884 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 
It is largely due to the flooding of particular kinds of employ- 
ment beyond the strict proportion which local wants demand, that 
inconvenience or distress is felt in young as well as old countries ; 
and, thus, applicants for a given kind of employment may often 
fail, not necessarily because there is no room for more labour, 
but because the direction in which the applicant has been trained, 
or in which they desire so be employed, is out of harmony with 
the natural or local proportions of that particular service engaged 
in the production of general requirements or satisfactions. What 
is needed, therefore, is something like omniscience, to continually 
devise and regulate the training of breadwinners in the propor- 
tions in which their services will be in demand. We must not, 
therefore, despise the defective machinery—capitalists and organ- 
isers of industry—which hitherto have performed roughly this 
grand service for us. At least we owe them so much that we 
cannot desire to see them removed until it can be clearly shown 
that a better provision can take their place. 
ECONOMIC SCIENCE PAPERS. 
No. 1.—DEMOCRACY AND THE VOICE OF HISTORY. 
By W. JetTHro Brown, M.A., LL.D. 
(Read Monday, 10 January, 1898.) 
[ Abstract. | 
THE solution of a political problem required two qualifications : a 
mind disciplined in the process of correct thinking, and a know- 
ledge of the particular factors of the problem requiring solution. 
The study of history went far to achieve the latter object, both 
by affording the student historical parallels in the light of which 
he might understand his factors, if not predict the results of their 
combination, and by showing how the particular conditions and 
forces of our time had acquired their present character. While 
the value of an acquaintance with the processes of development 
was generally admitted, there was a very common tendency to 
decry the value of historical parallels on the plea of the changed 
conditions of modern society. It was a special object of the 
paper to discuss the precise limits within which this scepticism 
was justified. Possible analogies from Grecian and Roman history 
were quoted, with the object of ascertaining whether it would be 
