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Francis Edgeworth
Times obituary
THE DOYEN OF ENGLISH ECONOMISTS
We regret to announce that Professor F. Y. Edgeworth, Fellow of All Souls College and Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, died on Saturday, after a very short illness, in the Acland Home at Oxford, at the age of 81. With him ends the line of the Edgeworths of Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford. Its annals are embellished by the lives of the Abbé Edgeworth, who attended Louis XVI on the scaffold; and of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, father of the more celebrated Maria Edgeworth, author of "Castle Rackrent" and many other works. The subject of this memoir was Maria Edgeworth's last surviving nephew.
Born at Castle Edgeworth on February 8. 1845. Francis Ysidro Edgeworth was the fifth and youngest son, but none of his brothers left issue, and he succeeded to Edgeworthstown in 1911. He was educated at home until he entered Trinity College, Dublin. He went on to Balliol and duly obtained his first degree in Lit. Hum., but for some time found no adequate opening for his abilities. He steadily pursued his studies in ancient and modern languages, mathematics, philosophy, statistics, and economics, and was called to the Bar by the Innkeeper in 1877. Except for occasional contributions to learned publications, he first came into notice as Lecturer in Logic, and then as Tooke Professor of Political Economy, at King's College, London In 1881 his "Mathematical Psychics" appeared, which revealed his shrewd, original, and somewhat whimsical qualities as an independent thinker and forecast his development as an exponent of pure or mathematical economics.
It was, however, the foundation of the Royal Economic Society in 1890 which provided his first congenial niche and determined his life's work. Edgeworth was appointed secretary of the society and editor of its organ, the Economic Journal. But his extensive knowledge of economics and economists in all countries, and his great industry and keen interest, were coupled with a complete innocence in business and administrative affairs. It was accordingly found necessary almost at once to appoint a new secretary in Mr. Henry Higgs, who shortly after become also joint editor of the Journal. The pair ran harmoniously in double harness until Mr. Higgs resigned on becoming private secretary to the Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, in 1908. A few years later Edgeworth found new joint editor in Mr. J. M. Keynes, who had become secretary of the society and (except for an interval during which Mr. Keynes was sole editor) continued the partnership until his death. In 1923 the society testified its gratitude for his long and valuable services by arranging for the publication in three volumes, which appeared last April, of his collected writings, mainly from the pages of its Journal. The articles on the Pure Theory of Taxation in this collection have a worldwide reputation and are a good example of his powers as an analytical economist and his limitations as an exponent.
In his lectures, his writings, and his conversation Edroworth leaped from peak to peak and was often difficult to follow. He tried to overcome this defect by resorting to analogies, sometimes straining and pursuing what at first might have seemed to the plain man fantastic. To the discerning, however, he always had a message which was worth pondering. Quick to detect fallacies in logic, he often pronounced himself to be more interested in methods than conclusions, and was sometimes accused of being constitutionally incapable of pronouncing a decided opinion on any practical question. His article on Probabilities in the 11th edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica" shows his mastery of the subject, but in the problems of life he shrank from quantitative estimates of probabilities and was content to observe that there were imponderable elements present which precluded him from dogmatic conclusion.
In 1891 he became, in succession to Thorold Rogers, Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, a post which he retained until 1922, when he was made Emeritus Professor. He greatly prized the Fellowship of All Souls which accompanied his appointment. All Souls, indeed, was his one home for the remainder of his life. For practically 35 years he had lived in the college and was one of the most constant, devoted, and popular members of its society. A year ago he and his old colleague, the Rev. Arthur Johnson, Fellow and chaplain of the college, celebrated their 80th birthdays on the self-same day.
During the war Edgeworth published in pamphlet form some of his lectures on the cost of war and other questions of wartime finance, capable of treatment, but too detached and philosophical to attract much attention either in the University or outside. He would have made an excellent teacher in a Postgraduate University, if we had such an institution, and would have been stimulated by his hearers as he would have stimulated them, but it must be confessed that he had not the gifts of "vulgarization." His mind was too subtle, small, delicate, and refined for any enthusiasm over what Disraeli called expounding the obvious and expatiating upon the commonplace.
Edgeworth was unmarried. He was an insatiable reader, but his love of walking, mountaineering, golf, and boating, with his strict and regular habits, maintained to the last his wonderful vitality. Every summer, even at the age of 80, he used to bathe at Parson's Pleasure before breakfast, and he would often be seen riding his bicycle in the country around Oxford or playing on the course at Cowley. But as a walker he was perhaps most indefatigable; and he was the life and soul of those Sunday tramps which have for years been a custom of his college. To a courtly grace, derived perhaps from his Spanish mother, he added the Irish characteristics of humour, imagination, and generosity. A lifelong friend has never known him to be out of temper or speak an ill-word of others. In him sweetness and light were well combined. He was the merriest of men and seemed to possess the secret of perpetual youth, both of mind and of body. His range of learning was astonishing; quite apart from economics, he was an admirable classical scholar, an accomplished mathematician, and deeply read in foreign works. He took a keen interest in the latest developments in the physical sciences.
He served as President of the Economic Section of the British Association in 1889 and as President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1912 to 1914. He was a Fellow of the British Academy, of King's College, London, and of various learned societies. Durham conferred on him its D.C.L., and he was a member of the Atheneum, the Savile, and the Alpine Clubs.
The funeral will be at Holywell Cemetery tomorrow, after a service at All Souls College at 2:15 p.m.
