Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
BAGEHOT, WALTER (1826-1877)
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: AUD-BAI
del.icio.us it!
|
See also:BAGEHOT, See also:WALTER (1826-1877) , See also:English publicist and economist, editor of the Economist newspaper from 186o to his See also:death, was See also:born at See also:Langport, See also:Somerset, on the 3rd of See also:February 1826, his See also:father being a banker at that See also:place. Bagehot was altogether a remarkable See also:personality, his writings on different subjects exhibiting the same See also:bent of mind and characteristics,—philosophic reflectiveness, See also:practical See also:common-sense, a See also:bright and buoyant See also:humour, brilliant wit and always a See also:calm and tolerant See also:judgment of men and things. Though he belonged to the Liberal party in politics he was essentially of conservative disposition, and often spoke with sarcastic boastfulness to his Liberal See also:friends of the stupidity and tenacity of the English mind in adhering to old ways, as displayed in See also:city and See also:country alike. His See also:life was comparatively uneventful, as he See also:early gave up to literature the energies which might have gained him a large See also:fortune in business or a See also:great position in the See also:political See also:world. He took his degree at the See also:London University in 1848, and was called to the See also:bar in 1852, but from an early date he joined his father in the banking business of Stuckey & Co. in the See also:west of See also:England, and during a great See also:part of his life, while he was editor of the Economist, he managed the London agency of the See also:bank, lending its surplus See also:money in " Lombard See also:Street," and otherwise attending to its London affairs. He became also an See also:underwriter at See also:Lloyd's, taking no part, however, in the active detailed business, which was done for him by See also:proxy.
Bagehot's connexion with the Economist began in 1858, about which See also:time he married a daughter of the first editor, the Right Hon. See also: The See also:special See also:note of his books, apart from his remarkable See also:gift of conversational epigrammatic See also:style, which gives a See also:peculiar zest to the See also:writing, is the quality of scientific dispassionate description of matters which were hardly thought of previously as subjects of scientific study. This is specially the See also:case with the two books which perhaps brought him the most reputation, The English Constitution (1867) and Lombard Street (1873). They are both books of observation and description. The English constitution is described, not from See also:law books and as a lawyer would describe it, but from the actual working, as Bagehot himself had witnessed it, in his contact with ministers and the heads of See also:government departments, and with the life of the society in which the politicians moved. The true springs and method of See also:action are consequently described with a vivid freshness which gives the See also:book a wonderful See also:charm, and makes it really a new departure in the study of politics. It is the same with Lombard Street. The money See also:market is there pictured as it really was in r850-187o, and as Bagehot saw it with philosophic eyes. Beginning with the See also:sentence, " The See also:objects which you see in Lombard Street are the Bank of England, the See also:joint stock See also:banks, the private banks and the See also:discount houses," he describes briefly and clearly the respective functions of these different bodies in the organism of the city, according to his own See also:close observation as a banker himself, knowing the ways and thoughts of the men he describes, and as a See also:man of business likewise in other ways, knowing at first See also:hand the relation of banking to the See also:trade and See also:commerce of the country. Lombard Street is perhaps a riper See also:work than The English Constitution, as its See also:foundation was really laid in 1858 in a See also:series of articles which Bagehot then wrote in the Economist, though it was not published till the early 'seventies, after it had been twice rewritten and revised with See also:infinite labour and care. Lombard Street, like The English Constitution in political studies, is thus a new departure in economic and See also:financial studies, applying the same sort of keen observation which See also:Adam See also: The materials here are derived mainly from books, the See also:surface to be observed being so extensive, but the attitude is precisely the same, that of a scientific observer. To a certain extent the Physics and Politics had even a more remarkable See also:influence on See also:opinion, at least on See also:foreign opinion, than The English Constitution or Lombard Street. It " caught on " as a development of the theory of evolution in a new direction, and See also:Darwin himself was greatly interested, while one of the pleasures of Bagehot's later years was to receive a See also:translation of the book into the See also:Russian See also:language. In See also:Literary Studies (1879) and Economic Studies (188o), published after his death, there is more See also:scope than in the books already mentioned
for other characteristics besides those of the scientific observer, but observation always comes to the front, as in the See also:account of See also:Ricardo, whom Bagehot describes as often, when he is most theoretical, really describing what a first-See also:rate man of business would do and think in actual transactions. The observation, of course, is that of a type of business man in the city to which. Ricardo as well as Bagehot belonged, though Ricardo could hardly look at it from the outside as Bagehot was able to do.
Bagehot had great city, political and literary influence, to which all his activities contributed, and much of his influence was lasting. In politics and See also:economics especially his See also:habit of scientific observation affected the tone of discussion, and both the English constitution and the money market have been better understood generally because he wrote and talked and diffused his ideas in every possible way. He was unsuccessful in two or three attempts to enter See also:parliament, but he had the influence of far more than an See also:ordinary member, as director of the Economist and as the adviser behind the scenes of the ministers and permanent heads of departments who consulted him. His death, on the 24th of See also: He was certainly greater than his books and always full of ideas. The See also:present writer recalls two notions he had, not for writing new books himself, but as something that might be done. One was that there might be a See also:history of See also:recent politics with new See also:lights if some one were to do it who knew the See also:family connexions and history of English politicians. This was apropos of the passage of a certain See also:bill through parliament, when the See also:head of the See also:department in the See also:House of See also:Commons failed and the management of the measure was. taken by the See also:chancellor of the See also:exchequer himself, a relative of the permanent head of the department concerned, who was thus able to carry his own ideas in legislation notwithstanding the failure of his political See also:chief. Another book he wished to see written was an account of the See also:differences in the administrative systems of England and See also:Scotland, by which he had been greatly impressed, the differences not being in detail, but in fundamental idea and in See also:form, so that no judicial or other See also:officers in the one were represented in the other by corresponding functionaries. Many other illustrations might be given of his fulness of ideas which helped to make him an ideal editor. Reference must also be made to the assistance which Bagehot gave as a journalist to the study of See also:statistics. From the manipulation of figures he was most averse, and he rather boasted that he was unable to add up. But he was a most excellent mathematician, and no one could be so careful as he was about the See also:logic of the figures got together for his articles, which he always most carefully scrutinized. He would frequently point out that his figures were illustrative merely, and did not by themselves establish an See also:argument. He was always anxious, again, to impress on those about him that a subject could not be studied with the help of figures and accounts alone. Whether it was See also:insurance, or banking, or underwriting, or shipowning, he insisted that some one who knew the business should see the writing before it was published. Knowing so many departments of business from actual experience, he was a See also:host in himself as See also:referee, but when in doubt he would always consult some one who knew the facts; and he used his great influence so well that in subsequent years it inspired indirectly not a few who were hardly aware of his claims to be a statistician at all. (R. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] BAGDAD, or BAGHDAD |
[next] BAGELKHAND, or BAGHELKEAND |