CAIRNES, karnz, Join ELI.IOTT (1823-75). An Irish economist. He was born at Castle Bell ingham, County Louth, December 29. 1823. and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. He studied law, and was admitted to the Irish bar, but passed most of his time in writing for the press, chiefly upon economic questions affecting Ireland. In 1856 he was appointed professor of political economy in Dublin. and the next year his professorial lectures were published sunder the title Character and Logical Method of Political Economy. He next wrote for Eraser's Maga zine a series of ess•s on the gold question, in duced by the sudden increase of supply from California and Australia. In 1859 lie was ap pointed professor of political economy and juris prudence in Queen's College. Galway. In 186:t he published his work on The 8/arc Poteer, in which he warmly advocated the course of the Northern States, from the standpoint of the economist fully aware of the superiority of free to slave labor. Ili: conclusions were to a large extent verified by the results of the war. In 1896 he was appointed professor of political eeon.
only in University College, London. From ISti() till his death. which occurred on July 8, 1875, he suffered greatly in health. and this of sity restricted his powers of never this Was tille period in which he wrote his chief work, Sonic Leading Principles in Po litiral Economy. Expo ti mkt/ Though in the main ant of the school of S. Mill, ('airnes exhibited at all times an original genial' and a capacity for rigid logical deduetion \rifle]] enabled hint to rest to minty of the principles of Mill in a more tenable form. In re:pect to method, l'airne: treated political economy as almost a pare :elem.°, with little concern for the practical applieaf of its prin ciple:. Ile wrote in defense of the Wage vnite.
theory, after Mill, with whom it originated, had abandoned it. Among his other contributions to the science of economies may be mentioned his keen analysis of the subject of cost in production, and of value as affected by the limits of free competition.