illustrating induction is given in our diagram (fig. 8). AB is a brass cylinder with rounded ends, supported upon an insulating stand consisting of a glass rod covered with shell-lac varnish. At each extremity is a small wire fixed into the cylinder by one end, and having suspended from the other a small pith ball (a b). Near to this insulated conductor is brought an electrified metal ball, C, similarly insulated to the conducting cylinder. We will suppose that the metal ball c is charged with positive electricity; it will then be seen that the pith balls, which were at first vertical, are drawn from that position, but in opposite directions-a being drawn towards c, b being repelled from it. It can easily be shown, by means of the proofplane and the electroscope, that the end A of the cylinder AB is endowed with negative electricity, and that the end B is endowed with positive electricity. It may also further be shown that the ends of the cylinder are more powerfully electrified than the other portions, and that midway between the two ends there is a so-called "neutral line," which exhibits neither positive nor negative electricity. Now let c be removed, and

the pith balls will instantly collapse.

Instead of merely one cylinder, several might have been employed, and the pith ball of each would have diverged as in the case just supposed; but the divergence of the pith balls of the first cylinder would have been greater than that of those upon the second, and so on-the amount of electrical disturbance getting gradually less as

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A variation of the last experiment is shown in our next diagram (fig. 9). As before, AB is an insulated conducting cylinder, and c an electrified metal ball

Variation of

foregoing

similarly insulated. Suspended experiment.

from the under side of AB are five pairs of pith balls, one pair at each end of the cylinder, one pair in the middle of the cylinder, and the other two pairs one on each side of the middle pair, When the electrified body C is brought near AB, all the pith balls diverge, with the exception of the central pair; but, as is shown in the diagram, the balls at the two ends of the cylinder are more powerfully acted upon than those between the ends and the central pair, while the latter remain entirely unaffected. If the electrified body be now removed, all the balls will, as in the first experiment, immediately collapse.

Again, let us pause to ask ourselves the meaning of these two experiments; and before going farther, let us attempt to realise, if we cannot altogether explain, the condition of the pith balls during the experiment.

the distance from the electrified body increased. Moreover, when only a single cylinder is employed, it will be seen (as represented in the figure) that the divergence of the one nearest to the electrified ball is greater than that of the one at the opposite end.

form of the above apparatus.

Instead of employing brass as the material for our ball and cylinder, the same results may be obtained with cheaper and A less costly more easily manipulated materials. A wooden ball covered with gilt paper or tin-foil will do quite as well as a metal one; and a wooden cylinder, or even a hollow cardboard one, similarly covered, will supply the place of a brass cylinder. In order to cover the ball with the gilt paper or tin-foil, the latter must be cut into narrow strips and carefully pasted or glued on. If a hollow cardboard cylinder be used, two wooden balls covered with metal paper and made to fit into the ends of the cylinder will answer very well for its rounded extremities. If the glass stands are not available, both electrified ball and conducting cylinder may be suspended by silk threads, in which case it will be best to dip the threads in melted paraffin wax,

B

Theoretical explanations.

Now, it must be evident that the electricity of C is not conducted through the air to AB, because if it were the whole of AB and therefore all the pith balls would be similarly electrified, and their electricity would moreover be of the same kind as that of the electrified conductor C. That the latter is not the case may be easily proved by bringing an electrified glass rod near them, when those near one end of the cylinder will collapse, while those near the other end will still farther diverge. What really happens, so far as our theory of electricity enables us to explain it, seems to be this: the electrified body, when brought near to the unelectrified conductor, decomposes its electricity, attracting towards that end of the cylinder which is near itself the electricity which is of the opposite kind to that with which the ball is endowed, while the electricity which is of the same kind as that upon the ball is driven to the opposite end of the cylinder; this taking place by virtue of the law which we verified at the commencement of our studies,-viz., that like electricities repel, unlike electricities attract each other. This action of an electrified body upon a neutral body without actual contact is known as INDUCTION. If, before removing the (we will suppose) positively electrified body, the cylinder AB be touched for an instant with the finger, and then the ball c be removed, the cylinder will be found to possess only negative electricity, and in this case the positive electricity of AB, being repelled by that of C, escapes through the body to the earth, when it is enabled to do so by the hand being brought into contact with it;

and the ball C being then removed, the negative electricity is set free and diffuses itself over the whole of AB, which thus remains negatively electrified.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

BY ROBERT SOMERS.

