572 CHARLES FRANKLIN DUNBAR. 



distractions from his chief tusk as professor in a great institution of 

 learning. 



Professor Dunbar's career as editor, and his administrative work in 

 Harvard University, need to be borne in mind when making an esti- 

 mate of his work as scholar and man of science. To those who knew 

 him well, nothing was more admirable in his career than the solidity of 

 his schohirly attainments, the breadth of his interests, the maturity of 

 his conclusions on his chosen subjects. It might have been expected 

 that one who had been a busy newspaper editor, and who remained to 

 the end keenly interested in current political happenings, should con- 

 tinue to deal largely with questions of the day, and take an active part 

 in current discussion of public issues. Professor Dunbar, however, had 

 too clear a perception of the ideals and duties of a scholar to give him- 

 self to newspaper and periodical writing. For many years he delved iu 

 the literature of political economy at large, and equipped himself in the 

 whole range of his subject. Not only the writings of contemporary 

 economists, but those of earlier days, especially the English and French 

 authors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and those of 

 Ricardo's school, were thoroughly examined. It is characteristic of 

 Professor Dunbar that notwithstanding the wide scope of his reading 

 in the theoretic literature of political economy, he published virtually 

 nothing on this phase of the subject ; though the maturity of the conclu- 

 sions derived from that reading are unmistakably evident in some of his 

 essays on the recent phases of economic theory. He regarded these 

 researches as essential to his equipment as a University teacher, partly 

 also as preparation for the inquiries by which he hoped eventually to 

 contribute to the world's stock of knowledge and thought. 



The special subjects on which he planned to publish the results of 

 research, and to which he gave most attention in the later years of his 

 life, were public finance, taxation, currency, banking. It was to these 

 that he had given most attention among the economic topics that pre- 

 sented themselves to him as editor of the Advertiser ; it was to these 

 that his own bent most attracted him. His range of information on 

 them was remarkably wide. Here, again, his writings give but frag- 

 mentary indication of the extent of his attainments. He was familiar 

 with the financial history and fiscal experiences of England and France 

 quite as much as with those of the United States, to which his writ- 

 ings were chiefly devoted. And not only was he familiar with the 

 facts ; he was singularly skilful in interpreting them. All who had 

 the pleasure of following his courses of instruction in the University 



