590 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 
himself described his scientific equipment: ‘I had seareely read a dozen pages of 
Bastiat when, closing the book, and giving myself to an hour's reflection, the 
field of political economy in all its outlines and landmarks lay before my mind.’ 
In those days the presidency of an American college was commonly given to an 
elderly clergyman, and in the choice of teaching duties to be attached to the office 
the lot usually fell upon political economy, because it was the easiest subject to 
et up. 
® But to return to Great Britain. It was not till Professor Marshall became 
professor at Cambridge twenty-two years ago that either of the older English 
universities secured in its chair of economics an effective head of a living 
department of university study. Meanwhile, certainly, things had been improving 
elsewhere. At Owens College a chair had been created—or rather a half-chair, 
for political economy was joined with logic—and it had been made the most of 
by Jevons; and in 1871 another was founded at Edinburgh. After 1871 followed 
a long interval, devoid of addition to the scanty number of economic chairs. In 
the middle of the eighties, however, came a fresh moving of the waters: first 
iJl-paid lecturerships made their appearance; and then these gradually blossomed 
out into full professorships. Toronto led the way within the Empire in 1888; 
Liverpool and Glasgow established professorships in 1891 and 1896; and since 
then Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, and Bristol, as well as Montreal across the 
sea, have followed the example. The other universities and university colleges 
are, with few exceptions, already in the lecturer stage. The professor, where 
there is one, is also usually assisted by a lecturer; two or three graduate scholar- 
ships have already been created to assist the future economist in his earlier steps ; 
and in the ‘ Economic Journal,’ so impartially edited by Professor Edgeworth, as 
well as in the ‘Economic Review,’ both founded in 1891, there is a medium for the 
publication of scholarly, non-popular work. Economics, in short, is beginning to 
furnish a career. 
This is a condition of things in itself fayourable to economic studies. It has 
its drawbacks indeed, and I feel personally and painfully enough the dangers of 
academic life, We must all be aware how much we owe to writers unhampered 
by the duties of the professional teacher of economics—to men like Mr. Seebohm,° 
Mr. Booth, Mr. Rowntree, Mr. Palgraye, Mr. Webb, Mr. Hobson, Mr. Money, and 
Mr. Welsford, to mention but afew among them, But such non-academic work 
involyes either the possession of private means or the pursuit of some other and 
yemunerative occupation, such as journalism, And grateful as we must be for all 
original and stimulating contributions to knowledge, we cannot be so confident, 
either in the supply of men of means with scholarly interests or in the ability of 
journalists to overcome partisan predilection, as to dispense willingly with a reason- 
ably large contingent of professed economists within the Universities. 
The revival of economic studies in Great Britain of late years has been due to 
the almost unconscious convergence of several influences. On the one side has 
been the growing interest in what are called ‘social questions,’ and, combined 
with this, a perception of the need for more systematic training for that work of 
municipal and political administration which is every day embracing a larger part 
of the national activity. It is to motives like these that was due the foundation 
of the London School of Economics. Too much credit can searcely be given to 
those who, whatever their own economic views, had the statesmanlike courage to 
found an institution distinguished from the first by the largest impartiality, or to 
the first director, Mr. Hewins, who conducted it through the difficult years of its 
infancy. Coming from another side there has been a realisation of the need for 
systematic training for commercial careers—the conviction to which have been due 
the new Faculties of Commerce at Birmingham and Manchester, and the new 
Economies Tripos at Cambridge. On this aspect of the recent development, which 
naturally is to me of primary interest, I shall make only one comment—that I am 
convinced that the study of actual business organisation, methods, and conditions 
is not only desirable for the preparation of our future leaders of trade and industry 
for their subsequent careers; though when we consider all that that means we can 
hardly over-estimate its importance, It is desirable also for the enlargement and 
