BAGEHOT, baj'et, Walter, English econ omist, journalist and critic: b. Langport Somer setshire, England 3 Feb. 1826; d. Langport, 24 March 1877. His father, Thomas Watson Bage hot, was vice-chairman of the Somersetshire bank, founded by Samuel Stuckey in the 18th century. His mother, a niece of Stuckey, a woman of much character and lively mind, had, through an earlier marriage, been brought into an excellent intellectual atmosphere from which, says Hutton, °she greatly profited.° Bagehot, a boy of naturally keen mind and with a habit of reading, was educated with much good judg ment. He first attended school in Bristol, whence, in 1842, he entered University College, London, graduating B.A., in 1846, and M.A., with much honor in philosophy and political economy, in 1848. He was also distinguished as a mathematician and was widely read in poetry, metaphysics and history. Then he took to reading law, but, though very fond of the study and though called to the bar in 1852, he never practised. Instead he entered the bank ing business under his father in Langport. He had previously, in 1851, spent some time in Paris during the exciting days of the coup d'etat of Napoleon III. His first essays in journalism were accounts ' of the affairs of France contributed to a little weekly news paper, the Inquirer. Herein Bagehot astounded his friends by a somewhat youthfully cynical support of the cause of Napoleon, on the para doxical ground that the French were too clever to be successful as a self-governing people. Stupidity, according to his views at that time, was, says Hutton, essential to political freedom.
While in business, Bagehot contributed to re views,— first to the Prospective Review and after 1855 to the National Review,— various biographical and critical articles. These, and also several sketches originally published as 'Estimates of Some Englishmen and Scotch men' (1858), were collected after his death in 'Literary Studies' (2 vols., 1878), and 'Bio graphical Studies' (1880). In time they ex tend from 1852 to Bagehot's death. The essays °which best represent his peculiar genius° (Hutton) are 'The First Edinburgh Review ers,' 'Hartley Coleridge,' and 'Bishop Butler,' but such essays as those on Gibbon, Shelley, Clough, Dickens and Wordsworth, Tennyson and Browning, are among the most vigorous pieces of English criticism. All are distin guished by a dash and keenness of phrase and an uncommon faculty for sane and broad gen eralization.
In 1858 Bagehot married Miss Wilson, eld est daughter of the Right Hon. James Wilson, who had founded the London Economist during the anti-corn law agitation to represent free trade sentiment. In 1860 Bagehot became edi tor, and there remained till his death. His practical knowledge of men, his great experience in business and extensive studies enabled him to win success in this field, and also to write the books on which his fame as an economist chiefly rests. These are 'The English Consti tution> (1867), which is extensively used as a textbook and has been translated into French, German and Italian ; 'Physics and Politics' (1872), which has been even more widely trans lated; and 'Lombard Street' (1873), a study of the money market. Besides the books already named there appeared after Bagehot's death 'Economic Studies,' a collection of earlier work, and 'The Depreciation of Silver.' Bage hot's counsel was much sought for in financial and economic questions. He tried on several occasions, with honesty rather than zeal, to be elected to Parliament, but never succeeded.
Bagehot, both as a student of institutions and of men, is entitled to high rank. To this
study he brought, in spite of some natural prejudice in favor of the institutions and men of his native land, a mind of thoroughly scien tific bent and much detachment. As a student he is interested in fundamental questions rather than in minutia. His broadest book, 'Physics and Politics,' is an example of this, and may be regarded as an exposition of his main methods and interests. It is an attempt to show how the principle of the survival of the fittest applies to the formation of states. The thesis is that in earliest times and even down nearly to the present, the people who had the faculty of organization and obedience, whether in family, tribe or nation, were bound to prevail over those less organized, and that hence obedience to laws or rulers of whatever sort was neces sary to political success, until the habit of legality became ingrained. Hence the nation with the best military power could seize the best parts of the earth. If, however, the proc ess stopped with organization, the nation would in time present a case of arrested de velopment, and would no longer progress; for the principle of variation, or originality, is also necessary to complete progress. The best in strument for the cultivation of variation is free discussion. Hence arises the explanation of the fact that the western nations of Europe are far in advance of the rest of the world, in that they have tempered the rule of custom with discussion, which has historically been prac tically limited to peoples of Greek and Ger manic origin. And in general, on the other hand, discussion is useful in checking the im pulse to hasty action, a relic of primitive Bagehot's other longer works are really exemplifications of this principle: 'The English Constitution' is substantially an examination of the means of discussion in Eng land and a comparison of it with that in other states; 'Lombard Street' is an analysis of one of the phenomena of variation with a view to expounding and criticising it as an efficient means of progress.
Bagehot's criticism of literature is likewise distinguished by breadth and a fondness for the analysis of causes. It is the criticism, not of taste or of morals, of the beautiful or the good and bad, but of types. The manner in which the mind of his author worked, the type of per son he was, are the fundamental questions of interest with Bagehot. The title, for example, of his excellent essay on certain famous poets illustrates this: °Wordsvvorth, Tennyson and Browning; or, Pure, Ornate and Grotesque Art in English Poetry.° These poets are treated as examples of the three different types of mind and expression named in the title. Dickens is an example of the °irregular° genius, Hartley Coleridge of the whimsical and wayward mind with a gift for self-revelation, Shakespeare, among other attributes, of the experiencing mind. Bagehot's criticism is, in all these essays, never formal or academic, but is based on a wide practical knowledge of men. His point of view he maintains with great consistency, but always enlivens his criticism with such an abundance of keen and witty observations that his criticism is unsurpassed in vigor and is never dull. He however, founded no school as r certain other cntics have done; for his criticism is essentially that of a lively personality and the impressionism of a scientific and detached mind.
Bibliography.-- The chief authority for Bagehot, besides his own work, is R. H. Hut ton, 'Memoir) prefixed to 'Liberty Studies,) and 'Dictionary of National Biography.'