MISCELLANEOUS.

WOOLSEY'S "COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM."*—It would be well if every citizen could read this book. From such an author, it must be erudite; it is, however, more than that; it is candid. The denunciatory method of dealing with socialism and its advocates is not the method of President Woolsey. Leading socialists receive full credit for ability, and facts which support their theory are stated as frankly as those which oppose it.

In defining Communism and Socialism the author has avoided the common error of forming ideal conceptions, independently of fact and history, and forcing the terms to designate the conceptions thus created. He has made a careful study of the historical use of the words, and defined them accordingly. The essential feature of both communism and socialism is stated to be the collective ownership of property; but communism introduces this in small communities within an ordinary state, as in the Shaker communities in this country, while socialism aims to secure possession of the State as a whole, and remodel all its industrial institutions on the communal plan. The one would abolish private capital in a village; the other would sweep it from a nation. Ideal communism, in its fullest extent, would divide a State into innumerable little societies, each of which would be a unit in itself; ideal socialism would abolish local units, and ultimately unite the nations of the world into a single homogeneous state, highly centralized and despotic beyond precedent.

It will occur to the reader that the socialism under consideration is of an uncompromising kind. Such is, in fact, the system of Marx and his followers. It is fiat socialism, something which is to have no natural development, but is to be artificially created, and then forced, ready made, on an entire people. Some absolute power is to say "Let there be socialism;" and there will be socialism-over night, possibly, hardly longer.

As this is what leading theorists of the school advocate, it is natural that this should be what the present work would oppose; but the author seems to assume, and in one or two places to say, that no other socialism is possible. That modification of the socialistic system which develops naturally, as when a State assumes the ownership of railroads, and then of other particular

*Communism and Socialism in their History and Theory. A Sketch. By THEODORE D. WOOLSEY. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. New Haven: E. P. Judd.

industries, is not only excluded from the discussion, but appears to be quietly banished from the limits of possibility. The author has, however, given us a term well adapted to designate this natural tendency, in the French word collectivism.

After a brief account of the more interesting experiments in practical communism, in which the mediaeval village commune is barely mentioned, the author gives an outline of the leading utopian theories, from Plato's "Republic" to the modern schemes. Readers who cannot master a difficult German style will value the analysis and criticism of Schæffle's "Quintessence of Socialism." The concluding part of the work is occupied in considering what would be the condition of things if a State were to be remodeled on the socialistic plan. To a reader who apprehends for the first time the tremendous nature of the changes involved, this will seem like inquiring what would be the political and social state of affairs if the earth and the planets were to fall onto the sun. The author concludes that the government would be despotic, that workmen would be chained to their locality like serfs, when not arbitrarily moved by their rulers, that the finances would be simple, but burdensome to the laborers, and that the State would be weak in war, but, fortunately, not likely to become engaged in it. He shows that communism has been consistent with a high degree of religion; but that socialism, while not absolutely inconsistent with religion in theory, is hostile to it in practice. He shows also that, while there are differences of opinion among theorists concerning the proper nature of the family in a socialistic state, such a state would be, in fact, unfavorable to its existence, and utterly hostile to its best development.

In conclusion he reassures his readers by a concise statement of the forces which would oppose the introduction of socialism if it should be actually attempted, and which would certainly cause the speedy abandonment of the attempt. The style of the work might be clearer than it is; to get the precise meaning of a passage often requires close attention. The chief fault to be found with it, however, is quantitative; it is greatly to be wished that there were more of it.

THOMPSON'S "WORKMAN."*-The object of this work, the writing of which was the last literary effort of Dr. Thompson, is, as *The Workman: His False Friends and his True Friends. By Rev. JOSEPH P. THOMPSON, D.D., LL.D. American Tract Society. New Haven: E. P. Judd.

its title implies, to assist the workman in discriminating between true friends and false. By true friends are meant those who would help him to cheap lands, improved dwellings, remunerative employment, schools, libraries, and churches; and by false, those who would teach him delusive theories of Political Economy, arouse his enmity against property-owners, and incite him to riot and socialism.

Like the preceding work, this is essentially a treatise on Communism and Socialism. In the earlier chapters the author states a few economic principles bearing on the subject, defines labor, property, and capital, and shows the origin of property in land. He gives something of the history of land tenure, and explains the functions of money. Profundity would be a fault in such a discussion, in view of the object to be attained, while energy of style and amplitude of illustration, would be decided merits. The work is fortunate in avoiding the fault and possessing the merits. A keen-sighted socialist would probably claim that some of the arguments do not affect his theory; for instance, when it is proven that capital is a necessity, in order that production may go on, the socialist would, perhaps, allege that he does not propose to annihilate capital, that he recognizes its necessity, but prefers, for certain reasons, to see it owned by the state, instead of by individuals. On the other hand, the argument is valid as against the ravings against capital itself, which one sometimes finds in socialistic newspapers.

