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    915 The Saturday Analyst and Leader. [No...

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    Miscellaneous Works. Social Science In T...

    to know what the expression ' political economy' means . "' And he then tells us that on this point " Mr . Ruskin is as ignorant as a Kaffir or a Bushman ; " but if his own knowledge on this point be greater than he allows , to Mr . Ruskin , lie must certainly bo . largely endowed with " secretiveness , " for he has succeeded in most effectually concealing it . " Political Economy" professes to give an account of how wealth is produced , accumulated , and distributed in the present system of society . It take 3 the present system for granted ; it does not inquire whether it is good , bad , or indifferent ; and , truth to tell , most authors who have yet written upon it have shown themselves most completely disqualified even to prosecute an investigation so utterly beyond the comprehension of their extremely narrow and shallow minds . Whether wealth could be better and more plentifully produced , and better and more fairly distributed upon any other principle , they

    do not trouble their heads to inquire . Whether wealth is more plentifully produced , and distributed more equitably and beneficially , upon the principle of individual acquisition for individual emolument , amounting to a general scramble , realising that " struggle for existence " which we see going on among the carnaria ; than it would bo upon the coadjutive principle of mutual assurance and co-operation ; political economy and political economists have taken no cognizance . Mr . J . S . 2 ^ J ail ( i writers of his stamp , are not mere political economists ; they are profound sociologists ; they do take cognizance of the question , and we know what their judgment upon it is . { Vide the chapters in Mr . J . S . Mill ' s " Political Economy , " on the working classes , , and on property . ) It is a logical consequence of a system of individual acquisition for individual emolument , in which each is isolated , and has to live by getting as much as he can out of others in his dealings with

    them , that the destitute be left to perish outright , and can only be saved by the humane inconsistency and humiliating expedient of eleernosynary relief deemed so . degrading to its acceptors . It ; is logically a monstrous anomaly , that in a system in which each class lias to live by what he can make for himself , but of others in dealing with them ( whether the landlord-peer living on his rents , or the shoeblack on the produce of his labour ) , a person , because unable to make anything , shouldlook to others to whom he has never given anything , to give him the- means of subsistence ; but because one of the logical consequences of the system , i . e ., letting the destitute die of want , is too horrible to be tolerated ,, we are driven to the practical reduciio ad absurdum of poor laws , the social non ¦ sequitur of ulins . But in the coadjutive system of mutual assurance this paradox would not be found ; each member of the community would be trained up by the best education and formative influences to contribute to the common-stock

    in proportion to his powers , and would in return participate and enjoy in . proportion to . his requirements . Each would produce wealth for the good of others—for the good of the whole community- —while in health , arid able to work , and would have earned a title to be supported out of the common stock in sickness , old age , or other disability . Thus each would produce for all , and all for each . And it is this system which Mr . Euskin evidently has in view , however dimly ; and at which he is aiming . Into the merits of this system , compared with the present , we have not space to enter here , any further than summarizing them by saying , that whereas in the present system in which untrained men work from 10 to 16 hours a day at the most repulsive employment , for a scanty pittance of the coarsest necessaries , there is the minimum , of inducement and reward for the maximum of labour and exertion ; whereas in the other system perfectly trained persons would ( there

    being no idle class , living upon the labour of others and all being employed ) work about a third or a fourth of that time at labour , as much as possible divested by scientific appliances of whatever renders it repulsive , thua realizing the maximum of inducement and reward for the minimum of exertion . It is to this system that the suggetions of Mr . Ruskin , in common with those , of some of the greatest writers of the age , including Mr . Mill , evidently point 5 they are exploring branches of social science hitherto uninvestignted , and we anticipate the most beneficial results from their disquisitions . That the cO'adjutivo system is what Mr . Ruskin contemplates is evident from bis own words , though he may not clearly see through it himself . The complaint of the writer in JFraser against him is that he contends that it ia the duty of eooiety " to maintain , workmen in constant and regular employment , and enuble thorn to live comfortably , wh a tever he the state of trade" The critic then adds , " How society or government

