THE END OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE

unit, are always less clear-sighted than whenthey act separately.

We cannot therefore settle on abstractgrounds, but must handle on its merits indetail what Burke termed “one of the finestproblems in legislation, namely, to determinewhat the State ought to take upon itself todirect by the public wisdom, and what it oughtto leave, with as little interference as possible,to individual exertion.” 1 We have to dis-criminate between what Bentham, in. hisforgotten but useful nomenclature, used toterm Agenda and Non-Agenda, and to do thiswithout Bentham’s prior presumption thatinterference is, at the same time, “generallyneedless” and “generally pernicious.” 2 Per-haps the chief task of Economists at thishour is to distinguish afresh the Agenda ofGovernment from the Non-Agenda-, and thecompanion task of Politics is to devise forms

1 Quoted by M‘Culloch in his Principles of PoliticalEconomy.

2 Bentham’s Manual of Political Economy, publishedposthumously, in Bowring’s edition (1843).

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