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| Monday. March. 28. 1763— - Adam Smith, Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence Vol. 5 Lectures On Jurisprudence [1762]

Edition used:

Lectures On Jurisprudence, ed. R.. L. Meek, D. D. Raphael and P. G. Stein, vol. V of the Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982).

Part of: The Glasgow Edition of the Works and Correspondence of Adam Smith, 7 vols.

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Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


| Monday. March. 28. 1763—

In the first of these lectures it was observed that the object of all laws in a state is either 1st, the administration of Justice in its severall parts, public or private; or 2dly, the Police of the country; or 3dly, Arms, which comprehends the state of the military force at home, that is, the management of the militias and standing army and also the manner in which these are employed, under which the laws of peace and war come to be considered. We come now to

POLICE—

Police, the word, has been borrowed by the English immediately from the French, tho it is originally derived from the Greek πολιτεια signifying policy, politicks, or the regulation of a government in generall. It is now however generally confind to the regulation of the inferior parts of it. It comprehends in generall three things: the attention paid by the public to the cleanlyness of the roads, streets, etc; 2d, security; and thirdly, cheapness or plenty, which is the | constant source of it. When Mr. Lamonion1 was constituted Intendant of Paris he was told by the officers that the king required three things of him, that he was to provide for the neteté, surete, and bon marché in the city.— The two former of these are of too mean a nature, tho no doubt of considerable importance, to be the subject of a lecture.z The neteté of a country regards the regulations made in order to preserv<e> cleanlyness of the roads, streets, etc. and prevent the bad effects of corrupting and putrifying substances. This could never be treated of in this place. The security of the people is the object of the second branch of police, that is, the preventing all crimes and disturbances which may interrupt the intercourse or destroy the peace of the society by any violent attacks. In generall the best means of bringing about this desirable end is the rigorous, severe, and exemplary execution of laws properly formd for the prevention of crimes and establishing the peace of the state.— Other methods are sometimes more directly taken for this purpose— | more immediately striking at the injurious persons. Of this there is a great deal in the French towns. Every one has a marche possé or town guard who patrole in the streets and by that means intimidate villains from attempting any crimes and make the escape of a murder<er> or robbera more difficult, and also give their assistance at the extinguishing of fires or other hazardous accidents. This also, considering chiefly the proper regulations and form of town guards, is a subject too mean and too minute for our consideration.

We shall only observe on this head that those cities where the greatest police is exercised are not those which enjoy the greatest security. London isb the largest city in Europe, at least largerc by a third than Paris, and should therefore stand the more in need of regulations of this sort. But we find that in Paris great care is taken in this way. The collection of the statutes on this head made by De La Marre2 makes four large folios, tho he went thro but a small part of the plan, so that the police there is a very burthensome part of the law, and which can be thoroughly | understood by those only who are employed in the severall offices and courts regarding it, whereas all the statutes made concerning the police of London could be read in an hour or two. We see indeed that there is much more occasion for it: hardly a night passes in Paris without a murther or a robbery in the streets, whereas in London there are not above 3, 4, or 5 murthers in a whole year.— One should think from this that the more of police there was in any country the less was the security; but the case is that where the greatest need is, there the greatest care is taken in this manner[s]. The nature of the manner<s> of the people and their different manner of life occasions a vast difference in this respect. In generall we may observe that the disorders in any country are more or less according to the number of retainers and dependents in it. I took notice of the great disorders and confusion of the feudall governments, which in a great measur<e> proceeded from the numbers of retaints3 and dependents amongst them, who, being accustomed to live in ease and luxury about their patrons house, had no way to | support themselves but by rapine and violence.— We see that by the accounts collected by Mr. David Hume in Blank in MS.4 vol. of his history, in Queen Elizabeths time when the feudall government was in a declining state there were more murders committed in the kingdom within a year than we can have any notion of; and the same we see from a register of those in one county. In like manner the disorders in France seem to be owing to the vast number of servants which it is fashionable for the great to maintain. The number is indeed much less than that of the retainersd was 150 years ago, but is far greater than that in England, as the spirit of the feudall government is not so intirely abolished as it is here. These servants, being frequently turned off for misdemeanours and therefore without any recommendation, are the most helpless set of men imaginable. Their idle and luxuri<ou>s life in ease and plenty when with their masters renders them altogether depraved both in mind and body, so that they neither are willing nor able to support themselves by work, and have no way to live by but | by crimes and vices. We see too that in this town (Glasgow), where each one seldom has above one man servant, there are few or no capitall crimes committed, and those that are, most commonly by strangers; whereas at Edinburgh, where the resort of the nobility and gentry draws together a vast number of servants who are frequently set adrift by their masters, there are severall every year. Upon the whole it is the custom of having many retainers and dependents which is the great source of all the disorders and confusion in some cities; and we may also affirm thate it is not so much the regulations of the police which preserves the security of a nation as the custom of having in it as few servants and dependents as possible. Nothing tends so much to corrupt and enervate and debase the mind as dependency, and nothing gives such noble and generous notions of probity as freedom and independency. Commerce is one great preventive of this custom. The manufactures give the poorer sort better wages than any master can afford; besides, it give<s> the rich an op|portunity of spending their fortunes with fewer servants, which they never fail of embracing. Hence it is that the common people of England who are alltogether free and independent are the honestest of their rank any where to be met with. The gentry and nobility of France are no doubt as good a set of men as those of England or other countries, but the commonalty as being more subjected are much less honest and fair in their dealings. The gentry of Scotland are no worse than those of England, but the common people being considerably more oppressed have much less of probity, liberality, [and] and amiable qualitiesf in their tempers than those of England.

