1906-7. TRANSACTIONS. 79 



electors is one of the modern criminal offences. Crimes are those 

 anti-social acts which are consciously condemned by society; 

 and acts once thought innocent rise to the category of crime 

 through slow perception of their obnoxious character, and tardy 

 conviction of the necessity for their punishment. Go back no 

 further than the time of Walpole, when not merely, or principally, 

 voters were bribed; when constituencies, like houses, had owners 

 who sold them to the highest bidders, who in their turn sold them- 

 selves to the government of the day; and when all this and much 

 more (a) was done without shame or thought of blush — go back 

 a century and it is undeniable that defective as is our present day 

 condemnation of political immorality, our detestation of former 

 species of it is certain and satisfactory. 



And let me excuse the churches too. Their present sins are 

 of recent origin, and the parsons are staggering not from bad f^-ith 

 or thought of flagitious deception; but simply because they 

 have not yet quite fitted themselves to their new surroundings. 

 And while criticizing the clergy as we sometimes do (and healthy 

 criticism is good for everybody) let us never forget the vastness 

 of the debt that humanity owes to those noblest of men. Let us 

 remember that the churches are the only organizations that we 

 have, whose mission and purpose it is to combat vice and im- 

 moralit}^, and mere selfishness, and worldliness. Differing with 

 their theology as some of us do, no one can be absurd enough not 

 to acknowledge their magnificent and indispensable services to 

 society, in their never-ending charities, and sympathies, and 

 kindnesses. If Christ were upon earth to-day, he would say to the 

 clergy as he did to his earliest disciples, "Ye are the salt of the 

 earth, " and I think that they are reasonably careful of their savor. 



I recognize too the antimony presented by the opposing 

 religions of enmity and amity. Mr. Lecky's last book is very 

 suggestive in this connection. His reflections lead him to say 

 that : — 



"The necessities for moral compromise I have traced in the 

 army, in the law, and in the fields of politics may be found in 

 another form not less conspicuous in the church" (b). 



. But I believe that Spencer is undoubtedly right when he 

 says that : — 



"Of these two religions taught us, we must constantly re- 



(a) Walpole's History of England, IV, 140, 208. 

 (6) "The Map of Life," p. 193. 



