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view as to the origin of property in land-e.g. Sir Henry Maine and Mr. George, who both start from a belief in the mark-and reach opposite conclusions as to the morality of private property in land; while, on the other hand, two writers may reach the same conclusion as to the desirability of retaining private property in land, though one of them-e.g. Mr. Herbert Spencer (in his last work, Justice, p. 92) -believes in the mark as firmly as Maurer himself, and the othere.g. Mr. Henry Sidgwick (in his last work, The Elements of Politics, p. 141) does not regard as valid the historical reasoning which argues that private ownership in land has been established by force.

However, the fact remains, as the above instances remind us, that writers do endeavour to deduce conclusions as to the rightness of private ownership from theories about its origin; and it will be at least one step on, if they can be persuaded not to deduce them from a theory which is demonstrably false.

F. B. JEVONS.

THE EVOLUTION OF PROPERTY FROM SAVAGERY TO CIVILIZATION. By PAUL LAFARGUE. [174 pp. 2s. 6d. Sonnenschein. London, 1891.]

On the authority of an ancient proverb, we may take it that the worst case is a good case spoilt, and the better the case the more lamentable is the spoiling. On this ground it is much to be regretted that M. Paul Lafargue should ever have undertaken to write a history of Property. The object of the book appears to be to prove that "Property" is at the root of all the evils, real or imagined, which exist in our present social system; but the author has not made it clear what form of Property he wishes to attack. Sometimes he indicates" capital" and "capitalism;" at other times landed property is assailed; at others, again, random blows are aimed against Christianity, immortality (which is "a dreary idea," "the invention of savages," p. 154), and modern agriculture, which offends M. Lafargue by producing superabundant crops (p. 151).

The book contains chapters on "Primitive Communism,” “Family or Consanguine Collectivism," "Feudal Property," and "Bourgeois Property." On none of these has M. Lafargue added to our already existing knowledge, and on all of them he has dragged in much irrelevant matter.

The following passages will give an idea of the nature of his indictment:

Page 55: "The progress of capitalism consists in confiding the defence of the country to those who do not possess an inch of land,

who have no stake in the country (!), and to accord political rights to men who have no property."

Page 2: "The notion of profit without labour sticks like a Nessusshirt to capital."

Page 61: "Property introduced the common informer into the family" and "is invariably ferocious."

Page 62: "Justice (!) and our odious criminal codes followed in the wake of collective property."

Page 67 Property was "established by violence."

And page 169: "The function of the modern proprietor consists in pocketing his income and squandering it on wine and women."

These random statements, when supported at all, are usually supported by equally random history and extraordinary arithmetic : e.g., p. 117, we are told that "in the fifteenth century the immense majority of the population (of England) consisted of peasant. proprietors" who Macaulay calculates "must have made up more than one-seventh of the whole nation."

It would be interesting to know what the author's idea of a minority is.

Again, on p. 118, we learn that the yeoman had disappeared by 1750, and that between 1800 and 1831, 3,511,770 acres of land had been stolen from the agricultural population of England by Parliamentary devices; and on p. 121 occurs the remarkable statement that a House of Commons, consisting of landlords, in 1660 transferred the bulk of taxation from the land to the people by substituting excise duties for military service, purveyance, aids, reliefs, and other feudal dues. It seems that the fashion of treating "the people" as synonymous with "the poorer classes" is not confined to English advertisements. It is impossible to protest too strongly against this misuse of the word. We are also treated to the time-honoured fallacy that diminution of stature means degeneracy of the human race. In an age which takes almost a pride in estimating capacity and endurance and health, and publishes life tables as the basis of important calculations, it is strange to be confronted with the spectre of this old-fashioned idea in an essentially modern work.

Now, on p. vi. of the Preface, there is a quotation from the Sozial Demokrat, from which we gather that "a special study of pre-historic times and anthropology" are the qualifications which M. Lafargue and his friends consider to be all that is essential for writing a history of property. When, however, a writer leaves his "special study," and ceases from anthropological pursuits in order to make irrelevant remarks about modern forms of property; when the same writer thinks

it consonant with truth and taste to call Marie Antoinette " a royal courtesan," and can couple "the Rothschilds, Goulds, and Grants" under the generic head of "cheats," it is time that those who truly understand and look up to all that is good and practical in Socialism should come to the rescue of their ideal, and refuse to allow it to be misrepresented by ignorant theory and vulgar abuse.

J. B. BAKER.

THE ENGLISH REPUBLIC. By W. J. LINTON.
Introduction and Notes, by KINETON PARKES.
2s. 6d. Sonnenschein. London, 1891.]

Edited, with [xvi., 216 pp.

Mr. Linton has had two careers, each of them long enough and full enough for an ordinary man. For thirty years we have known him only as an engraver, and historian of engraving. But for a quarter of a century before that he had been a passionate and versatile politician; and now Mr. Parkes has to collect and edit his political writings as if he was a departed classic, and even these writings, far away as they seem, belong not to his youth, but to his middle age. The English Republic was a periodical which Mr. Linton published (and for the most part wrote) from 1851 to 1855; and the present volume is a series of extracts from it, arranged by Mr. Parkes so as to present Mr. Linton's doctrine in a continuous form.