I.

METHOD OF INQUIRY-DIVISION OF LABOUR AND EXCHANGE-SUPPLY AND DEMAND. WRITERS on political economy usually treat this subject under the general heads of "the production and the distribution of commodities"; and if to these be added their counterparts, viz., the consumption and reproduction of commodities, it may be said that the compass of the subject is fully embraced. They are gates at least through which this important department of knowledge Divisions of the and reason may be conveniently subject. entered. For production and distribution immediately bring up labour, property in the produce of labour, land, capital, machines and stock as the agents of production, with rent, wages, and profits as the main distributive channels of all the commodities produced. The term "services" may as well be used here as "commodities," for there are many cases in which no commodity in the sense of a material product is given-as that of a physician or a lawyer who gives his advice; and even under the form of commodity, whether it be a yard of calico or a bushel of wheat, a service is rendered. An exchange of "commodities or of "services" is what goes on ander all the economic relations.

METHOD OF INQUIRY.

The object being to discover from observation and experience the principles and policy under which the most prosperous production and the most full and equitable distribution of wealth are promoted among all orders of a community, and among all nations, the method of political economy is fundamentally inFundamentally ductive. Yet one must not enter inductive. too freely into an outcry of late years against the too deductive method pursued by eminent political economists; for the reason, in the first place, that there is no inductive method without deduction as its handmaid; and, in the second place, for reasons peculiar to such a science as political economy. The most scientific method cannot advance without its hypotheses, which are only deductions, largely conjectural, from previously ascertained results. Political economy is not one of the "fixed sciences." Physical science, and nearly all what are called laws of nature," indeed, are included in its problems, and in a manner centre in it. Professor Jevons even holds that it is a mathematical science; and the intimacy with which quantity and number enter into its

largest conclusions may render this more than a merely fanciful idea.* Mr. Mill, who, as a master of logic probably felt keenly the complex character of economic science, declared it to be an instance of the "concrete deductive method" described in his work on logic.† The truth is that political economy contains an element not found in the study of physical or even physiological science. It has to deal with the human mind and the human will, and with the motives by which mankind in general are seen to be actuated in given circumstances. It is more to be compared to a socio-historical science, or a philosophy of history, than to astronomy or to a philosophy of the planetary heavens. And, finally, it is a

moral science. The terms of A moral science. political economy must be understood in a strictly moral sense. They assume, in short, a moral action throughout. The "competition," for example, occurring in economical treatises, must not be confounded with the competition often seen in the action of men and companies of men, who yet would probably be surprised to think that they are not economists in what they feel and what they do.

DIVISION OF LABOUR AND EXCHANGE.

Adam Smith laid the proper basis of economic doctrine in the first chapter of his famous work. where he describes "the division of labour." When men began to produce one commodity, and to do one piece of work or part of a piece of work rather than another, or none, then began the whole economic evolution as we have it now. Exchange, comparative valnation of one commodity with another, markets the action of supply and demand on specific industries, increase of competition in the industries most prosperous, decline of competition in those losing their customary valuation; and as labour became still more minutely divided, and markets more numerous and extended, the invention of money -a common instrument of more steady or legally determined value than other commodities-whereby the huge inconvenience of direct barter of two commodities, one for the other, were to be removed, and each commodity in any quantity could be sold separately for a " price "in money, accepted not only for what it was worth in itself, but still more for the commodities it would at once buy in any portions at the "prices" current in the markets;-all these developments, etc., arose in necessary course out of the application of human beings to particular branches of production. Give the one, and the others were sure to follow.

Division of labour.

