272 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MOXTHLY. 



otber branches of science or practice with 

 ■which it is liable to be confounded, and 

 lays down the principle that " political econ- 

 omy deals only wiih questions connected 

 with wealth and with the satisfaction of ma- 

 terial wants." It " does not say what is 

 right or wrong, or how a people should be 

 governed ; but it attempts to show what 

 the rules are that control the production, 

 exchange, and distribution of all the wealth 

 which we see in the wonderful industrial 

 system about us." It is refreshing, amid 

 all the confusion that so widely prevails 

 between economical and ethical truth, to 

 find an economist with so clear a grasp of 

 his subject. He distinguishes between 

 "immaterial wealth," such as a speech or 

 a song, and " material wealth," which has 

 a permanent character ; and defines mate- 

 rial wealth as " some transferable thing 

 for the enjoyment of which we are willing 

 to undergo a sacrifice." lie gives the usual 

 account of the agents of production, and 

 then passes to the subject of exchange. lie 

 defines value as ratio of exchange, and from 

 another point of view as purchasing power. 

 Cost of production he holds to consist in the 

 sacrifices made by the different classes en- 

 gaged in production ; and on this subject 

 he is careful to avoid the mistake made by 

 the earlier writers of considering economic 

 phenomena too much from the standpoint 

 of the capitalist. On the subject of de- 

 mand and supply, he adopts in the main 

 the views of Cairnes, as he also does in re- 

 gard to the wages of different classes of 

 laborers. On the subject of distribution, 

 now so hotly debated, Professor Laughliu 

 takes conservative ground, holding that " the 

 proportional shares of labor and capital out 

 of the product will depend upon the rela- 

 tive scarcity and abundance of labor and 

 capital," and that " the productiveness of a 

 country's industries determines whether the 

 general level of the wages shall be high or 

 low." He takes conservative ground, also, 

 in regard to labor-unions, approving them 

 in some respects, and disapproving them in 

 others ; and he devotes a special chapter to 

 "the industrial manager," showing the im- 

 portant place which he holds in the indus- 

 trial system of the present day. 



In treating of the applications of eco- 

 nomic principles, the author discusses so- 



cialism, free trade, and protection, money 

 questions, the labor problem, and other top- 

 ics, indicating briefly the bearing on each 

 of the doctrines advanced in the earlier 

 portion of his work. On the subject of 

 the tariff he gives the arguments on both 

 sides, but is himself evidently a believer in 

 free trade. In regard to bimetallism he 

 reiterates the views that he had already 

 more elaborately stated in a separate work. 

 He opposes socialism, of course, and teaches 

 that the welfare of the laboring-classes can 

 only be secured by their own moral and in- 

 tellectual advancement. He strongly depre- 

 cates state interference, and favors co-op- 

 eration in all its forms. 



The book is an excellent elementary pres- 

 entation of a difficult subject of growing 

 interest and importance, and as such it de- 

 serves a place in both public and private 

 schools. 



History of the Pacific States of North 

 America. By Hubert Howe Bancroit. 

 Vol. XXXI. Popular Tribunals. Vol. 

 I. San Francisco : The History Com- 

 pany. Pp. 749. Price, $5. 

 This volume stands apart from the other 

 members of Mr. Bancroft's historical series. 

 It has a character of its own, as do the 

 events to which it relates. They have hard- 

 ly a parallel in history. The volume par- 

 ticularly relates to those voluntary courts 

 or self-organized associations of citizens for 

 the administration of justice and the aveng- 

 ing of wrongs which, in some of their forms, 

 have marked the society of the frontiers 

 during the whole of the history of the set- 

 tlement of our counti-y ; which were preva- 

 lent throughout California in the early days 

 of the American settlement ; and which 

 found their most remarkable exemplifica- 

 tion in the vigilance committees of San 

 Francisco. Mr. Bancroft endeavors to draw 

 a distinction between the vigilance move- 

 ment in California and all other exhibi- 

 tions of popular justice which are record- 

 ed. He does not find anything exactly 

 like it in the public uprisings of which 

 ancient and modern history furnish exam- 

 ples ; and to his view it was very widely 

 different from the mob law, lynch law, regu- 

 lators' law, etc., with which it is too easy to 

 associate it in classification. " In some re- 

 spects," he says, "they are diametrically 



