Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/628

606 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL assist him in the interpretation of authorities, and in thb formation of independent opinions.' ' Where controversial questions,' he remarks later, 'are concerned, the main conclusions arrived at by the leading writers of the various schools are stated clearly and impartially. The dictionary is intended to assist alike the student whether working with a teacher, or seeking to instruct himself without such assistance the man of business who looks at matters from the practical side, and the general reader.' This is a comprehensive, if not an ambitious programme;and, if the editor should be found at the end of his work to have accomplished the greater portion of it, he may well con- gratulate himself on the reflection that he has rendered a signal service to economic study. He proposes to publish the dictionary in parts of 128 pages each, issued successively at intervals of about three months, and to complete the whole in about twelve to fourteen parts. It would, no doubt, be easy in connection with the volume now before us to discharge what is often considered the chief function of a reviewer, and to pick holes in the execution of such a large under- taking as Mr. Palgrave has here essayed. He exposes, if we may say so, so great an area to the attack of the captious critic, that he must almost necessarily leave unprotected some vulnerable point. When a number of writers are associated together, as in this work, the critic must be more or less than human, who does not think that some parts are handled better and some are worse. It may seem to us that a little too much space is given to some of the legal terms discussed, with many of which, however, we must confess that we were un- familiar before we imbibed the instruction which Mr. Palgrave has here afforded. It may, again, appear to us to be more natural to look for a treatment of village communities under village or community rather than agricultural community; and we may not entirely approve of the practice sometimes adopted of inserting two articles on one subject, such as agio and agiotage. Or once more we may think that the bibliographical notices appended to the various articles might in some cases be lengthened with advantage. But this method of criticism would, we believe, be as inappropriate as it would be ungrateful. The faults, if they are faults, are in many cases of a minute character; and we now turn to the more pleasing duty of indicating the merits, as they seem to us, of the work. In the first place there can be no doubt that such a work was urgently needed. As the editor remarks, ' There is no complete Economic Dictionary in English,' and the 'increasing interest taken in Economic Questions, and the development of Commercial Education in which Economics will doubtless take a leading place, render it the more advisable that such a work should be provided.' dictionary, like that of an Economic simmering in the ?,?i,n? of ,c('m?mtu, lati,::>n that the ?a?'?e year has seen the p?l}:jica?io? of The project indeed of such a Jo?trnal, has for sonle time been Econo?:nis?s? ?md i? is matter for