    is to contrivo to do any of those things Mr . Ruskin has not explained . " He is right 5 Mr , Ruskin has not explained ; in the present system , auoh a thing ia not merely a moral , but a phybjlqoI impossibility . In tho ooiwljutivo system , however , this result would not only bo attainable , it would bo of the very essence of tho system itself . Without a system of marine and ( iro insurances , tho owners of wrecked Bhip 9 and burnt houses must bear the loss ; but where the assurance system is establiahed , they can indemnify thomsolvos by means of a trilling payment . Varbum sat . Happily tho soionoo of sociology is being elaborated , and by a olass of intellects very different from those hard and narrow minds , to which tho suporfioiiu dotails ofpolibioal economy wore all in all . Political ooonomy is a dosaription of a port of tho workings of tho present sysrom of society just as Maqluavelli ' s treatise , " Tho Prince , " was a

    description , of the procedures of Btate « oraft ; and like the latter work , the oensuro and detestation duo to tho thing dosoribod , » as fallen upon tho description . Tho writers on politioal ooonomy , indeod , are for tho most part without any title to tho praise that has been clalnaod for Maohiavelli , IIo did not boliovo in the system ho describes , and described it only to expose it . But that ia a movit which tho majority , at least , of political economists , do not possess . While their -whole description is tho strongest condemnation possible- of tho thing described , tlioy themselves appeal * poribotly ignorant of whab thoy are about , ana oannot sou tho plainost oonaoquoncos of their own teachings . They beliovo in tho system tho badness of whioh they avo exposing . Nay , what would bo inarodiblo did wo not see , it , thoy ianoy that thoh' soionoo , as they call'it—that is , then * more description of the nuHory-produoing workings of ft had system—will turn this bad system into » good one , Tho writer in JPraaar toll us that , if political economy were nttonded to there would be no strikes , whon politioal economy has never Ovon told M 8 tho cause of etrikQe—strikos being quo

    of the inevitable consequences of individual acquisition for individual emolument ; of a struggle between man and man , class and class ; of one class striving to take advantage of the other ; all which things are of the very essence of the present system , and can never be cured by a verbal description of the workings of that system , which is all that political economy amounts to . - . It is true , that in one way political economy tends to produce a remedy , inasmuch as by thoroughly exjjosing the badness of the present system it tends to bring about tho establishment of a better ; but this is not the remedy which its purblind professors contemplate . We have devoted considerable space to this topic , but the extent of an article should be in proportion to the importance of its subject , not to the mere bulk of the reviewed work measured by avoirdupois weight .

    Dublin University Magazine . No . 335 . Dublin : W . Robertson . London : Hurst & Blackett . —The Dublin opens this month with an article on " The Vice of our Current Literature , " which it considers to be an " ultra-realistic spirit , " which " taints nearly all the popular writing of our day . " Italy being the mo 3 t prominent topic of the day , is , as might be supposed , the subject of a paper , in which its " seven ages " are discussed . Wo have part the first of a new " Tale of the Civil Wars , " entitled , "A House Divided Against Itself . " Part the 11 th and last of " Von . ved , the Dane . " " The Work-a-Day World of France" progresses to chapter 5 . There is an article on " Foreign and Domestic Politics , " in which important questions are discussed , and there are several other articles of interest , including one on " The Cid , by Professor dc Verieour , " " Sketches in the West Indie ? , " " A Self-Searcher , " " The Inauguration of Irish Chiefs , " "Antrim Castle , " and the customary " Tsot . es of New Books . "

    Revue Bri ' tannique . No .. 10 . October , 1 SG 0 . Pans : 31 , Rue Neuvcde 3-Mathurin 9 . In this " international review " tho contents arc conveniently indexed under the heads " literature and philosophy , " " gpofn-aphy and voyages , " " statistics and commerce , " & e . There aio articles on ' that . iron-old sect the Stoics ; on the important subject of " acclamation ; " and some other interesting topics , with a resume of science , literature , art , & e . , „ . „ -. The Art Journal . No . 71 . Xoy ., ' 1 S . 60 . Lonuon and . Now lorlc : Virtue & Go . —This number opens with " West , tho Monarch- of Mediocrity" by Walter Thornbury ; then we have " Home ,

    and'her-, Works of * Art , ' Part 10 , RafFaelle , No . 5 / ' illustrated by some appropriate engravings , including " Tho Victory , of Constantino over Maxentius , " and the " Defeat of Attila ; " " Leslie mid his Contemporaries , " is another biographical notice . . Mr . and Mrs . fc > . C . llall s " Companion Guide in South Wales " reaches part 10 , and , with ' Iho Hudson from the Wilderness to the Sea , " is w-rll nncl proluselv illustrated ; as is also " The Amoor . Country , " an article on Mr . 1 . \\ . Atkinson ' s travels . There are . several other good papers 111 the contents of the present number . The large engravings are Turner s < -o uutry Blacksmith : " Anthony ' s " Killarnty , tho Lower Lake ; and laulanu

