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 RECENT PERIODICALS AND NEW BOOKS 833 whilst the burthen on the workmen, the employer and the State is con- siderable. Difficulties occur in ascertaining the age of a claimant, and the definition of a working man given by the law is not clear. The conclusion is that this sort of insurance should be provided, not by the State, but by trade societies. Can Railway Passenger Fares be Lowered ? By W. 1. ACWORTH. An inquiry into the practicability of a zone system and a reduction in passenger fares. The English fares are high for two reasons; the one that money is plentiful, the other that time is valuable, so that the public is willing to pay for a good .service. Experience shows that a reduction in fares leads to a great increase in the number of passengers. But the trafiqc is unequally distributed in point of time, the lines being at certain hours so fully worked that any large increase of passengers would lead to congestion. Congestion could be remedied only by providing vast additional accommodation at an expense which could never be made remunerative. Not much could be saved by reducing the number of trains. If fares are o be lowered in nd near great towns, municipal corporations will have to lessen their demands on the railway companies for rates and for contributions to local improvements. Gileless Australia: A Rejoinder. By the Hon. Jor FORTESCUE. A detailed rejoinder to Mr. Willoughby's apology for Australian finance in the August number. October. Immigration Troubles of the United States. By W. H. Wr.rTNS. Describes the causes which stimulate artificial immigration into the United States; the solicitations of steamship agents; the cheapness of conveyance from Europe to America caused by competition among carriers, and the action of governments and philanthropic societies. Points out the resulting economic, social and political evils, and gives an abstract of the United States' statutes imposing restraints upon the immigration of undesirable persons. States that further restrictions are demanded by public opinion in America, and draws the inference that the United Kingdom should also legislate 'not to restrict immigration but to sift it.' The Harvard Q uarterly Journal of Econoncs (Boston). No. 3. 1891. The Element of Monopoly in Prices. By J. A. ]:[OB$ON. The Catholic Church aul Economics. By JOHN J. KEAaE (Of the Catholic University of America). The Catholic Church has ever been opposed to the ' unlimited freedom or rather licence of contract,' to the individualist principles which derive froan Hobbes through Lock, Hume, Adam Smith, Bentham, and Mill. ' Time has applied to the theory [of that school] the only moral test admitted by Hume and his followers, and has proved it wrong.' The substitute is Christ's ' law of liberty,' the restoration of which is now'being brought about by many methods: Catholic International Congresses, and other meetings, together with numerous publications, among which may be mentioned L'Association No. 4.--VOL.  3 