[BJE 
 
 Soci 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. SIR lYOM PL/GTAil?, 
 
 K,C,B., M-R. .U1/,D„ F,K.S. 
 
 j
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 MAY TREAT MORRISON 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 ALEXANDER F MORRISON
 
 SUBJECTS 
 
 Social Welfare.
 
 SUBJECTS 
 
 Social Welfare. 
 
 THE RIGHT HON. SH^ LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 K.C.B., M.P.. LL.D.. I'h.D., F.R.S, 
 
 5cconii iPIrition. 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited 
 
 LOxXDOX, PARIS, NEW YORK 5f MELBOURNE. 
 1889. 
 
 [all RIOHTS RliSEKVED.J
 
 HN 
 3?9 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The selected articles in this volume are confined to 
 subjects of social welfare. There is one exception 
 of a scientific character, in which an attempt is made 
 '^ to explain the causes of sleep. That paper was 
 I written many years ago, but it has required only a 
 few sentences to bring it up to the knowledge which 
 9, we now possess. The other articles are of a more 
 V recent date, and discuss subjects of national interest. 
 I have carefully revised them so as to adapt the 
 Z subject matter to the existing position of the im- 
 4 portant questions to which they relate. 
 
 i; LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 ^ 
 
 68, Onslow Gardens, 
 March, 1889. 
 
 429122
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Part I. 
 PUBLIC HEALTH 
 I.— On Public Hkai.ui 
 
 2 
 
 — Si-EEP AND ITS Concomitant Pheno.mi.na 
 
 — Vaccination 
 
 — Vivisection 
 
 — Disposal of thk Df.ad .... 
 
 6. — Inosculation ok the Akts and Sciences . 
 7. — Science and the State .... 
 
 3 
 43 
 65 
 
 82 
 
 96 
 
 Part II. 
 INDUSTRIAL WEALTH. 
 
 I. —Depression of Agriculture and Fair Trade . . 107 
 2. — Displacement of Labour by Invention . .126 
 3. — Industrial Competition and Com.mekcial Freedom 147 
 4,— The Effect of Protection on Wages . . .164 
 5.— On Bimetallism 183 
 
 8.— Peiroleum— THE Light of the Poor 
 
 196 
 225 
 263 
 
 Part III. 
 NATIONAL EDUCATION. 
 
 I.— Primary Education 277 
 
 2.— Technical Education 3°? 
 
 3._Teaching Universities and Exa.mining Boards . 337 
 
 ^—Universities and Professional Education 369
 
 PUBLIC Health. 
 
 1. ON PUBLIC HEALTH. 
 
 2. ON SLEEP AND ITS CONCOMITANT PHENOMENA. 
 
 3. ON VACCINATION. 
 
 4. ON VIVISECTION. 
 
 5. THE DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD.
 
 Public Health. 
 
 ON PUBLIC HEALTH. 
 
 Note. — This Address was given as President of the Health Section of 
 the Social Science Association, at the Glasgow Meeting. 
 
 My address has been written under peculiar conditions, 
 and requires apology. When the session of Parliament 
 ended, I had not found time to consider even what the 
 subject of the address should be. Since then I have been 
 rambling in Switzerland and Italy, and of course have had 
 no access to books of reference. Under these circum- 
 stances, I thought it best to address you in the capacity of 
 an old sanitary reformer; for it was as long ago as 1S46 
 that, as a member of the Royal Commission on Public 
 Health, I published my report on the state of large towns 
 in Lancashire. The memories and gathered experience of 
 a veteran sanitary reformer may not be without interest, 
 even if they are related without that method which would 
 have been more apparent had the address been written in 
 his library. 
 
 The first question which occurs is — Are we making dis- 
 tinct and satisfactory progress by our sanitary measures? 
 The answer to that question depends upon our periods of 
 comparison. If we go back far enough in the history of our 
 n 2
 
 4 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 '.GQ"ui*!try, tiT£rfe*.4f 6,. distinct assurances of improvement. 
 Suppose that we begin'with the Restoration : although our 
 '.e'arli:6i: '; rec-oriLls relate, to' London only. For twenty years 
 'alter 'the Restoration, there was an exceptionally high mort- 
 ality, even for that epoch, in the metropolis, and no doubt 
 throughout the kingdom. Macaulay describes it as a time 
 " when men died faster in the purest country air than they 
 now die in the most pestilential lanes of our towns, and 
 when men died faster in the lanes of our towns than they 
 now die on the coast of Guiana." He was right, for the 
 rate of mortality in London from 1660 to 1679 was no less 
 than 80 in the thousand. Let us put in a tabular form the 
 rates of death at various periods since then. The annual 
 deaths from all causes per thousand of the population 
 
 were : — 
 
 1660—79 So'o 
 
 1681 — 90 42-1 
 
 1746—55 35-5 
 
 1S46-55 24-9 
 
 1871—80 21-43 
 
 If we take the average of the decade ending at the last 
 census, the existing death rate in England is 21-4 per 
 1,000. Hence one gratifying fact comes out clear and 
 palpable, that the death rate is on the whole continually 
 decreasing in this country, and that the chances of our lives 
 are much better than in the days of our ancestors. If we 
 restrict our view to the periods of the last three censuses — 
 1 86 1 to 1 88 1 — we are at first disappointed by learning 
 that the mean age of the whole population was nearly the 
 same — 26-4 — in these years, and that the rate of mortality 
 is only slightly different, the saving in mortality being 
 chiefly among children of school age who appear to have 
 been brought under better sanitary influences by their 
 removal from s(]ualid homes. But it would be a 
 mistake to suppose that a stationary mortality necessarily
 
 On Public Health. 5 
 
 indicates no improvement. The causes of mortality are 
 increasing, and though the mortality remain stationary, 
 there must be improvements in our hygienic arrangements 
 to prevent the deteriorating action. There is a constant 
 disposition among our population to congregate in towns 
 and to leave rural districts. The inhabitants of towns 
 have increased fivefold since iSoi, while those of country 
 districts have increased only 75 per cent. In England the 
 town population represents two-thirds ; in Scotland, 
 three-fourths ; in Ireland, only one-fourth of the whole 
 population. Hamlets become villages, villages are trans- 
 formed into towns, and towns grow into cities. At the 
 beginning of this century England had no town except 
 London with more than 100,000 inhabitants; now, in 1881, 
 there are twenty. There are fifty towns now in England and 
 Wales containing upwards of 50,000 inhabitants, and these 
 towns contain a larger population than the whole of 
 England and Wales did at the beginning of this century. 
 And as the rate of mortality is largely influenced by the 
 density of population, the causes producing sanitary im- 
 provement must be at least equal to those of deterioration. 
 No doubt the death rate is much in proportion to the 
 density of population ; but it is not in proportion to the 
 numbers in a city. The death rate of London, that huge 
 metropolis, is only 21 "4 per 1,000, or the same rate as that 
 of small Scotch towns, and very different from 30 "4, the 
 death rate of Glasgow, or 31 "3, the death rate of Greenock. 
 Nor can the difference be due to climatic severities, for 
 while 3o'4 out of 1,000 die in Glasgow, only i9'4 die in 
 the rural districts of Lanarkshire. At present (1889) we 
 may take the average death rate of England at 21 in 
 the 1,000, and may assume that a reduction to 17 is 
 attainable, all above that figure being due to removable 
 causes of disease. Let me leave this part of the subject 
 for the present, although I will return to it hereafter,
 
 6 SuByECTs OF Social Welfare. 
 
 to consider what are the causes which govern Hfe and 
 death, so far as disease is preventable by agencies over 
 which man has control. My phrase is unphilosophical. 
 Man has not control over a single natural force. He may 
 indeed use the forces of nature, by means of his intelligence, 
 to effect a specific end, but he cannot turn them a hair's- 
 breadth out of their course. The laws of health, like other 
 laws of nature, are relentless in their severity. If you stand 
 on the verge of a precipice and overbalance yourself, the 
 law of gravity relentlessly pulls you down and dashes you to 
 jjieces on the base. Equally without mercy are you pun- 
 ished for the smallest infraction of the laws of health, 
 whether you live in cities or in fields. Man, indeed, has no 
 control over a single law of nature; but if he live in obedi- 
 ence to these laws, he will find that they are arranged with 
 supreme beneficence for his well-being. An intelligent 
 submission to them produces health and longevity, while the 
 slightest infraction of them is mercilessly punished with 
 disease and shortness of days. What are these laws ? 
 Many are known ; others remain to be discovered. For 
 my purpose, at present, I can only refer to some of the 
 more important. 
 
