Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/807

 R.VmWS 785 .or competition with, foreign nations. But these latter considerations, rather than what is ' a benefit to humanity' (p. 305), have perhaps the first claim on the attention of the statesman;being must be secured before well-being. Now there is likely to be a difference between that degree of populousness which is in the utilitarian mean between excess and deticienoy, and that degree which is prescribed by the exigencies -of military and commercial rivalry, so far as degrees so dimly visible, so imperfectly marked, can be affirmed to differ. Large populations might be comparable to large armaments; which it is the interest of all, but not of each, to discontinue. Thus the proximate end, the rparrv .ayatv in respect of populousness, may be even further from J. S. Mill's extreme Malthusianism than the position to which the first principle of pure utihtarianism has conducted Dr. Sidgwick. It will be understood that we are here considering only those parts of Dr. Sidgwick's new work which touch upon political economy. Of the immense additions which he has made to political philosophy a great part lies beyond our province. ' F. Y. EDGEWORTH Neighbourhood Guilds: an Instrument of Social Reform. By STANTON COIT. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1891. Ie an observer were asked at the present time to name the two qualities which were most urgently needed and most frequently lacking in the schemes of social reformers, he might not improbably reply by pointing to qualities which are not easy to reconcile with one another. He might say that on the one hand such schemes must be elastic and -comprehensive, if they are to satisfy the multitudinous requirements of men and women, but that on the other, if they are to expect any measure of success in face of the stubborn obstacles, which so often disappoint the fondest aspirations, they must be moderate in their aims and limited in their scope. It is only by patiently attacking the social problem from different sides that any real advance can be made towards its solution;and so various are the aspects from which it may be regarded that a scheme which admits of easy adaptation to changing conditions can alone h({pe to succeed. In the little volume before us, which belongs to Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein & Co.'s Social Science Series, Dr. Stanton Colt has put forward a proposal, which goes far to satisfy these 'two criteria. He proposes to deal separately with the limited area of single ' neighbourhoods '; but he proposes also to deal with the whole of their respective social wants. He recognises from the outset that the primary condition of success is to 'get the right men,' and, we may add, in accordance with the tenor of his argument, women and children also, banded together in an effort to raise the whole life of the neighbourhood in which they are placed; and he believes that the ' right measures' will follow. ' The first step in social reform,' he writes, ' must be the conscious organisation of the intel- No. 4.--VOL. X 3 