THE DOYEN OF ENGLISH ECONOMISTS
We regret to announce that Professor F. Y. Edgeworth, Fellow of All Souls College and Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, died on Saturday, after a very short illness, in the Acland Home at Oxford, at the age of 81. With him ends the line of the Edgeworths of Edgeworthstown, Co. Longford. Its annals are embellished by the lives of the Abbé Edgeworth, who attended Louis XVI on the scaffold; and of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, father of the more celebrated Maria Edgeworth, author of "Castle Rackrent" and many other works. The subject of this memoir was Maria Edgeworth's last surviving nephew.
Born at Castle Edgeworth on February 8. 1845. Francis Ysidro Edgeworth was the fifth and youngest son, but none of his brothers left issue, and he succeeded to Edgeworthstown in 1911. He was educated at home until he entered Trinity College, Dublin. He went on to Balliol and duly obtained his first degree in Lit. Hum., but for some time found no adequate opening for his abilities. He steadily pursued his studies in ancient and modern languages, mathematics, philosophy, statistics, and economics, and was called to the Bar by the Innkeeper in 1877. Except for occasional contributions to learned publications, he first came into notice as Lecturer in Logic, and then as Tooke Professor of Political Economy, at King's College, London In 1881 his "Mathematical Psychics" appeared, which revealed his shrewd, original, and somewhat whimsical qualities as an independent thinker and forecast his development as an exponent of pure or mathematical economics.
It was, however, the foundation of the Royal Economic Society in 1890 which provided his first congenial niche and determined his life's work. Edgeworth was appointed secretary of the society and editor of its organ, the Economic Journal. But his extensive knowledge of economics and economists in all countries, and his great industry and keen interest, were coupled with a complete innocence in business and administrative affairs. It was accordingly found necessary almost at once to appoint a new secretary in Mr. Henry Higgs, who shortly after become also joint editor of the Journal. The pair ran harmoniously in double harness until Mr. Higgs resigned on becoming private secretary to the Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, in 1908. A few years later Edgeworth found new joint editor in Mr. J. M. Keynes, who had become secretary of the society and (except for an interval during which Mr. Keynes was sole editor) continued the partnership until his death. In 1923 the society testified its gratitude for his long and valuable services by arranging for the publication in three volumes, which appeared last April, of his collected writings, mainly from the pages of its Journal. The articles on the Pure Theory of Taxation in this collection have a worldwide reputation and are a good example of his powers as an analytical economist and his limitations as an exponent.
In his lectures, his writings, and his conversation Edroworth leaped from peak to peak and was often difficult to follow. He tried to overcome this defect by resorting to analogies, sometimes straining and pursuing what at first might have seemed to the plain man fantastic. To the discerning, however, he always had a message which was worth pondering. Quick to detect fallacies in logic, he often pronounced himself to be more interested in methods than conclusions, and was sometimes accused of being constitutionally incapable of pronouncing a decided opinion on any practical question. His article on Probabilities in the 11th edition of the "Encyclopædia Britannica" shows his mastery of the subject, but in the problems of life he shrank from quantitative estimates of probabilities and was content to observe that there were imponderable elements present which precluded him from dogmatic conclusion.
In 1891 he became, in succession to Thorold Rogers, Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford, a post which he retained until 1922, when he was made Emeritus Professor. He greatly prized the Fellowship of All Souls which accompanied his appointment. All Souls, indeed, was his one home for the remainder of his life. For practically 35 years he had lived in the college and was one of the most constant, devoted, and popular members of its society. A year ago he and his old colleague, the Rev. Arthur Johnson, Fellow and chaplain of the college, celebrated their 80th birthdays on the self-same day.
During the war Edgeworth published in pamphlet form some of his lectures on the cost of war and other questions of wartime finance, capable of treatment, but too detached and philosophical to attract much attention either in the University or outside. He would have made an excellent teacher in a Postgraduate University, if we had such an institution, and would have been stimulated by his hearers as he would have stimulated them, but it must be confessed that he had not the gifts of "vulgarization." His mind was too subtle, small, delicate, and refined for any enthusiasm over what Disraeli called expounding the obvious and expatiating upon the commonplace.
Edgeworth was unmarried. He was an insatiable reader, but his love of walking, mountaineering, golf, and boating, with his strict and regular habits, maintained to the last his wonderful vitality. Every summer, even at the age of 80, he used to bathe at Parson's Pleasure before breakfast, and he would often be seen riding his bicycle in the country around Oxford or playing on the course at Cowley. But as a walker he was perhaps most indefatigable; and he was the life and soul of those Sunday tramps which have for years been a custom of his college. To a courtly grace, derived perhaps from his Spanish mother, he added the Irish characteristics of humour, imagination, and generosity. A lifelong friend has never known him to be out of temper or speak an ill-word of others. In him sweetness and light were well combined. He was the merriest of men and seemed to possess the secret of perpetual youth, both of mind and of body. His range of learning was astonishing; quite apart from economics, he was an admirable classical scholar, an accomplished mathematician, and deeply read in foreign works. He took a keen interest in the latest developments in the physical sciences.
He served as President of the Economic Section of the British Association in 1889 and as President of the Royal Statistical Society from 1912 to 1914. He was a Fellow of the British Academy, of King's College, London, and of various learned societies. Durham conferred on him its D.C.L., and he was a member of the Atheneum, the Savile, and the Alpine Clubs.
The funeral will be at Holywell Cemetery tomorrow, after a service at All Souls College at 2:15 p.m.
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