HBIGL Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1840, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. ADVERTISEMENT. THIS Volume consists of four parts. The first part, entitled Preliminary Chapter, discusses the Object, Uses, and History of Political Economy. The second part is an exposition of the fundamental principles of the science, in connexion with various questions of practical interest. The third part, or Supplementary Chapter, is a special application of these principles to the condition of labouring men in the United States. The fourth part is a brief Summary of the same principles for convenient reference, and especially for the use of students in seminaries of learning. The second part is substantially a reprint of the first ten chapters of Scrope's Political Economy, a work published in England in 1833 by G. Poulett Scrope, Esq., a member of the House of Commons, and well known in his own country as an able writer on Currency, Taxation, &c. In adopting that portion of the work which contains the elements of the science, it was found necessary to abridge a few chapters, to enlarge others, and to modify various statements of the author, in order either to adapt them to the meridian of this country, or to make them more consonant with the ed. itor's views of truth. So many alterations of this kind have been hazarded, that they could not, without inconvenience, nor without some appearance of pedantry, be specified in notes; and hence the alternative has been taken of issuing the work without the name of Mr. Scrope in the title-page, that he may not be held responsible for doctrines which he does not teach. Wherever it has been found expedient, instead of altering the text, to add a note, that course has been adopted, and the note designated by the abbreviation (Ed.). The three remaining parts of the volume are from the pen of the editor. Two objects have been kept in view in preparing this work: first, to provide a treatise for general readers, adapted to the times, and especially to the wants of our country, which should not be encumbered unnecessarily with controversial matter or with abstract discussions; secondly, to furnish a cheap and convenient manual for seminaries, in which larger and more expensive text-books could not well be used, or in which it might be thought desirable to confine the student's attention to such doctrines as are best established and most generally useful. This volume will probably be followed by an |