ECONOMIC ANNALS..
Tax late Professor Smart will be remembered with gratitude for his Economic Annals even if his writings on economic theory become obsolete. A strong Free Trader, he was led to study the early phases of the Free Trade movement in England, and he soon found himself absorbed in the old newspapers, Blue Books, and Parlia- mentary debates which were his prime sources of information. He discovered that the professional historians had treated the period— the first half of last century—in a very unsatisfactory manner, partly because it seemed dull, partly because they were prejudiced, like Miss Martineau, and partly, too, because they did not underitand economics. Professor Smart resolved therefore to compile a chronicle in which the actual course of economic history in the largest sense was set forth in detailed summaries of the financial measures, the state of trade and agriculture, and the public discussions for each year in succession. He took infinite pains to attain accuracy and fairness. He worked through countless Hansards, newspaper files, and official papers with the dust of ages on them, as well as the contemporary books and magazines and pamphlets which dealt with public affairs. The first result of his labours, published some years ago, was the Economic Annals of the critical period from 1801 to 1820, which is the moat valuable and illuminating volume as • yet written on Groat Britain's domestic policy during the Napoleonic War and after the Peace of 1815. Before his death the author was fortunately able to complete this second volume for the decade ending with 1830—a period that is probably less familiar to moat readers than the Middle Agee, though it saw the beginnings of Free Trade and of various social and political reforms. Tho Annals are not, of course, easy reading, but they present the facts, which cannot be found in any other modern book. Professor Smart enlivened his chronicle with judicious and often amusing comments and notes, but he was scrupulous in reporting the argu- ments of the most stupid reactionaries or the wildest reformers. In this new volume, for example, he dealt justly with Joseph Hume, describing both his sensible proposals and also his blunders, such as his plea for cheap rum on the ground that it would cause a decrease of drunkenness, or his suggestion, in 1824, that we should cede Canada to the United States to relieve ourselves of the grant- in-aid of £10,000 a year and the cost of the garrison.
We may note one or two points in a volume that is too full of matter to be reviewed in detail. At a time like this, when we are piling up a stupendous War Debt, it is encouraging to find that in 1824-ine years after the conclusion of the longest and most exhausting war that we ever waged before 1914—great prosperity prevailed throughout the kingdom and there was an outbreak of speculation because " the wealth of the country had for the moment outgrown its investments." The year before, the country had been on the verge of war when the Holy Alliance deputed France to repress the democratic party in Spain and restore the despotism of that deplorable monarch Ferdinand VII. War was averted, but the Government recognized the independence of the revolted Spanish colonies, and thus prevented the Holy Alliance from extend. ing its influence to America. President Monroe's Message of Deceen- ber 2nd, 1823, virtually proclaimed the willingness of the United States to co-operate with Great Britain in excluding European autocrats from South and Central America, as President Wilson is doing to-day. In view of the foolish prejudice that still lingers against Castlereagh, we cannot refrain from quoting the dispassionate economist's verdict :- " One who knows him only through the parliamentary records and his dispatches when the representative at the various congresses after the war, finds difficulty in understanding Harriet Martineau 's bitter diatribes and Creevey's ungenerous depreciation, and welcomes tho verdict of later historians that few statesmen of George III 's reign have left a purer reputation, or rendered greater services to their country than did Castlereagh."
In his full and instructive accounts of the debates on the tariff, Professor Smart showed that the early Free Traders were concerned
rather to abolish the various prohibitions on imports than to remove Protective duties. They wanted open trade rather than free trade in one sense. The tariff at that time was a maze of obsolete and complex laws, and Huskisson and his colleagues did good work in reducing the chaos to emit° kind of order, preparatory to the labours of Peel and Gladstone. Every proposal to change or abolish a
duty was received by the traders concerned with predictions that they would be ruined. Professor Smart could not resist the tempta- tion to add a note to the lament of the woollen trade over the • Economic Menge of tho Nendend* Omar". By William Smart. Vol. IL, 1821-30, London: Macmillan and Co. Rio. 551.1 abolition in 1823 of the duty on raw wool and the removal of the prohibition on the export of British wool. Throe years later Huskiason stated that only one hundred thousand pounds of British wool had gone out of the country, but that forty million pounds of foreign wool had come in. He himself bad been half convinced by the " practical " men that the change would be disastrous, but he admitted that he had ceased to believe in their forecasts of evil. An amusing instance of the lengths to which vested interests would go occurs in the debate of 1824 on the Ham- mersmith Bridge Bill. The bridge was to be built by a private company, but the Bill was opposed on the ground that it would damage the rights of the proprietors of Kew and Fulham Bridges, which were only a mile and a half away. The opposition in this ease did not prevail. Professor Smart did not acorn to include an anecdote here and there, such as the well-known answer of the Member to the foreigner's question, " What passed in the Session of 1823 f "—" Five months and fourteen days." At the end of the chapters given to each year he noted miscellaneous items of political, literary, or social interest, and thus added to the value of his book for reference. The volume ends with the Repeal movement and the accidental death of Huskies= at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway on September 16th, 1830.
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