1. Life and Labour of the People in London. By Charles Booth. Final volume. London: Macmillan, 1902. 2. History of Trade Unionism; Industrial Democracy 1. A History of the British Army. By the Hon. J. W. Fortescue. Vols 1-3. London: Macmillan, 1899-1902. 2. Cromwell's Army: a History of the English Soldier during the Civil Wars, the Commonwealth, and the And other works. ART. III. THE METRIC SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 57 1. Opinions of H.M. Diplomatic and Consular Officers on British Trade Methods. (C. 9078 of 1898.) And other works. 1. Conduction of Electricity through Gases. By J. J. Thomson, F.R.S. Cambridge: University Press, 1903. 2. Les nouvelles substances radioactives, et les rayons qu'elles émettent. Par P. Curie et Mme Curie. Rap- ART. VI. SOME TENDENCIES OF MODERN SPORT 1. Cricket. Edited by Horace G. Hutchinson. London: 2. The Cricket of Abel, Hirst, and Shrewsbury. Edited 1. The Essays of Montaigne. Translated by Charles Cotton. Edited by W. C. Hazlitt. Four volumes. London: Reeves and Turner, 1902. 2. The Journal of Montaigne's Travels. Translated and edited, with an introduction and notes, by W. G. Waters. Three volumes. London: Murray, 1903. And other works. And other works. ART. IX.-MR CREEVEY AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES The Creevey Papers. A selection from the Correspond- ence and Diaries of the late Thomas Creevey, M.P. Edited by the Right Hon. Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart., M.P. Two vols. London: Murray, 1903. And other works. ART. X.-LATEST LIGHTS ON THE HOMERIC QUESTION The Iliad. Edited, with apparatus criticus, proleg- omena, notes and appendices, by Walter Leaf, Litt.D. And other works. 1. L'Évangile et l'Église. By Alfred Loisy. Paris: And other works. THE QUARTERLY REVIEW. No. 397.-JANUARY, 1904. Art. I.-THE NEW SOCIALISM. 1. Life and Labour of the People in London. By Charles Booth. Final volume. London: Macmillan, 1902. 2. History of Trade Unionism; Industrial Democracy (two vols); and Problems of Modern Industry. By Sidney and Beatrice Webb. London: Longmans, 1894-1898. 3. Aristocracy and Evolution. By W. H. Mallock. London: A. and C. Black, 1898. 4. The Science of Civilisation. By C. B. Phipson. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1900. 5. The Heart of the Empire. Essays by several writers. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1901. 6. Democracy versus Socialism. By Max Hirsch. London: Macmillan, 1901. 7. The Strength of the People. By Helen Bosanquet. London: Macmillan, 1902. 8. Psychologie du Socialisme. By Gustave Le Bon. Paris, 1902. 9. The Social Unrest. By John Graham Brooks. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1903. And other works. IN one of the works which now lie before us, the writer asserts that, although the programme of socialism has failed to realise itself in that particular way which its apostles regarded as imminent some twenty years ago, yet none the less the adherents of socialism, as a creed, are to-day more numerous than they ever have been before. In a sense this assertion may very possibly be true; but if it is true at all, it is true for a certain reason which the writer himself did not take the trouble to emphasise, although even he was far from blind to its Vol, 199.-No. 397. B character. The reason we refer to is this. The growth of theoretical socialism, or sympathy with socialistic ideals, is far less due to the fact that socialism has been converting the world, than it is to the fact that the world has been modifying socialism. It is well known how the theology of the early Church was gradually modified by the delay of the second Advent; and the party that expected, about the middle of the nineteenth century, that the existing social order would be violently overthrown in a year or two, and an international society of artisans would inaugurate a social millennium, has, by the mere fact of the complete falsification of its hopes, been finally made to realise that there was some error in its original principles. The lever which was to move the world in a year or two, or perhaps in a moment, has continued for half a century to break or bend in its hands. Deferred hope, however, has done very much more for the socialists than merely teach them, by disappointment, the folly of needless impatience. It has given them time to think, and, not without searchings of spirit, to bring their original theories into closer accordance with realities. We propose to make a short general survey of the change which has, during the past quarter of a century, come over the workers and thinkers who call themselves, or are called, socialistic. The reason, say the modern socialists, why their predecessors failed, was this. They failed to see how existing evils could be remedied, because they had failed to see, by any scientific analysis, in what precise conditions existing evils originated. The first socialistic thinker who addressed himself to this task, and gave to socialism a true scientific basis, was, they say, Karl Marx. This writer is known to the world, and acquired his position in the ranks of the socialistic party, mainly through his treatise on capital, published about the middle of the nineteenth century. The part of this work which his admirers most eagerly welcomed, and which formed for many years their chief argumentative weapon, was the theory of surplus value. Owing, said Marx, to a series of historical causes, the great mass of the population, first in our own country, and then throughout Europe and America, became dispossessed both of the means and materials of labour, |