"The truth about him is the exact opposite of what has been widely and popularly thought; weakness, affectation, exotic foreignness, the traits of æstheticism in the debased sense of that word, are far from him; he is strong, he is genuine, he is English charged with the strength of England. In his nature-verse there is sympathy with power, grandeur, energy, marking the verse unmistakably as that of a strong soul."

An antidote for this excessive praise is the well balanced, searching criticism of Swinburne found in the "Shelburne Essays" recently published. And yet the two essays raise the old question as to the comparative merits of two types of criticism-the romantic and the classic. The danger of the first is that it may become exaggerated, of the other, that it may become cold and heartless. We need both types at their best. E. M.

THE LIQUOR PROBLEM. A Summary of Investigations Conducted by the Committee of Fifty, 1893-1903. By John S. Billings, Charles W. Eliot, Henry W. Farnam, Jacob L. Greene, and Francis G. Peabody. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1905,182 pp.

The Committee of Fifty, consisting of persons representing different trades, occupations, and opinions, was organized in 1893 for the investigation of the liquor problem. It aimed not to create one more agent in practical reform but to secure a body of facts which might serve as a basis for intelligent public and private action. Among its members were physiologists, economists, men of academic life, and representatives of various religious denominations. Sub-committees were appointed to consider respectively the physiological, legislative, economic, and ethical aspects of the problem. The reports of these sub-committees have been published in volumes which appeared from time to time. For readers who are not likely to examine the more elaborate and technical reports, the present volume has been prepared as a summary of the conclusions reached.

This book ought to prove especially helpful to those interested in the recent movement for temperance reform in the

South. It is not devoted to exhortation or moral appeal, but to the statement of what, after scientific study, appear to be demonstrable facts and to the inferences which these facts appear to warrant. The members of the Committee of Fifty "represented many different attitudes of mind toward practical methods of temperance reform,-total abstinence and moderation, legal prohibition, and the licensing system. The problem before" the "committee was that of formulating the facts on which thoughtful students of various traditions and tendencies might agree."

The section of the book of most immediate interest in connection with the anti-saloon movement in North Carolina and other Southern States is the "Summary of Investigations Concerning the Legislative Aspect of the Liquor Problem,' by President Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard University. The summary by Dr. Billings of the results of the investigation of "The Physiological Aspects of the Liquor Problem" has an important bearing upon the matter of the proper character of scientific temperance instruction in the schools. A conclusion is reached adverse to the sort of instruction usually in vogue. Professor Farnam, of Yale University, writes of the economic aspects, and Jacob L. Greene of the ethical aspects, of the problem. Raymond Calkins contributes a discussion of "Substitutes for the Saloon." This scientific report on the liquor problem should have a wide circulation.

W. H. G.

TRADE UNIONISM AND LABOR PROBLEMS. By John R. Commons. Boston: Ginn & Company, 1905,-xiv., 628 pp.

This is the second volume in the series of "Selections and Documents in Economics" edited by Professor Ripley, of Harvard University. It is an attempt to apply the case system of instruction to the teaching of economics. "Each chapter is intended to illustrate a single, definite, typical phase of the general subject." The chapters have been, in the main, selected from among articles which have appeared in the various economic journals. As a text-book, this volume "is intended to be looked upon as supplementary to a treatise like

Adams and Sumner's 'Labor Problems,' or to the more general works on political economy, or to a lecture course."

The selection of Professor Commons to prepare the volume on trade unionism was especially fortunate and his work has been admirably done. He has himself contributed an introduction and six of the twenty-eight chapters. While his volume has been designed primarily for the use of students, it should prove of great interest to the more thoughtful members of trade unions, to employers who wish to gain a broad view of the labor movement, and to that body of readers known as the general public who are vitally affected by the adjustment of relations between employers and workmen. The selections are all so good that it is difficult to indicate chapters for mention as having an especial interest. The strike of the printers for an eight hour day may draw attention to the chapters on "Hours of Labor" by the United States Industrial Commission, on "The Printer's Health," by J. W. Sullivan, and on "The Introduction of the Linotype," by George E. Barnett. A symposium on the "Negro Artisan"

is valuable in connection with the labor problem in the South. The chapter by Peter Roberts on "Employment of Girls in the Textile Industries of Pennsylvania" discloses some surprising facts with regard to the prevalence of child labor in Pennsylvania as compared with North Carolina.

W. H. G.

LITERARY NOTES

The "Report of the Librarian of Congress" for 1905 is a very interesting exhibit of the work of that important national institution. Among the valuable manuscripts added to the library by gift and purchase during the year 1905, are the Breckinridge papers, additions to the Van Buren papers, additional letters and papers of Andrew Johnson, the Crittenden papers, some papers of Franklin Pierce, and a collection of manuscripts and papers of Virginian origin.

"An Introduction to the History of Sugar as a Commodity," by Ellen Deborah Ellis, has recently been published in the series of Bryn Mawr College monographs. The history of sugar is traced to the latter half of the seventeenth century when "it began to be produced in sufficient quantities to make it available to the mass of the English people." A bibliography is appended.

Professor Jesse E. Pope, of the University of Missouri, has published a monograph on "The Clothing Industry in New York" in the University of Missouri Studies.

Professor Herbert E. Bolton's study of "The Spanish Abandonment and Re-occupation of East Texas, 1773-1779," which originally appeared in the Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, has been reprinted in pamphlet form.