186 REPORT—1874. 
unaided growth of self-reliance and self-assertion, which has so distinguished this 
community amongst the cities of the empire. 
It was not strange that, with such antecedents, Belfast should haye early moved 
in the new path of statistical inquiry; and accordingly, long before the meeting 
to which I have alluded, it had established a Social Inquiry Society for the con- 
sideration of “Statistics, Political Economy, and Jurisprudence,” which, in some 
articulars, remarkably anticipated the Social Science Association, and was, whilst 
it existed, very useful and efficient. And thus it came to pass that not the least 
distinguished of those who, in 1852, discussed’ the subjects peculiar to this section, 
in able papers, were inhabitants of Belfast, some still living and some departed, 
who well maintained the intellectual reputation of their town. Subsequently, the 
Social Inquiry Society merged in the larger combination represented by the Statis- 
tical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland, which has laboured, and continues to 
labour, in the metropolis, with great and increasing success. It has dealt, in its 
published transactions, with almost every important economic question of the time, 
and has acted beneficially, by suggestion ad argument, on the Irish legislation of 
later days. 
It ti operated, also, in spreading economic knowledge through the organization 
of the Barrington Lectureships on Political Economy, which were founded by the 
munificence of a citizen of Dublin, and through which competent teachers afford 
the opportunity of instruction in the principles of the Science to the various towns 
of Ireland. But although the capital of the Ulster Province has thus allowed its 
local society to be absorbed in one which is national, the spirit which originated 
both continues to prevail in Belfast ; and it will gratify the members of this section 
to learn that, in the month of January -ast, a committee was formed to establish 
classes for the systematic teaching of Political Economy chiefly to young men 
engaged in mercantile pursuits. That committee is composed of the Chief Magis- 
trate of the town (to whose intelligence, energy, and affluent liberality, I am not 
surprised to learn, the British Association is largely indebted), many of its leading 
merchants and professional men, and several eminent professors of the Queen’s 
College. They were fortunate in obtaining the services of a highly informed 
economist ; and the experiment has, so far, proved very satisfactory. The number 
of students on the roll has been 55,—3 of them alumni of the Queen’s College, 
7 apprentices of solicitors, and 45 engaged in commercial business. The average 
of attendance on the classes has been from 40 to 50, The committee may well Fa 
congratulated on the result of their novel and excellent effort, and the probable 
influence, in other communities, of the example they have given. Already it has 
been imitated in Dublin; a class of young mercantile men has been formed in the 
metropolis for a similar purpose; and there is no reason why others should not 
compete with it there aot in the provincial towns. 
In connexion with this matter, I may mention that very recently a consider- 
able portion of the Barrington Fund has been devoted to the instruction in 
Political Economy of schoolmasters, who are examined in its principles under the 
direction of the Barrington Lecture Committee of the Statistical Society; and 
at an examination held on the 12th of May last, 13 of them obtained di- 
stinctions and certificates, The importance of such a movement I need not dwell 
upon. It was anticipated by Archbishop Whately in the preparation of his 
‘asy Lessons on Money Matters’ and other books; and I find that the Labour 
and Capital Committee of the Social Science. Association have endeavoured to 
induce the Educational Committee of the Privy Council in England to promote 
the teaching of economics in schools under its inspection, and have urged the im- 
portance of such teaching on the Lord President, for reasons which, in the painful 
circumstances existing around us, may not unprofitably be repeated here. They 
declared their strong conviction “that the hostility between Labour and Capital, 
arising from an erroneous belief that the interests of workpeople and their em- 
ployers, and of tenants and Jandlords, are opposed to each a aha belief leading, 
in manufactures, to attempts to oppose harrowing restrictions regarding rates of 
wages, hours of labour, piece work, number of apprentices, and the use of machinery ; 
and, in agriculture, to attempts to dictate the amount of work to be exacted and 
the selection of tenants; and leading, in its further stages, to strikes, lock-outs, 
rattenings, and threats of personal violence, and ultimately, in many cases, to 
