202 REPORT— 1861. 



term for social science, wliicli would include morality and religion, education, j mis- 

 prudence, municipal law, sanitaiy science, political economy, the fihe arts, and the 

 art of government. The Social Science Association had six sections ; namely, j uris- 



Erudence and amendment of the law, education, punishment and reformation, public 

 ealth, social economy, and international laws. It was probable that social science 

 would soon imply, technically, political economy, jmisprudence, sanitary science, 

 education, and statistics. lie had mentioned statistics ; but statistics was not pro- 

 perly a science, like d^mamics and chemistiy. Statistics had no body of doctrine, 

 or of general laws, of its own. Its generalizations were of the second order. There 

 were five main divisions, namely, vital statistics, criminal statistics, economical 

 statistics, trade statistics, and taxation statistics. In all these, ultimate units were 

 being gradually established. The annual death-rate was almost as important as 

 Dalton's law of definite proportions. It had been established that the death-rate 

 in a commimity of human beings inhabiting a coimtiy like om- own ought not to 

 exceed 17 in 1000, and taking their stand upon this, they were able to say that 

 where the annual death-rate gi'eatly exceeded that figure, there was something wrong. 

 The rate of infant mortality was almost the best test of civilization. From the plan 

 suggested by the Statistical Congress of last year, they should gradually be able to 

 ascertain what was the real condition, and what was the eflect, of the social relations 

 pervading diflerent parts of the world. The application of the expeiimental method 

 pm-sued dming the last thirty years had led to a large modification of the early and 

 economic science in reference to free colonization, legal interference ^vith labour, 

 ciuTency prices, the nature and operation of rent, and the effects of a large increase 

 of metallic money. As to legal interference with labour, there was no part of poli- 

 tical economy appai-ently so cleai- as that which taught that capitalists and labom-ers 

 should be left to make theu- own bargain. Prior to Adam Smith and Ricardo, 

 nearly all such interference by law and custom had been mischievous ; and, there- 

 fore, expenence seemed to be on the side of laissez-faire, and against guilds, sj-ndics, 

 and govei-mnent ofiicei-s. This was true so long as the labom-ers were of the adidt 

 class, working singly or in small mmibers or in families. But it ceased to be tnie 

 when manufacturers congi-egated workpeople in large masses, and largely emploj'cd 

 women and children, who were only partially free agents. Capitalists said that the 

 limiting the hom-s of labom* would mischievously and fatally discom-age capital ; 

 and so it would, in the abstract. But there were these qualifsdng conditions — that 

 capital, depending for its retimi upon the order and energy of lai'ge masses of per- 

 sons, must take especial cai'e of the physical and moral condition of such pei-sons ; 

 and that the efficiency of exertion, even with machinery, did not mean unlimited 

 hom-s of labour, but skilled efibrts dm-ing the best-selected pai-ts of the day. The 

 experiment had fully answered ; and the orderly, educated, and contented labom-ers 

 of Lancashu-e were secm-ity against foreign competition, and a guarantee of peace. 

 Economic science dealt with six principal classes of questions, namely, the natm-e 

 of wealth, the exchange of commodities, taxation and finance, cm-rency and banks, 

 wages and division of employment, and interference by^the State. The last three 

 only were stiU in dispute. Formerly with regard to these the laissez-faire principle 

 seemed to be the general rule ; but as society became more complex, it seemed to 

 be clear that the State must in many cases protect indi\iduals. It could not be 

 denied that at present the tendency of ci^dlization was to deal with rights in masses. 

 The conclusion of the whole matter seemed to be, that as the residt of the last thirty 

 yeai-s, full as that period had been of scientific achievements, they might justly claim 

 for the ser\'ices rendered by economic science and statistical inquii-y a place in the 

 fi-ont rank ; that they had now arrived at a kind of intermediate point, at which, 

 after long debate, many conti-oversies were finally settled, and from which they 

 might see their way to a higher sununit ; and that the least doubtfid residt of their 

 experience had been the discovery that the most solid progi-ess was made by guiding 

 themselves in the main by close observation of facts, and by employing speculative 

 and hypothetical reasoning imder the most cautious conditions. But there was a 

 larger moral beyond these results. The last thirty years had been an age of re- 

 naissance, because they had found out that human life had higher ends than em- 

 plojmient in incessant labom- or devotion to excessive gain; that to accomplish 

 these higher ends they must free themselves bodily and wholly of artificial and false 

 supports, and contest -svith jio mimic earnestness for the honour of the fii'st place 



