paralysing to the energies of all save the noblest souls. Therefore we repudiate all imaginary connexion between it and social science, and maintain that though it is the office of such science to supply the experimental basis of facts on which the moral law is to take effect, yet it appeals for its impulse of duty and its divine sanction to a very different principle, namely, to "the law written on the hearts" of all men, whether Jew or Gentile,

"The unwritten law Divine,

tion and encouragement each from each, and are further immensely aided in carrying out their special tasks by acquaintance with all others similarly engaged in the kingdom, whose work and their own henceforth proceed with mutual co-operation.

3. Persons not hitherto occupied in practical philanthropy acquire an interest in one or other branch of the subject, and thenceforth give their influence, time, or money to the cause.

terday,

But made ere time began." 1

The province then of Social Science, as we would understand it, is simple enough. At the present stage our task is nearly the same as that which Bacon commenced for physical science in the Novum Organon. In the first place a vast accumulation of facts and observations, statistics and experiments, need to be gathered and constated. Then out of these, gradually, by induction, larger generalizations will be reached, one principle after another will be ascertained, and the laws regulating public health, crime, pauperism, &c., I will be discovered. It is obviously impossible at first to know where exactly to look for the more important facts, and to choose among those presented to us only such as may be of permanent value. We must be content to act like a geologist at a quarry, and be satisfied though the workmen bring many worthless stones along with some precious fossils, out of which, by and by, may be framed a form of life and beauty all unseen hitherto by mortal eyes. The general benefits of the whole scheme may be summed up as follows. Of the particular practical achievements we will speak by and by.

1. The science itself is advanced by the accumulation, comparison, and verification of the discoveries of the leading students year by year, the facts they have noted, and the experiments they have made.

2. Individual students receive instruc

4. The Legislature receives with respect have made these matters their study, because they are now presented, not as isolated views of individuals, but as the deliberate resolutions of a large and respectable body of thinkers and workers.

In a word, the principle of associated action, whose adoption Channing so well described as one of the most distinguishing characteristics of our century, and one of the most powerful of future agencies in the world, is now applied to the promotion, not merely of war, nor commerce, nor the abstruse controversies of theology; not merely to the advancement of physical or mathematical science, of arts, or of literature; but directly and immediately to the promotion of the virtue and happiness of the human race. Social Science aims to embrace every department of the vast field wherein must be waged the warfare of Ormuzd against Ahrimanes, virtue against vice, innocence against crime, health against disease, knowledge against ignorance, peace against war, industry against pauperism, and woman against the degradation of her sex. No wonder that the mockers sneer at the immensity of the undertaking, as they did when the education of the poor was attempted twenty years ago, and the jest ran on the efforts to convey the "rudiments of omniscience" through a penny magazine. It is a gigantic science, that of the laws which govern human society. It is an enterprise almost hopeless in its magnitude, to attempt to cope with the sin and misery of the world, and, like Kehama, storm the citadel of evil on all

lon."

He who would say that the labours of twenty such associations in a dozen years could actually accomplish any one department of the task, would "talk Utopian;" but not the less must we wish God-speed to a plan which promises to do more than a thousand isolated workers have done or could do in centuries.

The first beginning of the Social Science congresses may be traced to a small meeting of persons interested in the reformatory movement, at Hardwick Court, in Gloucestershire, the seat of Mr. Barwick Baker, in the autumn of 1855. Before separating on this occasion, the members of the meeting formed themselves into a society, under the name of the National Reformatory Union.

In August, 1856, the society held at Bristol its first provincial meeting; which, in all respects, resembled those of the present congresses, except that subjects connected with crime and reformation were the only ones discussed in the sections. The extended interest excited by the proceedings of this provincial meeting suggested naturally that a still wider field of discussion should be opened. At the next assemblage, at Birmingham, in October, 1857, the "National Reformatory Union" merged in the " Association for the Promotion of Social Science," under the auspices of Lord Brougham. The second congress of the new society took place in Liverpool, in 1858, the third at Bradford, in 1859, the fourth at Glasgow, in 1860, and the fifth and last in Dublin, in 1861. On each occasion, the numbers both of speakers and audience at the meetings have shown a large increase, till the congresses have assumed their present proportions, and the vast halls of the Dublin Four Courts were not more than sufficient to contain the throngs of members and associates.

