Mr. Walter Bagehot, for eighteen years back editor of the
Economist, and the author of some of the most original literary and economical works of the day,—of whose remarkable abilities and character we have spoken at some length in another column, —died this day week at Langport, after a very short illness of two or three days, in the fifty-first year of his age. He was educated in University College, London, and took his Mater's degree with the highest honours in the University of Londoa in 1848 ; studied law for a year or two, and was called to the Oar ; then entered an old Bank in the West of England, in Which hie father, Who survives him, was a leading partner ; gave a good deal of altedy to economical subjects, in which he had always been pro- fnundly interested ; and married, in 1858, the eldest daughter of the Right Hon. James Wilson, Vibe-President of the Board of Trade, and afterwards our Finance Minister in India, whom he incceeded as editor of the Economist. From thattime Mr. Bagehot, thoughnot neglecting general literature, gave more and more time to` the study of economy, producing upon it works more vivid and briginill than any, with the exception of Ricardo, and possibly, Mr. J. S. Mill, since Main Smith shaped the rtide ideas on it into a science. Had Mr. Bagehot lived to complete the work of which he published the introductory chapter a year ago in the Fortnightly Revitto, we believe he would have marked a completely new epoch in the growth of the science of political economy. As it is, in the history of economical science he will not be forgotten.
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