the right of property extended and extends to the ownership of human beings. There has often been property in public trusts, as in judicial ffices, and a vast multitude of others in France before the Revolution; there are still a few patent offices in Great Britain, though I believe they will cease by operation of law on the death of the present holders; and we are only now abolishing property in army rank. Public bodies, constituted and endowed for public purposes, still claim the same inviolable right of property in their estates which individuals have in theirs, and though a sound political morality does not acknowledge this claim, the law supports it. We thus see that the right of property is differently interpreted, and held to be of different extent, in different times and places; that the conception entertained of it is a varying conception, has been frequently revised, and may admit of still further revision. It is also to be noticed that the revisions which it has hitherto undergone in the progress of society have generally been improvements. When, therefore, it is maintained, rightly or wrongly, that some change or modification in the powers exercised over things by the persons legally recognised as their proprietors would be beneficial to the public and conducive to the general improvement, it is no good answer to this merely to say that the proposed change conflicts with the idea of property. The idea of property is not some one thing, identical throughout history and incapable of alteration, but is variable like all other creations of the human mind; at any given time it is a brief expression denoting the rights over things conferred by the law or custom of some given society at that time; but neither on this point nor on any other has the law and custom of a given time and place a claim to be stereotyped for ever. A proposed reform in laws or customs is not necessarily objectionable because its adoption would imply, not the adaptation of all human affairs to the existing idea of property, but the adaptation of existing ideas of property to the growth and improvement of human affairs. This is said without prejudice to the equitable claim of proprietors to be compensated by the state for such legal rights of a proprietary nature as they may be dispossessed of for the public advantage. That equitable claim, the grounds and the just limits of it, are a subject by itself, and as such will be discussed hereafter. Under this condition, however, society is fully entitled to abrogate or alter any particular right of property which on sufficient consideration it judges to stand in the way of the public good. And assuredly the terrible case which, as we saw in a former chapter, Socialists are able to make out against the present economic order of society, demands a full considerasion of all means by which the institution may have a chance of being made to work in a manner more beneficial to that large portion of ciety which at present enjoys the least share of its direct benefits.

JOHN STUART MILL. in Fortnightly Review.

BIOGRAPHIES OF THE SEASON.

The book season has been very remarkable for the number and vari

ety of biographical works. We hardly remember for many years past such an influx of biographies. Perhaps it is somewhat under the mark if we put down the number of such works as being at least fifty. From this mass of recent literature we select for brief discussion a few which seem distinctly to predominate over their fellows in importance and interest.

The biography which is in every way the most careful and elaborate of the present season, and which has the highest positive value, is undoubtedly Professor Seeley's life of the German statesman Stein.* Professor Seeley is the author of "Ecce Homo," a work which elicited a volume of essays from Mr. Gladstone, who gave its author the Chair of History at Cambridge, in succession to Charles Kingsley. He has now vindicated the selection by issuing a huge work, which is in form a biography, but in reality a history. We must, however, warn our readers that it is anything but amusing. It is a work which was very much wanted, and which will be of matchless value to every student and politician. For to understand the German Empire of to-day we must understand that historical Prussia of the Napoleonic age, of which Stein was a central figure. The personal character of Stein is a very inteesting one; but it is not presented with that amount of literary art of which it is fairly susceptible. He was a thoroughly honest man. Such a judge as W. A. Humboldt felt an infinite regard and love for him, and speaks of his conversation as full of force and fire. We especially like him in his autobiography and in his letters to his wife. Mr. Seeley brings out graphically that order of German imperial knighthood to which Stein belonged, which made him a virtual sovereign over his own narrow domain. He was a petty sovereign, only owning the suzerainty of the emperor; and, indeed, he was legally eligible for that throne. There are many incidental points of great interest, such as the relations of Germany and England, and the relations of Hanover towards both. His " Emancipating Edict" was the great means of regenerating Germany. In the language of his monumental epitaph, 'he stood erect when German bowed the knee.' He was one of the greatest factors in the overthrow of Napoleon. We think that Profes sor Seeley has made an artistic mistake in excluding the brilliant narrative of the invasion of Rome by the allies. Stein administered the French territory in his day as Bismarck did in 1871. He was strongly in favour of Alsace and Lorraine being taken from France and erected "Life and Times of Stein." By J. R. Seeley, M.A. (Cambridge; at the Uni versity Press.)