It may now be fitly asked, What work has been done by this new and gigantic machine? The answer is not far to seek. Of course a large share of

be

indicated, and which cannot be reduced to definite statements, although we may form some judgment of their magnitude by the rise in the barometer of public opinion on all matters connected with the objects of the Association when treated by the press. It is a very few years ago since the Morning Post gave it as its opinion that one of the ablest heads in England was unquestionably cracked, because the owner stood foremost among the advocates for the reformation of juvenile criminals. We should rather surprised in 1861, to find the labours of the Recorder of Birmingham thus treated even in journals remarkable for antiquity, both of date and of sentiment. A tone of contemptuous compassion was generally adopted by those "whose charity outran their discretion," and who believed that their fellow-creatures might be reclaimed from crime and pauperism. As to the lower class of journals, they merely sneered and jested, and hinted at the vanity and love of notoriety which are well known to underlie all philanthropy. Perhaps we have some vestiges of this bygone folly in some quarters yet; but the general tone is immensely altered. Those who first rowed hard against the stream of public feeling now find it carrying them forward with its tide.

But the Social Science Association does not lack specific achievements to allege in its own behalf, as well as general utility. In the first place, the whole legislation of the last few years on the subject of crime has been importantly influenced by its action. This last summer, in Dublin, the greatest achievement of all has been accomplished by the public recognition of Captain Crofton's Intermediate Convict System, as the only one which has ever successfully coped in this country with the problem of reforming adult criminals, and the consequent re-establishment of its founder in the post which he was on the point of quitting, in despair, to the probable ruin of his undertaking. Not only for Ireland is this beneficent plan

paralysing to the energies of all save the noblest souls. Therefore we repudiate all imaginary connexion between it and social science, and maintain that though it is the office of such science to supply the experimental basis of facts on which the moral law is to take effect, yet it appeals for its impulse of duty and its divine sanction to a very different principle, namely, to "the law written on the hearts" of all men, whether Jew or Gentile,

"The unwritten law Divine, Immutable, eternal, not like these of yesterday,

But made ere time began."

The province then of Social Science, as we would understand it, is simple enough. At the present stage our task is nearly the same as that which Bacon commenced for physical science in the Novum Organon. In the first place a vast accumulation of facts and observations, statistics and experiments, need to be gathered and constated. Then out of these, gradually, by induction, larger generalizations will be reached, one principle after another will be ascertained, and the laws regulating public health, crime, pauperism, &c., will be discovered. It is obviously impossible at first to know where exactly to look for the more important facts, and to choose among those presented to us only such as may be of permanent value. We must be content to act like a geologist at a quarry, and be satisfied though the workmen bring many worthless stones along with some precious fossils, out of which, by and by, may be framed a form of life and beauty all unseen hitherto by mortal eyes. The general benefits of the whole scheme may be summed up as follows. Of the particular practical achievements we will speak by and by.

1. The science itself is advanced by the accumulation, comparison, and verification of the discoveries of the leading students year by year, the facts they have noted, and the experiments they have made.

2. Individual students receive instruc

tion and encouragement each from each, and are further immensely aided in carrying out their special tasks by acquaintance with all others similarly engaged in the kingdom, whose work and their own henceforth proceed with mutual co-operation.

3. Persons not hitherto occupied in practical philanthropy acquire an interest in one or other branch of the subject, and thenceforth give their influence, time, or money to the cause.

4. The Legislature receives with respect the opinions and advice of those who have made these matters their study, because they are now presented, not as isolated views of individuals, but as the deliberate resolutions of a large and respectable body of thinkers and workers.

In a word, the principle of associated action, whose adoption Channing so well described as one of the most distinguishing characteristics of our century, and one of the most powerful of future agencies in the world, is now applied to the promotion, not merely of war, nor commerce, nor the abstruse controversies of theology; not merely to the advancement of physical or mathematical science, of arts, or of literature; but directly and immediately to the promotion of the virtue and happiness of the human race. Social Science aims to embrace every department of the vast field wherein must be waged the warfare of Ormuzd against Ahrimanes, virtue against vice, innocence against crime, health against disease, knowledge against ignorance, peace against war, industry against pauperism, and woman against the degradation of her sex. No wonder that the mockers sneer at the immensity of the undertaking, as they did when the education of the poor was attempted twenty years ago, and the jest ran on the efforts to convey the "rudiments of omniscience" through a penny magazine. It is a gigantic science, that of the laws which govern human society. It is an enterprise almost hopeless in its magnitude, to attempt to cope with the sin and misery of the world, and, like Kehama, storm the citadel of evil on all

"Self-multiplied, down all the roads of Padalon."

He who would say that the labours of twenty such associations in a dozen years could actually accomplish any one department of the task, would "talk Utopian ;" but not the less must we wish God-speed to a plan which promises to do more than a thousand isolated workers have done or could do in centuries.

The first beginning of the Social Science congresses may be traced to a small meeting of persons interested in the reformatory movement, at Hardwick Court, in Gloucestershire, the seat of Mr. Barwick Baker, in the autumn of 1855. Before separating on this occasion, the members of the meeting formed themselves into a society, under the name of the National Reformatory Union.

