The political economists have been charged by Professor Herron, in a recent number of The Kingdom with overlooking ethics. The charge is just and important. But more important is the fact that they have overlooked positive law. In seeking to trace out the workings of self-interest they have taken for granted certain laws as natural and inherent in the constitution of society, such as laws sustaining private property, while other laws have been considered as an artificial and unnatural interference with beneficent self-interest. Protective tariffs, prohibitory statutes, legal protection of women and children, are considered violations of natural law. No economic problem is more important than the just estimate of the part played by customary and statutory law in social evolution.