XXIV 
PREFACE. 
of this nature. With the Templars’ Dialogues 
on Political Economy, probably fewer are ac- 
quainted, from the form in which they came be- 
fore the public; and on this account, as well as 
from their state of incompleteness, they would 
not have occupied so many of the ensuing pages, 
had not the writer of the present work regarded 
them as an exposition of several of Mr. Ri- 
cardo’s principles, peculiarly adapted to try their 
validity. 
Adopting Mr. Ricardo’s doctrines, the author 
of the Dialogues traces them fearlessly to their 
legitimate consequences, with a directness of 
logical deduction which nothing diverts; with 
great copiousness and felicity of illustration, 
great dexterity in putting forward the different 
parts of his theme, and an occasional humour, 
which even on a subject of this kind is irresis- 
tible. It must be obvious that a work of this 
character, pressing intrepidly forward from the