This "division of labour" must have been one of the earliest instincts of men, when thinking of a peaceful, industrial, and civilised life. It implied steady application to useful work or business, and with this impression also a dependence on the general community-a trustful expectation or assurance that the work of one man would exchange in fair value for

"Theory of Political Economy."

"System of Logic," Book VI., chap. ix., s. 1.
"Wealth of Nations," Book 1., chap. i.

the works of other men. It gave, moreover, individual freedom of choice in work-a selfevolving organisation of society where not corrupted by slavery or trodden down by an overruling despotism-always welcome to the heart of the human race, and in rude and barbarous times affording a pleasant escape out of eternal vicissitude and privation. Each would choose the industry for which he had most aptitude, and being apt, would not only have more pleasure in his work, but the aptitude increasing by exercise, the labour expended would be found in practice to become much more productive. Hence the greater riches of the whole community, and the charm of a constant multiplication of commodities which no disorganised or compelled labour could have brought forth.

Let not the reader misapprehend the term "division of labour." Under this process labour is divided only to be more A caution. thoroughly united, one part fitly joined to another, and all parts forming one grand system. It is in reality the most radical, complete, and penetrating of all co-operations of labour. The co-operative societies superimposed on this natural stock may be good enough, but they are superficial and feeble in comparison, whether in consolidating the interests or extending the sphere of labour.

Under Adam Smith's teaching the view of political economy has much changed as to the

origin and nature of wealth. Changed views. Labour is the source of all wealth" is now the common doctrine, giving to labour, of course, its full signification, and differing widely from the tenet of the early French "economists," who held that land is the source of wealth-a specious view, likely enough to impose on the judgment under the first impression that wealth or commodity always presents itself in the form of material substance, but which, on being closely examined, is found to be without foundation, either in the experience or reason of the case. For land itself is worthless until human labour has been applied to it in strong and continuous force. The timber felled and hauled from primeval forests does not obtain value in exchange for its substance -even though the utility may reside in its substance and in nothing else-but, on the contrary, for the labour outlays, the risks, and charges of bringing it to market. It is not to be denied, indeed, that any one who has acquired at small cost a tract of desert land full of valuable vegetable growths has got a very good thing in hand, any more than it is to be denied that any one who chances to light upon a gold-field may very easily fill his pockets from it. These windfalls belong to the spirit of industrial and commercial adventure, very generally useful of itself in human affairs as a pioneer of much future regular industry, but seldom rising above the rank of pioneering either in distinction or in wealth. On the principle

The keynote was struck by Dr. Smith in the first sentence of the introductory chapter of his work-the well-known words beginning, "The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences of life," etc.

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that one industry is as free as another, and as free to many as to few, the uniform and rapid tendency of all new-found sources of wealth, even on the most El Dorado scale, is to descend in the exchange-value to a fair average return of wages, profit, risks, and charges-such being the condition on which labour and capital are willing in abundance to work. So also of the productive forces derived from science and mechanical inventions. The expansibility of steam, for instance, in all the immense productive force it is putting forth, costs us nothing in the purchase of its innumerable products beyond the mechanism, fuel, and attendance necessary to the steam-engine and boiler. Political

economy thus contains, and has fairly within scope of its most solidly-established principles, a practical communism of all the contributions of Nature to human industry.

Exchange.

The motive of "division of labour" being to call forth the productive faculty of the individual man in the form most fit and accessible to himself, it proceeds on the understanding (1) that what one man produces he will be able to exchange for what other men produce, or, in other words, by the one product of his labour be able to command a variety of other products necessary to his wants; and (2) that this exchange will be an exchange of equity, or according to the quantity and quality of the work expended on the several products. The goods and produce have thus to be brought to exchange or sale, to deliberate comparison and test of their several values; and this is what constitutes "a market," the cardinal condition of which is that the market shall be free and open, and conducted throughout with intelligence and integrity. It is obvious that any forcible restriction of a public market, whether in one commodity or in several, any artificial bounty in favour of one commodity or prohibitive duty against another, directly corrupts the equity of exchange, and is, in fact, a fraud upon the general producers and the general consumers. care and many laws, as we read, of our forefathers, long before political economy had become a study in the United Kingdom, to keep free, open, and equal markets, show that they had a perception from experience of a great fact which required only time-though a very long time-to arrive at the much larger generalisation, now accepted in this country at least, that freedom of market is as necessary to the equity of exchange in the international as the domestic sphere of commerce. A fuller outline of this deeply interesting domain of political economy will arise under the head of "Value," in which the principal elements of the science may be said to centre. But, before passing on, a few sentences may be added on

SUPPLY AND DEMAND.