The third thing which is the object of police is the proper means of introducing plenty and abundance into the country, that is, the cheapness of goods of all sorts. For these terms plenty and cheapness are in a manner synonimous, as cheapness is a nec<e>ssary consequence of plenty. Thus | we see that water,g which is absolutely necessary for the support of mankind, by its abundance costs nothing but the uptaking, whereas diamonds and other jewels, of which one can hardly say what they serve for, give an immen<s>e price.5 In order to consider the means proper to produce opulence it will be proper to consider what opulence and plenty consist in, or what are those things which ought to abound in a nation. To this it will also be previouslyh necessary to consider what are the naturall wants and demands of mankind. Man has received from the bounty of nature reason and ingenuity, art, contrivan<c>e, and capacity of improvement far superior to that which she has bestowed on any of the other animalls, but is at the same time in a much more helpless andi destitute condition with regard to the support and comfort of his life.6 All other animalls find their food in the state they desire it, and that which is best suited to their severall natures, and few other necessaries do they stand in need of.— | But man, of a more delicate frame and more feeble constitution, meet<s> with nothing so adapted to his use that it does not stand in need of improvement and preparation to fit it for his use. All other animalls are content with their food in the state it is producd by nature, and have no conception that it would be improved by cookery or rendered more agreable or more nourishing by a sauce. It appears indeed from the practise of some savage nations that the human stomach can digest food in its naturall and unprepared state, and that too even of the animall kind; but this does not seem to be the way most agreable or beneficial to him. As soon as he applies fire to the preparation of his food he finds the beneficial effects of the change it produces. The food thus prepared he soon relishes as more agreable, and finds by experience that it more easily submits to the operation of his feeble and puny stomach than the coarse and unprepared, which at first after this he disrelishes and afterwards looks upon as loathsome. For we see that tho the stomachs of savage<s> | can make a shift to conquer a quantity of undressed victualls, they are not at all so adapted for it. Diseases arising from indigestion and crudities are nowhere so frequent as amongst the savage nations, and we are surprised to find melancholy and hypochondriack disorders more prevalent amongst them than any where else. Want of air, exercise, and labour to carry of<f> superfluous humours can not be the cause of it amongst them, as they are here. The only reason that can be assigned for them is the effects of raw, unprepared, and indigestible foods.