The English Republic is "very interesting as a historical document," to use a modern euphemism for polite disparagement. It is a mirror of the mind of an eager and generous and hopeful reformer of forty years ago. But I am afraid that it does not contain very much direct instruction for the reformer of the present. It is not that it is vague or windy. Mr. Linton's programme is most precise :- universal suffrage of men and women; single chamber'; perpetual referendum ("every project of law to be submitted to the whole people "); State resumption of rent on all land, and abolition of all other taxes (and, apparently, equal rent, irrespective of the quality of the land), but all other property left undisturbed; organization of labour, not directly, but indirectly, by lending every labourer capital without interest, with the power of imprisoning him as guarantee for repayment; uniform national education, with all children boarded at the schools; "establishment of a general system of religious worship, based upon generally acknowledged truths, for the religious teaching of the nation;" and many more details, for which there is no space here. But somehow it all moves in an unpractical. atmosphere. It is not merely that Mr. Linton ignores all obstacles to the establishment of his Republic, and all friction in its working,-those are the rights of all framers of

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commonwealths, but he ignores all the speculative difficulties of social politics. Between him and us there lies a world of tough hard thinking, which we have gone through and he has never heard of. Look back, for instance, at the words which I have just quoted on the "system of religious worship," and compare the fuller account in pp. 181-189. The State is to have its religion, and teach it in schools and churches, and a State Church should not descend to the trivialities of creeds. These, peculiar to individual minds, and if accurately examined almost as various, must be left altogether to individuals. Let the sects in their private chapels, or possibly meeting in turn within the national temples (taken out of monopolist hands and restored to the nation's use), adopt what divisional rituals may please them. The State Church must be the Church of the Nation, the utterer and echo of its faith, the explainer of the general truths of the relation of Humanity towards God." O sancta simplicitas! And in the particular sphere of this Review, Mr. Linton moves just as serenely. There is no difficulty about property. "Property is that which is a man's own, what he may properly own, that which is justly his, his work or his work's worth or purchase, or a free gift from another, whose it fairly was." But "when the usurer" (we call him capitalist now) "takes advantage of his fellow's need to . . . steal a profit out of that need-this is not work or worth-doing, toil he never so toilsomely. His profit is not his property." There is no difficulty about land. It belongs to the State, but-"I see no reason why any should not hold any amount of land (only limited by the needs of others) in undisturbed and perpetual tenure, paying to the State a rent for the same. What has the State to do with appointing to each landholder his limits, or assigning to him his locality?" There is no difficulty about labour. If a man is out of work, "the local banks' (i.e. State banks) "would lend him means of living till he could find other work—if necessary, till he could learn another kind of employment." Also " we require the establishment of public storehouses and bazaars or markets to which the worker, mechanic, or peasant could at all times bring his produce-sure of a fair price,—and at which he could at all times be sure of purchasing at a fair price." But “I do not argue for the State establishing workshops or colonies, except for its paupers. Beyond this. . . it seems to me that the State should leave open every facility for individual enterprise; only interfering to prevent the monopoly of capital from enslaving the workers." In short, the Republic is to make innumerable omelettes and break no eggs. After this, it is needless to say that there is not a word about over-population in the whole book. Godwin was not more serenely

optimistic. Will a time ever come when the Economic Review of the twenty-first century will look back with an indulgent smile on the youthful simplicity of the Fabian Society and the Christian Social Union?

T. C. SNOW.

NEIGHBOURHOOD GUILDS AN INSTRUMENT OF SOCIAL REFORM. By STANTON COIT, Ph.D. [150 pp. 2s. 6d. Sonnenschein. London, 1891.]

In a time when schemes for the reform of society are being poured upon us daily, many people will be disposed to put aside with indifference a book with the above title. But the fact that such theories and plans are "in the air," is the very reason for studying the accounts of any attempt which has been put into practical working order; especially if any spark of a new principle can be found in it. There are, I think, three points which ought to commend this book to the study of those who take an interest in the growth of society. First: The movement here described has grown by steady and natural processes, and the leaders of it have modified or enlarged their action as experience has guided them. Secondly: The plan combines the desire to help others with the practical development of self-government in those helped, and the further aim (all successfully realized) of making selfhelp unselfish, and interesting those who have been helped in the common work of raising others. And, thirdly, The founders of these guilds have faced the great difficulty of reconciling the club and the family, and have tried to merge the more artificial in the human life.

The founders of the Neighbourhood Guilds have taken their model from New York and Philadelphia, and have adapted it to the needs of Kentish Town. In the last-named district they started with a club consisting of "eight working lads, meeting once a week in a private drawing-room." This club now" contains two hundred and thirty members of all ages, representing less than a hundred families." "Half of the house" is "used as a residence by a number of University graduates, who devote leisure hours to the work of the guild."

The work includes "a circulating library, Sunday afternoon free concerts, Sunday evening lectures, Saturday evening dances for members, a choral society, and fifteen to twenty classes in various branches of technical and literary education."

How thoroughly the principle of self-government is understood by the promoters of this movement may be gathered from the following quotation : "The young men and young women had chosen to have as their Christmas festivity a fancy-dress ball. It had been planned

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