much acquaintance with the commonest writings upon it. We will take upon ourselves to affirm that not only some, but almost all the writers against the Corn Laws, have advocated, and do advocate, a perfectly free trade in corn. From Adam Smith to the author of the tract which we have prefixed to this article, they have universally represented any tax on the necessaries of life as among the most impolitic and injurious of all modes of taxation,"
J. S. Mill thus proceeds:—
"We have thus far omitted to notice the little tract at the head of the present article, not because it was not highly deserving of our attention, but because we were desirous, in the first place, to express our sentiments on the subject of immediate interest, the present state of the corn question. The author (who signs himself T. Perronet Thompson[1] ) has
- ↑ There is a long note to the article at this place from which it appears that when he wrote this article J. S. Mill knew nothing more of the author of the "Catechism on the Corn Laws" than was to be learnt from the signature at the end of the Preface, "T. Perronet Thompson, Queens' College, Cambridge."
The note is so important that I will quote here part of it, which explains that if political economists generally have possessed the qualities of vigour and lucidity of mind, it could not be said of them, as has been said of J. S. Mill, that "the vigour and lucidity of the understanding are mirrored in the style." The note runs thus:—
"Mr. Thompson has published another pamphlet, entituled 'An Exposition of Fallacies on Rent, Tithes,' &c., which has
