§ 12 

The second reason is this: that no Statesman is yet found capable of stating positively which trade will give us the greatest National gain, and consequently the Legislator must remain irresolute as to what goal he should guide our workmen to by his laws.

Who could be so stupid, someone will probably think, as not to know this? I assure you that it is not so easy as people imagine. Many who have troubled to think about these matters may have laid down a System and put every trade in order of precedence, but if we compare these Systems with those of others, we shall notice what differences there are between them.

I think that mine is certainly the best, but observing that everybody thinks the same of his, one must, like a sensible being, doubt everything until the matter is fully proved.

M. says that agriculture is the best; E. S. that this honour belongs to handicrafts; 0. R. proves that it is commerce; A. G. that the Country must be helped by our ironworks, which are the source of its chief Exports, and so on. Who of all these is right?

They are all of them enlightened and scrupulous men, and they also enjoy the confidence of their fellow-citizens, and still it will be a long time before this dispute is settled. What trade, however, should the Government consider the most useful, and to which should they lead the population to the gain of the Nation? Or can mistakes be avoided in such circumstances?

However, if this controversy were quite settled, and a Statute were issued that should guide the people to the most profitable trade, I wonder if the Legislator would be capable of saying how many thousands of people could, now, work in it to the gain of the Nation, and that the same Statute would have the desired effect during so and so many years. It might happen only too soon that people would be drawn from other trades, and produce in this one a superabundance of goods, which consequently might lose their value abroad and result in an appreciable loss to the Nation.