carefully guarded and evasive though it be, is a troublesome matter to explain. Doctrinally, the old definitions have never been revoked; the difficulty is to reconcile them with the modern instructions as to practice. Father Gury's argument to prove by the lucrum cessans and the damnum emergens, by the supreme power of the state and by the rules of Probabilism, that it is lawful to take the legal rate of interest is a model of ingenious and graceful retreat from a position which had become untenable. Besides, there are the assurances of the responses of the Holy See that the faithful are not to be disturbed until a decision is rendered, which surely shows that it is probable that such gains are lawful, for if this were not probable, they would have to be disturbed.'

There are still conservatives, however, who cannot persuade themselves that the church taught false doctrines up to within a couple of generations, and who, without disputing the authority of the modern decisions, take advantage of their evasiveness to maintain the old rules. Miguel Sanchez, for instance, denounces usury as a thing in itself intrinsically and essentially evil, causing incalculable injury to agriculture, commerce and industry, besides being a violation of the divine law, which entangles more consciences and gives more anxiety to confessors than any other, although it is true that some theologians hold that under certain conditions and in great moderation it is not intolerable. But as a guide in the confessional, where complicated and difficult cases are apt to present themselves, he still prescribes only the old exceptions of delay in the payment of dower, the lucrum cessans, the damnum emergens, and the expenses of the monts de piété

It must be admitted that honest, obstinate consistency such as this is more to be respected than the casuistic dexterity which makes pretence of reconciling the irreconcilable. The theological student may well be pardoned some perplexity on finding in his text book all the old authorities leading to the absolute assertion that the smallest gain

1 Gury, Compend. Theol. Moral., I. Mig. Sanchez, Prontuario, Trat. xx.

857-64.

Punto 5. n. 2, 3, 6.

from lending money is unjust and unlawful, that the lender acquires no property in it, and must make restitution, or his heirs must do so after his death, and then, after turning a few pages, to read that all this is merely doctrine, that in practice the exaction of eight per cent. per annum is legitimate, that interest payment is of the utmost service to society in stimulating commerce and industry, and that if a confessor enforces restitution he is bound to make it good to his penitent.'

Philadelphia.

HENRY CHARLES LEA.

1 Varceno Compend. Theol. Moral. Tract. XII. P. ij. c. 1. Art. 6, §1; § 2, punct. 4. "Ex dictis patet esse omnino illicitum ac injustum lucrum, etiam minimum exigere vi mutui." To escape from this conclusion Guarceno relies for justification wholly on the local law, conveniently ignoring the fact that as we have seen the Council of Vienne under Clement V pronounced all such laws invalid and ordered them removed from the statute books.

EUROPEAN BUREAUS OF LABOR STATISTICS.

YSTEMATIC statistical inquiry into the conditions of labor by an organ of government is distinctly an American invention. The conception of the plan belongs chiefly to the late General H. K. Oliver, and its practical embodiment to the State of Massachusetts. Thirty-two commonwealths, besides the federal body politic, now officially recognize this method, while across the Atlantic six principal nations have already followed suit. Beginning with England in 1886, the movement has extended to Switzerland, France, Belgium, Germany, and Sweden, and now Austria and Italy are seriously contemplating imitation.

The institutions generally known as labor bureaus, have not everywhere assumed the same form. Differences in organization, functions and methods very naturally appear, the first being modified to suit the system of government of which the organ is a part, while the two last are largely determined by available economic resources.

The object of this article is narrative, not critical. From the scientific point of view an analysis of published results fills a necessary place, but just at this time when most of the foreign bureaus are in their infancy, it is doubtless more interesting to learn something of their organization and what they are seeking to accomplish.

ENGLAND.

In 1885 Mr. Thomas Brassey, an English railroad magnate, since ennobled, declared in a speech that "good statistics of labor were the basis of all social reform." Sound doctrine of this kind did not long remain unheeded. A wide concourse of intelligent and sympathetic men heartily approved the principle, but it was left to Mr. Bradlaugh to create the mechanism necessary to carry it into practice. On March 2, 1886, he procured the assent of Parliament to the following resolution: "In the opinion of this House immediate steps should be taken to ensure in this country the full and

accurate collection and publication of labor statistics. These should include the detailed description of establishments for each branch of labor in the whole of the United Kingdom, the number of persons and the amount of capital employed in each of them, the advance and decline of each industry, and their result upon the health and habits of the individuals affected. Information is also required in regard to the housing of working people and the conditions under which dwellings are let by employers. Furthermore, investigation should be made into the condition of coöperative societies of profit sharing, and finally into the rates of wages paid to men, women, boys and girls employed in each industry, with the periods of payment of the same."

The Right Honorable A. J. Mundella was at that time the President of the Board of Trade, an English Cabinet office which corresponds very nearly to the continental ministries of commerce and industry. He attached the new organ to the commercial division of his department under the direction of the able financial statistician, Mr. Robert Giffen. As a purely subordinate agency, endowed with an insufficient personnnel, and grudgingly supplied with money, it took up Mr. Bradlaugh's ambitious programme, an incidental feature of which was what might be considered an industrial census of the United Kingdom. Small wonder, therefore, that results did not fulfil expectations.

Understanding the inherent impossibility of the task committed to him, Mr. Giffen from the outset did not undertake to present a complete picture of British labor. His efforts were directed rather toward filling in vacant corners of the sketch. Consequently, there have resulted three general classes of publications. First, wages statistics covering the principal industries of Great Britain, in some cases classified so as to show the number of employes in receipt of the different rates, and their proportion to other classes of the community, and at others with historical and international comparisons. Second, compiled partial returns relating to trades-unions, strikes, lock-outs, and alien immigration. Third, miscellaneous special reports on sweating, nail and chain making, cost of living, profit sharing, hours of labor

and other subjects. Factory inspection, friendly societies, accidents to labor, coöperation, savings banks, insurance and prices have not been dealt with, because they had already received attention in various official publications of the Board of Trade and other departments. While it cannot be maintained that the statistical achievements of the old English labor bureau represent finality either in scope or attainment, it is but fair to attribute this to restricted financial resources and to greater attention having been paid to compilation than to original research.

During the elections which took place in the summer of 1892 both political parties promised that the labor bureau should be dignified and enlarged. The turn of the electoral wheel brought Mr. Mundella back to his old place at the head of the Board of Trade, and Mr. Burt, labor's most clear-headed champion, became parliamentary secretary. The Royal Commission on Labor in the meantime took up the matter, and several gentlemen, amongst whom was the writer, were asked to make suggestions for the re-organization. At length, in January of the past year it was announced that the work of "collecting, digesting and publishing statistical and other information bearing upon questions relating to the conditions of labor would in future be entrusted to a separate branch of the Board of Trade." Three distinct departments, Commercial, Labor, and Statistical, compose

the branch.

The new English Labor Department cannot complain of insufficient tutelage. The political head of the Board of Trade, Mr. Mundella, is patriarch, Mr. Giffen as controllergeneral of the three-fold division, stands in the relation of godfather, while Mr. H. Llewellyn Smith, with the title of Commissioner, is the immediate supervising head. The working personnel consists of Mr. John Burnett as Chief Labor Correspondent, three Labor Correspondents, one of whom is a woman, and thirty clerks of all grades. In general, the idea underlying the organization and working programme are quite similar to those of the United States Department of Labor at Washington. The Chief Labor Correspondent and his three assistants take the place of the