A Bridge Between Adam Smith and Nineteenth Century Social Thinkers?
| Author | A.L. MACFIE,JOHN MILLAR |
| Published date | 01 November 1961 |
| Date | 01 November 1961 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1961.tb00165.x |
JOHN MILLAR
A
BRIDGE
BETWEEN
ADAM
SMITH
AND
NINETEENTH
CENTURY
SOCIAL
THINKERS?
e
IT
has been the misfortune of many prophetic thinkers that the times
which followed them were allergic to their work. In this way, original
ideas can be temporarily submerged; and though future ages will
certainly revive them,
if
they are valid, the personal credit for their
earlier discovery is usually forgotten. Such a one was John Millar,
Professor of Law in Glasgow University from
1761
to
1801.
In his
earlier work-The
Origin
of
the Distinction
of
Ranks
(1771,
150
pp.)
-basing on his legal knowledge, he produced
a
first draft of nine-
teenth century sociology, in which he developed such ideas as mother
and father right, class formation, power as based on property, defining
and annotating them scientifically. In his much more massive work-
An Historical
View
of
English
Government
(1787,
republished
1803
in four volumesFhe stakes
a
strong claim to have given us the first
specifically
constitutional
history of England, interweaving with this
theme the philosophical social overtones characteristic of the eighteenth
century. Thus the growing definition of social institutions shines
through the careers of princes and Westminster statutes, and
it
is the
former that remains in our memory as the deposit reflecting social
opinion.
His work did have direct effect on nineteenth century thinking,
especially on John Stuart Mill’s sociology. But recognition of
his
more indirect influence and of
his
personal achievement has had to
wait on a suitable edition representing his writings, which in their old
form have been little read in the present century. Such an edition is
at last available through the exceptionally thorough work of Dr.
Lehmann:l Millar at last gets the care he deserved. Dr. Lehmann
has read everything that should be read (even the contemporary press):
and his introduction admirably prepares the reader on a11 sides-
biographical, historical, political, local and interpretative-for the
study of Millar’s texts. It is especially fortunate that a distinguished
American sociologist has completed this laborious task.
For
Dr.
Lehmann has the width
of
knowledge and the sympathy to appreciate
that Millar’s special value
is
as a legal philosophical sociologist.
John
Millar
of
Glasgow (1735-1801),
by William
C.
Lehmann. Cambridge
University
Press,
1960.
xvi
+
430
pp.
Price
60/-.
200
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