    Virginia , " from the group by J . Durham . Chambers' Erict / clopavlia ; a Dictionarj / of Uuirei -xal Knowledge for the People . Parts 21 and 22 . London and Edinburgh : \>¦ : hkI K . Chambers . —If it bo true , as Lord St . uiili \ v has just ivinarkou in his admirable speech on education , and , as . vv » suppose , no reasonable person doubts , that social degeneracy and moral delinquency are in a great measure owing to popular ignorance , then speiety is indebted to the proprietors of this excellent Encyclopedia . Not only have they brought out , at prices within the reach of the working classes , stuiuhird works previously inaccessible to them , by tho best British and foreign writers , 111 the form of cheap reprints and translations ; not only have uiey bthem

    brought out new works written expressly for publication y , on every " branch of knowledge , remarkable alike for accuracy and copiousness ; and at the same" popular prices ; " not only have they dt . no Uw , but they arc themselves authors of considerable eminence ami « H «> i and the productions of their own pens arc among the most valuaD 0 contributions to our useful and instructive literature . A \ o mife t instance two of tho . most recent . — Mr . Robert Chambers work on u " Annals , of Scotland , " and that of Mr . William Chiunber * on to " United States . " These works arc tho most nccuralo original , impartial , and trustworthy thathavo yet appeared on the subjects wniuuuio unquestionably of tho highest historical and social importance 1 » U" » first edition of Chambers' Information for the People , there u an admirable piooo of advioo to the working clussos , wi » « , n is peculiarly applicable just now , when wo sec announced m tno /«««•* a volunteer nrbioot fop" the rolief of distross " on a grand scale , in a lom

    of tho " institutions of tho country , " whioh arc to tally inadequate » tho iiurpose for which they aw intended , and when , uncording to mu statistics of mortality , tho avorago of deaths for want of necessaries w ouo human being per 2 < L hours , many of tho victims bailiff young cIlU ^ V " » who porish for want of warmth and broust-inilk . The writer , sjiealuiif , of the evils of a surplus population , namely , tho pauper , produtory , mm prostitute classes ( who constitute tho surplus population ) , says iniu the moral chock , in which lies tho only hope , consuls in tho horror wiiii a man of good feeling must entertain at tho idea of bringing ohiUi in into tlio world to drag out . an existonoo of ulurvution and crnno , or uo < - " short by early misery . Ho will not multiply competitors lor Ins own and his noighboura labour , or do thut whioh will subdivide a 11101801 already too small , and make all , liimself inoludod , the more wrotoliou . Ho will not do this Wto have good feelings « nd just views , but he wm « o itifhowunt these crout distinctive featuros of an catnniiblo ohnrucur .

    0 ? lioro iafl proverbial expression rory geiiornlly used by « l > ° ° , "' "" people in reference to n too-r » pidly increasing family , to tho oliooi n » no more mouths are sent than thoro i » brond for . 1 'lioro could not u" croatcr fulluoy $ and if ull man w to bring children iulo tlio woim in tho same spirit of hoodlcsanose , an universal utarvwtion would mj eoon talco place . Wo earnestly oommond thia . advioo from lm > woik xnentionpd , to tlio soi'ious oon ' sidoration of . tho public . To eonu < , now , to tho publication at t . ho hond of this notice Tho new JCnoyclopwc ia w furmod on tho basw of the lutoab edition of tlio aernmu Oonvoraalion " X-oxicon , and is illuBtrated with oxocllont ongrifvings and m « l > B . v » tho opening P « go of tho flrat of tho nbovonionUoncct purls «« Jinvo the autograph of Burns , at , the oonolusioii of tho biographic" ! »» l literary notioo oi the poet , tho words being , " God bloas youl—ito 01 - 3 urne , " In tho second of tho pnrte mentioned nbovo , tlioro w mo «

    915 The Saturday Analyst And Leader. [No...

    915 The Saturday Analyst and Leader . [ Nov . 3 , 1860

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 3, 1860, page 12, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_03111860/page/12/