850 REPORT— 1893. 



reliance, dependence, and obedience. In the matter of pauperism, for example, 

 they teach us to distinguish between the immediate effects of relief •which may 

 be beneficial, and the effects of reliance on that relief which may be disastrous. 

 They are bold enough to maintain that the condition of life of the dependent 

 pauper should not be made by aids and allowances better than that of the inde- 

 pendent labourer. They insist on the great historical distinction between the 

 sturdy rogues and vagabonds — who can work and will not — and the impotent 

 poor, the poor in very deed, who cannot support themselves. They look upon 

 the payment of poor rates as they look upon other forms of taxation, namely, aa 

 the lesser of two evils ; they do not try to persuade themselves and other people 

 that it is a duty which is essentially pleasant. And I confess that I never 

 yet met a man who had the audacity to assert that he enjoyed paying poor rates. 

 But I have known many men who have given of their substance to a far greater extent 

 with a cheerful spirit. It is the compulsion that sticks in the throat, and there is 

 no more instructive chapter in economic history than that which describes the 

 slow, painful processes by which Englishmen gradually adopted compulsory assess- 

 ment for the relief of the poor. I shall be told that these old economic doctrines 

 are cold and hard and opposed to the principles of Christian charity. The retort is 

 easy : If Christian charity realised a tithe of its ideal there would be no need for 

 relief on the part of the State. If I, too, may quote Scripture for my purpose I 

 would say : Go to the ant, thou sluggard ! It does not take ten ants to relieve 

 another ant, and in this land of ours there are more than ten professed Christians 

 to every pauper. 



It is time, however, to bring this discourse to an end and not to begin a sermon ; 

 •which, moreover, according to my masters the old economists, is beyond our 

 domain. Yet I shall be bold enough to end -with these words of advice: To the 

 student I would say : Political economy has a vast literature, and you will not 

 find all the good concentrated in the last marginal increment; you must master 

 the old before you can appreciate the new; a portion of truth just rediscovered 

 for the hundredth time by some amateur is not of such value as a body of 

 doctrines that have been developed for more than a century by economists of repute. 

 And to the legislator I would say : Vaster than the literature of political economy 

 is the economic experience of nations ; the lessons to be learned from the multi- 

 tudinous experiments of the past can never become antiquated, for they have 

 revealed certain broad features of human character that you can no more disregard 

 than the vital functions of the human body. Just as Harvey did not invent but 

 discovered the circulation of the blood, so Adam Smith did not invent but dis- 

 covered the system of natural liberty. And nothing has been better established 

 than the position that legislation which neglects to take account of the liberties of 

 individuals is foredoomed to failure. If they cannot break through the law they 

 ■will get behind the law. The first duty of the legislator is to take account of the 

 natural forces with which he must contend, and the classical economists have made 

 a survey and estimate of these forces which, based as it is on the facts of human 

 nature and the experience of nations, it would be wilful folly to overlook. 



The following Reports and Papers were read : — 



1. Eeport an the Teaching of Science in Elementary Schools. 

 See Reports, p. 566. 



2. Report on the Methods of Economic Training adopted in this and other 

 Countries.— ^ee Reports, p. 571. 



