapid progress in wealth, in consequence of that nation following the rules of the system."The sudden and prodigious increase," he observes, "which took place in the consumption of spirituous liquors, sugar and tea, soon after the union, is the more remarkable, from its having occurred at a time when these commodities were charged with additional duties, that in any other country would have been equivalent to an absolute prohibition.
"To date from the union, the consumption of wine has augmented by half;and yet the consumers, to buy half more than they formerly did, are obliged to pay three times the price.As for rum, and other foreign spirits, although the duties have been doubled, the consumption has increased eightfold.
"The importation of tea has risen, since the union, from 2,260,600 pounds to 3,706,771.The amount of sugar purchased has risen from 211,209 hundred weight to 447,404, so that Ireland consumes more of that nourishing, agreeable, and healthy commodity, than both Russia and France conjoined.In short, an examination of the table of importations of Ireland shows that, with the exception of a small number of articles, the additional consumption of those commodities, the production of other countries, of which the increasing demand most marks the growing riches of a people, has equalled, or rather surpassed the whole consumption before the union.The facts which we have thus analyzed," be continues, "present a statistical picture altogether singular, and such as the most flourishing colonies have never furnished.
It is true that, by this prodigious increase of importations, the purchases of the people of Ireland have increased in a greater ratio than their sales;but this circumstance, which would spread alarm among most other nations, is regarded in Great Britain as a symptom of prosperity, I know nothing more calculated to show how much those continental governments are deceived, who see only objects of alarm in observing the increase of importations.
