TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 179 



misconduct. The contracts between owners and seamen are regulated by the Go- 

 vernment, and are made under the direct superintendence of public officers. The 

 proper construction and fitting of the ships, their sanitary an-angements, the quan- 

 tity and quality of the provisions and medicines, and the strength and texture of 

 the anchors and chain cables, are all matter for the consideration of the same pater- 

 nal mind. Nor is this kind of care confined to a single branch of industry. There 

 are many others with which the CTOvernment concerns itself, and still more with 

 which it is pressed to do so ; while at the same time we are becoming accustomed 

 to its direct action in the management of various classes of business, and are not 

 unwilling to see that action fmther extended. 



Can it then be that we are learning to sink the idea of the individual in the idea 

 of the State ? Do the mass of the people, as our constitution becomes more demo- 

 cratic, begin to see in the Government an organ better fitted to do their work than 

 they find in the classes above them ? Perhaps, as monopolies are put down, and 

 privileges abated, and education is more generally diffused, and a closer approach 

 to equality is efi'ected, the tendency to deal with questions nationally, rather than 

 by the action of classes or of indi^id uals, may increase. Perhaps, as the competi- 

 tion of foreigners presses upon us with greater severity, and as we become con- 

 scious that it is only to be encountered by the aid of all the resources, all the edu- 

 cation, all the organization that we can command, it is natm'al that the desire to 

 invoke the powerful aid of the State in gathering up all tlie elements of our strength 

 and giving- it the best possible direction, should become more and more marked. 

 Perhaps there may be something in the nature of things which renders coopera- 

 tion more and more necessary as we make gi-eater progress in the work of subduing 

 the universe. In the ruder states of society, when industiy is in its infancy, the 

 isolated labour of the individual suffices to procure the simple necessaries of life 

 which he requires. As civilization advances, and greater results are sought, co- 

 operation begins, and the division of labom- is resorted to. By degrees we intro- 

 duce, first the small capitalist, then the larger one, and then the joint-stock com- 

 pany. It may be that the tendency to invoke the aid of the Government is but 

 another step in the same career. Or possibly we maj^ explain it by the fact that 

 the progress of civilization is, as of necessity, accompanied by the gTOwth of new 

 dangers against which precautions have to be taken which the State alone is com- 

 petent to take. In a civilized society, as we have lately been reminded, deaths by 

 violence, that is to say by accident, have a tendency to increase. In England they 

 are rapidly increasing, and special precautions are needed to render safe that free 

 application of the vast forces of nature to the intercourse and the arts of life which 

 is now so essential to our prosperity. Or, lastly, it may be that in the increasing 

 struggle for wealth the interests of the weaker classes, of the poor, the young, the 

 female, are likelj' to be set aside imless the State interfere for their protection : and 

 the acknowledged demand for such interference may be another cause for the ten- 

 dency to which I have refen-ed. Such seems, at all events, to be the tendency of 

 the age, and it is one which it is impossible to notice without some uneasiness. 

 That we have hitherto been somewhat too jealous of the State, and that it would 

 be wise to call in its aid rather more freely, may probably be true. But the gi-eat- 

 ness of England has been achieved by the self-reliant energies of individual Eng- 

 lishmen, and by the energies of individual Englishmen it will be best maintained. 



On the Condition of tJie Agriculfiurd Lahcurer. 

 By William Botlet, F.S.A. 



On the Devonshire Association for the Advancement of Science and Art. 

 By Sir John Bowring, LL.D., F.B.S. 



In this paper the author narrated the proceedings of the Devonshire Association, 

 whose piu-pose was to carry out the same investigations in the Devonshire loca- 

 lities which occupied the attention of the British Association in its far wider and 

 far more important field. Seven volumes had been published of the ' Transactions 

 of the Devonshire Association/ which had held its Annual Meetings at Exeter 



12* 



