P PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY BY FATHER MATTEO LIBERATORE, S.J. TRANSLATED BY EDWARD HENEAGE DERING AUTHOR OF "FREVILLE CHASE," ETC., ETC. LONDON; Art and Book Company, AND LEAMINGTON. NEW YORK: BENZIGER AND CO. 1891, A FEW WORDS BY THE TRANSLATOR. CONSIDERING What the great work of Father Liberatore's life has been, a Treatise on Political Economy from his pen would seem to be a new departure: and so it is, as compared with other economic writings, because his treatment of it is distinctly Christian and scholastic. But, for that very reason, he was just the man to write such a treatise at this time. Professed Economists may invent any number of theories about the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth; but, without the Christian principle and practice of doing as we would be done by, true Political Economy is impossible. Who, then, is better fitted for the task than he who began to teach Catholic philosophy in 1834, published his Institutiones Philosophicæ in 1840, and ever since has devoted his life to the study, exposition and defence of Catholic truth, as taught by the incomparably greatest of all teachers, the Angelic Doctor? In these days we go in |