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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



what they like and as they like, and only 

 be manacled when they come to dispose of 

 their productions. He has a great deal to 

 say about " liberty of production " and " in- 

 dustrial freedom." He must therefore think 

 that men, if " let alone," and left free to ex- 

 ercise the largest option in the choice and 

 pursuit of vocations, will create more prop- 

 erty than if hampered and meddled with by 

 government. 



But why the same principle would not 

 apply to the exchange of property, and why 

 wealth would not be further augmented by 

 the liberty of citizens to sell and buy the 

 products of labor when and where they will, 

 without let or hindrance, he does not explain. 

 His concession of "the liberty of produc- 

 tion " is, however, illusory. Commerce and 

 industry are so bound up together that you 

 can not fetter the former without restrict- 

 ing the latter. Indeed, one of the avowed 

 purposes of repressing commerce is the co- 

 ercion of production. As trade is not free 

 if hindered or paralyzed by legislative ac- 

 tion, so production is not free if forced by 

 government into artificial channels, and 

 regulated by politicians rather than left to 

 the open competitions of private enterprise. 



Six Centuries of Work and Wages. The 

 History of English Labor. By James E. 

 Thorold Rogers, M. P. New York : G. 

 P. Putnam's Sons. Pp. 591. Price, 8-3. 



In the midst of the deluge of books on 

 social questions — labor, wages, land, co-oper- 

 ation and what not — most of them mere wild 

 and worthless speculations, we turn with a 

 sense of refreshing relief to this solid contri- 

 bution to the subject from the point of view 

 of simple historic facts. Professor Rogers 

 is known as a political economist of wide ac- 

 quirements and independent opinions, but 

 he is so far imbued with the scientific meth- 

 od as to recognize that our first need is to 

 get command of the facts of experience in 

 a form available for the derivation of safe 

 conclusions. Some eighteen years ago he 

 published the first two volumes of a com- 

 prehensive " History of Agriculture and 

 Prices," and the present volume is but a 

 continuation of his line of studies in this 

 general direction. The work is nothing less 

 than a contribution to the social history of 

 England, treated with reference to the con- 



ditions of the laboring - classes at various 

 periods, their opportunities of labor, their 

 rates of wages, their social privations and 

 comforts, and all with reference to the influ- 

 ence of government and legislation, and the 

 constitution of English society. 



The theme is a noble one, and it is han- 

 dled with great instructiveness, and with a 

 sustained interest from the beginning to the 

 end of the volume. It should have a place 

 in every library, and is one of the books 

 that must be carefully consulted by all stu- 

 dents of social economics. The following 

 passage, from the review of the London 

 "Academy," exemplifies the character of the 

 questions dealt with in Professor Rogers's 

 work : 



It is an honest and scholarly attempt to recon- 

 struct the social state of England in the thirteenth 

 Century, and, from that as a starting-point, to trace 

 the changes in the position of the laboring-classes 

 from the time when many of the peasants were 

 slaves, and most of them in a condition not far re- 

 moved from serfdom, to the crisis when, by reason 

 of plague and famine, the laborers, " as by a stroke," 

 became suddenly the masters of the situation. The 

 great pestilence made labor scarce, while at the 

 same time the bonds were loosened which tied the 

 laborer to the land. Wages were high, and food 

 remained cheap ; and, although continual attempts 

 were made to reduce wages by act of Parliament, 

 it may be fairly said that " the golden age of the 

 EngUsh laborer" continued until the change in ag- 

 riculture caused by the commercial disturbance 

 which followed the discovery of America. The flow 

 of gold and silver to Europe led to a rise in the prices 

 offered in the Continental markets for English hides 

 and wool; and this tm-ned the landlords' attention 

 from the old arable farming in common field to the 

 rotation of grass and grain In the mixed husbandry 

 that enabled them to meet the demand. 



Key to North American Birds. Second 

 edition, revised to date, and entirely re- 

 written. By Elliott E. Coces, 51. D. 

 Boston : Estes & Lauriat, Pp. 803. 

 Price, $10.50. 



This splendid and profusely illustrated 

 book contains, to quote from its full title, 

 a concise account of every species of living 

 and fossil bird at present known from the 

 continent north of the Mexican and United 

 States boundary, inclusive of Greenland. 

 The account is preceded by a general orni- 

 thology, or outline of the structure and clas- 

 sification of birds, and a field ornithology, 

 or manual of collecting, preparing, and pre- 

 serving birds. The whole is preceded by an 

 " Historical Preface," in which the progress 



