ABBOT, CHARLES, afterwards Lord Colchester (born 1757, died 1829), entered parliament in 1795, and became chairman of Pitt's finance committee 1797. He carried in 1800 a bill for

charging public paymasters with the payment of interest on sums in hand. He was also the initiator of the commission of inquiry into the public records in the same year. But perhaps his chief title to fame is his introduction, in 1800, of the motion for a complete census of Great Britain. In spite of some opposition the Population Act, as it was called, was duly passed, and its provisions carried into force in the next year (see CENSUS). As speaker (elected 1802) he gave his casting vote against Lord Melville in 1805. On his retirement from the House of Commons in 1817 he was made a peer, and received a pension of £4000 a year. He devoted his later years to foreign travel, and to the improvement of roads in the Scottish highlands.

J. B.

ABEILLE, LOUIS PAUL (born 1719, died 1807), became secretary of the Agricultural Society of Brittany, established through GOURNAY'S influence in 1757. He was an ardent physiocrat, and argued (1763) for free trade in corn, along with QUESNAY, MORELLET, and the elder MIRABEAU. Writing later on the same subject (1768) he fell into the fallacy that high corn prices make high wages. DUPONT speaks of his style as "cold and heavy" but "clear." He wrote occasionally in the Journal d Agriculture of Paris, when Dupont became its editor in 1765; but he seems never to have been on very good terms with that economist. When he was chosen inspector-general of manufactures (1768) his ardour seems to have cooled down, and he is not to be reckoned among the few who upheld the physiocratic cause after TURGOT's death in 1781. His writings include (besides the Corps d'Observations of the Breton Agricultural Society) the following :

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Lettre d'un négociant sur la nature du commerce des Grains, Paris, 1763.-Réflexions sur la police des Grains en Angleterre et en France, Paris, 1764.-Effets d'un privilège exclusif sur les droits de propriété, Paris, 1764.-Principes sur la liberté du commerce des Grains, Paris, 1768.-Faits qui ont influé sur la cherté des Grains en France et en Angleterre, Paris, 1768.-Mémoire présenté par la Société Royale d'Agriculture sur l'usage des domaines congéables, Paris, 1791.-Mémoire en faveur d'Argant, the inventor of the "Argand lamp, Geneva, 1785.-Mémoire à consulter (on the subject of the French East India Company), Paris, 1768.-[See Schelle's Dupont de Nemours et l'école Physiocratique (1888) passim, Daire's Physiocrates, 1846 (e.g. p. 38).]

J. B.

"

ABOLITIONIST. A term applied specially to the social reformers headed by Thomas CLARKSON, who advocated and carried the abolition of the slave-trade in the British dominions; and applied generally to all who have aimed at abolishing either the trade in slaves or the institution of SLAVERY, whether in the British dominions or elsewhere.

The causes which contributed to abolition in the first sense are arranged by Clarkson (q.v.), the historian of the movement, in four divisions, quaintly illustrated by four confluent streams (History of the Abolition of Slave-Trade, 1808, p. 259). The four classes of abolitionists may be summarily described as (1) miscellaneous, mostly literary (Pope, Thomson, etc.); (2) Quakers in England; (3) Quakers in America; (4) Clarkson himself, with his fellow-workers. In 1787 the first committee for the abolition of this trade was formed by Clarkson and his associates. At first their efforts were devoted to the abolition only of the trade in slaves, as the abolition of slavery itself seemed hopeless. In 1789 Wilberforce introduced a measure into parliament, founded upon Clarkson's materials, but it was not till 1807 that the bill for the abolition of the slave-trade passed the House of Commons, and not till 1833 that British colonial slavery was abolished by act of parliament. The abolition of slavery in the British dominions gave prominence to two points of economic interest-the inefficiency

of slave labour, and the right to compensation in case of expropriation, even when the kind of property has received the most severe public moral condemnation.

The movement towards liberty, initiated by England, has been continued by most of the continental nations at varying rates down to the present time. Denmark, indeed, has the honour of anticipating the action of England. In 1792 it was ordered that slave-trade should cease in Danish dominions after 1802. In the United States the movement in favour of abolition is coeval with the union. Before the end of last century, or early in the beginning of the present one, slavery was abolished in many of the original states. The admission of new states has more than once raised the question, within what limits should slavery be tolerated? Thus, on the admission of Missouri, the boundaries within which slavery was permitted or prohibited were carefully defined by the "Missouri compromise" (1820). That arrangement was at a later period (in the case of Dred Scott, 1856-57) interpreted unfavourably to the cause of abolition. The indignation of abolitionists was roused by the cruel administration of the fugitive slave law and other iniquities. Slavery was a cause, and abolition a result, of the Civil War 1861-65.

