no 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the splendid proportions of our system 

 of education. He is a public benefac- 

 tor, in that he has given us another 

 "big thing." The interesting point 

 just now about " blue glass " is psycho- 

 logical. It is an exponent of popular 

 intelligence, an index of culture, a 

 register of common-school work, and 

 a test of the influence of colleges. Our 

 collective schools produce in the com- 

 munity a certain state of mind; " blue 

 glass" indicates it. There is evidently 

 a very close connection here, and the 

 problem deserves to be worked out. 

 If the Intercollegiate Literary Associa- 

 tion will offer an additional prize for 

 the best essay on the connection be- 

 tween the study of Latin and Greek 

 and the "blue-glass" mania, The Pop- 

 ular Science Monthly will furnish 

 the money for the purpose. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



The English Constitution, and Other Es- 

 says. By Walter Bagehot, Author of 

 "Physics and Politics," Editor of the 

 Economist, etc. Pp. 468. New York : 

 D. Appleton & Co. Price, .$2. 



As we sit down to write a notice of this 

 interesting volume, we are startled by the 

 painful intelligence of the sudden death of 

 its distinguished author. Mr. Bagehot was 

 in the prime of life and the full vigor of his 

 powers, as attested by the recent fertility 

 of his pen and the sustained character of 

 his intellectual work. His position as a 

 writer was quite unique in the literature of 

 our time. Strongly attracted to the study 

 of public affairs, and devoting himself spe- 

 cially in his weekly journal to the consid- 

 eration of economical and commercial sub- 

 jects, he always dealt with them in a broad, 

 philosophical spirit, and wrote upon them 

 in a style of peculiar literary excellence, 

 for which he was quite unsurpassed among 

 contemporary writers upon these topics. 

 Besides his contributions to the reviews, 

 embracing close discussions of government 

 policy and commercial economies, and his 

 admirable biographical sketches, Mr. Bage- 

 hot is chiefly known by his volumes on 

 " Physics and Politics," " Lombard Street," 



and "The English Constitution." This is 

 his most important work, and that by which 

 he will be best known in the future. The 

 book on "Lombard Street" is a special 

 study of the money question, but the " Phys- 

 ics and Politics," which was reproduced in 

 French under the happier title of " The De- 

 velopment of Nations," and " The English 

 Constitution," are of a wider interest, as 

 they treat, in a scientific spirit, of social 

 questions and phenomena that concern alike 

 people of all countries. Those who have 

 read the " Physics and Politics " will find 

 " The English Constitution " treated by the 

 same method ; the principles there devel- 

 oped being applied to English constitution- 

 al history and the structure of English so- 

 cial life. We cannot, perhaps, give a bet- 

 ter account of this work than by quoting 

 the preface to the new American edition : 



" ' The English Constitution,' by Walter 

 Bagehot, has already attracted some atten- 

 tion in this country, but it is a work that 

 deserves to be much more widely and fa- 

 miliarly known. Its title, however, is so 

 little suggestive of its real character, and is 

 so certain to repel and mislead American 

 readers, that, in bringing out a new and 

 cheaper edition of it, at this time, some prefa- 

 tory words may be useful for the correction 

 of erroneous impressions. 



" It is well known that the term ' Con- 

 stitution,' in its political sense, has very 

 different significations in England and in 

 this country. With us it means a written 

 instrument, decreed at a certain time to be 

 the supreme law of the land. Hence when 

 a book appears upon the American Constitu- 

 tion, if not a history of its adoption, it will 

 probably be a commentary upon its mean- 

 ings ; that is, some kind of a law-treatise, 

 dealing with the technical interpretations 

 of a legal instrument. The English, on the 

 contrary, have no such written document. 

 By the national Constitution they mean their 

 actual social and political order the whole 

 body of laws, usages, and precedents, which 

 have been inherited from former genera- 

 tions, and by which the practice of govern- 

 ment is regulated. A work upon the Eng- 

 Ush Constitution, therefore, brings us natu- 

 rally to the direct consideration of the struct- 

 ure and practical working of English politi- 

 cal institutions and social life. 



"The American Constitution was framed 



