Political and Social Economy: Its Practical Applications, with an Introductory Essay "John Hill Burton and Popular Economic Thought in the Age of John Stuart Mill"

by John Hill Burton

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1849 Excerpt: ...employer can often see the symptoms of this spirit. When he meets his workman individually face to face, he comes the representative of all the social strength of his position, and the workman is humble and respectful. Let him meet the same man as part of a deputation about wages or hours, conscious of the immediate strength of numbers, he is insolent, turbulent, and tyrannical. It would not detract one iota from the true dignity of the employing and professional classes, were they to take the first step towards conciliation, and make those proffers of amity which the workmen are too proud and surly to court. It could not injure the good esteem in which the professional classes stand, were some of the able workmen, whose skill produces works held in wonder and admiration by the most distant quarters of the world, admitted of their set, and entitled to mix with them on a principle of social equality. There is another matter in which the upper classes have scarcely used their power with a fair reference to the claims of those below them--the emoluments of office. In the gradations necessary for securing adequate aptitude from public functionaries, the salaries of members of the working-classes are too often fixed on a scale which, as it is insufficient to secure zeal and energy, is not conducive to the public service. The principle on which officials of the higher class are salaried is, that they shall have a sufficient pecuniary inducement to devote their time and talents to the duties of their office. They are thus not only placed in ease and comfort according to their condition in life, and, if they be prudent, beyond the worldly cares that press on people of uncertain income, but their remuneration is a temptation to them to aspire to the office, and to k...

345 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1849

About the author

John Hill Burton FRSE was a Scottish advocate, historian and economist. The author of Life and Correspondence of David Hume, he was secretary of the Scottish Prison Board (1854–77), and Historiographer Royal (1867 - 1881).

He was a contributor to Blackwood's Magazine and other periodicals, and in 1846 published a life of David Hume, which attracted considerable attention, and was followed by Lives of Lord Lovat and Lord President Forbes. He began his career as a historian by the publication in 1853 of History of Scotland from the Revolution to the Extinction of the last Jacobite Insurrection, to which he added (1867–70) History of Scotland from Agricola's Invasion to the Revolution, in 7 vols., thus completing a continuous narrative. Subsequently, he published a History of the Reign of Queen Anne (1880). He was one of the first historians to introduce the principles of historical research into the study and writing of the history of Scotland.

Other works of a lighter kind were The Book-Hunter (1862), and The Scot Abroad (1864).