The economic questions connected with American slavery have been well treated by CAIRNES in his work on the Slave Power (see SLAVERY). See also, with reference to America, H. GREELEY, The American Conflict, 1865. Clarkson published in 1808 a History of the Abolition of the Slave-Trade (2 vols.)

J. S. N.

ABOUT, EDMOND (member of the Académie Française), born at Dieuze (Lorraine), 1828, died at Paris, 1885. It was especially as a novelist that About made his reputation, and it is to be regretted that politics, after 1871, reduced this inimitable romance writer, who had produced such works as the Roi des Montagnes and the Mariages de Paris, to the position of a mere editor of a journal (the XIX. Siècle). The works which should be noticed in this place were written between the purely literary period and the more militant period of About's animated life. In Maitre Pierre (1858) and the Lettres d'un bon jeune homme (1860) About, as a passionate admirer of the wonders of human industry, and the conscientious defender of the principles of laissez faire laissez passer, still writes as a novelist and a storyteller. But genuine didactic works followed. We may cite le Progrès (1864) and l'A B C du travailleur (1868), l'Assurance (1865) and le Capital pour tous (1869). In these last-named works the author limits himself to setting forth the principles which others had formulated before him, while he denounces certain errors of interpretation. Though About may be described

as only a populariser, he yet deserves consideration from the students of economic science, to which, for ten years, he devoted all the resources of his humour, imagination, and incomparable style.

A. DE F.

ABRASION. The abrasion or loss by wear and tear of the coins in use is an important factor in the cost of a metallic circulation. This differs between one country and another according to the hardness of the coin which results from the description of ALLOY employed, to the surface of the coin exposed to wear in proportion to its bulk, to the greater or less employment of coin in circulation. At the present time the wear of the principal gold coin of the British empire (SOVEREIGN) is very considerable. The investigation set on foot by JEVONS in 1868 shows that the sovereign in ordinary use loses on an average 043 of a grain annually. In other words, the wear and tear of an English sovereign appears to be at the rate of 80 parts, or something less than onetenth of a penny per annum (J. B. Martin, "Media of Exchange," Journal of Statistical Society, 1884, p. 489). The standard weight is 123 274 grains, and the lowest weight of legal currency 122.5 grains, so that the sovereign loses the 774 grains, which reduces it below legal tender, on an average in about 15.7 years. In the case of the HALF-SOVEREIGN, the difference between standard weight and the lowest current weight is 512 grains; and as the yearly loss of the half-sovereign averages 069 grains, these coins are reduced below legal tender weight generally in the short period of seven and a half years. The wear of the English coinage cannot, however, be taken as the criterion of the wear of all coinages everywhere, as varying rapidity of circulation, use of small paper representatives of money, etc., cause great differences between one country and another. The estimates of the actual amount differ very greatly from each other; one made by JACOB, which includes the wear both of gold and silver coins, is of " one part in three hundred and sixty annually' (Jacob on the Precious Metals, vol. ii. p. 186).

[For detailed information see An Historical In

quiry into the Production and Consumption of the Precious Metals, W. Jacob, London, 1831 (2 vols.)

"Paper on the Condition of the Gold Coinage of the United Kingdom," W. S. Jevons, Journal of the Statistical Society of London, reprinted with much similar information in Jevons's Investigations in Currency and Finance.-See also paper by John B. Martin, "Our Gold Coinage," Journal of the Institute of Bankers, June 1882.-Paper by R. H. Inglis Palgrave, "The Deficiency in Weight of our Gold Coinage, with a Proposal for its Reform,' March 1883; "The Gold Coinage," December 1884 (both in Journal, Institute of Bankers).—Reports of Deputy Master of Mint, particularly those for 1883, 1884, 1885, and passim,-and Evidence and Reports Royal Commission on Recent Changes in the Relative Values of the Precious Metals, which

includes a translation of A. Soetbeer's Materials for the Illustration and Criticism of the Economic Relations of the Precious Metals, and of the Currency Question.-Evidence and Reports Royal Commission on Depression of Trade and Industry, 1886.]

ABROAD. See JURISDICTION.

ABSENTEE. An absentee may be variously defined (1) as a landed proprietor who resides away from his estate, or (2) from his country; or more generally (3) any unproductive consumer who lives out of the country from which he derives his income.

Examples of these species are (1) a seigneur under the ancien régime living in Paris at a distance from his estates; (2) an Irish landlord resident abroad; (3) an Anglo-Indian ex-official resident in England and drawing a pension from India. In writing briefly on the evils of absenteeism it is difficult to use general terms appropriate to all the definitions; but considerations primarily relating to some one definition may easily be adapted to another by the reader.