The

When the supply of a commodity is greater than the demand, the commodity tends to fall in "price," which, as the common intermediary term of money, is only another way of saying that it falls in exchange-value with some other commodities; and when the demand is greater than the supply it tends to rise in "price," in

the same sense. This proceeds on the plain law that when there is more than enough of a commodity the surplus declines rapidly in utility, and so affects the exchange-value of the whole; less than enough having the contrary effect of increasing the utility of every part of the supply, and consequently increasing its exchange-value. It has further to be observed that while the variations of supply and demand have this action on the value of a particular or of any commodity, there is no fundamental discordance between supply and demand, as regards the total production. All supply of products is a demand for other products, and all demand for products is, in the necessary condition of purchase, a supply of other products. The two forces, therefore, can never be unequal to each other. They are the same force under two aspects, and only vary when the supply of a commodity is greater or less than the demand for that particular commodity that is to say, they vary in the details of exchange without effect on the aggregate value of commodities. This will be found well expounded by the late Professor Cairnes.* When a commodity rises or falls, under the action of supply and demand bearing directly upon it, the signification is-and this point the student must see clearly at the outset-that some one or other commodities have fallen or risen in

equal proportion.

HISTORY OF MODERN TIMES.

XXIX.

in weakening the German empire. Cardinal Richelieu, whose profound statesmanship at that time guided the policy of France, saw in Ferdinand a dangerous rival to his master, Louis XIII. James of England assisted Count Mansfeld with money and troops. Christian of Brunswick was enabled once more to take the field. A far more formidable foe presently arose against the Austrian house. The ambitious Christian IV. of Denmark, anxious to extend his territories by conquests in Northern Germany, and seconded by France, Holland, and England, appeared in the field against Ferdinand. The emperor, till now dependent for his armies on Tilly and the League, resolved to set on foot a separate army. For this purpose he applied to that great Bohemian noble, "the adventurous son

of fortune," who became the great central figure of the contest, Albert Waldstein or Wallenstein, of KöniginThis re

grätz.

markable man had

a

proved himself, in many battles, stout soldier and a skilful chief. He possessed enormous wealth, partly acquired through marriage, and partly by the purchase of confiscated estates; and had been rewarded by Ferdinand for his services in the Bohemian war, first with the title of Duke of Friedland, and afterwards with rank among the princes of the empire. Magnificent in rewarding, and inexorable in punishing, he at

Albert
Wallenstein,
Duke of
Friedland.

tached his soldiers to himself alike by gratitude, admiration, and fear; and his belief in astrology added an element of mystery to his life which increased his influence with those around him, and high and low were eager to attach themselves to his fortunes. Wallenstein responded to the emperor's proposal that he should collect twelve thousand troops, by offering to raise a far larger number. "Twelve thousand I cannot maintain," he is reported to have said; "but I will bring together sixty thousand, and I warrant they won't die of hunger." He meant that sixty thousand men would take what they needed, in the country of friend or foe; and that war should be made to pay for itself. Ferdinand was not, on the whole, ill-pleased to see a great army fighting his battles and costing him nothing. Fortune in the Danish war was with Wallenstein

and Tilly. Christian of Denmark effected little on the Weser. Mansfeld, beaten at the Dessau bridge, was pursued by Wallenstein through the whole of Germany to Hungary, where he hoped to be joined by Bethlen Gabor, of Siebenbrügen. But this hope was not realised, and the bold partisan warrior died at Zara, in Dalmatia. It is said that he awaited death in armour, with his sword girded on, and leaning on two troopers for support. Christian of Brunswick, the "mad bishop," had died a few months before. Austria was thus freed from two formidable enemies; and Christian of Denmark himself

