CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIALISM. 



73 



point of view ; they held, that theirs was an important stand- 

 point, but they were careful to make clear that they did not 

 regard it as the only standpoint. The Classical Economists 

 dealt with one side of life — the pursuit of wealth — which was 

 isolated for the sake of convenience of study ; they had a 

 strong position for negative criticism, by pointing out cases in 

 which injury was likely to be done to national opulence, as, for 

 example, war must injure it, for a time at least, and perhaps 

 for an indefinitely long time. But they did not pretend to be 

 able to give positive advice as to what ought to be done, because 

 they were not wholly forgetful of the one-sided character of 

 their own knowleds^e. 



A purely critical role is one which rouses little enthusiasm, 

 especially when experience proves the criticism to have been 

 sometimes mistaken. Carlyle and Paiskin gave expression to a 

 sort of disdain for the dismal science which was increasingly felt 

 in the fifties and sixties. The British public have been inclined 

 to resent the self-restraint of scientific students and to insist that, 

 if tlieir science is worth anvtliins:. Political Economv ou^ht to 

 be able to give direct and positive guidance in political life, 

 not merely on particular economic questions, but on matters of 

 social policy. The controversy over the Corn Laws proved to 

 be a turning point in this matter ; on the one hand there was 

 the attitude of MacCulloch — the last and. the most learned and 

 most realistic of the classical economists — who criticised 

 restriction from the scientific standpoint ; and on the other 

 there were Cobden and Bright, preaching an economic doctrine 

 of free ^ exchange as the harbinger of welfare at home and 

 universal peace throughout the world. From 1846 onwards it 

 became increasingly difficult to maintain the old attitude as to 

 the narrow limits of scientific investigation in economics, and 

 to maintain its hypothetical character. The popular \dew that 

 it was capable, not merely of criticising, but of giving positive 

 guidance in regard to the material aspects of national life 

 became more and more deeply seated. 



The demand soon called forth a supply : Professor Marshall 

 has made a gallant attempt to re-cast Political Economy, so 

 that it sliall be better accommodated to meet the popular need 

 of positive guidance. He has endeavoured to enlarge the 

 scope of Political Economy, by abandoning the view that it 

 confines its attention to material wealth, and to the motives 

 which it calls into play. In his inaugural lecture* he showeu 



* The Present Position of Economics, 1884. 



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