"Beschluss" is not to be commended; "rapide Entwickelung," "partielle Erklärung," and "innere Verbesserung" are too literal a translation of "rapid development," "partial explanation," and "internal improvement." On page 7 "Geldleiher" should read "Geldborger." The typographical errors are too numerous to mention, especially in the foot-notes, in which no consistent method of quoting authorities is followed. The State Comptroller is generally called a "Controller," for which misuse of the word there is, however, some excuse.

J. C. S.

English Local Government of To-day: A Study of the Relations of Central and Local Government. By Milo Roy Maltbie, Ph.D. Studies in History, Economics and Public Law. Edited by the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University. New York. When the nineteenth century began, in all matters of local government, the counties, the towns, and the parishes of England were self-contained and responsible to no Department of State in London. Local government in the counties was exclusively in the hands of the landed classes. County affairs were administered in quarter sessions by magistrates appointed by the Crown on the nomination of the Lord Lieutenant. In the cities and boroughs, municipal government was administered under charters, most of which dated back two or three centuries. Each city and town was a law unto itself; and its usually autocratic administrators could be reached only through the law courts, and then with difficulty and at great cost. As for the rural communities outside the incorporated towns, they were governed by church-wardens and overseers chosen at the vestry meetings held at the parish churches. The poor law in its fundamental principles had long been uniform; but in practice scores of poor law districts were governed by their special Acts of Parliament, and in the closing days of the last century and in the early days of this, almost the only duty which the local administrators of the poor law owed to the central government was to make returns of poor law statistics to the Speaker of the House of Commons. There were no elementary schools, except as private ventures, and the State had taken upon itself no responsibilities or duties in connection with elementary education. The preservation of the peace was still a duty which in law devolved upon every householder, as in the middle ages when every enfranchised inhabitant was compelled to take his turn at watch and ward; and as late as the second decade of this century the ancient custom

of watch and ward was revived in the county and town of Nottingham by Parliamentary enactment.

The object of Mr. Maltbie's "English Local Government of To-day" is to trace the change from the England which existed until 1834 to the England of to-day, when every local governing body is elected directly by the people, and in particular to trace the origin and development of the several great Departments of State, which now exercise such close and constant supervision over every phase of local government activity. Whitehall is Mr. Maltbie's standpoint. The local poor law boards, the town councils, and the school boards are all dealt with, as it were, from inside the Local Government Board, the Home Office, the Board of Trade, and the Education Department. It is from the official literature of these State Departments, from the Hansards, and from the law reports that Mr. Maltbie has obtained his data. He gives a succinct and admirable account of the relationships between the local elected bodies and the State Departments in London and rightfully emphasizes the good which results from the oversight of the State Departments, and from the continuity of policy which this oversight brings about in all affairs of local government.

In describing the connection of Parliament with the several Departments of State concerned with local government, Mr. Maltbie rather overlooks the advantages which accrue from the presence of the political heads of these Departments in the House of Commons. The Local Government Board at Whitehall is a long way off from a town council in Lancashire or Cumberland; but its political chief is always in the House of Commons, and can there be reached by question from the local member, and, if need be, by a motion for the adjournment of the House to call attention to any action of the Local Government Board to which there may be strong and well-founded local objection.

The least satisfactory chapter in Mr. Maltbie's book is that on elementary education. His sketch of the history of education in England prior to the Act of 1870 is scrappy and inexact. It is not nearly sufficiently full to enable a reader, new to the subject, to form an adequate understanding of the elementary education system as it now exists, and is now worked by the voluntary school committees, the education committees of town councils, and the school boards. Centralization in connection with the poor law, the police, and municipal government has succeeded beyond all question. It has only partially succeeded in connection with

elementary education, and the failure of the Committee of Council for Education to give as full satisfaction as has been given by the Local Government Board in respect to municipal affairs, and the Home Office in respect to the police and the administration of the mining and factory laws, cannot be made clear unless the history. of elementary education from 1808 to 1870 is adequately told. This is not done in Mr. Maltbie's book, and the chapter on elementary education loses much of its value from the lack of two or three more pages at the outset. The presentation of the subject is especially misleading in giving the impression that the Church first. moved to the establishment of the present education system; it did not move at all until the British and Foreign Schools Society, a non-sectarian organization, had entered on the work in 1808.

Farmington, Conn.

E. PORRITT.

Municipal Problems. By Frank J. Goodnow, A.M., LL.D. New York, The Macmillan Co., 1897-12mo, 333 pp.

The Study of City Government: An Outline of the Problems of Municipal Functions, Control and Organization. By Delos F. Wilcox, A.M., Ph.D. New York, The Macmillan Co., 189712m0, 268 pp.