 By public health is meant the health of communities, as 
 distinguished from that of its individual members, though 
 necessarily the former is the sum of the positive and nega- 
 tive conditions which act upon the individuals. The health 
 of an individual depends not merely upon existing but also 
 on antecedent causes. Part of his health is transmitted 
 from his ancestors, and may be a mere survival of hygienic 
 conditions which have been extirpated. Part of our health 
 also depends upon the external conditions of our upbringing 
 when young, and part also on the influences, physical and 
 moral, to which we are exposed all through our lives. As 
 there is no individual who can be said to have all his 
 organic functions in the most perfect action, so is there no
 
 Os Public Health. 7 
 
 community that can be considered in a perfectly healthy 
 state ; for the general health depends upon all the moments 
 of the private health of individuals. The health of a nation, 
 physiologically considered, stands closely in relation to that 
 of an individual. The nutrition and health of an indi- 
 vidual depend upon the well-adjusted balance of the supply 
 and waste of the particles which compose the body. These 
 particles of the body, all through the life of a man, are 
 incessantly dying, and are being replaced by new particles 
 continually springing into life. Every organ is thus under- 
 going, through its particles, a continued and rapid alterna- 
 tion of death and life. As the whole body of a man is to 
 one of these particles, so is the whole body politic of a 
 nation to the individuals of which it is composed. The 
 death of an individual in a State is strictly analogous to the 
 death of a particle in a single man, and the birth of an indi- 
 vidual in a State is the analogue of the moulding of a new 
 living particle into the body of a man. When an individual 
 becomes diseased, there is some want of balance between 
 the waste and supply of his organs — or rather, of the under- 
 lying protoplasm which is so incessantly changing from life 
 to death. When the waste of the ultimate particles is greater 
 than the power of restoration, disease attacks the individual. 
 So in the body politic : when the rate of mortality is too 
 high — that is, when the individuals of its population, which 
 constitute the particles of the State, waste too rapidly — the 
 State suffers from public maladies. Hence the State medi- 
 cal officer and the private physician work on like princii)les; 
 for to the former the community, to the latter the indi- 
 vidual, is the patient. This relation of the individual to 
 the community, and the reflex action of the community on 
 the individual, give a double motive for sanitary action. 
 For the community, depending as it does on all the 
 moments of health of individuals, requires to watch and 
 cherish them ; while each individual must feel tliat it is his
 
 8 SusyECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 interest to watch the heakh of his neighbour, upon whose 
 soundness rests the foundation of his own well-being. So 
 that the common law of health is the Christian law :— 
 " Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 
 
 If this analogy between the physiological condition of a 
 community and an individual be real, as I believe it to be, 
 the essential conditions in the health of communities, and 
 of individuals, must be the same. They must be well 
 clothed, well fed, well housed, well aired, and well watered. 
 
 The more we consider the question of public health, 
 the simpler does the problem become in theory, though its 
 attainment is difficult in practice. All that we need aim to 
 secure is purity or cleanUness in the house, the air, and the 
 water, and genuineness in the food and clothes. In fact, a 
 great part of sanitary science can be comprised in that one 
 word — cleanliness. No epidemic can resist clean houses, 
 clean air, and clean water. Death, like the evil demons of 
 old, shuns cleanly places. In olden times, as among the 
 Jews, evil spirits dwelt in filthy places, especially loving 
 tombs and ordure. Every private closet contained a special 
 demon of its own, and does to the present day in a dif- 
 ferent sense. I am quite sure that the chamber of Sara, the 
 daughter of Raguel, as described in the book of Tobit, must 
 have overlooked a dunghill, otherwise she would not have 
 been so grievously afflicted by the unclean spirit Asmodeus, 
 who, out of love for her, strangled her seven husbands. 
 But Tobias, her eighth husband, for whom his father-in-law 
 considerately dug a grave as soon as the marriage was per- 
 formed, obviously knew that there might be smells even too 
 bad for a demon, for, on the bridal night, he threw the 
 putrid heart and liver of a fish on some burning embers in 
 her chamber, and, as the narrative tells us, "the which 
 smell, when the evil spirit had smelled, he fled into the 
 uttermost parts of Egypt." To my mind the book of Tobit 
 is a distinct hygienic allegory. The good Tobit had a
 
 On Public Health. 9 
 
 craze for burying dead bodies, and bad all his troubles in 
 consequence of his hygienic propensities. Sleeping in a 
 foul place, the sparrows muted warm dung into his eyes and 
 rendered him blind. But Raphael (whose name, by in- 
 terpretation, means "the medicine of God") comes as an 
 angelic guide to his son Tobias, and puts all things right 
 by his hygienic knowledge — conquering even the foul 
 demon Asmodeus, and curing Tobit of his ophthalmia, 
 acquired, as our workhouse children now get it, by foul air. 
 The ancients fought against evil smells more vigorously 
 than the moderns. Sometimes, indeed, they simply tried to 
 mask them with perfumes. Thus, wher we hear that 
 ancient Capua had whole streets filled wath perfumers' 
 shops, we know that it must have been a foul-smelling and 
 ill-governed city. If you were to ask me at the present day 
 what are the best rules for disinfecting foul smells, I could 
 not give you simpler or better ones than those of Ulysses 
 as described in Homer. After slaughtering Penelope's 
 suitors, and scattering their blood and brains over her 
 spacious halls, he first makes a thorough cleansing : — 
 
 " With thirsty sponge they rub the tables o'er 
 (The swains unite their toils) ; the walls, the floor, 
 Washed with the effusive wave, are purged of gore." 
 
 And it is only after thus thoroughly removing every origin 
 of bad smells that he uses a disinfectant to destroy any foul 
 gases which might still lurk in the room : — 
 
 *' * Bring sulphur straight, and fire,' the monarch cries ; 
 She hears, and at his word obedient flies. 
 With fire and sulphur, cure of noxious fumes, 
 He purged the walls and blood-polluted rooms," 
 
 Contrast the proceedings of the wise Ulysses with those 
 of Eidothea, the daughter of the old sea-god. She fell in 
 love with Menelaus, who, with his two companions, was 
 cast upon the island of her father. To conceal them from
 
 lo Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 the old sea-god, she wrapped them in the skins of fresh- 
 flayed seals, and made them lie among the flock. Mene- 
 laus groaned under the horrid smell of his disguise, till the 
 divine lady brought a powerful scent to mask the putrid 
 odour : — 
 
 " Dire was the ambush, and the scent severe ; 
 Who could a rank sea-beast at such close quarters bear ? 
 But she, delivering us, a great help planned, 
 
 And placed Ambrosia near the lips of each. 
 Which in our nostrils breathed an odour bland, 
 
 And the sea monsters' stench did overreach." 
 
