THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. 45 



merit which can only be advocated for the sake of cheapness in the 

 first cost. I believe this economy -would be at the expense of se- 

 curity, and that the cable of the future will be even heavier, more per- 

 fect, and more costly, than the cable of the present day. Abstract of 

 Address before the Statistical Society. 







THE STUDY OF SOCIOLOGY. 



By HEEBEET SPENCEE. 

 X. The Class-Bias. 



MANY years ago, a solicitor, sitting by me at dinner, complained 

 bitterly of the injury which the then lately-established County 

 Courts were doing his profession. He enlarged on the topic in a way 

 implying that he expected me to agree with him in therefore con- 

 demning them. So incapable was he of going beyond the professional 

 point of view, that what he regarded as a grievance he thought I also 

 ought to regard as a grievance : oblivious of the fact that the more 

 economical administration of justice, of which his lamentation gave me 

 proof, was to me, not being a lawyer, matter for rejoicing. 



The bias thus exemplified is a bias by which nearly all have their 

 opinions warped. Naval officers disclose the unhesitating belief that 

 we are in imminent danger because the cry for more fighting-ships 

 and more sailors has not been met to their satisfaction. The debates 

 on the purchase-system proved how strong was the conviction of mili- 

 tary men that our national safety depended on the maintenance of an 

 army-organization like that in which they were brought up, and had 

 attained their respective ranks. Clerical opposition to the repeal of 

 the Corn-laws showed how completely that view which Christian min- 

 isters might have been expected to take, was shut out by a view more 

 congruous with their interests and alliances. In all classes and sub- 

 classes it is the same. Hear the murmurs uttered when, because of 

 the Queen's absence, there is less expenditure in entertainments and 

 the so-called gayeties of the season, and you perceive that London 

 traders think the nation suffers if the consumption of superfluities is 

 checked. Study the pending controversy about cooperative stores versus 

 retail shops, and you find the shopkeeping mind possessed by the idea 

 that society commits a wrong if it deserts shops and goes to stores 

 is quite unconscious that the present distributing system rightly exists 

 only as a means of economically and conveniently supplying con- 

 sumers, and must yield to another system if that should prove more 

 economical and convenient. Similarly with the other trading bodies, 

 general and special similarly with the merchants who opposed the 

 repeal of the Navigation Laws ; similarly with the Coventry weavers, 

 who like free-trade in all things save ribbons. 



