Sometime Attorney-General of New South Wales, and Honorary "War and Tariffs-these are the two great enemies of mankind JOHN BRIGHT. "Because right is right, to follow the right is wisdom, in the CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: 1892. 12-7-1940 = PREFACE. DURING the years 1880-82, a few Oxford graduates and undergraduates, who had been brought together by the influence of the late Arnold Toynbee, used to meet once a month during term time, alternately in Oxford and London, for the purpose of discussing in detail, and with complete frankness, some specified political or social question.* One of the subjects frequently referred to at these meetings was the attitude of the working classes towards Free Trade; and it was agreed that some member of the Society should prepare a paper, under Toynbee's supervision, on the best means of fixing popular attention on the relation of political economy to fiscal questions. The execution of this idea was allotted to the present writer, and an outline of a pamphlet was prepared and submitted to Toynbee for criticism in 1882. Toynbee in that year was engaged upon the London lectures which led to his last illness, and was, consequently, unable to carry out his plan of a conjoint work. He did, however, discuss very fully with the writer, in several conversations, the scheme of the intended. work, and suggested many modifications of that which had * The members of this Society, which had no name, were Arnold Toynbee ; Alfred Milner, New College, Editor of Toynbee's posthumous work, "The Industrial Revolution "; P. L. Gell, Balliol College; F. C. Montague, Balliol College; E. T. Cook, New College; D. G. Ritchie, Jesus College; J. A. Hamilton, Balliol College; J. D. Rogers, Balliol College; Hon. W. Bruce, Balliol College; and B. R. Wise, Queen's College. Mr. Ritchie's essay on Darwinism and Politics," in Swan Sonnenschein & Co.'s "Social Science Series," and Mr. Montague's book on "The Limits of Individual Liberty" (Kegan Paul & Co., 1884), both originated in these meetings. " 06-31-20 |