The naturall temperature of the air is altogether adapted to the condition of the other animalls, who seem to feel very little inconvenience from the severall vicissitudes of the weather. But even this soft and subtl<e> fluid is too severe for his tender and delicate frame. One should imagine that this subtle and fleeting element would not submit to any change from his hands, but hej even forms to himself around his body a sort of a new atmosphere, more soft, warm, | and comfortable than that of the common circumambient air. For this purpose he furnishes himself with cloaths which he wraps round his body, and builds himself a house to extend this atmosphere to some greater distance around him. These are contrivances which none of the other animalls perceive the need of, but men can hardly subsist without them. Even those who live in a country where the benign influence of the sun makes it unnecessary to defend their bodies against the chillness of the air such as is found in other countries, are necessitated to use other preventives, without which the heat would crack their tender skins and render them incapable of supporting the winds and rains. For this they anoint and soften their skins with oil and grease, and stain their skins with various dies which as it were tann them and render them callous and able to endure the scorching sun, the piercing winds, and the chill, battering rain. But these necessities can be supplied without great difficulty | in some tollerable manner and by the industry of each individuall. The savages who do not apply themselves to different trades can each of them supply themselves with food, with cloaths, and with lodging. The fruits of the earth spontaneously produced, with the flesh of the animalls he takes by the chase, supply him with food which he can easily prepare. A few skins, stitched perhaps together with a few thongs of the same, supply him with raiment, and a few poles stuck in the ground and covered over with skins or matts afford him a shelter in the night or in the inclemencies of the weather.— The same temper and inclinations which prompted him to make these improvements push him to still greater refinements. This way of life appearsk rude and slovenly and can no longer satisfy him; he seeks after more elegant nicities and refinement.— Man alone of all animalls | on this globe is the only one who regards the differences of things which no way affect their real substance or give them no superior advantage in supplying the wants of nature. Even colour, the most flimsy and superficiall of all distinctions, becomes an object of his regard. Hence it is that diamonds, rubys, saphires, emerallds and other jewels have at all times been distinguished from the more7 peb<b>les of less splendid hues. Figure also is a distinction which is of no small weight in directing the choice of man in many of his pursuits. A sort of uniformity mixd at the same time with a certain degree of variety gives him a certain pleasure,8 as we see in the construction of a house or building which pleases when neither dully uniform nor its parts altogether angular. When the parts of the figure bear a certain proportion to one an other without any breaks <?or> gaps this is also pleasing; and lastly, we find a pleasure in beholding an object which to these adds that other quality of being easily and distinctly comprehended on the first sight.9 From the 1st of these arises the preference give to Gap of one line in MS. From the 2d it is that the gentle bendings of curvilineall figures are generall<y> prefer[e]red to [to] the abrupt and irregular angles of some, and almost all righttened ones. From the 3d it is that the constantly varying direction of the circle, which at the same time is [at the same time] allways similar and easily conceived, is preferred to the morel varied figures of the elipse, parabola, and hyperbola, and the Archimedean spirall, which last far exceeds it in variety, as it is more easily conceved than these, whose nature can not at first sight be understood. Hence also it is that polygons of above 8 sides are never admitted into architecture, as they are either not at all comprehended or put one to the trouble of counting.— Imitation also greatly attracts the attention, and that when it is altogether disjoined from the other sources of liking.m Of this we have a remarkable example in the Dutch paintings which please merely by the resemblance they have to other objects, tho these objects be | in themselves no ways beautiful.10 A picture of a dunghill or a flitch of bacon will catch our eye, and be very agreable; we wonder how the variations of the tints and stains of the colours can represent the risings and fallings, the protuberances and the inequalities of those solid bodies, when laid on a board altogether smooth and plain.—n Rarity also gives a preference to things otherwise equall, and makes things of no value be considerably esteemed. Tis from this principally that the gems get their value; the preparations of paste or glass which are now made in Europe come in a very small degree short of the real ones but are far less valued. We are told likewise that the savage nations to which they have been given in barter for reall ones of less size, run off as soon as they have receiv’d them, highlly pleased with the exchange but affraid least the Europeans should endeavour again to recover them. Hence pinchbeck, which equalls gold in its colour, is noways so highly esteemed; and that preparation of tin and other metalls which | ino England goes by the name of French plate is noways esteemed, tho it comes little short of the splendor of silver.

