The Federalist. Edited, with Notes, Illustrative Documents, and a copious Index, by Paul Leicester Ford. New York, Henry Holt & Company, 1898-8vo, pp. lxxvi, 793.

That a thing may still be done better, no matter how often or how well it has been done before, is illustrated in Ford's edition of the "Federalist." There would seem to have been little room for improvement on the excellent editions of the "Federalist" already existing, yet the new one presents several distinct advantages over its predecessors. Chief among these are the index, which greatly facilitates the study of the text, and the notes containing passages from our history which show how the expectations of the writers in the "Federalist" have been realized or disappointed, and thus add greatly to the interest of the book for the ordinary reader.

Another noticeable feature is the use of two sizes of type, the smaller being used for the less important portions of the text relating to temporary issues, and historical matter now of little value. Also "the date of publication of each number, with the name of the newspaper in which it appeared, has been for the first time. obtained and prefixed to each essay."

In the Appendix are given the three national (as distinguished from State) constitutions which have appeared in this country, namely the Articles of Confederation, the Federal Constitution, and the Constitution of the Southern Confederacy in 1861. In the text of the Federal constitution the separate clauses are followed by references to the decisions of the Supreme Court bearing upon them. The Editor's judgment in introducing these references may be questioned. They are very numerous, sometimes filling more than a page; they break the continuity of the text, and make it difficult of use for purposes of reference while reading the "Federalist." The ordinary reader or student is not likely to make any use of them, while the law student or special student of the constitution can easily find them in Desty or Boutwell.

The Appendix also contains the amendments which were proposed by the conventions of several States at the time of adoption, by Jefferson in 1803, by the Hartford Convention in 1814, and by Crittenden and the Peace Conference in 1861. It also contains the text of thirteen other documents of the first importance in connection with the historical interpretation and development of the constitution.

In the introduction the Editor gives at some length his contribution to a settlement of the vexed question as to the author

ship of certain numbers of the "Federalist." He also gives an interesting and valuable summary of our achievement in constitutional government, rightly giving the place of first importance to those restraints upon the exercise of their otherwise unlimited power which were adopted by the majority for the protection of the minority. "This guarantee to the minority in the federal constitution is one of the most remarkable examples of self control in history, and constitutes its chief claim to preeminence." He also calls attention to the interesting fact that "After a hundred years of testing, the national government stands to-day as the only one which has existed for a century without changes that were in effect revolutionary, and it is the only one able to enforce its laws on seventy millions of people without creating within itself a spirit of resistance and revolt." This success of our government he considers an "expression of what is the cardinal element of good government: a self-controlled people, given to excess in neither law-making nor law-breaking," a worthy tribute to those who framed, and to those who have administered our constitution.

In matters of detail, some of the Editor's opinions may fairly be challenged. Thus, his apparently unqualified approval of a direct election of the President by a mass vote of the people is open to the criticism that this method wholly ignores the States, and neglects the check on fraud which would be supplied by counting the vote by States, giving to each a weight proportioned only to its population, however large its majority for the successful candidate might be. This plan, doing away with the Electors, and correcting the present over-weighting of the small States in the Presidential election, would accomplish the desired reform without increasing the present temptations to fraud.

Yale University.

C. H. SMITH.

Reflections on the Formation and the Distribution of Riches. By Turgot, 1770. Economic Classics, edited by W. J. Ashley. New York, The Macmillan Co.; London, Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1898-xxii, 112 pp.

Professor Ashley has enriched his valuable collection of Economic Classics by an original translation, made apparently by himself, of Turgot's celebrated essay. He has prefaced it by an interesting account of the life of Turgot, and of the literary history of the essay itself. As originally published, this paper appeared in

the Ephémérides du Citoyen, which was edited by DuPont de Nemours, but it seems that the editor undertook to modify the text in many particulars, sometimes changing the thought as well as the phraseology of the author, and though Turgot insisted that a correct reprint should be made, very few copies of this were struck off, and scarcely one has survived. It was thus a matter of considerable difficulty to restore the essay to its original form. The present book, therefore, has a much greater value than a mere. translation of an accessible French publication, for the text of the edition of Daire, published as an authoritative edition of Turgot with his works in 1844, was based upon the garbled text of DuPont de Nemours.

