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as societies advance to a higher plane, social and social-economic considerations have increasing weight. Legislation influences indirectly by inducing changes in the institutions, habits and, above all, in the economic opportunities of the people.

The second book is devoted to Malthus and his theories. It is pointed out that he was influenced largely by the thought of his time. In economic circles the population question was much discussed during the second half of the last century, and it was against the extreme optimism of the period that Malthus raised his voice. His theory of population must be regarded as an aggressive protest against what for more than half a century had been regarded as dogmatic truth. Our author does not share the views of Malthus to any considerable extent, and his lack of faith is contained in an elaborate, though not especially novel, criticism.

In Book III the author discusses a great variety of topics relating to the development and the movement of population in this century, classifying the phenomena into economic, social and legislative. The second category seems to embrace everything not specifically included in the other two. Fecundity of marriage, in comparison with economic circumstances, is a prominent theme, and it is to be regretted that the author has confined himself, in discussing it, almost wholly to France, whose position, as every economist knows, is quite exceptional. The data treated do not certainly furnish a broad enough basis for generalization. The writer has hazarded an opinion which at first blush would seem the height of folly in a candidate for favor before a body of French economists. that sometimes there is as much virtue in a numerous family as in a savings-bank account, considered as a measure of prudential economy. What gave him courage to write this does not appear from the text.

He asserts

Under the head of economic influences he discusses emigration and colonization, progress in agriculture and industry and the condition of wage-workers. Opportunities for economic activity, the author concludes, are the mainsprings of development.

The chapters on legislative influences are specially conceived for the existing situation in France. The great end to accomplish is to induce married couples to have children, and this can best be done, Mr. Van der Smissen thinks, in the first place by a thorough revision. of prevailing fiscal laws, some incongruous effects of which he has aptly illustrated. Another important reform is to institute a tax on inheritances at the following rates:

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In cases of a bequest of $1,000,000, the scheme would operate thus :`

Family of one child, heritable portion, $900,000, state tax, $100,000.

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The third leading suggestion the writer makes is that France should do all in her power to attract and assimilate immigration. As regards the effect of the laws of succession in France, the author does not share the opinion of the Le Play school, that they are the principal cause of the small families among the bourgeoisie. He thinks, however, that the quota over which the right of free disposition is retained should be enlarged.

To estimate the scientific value of books upon which the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences has set its seal would seem to be superfluous, if not rank presumption. Nevertheless, I venture to remark upon their character, if not their quality. Both follow closely the historical method, and have greater value as expositions than as philosophical treatises. Perhaps it is not the authors' fault that so much matter stands between quotation marks; for the academy expressly requested that the opinions of leading economists and writers should be made known. But we cannot so readily pardon the limited use of statistics, which in the treatment of a subject of this kind are indispensable.

Taken all in all, Mr. Van der Smissen's work justifies the distinction that has been accorded him, as the academic successor, partially at least, of his former instructor, the late Professor Émile de Laveleye.

M. Schöne's work has come so recently into the hands of the reviewer that no exhaustive notice of it can now be given. It contains a suggestive preface by Professor E. Levasseur, whom so many Americans delight to remember. Professor Levasseur quotes approvingly the sentence which is the key to M. Schöne's position : "The quota of influence upon population from laws and regulations is unimportant; that from science increases with each generation." E. R. L. Gould.

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY,

International Statistical Institute: session in Chicago, September, 1893. can Statistical Association, No. 24.

Papers presented at the Publications of the AmeriBoston, 1894. — 8vo, 186 pp.

The International Statistical Institute holds a meeting once in two years. In previous years it has visited London, Rome, Paris and Vienna. The session at Chicago, although not largely attended by the foreign members, was a noteworthy gathering for the United States, and maintained, in the papers submitted and the discussion which followed, a high scientific character. The American Statistical Association took charge of the preliminary printing of papers for the use of the members, and has now gathered these papers together into a volume. This will not supersede the regular printed "Transactions" of the institute, but will anticipate it, and present the most important papers in a form more accessible to the American reader.

Naturally, the papers by Americans are most numerous in the list, on account of the holding of the session here. Among the foreigners, Levasseur is represented by an admirable report on the "Statistics of Primary Education," and Körösi, of Budapest, by a valuable proposition for an "International Mortality Standard or MortalityIndex," a subject which has been engaging the attention of vital statisticians in Europe for some time. Mr. A. E. Bateman, of the British Board of Trade, reported on the "Comparability of Trade Statistics" of various countries, and Dr. Mandello explained the "Currency Reform in Austria-Hungary."

