producer's operations were confined to the surrounding country, and the carrier's journeys were comparatively limited. But the discovery of steam as a means of propulsion brought with it a train of changes, foremost of which was the creation of a world market through improved means of transportation and communication. The field of operations was now almost boundless. The producer was no longer hampered by a limited demand for his goods, which the railway and the steamship were ready to carry to the utmost parts of the globe. Nor was the development of the post and the telegraph without its effect on the various banking systems, which were vast enough to extend their credit system almost everywhere. The great effects which these alterations in industry exerted upon economic conditions can scarcely be imagined. While under the old industrial system one individual could easily organize a bank, or act as carrier, or as manufacturer supply the few wants of the community, this now became impossible. Millions of dollars were required where hundreds were formerly ample. Even partnerships were inadequate, for few felt like incurring the tremendous risks involved, to say nothing of the cumbersomeness of management which a partnership in such large industries would have meant. So, quite naturally, recourse was had to the corporation, an institution said to have been inherited by us from ancient Rome, which lingering through the Middle Ages in various ecclesiastical guises, gained fresh life early in recent history when it began to be employed for purposes of business and government. In England corporations have for a long time been variously divided; but to-day they are most usually designated, both there and in America, as public and private corporations, the first being for the most part composed of various municipalities, such as towns, cities, and counties, and the second of the bulk of business enterprises now carried on through corporate management, as for example, railway, manufacturing, mining, banking, and insurance companies. Among the advantages of a corporation are those of perpetual suc

cession, and limited liability. It is a juristic person, in theory at least, different from the members composing it, so that although the latter may die, the corporation still lives on, having many of the rights of a natural person. It has, for example, the capacity to sue and be sued, and to act in its corporate name, without the signature of its more or less numerous stockholders. But of greater significance still, from an economic standpoint, the stockholders of a corporation are limited in liability to the face value of their shares. We now, therefore, have a means by which the process of capital building may be carried on indefinitely. At the same time, under proper management, an opportunity for investment is afforded small investors everywhere.

With the growth of corporate activity, the difficulty of taxing corporations was increased. Shareholders might be scattered throughout the world. Then again, corporations,. like other persons, may transact business in many different localities. An illustration of this fact is presented by some of our large railway companies, which frequently traverse many different States. Add to this the fact that corporations, both public and private, often become indebted, and we can get some idea of the very many difficulties the subject involves. Dr. Seligman lays down the following eleven principles that should be followed in the taxation of corporations:

1. Corporations should be taxed separately and on different principles from individuals.

2. Corporations should be taxed locally on their real estate only.

3. Corporations should be taxed for State purposes on their earnings, or on their capital and loans.

4. Only so much of total earnings or capital should be taxed as is actually received or employed within the State. In the case of transportation companies, a convenient and accurate test is mileage.

5. When capital and loans are taxed, the residence of the shareholder or bondholder should be immaterial.

6. There should be no distinction between domestic and foreign corporations. Each should be taxed for its business done or capital employed within the State.

7. If corporations are taxed on their property, property beyond the State should be exempt.

8. If corporations are taxed on their capital stock, they should not be taxed again on their property.

9. When corporate stock or property is taxed, the shareholder should be exempt. If corporate loans are taxed, the bondholder should be exempt.

IO. When the corporations and the shareholders or bondholders are residents of different States, the tax should be divided between the States by interstate agreements.

II. An additional tax should be levied on corporations which have through national, legal, or economic forces become monopolistic enterprises.

The remaining essays are devoted to a classification of public revenues, a subject too much neglected in America; to recent reforms in taxation, those made in Switzerland and Germany being of especial significance to citizens of our own country; to recent European literature, and recent American Reports on taxation. These last two essays contain very valuable bibliographies with a careful criticism of the same.

In conclusion, attention should be called to the make-up of the volume and to the valuable index which is accredited by the author to Dr. West. Altogether Dr. Seligman's work is by all odds superior to any production of its kind in our language, and should not only be read by every student of economics, but should also find its way into the hands of every citizen who loves his country.

B. J. RAMAGE.

LONGSTREET AND THE WAR BETWEEN THE

STATES.1

As a contribution of permanent value to history General Longstreet's book will meet with a hearty welcome from all serious students of the War between the States. Those who prefer eulogies to bare facts and plain truths, will show their teeth at the author, but every Southern man who loves fair play will hail with delight the appearance, from the pen of a Confederate general, of a serious military history which is not written from the fulsome standpoint of the panegyrist.

General Longstreet, as is well known, became a Republican shortly after the war was over. It is a pity that he has not assigned his reasons for his departure from the theories he so earnestly advocated and for which he so bravely and loyally fought on many a great battle field of the war. It is quite certain, however, that the white people of the South could not have accepted, nor would they now accept, any explanation as satisfactory. They have invariably refused to follow any leader into new paths where there was question of a race conflict. It is not because they are intolerant, but because the question will not down at any man's bidding. If Warren Hastings, when he was upholding British interests in India, had in the hour of his triumph, turned over to the feeble and inferior natives all his great talents in an effort to control and subvert the English rule in India, he would have estranged his countrymen and been unanimously repudiated by them. Longstreet's change of politics, it was thought, tended to endanger white supremacy in the South, and for that reason the white people resented his change of party allegiance almost to a man. They are confronted by a disagreeable condition and not an idle theory, and they never have been and never will be governed by a despised 1 From Manassas to Appomattox. By James Longstreet. delphia. J. B. Lippincott Co. 1895.

Phila

and inferior black or colored race. There can be no doubt that General Longstreet never intended that they should be. But the people have not taken that view; they only knew that without an effort on their part, the most singular fact about the matter, millions of negro slaves had their shackles knocked off by fanatics and well meaning people, and were by the same persons, still without any effort for themselves, armed with the tremendous power of the ballot. But the ballot in their hands has been very much like the boomerang in the hands of their compeers, the wild Australian savages. It has hurt those most who expected to see it destroy their own political opponents.

It may be asked what this has to do with General Longstreet and his account of the great civil war? The answer is easy look at any Southern newspaper and see in how unkind a manner his book is received. A brigadier general charges, in a speech made in a Confederate camp in Virginia, that Longstreet was court-martialed after the battle of Gettysburg and found guilty at Orange C. H., Virginia, of losing that battle, and that the findings were suppressed by General Lee, when in point of fact, such a proceeding was impossible, for officers are never tried in their absence in civilized countries and Longstreet was at the time in Tennessee! The object of this brief review, however, is to take no man's part, but to analyse the statements of General Longstreet, as those of a distinguished eye-witness in the greatest events that have yet occurred on this continent, applying to them the usual rules of evidence. We shall not follow the well-known plan of Sydney Smith who once said,. in his own witty style, that the proper way to criticise a book was to write your criticism first and then read the book, since "reading the book first tends to warp one's judgment." We fear, however, that many participants in the war on the Southern side have pursued the first part of Smith's advice, but not the second, for they have certainly criticised and just as certainly have not yet read the book.

James Longstreet was born in Edgefield District, South