CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIALISM. 



75 



mental discipline in preparation for the investigation of the facts 

 of actual life* ; and it has done much to divert economic study 

 in England to lines that are unfruitful, while it has also 

 execised a still more regrettable influence on the public mind. 

 The fact that a "new" Political Economy has been put 

 forward, in academic circles, has gone a long way to discredit 

 the older doctrine all along the line. The Malthusian principles 

 of population, and the law of diminishing return for land are 

 in popular opinion part of the " old " Pohtical Economy which 

 has been discarded, and it is supposed that they have ceased 

 to deserve any attention. The body of scientific principle 

 which has been established as the foundation for the criticism 

 of practical proposals has been abandoned, and there is no 

 longer any recognised basis of organised knowledge from which 

 to criticise the projects of any sentimental charlatan. Since 

 the "new" Political Economy has come into vogue the 

 warnings of the prophetic voice have been silenced, and the 

 public are encouraged to hope that a much desired image will 

 sooner or later be available, to go before the people to the 

 promised land. 



III. 



The rapid progress of Socialism is sufficiently accounted for 

 when we see that the Government of the country has to a great 

 extent passed into the hands of classes who have an exaggerated 

 belief as to the work which the State can wisely attempt to do ; 

 while the old scientific standpoint from which its projects can 

 be effectively criticised and rightly appreciated has been 

 officially abandoned. To a very large number of educated persons 

 it has come as something of a relief to believe that they are now 

 set free from any intellectual obligation to refrain from advo- 

 cating proposals, to which they are impelled by a sentiment in 

 favour of the less unequal distribution of wealth, and their 

 sympathy for the poor. In so lar as they had read Political 

 Econom}', e.g., in John Stuart Mill, they had found much of it 

 clear and convincing ; but yet there seemed to be a blot upon it, 

 from its persistence in studying the effects of self-interest ; and 

 in so far as it was popularly made a basis Ibr or a justification 

 of practical conduct, it was clearly unchristian. The "new" 



of British Assofiation at Leicester in Economic Journal, xi) and M. 

 C. S. Devas {Political Economy, 23, 129). 



* See my article, A Plea for Pure Science in Economic Review, iv, 

 January, 1892. 