It is useful to consider separately the effects of the absentee proprietor's consumption upon the wealth of his countrymen; and the moral, as well as economical effects of other circumstances.

I. The more abstract question turns upon the fact that the income of an absentee is mostly remitted by means of exports. "The tribute, subsidy, or remittance is always in goods ... unless the country possesses mines of the precious metals" (Mill). So far as the proprietor, if resident at home, would consume foreign produce, his absence, not increasing exports, does not affect local industry. So far as the proprietor's absence causes manufactures to be exported, his countrymen are not prejudiced. For they may have as profitable employment in manufacturing those exports as, if the proprietor had resided at home, they would have had in supplying manufactured commodities or services for his use. But if the proprietor by his absence causes raw materials to be exported, while if present he would have used native manufactures and services, his absence tends to deprive his countrymen of employment, to diminish their prosperity, and perhaps their numbers. This reasoning is based on SENIOR'S Lectures on the Rate of Wages (Lecture II.), and Political Economy (pp. 155-161). Senior's position is in a just mean between two extremes, -the popular fallacy and the paradox of M'CULLOCH. On the one hand it is asserted that between the payment of a debt to an absentee and a resident there is the same difference as between the payment and non-payment of a tribute to a foreign country. On the other hand it is denied that there is any difference at all. The grosser form of the vulgar error, the conception that the income of the absentee is drawn from the tributary country in specie,

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is exemplified in Thomas PRIOR's List of Absentees (1829) M'Culloch's arguments are stated in the essay on "Absenteeism" in his Treatises and Essays on Money, etc., and in the evidence given by him before some of the parliamentary

Asked

commissions which are referred to below. "Do you see any difference between raw produce and manufactured goods," M'Culloch replies, "I do not think it makes any difference' (compare Treatises and Essays, p. 232). He appeals to observation, and finds that the tenants of absentee landlords are 66 subjected to less fleecing and extortion than those of residents." J. S. MILL attributes to absenteeism a tendency to lower the level of prices in the country from which the absentee draws an income; with the consequence that the inhabitants of that country obtain their imports at an increased cost of effort and sacrifice (Unsettled Questions, essay i. p. 43). Mill's meaning may be made clearer by a study of the rest of the essay which has been cited, and of the parallel passage in his Political Economy (bk. v. ch. iv. § 6), where he argues that an inequality between exports and imports results in an "efflux of money" from one country to another.

Upon less distinct grounds QUESNAY connects absenteeism with a development of trade and industry in an unhealthy direction (Œuvres, éd. Oncken, p. 189). Among recondite considerations which may bear on the subject should be mentioned CANTILLON'S theory concerning the effect of the consumption of the rich on the growth of population (Essai, pt. i. ch. xv.)

II. Other economical advantages lost by absenteeism are those which spring from the interest which a resident is apt to take in the things and persons about him. Thus he may

be prompted to invest capital in local improvements, or to act as an employer of workmen. "It is not the simple amount of the rental being remitted to another country," says Arthur YOUNG, "but the damp on all sorts of improvements." D'ARGENSON in his Considérations sur le gouvernement ancien et présent de la France (1765, p. 183), attributes great importance to the master's eye.

The good feeling which is apt to grow up between a resident landlord and his tenantry has material as well as moral results, which are generally beneficial. The absentee is less likely to take account of circumstances (e.g. tenant's improvements), which render rackrenting unjust. He is less likely to make allowance for calamities which render punctual payment difficult. "Miseries of which he can see nothing, and probably hear as little of, can make no impression," A. YOUNG. He is glad to get rid of responsibility by dealing with a middleman," or intermediate tenant-an additional wheel in the machinery of exaction, calculated to grind relentlessly those placed underneath it. Without the softening influence

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of personal communication between the owner and the cultivator of the soil, the "cash nexus is liable to be strained beyond the limit of human patience, and to burst violently. There can be little doubt but that absenteeism has been one potent cause of the misery and disturbances in Ireland. The same cause has produced like effects in cases widely different in other respects. The cruellest oppressors of the French peasantry before the Revolution were the fermiers, who purchased for an annual sum the right to collect the dues of absentee seigneurs. The violence of the GRANGER Railway legislation in the western states of America is attributed to the fact that the shareholders damnified were absentee proprietors (Seligman, Journal of Political Science, 1888).

There are also the moral advantages due to the influence and example of a cultivated upper class. The extent of this benefit will vary according to the character of the proprietors and the people. In some cases it may be, as Adam SMITH says, that "the inhabitants of a large village, after having made considerable progress in manufactures, have become idle in consequence of a great lord having taken up his residence in their neighbourhood." The opposite view, presented by Miss EDGEWORTH in her Absentee, may be true in other states of civilisation. Perhaps the safest generalisation is that made by Senior that "in general the presence of men of large fortune is morally detrimental, and that of men of moderate fortune morally beneficial, to their immediate neighbourhood."

ences.

