HYDE LECTURE BY M. d'AVENEL

Le vicomte G. d'Avenel delivered the first of the Hyde lectures yesterday afternoon in Sanders Theatre. The next lecture will be given in the same place tomorrow evening at 8 o'clock.

In introducing the speaker Professor Wendell '77 gave a short outline of M. d'Avenel's career as an economist, concluding with the statement that he is the first lecturer to set forth the great economic changes which affect France today.

M. d'Avenel asserted that economic evolutions are independent of social changes, and have no points in common with them. The nineteenth century, in which social equality has attained to a greater extent than ever before, has witnessed the birth of great inequality in fortunes. Upon the fortunes of the laboring classes, the progress of a country has really no affect, as is seen in certain periods of French history, especially in the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.

Under the changes brought about by the revolution, there was no material difference in the condition of the workingman; merely a political change resulted. Since the revolution, on the other hand, the workingman has experienced great material changes. These are due solely to the progress of science and not to political interference. The most important element in the consideration of this matter, has been the changes in money values. Two hundred dollars in the year 1200, would be worth only 74 cents today.

In conclusion the lecturer showed that the inevitable laws of nature are of much greater power than the written laws of parliaments.