… is from page from page 33 of the 2nd edition of George Whatley‘s 1774 Principles of Trade; it is quoted on page 95 of Jacob Viner‘s indispensable 1937 volume, Studies in the Theory of International Trade (ellipses original to Viner):
Most of the statutes … for regulating, directing, or restraining of trade have, we think, been either political blunders, or jobs obtained by artful men, for private advantage, under pretense of public good.
