110 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



notwithstanding the widely prevalent environment 

 of our times. We may therefore proceed to look at 

 some particular, though perhaps unpopular, facts. 

 I am impelled to the consideration of these facts by 

 the nature of Dr. Cobbett's central plea. He says, 

 " // we take children from a slum environment, train 

 and educate them to become well-conducted, self-sup- 

 porting citizens {the possibility of which I think Mr. 

 Mudge will be willing to grant), their children, though 

 biologically they may inherit nothing from our efforts, 

 and will be born with the same inherent bad characters 

 as their parents, nevertheless will be brought up under 

 entirely different conditions fro?n those which they 

 would have experienced if nothing had been done for 

 their parents ; and their bad characteristics rtiay 

 consequently never have a chance of developing.^'' Now 

 I happen to be familiar with a social experiment 

 which has been carried on for the past forty years, and 

 which conforms in its main features with the con- 

 ditions and suppositions described by Dr. Cobbett 

 in the sentence which I have just quoted. We may 

 therefore proceed from mere suppositions and 

 possibilities to accomplished facts, and endeavour 

 to see how far Dr. Cobbett and those who believe 

 with him, are justified in their golden hopes and 

 the aerial castles of their social dreams. 



Travellers along the West Coast of Scotland 

 are familiar with the charm, the honesty, and 

 the natural gentlemanliness of its inhabitants. 

 They have their faults, of course, but we may pass 

 them over. For I am not concerned, except in an 



