ol he spent some
years in the counting-house of his father, a brewer. His tastes, however,
lay altogether in the direction of study, and he was permitted to enter
Trinity College, Dublin, where he took the degree of B.A. in 1848, and six
years later that of M.A. After passing through the curriculum of arts he
engaged in the study of law and was called to the Irish bar. But he felt no
very strong inclination for the legal profession, and during some years he
occupied himself to a large extent with contributions to the daily press,
treating of the social and economical questions that affected Ireland. He
devoted most attention to political economy, which he studied with great
thoroughness and care. While residing in Dublin he made the acquaintance of
Archbishop Whately, who conceived a very high respect for his character and
abilities. In 1856 a vacancy occurred in the chair of political economy at
Dublin founded by Whately, and Cairnes received the appointment. In
accordance with the regulations of the foundation, the lectures of his
first year's course were published. The book appeared in 1857 with the
title _Character and Logical Method of Political Economy_. It follows up
and expands J.S. Mill's treatment in the _Essays on some Unsettled
Questions in Political Economy_, and forms an admirable introduction to the
study of economics as a science. In it the author's peculiar powers of
thought and expression are displayed to the best advantage. Logical
exactness, precision of language, and firm grasp of the true nature of
economic facts, are the qualities characteristic of this as of all his
other works. If the book had done nothing more, it would still have
conferred inestimable benefit on political economists by its clear
exposition of the true nature and meaning of the ambiguous term "law." To
the view of the province and method of political economy expounded in this
early work the author always remained true, and several of his later
essays, such as those on _Political Economy and Land_, _Political Economy
and Laissez-Faire_, are but reiterations of the same doctrine. His next
contribution to economical science was a series of articles on the gold
question, published partly in _Fraser's Magazine_, in which the probable
consequences of the increased supply of gold attendant on the Australian
and Californian gold discoveries were analysed with great skill and
ability. And a critical article on M. Chevalier's work _On the P