Page 701 of 2651

It is by this superior knowledge of their own interest that they

have frequently imposed upon his generosity, and persuaded him to

give up both his own interest and that of the public, from a very

simple but honest conviction, that their interest, and not his,

was the interest of the public. The interest of the dealers,

however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is

always in some respects different from, and even opposite to,

that of the public. To widen the market, and to narrow the

competition, is always the interest of the dealers. To widen the

market may frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of the

public; but to narrow the competition must always be against it,

and can only serve to enable the dealers, by raising their

profits above what they naturally would be, to levy, for their

own benefit, an absurd tax upon the rest of their

fellow-citizens.