664 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION P. 



Section F.— ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 



President of the Section. — Sir H. Llewellyn Smith, K.C.B., M.A., 



B.Sc, F.S.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 



The President delivered the following Address : — 



What should be the scope, form, and contents of a presidential address to the 

 Economic Section of the British Association ? 



If we attempt to solve this question by the historical method we obtain 

 indecisive results, for a hasty glance at the addresses of my predecessors in 

 recent years shows a very wide range of variation, from the detailed examination 

 of some particular point of economic theory or practice to a general survey of the 

 past, present, or future of Economic Science, or a funeral oration over the grave 

 of some obsolete school of thought. Nor does the comparative .method — the 

 examination of the prevalent customs in other sections of the British Association 

 — give any clearer guidance. 



If we fall back upon the a priori or deductive method it may not be difficult 

 to construct some theoretical ideal of what a presidential address should be. 

 Thus it might be suggested that the opening address should be to the general 

 proceedings of the section what an overture is to an opera, — introductory, sugges- 

 tive, occasionally reminiscent of previous works of the series, touching skilfully 

 on the principal ' motives ' of current discussions without resting too long or too 

 heavily on any. It should doubtless include a systematic and impartial review of 

 the whole range of contemporary economic activity both on the scientific and on the 

 practical sides, with just enough accompaniment of judicious applause or censure, 

 encouragement or warning, to maintain the interest and to afford the necessary 

 light and shade, while avoiding the dangers of polemical controversy which would 

 provoke a desire for retort and refutation. 



Unfortunately, a priori reasoning notoriously depends upon hypotheses, which 

 rarely correspond accurately with realities, and which in the present case are 

 veritable feet of clay. In particular our theory presupposes that the Council of 

 the British Association have appointed a President who has the necessary leisure 

 of mind to keep himself fully abreast of economic thought and research through- 

 out the world, and who can devote to the pursuit of economic science that un- 

 remitting and undistracted attention which the economic man is popularly sup- 

 posed to devote to the pursuit of wealth. Lastly, he is also assumed to be in a 

 position of untrammelled freedom to tell anything he happens to know. Instead 

 of this the Council have selected a hard-worked official with little leisure for the 

 pursuit of any subject outside the range of his official duties, while as regards 

 subjects within that range (including almost every branch of applied economics) 

 the very nature of these duties imposes the most stringent reserves on his power 

 of free discussion. 



Nor does this disability arise from any formal rule or prohibition or considera- 

 tions of official etiquette. It is the inevitable result of the working of natural 

 laws which connect causes with their consequences direct and indirect, immediate 

 and remote. Were I to-day to discourse to you freely and without reserve on 

 questions of fiscal policy and commercial treaties, industrial combinations, railway 



