524 



NA TURE 



[October i, 1903 



THE STUDY OF ECONOMICS. 

 The New Cambridge Curriculum in Economics. By 



Alfred Marshall. Pp. 34. (London : Macmillan 



and Co., Ltd.) Price is. 6d. 

 " T N the United States of America, in particular, 



L and in Germany, the subjects of Economics 

 and Political Science are commonly represented by a 

 strong" and numerous staff, and afford the main 

 route by which large numbers of students obtain 

 University Honours. . . . England, on the other hand, 

 which long held undisputed leadership in Economics, 

 has suffered in recent years from the lack of adequate 

 provision for the study of that subject at the Uni- 

 versities." 



From all sides evidence is forthcoming of 

 attempts to remedy this defect. There is a wide- 

 spread revival of interest in the subject-matter of 

 economics, and a corresponding determination on the 

 part of its teachers to seize the opportunity to place 

 the subject on firmer and broader foundations in the 

 schools. Development has taken place in several 

 directions. The " monarchical " supremacy of Mill 

 was broken up in the 'seventies by Jevons, Cliffe 

 Leslie, Bagehot and others. In 1890, Prof. Marshall 

 published the first edition of the first volume of his 

 "Principles." In the last three decades of the nine- 

 teenth century economics lost much of its insularity on 

 the one hand, and gained in human interest on the 

 other. The work of economists in Germany, Austria, 

 and the United States broadened the horizon and tested 

 the conclusions of the native researcher by an appeal to 

 a richer experience. The advent of the working- 

 classes to political power and the influence of a cheap 

 Press kept social questions ever prominent, and ideas 

 of material well-being, efficiency and comfort occupied 

 an increasing part of economic reflection. The 

 writings of Mr. Charles Booth, Mr. Sherwell, the 

 Rowntrees, Mrs. Bosanquet, and other investigators 

 have recently enjoyed a wide currency in various pure 

 and diluted forms, and have driven many to study 

 economics in a systematic fashion. Municipal enter- 

 prise has had a similar effect. With all these writers 

 and students the ruling motive has been the desire 

 to lessen poverty and to improve the quality of human 

 life. In the book before us. Prof. Marshall voices this 

 practical aim in a significant passage : — 



"The motto of Sidgwick's 'Political Economy' 

 is : * Things are in the saddle and ride mankind. ' 

 What had made men become economists, in three 

 cases out of four, was the belief that in spite of our 

 growing command over nature it is still things that 

 are in the saddle, still the great mass of mankind that 

 is oppressed — oppressed by things. The desire to put 

 mankind into the saddle is the mainspring of most 

 economic study." 



But not only has there been a quickening of interest 

 in the condition of the people at home. The sense of 

 imperial responsibility has deepened. Schemes of 

 federation, sentimental and economic, have filled the 

 air. The competition of advancing rivals has made 

 itself felt in our markets. We have been driven to 

 ask with Sir Robert Giffen, Is the central force of 

 the Empire, the power to hold it together, increasing 

 as rapidly as the Empire generally? It would be 

 fatal while widening the circumference to weaken the 

 NO. 1770, VOL. 68] 



centre; to fix the spokes in a rottening hub. The 

 Empire drains the home country of valuable adminis- 

 trative energy of which it never has too much for 

 high social efficiency. And in business, managers of 

 elastic minds, wide outlook, and great organising 

 power, in command of large masses of capital are still 

 relatively scarce. 



It is unnecessary to point out how the controversy 

 of the last few months has impressed impartial ob- 

 servers with the complexity of practical economic 

 problems, and with the urgency of studying these 

 problems in an atmosphere uncharged with the passion 

 of parties. The people are suddenly confronted with 

 political choices of international moment, and their 

 instructors are too often politicians and pressmen 

 whose hastily acquired information displays all the 

 symptoms of indigestion. Can the universities do 

 something to provide the nation with more capable 

 administrators for central and municipal government, 

 and for the diplomatic and consular services? Can 

 they train men for the supreme positions in the 

 industrial and commercial world? Prof. Marshall's 

 booklet tells us that the University of Cambridge has 

 answered in the affirmative by instituting a new 

 honours school in economics and associated branches 

 of political science, and it supplies us with the ideas 

 which have guided the Senate in framing the curri- 

 culum. This is not the place to make detailed com- 

 parisons with the similar courses newly arranged in 

 the Universities of London, Birmingham, and 

 Victoria. Speaking broadly, the Cambridge curri- 

 culum makes its appeal to advanced students who will 

 be called upon to decide main questions of policy in 

 politics and industry rather than to subordinates who 

 wish to be equipped in the technique of administration 

 and business. It is theoretical and scientific rather 

 than practical and professional. Only shallow 

 thinkers will infer that, on this account, it is out of 

 touch with reality. Prof. Marshall is under no illusion 

 on this point. His little book is a plea for a training 

 which, while it fits a man for his duties as a citizen, 

 never loses sight of the practical demands made upon 

 the employer and the civil servant in these strenuous 

 days. Prof. Marshall himself is his own best argu- 

 ment, for these pages mirror the wisdom and fairness 

 and humility and idealism of a life devoted to 

 economic study. T. J. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



A Treatise on Electromagnetic Phenomena and on the 



Compass and its Deviations Aboard Ship. Vol. ii. 



By Commander T. A. Lyons, U.S. Navy. Pp. 



vii + 582. (New York: Wiley and Sons; London: 



Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1903.) Price 25s. 6d. net. 



Some forty years ago there appeared the second edition 



of the " Admiralty Manual for Deviations of the 



Compass," and as the compass is "the soul of the 



ship," so the teaching of that manual remains the 



soul of the numerous works on the subject which 



different maritime countries have since published, 



albeit that chapters on cognate subjects may have been 



added thereto. Naturally America has provided her 



quota, and this book is her latest contribution. 