These four distinctions of colour, form, variety or rarity, and imitation seem to be the foundation of all the minute and, to more thoughtfull persons, frivolous distinctions and preferenc<e>s in things otherwise equall, which give in the pursuit more distress and uneasieness to mankind than all the others, and to gratify which a thousand arts have been invented. {And whose prosecution leads men into customs with regard to food, cloathing, and lodging which have no relation to convenience and are often conterary to the ends proposed to be supplied by thosep things, which makes us dress and eat and lodge in a way not always adapted to ease, health and conveniency, and warmth.—} Indeed to supply the wants of meat, drink, cloathing, and lodging allmost the whole of the arts and sciences have been invented and improved.— Agriculture multiplies the materialls on which the severall artificeres are imployed, butq chiefly those things which are fit for food as of these their is the greatest consumption. The forrest supplies us with [with] trees and planks for building, and from the plain we have wool, flax, cotton, and by the cultivation of the mu<l>berry tree, silk for cloathing, besides indigo, woad, madder, and 100 other plants employed in dying the above substances.— It would be impossible to enumerate all the artists who join their labours in improving on these ori|ginall productions and prepare them for use. The butcher, the miller, the baker, the brewer, the cook, the confectioner, etc., etc., etc., etc. all give their labour to prepare the various products of the earth for food to man. How many artists are employed to prepare those things with which the shops of the uphorsterrer, the draper, the mercer and cloth–seller <?>, to clip the wool, pick it, sort it, spin, comb,r twist, weave, scour, dye, etc. the wool, and a hundred other operators engaged on each different commodities? How many artists concur to furnish the various commodities to be met with in the grocers, chiefly for the food of man. The carpenter, the wright, the carver in wood, etc. all contribute their aids allong with the mason, bricklayer, et<c>. to build or to furnish our dwellings. The artificers in brass and iron, copper, etc. all bestow their labour in preparing household utensils of various sorts or tools for the other artificers. Commerce and traffick and all the arts of the ship builder, etc., etc., and the mariner and the | assiduous industry of the merchant, tend to the same end. They import into one country the supperfluities of another in food and raiment, carrying out in return others of the same sort in which they abound.—Geometry, arithmetick, and writing have all been invented originally to facilitate the operation of the severall arts. Writing and arithmetick have been invented to record and set in a clear light the severall transactions of the merchant and trades man, and geometry has been originally invented (either to measure out the earth and divide it amongst the inhabitants or) to assist the workman in the fashioning of those pieces of art which require more accurate mensuration. All most all lawst and regulations tend t[t]o the encouragement of these arts, which provide for those things which <?we> look upon as the objects of the labour of the vulgar alone, meat, drink, and cloathing. Even law and government have these as their finall end and ultimate object. They give the inhabitants of the country liberty and security in the cultivate the11 | land which they possess in safety, and their benign influence gives room and opportunity for the improvement of all the various arts and sciences. They maintain the rich in the possession of their wea<l>th against the violence and rapacity of the poor, and by that means preserve that usefull inequality in the fortunes of mankind which naturally and necessarily arises from the various degrees of capacity, industry, and diligence in the different individualls. They protect the subjects against the danger of the unjust attacks of foreign incroaching enemies, and leave men at leisure to cultivate the arts, and give them room to pursue what is called the conveniencies of life. Even wisdom and virtue in all its branches derive their lustre and beauty with regard to utility merelyu from their tendency to provide for the security of mankind in these conveniencies. Laws and government are their principall business in a publick view, and their end must be the same in every individuall. Probity, honesty, and entegrity of dealing tend all to the main12 | of the severall persons, and encourage them by that means in their severall occupations. The superior wisdom of the good and knowing man directs others in the management of his affairs, and spurrs them on to imitate and emulate his industry and activity. Their valour protects them from the attacks of the foreign and the inroads of the domestick foes, and their generosity relieves us by their assistance when the schemes fail that have been laid for the attaining of these necessities and conveniencies of life. Nor can these virtues be ever more usefull to the state than when being put into practise they by example spur men on to the like industry. So that in a certain view of things all the arts, the science<s>, law and government, wisdom, and even virtue itself tend all to this one thing, the providing meat, drink, rayment, and lodging for men, which are commonly reckoned the meanest ofv employments and fit for the pursuit | of none but the lowest and meanest of the people. All the severall arts and businesses in life tend to render the conveniencies and necessaries of life more attainable.— We see accordingly that an ordinary day–laybourer, whom he false account13 to live in a most simple manner, has more of the conveniencies and luxuries of life than an Indian14 prince at the head of 1000 naked savages. His c<o>arse blue woolen coat has been the labour of perhaps 100 artificers, the shearer, the picker, the sorter, the comber, the spinner, etc. as well as the weaver and fuller whose loom and mill alone have more of art in them than all the things employed about the court of a savage prince; besides the ship which brought the dies and other materials together from distant regions, and all the workmen, wrights, carpenters, coopers,w smiths, etc. which have been employed to fit her out to sea and the hands which have navigated her.15 The iron tool with which he works, how many hands has it gone thro.— The miner, the quarrier, the breaker, | the smelter, the forger, the maker of the charcoall to smelt it,x the smith, etc. have had a hand in the forming it. How many have been required to furnish out the coarse linnen shirt which [which] he wears;16 they tanned and dressed–leather–shoes; his bed which he rest<s> in; the grate at which he dresses his victuals; the coals he burns, which have been brought by a long land sea carriage; his knivesz and forks; his plates of pewter or earthen ware; and the various workmen who have been necessary to prepare his bread, his beer, and other food; besides the glass of which his windows are composed, production <of> which required vast labour to bring it to itsa present perfection, which at the same time excludes the wind and rain and admittsb the light, a commodity without which this country would scarcely be habitable, at least by the present effeminate and puny set of mortals. So that to supply this poor labourer | about 1000 have given their joint assistance. He enjoys far greater convenience than an Indian prince, tho inferiorer indeed to <?that> of the princes or nobles of Europe, but far greater than the others. And perhaps the condition and ease of a prince does not [perhaps] so far exceed that of the labourer here describe<d>, as his does that of a savage chief. It may not indeed seem wonderful that the great man who has 1000 dependents and tenen[e]ts and servants who are oppressed that he may live in luzury and affluen<c>e, that the moneyd man and man of rank, should be so very affluent, when the [when the] merchant, the poor, and the needy all give their assistance to his support. It need not, I say, seem surprising that these should far exceed the greatest man amongst a whole tribe of savages. But that the poor day labourer or indigent farmer should be more at his ease, notwithstanding all | oppression and tyranny, should be more at his own ease than the savage, does not appear so probable. Amongst the savages there are no landlords nor usurers, no tax gather<er>s, so that every one has the full fruits of his own labours, and should therefore injoy the greatest abundan<c>e; but the case is far otherwise.— — — —

