POLITICAL ECONOMY.
[In giving place to the following well written article from a practised hand, we by no means intend committing ourselves to the opinions it so zealously upholds. But, a periodical like this would be essentially defective in its plan, if it did not afford facilities for disseminating information, upon questions of great and growing interest, without identifying itself with partisan publications of either side; and we shall be happy, in the existing curiosity upon the subject of Political Economy, to contribute all in our power toward arriving at sound principles, by inviting those skilled in The New Science, to unfold their different views in our pages. In availing themselves of the offer, however, so circumscribed are our limits, that brevity must be kept continually in view, by writers, however able—Ed. Knickerbacker.]
In February, 1830, Sir Henry Parnell, one of the most influential members of the British Parliament, published the first edition of his work on "Financial Reform." It is an excellent synopsis of the most approved doctrines of political economy, in practical adaptation to the affairs of Great Britain, and has produced, in the course of the four editions through which it has passed, a decided effect, with important changes, upon the legislation of that country. In France too, a result of the remarks it contains upon foreign commerce, has been the institution, in concert with Great Britain, of an inquiry still going on at Paris, into the means of removing the obstacles which fetter the trade between the two countries; and a pamphlet,[1] upon which we are about to comment, was published at Paris, to point out to the commissioners acting in the matter, the principles upon which the customs duties ought to be adjusted reciprocally.
In these "observations," as well as in his principal work, the author has advanced propositions bold, sweeping, and calculated to startle most readers even on this side of the Atlantic. They belong, however, to intellectual liberty, and form but a part of that grand system of reform on which the British nation has now fairly embarked. That they should be cordially inculcated here, with others reaching even further, is merely their due, and our duty, and yet it may be that they will be greeted with ridicule, which is not the test of truth, and by denunciation which cannot fix the standard of merit, instead of frank investigation, and liberal discussion. He who, in influencing the press, timidly, or sordidly, from bigotry, or prejudice, warps its channels, or stifles argument, is, negatively at least, an enemy to the welfare of his species. Certainly,
- ↑ "Observations on the Commercial Intercourse between France and England. By Sir Henry Parnell, Bart. M. P. Paris, 1831."
