7 24 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



indeed, be proportionately restricted in number, but within this area 

 they will be none the less valid. 



Thus, in the science of political economy, it is not universally true 

 that, in all conditions of society, population tends to increase out of 

 proportion to the means of subsistence ; for the effective desire of in- 

 dividual self-enrichment constitutes in certain conditions a reparative 

 and compensating force. So in law, it is not everywhere true that a 

 human being is, in a legal sense, a person and not a thing ; or that 

 laws proceed from a consciously acting political authority ; or that it 

 is recognized as an axiom that taxation and representation go together. 

 The several propositions here chosen, by way of illustration, from two 

 of the component sciences which, with others, go to constitute the 

 complete range of political studies, and help to convert those studies 

 into a separate science, are only partially and relatively true at certain 

 places and periods. But, within these limits of time and place, their 

 truth, and the truth of all like propositions, is invariable and incon- 

 testable. 



Thus, if the composite nature of Politics impairs the universality 

 of the majority of the propositions with which it is concerned, this 

 only establishes the relativity of these studies, and in no wise detracts 

 from their usefulness or supersedes the employment of those rigorous 

 logical methods which in other respects continue to be applicable. 



2. Another reason which accounts for the unscientific aspect under 

 which political studies usually present themselves is that it very rarely 

 happens, or has happened, that conscious attention to the true charac- 

 ter of governmental problems, to their difficulties, and to the modes of 

 their solution, is aroused in any nation till long after a practical solu- 

 tion of some kind has been instinctively resorted to, and a consider- 

 able advance in the art of administration achieved. 



An exception might be supposed to exist in the case of colonies 

 and dependencies, at the first foundation of which all the materials 

 seem to be within the conscious control of the parent or governing 

 State. But it is just on this very account that theoretical truths have 

 here their most hopeful platform, and are habitually applied in prac- 

 tice to an extent which, because of unnoticed but vitiating errors of 

 calculation, is often fraught with serious hazard. The Cornwallis set- 

 tlement in Bengal, the early land policy of the Australian colonies, 

 and the attempted central taxation of the American colonies by the 

 British Parliament, are all instances of the over-hasty application, to 

 materials believed to be malleable, of firmly fixed political principles. 

 The principles themselves, indeed, in all these cases, needed re-exami- 

 nation and restatement. 



The obstacles to at once applying even the best-established prin- 

 ciples of government, in all conceivable emergencies, so soon as con- 

 scious attention happens to be awakened to the national needs, are 

 sufficiently obvious. It is not only that the principles themselves 



