398 PROBABILITY OF JUDGMENTS. [CHAP. XXI. 



rect judgment in an individual member of the body, or the merit 

 of the questions submitted to its consideration. 



2nd. That such conclusions may be drawn upon various dis- 

 tinct hypotheses, as 1st, Upon the usual hypothesis of the abso- 

 lute independence of individual judgments; 2ndly, upon certain 

 definite modifications of that hypothesis warranted by the actual 

 data ; Srdly, upon a distinct principle of solution suggested by 

 the appearance of a common form in the solutions obtained by 

 the modifications above adverted to. 



Lastly. That whatever of doubt may attach to the final re- 

 sults, rests not upon the imperfection of the method, which 

 adapts itself equally to all hypotheses, but upon the uncertainty 

 of the hypotheses themselves. 



It seems, however, probable that with even the widest limits 

 of hypothesis, consistent with the taking into account of all the 

 data of experience, the deviation of the results obtained would be 

 but slight, and that their mean values might be determined with 

 great confidence by the methods of Prop. in. Of those methods 

 I should be disposed to give the preference to the first. Such a 

 principle of mean solution having been agreed upon, other consi- 

 derations seem to indicate that the values of c and k for tribunals 

 and assemblies possessing a definite constitution, and governed 

 in their deliberations by fixed rules, would remain nearly con- 

 stant, subject, however, to a small secular variation, dependent 

 upon the progress of knowledge and of justice among mankind. 

 There exist at present few, if any, data proper for their determi- 

 nation. 



