726 REPORT— 1894. 



joint parts of a comprehensive whole. Some excuse may of course be made. 

 Political economy had really some advantages which enabled it to develop more 

 rapidly ; it dealt with material interest when measurement was often possible, 

 and its conclusions allowed of readier verification. It was, in fact, the first branch of 

 social science that came under scientific treatment, and its earlier fruits were 

 important enough to justify some pride on the part of those responsible for 

 them. But this relative superiority seems to be steadily diminishing. Other, and 

 for a time neglected, departments are freeing themselves from the confusion that 

 surrounded their infancy, while the latest developments of economics tend to 

 reduce the claim to peculiar rigour made in its behalf. But at any time 

 the distinction was injurious. By presenting to the public a small and strictly 

 enclosed section of social life as the sole part that admitted of scientific treatment 

 it weakened both what it exalted and what it debased. Economics became 

 henceforth something that had to be tacked on to any other subject or subjects as 

 present convenience happened to dictate. Its true place and the various additions 

 needed to give it consistency were altogether forgotten or ignored, until the study 

 fell into serious discredit, from which it has only partially recovered. The true 

 remedy is to be found in the combination of the several social sciences, together 

 with the exchision of everything that is extraneous. The extent to wliich this 

 course will facilitate the progress of social studies may be in some degree con- 

 ceived by considering the real unity of the field in which they work, and also the 

 tastes and dispositions of those who make them a leading pui-suit. 



The economist, the jurist, and the political philosopher are in the main engaged 

 in examining the same phenomena, but from difierent points of view. A particular 

 system of land tenure, a peculiar organisation of classes, even currency or banking 

 regulations, have to be studied on their juristic and political as well as their 

 economic side. In each case there are special features which demand most atten- 

 tion, but it is well to be able to appreciate the other and, for the purpose, less im- 

 portant aspects. Nothing will bring this truth more forcibly home to us than the 

 ease with which the limits can be passed. When we see that much of Sir H. 

 Maine's writing is really economic, that J. S. Mill in parts of his ' Principles ' is deal- 

 ing with juridical questions, we feel the closeness of the connexion and the evil of 

 separation. * 



From this necessity of dealing with a common material arises the disposition 

 on the part of economists to pass on to politics and jurisprudence. From the 

 time of Adam Smith to the present day there has been no lack of distinguished 

 examples. The two Mills, Cairnes, Bagehot, Leslie, Hearn — to give but a few 

 names — have made contributions to political and jural science little inferior to tlieir 

 services to economics. In our day have we not Professor Sidgwick's ' Elements of 

 Politics ' as the natural and appropriate sequel to his ' Principles of Political 

 Economy ? ' So in Germany Roscher closed his academic career with a treatise on 

 ' Politics,' which forms a worthy companion to his great economic System. 



In the face of such impressive facts it is idle to maintain that economic science 

 should be kept in isolation or joined at haphazard with other studies. The educa- 

 tional treatment of the matter is primarily one for the universities, but this Asso- 

 ciation can at least set a good example, and it is the better able to do this because 

 it has always recognised statistics as an equal subject with ' economic science,' 

 which in fact came in at a later time (1856). Now, as Senior allows, ' the science 

 of statistics is far wider as to its subject-matter. It applies to all phenomena Avhich 

 can be counted and recorded.' - There is, he thinks, no limit to the objects to be 

 included, provided that neither approval nor censure was expressed. Thus regarded, 

 statistics is the handmaid of all the social sciences, and by releasing its votaries 

 from this perpetual drudgery and allowing them to ' thresh out ' a little of what 

 they have gathered we may at once obtain a right constitution for this section as 

 engaged in ' statistical and social inquiry.' 



The reasons in favour of adopting an organisation of wider scope are strengthened 



' See Maine, Village Communities, Lecture VI., and Early Institutions, Lectures 

 V. and VI. ; MiU, Principles, Book II., chap. ii. ; Book V., chaps, viii. and ix. 

 ^ Brit. Assoc. Report, 1860, Trans., p. 183. 



