SCHOOL-BOOKS.
The Laws of Every-Day Life. By H. 0. Arnold-Forster. (Cassell and Co.)—The preface describes this little work as "a first intro- duction to the study of elementary political science." It is intended for use in the upper, standards of elementary schools, and we hope it will not be limited to these. As the acquirement of knowledge is an important part of education, we might reasonably expect that this branch of the art would include instruction in some of the fundamental principles of political and economic science. And yet, out of the thousands who are yearly turned out of the middle-class schools in this country with their scholastic education completed, how few have the smallest elementary know-
ledge of the great industrial laws which underlie the whole fabric of commerce ! Possibly this deficiency has been due in great measure to the want of a proper text-book, and a stimulus to use it. The movement on behalf of technical and commercial education has supplied the latter, and the deficiency of the former is now removed by the publication of this treatise. Mr. Arnold- Forster, in words of studied simplicity and clearness, and by the judicious use of interesting and easily grasped examples, has succeeded in making readily intelligible the scope and action of the most important laws of political economy. The chapters on the laws of supply and demand, prices, work and wages, the relation of capital and labour, co-operation, trade-unions, and strikes are sound expositions, which not only lay a solid foundation for the study of more advanced treatises, but will exercise with no little profit the mental powers of schoolboys. We heartily commend the book to schoolmasters of every grade.
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