mam meam convertit. Nam, et si ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis, non timebo mala: quoniam tu mecum es. Parasti in conspectu meo MENSAM, adversus eos qui tribulant me. Et ut inhabitem in domo Domini in longitudinem dierum."

ART. III.-Les Economistes, les Socialistes, et le Christianisme. Par CHARLES PERIN, Professeur de droit public et d'economie politique à l'Université Catholique de Louvain. Paris Le Coffre et Cie, 1849.

T is with much pleasure that we draw the attention of our readers to the work whose title heads this article, not only on account of its own merits, which are considerable; but as one of a class which we desire to see increase, and as a fresh proof as well of the undying spirit of Catholicity and its adaptation to all the phases and all the wants of society; as of the good service which the university of which M. Perin is a professor, has done and is ready to do for the cause of religion and science. It has been too much the fashion of late, especially in these countries, to circumscribe religion and indeed Christianity within a region, called its own; and to reject the idea of its principles influencing any other subject or any other study. Our ears are weary with the parrot cry of "what has religion to do with history, with law, with political economy? Without its light history is read backwards; without it the science of law fails for want of a primary sanction: unless founded on its principles, political economy falls into the most grievous errors. From the fact of the mind of these countries, and consequently its literature having been so long Protestant, we Catholics have been compelled to use in a great measure, Protestant works on all modern subjects, and hence our religion has gradually as it were, withdrawn itself to the teaching of dogma; and in science and in learning we have been Protestantized. In nothing has this been more the case than in political economy; which as a science is

of so modern a date, and on which there are consequently no treatises by those great master minds of Catholicity whose works on the cognate subjects of metaphysics and ethics remain an imperishable monument of genius, and are the well-spring from which all later writers must draw.

With Catholics what is right is so essentially the test of what is expedient, that ethics were held to be a sufficient rule in politics and economy; and it was considered that the principles of justice and morality formed a sufficient guide for the legislator. Savonarola held that he best taught the free Florentines how to govern their state when he taught them to do their duty towards God and their neighbour, and the astute secretary of that same republic deemed that he could by no other means more effectually convince his countrymen of the mischievous consequences of the rule of the petty sovereigns of his native. land, than by showing that the rules by which their policy must be guided were opposed to natural rectitude and justice. † St. Thomas, indeed, in the little treatise De Regimine Principum, enters somewhat more largely into the question of governments, and lays down some of the soundest principles of the science of politics and of its cognate or rather branch political economy.

His definition of the object of the social science is admirable, and is indeed a key to the whole of the Catholic view of the subject.

"Idem autem oportet esse judicium de fine totius multitudinis et unius. Si igitur finis hominis esset bonum quodcunque in ipso existens, et regenda multitudinis finis ultimus esset ut tale bonum multitudo acquireret et in eo permaneret, et siquidem talis ultimus, sive unius hominis, sive multitudinis finis esset corporalis, vita et sanitas corporis, medici esset officium. Si autem ultimus finis esset divitiarum affluentia, œconomus rex quidem multitudinis esset. Si vero bonum cognoscendæ veritatis tale quid esset ad quod possit multitudo pertingere, rex haberet doctoris officium. Videtur autem ultimus finis esse multitudinis congregatæ, vivere secundum virtutem; ad hoc enim homines congregantur ut simul bene vivant, quod consequi non posset unusquisque singulariter vivens.

*See Vita Hieron. Savon. a Pico Mirand.

"Lo scopo del libro del Principe non é il dar precetti di un legittimo governo, ma il rappresentare la tirannia, svelandone tutta la deformitá e dipingendola nei suoi piu neri colori per ispaventare e svergognare i tiranni."-Pref. ad Principe edit Venet. 1811.

autem vita est secundum virtutem; virtuosa igitur vita est congregationis humanæ finis."-Lib. i. cap. 14.

In later days, however, the rules of the Gospel were no longer deemed a sufficient foundation for a science which was to rule men's lives here; or rather their force and practical application were forgotten; and men who sought to build up the kindred sciences of ethics and political economy, cast about for fresh principles from which to start. A new system of ethics arose which took as its basis, utility as the rule of action; and along side of it arose a school of economists who founded their science on the double fallacy of the indefinite natural perfectibility of the human race, and the indefinite development of wants. Throwing aside the spiritual nature, they regarded material enjoyment as the ultimate end and only rule; and were consequently obliged to hold that material happiness to be attainable by all.

