EDITOR'S TABLE. 



4 l 3 



(who does not even know that fossil 

 remains of man were ever found) does 

 with all of us tells us, if we want to 

 be satisfied as to the age of the human 

 species, to dismiss geology altogether, 

 and betake ourselves to the guidance 

 of a long-deceased chronologist ! Prob- 

 ably the dean wi'll never know what a 

 lamentable exhibition he has made of 

 himself never know that, while deny- 

 ing the existence of fossil man, he gave 

 in his own person an unequaled speci- 

 men of a fossilized human intellect. It 

 seems to us not unlikely that, years 

 hence, the dean's ''Fortnightly" article 

 will be quoted as one of the latest exam- 

 ples of an extreme type of clerical igno- 

 rance, on scientific subjects ; just as we 

 now indicate the period when the cave- 

 bear and mammoth bade adieu to this 

 terrestrial scene. It will be a happy 

 thing, indeed, to bave such ignorance 

 safely packed away among the treas- 

 ures of the past. 



But now appears another phase in 

 tbe controversy referred to. The Rev. 

 W. Benham, who describes himself as 

 a conservative, both in theology and 

 in politics, undertakes to answer both 

 Canon Fremautle, the Broadchurch- 

 man, and his assailant Dean Burgon. 

 Naturally, Mr. Benham does not go as 

 far as Canon Fremantle ; but he makes 

 one very important statement, and that 

 is, that the majority of the clergy, so 

 far as his acquaintance extends, seem 

 to assume the truth of the doctrine of 

 evolution. If a man of conservative 

 tendencies is able to say as much as 

 this of the clerical brethren with whom 

 he most consorts, and who, we may 

 presume, are in the main conservatives 

 also, it is evident that thought is mov- 

 ing fast in the Church of England. 



THE FIGnT AGAINST POVERTY. 



As most of our readers are aware, 

 an association has lately been formed 

 in this city under the title of the "Anti- 

 Poverty Society." It proposes to ex- 

 tirpate poverty by throwing the whole 



burden of taxation upon land. One 

 may be allowed to doubt how far the 

 proposed remedy, if found to be appli- 

 cable, would go toward accomplishing 

 the result desired ; but, that poverty is 

 an evil, and that the best efforts of mod- 

 ern society should be devoted to re- 

 moving it, admits of no doubt. If the 

 Anti-Poverty Society accomplishes no 

 other good object, we trust it will at 

 least, during the term of its existence, 

 help to render the community more 

 deeply sensible of its duty in this mat- 

 ter. When we speak of the community, 

 however, we mean its individual mem- 

 bers in their several private capacities, 

 rather than the community as a politi- 

 cally organized body. We are not of 

 those who hold that in legislation is to 

 be found the cure for all social ills. On 

 the contrary, we should be disposed to 

 class what we may call the " legislation- 

 habit " with what has been called the 

 " alcohol-habit " in this important re- 

 spect, that each implies resort to an ar- 

 tificial stimulus as a remedy for consti- 

 tutional weaknesses in one case in the 

 social organism, in the other in the in- 

 dividual human body. Both involve 

 distrust of, or disregard for, hygienic 

 measures and the discipline of Nature ; 

 and both stand in the way of Nature's 

 restorative action. If poverty is to be 

 cured, we believe it can only be through 

 the more general application of those 

 principles and methods by which it is 

 already warded off from the larger por- 

 tion of society. The problem that has 

 to be faced is the serious one of ren- 

 dering every individual in the commu- 

 nity fit to earn a maintenance for him- 

 self. Such fitness implies freedom from 

 habits that are a burden upon life, from 

 a physical or from any other point 

 of view. Let the advocates of drastic 

 measures of legislative reform say what 

 they will, the fact remains that, given 

 a certain measure of well-directed fac- 

 ulty, and success in the struggle of life 

 becomes a sure thing. Instances abound 

 in every country, but nowhere so much 

 as in our own, in which men have risen, 



