426 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL appear ignored. modern even under communism, not to say socialism, are equally We are told (in our author's final deliverance) that in our societies the 'subjective' form of capital h?s perverted the 'objective,' has caused neglect of production (the chief end of all economy), and the pursuit, instead, of mere profits; it has wrongly distributed the fruits of labour, it has confined .the mass of men to a bare living and increased the luxuries of a few favoured individuals; it has made labour uncertain of its earnings, by making it depend on an employer; and it has led to erring speculation, dangerous borrowing and lending, and frequent crises (fl55 to f260). The return to ' objec- tivity' is (it would seem) to be effected by a Socialism that includes Protection (see p. f261 n.) and by a policy of Commercial Isolation somewhat like Fichte's. But in justice it must be granted that Mr. Wittelsh0fer does his best to avoid practical conclusions. His work is meant to be purely theoretical. J.B. Prinit?les o?f $o?l Economics. By GEORGE GUNTON. York and London: Putnam's Sons. l?ew MR. GUNTON has read, if somewhat narrowly, with great care and thought, and, as a consequence, his own work is generally sugges- tive even when the conclusions seem untenable. ?is criticisms are often very acute, and he is always independent. ?e is a protectionist, but of a perfectly reasonable order. The principal faults in the book are, first, the easy reliance on ? priori theories of evolution to explain the nature of social progress; and, secondly, the failure to appreciate the force of certain theoretical distinctions, e.g., price and value. The greatest merits are found in the grasp of the relations of con- sumption and production, in the sympathetic treatment of the inter- action of social and purely economic forces, and in the freshness of the illustrations drawn from actual conditions. The book is well worth reading by all who are interested in the recent advances of political economy; the positive contributions of the author may be small in themselves, but his mode of presentation is certainly stimulating, and his treatment of adverse opinion is always fair and temperate. J.S.N. The Eight Hours Day. By SIDNEY WEBB, T,T,.B., AND HXROL?) Cox, B.A. London: Walter Scott. THE authors of this interesting and well-written treatise put it forward modestly as in no sense a complete history of the Eight Hours Movement or anything more than an attempt to bring into accessible form as much information about the movement as possible. And they have certainly succeeded in presenting in reasonable compass and easy readable form a large body of useful information derived from many different countries and relating to every aspect of the subject, historical, economic, and social. Much of it has been obtained for the first time by private inquiry on the part of the authors themselves, and of this
