58 
THE PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY. 
Mar., 1890. 
argument was without doubt open to cavil, yet I could not 
help recognising that it was an argument just as good as 
many which are used for the support of some of our most 
cherished institutions.* 
Another field for sociological investigation is suggested by 
the history of our own town—its rise and progress, and the 
social and political tendencies which are still in course of 
development. The fertile soil of the Triassic and Permian 
plains, and the mineral riches of the Black Country will have 
to be taken into consideration as the essential elements of our 
industrial prosperity. The manner in which this prosperity 
has stimulated the growth of the village into a small town, 
the small town into a great city, must be traced out, and the 
social revolution—for it is nothing less—caused by the inven¬ 
tion and general use of machinery, by the factory system, by 
the present rapid communication between all parts of the 
kingdom, and indeed all parts of the civilised world, must be 
sketched in its general outline, and more minutely delineated 
in its local features. Last, not least, we must study that great 
democratic movement which began at the end of the eighteenth 
century, and which, changing its form again and again, and 
gaining force with every change, is ready at the end of the 
nineteenth centurv for still further transformations. With 
«/ 
these data and inductions we mav reach an intelligent com- 
prehension of the strange metamorphosis which Birmingham 
has undergone within the last 140 years. In Dr. Langford’s 
admirable “ Century of Birmingham Life,” we read the 
following curious account of Birmingham society in 1751 as 
gleaned from the local journals of that date:—He says that 
apparently “ there were scarcely any events of a public nature 
worth recording.All, or almost all, the public 
demonstrations are made on the celebration of some Royal 
birthday, or the arrival of the King from Hanover. . . . 
The allusions to anything like local public life as we under¬ 
stand it now are of the rarest occurrence. No police reports, 
no public meetings, no charitable appeals, no literature, no 
popular educational institutions, no popular lectures, no 
libraries, no newsrooms, no penny readings, no board of 
guardians, no town council, no debates of local senates, no 
orations of local senators to read, no leading articles, for 
there were no local events about which to write” (and I may 
add no Mason College, no Natural History and Microscopical 
* While speaking of India, I may take the opportunity of saying 
that Mr. Spencer’s works are known and appreciated among the more 
highly educated of the native gentlemen. 
