Poverty : its Genesis and Exodus. By John George Goddard.
(Swan Sonnenschein and Co.)—Mr. Goddard would have done well to make sure of his facts before he went on to his theories. On p. 2 we find the statement : "Nearly one-tenth of the popula- tion are in receipt of Poor-Law relief." This is made on the authority of "Fabian Tract No. 17." The official returns give the population at twenty-nine millions (in round numbers), and the number of paupers at 817,190. But, if Mr. Goddard's figures are right, these last figures ought to be 2,900,000, or, to give him the benefit of his "nearly," 2,817,190. There we get a trifling error of two millions. On the next page we see that all the per- sons dying in London hospitals are put down as paupers,—a very mistaken assumption indeed. The reduced total of Land-tax is mentioned without a hint of the amount that has been redeemed. Till Mr. Goddard can get his facts right, it is useless to examine his theories. Even then, one would hardly trust a doctor who makes such egregious mistakes in his diagnosis.
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