ESSAYS, CRITICAL AND POLITICAL,
Essays, Critical and Political. By J. H. Balfour-Browne, MC, Vol.I.," Critical." Vol. IL "Political." (Longmans and Co 7s 6d net each.)-We may say a few words about the contents of the "Political" volume. The dates of the eleven essays contained in it range over the long period 1875-1906. Some are distinctly obsolete, notably "Afghanistan, 1881," and "Russia, 1877." And as they are obsolete, it would have been as well to leave them where they were. There are things in the former which are out of season in view of the recent visit of the Amir to India ; and Russia in 1907 is a very different factor in "world-politics" from Russia in 1877. "The Coming Social Revolution," however, is a recent production, having appeared last year. With much of its anti. Socialist polemic we agree. It is certainly a grievous mistake to limit the meaning of labour to work done by the hands. Unhappily, writers who ought to know better countenance the error. We remember an eminent writer on political economy making such a definition, and illustrating it by the examples of unproductive labour performed by "clergymen and dancers." But we cannot accept all our author's contentions and claims. And is it not a little odd to speak of a "method" as "wading through blood" ? The last essay, "The Unemployed," is written in the interests of the "Financial Reform" movement.
Previous page
