circumstances these rusty weapons may once more be fetched out of the arsenal." With regard to the general claim of either branch of the legislature to determine its privileges, and to be plaintiff, judge, jury, and executioner in its own cause whenever it deems a breach of its privileges to have been committed, he refers to the censure passed upon it by Lord Brougham, that it gives a slap in the face to all the principles of the constitution. Obviously, any such exercise of authority requires to be jealously watched by the public. Vigilantibus, non dormientibus, æquitas subvenit, is a maxim susceptible of a wide political, as well as of a narrow legal, interpretation. Some curiosity may be felt as to the extent of the circulation which a decidedly technical work on the law of a foreign country is likely to attain among the German reading public. Englishmen take a fair amount of interest in the concerns of other nations, but not even the close attention with which we lately followed the Zola and Dreyfus trials would create any very great demand for a work on French legal procedure in England. Dr. Wertheimer, however, is convinced that the need for his work (which is well up to date, containing references to Acts passed in 1898) is beyond dispute, and that it will find its public among politicians, philologists, and men of business, as well as among lawyers. C. H. D'E. LEPPINGTON. THE SOCIAL POLICY OF RODBERTUS. By E. C. K. GONNER, M.A., Brunner Professor of Economic Science at University College, Liverpool. [xxi., 209 pp. 8vo. 7s. 6d. net. Macmillan. London, 1899.] In these days of superfluous book-making it is a pleasure to welcome a monograph which lays its readers under a very real obligation. To most people in England Rodbertus is a name, and not much more; he is vaguely associated with the development of scientific Socialism in Germany, and is known to have stood in some near relation to Marx and Lassalle, but this is about all. In Germany, on the other hand, the writings of Rodbertus have made a remarkable impression in economic circles; Wagner goes so far as to claim for him the title of a "Ricardo of Scientific Socialism." And in truth the social speculation and the economic philosophy of Rodbertus deserve study and exposition, more especially as he has not given his writings a systematic or methodical form. Professor Gonner's appreciation is all the more welcome; and we may say at once that it is characterized by judgment, insight, and sympathy. He has brought into relief the VOL. X.-No. 2. T salient and distinctive features of Rodbertus's method and doctrine, so that the reader has no difficulty in understanding the central ideas which run through his scattered writings (of which, by the way, Professor Gonner gives a useful bibliography). The points of difference between Rodbertus and Marx, on the one hand, and Lassalle on the other, are noted by Professor Gonner; they are significant, and are certainly not unfavourable to Rodbertus. He had no sympathy with Lassalle's agitation, or with his scheme of State-assisted productive societies; at the same time, he provided the basis of the "Iron Law of Wages" which played such an effective part in the propaganda of Lassalle. But the scientific character of Socialism lost a good deal in the process of popularization. The doctrine of "surplus-value," again, appeared at quite an early stage in Rodbertus's theories; Marx certainly elaborated the theory, but in a way which made it at the same time more vulnerable. Rodbertus is careful, as Professor Gonner points out, to distinguish between the theoretical and the actual aspects of economic conceptions; labour, for instance, would and could only be the basis of value under the conditions of a nationally organized system of production. Nor does he regard profits or interest as an exploitation under the circumstances of competitive production; what he contends is that the proportionate share of wages has diminished with increased productivity, and that it does not receive much that under other conditions it would receive"the process of expropriation (Ausbeutung) relates to proportions, not to quantities "though it must be admitted that Rodbertus does not furnish any actual or statistical proof of this abstract proposition. He recognizes that "individualism under capitalist guidance" is a necessary phase through which society must pass on its road towards a national system of industry. "During it the capitalist, the undertaker (Unternehmer), and the landowner perform certain functions which in a correctly organized community would be undertaken and performed by the State." In the place of Marx's doubtful dialectics about "surplus-value," Rodbertus is mainly interested in emphasizing the fact that the mere fact of possession gives the owner of land and capital a vantage-ground in the bargain for wages, and that part, at any rate, of the produce which he obtains is simply the remuneration of possession. At the same time he points out that even under a system in which labour is made the basis of value, "the workman will not and should not be the owner of the total product of his labour." It may be added that Rodbertus does not look at Socialism from the point of view of any "natural right." As Professor Gonner observes "Both his criticism of existing conditions and his suggestions of reform are primarily inspired by the ideal of the State, and not by a desire for the equality of individuals and classes. His Socialism, in other words, grows out of the conception of a strong State; and to social stability, both present and prospective, as it is and in its development, all other considerations must yield." Rodbertus has the instincts of a statesman and an administrator, and has not much interest in a "cosmopolitanism which is not based on the antecedence of patriotism." Lastly, the historical method of Rodbertus is, in Professor Gonner's words, "so vastly superior to that of Marx as to leave no room for comparison." It is certainly more philosophical. To Rodbertus the meaning of social, as distinguished from natural evolution lies in the creation and development of the social instinct. The social idea takes different forms according to different stages of social organization. Professor Gonner rightly emphasizes the historical method of Rodbertus as the pivot upon which all his doctrine turns. "He thinks, as it were, in history; history is "the unquestioned source and embodiment" of his theories; it became with him a habit of mind rather than a consciously adopted method. It is this which makes Rodbertus's theories, even when they