ii 
PREFACE. 
lusion which has formerly misled, to trace 
the process of error, to mark the particular 
point where inquiry departed from the right 
path, or where the unperceived fallacy, which 
has vitiated a train of reasoning, first insinuated 
itself into the argument. The science cannot 
yet be exhibited as a regular and perfect 
structure. The rubbish must be removed, the 
ground cleared, the scaffolding taken down, 
and all unnecessary and cumbrous appendages 
must be discarded, before the building can rise 
upon the eye in that simple beauty in which it 
is destined hereafter to appear. 
The writer, on whose doctrines the following 
treatise principally animadverts, is generally 
regarded as the ablest economist of his day. 
It has been unfortunate, perhaps, for Mr. Ri- 
cardo’s ultimate reputation, and certainly for 
the science which he cultivated, that his ad- 
mirers have extolled him beyond the sobriety