deserve the fullest recognition on the part of those who have its welfare at heart.

The following are the objects of the Association as officially set forth in a condensed statement originally drawn up by the Provisional Committee of 1857, and which, with some additions subsequently made by the Council, now clearly indicates the scope and design of our work :

The Association is established to aid the development of Social Science, to spread a knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence, and to guide the public mind to the best practical means of promoting amendment of the law, the advancement of education, the prevention and repression of crime, the reformation of criminals, the adoption of sanitary regulations, the diffusion of sound principles on questions of economy and trade, and the cultivation of a high standard of taste in all ranks of the nation. The Association aims to bring together the various societies and individuals who are engaged or interested in furthering these objects; and, without trenching upon independent exertions, seeks to elicit by discussion the real elements of truth, to clear up doubts, to harmonise discordant opinions, and to afford a common ground for the interchange of trustworthy information on the great social problems of the day.

The business of the Association is conducted by a Council, an Executive Committee, and Stand

36

Terms of Membership.

ing Committees for the Departments. The constitution of the Council is fully set forth in Law XI., and the members composing it for the current year will be found in one of the Appendices.1

We conclude this chapterby inserting here the terms of membership and subscription :

ORDINARY MEMBERSHIP.-Any person becomes a Member of the Association by subscribing One Guinea annually, or Ten Guineas as a Life Payment. Every Member is entitled to attend the Annual Congress of the Association, and to receive a copy of its Transactions.

FULL MEMBERSHIP.-Any Member subscribing an additional sum of One Guinea annually, or an additional Life Payment of Ten Guineas, is also entitled to attend the Evening Meetings held in London during the Session, to receive a copy of the Sessional Proceedings which contain the publications connected therewith, and to make use of the Library at the Office of the Association. The names of intending full members are submitted for approval to the Executive Committee.

CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP.-Any Public Body, such as a learned Society, a Chamber of Commerce, a Mechanics' Institute, &c., becomes a Corporate Member, by paying an Annual Subscription of Two Guineas. Every Corporate Member receives (without further payment) a copy of the Transactions, and may nominate two representatives to attend the Meetings of the Association.

1 See Appendix D.

E purpose now to cast our retrospective. glance at the labours of the Association,

and to indicate in the following Narrative the methods by which many practical and beneficial results have been achieved. In doing so, the object of this Manual will be best attained by recording those labours and their results in the briefest form consistent with a full appreciation of the great extent of ground it will be necessary to travel over. The Association being divided into Departments, it is proposed to take these in their natural order, and to examine separately, and in chronological sequence, the investigations and labours undertaken under the auspices of each division. And while the whole will then be useful as an index

38

Chief Aim of the Association.

or guide for those who may be disposed to pursue investigation further, it will not be less valuable as a key to the problem so often propounded-What has the Association done? Its chief aim has been and is, of course, to exert influence on the formation of public opinion, to

spread a belief in the truths of Social Science, and to stimulate inquiry into the facts on which these are founded. . . . . . Our meetings have brought together men who had hitherto held aloof from each other, each intent on his own pursuits, and absorbed in his peculiar ideas. In the atmosphere of free discussion, in the exchange of information on social facts, in the debate of principles, and the collision of opinion, such men discover cach other's excellences and acquirements, and shake off in a day the prejudice of years. This liberalising influence is not a quality which can be accurately estimated; it cannot be described in figures, or measured by a rule; it is not the less real and potential; its existence is known and appreciated best by some who have been most constantly among us, and who have felt in their own experience the benefits of this commerce of minds. Nor must we overlook the effect produced by our Meetings in the towns we have visited. A higher tone of municipal government, a more active attention to sanitary and other civic duties, an impulse given to efforts for the prevention of evil, and the spread of practical improvements, have been the monuments reared by the Association of its

brief but busy presence. In each town we have left behind a body of men animated with the desire to carry out the ideas they have received, who become in their turn the source of fresh knowledge to others. Such results are a not unworthy recompense for the generous welcome that has always been given to our body.1

The following Narrative, or key, will convey to the mind a definite and a clear conception of the actual services which the labours of this Association have rendered to the legislature. British legislation is peculiarly experimental and gradual in its progress. It almost always follows public opinion rarely does it go before it. And so in the archives of our Association, in storehouses garnered with a wealth of knowledge and information which have stereotyped the process of the formation of no small part of that public opinion, there will be found the fruitful germs of much useful legislation—a crop, the seeds for which have not infrequently been sown by zealous and earnest workers in those different parts of the Empire where we have met together for the purpose of discussing the great problems of Social Science.

Introduction to the Transactions for 1861, by G. W.

Hastings.