CHAPTER II.

CONSTITUTION OF THE ASSOCIATION.

HE present constitution of the Association dates from the year 1864, when the order of the Departments was modified, and their number reduced to four. From the foundation of the Association to the end of the year 1860, the designation of the Departments had been as follows:

I. Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law. II. Education.

III. Punishment and Reformation.

IV. Public Health.

V. Social Economy.

During the years 1861, 1862, and 1863, a sixth Department for 'Trade and International Law” was added. But at the close of the year 1863, the General and Foreign Secretaries (Mr. Hastingsand Mr. Westlake) were requested 'to consider and

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report to the Council whether any and what alterations are desirable in the designation and business of the Departments.' The results of their inquiries and deliberations were presented to and adopted by the Council on February 26, 1864, when the Committee of reference brought up the following Report :

The two branches of the reference are distinct, and we have dealt with them separately.

I. The fundamental conception of the Association was that of a united body dealing with the science of society as a whole, but divided, for purposes of practical utility, into so many divisions as would answer to the leading branches of that science. The style of 'Departments,' rather than 'Sections,' was proposed for these divisions, to show that they were intended, not to be mere temporary adjustments, but to form a true and exhaustive nomenclature of the permanent heads of Social Science. It was supposed from the first that it might become expedient from time to time to divide more than one of the Departments into Sections, which might be accommodated with separate rooms at the Annual Meetings, and have the benefit of separate secretaries and committees. But it was also an essential element of the original idea that the division into Departments should be scientific, and therefore exhaustive and final, and that any further development should take place by subdivision, and not by anomalous additions.

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The Departments into which it was thus proposed to divide the Association were five, as follow :

First, JURISPRUDENCE; including the principles of law and legislation, comparative jurisprudence, international law, municipal civil law, and criminal law.

Second, EDUCATION; or the training of the young of all classes for the full duties of citizenship, whether in their moral, intellectual, or physical faculties.

Third, HEALTH; or the science of the laws of life and bodily welfare.

Fourth, ECONOMY; including all that relates to the production and distribution of national wealth, the trade, and material prosperity of a State.

Fifth, ART; or the aesthetic recreative life of the people.

The above seem to exhaust the entire conditions of society. . . . . . We are of opinion that the original plan of the Departments, if not in its entirety, at least as far as is practicable, should be at once carried out; and we believe that the difficulties that may be suggested in the way of its adoption could be overcome, partly by the help of Sections in aid of the more crowded Departments, and partly by some readjustment of the subjects embraced under each.

We think that the First Department should reassume permanently its original title of 'Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law'-a recommendation which is made in view of the negotiations now pending between the Association and the Law Amendment Society.

We think that the Department should embrace that

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portion of the present Third Department which relates to the administration of the Criminal Law and the Treatment of Criminals, and also that portion of the present Sixth Department which relates to International and Commercial Law. Keeping in view the amount of work hitherto done in the Department, we are of opinion that this latter subject would not need a separate Section, but that it might be advisable to add a third Secretary especially qualified to deal with public law.

The Criminal Law, we think, should have at first a separate Section, with a Vice-President, and Secretary of the Department peculiarly versed in its questions; but whether the Section would be needed at every Annual Meeting, and whether its Vice-President should deliver an Address, would be matters for arrangement from time to time. The same method may be adopted, whenever necessary, in regard to the International Law branch of the Department.

The Education Department should remain as at present, with the addition of any questions, such as those of Ragged Schools, which have been appropriated by the Third Department, but are manifestly educational in their nature; and also of a separate Section hereinafter recommended.

The Department of Punishment and Reformation, if the foregoing recommendations are adopted, will cease to exist. Its abolition was proposed some time since, and would, we think, be justified by the decrease in its legitimate business which has already taken place, and

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may be expected to continue, now that the prominent questions relating to the treatment of prisoners, whether adult or juvenile, are either solved, or in process of solution.

To the present Fourth, or as it would become the Third, Department, that of Health, we should add all the questions relative to Habitation, and some miscellaneous topics, such as Baths and Washhouses, and most of those of Recreation and Amusement, which have been taken up by the present Fifth Department.

That Department, which would now become the Fourth in order, we propose to term the 'Department of Political Economy and Trade.' To it should be referred all the questions on Production and Trade, which are now sent to the Sixth Department; and we believe that if it be relieved from the multitude of heterogeneous questions which have been thrust upon it, perhaps unavoidably, the future Fourth Department would be able to dispose of its business without any necessity for the frequent aid of a Section. But, if thought advisable, it would be easy to organise a Section for Trade, on the same plan as that proposed for Criminal Law in the First Department.

We believe that the time has come when an experiment may be tried with advantage to the Association, with a view to the establishment of a Department for Art, or for Art and Literature; which would ultimately form the Fifth in number on our programme. This experiment we recommend to be made by organising at