XXIV

PREFACE.

of this nature. With the Templars’ Dialogues
on Political Economy, probably fewer are acquainted,
 from the form in which they came before
 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. Ricardo’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 irresistible.
 It must be obvious that a work of this
character, pressing intrepidly forward from the