250 
istic views was always preaching upon predestination, and holding the view 
that every single action was predestined from all eternity. A maid-servant 
in his house broke a favourite dish of his, and she excused herself by saying, 
“Well, sir, it was ordained from the beginning that I should break that 
dish.” (Laughter.) Whereupon the minister gave her a cuff on the ear, 
saying, “ Yes, and it was also ordained that I should box your ears for your 
carelessness.” (Laughter.) Then with regard to statistics. If men were 
actuated only by their motives and desires, marriage would be a constant 
quantity ; but we find that is not so. Marriages are few when money is 
scarce and wages low, and they are increased when there is an increase in 
the means of supporting life, and a prospective family. I was once a curate 
in a populous district in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, and there were 
at the time but very few funerals in the parish, and the sexton said it was 
owing to the fact that trade was bad. I asked him how that could be, and 
he told me in reply that when trade was good there were plenty of funerals, 
but when trade was bad and the people were comparatively starving, there 
were very few, because the people had not the means for intemperance. But 
the statistics with regard to murder, which must also refer to other crimes as 
well, must be founded on mere coincidence. At one time two or three men 
imperilled their lives in shooting at the Queen. Now, if that had gone on 
a little while longer, Mr. Buckle might have got you up statistics to show 
that there was a certain law impelling a certain number of men in a given 
time to shoot at the Sovereign. But the Legislature stopped it by providing 
that men should not be hung for such an offence, but should be well flogged 
and imprisoned, — and that stopped, it. Take another case. At one time 
the crime of wantonly destroying articles of great value in museums was very 
common, and a law was passed declaring that persons who offended in this 
respect should be well flogged. The crime was discontinued. The same 
thing has been observable in garrotting : — directly flogging was introduced, 
garrotting ceased. All this shows how absurd it is to generalize on statis- 
tics ; and it also shows what a powerful influence the human will, as we 
understand it in common parlance, has in directing the actions of man. 
Rev. C. A. Row. — In the discussion which has taken place my paper has 
not been seriously interfered with, and I shall say very little in reply. 
Mr. Warington fell into a misapprehension. I treated in my paper, not of 
the wilier se, but of the rational will. I would also call Mr. Warington’s 
attention to another thing. He quoted from the seventh chapter of the 
Epistle to the Romans, and he should bear in mind that in that same chapter 
St. Paul says, “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelletk 
in me.” In treating this question of the will, Mr. Warington took his own 
instance — the case of opening a book, which depended on the lowest motives 
of the human mind. I should rather have wished him to illustrate the 
matter by some of the higher motives of the mind. I cannot conceive how, 
according to his theory, any person can resist a temptation at ail. (Hear, 
hear) 
The Meeting was then adjourned. 