It was time to recall men to the old paths; to return to drink of the original pure stream, to bring back science to the first principles of truth; and from those eternal data to build up the structure of this branch of science; for as nations grew and commerce increased, and civilization brought its mingled benefits and evils; the science of government required to be developed; its principles could not change, for they are eternal; but their application became more complex and varied. And while we do not for a moment undervalue the labours of those who have toiled in this path; of Smith, and Say, and Ricardo and Stuart Mill, we rejoice to see promise of a Catholic school of political economists arising, who will solve the problems the sensualistic school are as unable to solve as the more consistent though more mischievous school of socialists. And whither can we look with more hope for the fulfilment of such a promise, than to the university of which our author is a member? In the little work at present under our notice, his object is to trace the intimate connection between the errors of the sensualistic school of political economists and those of the socialists; and to point out their common source, in the overlooking of the spiritual part of man's nature, and the principles of Christianity.

The work consists of five chapters; in the first, which treats "of the struggle between the sensualistic and Chris

tian principle in economic theories," he as it were states the question; and taking occasion from the late troubles in Europe, and their evident connection with discontent in the minds of the masses, as well with the existing distribution of riches as with existing forms of government; to point out that the root of these troubles is deeper than is generally thought; he points out their primary source in the wide spread influence of those doctrines of the English school of political economy " which, without intending it, by founding the social science on sensualistic data, prepared the way for the destructive doctrines of Socialism."

"The starting point of all the sensualistic political economy, is the principle of the indefinite development of wants. Now between this principle and the morality taught by Christianity, there is no possible reconciliation. In the Christian doctrine the idea of the good and virtuous is inseparably connected with that of sacrifice; it implies the victory of man over his disorderly inclinations, and the necessity of a constant struggle of man with himself. This necessity is held in horror by the apostles of the doctrine of the indefinite development of wants; according to them it is to outrage human nature, to contest the legitimacy of its leaning to material gratifications; the vow of self-denial to them is a law contrary to nature, and they have consequently undertaken to teach the science of the creation and distribution of riches independently of morality. But they have forgot that there is nothing in the social system which does not depend on the moral law, because there is not a single action of human life which is morally indifferent."—

P. 5.

In his second chapter, which treats "of the principle of the theories of the Economists," he quotes largely from the works of several distinguished economists to prove that they all start from purely materialistic data. To show this he successively briefly sketches the theories of Quesnay, of Adam Smith-to whom he pays a well-deserved tribute of respect by excepting him in great measure from the class of materialistic economists, and pointing out that with him "The separation of morality from economy was only a question of method; a means of rendering easier the study of the laws of riches by simplifying them"-of J. B. Say, M. A. Clement; and having shown that they all suppose the sole object of man's existence to be to increase his material pleasures, he proceeds to ask :

"But what can such a principle really do for society? What

are we to expect from it for its repose, its happiness, its greatness, and its strength? Does it really possess the power of satisfying that insatiable desire of material happiness which it has enkindled in men's minds, and to which it has sacrificed our noblest and purest sentiments? or does it only prepare for men sufferings more bitter as they succeed to ardent and flattering hopes ?"-p. 24.

As a preliminary to investigating the question of poverty, he briefly sketches the acknowledged principles of the increase of production, and consequently of wealth; chiefly following in this Stuart Mill; and having pointed out that the great difficulty to all political economists is the more rapid increase of population than of the means of subsistence, he proceeds to examine the various means which have been proposed to check this too rapid increase. In the case of animals their too rapid increase is checked by natural causes, which destroy the superabundant generations; were the human race to increase in the same manner, famine and disease would do the same for it; but the free will of man can, by putting a voluntary check on its unlimited increase, avoid the action of such sharp medicines. But what shall induce each individual to exercise this restraint over himself? To induce men to exercise this restraint so necessary for society and for themselves is then the question; and it is here that the political economists of the sensualistic school separate from those who look to Christian principle; the former appealing to selfinterest; the latter to the religious principle of self-denial. Our author successively states and examines with great truth and fairness, the elements of the various systems of Malthus, of Thornton, and of Senior. That of Clements we can hardly allude to; in a passage, the sense of which cannot be mistaken, he shows that he would systematise vice and inculcate crimes, not to be named as the remedy for the too great increase of population. M. Perin pays a deserved tribute of respect to Malthus and all the English economists in exempting them from the suspicion of any leaning towards such foul doctrines. Malthus devotes two volumes to proving the necessity of the poorer classes

*

* "Ce n'est donc pas l'abstinence du marriage qu'il faudrait recommander aux classes salariès mais le soin de rendre leurs unions moins fecondes." Recherches sur l'indigence de M. Clement. ap. Perin p. 56. See also Prudhon's Systeme de Contradictions Economiques, t. ii. p. 449.