Mr. David A. Wells has made a good choice in presenting Bastiat's writings on political economy,[16 ] for his essays are as sound in principle as they are homely in method. He tried to make people see the true meaning of the phrases and theories which are the common staple of conversation among the industrial classes. For instance, he meets the assertion that a country gains wealth when the government employs a great number of people by pointing out that the personal expenditures of the people are reduced by just the amount of the taxes. When the government takes a dollar from a citizen to pay a laborer, the citizen has just one dollar less to hire the laborer for his own use. The country gains no wealth by such a transaction, but merely makes an exchange of employers. This proposition, which M. Bastiat insists upon through many arguments, is of more vital interest to France than to us. It refers to a form of folly that is chronic there, but sporadic here, and its most threatening outbreak (during the "ring rule" in New York) was violently cured by the panic of 1873. But the importance of inculcating sound views on this subject is just as necessary here as there. Probably the larger part of Tweed's stealings ultimately found their way to laboring men, but who shall say that New York has gained wealth by his career? M. Bastiat's views on interest, capital, taxes, encouragement of fine arts by the State, public works, the spendthrift, government, etc., are excellent, and expressed in an ingenious and taking way. It is hard to give to dissertations on such subjects that "blood-curdling interest" which Mark Twain promised in his agricultural memoranda; but M. Bastiat certainly unites an unusual interest of style to sensible and simple views. Mr. Wells may count the reproduction of these essays as one of the many valuable public services he has done his countrymen.
A hundred and four years have passed since John Howard paid that visit to Bedford jail which first directed his attention to the improvement of the prisoners' condition. The work began with the study of prisons; a hundred years has turned it into the study of the prisoner. Mr. Dugdale[17 ] discovered in 1874 the criminal family which has become notorious as containing Margaret, "the mother of criminals." She was one of six sisters, of whom one is not traceable; four gave rise to mixed criminal and pauper lines, and Margaret to a distinctively criminal line. To these sisters Mr. Dugdale gives the name Jukes, and he has followed up seven generations, containing 540 known persons of Juke blood, and 169 known persons of other blood who became allied to the Jukes in one way or another. All told, this criminal family contains 709 known persons, and probably 500 undiscovered members, forming the most numerous criminal lineage ever studied. Mr. Dugdale's pamphlet is a profoundly interesting analysis of the history of this family, and the tendencies that have governed it. The remarkable fact is developed that the strongest criminal tendencies are on the female side, and pauper tendencies on the male side. Crime and pauperism are psychologically one and the same, one or the other being manifested as the individual's character is strong or weak. A life may exhibit an innocent childhood, a criminal maturity, and a pauper old age. The same phases may be developed more slowly, and appear in successive generations, or even in alternate generations. Intemperance is no doubt frequently the immediate cause of crime, as seen in so many murders. But Mr. Dugdale shows that the common belief that criminal tendencies are the result of intemperance is not true, while the reverse is true, that these tendencies produce physical degeneration, which craves the stimulus of drink. These investigations show that the pauper is almost irreclaimable. His mental weakness neutralizes every effort made for his welfare, but the active criminal has strength enough to do better if he will. As to women, it is shown that their immorality is the precise counterpart of crime in the man, and it is to this fact that we owe the steady development of our criminal population. Illegitimacy is not in itself a cause of crime, but the environment of neglect in which the illegitimate live is a fruitful cause. We cannot detail all the conclusions of this close and exhaustive study of criminal character. They are as numerous as they are disagreeable to read and contemplate.
—Dr. Bowen's pamphlet on "Dyspepsia," published by Loring, is so good, so comforting, and so plain to persons who do not know any more of medicine than is necessary to have the various diseases, that we are glad to point it out to our readers. He says there is no case of dyspepsia that cannot be cured, except such as are complicated with other troubles that are necessarily fatal. He opposes the starvation treatment, but does not give general directions for cure, saying that each case must be studied and treated for itself.
Dr. Stillman's "Seeking the Golden Fleece"[18 ] is worth reading for its faithful picture of a long sea voyage in the olden time. Nearly a hundred passengers left New York in the Pacific, the captain and owner being obliged to slink on board, to avoid attachments sued out against them by other passengers who were dissatisfied and left behind. The voyage consumed 194 days, and the narrative of its incidents is much the most interesting part of the book. As to the author's experience in California, we can sum it up in the common phrase, "The old story." He was one of the first argonauts. He saw Sacramento when it had half-a-dozen shanties, San Francisco when millions of dollars worth of goods lay on the hillsides, for lack of sufficient warehouses, when the mines were yielding well, and cooks were cheap at $300 a month. Dr. Stillman's narrative is one of the best that has appeared of California in the days of the pioneers.
Mr. Habberton shows how fit he is to be the editor of selections from standard authors by publishing the Roger de Coverly papers[19 ] without a note or emendation. We have these celebrated numbers of the "Spectator" in all the grace and humor of the originals, and with the quaint flavor which age has necessarily added to them unimpaired. The editor informs us that after a careful hunt through the book market, he finds the previous editions of Sir Roger out of print, and for that reason he publishes this one, though his first plan for the "Select British Essayists" did not include it. He thinks the publication peculiarly timely now, when "the standard of letters threatens to become vastly different from that under which English literature has gained whatever it possesses of real value." We do not agree with him in anticipating the complete shelving of Sir Roger in case this threatened change really takes place. In all times the really great authors will be read by the few, and talked about by the many. But however that may be, Mr. Habberton's handsome and convenient collection of these papers will be welcomed by the many who are glad to learn how famous authors wrote, and yet have not taste enough for classical reading to attack the whole "Spectator" itself.