LITER A R Y N TICES. 



2 73 



the English physicist, Barlow, noticing the 

 rapid diminution in the intensity of the cur- 

 rent, had some years before declared im- 

 practicable, possible. All later inventors 

 and investigators in telegraphy have had to 

 build upon these investigations. Professor 

 Taylor, in reviewing the work of Morse, 

 points out that he was greatly delayed in 

 his work and committed many errors from 

 ignorance of the existing state of electrical 

 knowledge, and especially because of his 

 ignorance of the labors of Professor Henry. 

 He further points out that the work for 

 which Morse gets credit is, in all its more 

 important features, the work of another 

 man Alfred Vail, who, with Dr. Gale, was 

 associated with Morse in perfecting the in- 

 vention. Professor Taylor states that the 

 Morse alphabet and the instrument that was 

 found in practice to work it were both the 

 sole invention of Mr. Vail. The pamphlet 

 will be found an interesting review of this 

 important invention, containing much hith- 

 erto unpublished, and giving such recogni- 

 tion of the labors of those contributing to 

 it as their importance deserves. Professor 

 Taylor was for many years connected with 

 the Patent Office, and has therefore had ex- 

 cellent opportunities of informing himself 

 on the subject. 



History of Political Economy in Er- 

 rope. By Jerome-Adolphe Blanqui. 

 Translated from the fourth French edi- 

 tion, by Emily J. Leonard. With a 

 Preface bv David A. Wells. New 

 York: G." P. Putnam's Sons. 1880. 

 Pp. 562. Price, $3.50. 

 This is the first appearance in English 

 of the celebrated work of the French econo- 

 mist Blanqui. It is somewhat remarkable 

 that a translation has not before been made, 

 as there is no English work covering the 

 same ground, and as M. Blanqui has suc- 

 ceeded in putting in a moderate compass a 

 large amount of information concerning 

 economic theory and practice, and putting 

 it, moreover, in a way that will prove very 

 attractive to the general reader. Though 

 it is more than forty years since the book 

 was first published, it has lost little or none 

 of its interest for the present, and its trans- 

 lator has conferred a favor upon the public 

 by her excellent rendering of the original. 

 .M. Blanqui was the pupil of J. B. Say, 

 and, on the death of that economist in 

 VOL. xvii J8 



1833, he succeeded him in the professor- 

 ship of Political Economy in the Conserva- 

 tory of Arts and Trades. In his discussion 

 of social and economic questions, the hu- 

 manitarian element is predominant, and the 

 great value of political economy to him was 

 that it consisted of a body of most benefi- 

 cent truths which held out the promise and 

 pointed the way to an increasing betterment 

 of the condition of all classes. He had, 

 therefore, a warm interest in all questions 

 concerning the improvement of the indus- 

 trial classes, and regarded with sympathy 

 the various schemes, rife in his time, for 



furthering their welfare. 



With great ad- 



miration for the school of English econo- 

 mists, and according to them the honor of 

 placing the science upon a true foundation, 

 he yet protested that their formulas were 

 too rigid, and that they had not taken ac- 

 count of the grain of truth that, along with 

 many vagaries, was to be found in the doc- 

 trines of various social sects. 



In his view, political economy did not 

 begin when men first carefully studied the 

 phenomena of wealth, and endeavored to 

 elaborate a body of doctrine, but it began 

 much earlier. Men became political econo- 

 mists when they began to exchange the 

 products of their labor, and when they com- 

 menced to exercise foresight in providing 

 for their material needs. Since then eco- 

 nomic phenomena, as well as the theories 

 held concerning them, have slowly ad- 

 vanced the one in complexity and varie- 

 ty, the other in a more perfect comprehen- 

 sion of the relations of the facts. M. Blan- 

 qui therefore begins his work with a con- 

 sideration of the political economy of the 

 Greeks and Romans, and traces it onward 

 through the middle ages to the time at 

 which he wrote. In this survey he notices 

 the importance attached by the Greeks to 

 financial matters, the contempt of the Ro- 

 mans for labor and commerce, the influence 

 of Christianity, which he says changed the 

 basis of civilization from slavery to free- 

 dom, the change impressed on European 

 life by the influx of barbarians, the rise of 

 the feudal system, and the influence of the 

 Crusades in giving an impetus to commerce. 

 In considering the rise of credit and the in- 

 stitution of banks, he points out the value 

 of the services of the Jews, to whom finance 

 owes so much. 