In August, 1856, the society held at Bristol its first provincial meeting; which, in all respects, resembled those of the present congresses, except that subjects connected with crime and reformation were the only ones discussed in the sections. The extended interest excited by the proceedings of this provincial meeting suggested naturally that a still wider field of discussion should be opened. At the next assemblage, at Birmingham, in October, 1857, the "National Reformatory Union" merged in the "Association for the Promotion of Social Science," under the auspices of Lord Brougham. The second congress of the new society took place in Liverpool, in 1858, the third at Bradford, in 1859, the fourth at Glasgow, in 1860, and the fifth and last in Dublin, in 1861. On each occasion, the numbers both of speakers and audience at the meetings have shown a large increase, till the congresses have assumed their present proportions, and the vast halls of the Dublin Four Courts were not more than sufficient to contain the throngs of members and associates.

It may now be fitly asked, What work has been done by this new and gigantic machine? The answer is not far to seek. Of course a large share of

be

general kinds which we have already indicated, and which cannot be reduced to definite statements, although we may form some judgment of their magnitude by the rise in the barometer of public opinion on all matters connected with the objects of the Association when treated by the press. It is a very few years ago since the Morning Post gave it as its opinion that one of the ablest heads in England was unquestionably cracked, because the owner stood foremost among the advocates for the reformation of juvenile criminals. We should rather surprised in 1861, to find the labours of the Recorder of Birmingham thus treated even in journals remarkable for antiquity, both of date and of sentiment. A tone of contemptuous compassion was generally adopted by those "whose charity outran their discretion," and who believed that their fellow-creatures might be reclaimed from crime and pauperism. As to the lower class of journals, they merely sneered and jested, and hinted at the vanity and love of notoriety which are well known to underlie all philanthropy. Perhaps we have some vestiges of this bygone folly in some quarters yet; but the general tone is immensely altered. Those who first rowed hard against the stream of public feeling now find it carrying them forward with its tide.

But the Social Science Association does not lack specific achievements to allege in its own behalf, as well as general utility. In the first place, the whole legislation of the last few years on the subject of crime has been importantly influenced by its action. This last summer, in Dublin, the greatest achievement of all has been accomplished by the public recognition of Captain Crofton's Intermediate Convict System, as the only one which has ever successfully coped in this country with the problem of reforming adult criminals, and the consequent re-establishment of its founder in the post which he was on the point of quitting, in despair, to the probable ruin of his undertaking. Not only for Ireland is this beneficent plan

paralysing to the energies of all save the noblest souls. Therefore we repudiate all imaginary connexion between it and social science, and maintain that though it is the office of such science to supply the experimental basis of facts on which the moral law is to take effect, yet it appeals for its impulse of duty and its divine sanction to a very different principle, namely, to "the law written on the hearts" of all men, whether Jew or Gentile,

"The unwritten law Divine, Immutable, eternal, not like these of yesterday,

But made ere time began."1

The province then of Social Science, as we would understand it, is simple enough. At the present stage our task is nearly the same as that which Bacon commenced for physical science in the Novum Organon. In the first place a vast accumulation of facts and observations, statistics and experiments, need to be gathered and constated. Then out of these, gradually, by induction, larger generalizations will be reached, one principle after another will be ascertained, and the laws regulating public health, crime, pauperism, &c., will be discovered. It is obviously impossible at first to know where exactly to look for the more important facts, and to choose among those presented to us only such as may be of permanent value. We must be content to act like a geologist at a quarry, and be satisfied though the workmen bring many worthless stones along with some precious fossils, out of which, by and by, may be framed a form of life and beauty all unseen hitherto by mortal eyes. The general benefits of the whole scheme may be summed up as follows. Of the particular practical achievements we will speak by and by.

1. The science itself is advanced by the accumulation, comparison, and verification of the discoveries of the leading students year by year, facts they have noted, and the eximents th have made.

2. Individual students

tion and encouragement each from each, and are further immensely aided in carrying out their special tasks by acquaintance with all others similarly engaged in the kingdom, whose work and their own henceforth proceed with mutual co-operation.

3. Persons not hitherto occupied in practical philanthropy acquire an interest in one or other branch of the subject, and thenceforth give their influence, time, or money to the cause.

4. The Legislature receives with respect the opinions and advice of those who have made these matters their study, because they are now presented, not as isolated views of individuals, but as the deliberate resolutions of a large and respectable body of thinkers and workers.

In a word, the principle of associated action, whose adoption Channing so well described as one of the most distinguishing characteristics of our century, and one of the most powerful of future agencies in the world, is now applied to the promotion, not merely of war, no commerce, nor the abstruse controversio of theology; not merely to the advance ment of physical or mathemation science, of arts, or of literature; be directly and immediately to the pro tion of the virtue and happiness of human race. Social Science f embrace every department of the field wherein must be waged the of Ormuzd against Ahrimane against vice, innocence again health against disease, knowle ignorance, pesca against wa against pauvism, A the degra that the to of the the ed twenty the