RECENT PERIODICALS AND NEW BOOKS 439 to read anything into them, has failed to render his a?.count of the nature and functions of the gild merchant clear to the ordinary reader. Dr. Cunningham does not show the same self-suppression, as he throws out some new theories of the origin of the gild merchant and the earliest craft gilds in England. Report o? Social Legislation in the ?r?ited States for 1889 and 1890. By Professor R?CH?--aD T. E?,Y, Ph.D., and L. S. MESa?A?, B.S. Journal of the Statistical Society. March 1891. Statistics of the Defence Expe?utit.ure of the Chief Military and Naval Powers. By the Right F[on. Sir CHARLES W. D?Lra?, Bart. The Operation of the Contagious Diseases Acts among the Troops i? the U?ited Kingdom a?d Men of the Royal Navy on the Home Station. By ARTHUR NEWHOLME, M.D. Vital Statistics of Peabody Buildings and other Artizans' a?ul Labourers' Block Dwellin!Is. By ARTHUR NEWHOLME, M.D. The death-rates observed in the Peabody Buildings point to the conclusion that these block dwellings are more healthy than London generally; except that the diseases more immediately due to direct infection are here more fatal. Among the Miscellanea are Commercial History and Review of 1890, the Economist of February 21, 1891. Prices of Comnwdities in 1890. By A. SAVERBECS. Continuing the tables published in former numbers of the Journal, Mr. Sauerbeck shows that the level of prices is about the same as for 1889; more exactly, that the arithmetical mean of the index numbers for forty-five commodities presents a very slight fall; the mean weighted according to the importance of the commodities a slight rise. Wages of Working Classes and National I?wome in Fraywe. By A?. COSTE. Estimates how the annual income, about 900,000,000, is divided among the different classes of the population. taken from the Supplement to Ni.eteenth Ce?tury. April. 1891. The Seamy Side of Australia. By the Hon. J. W. FORTESCUE. Maintains that the Australian Governments have borrowed reck- lessly in order to construct public works which neither are nor are like!y to become remunerative, and have excluded Chinese labour even ?n districts where white labour cannot be effective. State-made Farmers. By W. E. BEXR. An adverse criticism of Mr. Jesse Collings's Small Holdings Bill which ' will establish as farmers men who are unfitted for the calling.' It is desirable to insist upon small holdings up to, say, ten acres being made attainable by farm labourers; but ' the farmers of twenty to fifty acres are the worst farmers in the country.'