 Ulysses was an excellent hygienist, but Eidothea was not. 
 The first went to the root of the matter and first removed 
 all sources of impurity; the latter merely concealed a 
 stench by a perfume. Hercules, too, was one of the oldest 
 and most thorough of the ancient sanitarians. He saved 
 the Eleans from pestilence by draining their marshes, and 
 executed a thorough sanitary operation when he cleansed 
 out the Augean stables by turning into them the waters of 
 the Alpheeus. But of all sanitary reformers, Moses was 
 among the most practical. He was learned in the wisdom 
 of the Egyptians, and they, as we know, were hygienists. 
 One of their cotnmandments, though it does not remain 
 among the ten which Moses brought down from the 
 Mount for our guidance, was, " Thou shalt not pollute 
 rivers." The hygienic laws of Moses, supplementary to 
 his ten moral commandments, are full of wisdom. The 
 purifications required by religious observances were in the 
 main hygienic precautions. The ceremonial part still 
 remains in the East as a survival of a purpose which is now 
 forgotten. Moses gave to us the principle of the modern 
 earth closet, and excellent rules for isolating and disinfect- 
 ing diseased patients and their excreta. He established 
 health ofiicers, or, rather, gave to the High Priest the 
 function of an officer of health. Before long we may be
 
 Oy Public Health. ii 
 
 obliged to enact the ancient laws of Moses for isolating 
 patients with infectious disease, and for cleansing the houses 
 in which it occurred. In the case of cattle, we knock them 
 on the head and kill them, and there is an end of cattle 
 plague. We cannot do that with men. If we could 
 isolate cholera patients and disinfect their excreta, we could 
 as easily prevent its spread as in the case of cattle plague. 
 We do isolate them when they arrive in ships — why not in 
 houses ? The isolation of patients afflicted with small-pox, 
 scarlatina, and measles, will one day become a part of 
 hygienic law, though at present it would not be supported by 
 public opinion. In the time of Cardinal Wolsey, plague 
 patients were strictly isolated. INIost religious reformers, 
 like Mahomet and Menu, have also been apostles of cleanli- 
 ness. During the best times of Greece and Rome, public 
 health was much studied. The anatomical and patho- 
 logical examination of the intestines of sacrifices was a 
 hygienic precaution to ascertain whether the locality upon 
 which a city was to be founded or a camp pitched was in a 
 healthy condition. The supervision of hygienic arrange- 
 ments was an office of dignity among the Greeks and the 
 Romans. Epaminondas, one of the greatest military 
 geniuses that Greece produced, did not refuse the office of 
 "telearch" at Thebes, though its chief duty was to supervise 
 the cleansing of the streets. For this, Plutarch justly com- 
 mends him. In like manner at Rome the cleansing and 
 disinfection of streets and sewers were placed under a high 
 officer of State, because, as Justinian tells us, " uncleansed 
 and unrepaired sewers threaten a pestilential atmosphere, 
 and are dangerous." Of the surviving works by which the 
 greatness of Rome is still evidenced, perhaps the first is the 
 Civil Law, but second stands its sanitary works, as evi- 
 denced in the great aqueducts, the Cloaca Maxima, and 
 other hygienic appliances. It is, then, clear that the 
 ancients knew as well as the moderns the main conditions
 
 12 SuByECTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE. 
 
 of public health — viz., that foulness is the source of disease, 
 and that cleanliness is its preventive. Purity of the 
 person, purity of the dwelling and its surroundings, purity 
 of the air, purity of the water, purity of the soil — in one 
 word, cleanliness — form the beginning and the end of 
 hygiene. It is chiefly amid great plagues and calamities 
 that men look for more occult causes of disease, such as 
 comets, terrestrial exhalations, volcanic emanations, celestial 
 conjunctions, or the poisoning of wells by Jews, just as now 
 people are apt to refer them to electricity or magnetism. 
 Sydenham himself, that model physician, must look deep 
 down into the bowels of the earth for the causes of epi- 
 demics — into the interiora terrcz viscera. Men would not 
 then look at their own surroundings for a simpler explana- 
 tion, but fastened on some strange phenomenon which 
 might appear. There are some rough mining districts in 
 this country, where, if a strange traveller appears, the boys 
 run after him with the shout, " Here is a stranger ; come, 
 let us stone him !" Philosophers seized hold of any strange 
 phenomenon in like manner^ and pelted it as the cause of 
 human woe. But the progress of knowledge brings us back 
 to the simplicity of ancient faith, that foulness breeds the 
 demons who desolate our hearths, and that they cannot 
 abide in cleanly habitations, which they abhor. And so the 
 sum and substance of all our sanitary science accumulated 
 by ages may be summed up in the pregnant advice of the 
 prophet — Wash and be Clean. It is the simpleness of 
 the remedy as a cure for the public ills which so grievously 
 affect us that prevents its public recognition. If I had 
 talked to you about schtzoniycetes, including bacteria and 
 its allied forms ; if I had described vibriones, and all those 
 organic bodies which arc floating in the atmosphere, or 
 which appear in decaying substances and in the blood of 
 diseased persons, you jnight have thought that the chAirman 
 of the health section had some sanitary learning, and that
 
 On Public Health. 13 
 
 it was worth coming to hear his discourse. But you revolt 
 at the simplicity of his statement, that cleanliness is the 
 beginning and the end of all practical sanitary work. Well, 
 you are not singular. There was once a rebuke to such 
 doubts given on another occasion : — " If the prophet had bid 
 thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it ? 
 How much rather when he saith to thee, ' Wash and be 
 clean'?" That cleanliness — both physical and moral purity 
 — is next to godliness, should be the saving faith of every 
 sanitary missionary. 
 
 Do not, however, think that I undervalue the numerous 
 researches which have been made in recent years as to the 
 organised causes of disease, whether we call them by such 
 general names as microzymes or contagium animatufn. I 
 have read all the memoirs on these subjects with the highest 
 possible interest, for the specific characters of diseases lend 
 much support to such views. When you find that the virus 
 of small-pox reproduces small-pox only, and that of scarlet 
 fever breeds scarlet fever only, you are as much inclined to 
 refer their origin to a specific organism as you are to 
 attribute a puppy to a dog or thistledown to a thistle. 
 But the researches on the microzymic origin of disease, 
 though vastly important, are scarcely yet within the domain 
 of practical application. These bodies of low organised 
 types are always associated with foulness. But whether 
 putrid emanations are the result of the growth of these 
 organisms, or whether the emanations form the only soil 
 in which they can grow, neither I nor anyone else can 
 tell you with certainty. Perhaps the problem will ultimately 
 be as unsoluble to philosophers as that involved in the 
 doubt whether it was the first hen that laid the first egg 
 or the first egg that produced the first hen. But what is 
 quite certain is that if filth be entirely prevented, none of 
 these entozoa will permanently remain, and, therefore, the 
 practical maxim should still guide you — Wash and ue
 
 14 Subjects of Social Uelfare. 
 
 Clean. But understand this practical maxim in its full 
 significance. I do not mean mere personal or objective 
 ablution, but an uncompromising war with uncleanliness of 
 all kinds. In this way you may use water as an agent, or 
 disinfectants, or drains, or fire, or any other means of utterly 
 removing and destroying all filth and all its consequences. 
 
 Let me now give a few illustrations of the consequences 
 attending the neglect of this hygienic maxim. When the 
 civilisation of the Egyptians, the Jews, the Greeks, and the 
 Romans faded, the world passed through dark ages of 
 mental and physical barbarism. For a thousand years, 
 Michelet, their historian, says, too broadly, there was not a 
 man or woman in Europe that ever took a bath. How 
 different that time was from the times which preceded it, 
 when daily baths were common among the poor, you may 
 gather from the praises of personal ablution which abound 
 in ancient authors. Take, for instance, Martial's address to 
 his friend Oppian, on the limpid and unpolluted water in 
 the Virgo and Marcian wave, in which it was rapture to 
 
 bathe : — 
 
 " Water so bright, and clear, and fair, 
 You think no liquid can be there ; 
 You're not attending, Oppian, 
 You'll die without once having washed, poor man !" 
 
