the author of this book has now set down true records of some piratical figures of history, beginning with Drake and Hawkins, and following with Captain Kidd, Paul Jones and many other successors to the "Brethren of the Coast." He attempts to arrive at true pictures of his subjects unbiassed by legend, and a particularly interesting chapter is devoted to the claim made for Alexander Selkirk as the original of "Robinson Crusoe," a claim which Mr. Copplestone rejects.

RAMBLES AND REFLECTIONS.

Murray. IOS. 6d. net.

By A. C. BENSON. John

This last collection of random essays by the late A. C. Benson contains some excellent examples of his happy art in this form, in which humane philosophy and keen observation are blended with distinguished style. He is at his best when observing with a kindly eye the foibles of his contemporaries, as in the essay on "Robes and Ceremonies," where he describes the innocent vanity of a friend who, attired in court-dress and academic robes, proceeded along the whole length of Pall Mall "at a slow stage-walk so that his progress was measured by

inches."

THE OCEAN OF STORY; Being C. H. Tawney's Translation of Samadeva's Katha Sarit Sāgara. Now Edited, with Introduction, Fresh Explanatory Notes and Terminal Essay by N. M. PENZER, M.A., F.R.G.S., F.G.S. In Ten Volumes. Volume 5. With a Foreword by E. DENISON Ross. London: Privately printed for Subscribers only by Chas. J. Sawyer, Ltd. This new volume, like the previous ones already reviewed in these pages, is full of interest to the student of Indian folk-lore, and includes a number of stories connected with the place of animals in folk-lore. As an indication of the lack of change in society over a thousand years, one is amused to observe a story of "The Bald Man and the Hair Restorer." HUMAN EXPERIENCE: A Study of its Structure. By VISCOUNT HALDANE. John Murray. 6s. net. Lord Haldane here aims at a philosophical inquiry into the nature and meaning of human experience. "The investigation is not directed to any particular variety of that experience, but to what the very existence of experience implies." The book is intended for the general reader, even if not a trained student of philosophy. THE BOLSHEVIK THEORY.

By R. W. POSTGATE.

Grant

Richards. 7s. 6d. net. Acting on the assumption that it is just as well to know what Bolshevism stands for, whatever your own point of view, Mr. Postgate here discusses the theory of Bolshevism. He is not concerned with its effects or abuses, but purely with an exposition of the theory, in the hope that anyone reading the book may gain enough knowledge of that theory to enable him to judge it on its merits-apart from " the atmosphere of a dog-fight which surrounds this subject" in general. The author discusses his subject in a breezy way which will disarm even the most bitter anti-Bolsheviks. He is merely an investigator, not a politician.

CORRESPONDENCE

BOARD OF DEPUTIES OF THE BRITISH JEWS.

23 FINSBURY SQUARE,

LONDON, E.C.2.

9th June, 1926.

The Editor, EDINBURGH REVIEW.

THE SLAUGHTER OF ANIMALS.

THE HUMANITY OF THE JEWISH METHOD.

Sir,-In her article on "The Slaughter of Animals," Miss Macnaghten attacks the method of the Jews, which is an integral part of their religion; in fact, orthodox Jews will not eat of meat killed by any other method. She describes it as "a terrible throat-cutting method." She bases her attack on a report made by two professors, on which an Admiralty Committee based its condemnation. This was over twentyone years ago. Miss Macnaghten omits to point out that the report in question, and its very bases, were at once attacked by Prof. Leonard Hill, F.R.S., and Mr. Openshaw, one of our leading surgeons, who saw some thirty "killings" and published a report pronouncing the Jewish method (and its non-Jewish preliminaries) to be humane. For twenty years they have waited for their challenge to be answered.

Science marches far in twenty-one years. I have before me over 450 other reports by competent authorities, all declaring the Jewish method to be humane. In addition, in 1923, our leading physiologist, Prof. Sir Wm. Bayliss, F.R.S., saw a large number of killings and published a detailed report. His unqualified conclusion was that the Jewish method produced immediate insensibility and was absolutely humane. In 1925, Professors Wood and Barcroft (F.R.S.), of Cambridge, independently investigated and came to similar conclusions. This overwhelming mass of evidence should not be ignored, although it all happens to justify the Jews; it should dispel a strange but popular delusion.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

CHARLES H. L. EMANUEL,

Solr. & Secy.

No. 498 will be published in October, 1926.

Printed in Great Britain by ROFFEY & CLARK, LTD., Croydon

The

Edinburgh Review

OCTOBER, 1926

No. 498

RELIGION AND ECONOMICS

1. The Christian Ethic as an Economic Factor. By Sir JOSIAH STAMP, G.B.E., D.Sc., F.B.A. The Epworth Press. 1926.

2. Personal Religion and the Life of Fellowship. By WILLIAM TEMPLE. Longmans, Green. 1926.

3. Religion and the Rise of Capital. A Historical Study. By R. H. TAWNEY. John Murray. 1926.

4. Christian Socialism, 1848-1854. By CHARLES R. RAVEN, M. A. Macmillan. 1920.

5. Quo Tendimus? Primary Charge by HERBERT HENSLEY HENSON, D.D., Bishop of Durham. 2nd Edition. Hodder and Stoughton. 1925.

