788 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



States to give them rights and privileges as violative of the prin- 

 ciple of equal freedom and as hostile to the interests of society 

 and civilization as those that Boy lean conferred upon the corpo- 

 rations of Paris. Under the specious plea of protecting the in- 

 terests of the public and of self- improvement, both morally and 

 intellectually a plea that Boyleau himself did not forget to 

 make * there is in progress a movement to extend these rights 

 and privileges to the members of the same trades and professions 

 in other States. Unless it is checked, an achievement that has not 

 yet been undertaken, we shall have fastened upon us before we 

 are aware of it the same intolerable industrial and professional 

 tyranny that contributed so powerfully to the French Revolu- 

 tion ; for the rules and regulations are becoming so numerous 

 and despotic, particularly those that have emanated from the 

 plumbing trade, that individual liberty, in all that pertains to 

 that business at least, is practically denied. They rival in mi- 

 nuteness and vexatiousness anything that Boyleau produced. For 

 the judgment and will of the person most interested in the perfec- 

 tion of a piece of work are substituted the judgment and will of 

 the person least interested. 



If organization, whether industrial or political or social, in- 

 volves a loss of liberty, it also involves, as the story of the 

 French corporations shows, a more serious loss of truth and 

 honor. It does not lead simply to cruel intolerance ; it leads to 

 the grossest hypocrisy. Were the slightest value to be attached 

 to the pleas and apologies of the modern corporations, there 

 would be no possible escape from the conviction that they are 

 animated by the loftiest motives. Their ambition is not limited 

 to self -improvement and deliverance from an obloquy and con- 

 title, or use the abbreviation C. P. A., or any other words, letters, or figures to indicate that 

 the person using the same is such certified public accountant." Very curiously so intelli- 

 gent a journal as the Commercial and Financial Chronicle (February 13, ISQ'?) regards such 

 absurd and obsolete legislation as " very important," believing evidently that it will do much 

 to insure a correct audit of corporation accounts. Yet it is clear-headed enough to see 

 " that even under the best of conditions accountants' examinations are subject to certain 

 limitations," and " such examinations by no means provide a remedy for all the ills of cor- 

 porate management." 



* " Because," says Boyleau, in the introduction to the Livre des Metiers, " we have 

 seen in Paris in our time much jocularity and unbridled lust which is becoming corrupt, 

 and likewise the nonsense of the young and ignorant among the young foreigners and 

 those of the city who neither have nor practice any trade, because they had sold to stran- 

 gers no things so good or so loyal as they should be." After mentioning the courts of 

 jurisdiction he has established, Boyleau continues: "This we have done for the profit of 

 all, including the poor and the strangers who come to Paris to buy commodities ; that 

 the commodities may be so loyal that they will not be deceived by there being some de- 

 fect ; and to punish those who shall receive dishonest gain or, through lack of sense, ask 

 it and take it contrary to God, to law, and to reason." Manqui, History of Political 

 J^conomi/, p. 180. 