into a separate principality. The work illustrates the continuity of history, and enables us to understand the correlation of historical epochs. The War of Liberation must be combined with any just view of the last war. Compared with such a writer as Macaulay, Professor Seeley is dull; but compared with the German writers who have written about Stein, he is Macaulay himself. Just as the French like

to get their ideas of Comte, not from Comte himself, but from a translation of Harriet Martineau's version of his writings, so we expect that Professor Seeley's work will be translated into German, and supersede Perthes and other writers.

From a biography of Stein to a biography of Bismarck is a most natural transition. Certainly there are abundant materials in existence for a biography of the German Chancellor. It has been part of the man's method and character to let his whole nature be known with candour, or at least the appearance of candour. In addition to the various "Lives" in existence, and his letters to his wife and sisters, we have now an account of his sayings and doings in the Franco-German_war.* Dr. Busch's work has received an extraordinary amount of popularity on the Continent, and we are glad to welcome an excellent English translation. Dr. Busch considers his hero a second Luther. He rather reminds us of him in his "Table Talk," but a more complete parallel will be found in Oliver Cromwell. We have a wonderful series of Bis

marck's personal escapes. He seems to have borne a charmed life. He had some of the very narrowest escapes. His vitality is astonishing. He talks without the slightest reserve of everybody and everything. Among innumerable presents he receives a cask of Vienna beer and a trout-pie, which sets him talking of his own streams at Varzin; he tells how he had caught a five-pound trout in a pond only supplied by a few little streams. He is essentially a country gentleman. His daughter says that his real passion in life is for turnips. Nevertheless the blood and iron are everywhere prevalent. He never scruples to express ferocious thoughts in ferocious language. At Paris he is in favour of bombardment; he is in favour of a storm. He thinks that the people brought down with their balloons should be shot as spies. Some of his graphic portraiture is admirably done. Here is his portrait of Thiers: "He is an able and likeable man, witty and ingenious, but with hardly a trace of diplomatic quality-too sentimental for business. Beyond question he is a superior kind of man to Favre; but he is not fit to make a bargain about an armistice-barely fit to buy or sell a horse. He is too easily put out of countenance; he betrays his feelings; he lets himself be cut. I got all sorts of things out of him; for instance, that they have only three or four weeks' provisions not used." Later Je says of Thiers: "He has a fine intellect, good manners, and can tell a story very agreeably. I am often sorry for him, too, for he is in a bad position." He gives a description of the Empress Eugénie: "Very * "Bismarck in the Franco-German War," 1870-71. Translated from the German of Dr. Moritz Busch. (Macmillan.)

beautiful, not over middle height; with much natural intelligence has little acquired learning, and few interests in intellectual matters." It seems that she had once taken him, with other gentlemen, through her rooms, and even into her sleeping apartment; but he had nowhere seen a book or even a newspaper. He has something to say about our Prince of Wales, and speaks, we are sorry to add, in no very friendly way of England: "B. told me a number of amusing stories of the English court, especially of the Prince of Wales-a pleasant personage, which is a hopeful fact for the future, and may he be found to agree with his disagreeable countrymen.' There is a very amusing account of Bismarck's stay at Ferrieres, Baron Rothschild's seat. The old house-steward swore that there was not a drop of wine in the place. But it turned out that there were 17,000 bottles in the house. Dr. Busch does not see why the Rothschilds should have been let off the requisition, but they are privileged. We know that they send any amount of luggage across the frontiers, and it is never searched. Bismarck's criticism on Rothschild's chateau was: "Everything dear, but little that is beautiful, and still less comfortable."

