SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week as hare not been reserved for review in other forms.]
The West of England Woollen Industry under Protection and under Free Trade. By Dorothy M. Hunter. (Cassell and Co. Gd. net.)—Miss Hunter at the beginning of her pamphlet points out that the final decision as to the merits of a fiscal system must depend on its effect, not upon any one industry, but upon the country as a whole. So that, even if foreign competition had ruined the woollen industry, this would not have implied that Free-trade was a failure, but merely that the national energy could be less wastefully employed in other directions. But, as a matter of fact, Miss Hunter shows that the cloth trade in the West of England has flourished under Free-trade, and that the condition of the workers is far better than under Protection. It is true that they have diminished in number. But this, according to Miss Hunter, has been due, in the first place, to the invention of new machinery, and secondly, to the competition of other districts in England, especially Yorkshire. It is obvious that the imposition of import-duties would not have interrupted either of these causes. This monograph, with its carefully collected facts and its clear reasoning, is an excellent model for similar commentaries upon other industries.
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