SKETCH OF PROFESSOR JEVONS. 745 



However, be the proper substitute for party what it may, the thing 

 here insisted on is that party is evidently in a state of decadence ; 

 that the causes of its decadence are not accidental or temporary, but 

 inherent in its nature, which is that of an instrument of change, not 

 that of a permanent principle of government ; and that, consequently, 

 sooner or later some other basis for government must be found. " You 

 are sanguine," say objectors, " if you think you can carry on constitu- 

 tional government without party." We trust not ; for, if it is so, the 

 end of constitutional government is at hand. The decline of party 

 may fairly be said to present an urgent question : for the political ob- 

 server to-day to-morrow for the statesman. Macmillan's Magazine, 







SKETCH OF PROFESSOR JEYONS. 



WILLIAIM STANLEY JEVONS was born at Liverpool, in the 

 year 1835. His father, Thomas Jevons, was an iron-merchant 

 in that city ; his mother was a daughter of William Roscoe, the well- 

 known historian. She was a woman of great cultivation, the writer 

 of hymns and poems which are to be found in general collections, and 

 the editor of the " Sacred Offering." Young Jevons received his 

 early education along with his cousin. Prof. Roscoe, at the High- 

 School of the Mechanics' Institution, Liverpool, the head-master of 

 which was, at that time, Dr. W. B. Hodgson, now Professor of Politi- 

 cal Economy in the University of Edinburgh. At the age of sixteen 

 he went to University College, London, and, during the two years he 

 remained there, distinguished himself highly in the classes of mathe- 

 matics and natural science. In 1853 he received, on the recommenda- 

 tion of Prof. Graham, the offer of an appointment as an assayer to 

 the Australian Royal Mint at Sydney. He accepted this appointment, 

 and, after having qualified himself by a course of assaying under Profs. 

 Graham and Miller, he proceeded to Sydney, where he discharged the 

 duties of the office for five years, devoting his leisure time to scientific 

 investigations, particularly meteorology. He, however, resolved to 

 leave this field of work and devote himself to the study of the higher 

 sciences. Returning from Australia, he visited the United States in 

 1859, and, arriving at London, he at once resumed his studies in the 

 University College, and won distinction in his various classes. In 

 1862 he graduated as M. A. with first-class honors, and the gold medal 

 in the department of Logic, Philosophy, and Political Economy. Two 

 years later he was elected Fellow of University College. 



In 1863 he published his first important work on economical sci- 

 ence, entitled "A Serious Fall in the Value of Gold ascertained, and 

 its Social Effects set forth." He consented to take the position of 

 tutor in Owens College in 1863, and in 1866 was elected to the chair 

 of Logic and Political Economy in that institution. The year pre- 



