22 APRIL 1899, Page 22

Adam Smith. By Hector C. Macpherson. " Famous Scots Series."

(Oliphant, Anderson, and Terrier. ls. 6d.)—An in- teresting and lively study of the English founder of political economy, this little book is remarkable as a whole-hearted vindi- cation of the Cobdenic ideas of international policy. The author considers it to be Adam Smith's chief achievement that he has demonstrated with "scientific completeness that Free-trade, as Cobden happily expressed it, is the international law of God Almighty."