GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF CRITICAL SPIRIT. 133 



In economics, we have the great historical school, of 

 which Roscher may be considered the foremost repre- 

 sentative, and the earlier dogmatic school, which dates 

 back to the great influence of Adam Smith. In the 

 many and far-reaching studies which deal with public or 

 private ethics or the problems of the state and govern- 

 ment,^ we have the two opposite tendencies, seeking for 



liistorical school" (E. Sfcrohal, in 

 Lexis, loc. cit., p. 327). In it he 

 successfully opposed the idea of 

 such a codification, and maintained 

 that the most " pressing task con- 

 sisted rather in the historical under- 

 standing of the ruling jurisdiction. " 

 His position has been criticised as 

 too supremely academic and un- 

 sympathetic towards the practical 

 demands of the age. Nevertheless 

 it remained victorious for a long 

 time in scientific circles, though 

 practically of little effect, seeing 

 that even the "Code Civil," which 

 Napoleon had forcibly thrust upon 

 a large district in Western Ger- 

 many, remained in popular force 

 and favour. On the other side, 

 the programme of Thibaut was re- 

 vived when, on the22nd June 1874, 

 the German Imperial Diet charged 

 a commission of eminent jurists 

 with the drafting of a civil code. 

 ■ The first outcome of this was 

 submitted to the public in the 

 year 1888, and has since, after 

 being subjected to elaborate criti- 

 cism and emendation, passed into 

 law. 



^ I wish to remind my readers 

 that I am dealing with the diffusion 

 of the critical spirit, and am not 

 attempting even a mere sketch of 

 the history of Higher Criticism 

 in Germany. Such would have to 

 take special note of a large cluster 

 of studies peculiar to the German 

 universities, but which are only 

 veiy incompletely, if at all, culti- 

 vated iu the learned schools of 



France and England. It is not only 



that all German universities con- 

 tain a legal faculty ; such existed 

 in early times already in the French 

 university system of the Middle 

 Ages, and has from this likewise been 

 transferred to the Scottish universi- 

 ties. The German universities con- 

 tain, in addition, special faculties 

 and curricula for the study of what 

 are termed "Cameralia," the word 

 camera, or chamber, being used in 

 the sense in which it has survived 

 in such terms as " Chamber of 

 Deputies," "Chamber of Parlia- 

 ment," " Chamber of Commerce," 

 &c. Students of Cameralia are 

 such as prepare specially for the 

 lower and higher positions in the 

 administration. Tliey are incor- 

 porated in the ever-widening cir- 

 cumference of the philosophical 

 faculty, or they constitute, as at 

 Strassburg, Wiirzburg, Munich, and 

 Tiibiugen, separate faculties, which 

 have incorporated in various ways 

 such of the legal branches as are of 

 special importance for administra- 

 tive purposes (see Lexis, loc. cit.,\o\. 

 i. p. 279, &c. ) Their studies, termed 

 in German "Staatswissenschaften," 

 approach on the one side branches 

 of legal study such as " Staatsrecht," 

 and on the other side the statis- 

 tical sciences, which in the course 

 of the nineteenth century have be- 

 come more and more mathematical. 

 With such a very definite concep- 

 tion of the training which the lower 

 and higher officers and servants of 

 the State retiuiie, it is interesting 