Among the American papers the most generally interesting, perhaps, would be the five on anthropometric statistics, brought together under the direction of Dr. Edward M. Hartwell of Boston. They show the growth of the science in America, and some of the results already attained. Professor Henry C. Adams gave a valuable paper on "Railway Statistics in the United States," which was supplemented by two or three papers on practical railroad statistics by men engaged in the business. Other papers were on "The Course of Wages in the United States since 1840," by Carroll D. Wright; "Prices," by F. W. Taussig; "Geographical Distribution of Population in the United States," by Henry Gannett. There are twenty papers in all. Most of them have particular reference to the United States. It may be doubted whether any more important collection of essays, from the statistical point of view, has ever been issued in this country. RICHMOND MAYO-SMITH.

Die Entstehung der Volkswirthschaft. Sechs Vorträge. Von DR. KARL BÜCHER. Professor an der Universität Leipzig. Tübingen, Laupp, 1893.—304 pp.

With the appearance of Karl Bücher's book on The Population of Frankfurt in the 14th and 15th Centuries, the cause of historical investigation—especially in the direction of mediaval social and economic development - received a new and powerful recruit, marked by an independent personality and wielding new weapons of attack. Town history had hitherto been monopolized either by lawyers and historians, who took an exclusively constitutional point of view, or by economists, who had laid stress only on one institution, namely, the gild. A happy chance put into Dr. Bücher's hands the tax-rolls of medieval Frankfurt; and by applying to these the usual statistical methods and viewing the results in the light of modern economics, he was able to arrive at a knowledge of civic conditions four centuries or more ago that surpassed in distinctness and coherence that of perhaps any other writer. Unlike the lawyers, he has gone behind constitutional mechanism to the men by whom it was worked; unlike most of the economists, he has sought to place the facts of industry in some sort of relation to the total life of the city. And perhaps because his original training was not in mediaval history or in economics, and because, before taking the Leipzig chair, he had some extra-academic experience of men and affairs, he brings to his work a freshness of thought and style that is rather exhilarating.

Of the six lectures in this book, the fourth, on the social stratification of the Frankfurt population in the middle ages, is a summary of the results of his great work. It is the best attempt I know of to present in brief the significant features of medieval town life in its economic or sociological aspects. The author abides by his minimizing estimate of civic population; and even the brief account of the matter which he gives here shows pretty clearly that he cannot be far underestimating it—even if there may have been a floating and non-burgher element somewhat larger than he is inclined to allow.

Of the other essays, some are "fugitive pieces" of little permanent value; but two are certainly suggestive reading, and well worth reprinting. One is on "The Rise of the National Economy" ("Volkswirthschaft," which is hardly translatable). German economists are perhaps a little unfortunate if they think they need be

greatly affected by the term Volkswirthschaft in their conception of their subject; for it is easy to point out, as Bücher does, that there was no national economy until comparatively recent times. Besides making this point- which after all is not a very novel or important one- Bücher proceeds to give a sketch of economic development viewed in what he regards as the only fitting light, the relation between the circle of producers and the circle of consumers. In so doing he succeeds in putting a good many old things in a new and delightful way; but he seems to think himself rather more original than is really the case. Professor Schmoller's sketch at the beginning of his papers on the economic policy of Frederick the Great of Prussia anticipated him in much that he says, and in some points is distinctly preferable. And Dr. Bücher does not altogether avoid the danger of a specialist-of disregarding other and important elements in the problem. The agrarian evolution of Germany is hard to subsume under the categories suggested by civic life; yet Dr. Bücher hardly seems aware of the difficulty.

Another and more valuable paper is that on the sequence of industrial systems. Here he does well to call attention to the difference between the "wage-work" so common with the mediaval craftsman, and the forms of "handicraft" of which we more commonly think, where the craftsmen manufactured for the general market. But it may be questioned whether it is useful to regard these as separate systems, as our author does.

Altogether the book is one to be warmly welcomed. It is the work of a man who in a part, and that a large part, of his field has an unrivaled acquaintance with minute facts; and yet it is one full of broad views and sweeping generalizations. To read it gives a sense of enjoyment like standing on a hill top in the face of the wind. W. J. ASHLEY.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY.

The Dawn of Italian Independence. By WILLIAM ROSCOE THAYER. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893.—2 vols. 453, 415 PP.

Few things are more unreal to most of us than the events which are just beyond our own memories and which yet have not become recorded history. That border-land is more or less a trackless region which separates the making of history from the historic past. No story, therefore, is more interesting in itself than that which crosses this region and brings history up to, and into immediate and

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