410 Proceedings. 



for my present ptirpose to observe that there is nothing inconceivable or absurd 

 in the supposition that^ the laws which regulate the action of electricity on the 

 earth in other countries are here inoperative, or superseded by other laws, 

 so as to produce a different i-esnlt. But this is a question which, as a mere 

 question of abstract science, requires further investigation ; it is one also of 

 very great practical importance. If it be indeed true that the conditions under 

 which electricity exists here, that the influence which it exerts on the earth 

 here is different from that which it exerts elsewhere — then some of the most 

 important of our industrial occupations must be, to a greater or less extent, 

 affected by the difference. That electricity is a most powerful agent in the 

 material world is a well-established fact. No one doubts that it performs a 

 distinguished part in the economy of our atmosphere, and there is every reason 

 to suppose that its action is still more general — that it exercises an influence 

 almost universal over the laws of oi'ganic matter as well as over the functions 

 of organic life. Now, it is not unreasonable to suppose that, in a countiy 

 where the earth, instead of dispersing, resists electricity, the existence of this 

 anomaly would be felt in numberless ways, and necessitate numberless 

 modifications of ordinary practice. As a matter of fact, from whatever cause 

 this may arise, I think it is acknowledged, for instance, that many kinds of 

 plants when grown here lose some of those properties which they possessed in 

 England. 



Animal life, again — in our sheep, our horses, our cattle, and our dogs — 

 appears to undergo very considerable modifications. So it is with our social 

 and political life. The most superficial observer can perceive that the questions 

 with which we have to deal here are not identical, either in form or in 

 substance, with those which agitate other communities. Thus it is that we 

 have here special problems to solve, which none can solve so satisfactorily as 

 ourselves. In the solution of these we must trust to our own efforts, and not 

 lean upon foreign learning and foreign aid. We have greater facilities than 

 others for performing the task allotted to us, because we have better 

 opportunities for observation. We can examine into the object of enquiry on 

 the spot, in its native locality ; we have before our eyes all the circumstances 

 by which it may be affected, and we have facilities, not enjoyed by others, for 

 daily and hourly observation of any changes which may take place. Othei-s at 

 a distance can gain this knowledge only at second hand, and can have no 

 certain means of testing and verifying the information so received. Any 

 observations which may be made hexe, and any new truths which those 

 observations may establish, become then no longer of local importance, but 

 are new lights thrown upon the universal science of the world, because they 

 indicate the circumstances more minutely upon which the results obtained 

 depend. Our means and ai)pliances for study in both these directions — the 