[The references cited below are to be added to those which have been already made. They fall under two heads: (a) the unfortunately large class relating specially to Ireland, and (b) Miscellaneous. (a) The Act 3 Richard II. and 28 Henry VIII., inflicting on absentees forfeiture of two-thirds of the yearly profits from their lands. These and other acts relating to absentees are cited in Tracts and Treatises Illustrative of... Ireland (reprinted by Thom), 1840. The index to this work, under the heading "Absentees" gives some other useful referSWIFT, Seventh Drapier's Letter (vol. vii. p. 40, ed. Walter Scott).-Thomas Prior, List of Absentees, 1727 (cited above), and continuations in subsequent years.-Lecky, History of England in 18th Century, vol. ii. 2d ed. ch. vii. p. 237 et seq.; Id., vol. iv. ch. xvi. p. 317 et seq.-Arthur Young, Tour in Ireland, 1780, ii. p. 59 (a terrific "general picture" of the evils of absenteeism).-Edward WAKEFIELD, Account of Ireland, 1812 (passages referred to in index).- Westminster Review 1827. -John Wiggin's (a land agent) Letter to ... Absentee Landlords, 1822 (anonymous at first), (recommends absentee landlord to employ a confidential friend to visit the estate occasionally). — Minutes of evidence taken before the select committee of the House of Lords... Ireland, Parliamentary Papers, 1825, ix. -Minutes of evidence taken before the Select Committee of the House of

.

Commons Ireland, Parliamentary Papers, 1825, viii.-Quarterly Journal, March 1826.London Magazine, April 1826. Westminster Review, January 1829.-De Beaumont, L'Irlande, 1829.-Bicheno, Ireland and its Economy, 1830, ch. viii. (sensible remarks on the paradox of "the economists").-Select committee on state of the poor in Ireland, Parliamentary Papers, 1830, vii. Debate in the House of Commons, 1833, Hansard, xix. p. 583 (cp. xvi. p. 727).—Westminster Review, October 1833.-Von Raumer (a writer quoted with approbation by Mill), England in 1835, letter lxii. (very forcible). Westminster Review, October 1835.-G. Cornewall LEWIS, Disturbances in Ireland, 1836, p. 451.-Report of the Devon Commission, Parliamentary Papers, 1845, xix.-xxii. (Answers referred to under the head of Estate Management nearly, but not quite, unanimous that the estates of absentees are badly managed.) Digest of the same (ch. xxiv., on estate management). Dublin University Magazine, 1850.-LAVERGNE, Economie rurale de l'Angleterre, 1858, pp. 378, 383 (referring to M'CULLOCH's paradox says, "En ce qui concerne l'Irland la question me parait tranchée par les faits"). CAIRNES, Political Essays, 1873 (Fragments on Ireland), p. 168.

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(b) MONCHRETIEN, Traicté de l'aekonomie politique, 1615, edited by T. Funck-Brentano, Paris, 1881, p. 41 (early appearance of absenteeism in France).-Adam Smith, bk. v. ch. ii. (Tax on absentees)-A. TOCQUEVILLE (Clerel de), L'Ancien Régime, 1857, ch. xii. (Absentéisme de cœur the small resident proprietors).-H. Taine, Ancien Régime, 1876, liv. i. ch. iii. pp. 52-77; and numerous authorities there cited.-H. CAREY, Lectures on Wages. 1835, p. 46 (criticises Senior's theory).-E. Levasseur, La Population Française, 1889, ch. xi. p. 237.-Hadley, Railway Transportation, 1886, p. 133 (absentee shareholders), and p. 21).—Journal des Economistes, 1885, November and December, summarising the results of the recent Italian Commission.-Brodrick, English Land and Landlords (passages referred to in index under heading "Absentee "). Reference in Lavergne, Economie rurale de la France (medium properties, as in England, lead to absenteeism less than large properties).]

F. Y. E.

ABSTINENCE. This well-chosen expression of SENIOR'S, to use J. S. MILL'S well-known description, has been unfortunate in giving rise to much controversy. It was intended to refer to that element in profits which might be considered as the "natural" reward of the capitalist for abstaining from immediate consumption. It was thus closely connected with the effective desire of accumulation and the theory of a "minimum rate of profits." It has also been much used in the establishment of economic harmonies in the style of BASTIAT with the view of showing that "natural" economic laws are in fundamental accord with "common-sense" morality. As might have been expected from the ambiguity of the terms "natural" and "common-sense,' and from the vagueness of the conception abstinence itself, this economic harmony has been severely criticised in the first place by the