Annual Report of the Council. lvii. 



matter-of-fact literalness, was not wanting in Walker ; he 

 had a wide, practical, and, to some extent, hereditary 

 familiarity with business life and public affairs, and he 

 constantly kept his reasoning in touch with them. As a 

 student and, eventually, a teacher of history — he was 

 appointed Professor of History as well as of Political 

 Economy in the Sheffield Science School of Yale College 

 in 1873 — the bent of his mind was in sympathy with that 

 ■of the historical school of economists founded by the 

 publication, in 1843, of Roscher's treatise on the historical 

 method of economic inquiry ; and, though a teacher from 

 observation and experience, rather than a mere commen- 

 tator on abstractions, Professor Walker was not second to 

 any contemporary writer in his power of generalising and, 

 so to speak, intellectualising his practical knowledge. The 

 absence from his writings of anything like American man- 

 nerism is not the least of their charms ; and to their 

 academic style, not less than to their other qualities, may 

 probably be attributed the position which they long since 

 gained as University text-books throughout the world. 

 Walker was an economist by descent. He was the son 

 •of Professor Amasa Walker, whose ancestors settled in 

 Massachusetts in 1641. The elder W r alker engaged in 

 business in early life, subsequently filled various offices in 

 the State Legislature, including that of Secretary of State, 

 and was a strong supporter of the temperance and anti- 

 slavery movements. He published a book on the " Nature 

 and Uses of Money" in 1857, became lecturer on Political 

 Economy at Amherst College, in Massachusetts, in 1861, 

 and in 1866 published a second widely read and much 

 quoted work, entitled " The Science of Wealth." His son, 

 Francis Amasa Walker, was born in Boston, the centre 

 •of American literary culture, in 1840, and graduated at 

 Amherst in i860 on the eve of the American Civil War. 

 During that great struggle he served as a staff officer in 

 the Federal army, and was wounded at Chancellorsville. 



