The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-05 00:00:00

POLITICAL ECONOMY-

The Rev. John Dufton, M.A., rector of Warehome,
Kent, whose excellent introductory lecture, delivered to
the members of the Ashford Mechanics' Institution in
March last, we had the pleasure of noticing in these
columns, has, we rejoice to perceive, again been directing
his mental energies to the noble task of imparting gra-
tuitous instruction to his fellow-men ; and the result is
a lecture, which, preceding as it does from the incum-
bent of an obscure Kentish village, would yet, from the
soundness- of its principles and lucid exposition of its
theories, bring honour to the most enlightened philoso-
pher of our refined and intellectual metropolis. Tie:
subject of Mr. Dufton's lecture is the "Art and Science
of Political Economy," than which a more interesting or
more useful study, at the present juncture, cannot pos-
sibly be urged upon public attention. if we would have
men arrive at right conclusions, we must first imbue
them with right notions, and give them right views.
Raillery acid ridicule may now and then accomplish cur
purpose. Powerful arguments, addressed to some par-
ticular object, may sometimes produce the desired effect.
But the great end to be aimed at is to imbue the minds
of the people with general sound principles, the applica-
tion of which shall be invariable in all cases ; and there
never was a period when it was more important that the
science and application of political economy should be
universally understood and appreciated by our fellow-
countrymen, and fellow-creatures at large, than the pre-
sent. We can only say we heartily wish we had amongst
us more shrewd, clearheaded, men of the North, like the
author of this lecture, to disperse the prejudices and
ignorance of our southern provinces. We would gladly,
if our space permitted, present our readers with copious
extracts from Mr. Dufton's lecture, but we are compelled
to confine ourselves to a brief and simple outline. For
many, the very words " Political Economy" possess an
alarming sound. It is an association of somewhat in-
congruous terms which they do not comprehend, so they
fancy they must mean treason, revolution, and innova-
tion. Mr. Dufton, therefore, prudently. commences
by defining political economy, as the science which
treats of the production, distribution, and consumption of
wealth ; or otherwise, as the " Science of Exchanges ;"
or the " Philosophy of Commerce." He then notices vari-
ous objections advanced against this science, and proves
that wealth, of which it treats, has no more necessary
connexion with the vice of covetousness, than with the
virtue of charity. The superiority of science over the
unaided common sense of the judicious man, or the mere
experience of the practical man, is next decidedly esta-
blished, in order to justify the application of scientific
rules even to such a subject as the sources and distribu-
tion of wealth. After a while we find the studies of the
theologian exercising a graceful influence over the mind
of the political economist. He contemplates the mar-
vellous pbenomena connected with man as a rational
agent, and as a member of society—the wonderful har-
mony subsisting betwixt private interests and public
good, and the astonished, undesigned, and unconscious
co-operation of thousands of disconnected beings for
some one important object—such, for instance, as the
victualling of a large city—and in all these things he
discovers proofs, of Divine wisdom, and of an all-di-
recting Providence, as strikingly displayed as in the
organic 'structure of the human body, or in the glorious
works of creation. Again, the theologian comes to the
assistance of the political, economist, and shows satis-
factorily that the progress of national wealth, and ad•
vancement of civilisation, are perfectly consistent with
the. moral improvement of mankind ; for the chief im-
pediments of this progress, and hindrances of this ad-
vancement, are the very things which God has either
expressly forbidden, or the opposite of what he hath
expressly enjoined. Such are wars, violence, insurrec-
tions, invasion of property, fraud, and indolence. And
therefore the theologian justly argues that results, inva-
riably springing out of compliance with God's laws,
cannot but be favourable to morality and virtue. In
conclusion, he repudiates the absurd doctrine that rural
ignorance must of necessity be associated with purity of
morals, and that vice is the noxious exhalation of
thronged cities and crowded workshops ; whilst he
powerfully demonstrates the humanising tendency of
commerce betwixt different nations, inasmuch as, by
making them mutually dependent upon each other, it
enlists self-interest on the side of peace, harmony, and
civilisation. •
We think we remember to have met with a specimen
of that particular genus of which Mr. Dufton speaks,
as "not only thinking, but wishing to think, that a con-
dition little removed from the savage state—one of
Ignorance, grossness, and poverty—unenlightened, semi-
barbarous, and stationary, is the most favourabie to
virtue." Ho was a country squire, a keen rider, and
unerring shot. But he stuck to flint and steel, and
rejected percussion-caps as an innovation. He refused
to drain his estates—not so his tenants' pockets. He
preferred peat and wood for his fires, with all their dust
and dirt, to good coal. Be ridiculed the idea of teaching
the poor to read and write, with Jack Cade, deeming it
enough for an honest plain-dealing man to have a mark
to himself. Ho anathematised railways, for they had
spoiled his hunting. And the last time we heardof him
he wastposting at the cost of two shillings per mile, and
at the rate-of nine miles an hour, when he might have
occupied 'a' comfortable first-class carriage for three-
pence per mile, and have travelled at the rate of twenty-
five miles an hour. Well, the genus is almost extinct.
It has always shunned the bright glare of towns, and
sought shelter in the deep seclusion of sequestered vales.
Now, alas, railways and meohanics' institutions, are
breaking up even these last retreats. Proud ignorance
must soon seek a homo elsewhere than in populous Eng-
land. Nor are any doing more to render this curious
genus a matter of past history, than men who, like Mr.
Dufton, in some comparatively limited and obscure
sphere, bring forth, for the edification of their own
neighbourhood, stores of knowledge which would do
credit to any station, however elevated.
. . _

We cannot quit this eloquent and admirable lecture
without expressing-. a hope that it also, like the former
one, is only introductory ; and that the lecturer, having
displayed to his hearers the open portal and inviting path,
will ere long guide them into the interior of the temple
of philosophy.