AN ECONOMIC HISTORY OF MODERN BRITAIN The Early RailWay Age,
1820-1850. By J. H. Clapham (Cambridge University Press. 25s.)-We must be content here to call attention to the first volume of Dr. Clapham'S monumental economic history of Great Britain since the death of George the Third. It is based on years of research in a mass of Blue-books, trade reports and other documents which have never been fully utilized before. Thus Dr. Clapham is able to correct many current misconceptions and to depict the early railway age in an entirely new light. George the Fourth's reign was a period of small but useful reforms. The abuses of the old Poor Law were local rather than general ; so, too, Were the worst defects of the early factory system. The cotton industry was far quicker than all others in adopting steam ; steam-engines were rare in non-textile factories even in 1830, and most of these works were small. The working- Man's position was steadily improving, except in the obso- lescent hand-weaving industry. The anti-Corn Law advocates have exaggerated the distress of the " Hungry 'Forties." These and many other new views are elaborated in this mas- terly book, which has become at once the standard authority for the generation that it covers-a generation of prime importance to the England of to-day.
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