are reached by a more abstract method, "palpitate with actuality;' it is this which gives to his Socialism the saving grace of sanity; it is this which makes him at once so Radical and so Conservative. Socialism, according to Rodbertus, "concludes the series of emancipations which began with the Reformation;" but he recognizes, as Professor Gonner puts it, that there will be much wandering in the wilderness before the promised land can be reached. His justification of the relative necessity of private property in land and capital is quite compatible with his ultimate confidence in the will and power of society to work out its own salvation and attain economic freedom. Whatever may be the ultimate worth of Rodbertus's theories, there can be no doubt as to their suggestiveness, and Professor Gonner has made a real contribution to social and economic literature by his study of Rodbertus-a study, moreover, that is worthy of its subject. Something seems to have gone wrong with a sentence at the bottom of p. 102, and it is doubtful whether the best analytical table of contents excuses the absence of an index. SIDNEY BALL. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AND SOCIAL PROGRESS. By the 10s. 6d. REV. JAMES S. DENNIS, D.D. [2 vols. 954 pp. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1899.] There could be few stronger proofs of the increasing interest now taken in foreign missions than the fact that a college should appoint a lecturer on missions. Yet that is what has happened at the Princetown Theological Seminary in the United States, where Dr. James S. Dennis was in 1896 appointed to be the Students' Lecturer on Missions. The subject chosen for these lectures, Christian Missions and Social Progress, is one of peculiar interest, for there are many people who, while quite willing to admit that missions have done, and are still doing, a great work on distinctively religious lines, question their efficacy as social regenerators. Now, Dr. Dennis has boldly entered the lists against such critics, and has dealt in a most thorough way with the whole question of the share which Christian missions have had in contributing to the social and political progress of non-Christian nations. It is impossible to read, however cursorily, the two bulky volumes of evidence without feeling that the author proves his case to the hilt; and if the third volume which he promises is as convincing as the two already published, Dr. Dennis will have contributed a work of no small value to Christian social literature. He himself writes from a large personal acquaintance with his subject, since for many years he laboured as a missionary in the American Presbyterian Mission in Syria. But these volumes by no means represent merely their author's own views, for besides making extensive use of a perfect library of current mission literature, he has collected evidence by means of "a carefully prepared circular, with detailed questions upon special aspects of the theme, which he sent to over three hundred missionaries, representing various societies in many lands." The result of these investigations is a veritable encyclopædia of interesting facts. There are few people who could fail to recognize the terrible social evils of the non-Christian world. Whether one turns to the East, to India, China, Japan, or Korea, or to Africa or Madagascar, or to Mahommedan countries, or to the South Sea Islands, the same revolting picture meets one's eyes. Everywhere there has been the same shocking tale of intemperance, gambling, immorality, the degradation of woman, slavery, and brutality. In India there have been such social scourges as childmarriage and widowhood, with all its attendant cruelties and miseries, infanticide, heartless neglect of the poor and sick, and filthy insanitary conditions. In China there have been the horrors of the opium-habit, foot-binding, gambling, compulsory prostitution, domestic slavery, revolting brutality of punishment and tortures, besides many other evils common to other heathen people. Amongst savage races, such as those of West Africa and the South Sea Islands, there have been rife the additional horrors of cannibalism, witchcraft, and burying alive. But all these social evils are far more easily mentioned than grasped. Commissioner H. Johnston has estimated that 30 per cent. of those who die in Central Africa are the victims of alcohol. In Lagos in West Africa it is said that on market-days, when the products of the country are bartered for foreign goods, "nineteen shillings out of every twenty are exchanged for gin and rum." In India much has been done for the cause of education. There are still, according to the last census report, only six women in a thousand who know how to read. Bad as the divorce question is in Christian countries like England and the United States, with its forty thousand divorces in 1894, it sinks into insignificance before the fact that in Japan in 1891 there was one divorce to every three marriages. The evils of childmarriage tell their own tale, if it be true that the total of married girls in India between the age of five and nine is over two millions, of whom fully sixty thousand are widows, doomed to a life of humiliation and contempt. In Korea official dishonesty is so rampant that the revenue paid by the people is estimated to be double the actual amount which the Government receives. Commercial deceit and fraud even in a comparatively honest country like China is very bad; formerly China supplied 96 per cent. of tea for Great Britain, but in 1894 only 12 per cent., "the result, not so much of the growth of tea culture in India as of the dishonest tricks of Chinese trade." These are just a few facts picked out almost at random, but they help to bring home the magnitude of the social evils prevalent throughout non-Christian countries. Various remedial expedients have been tried, and tried without meeting with much success. Secular education, material civilization, state legislation have each in a measure contributed towards social progress, but have "failed to vindicate their efficacy" as social regenerators "apart from the inspiration, guidance, and co-operation of Christianity." The moral forces of ethnic religions, such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Mohammedanism, have all proved themselves quite incapable of uplifting and renewing society, because either their social ideal is a low one, or they offer no adequate motive for moral effort, or lack moral dynamic empowering men to reach their ideal. But where all else has failed, Christianity, the religion which is |