 But only think what must have been the state of Europe 
 when thirty-three generations were like Oppian, and never 
 once washed, if their historian Michelet is to be believed. 
 No wonder that there came the wondrous epidemics of 
 the Middle Ages, which cut off one-fourth of the popula- 
 tion of Europe — the spotted plague, the black death, and 
 sweating sickness ; and the terrible mental epidemics which 
 followed in their train — the dancing mania, the mewing 
 mania, and the biting mania. But even when the Middle 
 Ages had passed away, and the sun of civihsation was again 
 rising over the gloomy darkness of these centuries, what a
 
 On Public Health. 15 
 
 heritage of filth-produced disease still remained ! Look at 
 Defoe's or Montaigne's descriptions of the plagues of their 
 day. Montaigne gives us some statistics, which Defoe does 
 not do. The plague at Bordeaux, from which Montaigne 
 fled to his country-house, killed 18,000 out of 40,000 people. 
 It followed him and destroyed whole villages. The harvest 
 was not reaped, the grapes were ungathered, and men's 
 minds were occupied, not with the thought of life, but 
 how to protect their bodies from wild beasts after their 
 death. He gives a terrible picture of one of his own 
 workmen, whose last act of life was to draw the earth over 
 his expiring body. It is not a pleasing task to dwell on the 
 habits of the population, even in our country, in past times. 
 Go back only to the time previous to the Reformation, and 
 you can have no difficulty in understanding why luxury and 
 squalor produced the plagues of the times of the Tudors and 
 the Stuarts. High above all other dwellings were the 
 castles and the monasteries, but the cabin of the peasant 
 was worse than any to be now found in the furthest isles of 
 Scotland. It was made of reeds and sticks plastered over 
 with mud. In these wigwams lived an ague-stricken popu- 
 lation. In the towns the mechanics lived in rooms without 
 glass windows, slept on straw beds, and worked in work- 
 shops unheated by coal fires. Even in well-to-do houses 
 rushes covered the earthen floors, and got saturated with 
 scraps of food, which remained to putrefy under a new layer 
 of rushes scattered over it, so that the " petremen " came to 
 dig saltpetre out of the floors. Filth, instead of being 
 abhorred, was almost sanctified. The monks imitated the 
 filthy habits of the hermits and saints of early Christian 
 times, for the early Fathers commended them. Even St. 
 Jerome used to praise the filthy habits of hermits. He 
 especially commends an Egyptian hermit who only combed 
 his hair on Easter Sunday, and never washed his clothes at 
 all, but let them fall to pieces by rottenness. St. Antony
 
 i6 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 never washed his feet. St. Thomas h. Becket, when mar- 
 tyred, had under-garments in a state which makes one 
 shudder in the remembrance. And so the monks up to the 
 time of the Reformation, and indeed in part up to the 
 present day, thought, or professed to think, that, by anti- 
 thesis, pollution of the body indicated cleanliness of the 
 soul. Practically, indeed, it helped to it, because the 
 odour of sanctity which infested these old monks and 
 hermits helped to keep them apart from the temptations 
 of the world ; for the world scarcely cared to come into too 
 close contact with these odoriferous saints. But this associa- 
 tion of iilth with religion was unhappy in its consequences, 
 for men ceased to connect disease with uncleanliness, and 
 resorted to shrines and winking Virgins for cures of maladies 
 which were produced by their own physical and moral 
 impurities. Even the palaces of kings were filthy, accord- 
 ing to the Duchess of Orleans' Memoirs of the splendid 
 Court of Louis XIV. Under all these influences plagues 
 were very destructive in England. Men first began to con- 
 nect them with filth by some striking examples. Thus in 
 1665, when the Court and Parliament assembled at Oxford, 
 it had an immunity from plague, and the reason of this 
 immunity was traced to the thorough cleansing which the 
 magistrates gave to the city to fit it for its distinguished 
 guests. The great fire of London also taught Englishmen 
 a wholesome lesson, for it came as a great sanitary agent to 
 extirpate the foul nests of disease in the metropolis. And 
 so at last the moderns learnt wliat the ancients knew very 
 well, that public health can only be assured by cleanliness, 
 and that filth is the parent of disease both among individuals 
 and communities. 
 
 Hippocrates, who was the first hygienist to write a 
 whole book on public health, took as his text, pure air, 
 pure water, and a pure soil, and you see we have arrived at 
 nearly the same view oi the essential conditions of health.
 
 On Public Health. 17 
 
 Napoleon, as a result of long experience in the hygiene 
 of armies, came to the same conclusion, for he said to 
 Autonomarchi at St. Helena : — " Life is a fortress which 
 neither you nor I know anything about. Why throw 
 obstacles in the way of its defence? Water, air, and clean- 
 liness are the chief articles in my pharmacopoeia." And so 
 are they in the pharmacopceia of the public health medical 
 officer. Let us consider them separately. Air is of all 
 things the most familiar to us, and the one most forced 
 on our observation. To breathe it is our first act of 
 life ; the inability to respire it is the last act of life, and is 
 followed by death. All during life it is never absent from 
 our voluntary or involuntary actions. Surely we ought to 
 know everything about this familiar object ; yet, in fact, we 
 are by no means intimately acquainted with it. During my 
 lifetime it has incessantly presented new phases to closer 
 observation. When I was a student of chemistry at the 
 Andersonian University in this town, a pupil of my dear 
 friend Graham whose statue now adorns George's Square, 
 air was a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen with moisture and 
 accidental quantities of carbonic acid. Then when I went 
 to Giessen to study under another dear departed friend, 
 Baron Liebig, I learned for the first time that it contained 
 ammonia, and that this, with the carbonic acid, consti- 
 tuted the food of plants. Then, as years passed, nitric 
 acid and ozone were found in it. Still later it was found to 
 contain organic matter in decay and multitudes of living 
 organisms, which exercise much influence on decay and 
 putrefaction. When such interesting strangers are born in 
 the lifetime of an individual during half a century, how 
 little do we kn'^w of any object the most familiar to us ! Of 
 the air that we incessantly breathe, and of the water which 
 we continually diink, our knowledge, even now, is far from 
 complete. Hut this we do know, that air — pure, free, 
 and abounding air — contains within itself the power of 
 c
 
 i8 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 purifying itself from all the abominations which we pour 
 into it, and that it is a wonderful mechanical scavenger for 
 carrying away all gaseous impurities. If you only imitate 
 the ways of nature in your hygienic arrangements, they will 
 be fruitful in good results. The excreta of animals during 
 life, and their bodies after death, all pass through the pro- 
 cesses of putrefaction and decay, and in new forms enter 
 the atmosphere. With such a mass of festering corruption 
 in the world, there must be some provision, not only to 
 render these gaseous emanations innocuous, but also to 
 convert them into objects of positive utility. The first 
 process is never to allow the contaminated air of one part of 
 the atmosphere to remain in the same place. By the great 
 polar and equatorial currents, and by the local winds, which 
 are mere eddies in these great streams, the putrid emana- 
 tions are spread uniformly throughout the atmosphere, and 
 when made truly gaseous they are still further mixed by 
 diffusion. The oxygen of the air chemically attacks the 
 organic matters of the miasms and foul products of decay, 
 and burns them up as completely as if they were passed 
 through a fire. Their organic character is thus destroyed, 
 and they pass into the inorganic forms of carbonic acid, 
 water, and ammonia, which are, in fact, the food of plants. 
 The ozone of the air is oxygen in a more active form, and 
 is a strong burner-up of decaying matters. Supposing, 
 however, that a shower of rain washes some of the foul 
 matter out of the air before its oxidation or burning is com- 
 plete, the air follows it to the soil, which from its porous 
 character absorbs oxygen, and thus the soil acts as a disin- 
 fectant, and prepares the foul materials to become the food 
 
 of plants. 
 