Defeat of Christian IV. of

Denmark. was compelled, after Wallenstein had gained the battle of Cozen, to acknowledge himself beaten. Wallenstein purposed to found a new German maritime state on the shores of the Baltic; and in this he might have succeeded but for the heroic resistance of Stralsund, whose citizens shut their gates, and successfully stood a siege in which Wallenstein lost 12,000 men, after swearing in vain that he would have the town "if it were fastened to heaven with chains."

This defeat somewhat weakened the influence of Wallenstein, who had, moreover, drawn upon himself the hatred of the princes and the curses of millions by the ruthless system of plunder by which his motley army was maintained. Still he was a tower of strength to the emperor, whose foes everywhere capitulated; and Christian of Denmark was glad, in the treaty of Lübeck, to compound for his own safety by abandoning the Protestants of Germany to their fate. A very slight amount of moderation and wisdom on Ferdinand's part would have brought the war to a close. But again the emperor miscalculated his power, and would be con

Edict of Restitution, March 6, 1629.

77

for the dismissal of Wallenstein, whose lawless troops swarmed like locusts through the country, eating up every green thing, and leaving the land a desert wherever their tents had been pitched; and whose haughty leader disregarded all orders of the Government and trampled on princes and people alike. Overcome by the general importunity, Ferdinand. disbanded eighteen thousand of his cavalry, and dismissed Wallenstein from the command of his army. "The stars indicate," said the haughty general, "that the spirit of the Bavarian will dominate the spirit of the emperor." Somewhat against the general expectation, he quietly accepted his dismissal, and retired to his Bohemian palace, where he lived in regal state and magnificence, surrounded by a retinue of guards and adherents that eclipsed the court of the emperor himself. He was careful, by princely donations and largesses, to keep around him the officers whom he could trust; for he believed in his fortunate star, and considered the time to be near when the emperor would be obliged to buy his services at any price.

tent with nothing less than the political annihilation of his opponents. On the 6th of March, 1629, he promulgated the Edict of Restitution, commanding the restoration of all church property alienated from the Catholics since the pacification of Passau, excluding the Calvinists from religious toleration, and putting potent means into the hands of the Romanists for the extirpation of Protestantism. He could not have committed a greater blunder. As the Edict of Restitution affected the interests of all the Protestant princes, it was the measure best calculated to unite them all once more in common resistance against its author.

At this time, too, Ferdinand was obliged,

very reluctantly, to sacrifice the Dismissal of man to whom he owed so much. Wallenstein, At the diet at Ratisbon, in 1630, 1630. a general clamour of the princes, headed by Maximilian of Bavaria, was raised

Ferdinand's tyranny had united the Protestant princes of Germany in a re

newed effort for Gustavus Adolfreedom; and phus lands in Germany, at this crisis June 24, 1630. a champion

appeared than whom a nobler had never taken upon himself the vindication of a great cause. Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, the grandson of the heroic Gustavus Vasa, had received secret invitations from Germany to raise the Protestant standard once more. The astute Richelieu had promised him help; and the house of Austria had excited his apprehensions by menaces and insults. At a diet held by the king immediately before his departure for Germany, he explained the causes of his interference in the great contest. He presented to the diet his little daughter Christina, then only four years of age, but destined to leave a name in history very different from that of her heroic father. He caused the assembled deputies to take the oath of allegiance to this child; for he felt and expressed a presentiment that he should die in defence of his country and of the Protestant faith; and they, like the friends of St. Paul, mourned at his departure, and most of all for the thought that "they should see his face no more." "It is no light or trivial cause," said the king, "that has moved me to take part in this new and dangerous war. God is my witness that I have not sought the contest. But the emperor has supported my enemies, persecuted my friends and brethren, trampled my religion in the dust; and now he stretches forth his hand to grasp my crown. The oppressed states of Germany call loudly upon us for aid; and,