extraordinary power of comprehending and restating the thoughts of others are indispensable. The work is divided into an introduction, treating of method, definition, and classification, and five books, devoted respectively to fundamental notions, production, circulation, distribution, and consumption. The fundamental notions are those of wants; goods; value; reason, sentiments, and passions; egoism, altruism, economic and ethical; individualism and socialism, the individual and the State; economic laws; and the economic principle. M. Block himself, as is well known, is a "classical" economist, an individualist, and an uncompromising believer in the deductive method; but he has gotten a long way beyond the positions of Ricardo, Say, and Mill. His view of value, for example, is substantially that of the Austrians. Nowhere else can the student find so complete a résumé of the development of the theory of value, from Adam Smith down to the most recent writings of Austrians and Italians, as in M. Block's chapter on this topic; and the thoroughness here shown is but a fair sample of the quality of the entire treatise.

F. H. G.

POLITICAL Science and Comparative ConSTITUTIONAL LAW. By JOHN W. BURGESS, Professor of History, Political Science, and International Law in Columbia College. Two volumes; pp. 337 and 404. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1890.

THIS is one of the works over whose appearance the student of political science may well rejoice, however one may disagree with positions and tendencies. It is no mere text-book, formulating old things in a new shape. It is no mere commentary on the Constitution of the United States, like most of the books which pretend to treat of our constitutional law. It is a systematic treatise upon the principles underlying the constitutional law of four of the leading modern nations-England, France, Germany, and the United States.

Professor Burgess has, it appears to me, made a substantial contribution to English literature upon the subject

of political science. This appears most clearly upon comparing the work with the only other works with which it can be compared: those of Lieber, Woolsey, and Wilson. Lieber's work was largely negative, animated on the one hand by a keen hatred of certain systems and men, and on the other by a feeling almost akin to worship of our American institutions—a feeling which had its root at bottom in his antagonism to Cæsarism. Woolsey's work is rather encyclopedic in character, and makes little or no pretence to advance the subject beyond the point where he found it. Wilson's book on the State follows largely other aims than those of the present work.

Professor Burgess's treatise is divided into two volumes : the first entitled Sovereignty and Liberty; the second, Government. In the first volume about 134 pages are devoted to what the author calls Political Science. In this portion of the book are developed the ideas of the Nation and of the State, with some reference to the origin, development, and ends of the latter-illustrated at the close by the formation of the Constitutions of the four States above mentioned. The results of this discussion are: that national unity is the determining force in the development of the modern constitutional States, i. e., the tendency to unite people of one nationality into one State; that the Teutonic nations are particularly endowed with the capacity for establishing national States, and hence do and should conduct the political civilization of the modern world. To this end they are justified in interfering with the affairs of people that manifest incapacity to solve the problems of political civilization; nay, they are in duty bound to thus interfere, and they should go on with the work until the whole world is politically well organized.

The State is of historical origin, and possesses four qualities: all-comprehensiveness, exclusiveness, permanence, and sovereignty. Sovereignty is, by its very nature, unlimited and absolute, and vests in the State alone. This doctrine, and its realization in fact, is the only sure source

and support of individual liberty. We cannot for an instant recognize any so-called absolute or original rights of the individual, for this leads to anarchy and barbarism, and this is shown by an appeal to history.

This doctrine is opposed by publicists, because they do not distinguish between State and government. History shows that the State gradually sets limits to the government, securing for the individual a sphere which the government may not intrude upon; but the State, not the individual, must do this, and by doing so proves its sovereignty. The government may give to the individual certain rights, but they are never secure until the State sets them in the constitution in such a way as to make it impossible for the government to override them.

The ends of the State are government, liberty, the development of national genius, and world civilization. But they must be pursued in this order. Any attempt to follow out a different one results in State decay and ruin.

The second part of the first volume deals with comparative constitutional law. A complete constitution consists of three parts: organization of the State for the accomplishment of future changes in the constitution; constitution of liberty; constitution of government. The first part is especially important. The means of amending the constitution should not be too easy or too difficult. Liberty should be secured against the action of the government. Government should be republican, with centralized legislation and federalized administration.

The rest of the work is made up of practical illustrations pertinent to the various theories developed, and includes a detailed examination of the four constitutions already mentioned with reference to the last three points.

Some of the practical conclusions of the author may be of interest in this connection. In the first place, our American State is, constitutionally speaking, the most developed of modern States. It has an organization for

establishing a constitution which is different from the government established by the Constitution; and it secures the liberty of the individual against the government by constitutional guarantee. It is in many respects inferior to foreign States, as the government is at various points not so well organized.

Professor Burgess calls attention to the fact that our constitutional system is at many points out of harmony with the facts of our political life, and it is such a state of things which leads to revolution. Theoretically, our commonwealths are the chief guardians of personal liberty; as a matter of fact, they have always been the worst enemies of such liberty, and the Civil War was a consequence. After the new amendments had made the nation the guardian and protector of such liberty, the Supreme Court restored the old state of things as nearly as possible by its doctrine in the Slaughter House cases-a doctrine which must be given up or ignored if we are to progress in our civilization. The author also espouses the doctrine that all immunities granted in the Constitution may be suspended by declaration of martial law-the necessity for which is a matter entirely of legislative and executive discretion to use his own words: "In time of war and public danger the whole power of the State must be vested in the general government."

In the view of the author, a State is not only following a sound public policy, but one which is ethnically obligatory upon it, when it protects its nationality against the deleterious influences of foreign immigration. This justifies, of course, the exclusion of the Chinese from the country. It is, moreover, the duty of a State composed of several nationalities to strive to develop ethnical homogeneity. It should insist on the use of a common language. This justifies Russia in Russifying the Baltic Provinces and Germany in Teutonizing Alsace-Lorraine and Polish Prussia. The Teutonic nations should take up the mission of conducting the political civilization of the modern world. The

Teutonic element should never surrender the balance of power to any other element. It should, if necessary, exclude other elements from participation in political power. It follows, from these things, that the Teutonic nations should have a colonial policy. They should civilize the barbarians or sweep them from the face of the earth. They should assume political charge of the politically incapable races, and bring them up to a higher level.

It will be seen from the preceding notice that this work offers many points with which a reviewer might not agree. A fuller discussion of the point of view taken by the author is reserved for a future number. It is sufficient to say here that every student of general political science and of comparative constitutional law should feel under obligation to Professor Burgess for the thorough and detailed treatment which he has given to some of the knottiest portions of this field of science. It should also be noted, as was indicated above, that a very good account of many important features of the constitutional systems of France, Germany, England, and the United States is contained in this work. E. J. J.

HANDWÖRTERBUCH DER STAATSWISSENSCHAFTEN. Herausgegeben von PROF. DR. J. Conrad u. A. Erster Band, Abbau-Autorrecht. Pp. 1046. Jena: Gustav Fischer, 1890.

THIS great Dictionary of Political Economy deserves warm words of commendation. It is under the joint editorship of Professors Conrad, Elster, Lexis, and Loening. It is significant of the prominence of the University of Halle in economic and political studies that two of the editors are professors in that institution, and that one of the others, Professor Elster, began his career there. To Professor Conrad, however, is chiefly due the inception and prosecution of this work, by which he has laid scholars in all countries under a debt of obligation.

The work is to be completed in five volumes of about a thousand pages each, and to be finished in about three