TllANSACTIONS OF THE SliCTlONS. lOT' 



diice small families, which do not afford the usual chance of a numerous supply of 

 descendants. Whatever may be said of some of his other opinions, I hesitate to 

 concur with Mr. Galton in his proposition, that as it is easy " to obtain by careful 

 selection a breed of dogs or horses, g;ifted with peculiar powers of runnni"- or of 

 doing anything- else, so it would be quite practicable to produce a highly gifted 

 race of men by judicious marriages during several consecutive generations." I 

 doubt greatly the practicability of such a plan; and suspect there are some 

 elements in human nature that would counteract it. Persons of proud family 

 descent have often a horror of mesalliances; but I scarcely think it would be 

 possible to inspire people of genius with the same esprit de corps or desire to wed 

 with those on a par with their own eminence. Men of genius do not seem to me 

 apt to fall in love with women as clever as themselves, and I rather suspect the 

 tendency is to look for some difference of character, an instinct of which it is the 

 object, or at least the result, to keep up the average of talent rather tluin to multiply 

 the highest forms of mental power. At any rate we may here ask poor Polly's 

 question : " Can love be controlled by advice ? " and however Ave may in other 

 respects agi-ee with Horace's maxim, " Fortes creanturfortibiis et bonis,"! question 

 whether a high mental stature could be maintained by coupling male and female 

 genius together, or whether the experiment might not fail as signally as it is said 

 sometimes to have done with Frederic William's attempts to breed grenadiers. I 

 strenuously advise, however, that a marriage with a fool of either sex should be 

 always considered as a mesalliance, and I would particularly warn the ladies against 

 such a step, taken sometimes, it is said, in the hope that their sway may in that 

 way be more easily maintained. A fool is as difficult to be governed as a mule, 

 and the couplet, I believe, is strictly true, that says — 



" Wise men alone, who long for quiet lives, 

 Wise men alone are governed by their wives." 



Economic Laws. 

 Leaving the multifarious field of Statistics, and reverting to our leading subject 

 of Economic science, or which may seem a synonymous term, Political economy', it 

 embraces specially the study of those natural laws which have reference to the 

 Wealth of nations. This is perhaps its proper character as a science ; but when 

 those laws are ascertained in their natural operation, practical questions arise of 

 great difficulty for the determination of any Government desirous of promoting, not 

 merely the wealth, but the welfare of a nation. How far in particular are those 

 laws to be left to their natural and spontaneous operation ? or, how far are they to 

 be modified either by limiting or by supplementing their operation ? For example, 

 freedom of trade and freedom of contract are, as a general rule, the best means of 

 promoting activity and prosperity in the departments with they are concerned. 

 JBut it can scarcely be maintained that this ideal freedom is never to be infringed. 

 I do not merely refer here to the protection which may be afforded to persons under 

 age in reference to their treatment, or to the manner in which they may be em- 

 ployed. In the eye of the law as well as of reason, a contract as to the employ- 

 ment or services of a person in nonage is in reality no contract at all. An infant 

 or minor cannot contract, and any contract that may be made in his name by any 

 guardian, or even by a parent, in every country where law is established, must be 

 subject to revision. A cruel or injurious contract as to a child's labour must bo 

 capable of correction and repression, j ust as any bodilj' outrage infiicted upon a man 

 would infer punishment and restraint. Even with persons of mature years the 

 general and better opinion seems to be that certain classes of the community require 

 to be protected by restrictions on the freedom of commerce or contract. Long ago 

 this system extensively prevailed, and very high and comprehensive ideas existed 

 as to the paternal duties thus incumbent on Government. Let us take two in- 

 stances of this kind, which may be placed, to some extent at least, in contrast with 

 each other. 



The history of the Usury laws is well known. Originating in a primitive idea 

 thfit interest upon money was unnatural, those laws kept up prohibitions againtt 

 the amount of interest that could be stipulated, with a professed view to the pro- 

 tection of needy borrowers against extortionate lenders. It was not till the year 



