THE  SOCIALISTS  OF  THE  CHAIR.

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which  is  a  sort  of  programme,  published  in  reply  to  the  attacks
of  Deputy  Professor  Treitschke  ;  also  an  outline  of  the  course
of  lectures  of  Professor  Adolf  Held,  so  prematurely  and  in  so
tragic  a  manner  lost  to  science  ;  and  finally,  the  great  work  of
Professor  Adolf  Wagner,  Lehrbuch  der  politischen  Œkonomie,  of
which  a  single  octavo  volume  of  775  pages,  devoted  to  the
exposition  of  principles  {Grundlegung),  has  appeared.  The
three  concluding  chapters  treat  economic  problems  from  the
juridical  side.  The  titles  they  bear  indicate  their  importance  :
“  Economic  Organization,”  “  The  State  and  its  Economic  Influence,” ­
  “  Law  considered  in  so  far  as  it  regulates  Economic
Relations.”
Wagner  considers,  in  the  first  place,  man  seeking  to  satisfy
his  wants  by  means  of  labour.  But  man  lives  in  society,  and
society  cannot  exist  unless  the  State  preserves  order  therein,
and  establishes  a  juridical  basis  for  the  mutual  relations  of
men.  This  juridical  basis  is  the  civil  law,  from  which  results
the  economic  organization  of  society.  The  old  Economists
strongly  protest  against  all  artificial  organizations.  They
seem  to  forget  that  the  law  which  rules  us  is  the  result  of  a
reasoned  elaboration  of  the  primitive  Roman  law,  developed
during  a  thousand  years,  by  successive  generations  of  jurisconsults. ­
  The  so-called  natural  order  of  which  they  are  always
speaking,  so  far  from  being  the  effect  of  nature,  is  the  result
of  human,  and  consequently  artificial,  laws.
According  to  Professor  Wagner,  the  economic  development
of  a  people  depends  in  part  on  the  progress  of  the  technical
processes  of  the  different  industries,  and  in  part  on  the  state  of
the  laws  which  serve  as  the  basis  and  measure  of  the  economic
activity  of  individuals.  The  great  juridical  institutions,  the
influence  of  which  in  political  economy  it  is  necessary  to  study,
are,  says  the  learned  professor  of  Berlin,  individual  liberty,
property,  and  the  right  of  contract,  hereditary  succession,  and
the  consideration  due  to  vested  rights.  The  principles  according ­
  to  which  these  institutions  are  regulated  are  not  immutable  ;
they  have  given  way  to  transformations  and  historical  developments. ­
  Changes  in  technical  processes  lead  almost  always  to
a  change  in  juridical  institutions;  thus  the  development  of