Hello HESers,

I have a quick question rel. to a fortuitous Googling exercise.

In his "Some Neglected British Economists, Pt. 1" (1903, EJ, Vol. 13,
p.338), E.R.A. Seligman refers to a 1809 volume entitled "Sketches on
Political Economy, illustrative of the interests of Great Britain:
intended as a reply to Mr. Mill's pamphlet Commerce Defended, with an
exposition of some leading tenets of the Economists", which has some
highly proto-marginalist content.  The author is anonymous, and
Seligman doesn't venture a guess.

Has the author of that tract ever been established?  The reason I ask
is that I stumbled upon a Monthly Review article from February 1813
that reviews a 1811 book called "The History of Aberdeen" written by a
certain "Walter Thom, author of Sketches on Political Economy, &c.".
Googlebooks happens to have a copy of that book online:

http://books.google.com/books?id=_g8vAAAAMAAJ

and the attribution is there, although the title remains shortened by
&c., so it is not certain it is the same book.

If this Walter Thom is indeed the author, has he been identified before?

And does anybody know anything about this fellow?

Goncalo Fonseca