50 president's address. 



tainly fraught with the deepest interest. History has generally 

 been silent on the condition of the great masses of society, or 

 only discloses it by incidental touches. This silence is, no doubt, 

 in the first place, due to the fact that there is not much to record, 

 nor much which strikes the imagination in the tame and humble 

 course of ordinary life. The poor may say, like the knife- 

 grinder — " Story 1 God bless you, I have none to tell, sir." 



" With silent course, which no loud storms annoy, 

 Gli.les the smooth current of domestic joy ;" 



and the voice of misery has been equally mute and unheard from 

 the depth where it has been uttered. But it is also partly owing 

 to the feeling, which showed itself in the doctrine, that the people 

 were made for those who governed them, and which, descending 

 through the diflferent stages of society, always supposed the 

 relative insignificance of the lower class to that above it. We 

 have, at last, begun to appreciate the vast importance of a class 

 which has, for ages, been thought unworthy of the notice of 

 history; and this Society has especially recognised it, as it was 

 formed with the hope of forming a new bond of union between 

 all classes, and its subscriptions were purposely adapted to that 

 object. 



Without concurring in the fanciful opinion of some philoso- 

 phers, that all animated beings are to be regarded " as a series 

 of advances of the principle of development, which have depended 

 upon external circumstances, to which the resulting animals are 

 appropriate," I cannot help thinking that something analogous 

 occurs in human societies. 



It would be curious to trace the change from the feudal lord 

 to the modern squire, and to see how the fangs and tusks have 

 been reduced — possibly the tail lost — and the whole animal 

 softened to a milder type, with little of the original fierceness 

 left, except what relates to game laws. 



It might be well, in attempting to pourtray scenes of former 

 times, to lay down, first, as the basis of comparison, an accurate 

 description of the same class at present, as, in surveying a 

 country, some levels must first be accurately ascertained to start 

 from. Nor is this so simple and easy a matter, as it might seem 



