20 
engine have effected almost a revolution in agriculture. The 
evidences of progress— scientific, physical, material, and national 
—progress, above all, in the condition and welfare of the masses 
of our people are simply overwhelming. From the progress of 
knowledge, discovery, and invention, let us be taught this lesson : 
how little we know, and how much we have yet to learn. And 
let the progress of our nation and our people in the past be 
an incentive to us all to renewed efforts, that our progress may 
be continuous and enduring.” 
In the discussion that followed Mr. Nowell referred to the 
advances which the country had made in dealing with the cri- 
minal laws during the last fifty years—Mr. Rawlinson discussed 
the question whether the supposed decline of wages that had 
been going on in every trade since 1873 had been a real decline, 
or whether it was merely a readjustment, as he thought it was, 
to a very large extent, of the altered conditions of prices and of 
gold. As regards temperance, when the figures were placed 
before them they found that although there had been a consider- 
able increase in the consumption of intoxicating liquors, that 
did not at all prove that there had been an increase in 
drunkenness, for there had been at the same time a very great 
decrease in serious crimes.—Dr. Mackenzie spoke of the condi- 
tion of the agricultural labourers in Scotland, and Councillor 
Lancaster urged that one great factor in producing the advance- 
ment, the free trade policy, had been ignored.—Mr. F. Grant 
believed that the prosperity of England was not due so much to 
legislation as to the energy and determination of its people; if 
Government would let commerce pursue its own course unfettered, 
set itself to maintain peace, to encourage industry, to reduce the 
price of law, and to defend life and property, the people would 
do the rest.—Mr. Strange spoke of the removal of the taxes on 
knowledge and the development of the press, and gave as one 
test of progress the capacity to obtain credit. — Mr. John 
Whittaker (Nelson), Mr. J. Kay, Mr. Nutter, and Mr. A. 
Halstead also took part in the discussion.—Sir Ughtred Kay- 
Shuttleworth, in reply, chiefly dwelt upon the condition of the 
poor in the worst parts of London, and offered evidence that 
although that condition was not satisfactory, still it had been 
improved. With regard to statistics of crime, produced by 
friends of the temperance movement, dissection was needed, as 
all sorts of new offences were created, and prosecutions were 
instituted under Acts which had no representatives in the past. 
