Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/436

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422 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Germany into subjection to the vicar of Christ, Hildebrand filled her with civil war. To bring England into the same subjugation, he laid his curse upon her rightful king, blessed the unrighteous invader, and sent a consecrated banner and ring as pledges that the favor of God would be with the army of iniquity. The power which thus sought its ends is styled moral, in contrast to the power of force. Superstition is no more moral than force, and to effect its object it has to suborn force, as it did in hallowing the Norman invasion of England."

The author has no more love to waste upon the pope than Freeman ; hence he fails to understand the Tractarian movement, and charges the leaders with unworthy motives ; yet when he comes to treat of the Irish question, unlike Freeman., so bitter is his hatred of injustice and tyranny of all kinds, so broad and so catholic are his sympathies with the oppressed, that he can forget religious differences and, cutting straight through the knot, has the courage to point out to his fellow country- men, what is clear enough to all the rest of the world, that "the neces- sary conditions of the solution of the Irish problem are the reform of the land law, the leveling of all barriers of race and religion the sub- stitution, in short, of a genuine union for a union of ascendency, dependence, and exclusion."

The book abounds in inaccuracies of statement. It is hardly worth while, however, to review them in detail. The first quotation above presents a very good specimen. No one questions the influence of Hildebrand in the papal curia during the reigns of his immediate predecessors; yet the man who sent the ring and the banner to William in 1066, who did the cursing and the blessing, was not Hildebrand, but Alexander II. BENJAMIN TERRY.

The Care of Destitute, Neglected, and Delinquent Children. By HOMER FOLKS. The Charities Review, 1900. Pp. 142.

THE author is one of the first authorities on the subject treated in this monograph. The topics are treated historically, the present tendencies are noted, the standards of criticism are applied to existing methods, and maxims of great practical value are interspersed. The history of treatment covers the entire century, and discusses public care of destitute children, private charities for destitute children, removal of children from almshouses, public systems, delinquent children. A select bibliography adds great value to the treatise. This little book should grow in the hands of this competent leader into a large volume.

C. R. HENDERSON.