 This conversion of putrid matter into carbonic acid, 
 water, and ammonia is undoubtedly the final result of 
 natural purification. The desire to attain it speedily has 
 been recently expressed in the attempts to revive the
 
 On Public Health. 19 
 
 cremation or burning of dead bodies. I quite approve of 
 the end proposed, though I am not quite clear as to the 
 means of producing it. Burial in a porous soil produces 
 the same results, and if the earth be sufficient and well 
 selected, it does so inoffensively. Then the bodies decay, 
 not by putrefaction alone, but by eremacausis. That word, 
 which is merely the scientific word for decay, is derived 
 from two Greek words meaning slow burning. So a 
 porous soil, containing sufficient loam to be absoriuive, 
 is in fact a slow furnace, where burning is complete in 
 itself. 
 
 How differently do we act in our civic arrangements ! 
 Instead of allowing garbage to be freely oxidised, or applying 
 it to plant life, which is its natural destination, we dig 
 holes close to our own doors, and cherish the foul matter 
 in cesspools under conditions in which air cannot enter 
 freely, and which are the most conducive to injurious 
 putrefaction. We forget the experience of our forefathers, 
 that every cesspool has its own particular evil spirit re- 
 siding within it; and we are surprised when the demon 
 emerges, especially at night, and strikes down our loved 
 ones with typhoid fever or other form of pestilence. Per- 
 haps we go a step further in the hygiene of moderns, and 
 do throw the foul matter into drains, which empty them- 
 selves into our once beautiful rivers, which in many cases 
 are still used as a beverage by people lower down in the 
 stream. And when they remonstrate with us, we, surly 
 wolves, growl at the poor innocent lambs lower down the 
 stream, because they object to drink our abominations. 
 This country once gloried in her beautiful rivers, but they 
 are now mere open ditches, which pollute the districts 
 through which they flow. Rivers in their normal state 
 contain dissolved air sufficient to oxidise and destroy any 
 accidental organic contaminations. This purifying power 
 of air dissolved in water is essential, because no water, 
 c 2
 
 20 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 either in rivers or springs, could otherwise be pure. All 
 sources of water are ultimately obtained from rain, and 
 that is never pure, because it washes out organic impurities 
 from the atmosphere. At the same time it carries down 
 air in solution, so that it brings with the poison its natural 
 antidote. The air-purifying process is, however, limited, 
 and is altogether insufficient for streams polluted with town 
 sewage and manufacturing refuse. In them you find no 
 free oxygen, for that has been used up by the first small 
 portion of impurities poured into the streams. Take, for 
 instance, the beautiful Clyde, which ought to wash, but 
 which fouls, this great city. I have analysed its waters 
 miles above and miles below Glasgow. Long before it 
 reaches the outskirts of the city it is already fouled, but 
 after passing Broomielaw its condition is abominable. My 
 friend Dr. Angus Smith has analysed the waters in its 
 isthmus, and has found these pollutions even in the water 
 of the beautiful sea-bathing resorts which are so much 
 frequented by the upper classes of the city. The self- 
 purifying power of rivers, and even of the sea pouring in 
 its tidal wave to dilute them, has no chance against the 
 mass of abominations which large towns pour into them. 
 But there is no longer an excuse for their doing so, for 
 there are now various effective and well-matured processes 
 for purifying drains before the water is ultimately dis- 
 charged into the river. You cannot take out these 
 abominations from the river itself, but you can readily 
 prevent them being put in. Coleridge saw this when he 
 wrote so fiercely on the foul smells of the city of 
 
 Cologne : — 
 
 " I'ut tell me, Nymphs ! what power divine 
 Shall henceforth wash the river Rhine ? " 
 
 The only mode of restoring our great rivers from their 
 present condition of open ditches to their natural purpose of 
 watering and purifying the districts through which they flow
 
 On Public Health. 21 
 
 is to prevent polluted matters being poured into them. 
 Parliament must enact for this country the ancient com- 
 mandment of the Egyptians, and say to all municipalities 
 and manufacturers, " Thou shalt not pollute rivers." They 
 have already said so to the latter in regard to air. When I 
 was a student in Glasgow, I remember that the tall chimney 
 of St. RoUox used to vomit forth noxious vapours, destroy- 
 ing vegetation and annoying the inhabitants. I had some 
 small influence in persuading the late Lord Derby to pass 
 an Act forbidding the pollution of air, and I am sure that 
 the Messrs. Tennant and all other soda manufacturers are 
 glad that we forced them to condense their acid fumes. 
 Well, I say with perfect deliberation, and after full study of 
 the subject, that our knowledge in regard to the purification 
 of drain waters, whether these contain town sewage or 
 manufactuiing refuse, is abundant -and practical, and that 
 all municipalities and manufacturers should now be pro- 
 hibited by heavy penalties from fouling rivers. The com- 
 pulsion would be a positive benefit to both. I may remind 
 you that the Prime Minister (Mr. Disraeli) has lately told 
 a deputation that he is greatly interested in this object. 
 I hope that he is destined to do for water what his former 
 friend and political chief. Lord Derby, did for one of the 
 many impurities in air. Such a triumph of sanitary legisla- 
 tion would be worthy of the great State doctor who has 
 taken as his motto " Sanitas sanitatum omnia sa/u'fas." If 
 he achieve the purification of our rivers, I am sure that 
 I can promise him from this Association, and indeed from 
 all political parties in the State, an amount of applause 
 which can best be expressed in the words, if not in the 
 meaning, of Macbeth, when he says : — 
 
 " Come, sir, despatch ; if thou couldst, doctor, cast 
 The water of our land ; find its disease, 
 And purge it to a sound and pristine health, 
 I would applaud thee to the very echo 
 That should applaud again."
 
 22 Subjects of Social IVelfare. 
 
 Mr. Disraeli has obviously thought much about subjects of 
 public health, as evidenced in the wise observations of 
 Mr. Phoebus in " Lothair." When, then, in his celebrated 
 Manchester speech, he pledged himself that a Conservative 
 Government would devote special attention to sanitary 
 subjects, I believe that he expressed a deliberate and 
 mature conviction. But hitherto, probably from the force 
 of circumstances, we have had promises only, without their 
 fulfilment. Surely many Sessions cannot pass without a 
 serious attempt at sanitary reform, when we recollect that 
 the Prime Minister of England (Mr. Disraeli) is the same 
 orator who used the following remarkable words : — " I think 
 public attention ought to be concentrated on sanitary legisla- 
 tion ; I cannot impress upon you too strongly my conviction 
 of the importance of the Legislature and Society uniting 
 together in favour of these important results. After all, the 
 first consideration of a Minister should be the health of 
 the people." 
 
 In the recent progress of hygiene nothing has been 
 more clearly proved than that diseases are largely pro- 
 pagated through foul water, and recent investigations seem 
 to point to the unpleasant circumstance that the germs of 
 disease chiefly come from the excreta of men as they enter 
 into a state of putridity. Whole villages and streets in large 
 towns have been stricken with disease by portions of human 
 excreta finding their way into water. Take the fever 
 epidemic in London last year. A dairy company used the 
 water of a well which had received the drainage of a person 
 infected with fever, this drainage having percolated through 
 the soil to the well and contaminated it in the usual manner 
 in which well-water is so constantly fouled. Hundreds of 
 persons, among whom were some of my relations, were 
 stricken down by the milk polluted with this impure water. 
 Take as another example the case which has happened 
 while this address is passing through the press. A large
 
 On Public Health. 23 
 
 public school, supported by national subscriptions, is 
 thoroughly wrong in its hygienic arrangements. In its 
 cisterns are foul waters, and close to its playgrounds are 
 filthy cess[)Ools. A most distinguished sanitarian — Dr. 
 Anstie — visits it, and is lost to the world and to science 
 during his inspection. Let us hope that the sacrifice of this 
 precious life may lead to much sanitary improvement in 
 our public schools. When the virus of disease enters the 
 body in a state of solution, it is in a state most favourable 
 for development. And as water is the common vehicle for 
 removing impurities from dwellings, it becomes especially 
 important to prevent waste water from entering into any 
 source of water supply which is to be used for drinking or 
 any other domestic purpose. But what is the condition of 
 many towns, such as London itself? They are situated on 
 rivers from which their water supply is derived, and it may 
 be, and often is, the case that hundreds of thousands of 
 persons pour their abominations into the river before it is 
 used for the town lower in the stream. London in this way 
 has to drink all the foul drainage of about a million persons 
 above it in the stream. The people cannot realise this 
 nastiness, or they would not tolerate it for a day. Glasgow 
 is happily situated in this respect, for it receives the pure 
 and soft water of Loch Katrine. If London had such a 
 source of supply, I believe that it would stand as a model 
 in its death rate to all the towns in the kingdom. 
 
