756 KEPOET— 1881. 



first and economists only twenty-three years afterwards, Lord Neaves treats our 

 Section as mainly economic, and considers statistics as a mere accessary. This view, 

 however, was not taken by the members of the Section, who contributed that year 

 some very important statistical papers, amongst them one of peculiar interest in the 

 locality where it was read, on the scheme of the Merchant Company with reference 

 to the great Educational Hospitals of Edinburgh. 



At Bradford, in 1873, Mr. Forster did not deliver an address, but made a speech 

 characterised by his usual vigour, hopefulness, and knowledge of affairs. 



At Belfast, in 1874, the members of this Section had the good fortune to do 

 incidentally a great practical and immediate service, by bringing to an end a strike 

 which had caused great inconvenience, and they received the thanks of the local 

 authorities. The address to the Section was delivered by Lord O'Hagan, and an 

 interesting paper, read by Sir George Campbell, bore the (at first sight) rather 

 startling title ' On the Privileges over Land wrongly called Property.' 



Gur Belfast volume, that of 1874, contains the report of a Committee presided 

 over by Lord Houghton, which was appointed to inquire into the economic effects 

 of combinations of labourers and capitalists. That Committee called a conference, 

 which assembled at 22, Albemarle Street, where a deputation from the National 

 Federation of Associated Employers of Labour met a number of persons represent- 

 ing labour, and discussed a variety of questions of common interest. 



' The discussion at the conference,' says the report, ' was carried on in the most 

 friendly spirit, and, in the opinion of your Committee, with manifest utility towards 

 the elucidation of the questions at issue. From the employers your Committee 

 have, moreover, received valuable written answers to their inquiries ; whilst the 

 "Beehive," the principal organ of the employed, said of the conference, "The case 

 was stated with great frankness, and the attack and defence was carried on in 

 perfect good humour for three hours ; and whether any conviction on either side 

 was altered or not, it was proved very distinctly that such meetings, if held more 

 frequently, could not fail to beget a clearer view of the questions in dispute on 

 both sides, and a stronger disposition than now exists to arrange differences in a 

 friendly and peaceable spirit." ' 



The address at Bristol in 1875, was delivered by Mr. Heywood, and contained 

 much information as well about the trade as the educational facilities of the neigh- 

 bourhood, while various papers of merit were read, including one upon national 

 . education by Mrs. Grey ; one on the coal question by Mr. Jevons, find one on the 

 value of European life in India by Dr. Mouatt. 



At Glasgow, in 1876, Sir George Campbell presided, and brought his great 

 knowledge of India to bear upon various important problems. 



Amongst other things he made the following observations upon the use of 

 narcotics and stimulants: — 



'I have been led into the suggestion that these things are very much a matter 

 of race by observation of the very singular way in which in Asia the population are 

 ■ divided into those who use opium and those who use alcohol, according to race 

 lines, even in countries where the facilities of obtaining the one or the other are 

 precisely similar. In the east of India I found that the consumption of opium in 

 -the various districts was just in proportion as a Turanian or Chinese element 

 prevailed in the population. The Aryan races of India never take to opium in a 

 very great degree, except in the case of the Sikhs, whose religion prohibits the use 

 of tobacco. Even in the districts where the poppy is almost universally cultivated 

 by the ryots (and they supply the opium which the Chinese consume), it is a 

 happy fact that the native population does not take to the common use of opium ; 

 and there are no greater symptoms of the ill effects of the drug than in districts 

 where it is very rare and dear — far less so than in districts where the cultivation 

 is not permitted, but where there is an Indo-Chinese population. I cannot but 

 think that such race proclivities open up an important field of inquiry.' 



Amongst papers that were read at Glasgow, a high place must be given to 

 a most careful one by Professor Jack, ' On the Results of Five Years of Compulsory 

 Education.' 



Lord Fortesoue, in his address at Plymouth, in 1877, dwelt much on the 



