15 
A FEW TESTS OF NATIONAL PROGRESS. 
By SIR U. J. KAY-SHUTTLEWORTH, Bart ; 
January 8th, 1884. 
The opening lecture of the Session of 1884 was delivered by 
Sir Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth, who chose as his subject “A 
Few Tests of National Progress.” Dr. Brumwell, J.P., presided. 
After some complimentary remarks on the services the Literary 
and Scientific Club has rendered during the ten years of its 
existence, the lecturer proceeded as follows: 
‘In seeking for a fitting subject with which to open the 
second decade of your existence, I had but little hesitation 
in deciding that no subject could be more appropriate than a 
comparison between the present and the past of our people, and 
that such comparison should be national rather than local in its 
scope, and should not be confined within too narrow limits, but 
should take account, as far as materials permit, of the last half- 
century or so of national progress. Plentiful as are the materials 
from which a writer on national and scientific progress can 
to-day draw his facts and statements, I feel myself in two 
respects somewhat strictly limited—1st, as to the dimensions 
within which a paper of this character before the present 
audience should be confined ; 2nd, I impose upon myself a very 
rigid rule as to the avoidance of topics and allusions of a party 
character, even where economical, and, therefore, to some extent, 
political questions have to be touched. To decide whether the 
views of the Pessimist or those of the Optimist on the condition 
of the English people were to be accepted, it would be necessary 
_to examine the facts and figures. At the head of the Commercial 
Department of the Board of Trade we have a very able public 
servant, Mr. Robert Giffen, who for many years has superintended 
the issue of the most valuable Government Statistics, including 
the Statistical Abstracts for the United Kingdom. As President 
of the Statistical Society for 1883, he has recently read an 
address on ‘The Progress of the Working Classes in the last 
Half-century,’ which—being a review of official statistics—is full 
of reliable facts throwing light on our present subject. His first 
subject of inquiry is a comparison of the earnings of the masses 
f the people fifty years ago and now; he considers, secondly, 
the prices then and now of the chief articles which they consume; 
——_" 