 From what I have already said, you will observe that the 
 natural purifiers, on which we should rely in combating 
 the pollution of our cities, are a free supply of untainted air, 
 unpolluted water, a porous soil (the pores of which are 
 open and not filled up by undrained waters), and, let me add, 
 a healthy vegetation in the squares of our towns to help to 
 purify their atmospheres and to pour into them life-giving 
 oxygen. It is the want of these conditions which makes 
 both town and country dwellings unhealthy.
 
 24 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 In ancient as well as in modern hygiene the importance 
 of an adequate ventilation of streets and houses was well 
 known. It was also a matter of recognised experience that 
 even efficient ventilation of these would be of little use 
 unless the ground on which they were built was also 
 ventilated ; that is, drained of underlying water, so that the 
 air might penetrate and circulate freely through the porous 
 soil, in order to disinfect it from the continually accumu- 
 lating debris of a crowded population. A few years since, 
 while wandering amid the ruins of Caesar's palace at Rome, 
 I was stricken with the well-known fever of that city, and 
 during my convalescence I had ample time to speculate on 
 its causes. Those of you who have been in Rome will 
 recollect how shallow now is the depth of the Tarpeian 
 rock, and how deep down below the level of the surround- 
 ing streets are the floors of the Forum and ancient temples 
 and palaces. All that is above them is the organic and 
 inorganic debris of thousands of years, which when stirred 
 up, and coming in contact with oxygen, begins again to 
 decay, and continually emits those exhalations which find 
 their expression in the Roman fever. The same is the case 
 on the site of ancient Jerusalem. I remember to have read 
 somewhere that when a shaft is sunk to the base of the 
 Temple, the decaying matter of many past generations is 
 set into action, and quickly destroys the wood with which 
 the shaft is lined. Unless, therefore, the soil upon which 
 a city is built is well drained and ventilated, the dwellings 
 of the city cannot be healthy. It is not in fevers alone 
 that the influence of the soil is apparent. Probably con- 
 sumption itself, that great scourge of this country, is a 
 chronic zymosis or disease like many of our fevers, arising 
 and communicable from like hygienic deficiencies. It is 
 greatly mitigated by drying and ventilating the soil, as 
 well as by ventilating the dwellings. After the sewerage of 
 Salisbury had been made effective, the deaths from phthisis
 
 On Public Health. 25 
 
 jfell 49 per cent., in Ely they fell 47 per cent, in Rugby 43 
 per cent., and in Banbury 41 per cent. Dryness and eleva- 
 tion, and well-ventilated rooms, are powerful means to 
 prevent as they are to retard consumption. In the last 
 generation the average period of that sad disease was two 
 years. Now, according to Dr. Williams, it is eight years. 
 With pure air in the soil and in the dwelling, let us hope 
 that the succeeding generation will point to it as a rare 
 disease instead of as one of the most common maladies 
 of this country. 
 
 Free ventilation around the houses, as well as within 
 them, was enjoined by the ancients, but was as much 
 neglected by them in practice as it has been by the 
 moderns. Zeno ordered, after a long neglect, that houses 
 in Constantinople should be twelve feet apart all the way 
 up. His orders were disobeyed, but fire in Constantinople 
 has repeatedly done for it what fire has done in London. 
 Ancient Rome, like modern Glasgow, became very bad with 
 its closely built houses, and at last they were ordered to be 
 five feet apart, and not more than nine storeys high. 
 Augustus limited their height to 70 feet, and Trajan to 
 60 feet. We do not know how many people lived in these 
 houses, or how many congregated on an acre. But we do 
 know some facts as regards our own population. Taken on 
 an average all through England, the towns are less packed 
 with houses and people than one could have anticipated. 
 In primitive countries, where the savages live on the pro- 
 duce of the chase, there is one inhabitant to each square 
 mile. In the time of our Saxon ancestors in this country 
 there were five houses to each square mile, and probably 
 about thirty inhabitants. Good but high-handed Queen 
 Elizabeth was so horrified with the gigantic growth of 
 London, although it then contained only 160,000 people, 
 that she forbade the erection of any more buildings within 
 three miles of London and Westminster, and she prohibited
 
 26 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 the division of a house into tenements for various families, 
 " because " (I quote her own words) " great multitudes of 
 poor people inhabiting small rooms, and those very poor, and 
 such as must live by begging, or worse means, being therein 
 heaped together and in a sort smothered, with many farriilies 
 of children and servants in one house or small tenement, 
 it must needs follow that, if plague or sickness came 
 amongst them, it would presently spread through the whole 
 city and confines." Well, does this not sound like modern 
 lecturing in the crowded city of Glasgow, where noble and 
 gallant efforts, however, have recently been made to mitigate 
 the evil, and with a large promise of success ? In Queen 
 Elizabeth's time there were 15 houses and 83 people to the 
 square mile in the whole of England. Now there are 73 
 houses and 390 people. In all the English towns — ex- 
 cluding the rural districts — there are 713 inhabited houses, 
 and 4,061 inhabitants, to a square mile. That gives nearly 
 an acre to each house containing six persons. You see, 
 therefore, that the area of a town is far from being wholly 
 occupied. But just compare that with large parts of 
 Glasgow before the passing of its Improvement Act in 1866. 
 Instead of 6 people to an acre, which is the urban average 
 in England, there were districts with 600 people to the 
 acre, 50,000 people being huddled together on 80 acres. 
 Even now, Glasgow contains 100 persons to the acre ; while 
 London and Edinburgh contain about 46 to the acre. 
 In 187 1, when the census was taken, only 5^ per cent, of 
 all the families in Glasgow had more than four rooms, or, in 
 other words, 94^ per cent, of the families had such in- 
 sufficient accommodation that in no case had they more 
 than four rooms, and in most cases fewer. In fact, nearly 
 one-half of the population of Glasgow (exactly 46 per cent.) 
 live in one-roomed houses. Edinburgh has 78 per cent, 
 with the scant accommodation of under four rooms, and 
 22 per cent, with the superior, and its rate of mortality is
 
 On Public Health. 27 
 
 257. If you now compare by a simple rule of three the 
 relative density of population with the relative mortality of 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, you will find that the increase of 
 mortality in Glasgow nearly corresponds to its increased 
 density in population. 
 
