the English physicist, Barlow, noticing the rapid diminution in the intensity of the current, had some years before declared impracticable, possible. All later inventors and investigators in telegraphy have had to build upon these investigations. Professor Taylor, in reviewing the work of Morse, points out that he was greatly delayed in his work and committed many errors from ignorance of the existing state of electrical knowledge, and especially because of his ignorance of the labors of Professor Henry. He further points out that the work for which Morse gets credit is, in all its more important features, the work of another man—Alfred Vail, who, with Dr. Gale, was associated with Morse in perfecting the invention. Professor Taylor states that the Morse alphabet and the instrument that was found in practice to work it were both the sole invention of Mr. Vail. The pamphlet will be found an interesting review of this important invention, containing much hitherto unpublished, and giving such recognition of the labors of those contributing to it as their importance deserves. Professor Taylor was for many years connected with the Patent Office, and has therefore had excellent opportunities of informing himself on the subject.
History of Political Economy in Europe. By Jérôme-Adolphe Blanqui. Translated from the fourth French edition, by Emily J. Leonard. With a Preface by David A. Wells. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1880. Pp. 562. Price, $3.50.
This is the first appearance in English of the celebrated work of the French economist Blanqui. It is somewhat remarkable that a translation has not before been made, as there is no English work covering the same ground, and as M. Blanqui has succeeded in putting in a moderate compass a large amount of information concerning economic theory and practice, and putting it, moreover, in a way that will prove very attractive to the general reader. Though it is more than forty years since the book was first published, it has lost little or none of its interest for the present, and its translator has conferred a favor upon the public by her excellent rendering of the original. M. Blanqui was the pupil of J. B. Say, and, on the death of that economist in 1883, he succeeded him in the professorship of Political Economy in the Conservatory of Arts and Trades. In his discussion of social and economic questions, the humanitarian element is predominant, and the great value of political economy to him was that it consisted of a body of most beneficent truths which held out the promise and pointed the way to an increasing betterment of the condition of all classes. He had, therefore, a warm interest in all questions concerning the improvement of the industrial classes, and regarded with sympathy the various schemes, rife in his time, for furthering their welfare. With great admiration for the school of English economists, and according to them the honor of placing the science upon a true foundation, he yet protested that their formulas were too rigid, and that they had not taken account of the grain of truth that, along with many vagaries, was to be found in the doctrines of various social sects.
In his view, political economy did not begin when men first carefully studied the phenomena of wealth, and endeavored to elaborate a body of doctrine, but it began much earlier. Men became political economists when they began to exchange the products of their labor, and when they commenced to exercise foresight in providing for their material needs. Since then economic phenomena, as well as the theories held concerning them, have slowly advanced—the one in complexity and variety, the other in a more perfect comprehension of the relations of the facts. M. Blanqui therefore begins his work with a consideration of the political economy of the Greeks and Romans, and traces it onward through the middle ages to the time at which he wrote. In this survey he notices the importance attached by the Greeks to financial matters, the contempt of the Romans for labor and commerce, the influence of Christianity, which he says changed the basis of civilization from slavery to freedom, the change impressed on European life by the influx of barbarians, the rise of the feudal system, and the influence of the Crusades in giving an impetus to commerce. In considering the rise of credit and the institution of banks, he points out the value of the services of the Jews, to whom finance owes so much.