These two most recent books on the subject of municipal government, while valuable in themselves, are especially noteworthy by way of contrast. The former is by the Professor of Administrative Law in Columbia University, the highest authority on that subject in this country, whose work on Comparative Administrative Law is the standard and practically the only authority on administration in the English language. The second book, very modest and unambitious in its purpose, is written by a pupil of Prof. Goodnow, whose first publication was his doctor's thesis, "Municipal Government in Michigan and Ohio," published not long ago in the Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law. It is natural, therefore, that the two books should reflect to some degree the same opinion on similar points, but it is only fair to Dr. Wilcox to say that in clearness and attractiveness of exposition and in the method of presentation, the work of the pupil is much more satisfactory than the work of the teacher.

Prof. Goodnow's book consists of a series of essays, which show large knowledge of the subject, and careful thought, but one in reading them gets the impression of haste in publishing these

lectures before the author's thought was sufficiently seasoned, and his conclusions had crystallized into clear form.

In the first chapter on the History of Municipal Organization in the United States, he traces the great changes which have taken place in the form of municipal government in this country, during the present century. Among these the most striking features have been the lessening of the powers of the municipal council, the increasing interference of the State legislature in municipal affairs, and the concentration of power and responsibility in the municipal executive. He then discusses the position of the city in our system of government, and emphasizes the fact, which has often been overlooked by some writers, that, while the city from one point of view is a business corporation for performing certain local functions, it is in a more important degree a governmental corporation, with important political functions to discharge as the agent of the State. If this double capacity of city government had been recognized and heeded in determining policies in the past, many failures in municipal administration might have been avoided. With regard to the proper sphere of municipal activity, the author thinks that the strict enumeration of power in municipal charters which prevails in this country has been much less advantageous for securing actual municipal home rule and preventing undue legislative interference than the general municipal corporation laws of continental Europe, which describe the powers of the city government in less detail.

The chapters on "The Relations of the City to the State," "Administrative Control in Europe," and "Administrative Control in England," are most valuable, because they discuss a somewhat novel phase of the subject, and contain much information that will be new to the average reader. The plan of central control which he advocates is foreign to American practice in many ways, and is not likely to be incorporated into our statute books in a day, but we believe that the author is right in urging, that a wise, conservative and responsible administrative control by the central state government should be substituted for the reckless and irresponsible legislative control which has already done so much harm. In the chapters, "Universal Suffrage," "The City Council," and "The City Executive," are discussed the problems of internal organization, which have been threshed over in magazine and newspaper articles during the last few years. He favors fewer elected officers and more appointed officials. He thinks that the

council should consist of one chamber containing two classes of members, some of whom are elected by a general ticket, and some on a division or ward ticket. In determining the powers of the city council, he would cast it in continental rather than the English mold. It should have the proper legislative powers and control of the city's purse, but the power of appointment and the responsibility of administration should rest with the executive, while the details. of administration should be carried out under the direction of permanent subordinates.

Very little fault on the whole can be found with the matter of this book, but the manner of it is open to serious criticism. Prof. Goodnow's literary style leaves much to be desired. It lacks grace, clearness and force. The sentences are much too long, involved and cumbered with qualifying clauses. In a number of instances a whole page is taken up with three sentences. It seems almost as if he had caught the infection from the writings of German authors. The practiced reader will find the book hard reading, and will sigh for an oasis of juicy epithet or crisp metaphor, to lighten the journey. The sentence on page 14, beginning "Starting with large local self-government" is one of many sentences which need the pruning knife and reconstruction. The paragraph structure is also faulty, and this the modern teachers rhetoric insist upon as a test of clearness. To make a digest of any of these chapters would be no easy task. He often lays down abstract principles or makes general statements, without giving concrete illustrations to clinch the thought in the mind of the reader. Proper mechanical contrivances, like sub-heads or marginal summaries, which are used so effectively by Dr. Shaw in his books to guide the reader, are all wanting.

The fairness of this criticism will be seen by comparing Chap. VI, by Dr. Milo R. Maltbie, on the "Administrative Control in England" with the chapter immediately preceding it on "Administrative Control in Europe." The technique illustrated in the one is quite superior to that of the other. The defects of style in this book are unfortunate not only from an artistic point of view, but also because they will lessen the number of the readers of the book very much. If the reforms urged in the book are to be brought about, it must be by convincing the average man, and the average man will not find the book interesting or easy to read. After reading this book, it seems a wise dictum that college lecturers should have had some experience in journalism. For the successful journalist must put