[1 ]Apparently M. d’Argenson; see p. 5 above.

[z]Replaces ‘nature’

[a]‘stil’ deleted

[b]‘one of’ deleted

[c]Numbers written above the last three words indicate that they were intended to read ‘larger at least’

[2 ]Nicolas de la Mare, Traité de la Police, où l’on trouvera l’histoire de son établissement, les fonctions et les prérogatives de ses magistrats, toutes les loix et tous les règlemens qui la concernent (Paris, 4 vol. folio, 1705–38).

[3 ]Sic. Obviously ‘retainers’ was intended. Cf. iv.157 ff. above.

[4 ]Blank in MS. Hume, History, IV.726–7.

[d]‘they had’ deleted

[e]‘the’ deleted

[f]The last three words replace ‘generality’

[g]‘one’ deleted

[5 ]For the contrast between the plentifulness and cheapness of water and the scarcity and dearness of diamonds see John Law, Money and Trade Considered (1705), I.4, and Harris, I.3.

[h]Numbers written above the last seven words indicate that they were intended to read ‘Previously to this it will also be’

[i]‘dependent’ deleted

[6 ]Cf. Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, III.ii.2 (ed. Selby–Bigge, 484).

[j]Replaces ‘even’

[k]‘ever’ deleted

[7 ]‘ordinary’ deleted. Probably ‘the more’ should also have been deleted.

[8 ]Cf. Hutcheson, Inquiry concerning Beauty, II.iii.

[9 ]Cf. ibid., VIII.ii.2.

[l]Illegible word deleted

[m]Reading doubtful

[10 ]Cf. Imitative Arts, 5–7: ‘A painted cloth, the work of some laborious Dutch artist, so curiously shaded and coloured as to represent the pile and softness of a woollen one, might derive some merit from its resemblance even to the sorry carpet which now lies before me. The copy might, and probably would, in this case, be of much greater value than the original. . . . In Painting, the imitation frequently pleases, though the original object be indifferent, or even offensive.’

[n]‘Vari’ deleted

[o]‘brightness’ deleted

[p]Illegible word deleted

[q]Reading doubtful

[r]Numbers written above the last two words indicate that their order was intended to be reversed

[s]Reading of last two words doubtful

[t]Replaces an illegible word

[11 ]Sic. Presumably something like ‘in the cultivation of the’ was intended.

[u]Reading doubtful

[12 ]Sic. Probably ‘maintenance’ was intended.

[v]‘of’ deleted

[13 ]Sic. Presumably something like ‘we falsely account’ was intended: cf. 25 below.

[14 ]i.e. American Indian. Cf. Locke, Civil Government, § 41.

[w]Reading doubtful

[15 ]Cf. Mandeville, I (‘A Search into the Nature of Society’), 356–7.

[x]‘the forger’ deleted

[16 ]Cf. ibid., I (Remark P), 169.

[y]‘coarse’ deleted

[z]Reading doubtful

[a]The last three words replace ‘them to’

[b]Replaces ‘excludes’