TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 609 
enable it to bear on its surface a population far more numerous and yet, on the 
whole, more prosperous than has ever yet, at any previous period in our history, 
been numbered within the four seas. But yet there does seem a pause—perhaps 
only for the time—in the progress of several branches of industrial labour; and 
we may be not very remote from, if we are not already entering into, the con- 
dition termed by economists the non-progressive state. I do not dread this con- 
dition for our country, should it arrive. We may, under it, by a judicious adapt- 
ation of habits to the circumstances of the case, be powerful, prosperous, and 
respected by our neighbours. Countries in this condition have gone on for years in 
great prosperity, supporting their population in a state of marked comfort. But 
when they have done so, it has been by a distinct acceptance on the part of the 
popular mind of obedience to the common virtues of thrift and foresight which 
have been too long neglected among us. Here is a practical field of ereat 
usefulness for the economic student to occupy. Some have already laboured in 
it. It will be far better for our population if they can be brought to antici- 
pate what must result from such a state of matters, rather by calm reasoning 
than by the stern teaching of necessity. This is one point of the application 
of the art of economics which may be very usefully followed out in a scientific 
spirit. 
. There is another position of a most useful character which may well be occupied, 
which requires knowledge somewhat of a different order. It is remarkable, at the 
present time, how little foreign economic writers are studied in this country. You 
may read through the works of more than one recent English writer on economic 
subjects almost without being aware that there existed any authors dealing with 
the subject except those who employed the English language. There does exist, 
however, as I need hardly mention, a very copious and valuable literature, the 
‘work of Continental scientific writers, which we might do well to explore and 
to master. Some foreign writers—or, at least, some of their works—have been 
translated into English. Thus, the very useful ‘Guide to the Study of Political 
Economy,’ by Dr. Luigi Cossa,' has been translated from Italian into English, and 
has been published here, with a preface by the late Professor Jevons. Again, the 
two valuable volumes of the ‘Principles of Political Economy,’? by Professor 
Wilhelm Roscher, have been translated into English, and are a welcome addition 
to our stock of information. This work is rendered, and very ably too, into 
English. I must confess that it is a matter of some regret to me that this transla- 
tion has proceeded from an American source. Not that I would grudge my fellow- 
students in the United States the distinction of the work; but I well remember 
the difficulties which environed a proposed translation in England, which I sought 
tocarry out, and that the matter was dropped, those difficulties for the time proving 
too great to be surmounted. I hope that greater interest in these subjects might 
be felt now. I think that if some intelligent students of economics in this country 
would attempt a series of translations from the works of foreign writers, not yet 
known here, they might do themselves and the science itself a service. Something 
has been done in this direction, but there is still a wide field to occupy. I may 
quote, in saying this, a passage very much to the point from Professor Jevons’ 
preface to Dr. Luigi Cossa’s ‘Guide,’ which I have just mentioned :— 
‘ Every economist would grant that we have in English the works of the father 
of the science, Adam Smith, and of not a few successors or predecessors who have 
made the science almost an English science. But this fact, joined perhaps with 
the common want of linguistic power in English students, has led our economic 
writers to ignore too much the great works of the French and Italian economists, 
as well as the invaluable recent treatises of German writers. The survey of the 
foreign literature of the subject given in this “Guide” will enable the English 
) Guide to the Study of Political Economy. By Dr. Luigi Cossa. London: Mac- 
millan & Co, 
? Principles of Political Economy. By William Roscher, Professor of Political 
' Economy at the University of Leipzig. Translated by John J. Lalor, A.M. London: 
Triibner & Co, 2 volumes. 
1883. RR 
