on everyday life, with an inquiry into the philosophic basis of the theory. The range of subjects dealt with is a wide one, and the effort of the writer has been to treat them consistently from his individualistic standpoint. While due consideration is given to Spencer, Mr. Donisthorpe differs from that writer upon nearly every point as set forth in the latter's work entitled Man vs. the State. The present work begins with a treatment of the growth and evolution of the State, its structures, and its functions. Succeeding chapters deal with capital, the labor question, and labor capitalisation; the concluding chapters with anarchy-the logical extreme of individualism, the basis of individualism, land-law reforms, and socialism, while the final one carries war into the domain of absolutism in politics. The book is extremely interesting and deserving of the attention of all students of economics and politics. While Mr. Donisthorpe has deliberately assumed a polemic rather than an apologetic tone, even when differing from those with whom he is, in the main, in accord, he has at the same time given to the impartial public a work that will be of value in discussing the speculative foundation upon which the principles of individualism are based.

THE ONTARIO TOWNSHIP. By J. M. McEvoy, with an Introduction by PROF. W. J. ASHLEY. 42 pp. [Toronto University Studies in Political Science. First Series, No. 1.] Out of the growing consciousness of the importance of the problems of local government has arisen a constantly increasing literature devoted to the portrayal of local institutions in particular localities. Of this species of detail study Mr. McEvoy's monograph is a good example. There can, of course, be no value to us in the experiences of Canadian communities unless there is in them something typical. In his introduction Prof. Ashley calls attention to the fact that we are not always able to discern what is typical until we have a knowledge of the most varied experiences, and hence the historic importance of individual localities is by no means the only test of the possibility of their

contributing something to political science. From this point of view the pamphlet before us is certainly not without interest.

The townships of Ontario derived their original boundaries and governmental powers from the central authority of the province. The latter, at the period with which our author begins his study—that brought to pass by an act of 1793-were very scanty. In town meeting the freeholders elected their township officers, who carried out the measures decided upon by the judges of quarter sessions, and in their legislative capacity voted upon the height of fences. The town officers merely carried out the measures of the judges. The latter were appointed for life, and were not familiar with the needs of particular districts. Under such a system local government could not reach a high point, on account of the lack of intimate relations between the governing power and the governed. After the uprising of 1837-38 a new principle was introduced, in that a board of commissioners, elected by the people and known as the district council, exercised the functions heretofore discharged by the courts. With the change came an increased interest and activity in local affairs. This form of government was replaced in 1849 by the system of township councils, by which the township is given a far greater degree of autonomy than it formerly possessed. The township government is now in the hands of a council of five, the president of which is called reeve, elected annually. Nominations are made in town meeting, and on this occasion the retiring officers give an account of their official activity; nominees and others discuss in the greatest detail the affairs of the town. Though deprived of direct legislative functions, the town meeting still exercises a potent influence on town affairs. The details of the different forms of township government are worked out by the author with care, and we have a good view of the results achieved by each. In general, the thesis with which the author begins his discussion, that with the growth of democratic local government the towns have better fulfilled their mission,

is well sustained. However chary the central government has been in delegating power to these minor units, the author is by no means inclined to believe that, on general principles, such a policy is justified by the results.

The University Quarterly Review is the title of a new periodical which comes to us from Toronto. Though not expressly stated, it seems implied that the editorial management is intimately connected with the university of that place. The first number contains an article by Dr. Bourinot, on "The National Sentiment in Canada," in which he sketches the influences which in politics, commerce and literature are tending to promote the feeling of solidarity among the various parts of the Dominion, and which, without pointing to absolute political independence, are tending to render Canada an organic body, with a vigorous life of its own. Prof. Ashley contributes an article on "The Canadian Sugar Combine." In it he shows that, according to official investigation, this combination, whereby wholesale grocers who agree to sell to retailers always at a certain advance on the refiner's prices, and not to cut prices, received decided privileges in buying over those who did not so agree, has, up to the present, produced results in which the bad by no means outweighs the good. The combine has not advanced prices beyond such as give what is conceded to be a fair rate of profit. Business is more regular, and from being that part of the grocer's stock on which the profit was most uncertain, sugar is now handled more easily than other goods.

THE WORKING PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. By S. M. MAC VANE, McLean Professor of History in Harvard College. New York: Effingham, Maynard & Co., 1890. 16mo. Pp. vii, 392.

Professor MacVane describes his volume as a book for beginners, and says that in writing it, he has wished, in the first place, "to show that the principles of political economy may be developed in such a form as to bring out

more clearly than is done in the standard books their close and vital connection with everyday industry;" and, in the second place, "to suggest some modifications, chiefly in points of detail, of the conclusions commonly accepted hitherto by leading economists." The doctrines set forth as working principles are in all fundamental points those of the English economists, whose thoughts culminated in the work of Mill and Cairnes. Professor MacVane accepts their philosophy of economic life as practically sufficient, seeking only to correct it here and there, and to express it in terms of the visible facts of modern business. Within these self-imposed limits he has succeeded admirably well. Without accepting his opinion that political economy is not on the whole a very difficult study, or sharing his belief that there is "nothing in the science that young persons of ordinary ability may not master," one must admit that Professor MacVane has minimized the difficulty of mastering so much of political economy as he has chosen to include in this volume. It will be when they arrive at some of the economic problems that Professor MacVane ignores or passes over lightly, that the real difficulties of his young students will begin.

The way in which each topic in the study of wealth is approached, and the order of arrangement, are no less well adapted than the illustrative matter to keep the worka-day side of economics before the pupil's mind. Thus Professor MacVane happily begins his exposition with a paragraph on the struggle for money. Ridicule as we may the economic philosophy of mercantilism, it is in the struggle for money that the average man's contact with economic law begins and ends. From this conception the transition is easy to that of the useful things that money will buy, and thence, by natural steps, to division of labor, trading and prices, and back again to money in its relations to welfare. The pupil thus starting from the most familiar facts gets a general view of economic affairs at the outset, and can then go on to a more thorough analysis

of particulars without danger of overlooking the relations of parts to the whole, or of forgetting that the things studied are realities of the practical world. Such a method reveals the true and experienced teacher. Whatever one may think of Professor MacVane's economics, there can be but one opinion of his pedagogics.

A text-book must be judged, however, not only by the skill with which its subject matter is presented, but by the completeness and accuracy of its scientific content, and the thoroughness with which it is brought down to date. Can it be said that a beginner's book in political economy is satisfactory in these respects which makes no attempt to explain the modern theory of utility, with or without mathematical symbolism; whch limits "wealth" to material goods and therefore necessarily classes the labor of professional men as unproductive-without stating the position and argument of economists who repudiate such definitions; which does not so much as hint at the theoretical position of the historical economists on the one hand, or of the Austrian school on the other, and which presents a vigorous, subtle and most ingenious argument for the doctrine that wages are determined by savings and paid out of savings, without fully stating the counter view held by economists like Walker and Clark? That these omissions are due to no lack of ability to state fairly and intelligently the thought of an opponent, is shown in the admirable chapter on free trade and protection, where both sides of a great controversy are summarized with judicial impartiality. Professor MacVane has either dismissed the views and theories mentioned above as being no essential part of the fundamental working principles of political economy, or he has assumed that beginners could not understand them. The latter supposition would seem to be inconsistent with the belief in youthful comprehension expressed in the preface; the former would seem to indicate a faith in the finality of traditional views that few economists would care to profess.