of the credit of taxpayers for government borrowing and government trading is a contravention, possibly in many cases a necessary contravention, of the principle of Free Exchange. Mr. Hooper shows how treacherous a basis for the expansion of industry this method affords, and how readily it lends itself to the creation of disastrous financial complications. Mr. Acworth deals with the vexed question of Stateinterference in railway management. He shows what a limited amount of truth there is in the allegation that a railway is a monopoly. On the important question of tariff legislation, subject to the necessity of State-interference legislative, judicial, and executive for the purpose of preventing undue preferences and unreasonable discriminations, he is disposed to leave the public and the railways to deal with each other on the principle of Free Exchange. In most other respects he suggests that more advantage will be gained by an enforcement of publicity than from any other form of regulation. Just as in the great Free Trade controversy, the maxim was laid down that a hostile tariff is best combatted by a more thorough free trade, so Mr. Acworth argues that the difficulties arising out of an alleged monopoly, like a railway, are best overcome, not by turning it into a real monopoly in the hands of a government department, but by subjecting it as far as possible to the health-giving influence of publicity and Free Exchange. Mr. Mackay's paper deals with the principle of Free Exchange in its relation to the property of the working classes in their own labour and in their own savings. The argument seeks to justify the opinion that Free Exchange is capable of becoming to labour what a right of free mintage is to bullion, viz. a certain guarantee of employment and wages; further that, in the vast series of exchanges which constitute the economic mechanism of a free community, the value of labour must unceasingly tend to enhancement. It is, therefore, to the organizing influence of Free Exchange that labour has to look for the realization of its legitimate ambition. Here the controversial portion of the volume may be said to end. The two papers which follow, though not, strictly speaking, covered by the title, have a relevance which is sufficiently obvious. Mr. Mallet's paper is a theoretical discussion of one aspect of the interesting problem of taxation. The principle of progression or graduation has been already, as he points out, either avowedly or unconsciously adopted in the financial system of most civilized countries, and its extension is to be looked for in the future. Unless the theory be deliberately adopted that taxation is to be used as a lever for redressing the inequalities of fortune between the different classes of a community, there is, he thinks, much exaggeration both in the fears and in the hopes which this proposal evokes. In the distinction, as stated by Jevons, between value and utilities, he finds a defence of a progressive as opposed to a merely proportional rate of taxation; but he shows that at a point, which can only be discovered by actual experiment, the abstraction by the State of the surplus wealth of individuals may become not merely a deduction from the wealth of a country, but a positive bar to its further growth; further, that taxation is just and politic when it aims at equalizing the sacrifice imposed on individuals, but that it is the reverse when it seeks to equalize incomes. Mr. Lyttelton, in explaining the state of the law with regard to trade combinations, has adhered strictly to the legal aspect of the question. If there is any force in the argument contained elsewhere in the book that, as regards labour as well as all other forms of wealth, Free Exchange, and not coercive combination, should be our rule of guidance, it is obvious that an estimate of the intricacies of the law of trade combinations is an interesting and pertinent addition to the controversy, even though, as in this case, the writer confines himself to a statement of fact, and takes no responsibility for the general argument in which his narrative may serve as an illustration. THOMAS MACKAY. 1 SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. The sect of the Economists.' Their opinions, their contention in favour An abstract of their doctrine, esta- blishing Liberty and the right of Property as fundamental principles The service rendered by the Econo- mists in exposing the fallacy of the Balance of Trade doctrine that in every exchange one side was Their opinion that neither side lost labour; all other labour sterile Such doctrine provocative of reaction. that in commerce both sides gain, the immense importance of this Adam Smith's further criticism of 18-20 The confusion introduced by J. B. Say's adoption and misconstruction of one expression of the Econo- 21 J. S. Mill the disciple of Say. His definitions of wealth, their incon- sistency. In the hands of Say and Mill the science brought to an Summary of the bearing of doctrine of Economists and Adam Smith on Free Trade; various infringements shown to be robbery. Protection, Slavery, the law of the 'Maximum,' all are forms of Socialism 25-30 Error of supposing that England The inaugural address of President Cleveland suggests that the Man- chester school, if dead in England, America the only really protectionist In England, on the contrary, we are retracing our steps and returning The object of this paper to forecast the result of this policy in the two The view of President Cleveland con- trasted with that of English poli- ticians quotations from his inau- Mr. Campbell Bannerman, Mr. John President Cleveland's policy the beginning of the end of protection. Opinion that this will enable us to compete successfully with American manufacturers entirely erroneous. The reduction of cost of production in America will, for the first time, make their competition formidable Some of the conditions of English American high wages, under present conditions, exaggerated. Proba- bility that with free trade they will rise and take from us our The change of policy in America to Mr. Chamberlain reintroduces pro- tection under the alias of construc- tive legislation. Mr. Burns on Scepticism of Socialists or Protec- tionists as to progress, as illustrated by State pension proposals. . 71 American protection an object lesson : a corrupt policy of Give, give, with burden falling ultimately on agri- cultural class, and in the end gene- ral exasperation and collapse. 72 In England the burden is to be put on the capitalist class, with the result that capital will be destroyed Mr.Chamberlain fears the competition of a free trade Ireland, but not of American labour troubles, protests |