6. Present Day Papers. No. 1. “Strikes and Lock Outs: the Way Out.” By BISHOP GORE. P. S. King.

1926.

7. Life and Work. The Universal Christian Conference on Life and Work held in Stockholm. 1925.

8. The Social Function of the Church. C.O.P.E.C. Commission Report. Longmans, Green. 1924.

9. Correspondence in The Times.

AN

Pamphlets, Lectures, Sermons, and

Speeches occasioned by the Stoppage in the Coal Trade. 1926.

N industrial conflict is a thought-provoking spectacle. The enormous waste of wealth which it occasions is so evident, that the light-heartedness with which it is undertaken, and the obstinacy with which it is carried on, are alike amazing and unintelligible. Before the losses of one conflict have been made good, another is entered upon. The miners had not discharged the heavy debts contracted in the great strike of 1921 before they embarked on the protracted" stoppage" of 1926. No experience seems to teach wisdom, or even caution. It might well have been supposed that the dullest workman would have been able to perceive the economic absurdity of conflicts, which invariably All rights reserved.

VOL. 244. NO. 498.

N

left him poorer; and the untrustworthiness of leaders, whose counsels invariably led him to the barren satisfaction of " Pyrrhic victories, or the naked humiliation of defeat. In fact the men are as unteachable as they are credulous. The moral loss inflicted by an industrial conflict is even more appalling than the economic. What is true of war between nations is true also of war between employers and workmen. Domestic liberty is curtailed, and may be altogether destroyed. Personal morality is lowered, and sometimes shipwrecked irretrievably. Social relations are confused and embittered. Life proceeds on a lower level after a strike. The moralist is as dismayed by the effect on character and society as the economist by the prodigal waste of wealth.

It is perhaps inevitable that both should turn to religion, and demand what bearing it has, or ought to have, on this distressing and persistent phenomenon. Religion pretends to regulate the action of its professors. The Christian religion sets great store by the social virtues, and insists on bringing the self-regarding instincts under a stern discipline. What has the Christian religion to say on the subject of industrial disputes? What rôle has the Christian Church in the sphere of economics? Has it any rôle at all? Does the traditional morality of Christendom cover the new situations which modern industrialism has created? Can it, without forfeiture of its essential character, be adapted to the requirements of the modern epoch? Is the solution of the pressing social problems of our time to be found within the corners of the New Testament? Can Christendom in the old sense be restored? Such questions are inevitably pressing for answer to-day; and what the answers should be is exercising many considering minds in all the Christian Churches.

The economic process itself is plainly non-moral, but as plainly it includes factors which are not merely economic, but also moral; and so far it lies open to the influence of ethical and religious forces. The impersonal machine, which works up the material resources of the globe into life and civilization, is worked by men, and men are more than machines. There is an economic value in moral qualities: and a moral value in economic conditions. There are situations in which the economic factor excludes every other, and also situations in which the moral factor is paramount. Economic science does not ignore, nor

may it under-rate, the play of moral and religious forces in the process of industry, but it insists on a clear understanding as to the limits within which they operate, and the conditions under which they are effective. The "economic man" of the "dismal science may be more rigid than the natural man whom we know, but may not the enthusiasts for social change be imagining a larger capacity for variation in the natural man than he does in fact possess? Moreover, the economic value of moral factors, however considerable, is often as obscure as it is potent. It cannot be stated in terms of cash on the credit side of the balancesheet, although it may well be one of the most valuable assets of the business.

The subtle influence of personal character tells on every part of the complicated fabric of industrialism. A kind-hearted pitlad, to whom the pony he drives is a pet and even a friend, gets better and longer work out of the beast than his cross-grained comrade who treats it with brutal unconcern or deliberate cruelty. The moral quality of the one pit-lad increases the profit of the mine; that of the other reduces it. In both cases character is an economic factor. A wise, considerate, just-minded mine-manager, who wins the good opinion and even the affection of the miners, gets from them a better output than a harsh and unlovable man whom the men detest and love to annoy. It needs not to elaborate the argument. Industry, sympathy, self-control, kindness, justice-in a word, personal character-have an economic value which is none the less evident for being unconfessed and immeasurable. And religion, the most potent of all the forces which shape and even transform human character, must tell potently, though indirectly, on the process of industry. It is indeed difficult to set limits to this personal influence of religion. That influence may extend from individuals to the groups which include them, and which more or less potently they affect. It may grow into a tradition, and become the habit of a class. In the course of time it may colour legislation, determine modes of government, fashion the custom of society, and give distinctive quality to an entire civilization. This is, in short, the historic genesis of Christendom.

In presenting the Report of the Anglo-Dutch Plantations of Java, on August 10, 1926, the chairman of the company allowed