 The four towns of largest mortality in Scotland — 
 Paisley, Dundee, Glasgow, and Greenock— have such dense 
 populations that from 93 to 94 per cent, dwell in houses 
 with four rooms and under. Notwithstanding the efforts 
 made in Glasgow and Edinburgh to improve the house 
 accommodation of the poor, the latter often defeat the 
 intentions of those who built capacious houses, because 
 they overcrowd them with lodgers. The working man does 
 not spend the same proportional amount on rental that the 
 middle-class man does, and is apt to try to decrease his 
 weekly house payments by adding lodgers to the other 
 inmates, who are already amply sufficient for the accommo- 
 dation provided. If a room be adequate in its cubical 
 contents of air for one person sleeping within it, yet 
 it may be wholly inadequate for two or more persons. 
 Although the amount of air required by an individual for 
 respiration is comparatively small, yet he fouls so much air 
 both by carbonic acid and organic exhalations, that a large 
 quantity of air must pass through an apartment to keep it 
 sweet. If the air contain even one cubic foot of carbonic 
 acid to 1,000 cubic feet of air, it is vitiated air in an apart- 
 ment. Now, to keep pure air in a room, from two to three 
 thousand cubic feet should be allowed to pass through a 
 chamber every hour for each person sleeping or living in it. 
 I need not trouble you with the data for this assertion. It 
 is not a large enough allowance for hospitals or for rooms 
 where there are exhalations of the sick. Unluckily the 
 prevailing impression is that a far smaller amount of air 
 suffices. In schools, for instance, often not one-fifth the 
 amount of ventilation is given which is requisite for health.
 
 28 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 Our rooms would become intolerable if it were not that 
 there are natural, though insufficient, sources of ventilation 
 beyond our control. The walls and mortar, though not 
 transparent to light, are transparent to air, and through them 
 is constantly passing an interchange of vitiated and pure 
 air. Brick is, however, more porous to air than sandstone 
 or limestone, and Scotch houses are not so easily ventilated 
 by natural means as English houses. Indeed, were it not 
 that the mortar which joins the stones happens to be readily 
 permeable to air, stone houses would be in a bad condition. 
 Of course it is obvious that the fewer persons there are in 
 a house or room the greater becomes the superficial area of 
 the building to each individual, and the more efficient the 
 uncontrollable ventilation. Still air is of little use in ventila- 
 tion, for the origin of the word {venlus, wind) indicates that 
 there must be air in motion. There are only two practical 
 modes of producing this in our dwelling-rooms. We must 
 either admit the external air when it is in motion, or we 
 must produce movement by an elevation of temperature, 
 such as fires, within the room. As the pernicious effect of 
 draughts on susceptible persons depends on an abnormal 
 cooling of the body, the task of the ventilator is to obtain 
 efficient change of air without chilling one part of the body 
 more than another. The problem is to effect this without 
 producing a draught, for we all remember the warning : — 
 
 "If cold wind strike you through a hole, 
 Go make your will and mind your soul." 
 
 In modern hygiene nothing is more conclusively established 
 than the fact that vitiated atmospheres in our dwellings and 
 their surroundings are the most fruitful of all sources of 
 disease. The exceptions to this statement are easily ex- 
 plained. Thus, in the wretched dwellings and filth-polluted 
 premises in the islands of Scotland, you would expect to
 
 On Public Health. 29 
 
 find a large rate of mortality, when in reality it is com- 
 paratively small. The reason is that during the day the 
 inhabitants respire pure air, and during the night it circu- 
 lates freely through their badly constructed cabins, neutral- 
 ising the foulness in which they are content to live. But 
 in great cities like Glasgow there is no ozone-bearing air 
 within miles of any part of it, and the houses are built of 
 materials which render natural ventilation difficult. Then 
 comes the packing up of the population into an incredibly 
 small area, and the death rate tells th3 woeful result. 
 There is no subject to which I look with more interest than 
 to the results which may be expected from the vigorous 
 effort which the municipality of this city has made in recent 
 years to mitigate this evil. The example is already telling 
 on London, and I hope that the efforts of my friend Sir 
 Ughtred Kay-Shuttleworth, and others, will be crowned with 
 success, and that we shall see a large effort to improve the 
 dwellings of the poor in the metropolis. Light and air are 
 as necessary to the dwellers in cities as they are to the trees 
 of a forest. There you see trees, pining for air and light, 
 push their branches in the direction of every inlet. In 
 their struggle for existence many are dwarfed and come to 
 nothing ; a few, stronger and more robust in constitution, 
 push aside the weaker, and appropriate the essential con- 
 ditions of life to themselves. If the forest be under skilled 
 care, the forester, with his pruning knife, cuts down the 
 weak saplings, and leaves sufficient space for air and light 
 to those of promising growth. But in an overcrowded 
 city, grim Death with his scythe exercises little discrimina- 
 tion, and cuts down all those who come within its fell 
 swoop. I have only alluded to the physical evils of over- 
 crowding ; but the moral evils are greater still. Although 
 there is an excessive rate of mortality in overcrowded 
 districts, there is no lessening of the population by such 
 unhealthy agencies. A crowded and unhealthy district,
 
 30 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 with all its inevitable consequences of low morals and low 
 intelligence — where the condition of human beings is 
 scarcely above that of animals — where appetite and instinct 
 occupy the place of higher feelings — where the barest 
 means of support encourage the most improvident and 
 early marriages — is not the place where we shall find a 
 diminishing or even stationary population. For the early 
 unions in such places are followed by early offspring ; and 
 although more than half that offspring may be swept away 
 by disease during infancy, yet nearly a third of it will grow 
 up in spite of all the surrounding evils, to follow in the 
 steps of their parents, and in their turn to continue a race, 
 ignorant, miserable, and immoral as themselves. 
 
 Next session the Friendly Societies Bill purposes to deal 
 with some of the many causes of juvenile mortality. The 
 death rate of children in a district is a sort of hygienic baro- 
 meter of the surrounding physical and moral atmosphere. 
 It is in a falling state in Scotland. The deaths among 
 illegitimate children especially are on the increase. That is 
 new in Scotland, but it is old in England. In some districts 
 in London their rate of mortality when put out to nurse was 
 70 to 75 in the hundred within the first year, and in many 
 manufacturing towns the deaths of illegitimates are 30 per 
 cent. King Herod was not a more efficient baby extermi- 
 nator than such hired nurses. But there are many moral 
 causes of infantile mortality besides illegitimacy. When I 
 reported on the hygienic state of the large towns of Lan- 
 cashire in 1846, I was much censured because I dared to 
 show by statistics that the children insured in burial 
 societies died faster than uninsured children. That parents 
 should neglect their children for their burial money is very 
 horrible ; but the conviction that they do so was strongly 
 forced upon me by the evidence, and twenty-eight years 
 later it is again forced on public attention by the far higher 
 authority of the Friendly Societies Commissioners. In
 
 On Public Health. 31 
 
 1846 I also was distressed to find the use of opiates among 
 children very prevalent in manufacturing districts. In this 
 case the motive was not criminal, for the practice had arisen 
 in ignorance of its bad effects. But it was not difficult to 
 trace a large amount of direct and indirect mortality to this 
 pernicious custom. Among children the administration of 
 opiates, under the names of quieters and soothers, is nearly 
 as destructive to health as the excessive use of alcoholic 
 stimulants among adults. The craving for both arises from 
 those depressing physical causes of disease which abound 
 in cities. Dirt and drunkenness are often cause and effect. 
 Indeed, the physical and moral causes of disease are 
 nearly as intimately associated as filth is with the entozoa of 
 which I have already spoken. Shocking and repulsive as 
 some of these causes are, especially in relation to infantile 
 mortality, it is no use for us, like ostriches, to bury our 
 heads in the sand and refuse to see them, for it is the relent- 
 less King Death who is our pursuer. I have sometimes been 
 unwise enough to think that the enormous infantile mortality 
 of our crowded places might be an important provision for 
 securing a more healthy race of survivors in the struggle for 
 existence. But a little reflection shows how untenable such 
 a view is. We might as well suppose that the abnormal 
 waste of a particular organ of the body was best fitted for 
 the health of an individual as to consider that the in- 
 creased mortality of unhealthy districts in a town gave a 
 superior race to its surviving inhabitants. No doubt unsani- 
 tary conditions first sweep off" the weak, and those unfit to 
 live under the continuance of existing causes of disease. 
 But these become stamped at the same time into the organ- 
 isms of the survivors, who carry them through inheritance 
 into succeeding generations, though the original causes may 
 have been removed. The survivors carry with them the 
 seeds with which they have been impregnated during an 
 unhealthy upbringing : —
 
 32 Subjects oe Social Welfare. 
 
 "A man, perhaps the moment of his breath, 
 Receives the lurking principle of death ; 
 The young disease which must subdue at length, 
 Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.' 
 
