THE END OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE

Cannan has expressed it, “will join in a frontalattack upon Socialism in general,” though, ashe also adds, “nearly every economist, whetherof repute or not, is always ready to pick holesin most socialistic proposals.” 1 Economistsno longer have any link with the theologicalor political philosophies out of which thedogma of Social Harmony was born, and theirscientific analysis leads them to no suchconclusions.

Cairnes, in the Introductory Lecture on“Political Economy and Laissez-Faire ,” whichhe delivered at University College, London,in 1870, was perhaps the first orthodoxeconomist to deliver a frontal attack uponlaissez-faire in general. “The maxim oflaissez-faire ,” he declared, “has no scientificbasis whatever, but is at best a mere handyrule of practice.” 2 This, for fifty years past,

1 Theories of Production and Distribution, p. 494.

2 Cairnes well described the “ prevailing notion ” inthe following passage from the same lecture : “ Theprevailing notion is that P.E. undertakes to show thatwealth may be most rapidly accumulated and mostfairly distributed; that is to say, that human well-being

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