There is a curious blending of the ludicrous and the serious in this work, which, indeed, is a reproduction of Bismarck's character. The Prince is a great eater. He gives a recipe for cooking oysters, but makes a radical mistake in supposing that oysters ought to be cooked at all. He does not seem to have been a good sportsman. He only killed one pheasant, though he wounded several, and Moltke does not appear to have done much better. Moltke, it seems, invented a new drink, a sort of punch made with champagne, hot tea, and sherry, which most people will think spoils three good things. Then we suddenly pass to the most serious matters. Coming to these serious things, we see Bismarck at his best. "If I were no longer a Christian, I would not remain an hour at my post. If I could not count upon my God, assuredly I should not do so on earthly masters. Why should I disturb myself and work unceasingly in this world, exposing myself to all sorts of vexations, if I had not the feeling that I must do my duty for God's sake? If I did not believe in a divine order, which has destined this German nation for something good and great, I would at once give up the business of a diplomatist, or I would not have undertaken it. Take from me this faith, and you take from me my fatherland. If I were not a good. believing Christian, if I had not the supernatural basis of religion, you would not have had such a Chancellor." One of the books about him makes him complain that God is "very capricious.' Like other able men, he laments that he is not allowed to have his own autocratic ways. He puts down his glass of beer with a sigh, and says, "I wished once more to-day, as I have often wished before, I could say for even five minutes, this is to be or is not to be. One has to bother about whys and wherefores to convince people, to entreat them even, about the simplest matters. What a worry is this eternal talking and begging for things!" He does not wish that any son of his should ever grow rich upon the Stock Ex

change. He only tried his luck once, and then he lost.

He says that since he went into public life he has always been in difficulties. Certainly he is one of the most extraordinary men that ever lived. People used to consider him a fool, but his foolery was the most subtle and extraordinary statesmanship the modern world has known. He has endorsed and consummated the policy of Stein.

To these two German biographies we add a third of a German character. For a biography at once so interesting and instructive as that of the Baroness Bunsen,* by Mr. J. C. Hare, we must go back to his former work, the "Memorials of a Quiet Life." In each case Mr. Hare would be the first to acknowledge that it is not so much his own literary workmanship, as the immense interest of the subject and heroine, that has achieved such a just popularity. His has been a singularly good fortune to be brought into close companionship with such noble women, and thus to have had such splendid opportunities. The Baroness Bunsen's life of the Baron is well known to our readers, and was fully reviewed in the " 'Piccadilly Papers" on its first appearance. It will be found that the interesting vein of anecdote, dealing with sovereigns and statesmen, was not exhausted in the first great work. Mr. Hare very rightly goes fully into the ramifications of the family history, which brings many high-souled men and women before us. The match with Bunsen was a love-match. He was but a poor man, and straitness of means seems to have been a burden under which the Bunsens struggled more or less through the larger part of their lives. The great Niebuhr strongly advised the match. He would give any daughter of his own to a man like Bunsen; there was in his character and position a greater guarantee of happiness than could be found in mere rank or wealth. The young girl had left her home in South Wales for a season on the Continent, and she never saw it again for three-and-twenty years. The young scholar she married became an ambassador at the Court of London, a peer of Prussia, a close personal friend of his sovereign's. Such a pair seemed to touch the summits of human life. Whatever places were fairest and pleasantest on this earth they saw; whatever people were best worth knowing they knew; whatever interests were highest they had their full share in them. There is much of the deepest interest in the crowded list of illustrious names; much also in the development of gracious ratures, and the progress in wisdom and goodness. The Baroness beautifully says: "The removal of all embarrassment in circumstances is one of those things for which I dare not ask in prayer. I can ask, and do, that I and mine may be provided for in the future, as we have been in the past, with all that is needful: relief will come when it is good for me." Among the crowd of letters there are none that please us better than those which she writes to "my own mother; " and those again which, as a wise and tender mother, she writes to her own children. The finest of these letters touch the noblest and most elevating subjects, which no "Life and Letters of Frances Baroness Bunsen." By Augustus J. C. Hare, (Daldy, Isbister & Co,)