The reader is apt to find phrases in any book to which the translator has given a slightly different turn from that which he would have given himself. Thus, the use of the word "properties" as the equivalent of "propriétés" would seem to the writer to have been better rendered by the word "estates." "La Société" is uniformly translated "the society." Doubtless Professor Ashley would justify this by the consideration that in the first section of the essay, Turgot refers to the inhabitants of "a country," but he is not discussing any particular country, either real or imaginary; he seems rather to be discussing the evolution of capital, labor, and land. ownership in society as a whole; so that it would seem to conform more to usage to omit the definite article. "Economic undertakings" is another phrase for which perhaps "business enterprises" would seem a more common equivalent. But as Professor Ashley distinctly states that he has endeavored to produce "something like the effect of Turgot's style; which is indeed inelegant, and sometimes rugged, but yet direct and clear," these expressions may have been deliberately chosen with that end in view.

H. W. F.

Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften. Zweiter Supplementband. Herausgegeben von Dr. J. Conrad, Dr. L. Elster, Dr. W. Lexis, Dr. Ed. Loening, mit Register zum ersten und zweiter Supplementband, bearbeitet von Dr. Paul Lippert. Jena, Gustav Fischer, 1897-x, 1076 pp.

The second supplementary volume of this valuable work shows some of the same peculiarities which were commented upon in reviewing the first volume, in the number of this REVIEW for

February, 1896. It was mentioned at that time that the articles in the first volume were on an average much longer than those of the six volumes of the original work. In the present volume they average still longer, there being only 79 articles, as against 106 in the first supplement. Many of these are strictly supplementary to earlier articles, and, as it were, bring them down to date. This is true of the excellent article on Workingmen's Protective Legislation (Arbeiterschutzgesetzgebung), on Strikes (Arbeitseinstellungen), Trade Unions (Gewerkvereinsbewegung), and on the Currency Question (Währungsfrage). It still remains remarkable, however, that nothing new should be found to be said on the subject of Railroads, although there is an article entitled "Kleinbahnen.” And there are several articles which seem to belong to an historical encylopedia rather than to a work of the character of the present, and which, if they appear at all, would seem much more appropriate in one of the original volumes than in the supplement. In this class are found articles on the Gracchic movement in Rome, the Agrarian relations in antiquity, the Roman and Greek colonizations, the Plebs, etc. The insertion of such articles may possibly indicate the difficulty of publishing at such frequent intervals large supplements of a thousand pages. We welcome, therefore, the announcement of the publishers, that they are about to issue an entirely new edition of the whole work, in seven volumes. This probably means the condensation or elimination of considerable surplus matter, and the recasting of the rest. Even the type of the new edition is to be changed, and Roman instead of German text is to be used, doubtless to the gratification of persons who are unfamiliar with German or who suffer from weak eyes. It must be as gratifying to the general public as it is to the publishers that such an extremely valuable work, prepared in the scientific spirit and on a lavish scale, should have met with a complete success. It is all the more gratifying to learn that the completion of the new edition is promised for 1900, and that the publishers are willing to take copies of the first edition in exchange for the volumes of the new edition, allowing 36 marks apiece for them.

H. W. F.

THE

YALE REVIEW.

NOVEMBER, 1898.

COMMENT.

The Scope and Effect of the Anti-Trust Act; David Ames Wells. IN 1799 and 1800 the English Parliament passed the notorious "Combination Acts." By these laws, all combinations of laborers for the purpose of bettering their condition were declared illegal, and stringent penalties were provided for any violation of this principle. The mere act of a few independent workmen in agreeing with one another that they would not accept less than a certain rate of wages was judicially treated as a "conspiracy against the whole world" and punished accordingly. As late as 1834, some Dorsetshire laborers were transported to Botany Bay for the mere act of forming a labor union, which had committed no act whatsoever that could be construed as prejudicial to the public interest.

We have been accustomed to cite these decisions as evidence of the arbitrary character of English law as passed by an unreformed parliament and administered by reactionary judges. We have been accustomed to think, with somewhat pharisaical self-satisfaction, that we never were as bad as England in these respects. Yet an act passed by Congress as recently as 1890 applies, in a somewhat different field, the principle of the Combination Laws of George the Third; and the consequences of this act, as set forth in recent decisions of the United States Supreme Court, are, if possible, yet more irrational than those of its English prototype.

To understand the case properly it is necessary to go back a little into past railroad history.