SCIENTIFIC ASPECT OF THE HENRY GEORGE MOVEMENT. 33 



Prof. W. H. Ellis was appointed representative of the Insti- 

 tute at the sixth annual meeting of the Royal Society of 

 Canada, to be held on the 22nd May. 



TWENTIETH MEETING. 



Twentieth Meeting, 31st March, 1888, the President in the 

 chair. 



Donations and exchanges since last meeting, 32. 



John A. Morton and J. Castell Hopkins were elected 

 members. 



W. Houston, M. A., read a paper on " The Scientific 

 Aspect of the Henry George Movement," of which the follow- 

 ing is a synopsis : 



He began by explaining that it was no part of hi.s object to assail 

 Mr. George's main contention, that the " unearned increment in 

 land " should belong to the community and not to the individual 

 owner. In that contention he concurred, so much so that be regarded 

 it as an axiomatic truth. He further explained that it was no ])art 

 of his purpose to depreciate Mr. George as a thinker or a philan- 

 thropist. He defended him against the charge of being a mere 

 mischievous agitator, and appealed to his writings for proof. The 

 mischief is done by intolerant critics who do. not take the trouble to 

 understand either the aims or the methods of such men as George, 

 Powderly, or Parnell. Each of these men is a philosophical student 

 of political science, prepared with reasons to convince others, and 

 himself open to conviction. The object of the paper was to show 

 that though Mr. George is right in his main contention the reasoning 

 by which he supports it is unscientific and unsatisfactoiy. The same 

 contention was put forward long ago by John Stuart Mill,* and 

 an association was actually organized in 1870, f called the " Land 



* Richai'd Cobden stated the doctrine of the "unearned increment" in a 

 public speech delivered on the 17th of December, 1845. 



+ Henry George's "Progress and Poverty" was written between August 

 1877 and March 1879, and the pamphlet, of which it is an expansion, appeared 

 in 1871. 3 