The author admits the legality of trades unions, but vigorously assails that frequent accompaniment of the modern strike, the coercion of men outside the union, for the purpose of preventing them from working. A very effective chapter on "Legislation and Labor," denounces the disposition to surrender one's personal independence and beg support of the state, but indicates some things which a state may properly do for the benefit of workmen. A chapter on "Immigration," deprecates too much positive encouragement to foreigners to occupy our remaining vacant

lands.

The treatment of the subject of communism and socialism is, as one would expect who has read the author's letters from Berlin in the Christian Union, vigorous and somewhat denunciatory. Unlike President Woolsey, he has failed to clearly discriminate between the two things, and has spoken of communism as if it were merely an intensified socialism. His conception of it is indi

cated by the device on the cover of the book, a sword, a dagger, a firebrand, and a thunder-cloud. When any social movement does, in fact, assume such a form, denunciation is quite in order. A number of pages are devoted to refuting the claim of socialists that their system would remove social inequality; but the argument here is not entirely convincing. The history of village communities is treated at greater length than in the preceding work, and it is demonstrated that communism has neyer proved practicable on a large scale.

The last part of the discussion is decidedly the best. The removal of incentives to labor, the extinction of hope, and the reduction of mankind to a perpetual and monotonous level, which would be the results of a successful socialistic revolution, are exhibited in contrast with the considerable degree of prosperity which, as statistics show, a frugal workman may reasonably hope for under the present system. The workman is shown the value of religion, of which socialism would, in practice, deprive him, and the future condition of his class is pictured as hopeful and not discouraging, provided only that the ground of that hope be not removed by revolutionary violence. On the whole, the work is one of the best of its class, an effective, popular argument for the existing industrial system, as against the attacks of the socialistic schemers whom the author learned to know during his German residence, and from whose migration to this country he entertained serious apprehensions.

LORD BEACONSFIELD.*-The author of this "Study" of the character and opinions of Lord Beaconsfield has adopted a method which is very ingenious, and which serves to throw an air of charming freshness around a subject which has already been treated in almost every imaginable way, by political writers in England, for more than a generation. Assuming that the distinguished statesman must have been constantly betrayed into expressing what were really his own ideas in the many novels which he has written, Mr. Brandes has sought in those works a clue to guide him in the psychological study which he has made of their author. Mr. Brandes says: "Each work by his [Lord Beaconsfield's] hand is an instrument which he has

*Lord Beaconsfield. A Study. By GEORG BRANDES, authorized translation by Mrs. GEORGE STURGE. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1880. 12mo, 382 pp. New Haven: E. P. Judd.

fabricated for us himself, wherewith we may penetrate into the work-shop of his ideas. Each book that he has written is a window through which we may look into his mind. Each train of thought which he has revealed to us, every character he has devised, every feeling that he has described, contains a series of confessions which he has consciously laid bare, and which must be carefully examined, as well as a series of involuntary confessions running parallel to them, which may be detected. If the critic be upon his guard, both as regards himself and the author, these literary productions will afford him more than mere literary insight; for the ideas and sentiments expressed belong to the statesman, and not to him in his character of novelist alone; they are the outcome of his whole character as a man, which is the common source and deepest spring of his political and literary gifts." Applying this literary-critical method to the novels of Benjamin Disraeli, Mr. Brandes evolves his remarkable portrait of the present Prime Minister of England. Mr. Brandes is a German, and says he has no special source of information which is not open to all. He has never heard Lord Beaconsfield speak, and has never even seen him, but has relied in the preparation of his portrait entirely upon the study of his writings.

In the first chapter of the book there is an interesting attempt made to find in Lord Beaconsfield the characteristics which he has inherited from his ancestors. "The sanguine, enterprising temperament of his grandfather, never ruffled by disappointment, his brain ever fertile in resources even when one disaster followed quickly upon another," reappears in the grandson. Then the literary studies and tastes of his father were also of great importance to him. "Nothing tends more to easy and rapid acquisition of faculty in the use of language than a literary forerunner in the family." The father too was "a decided though quiet freethinker, destitute of a creed, both in the literary or intellectual sense of the word, and this negative quality was to show itself from the beginning in the son. Then, too, "not only the critical and negative, but also the positive romantic and Conservative tendencies of the son are derived from the father." The son has followed his father in all his sympathies.

The book abounds throughout with passages fresh and interesting as the conception of the treatment of the subject is novel.