an
exchange of employers. This proposition, which M. Bastiat insists upon
through many arguments, is of more vital interest to France than to us.
It refers to a form of folly that is chronic there, but sporadic here,
and its most threatening outbreak (during the "ring rule" in New York)
was violently cured by the panic of 1873. But the importance of
inculcating sound views on this subject is just as necessary here as
there. Probably the larger part of Tweed's stealings ultimately found
their way to laboring men, but who shall say that New York has gained
wealth by his career? M. Bastiat's views on interest, capital, taxes,
encouragement of fine arts by the State, public works, the spendthrift,
government, etc., are excellent, and expressed in an ingenious and
taking way. It is hard to give to dissertations on such subjects that
"blood-curdling interest" which Mark Twain promised in his agricultural
memoranda; but M. Bastiat certainly unites an unusual interest of style
to sensible and simple views. Mr. Wells may count the reproduction of
these essays as one of the many valuable public services he has done
his countrymen.

[16] "_Essays on Political Economy._" By FREDERICK BASTIAT.
Translation revised by David A. Wells. New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons.

* * * * *

A hundred and four years have passed since John Howard paid that visit
to Bedford jail which first directed his attention to the improvement
of the prisoners' condition. The work began with the study of prisons;
a hundred years has turned it into the study of the prisoner. Mr.
Dugdale[17] discovered in 1874 the criminal family which has become
notorious as containing Margaret, "the mother of criminals." She was
one of six sisters, of whom one is not traceable; four gave rise to
mixed criminal and pauper lines, and Margaret to a distinctively
criminal line. To these sisters Mr. Dugdale gives the name _Jukes_, and
he has followed up seven generations, containing 540 known persons of
Juke blood, and 169 known persons of other blood who became allied to
the Jukes in one way or another. All told, this criminal family
contains 709 known persons, and probably 500 undiscovered members,
forming the most numerous criminal lineage ever studied. Mr. Dugdale's
pamphlet is a profoundly interesting analysis of the history of this
family, and the tendencies that have governed it. The remarkable fact
is developed tha