 We are not always neglectful. Sometimes we look upon a 
 human infant as a dangerous animal that may turn round 
 and bite us when it grows up, and so we give some 
 attention to the children of the dangerous classes, and try 
 to tame them by improving their dens and educating 
 them to a limited degree. But the children of the pro- 
 ductive classes receive no such public care, and they 
 grow up stunted in frame and of low productive value, 
 because the State does not provide for conditions of 
 healthy human development in crowded populations. If 
 babies were pigs, or oxen, or sheep, the Vice-President of 
 the Council would be daily questioned in the House of 
 Commons if any unusual mortality came amongst them ; 
 but being only human infants, no one thinks of their wel- 
 fare. Beasts, with a selling value, are taken more care of 
 than men in free countries. I do not remember the propor- 
 tion of veterinary surgeons to horses, and of surgeons to 
 men in our own army ; but I recollect that Chenu, in describ- 
 ing the late French war, said that every i,ooo horses had 
 4?f veterinary surgeons, while every i,ooo men had only two 
 surgeons. If we succeeded in getting the dwellings of our 
 working classes made as healthy as the cell of the felon — 
 and surely that is not an unattainable luxury — eight years 
 would be added to the jjroductive ability of our working 
 population. 
 
 I have mentioned various subjects in regard to which 
 legislation is promised to us by Government, and I have 
 no doubt of their desire to improve the condition of the 
 people ; but there is among their supporters a strong objec- 
 tion to increase local taxation, and without that large
 
 Oy Public Health, 33 
 
 measures of improvement cannot be carried out. I should 
 like, therefore, to show you by a single illustration how pro- 
 ductive local taxation is. Sanitarians at present are inclined 
 to believe that urban deaths need not exceed 17 in the 
 1,000. Let us assume, in the case of Glasgow, that its 
 death rate might be reduced to that of London — that is, 
 to22"4 in 1,000. In this case, the unnecessary and prevent- 
 able deaths in Glasgow, as compared with London, are 
 3,817 annually. But these deaths imply a far larger number 
 of cases of preventable sickness among the living. Statisti- 
 cal investigations made by Pettenkoffcr show us that for 
 every case of death in public institutions for the sick there 
 are 34 cases of serious sickness, so that the 3,817 unneces- 
 sary deaths must be multiplied by that number in order to 
 give you the minimum cases of preventable sickness. These 
 cases of sickness last on an average i8i- days. Hence the 
 cases of preventable serious sickness, taken at only two shil- 
 lings a day, represent an annual cost to the city of Glasgow 
 of ^240,000. This, however, represents only a portion of 
 the interest of money which might be well spent in pay- 
 ing borrowed capital for the improvement of the city. I 
 put this for the present purposely on the mere money 
 aspect of the question. Emerson's aphorism, " Public 
 health is public wealth," is true even in its more vulgar 
 meaning. Whether the saving of life of human beings, 
 with higher hopes and aspirations than existence in the 
 world, is to be appraised on a mere money standard, is 
 quite another question. My object is simply to show that, 
 taking the smallest part of the money saving, it is obvious 
 that money judiciously spent in sanitary improvement is 
 not unproductive taxation, but capital bearing abundant 
 interest 
 
 I began by discouraging statements of our slow pro- 
 gress in the improvement of the country as a whole. As re- 
 gards Scotland, indeed, I had to admit that the causes of 
 
 D
 
 34 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 deterioration are still more powerful than the means of 
 improving the social condition of the people. If I under- 
 stand my countrymen aright, the conviction of this fact will 
 not render them hopeless, but will stir them to new exer- 
 tions. Yet I would not take leave of you without point- 
 ing out that there is abundant proof that sanitary measures 
 are producing great results when well applied. Take the 
 case of the army, for example. About twenty years ago, 
 if my memory serve me right, I was a commissioner of 
 inquiry into the hygienic condition of military barracks. 
 Then their ventilation was in a woeful condition. I spent 
 various nights in the sleeping-rooms of the soldiers, and 
 found all the hygienic arrangements deplorably bad. Since 
 the Crimean War, the military authorities, aided by the excel- 
 lent hygienists among the medical officers of the army, have 
 placed the health of the army in a much more satisfactory 
 condition, and the result is that the mortality of the army is 
 now less than half of what it was before the war. Our 
 troops in India used to have a death rate of 67 in a thou- 
 sand. This is now (1888) reduced to 20 in a thousand. It 
 is not in our army alone that such results have been produced. 
 Formerly the deaths from sickness in campaigns were four 
 times greater than the deaths from wounds. Every cam- 
 paign now lessens the proportion, because the sanitary con- 
 ditions of the soldier's life, both in peace and war, are much 
 better attended to. In the last war the German troops lost 
 less than a third of their dead by disease, while formerly the 
 loss had been four times that from wounds. The Germans 
 have recently made great advances in the health of their 
 troops. Cleanliness is specially enforced. Means of 
 washing the bodies of half a million soldiers are pro- 
 vided at the cost of a shilling for every hundred men. 
 The mortality of their soldiers in peace is said to be reduced 
 to six in a thousand. The small loss from disease as 
 compared with wounds in the French war, promises
 
 On Public Health. 35 
 
 much for military hygiene in future Cvimpaigns. In 
 the Crimean War, after the sad experience among our 
 own troops owing to defective sanitary organisation, 
 we sent out a sanitary commission, and improved the 
 hygienic condition of our troops, while France failed 
 to do so. And the final result, according to Chenu, 
 is that while we lost 12 in the 1,000 of our men, France 
 lost 155. 
 
 Formerly the rate of mortality in the chief towns of 
 British India, such as Calcutta and Bombay, was appalling ; 
 now, by hygienic improvements, and in spite of the tropical 
 climate, it scarcely exceeds that of Manchester, Liverpool, 
 and Glasgow. 
 
 If I had time I could quote to you many cases in Eng- 
 land where sanitary constructive works have largely reduced 
 the mortality, but I have taxed your patience too long, and 
 must now draw to a conclusion. 
 
 I have indicated the promises of sanitary legislation 
 which have been given to us by the present Government, 
 but to none do I attach more importance than a reorganisa- 
 tion of our system of local government, which the Con- 
 servatives are bound to attempt. If wisely done, its con- 
 sequences may be immensely beneficial. In England, at 
 the present time, there is a casual agglomeration of 1,500 
 separate sanitary authorities, without system or cohesion. 
 Their areas of administration are diverse in the extreme, being 
 neither bounded by counties, parishes, nor natural water- 
 sheds ; and their duties are divided without meaning be- 
 .tween authorities in the same district. They have been 
 lately put under medical officers of health without prepara- 
 tion or qualifications for their duties, some well paid and 
 devoting their time to this important work, others having 
 little more than nominal payment and giving little more than 
 nominal time to their important duties. Notwithstanding 
 this too sudden and unprepared universal appointment 
 D 2
 
 36 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 of medical officers, yet in the administration of the 
 Health Acts there has been recently manifested a dis- 
 position to " distrust the doctors," and to work tlie Acts, 
 at least at headquarters, by lawyers and other persons not 
 connected with the medical profession. This is the old 
 error, which Archbishop Whately and others have so effec- 
 tively condemned, of making common sense the fetish for 
 worship. Even the most fervent worshipper of common 
 sense, as opposed to technical training, never relies on 
 it in important emergencies of his life. He goes to the 
 lawyer to make his will or to convey property ; he consults 
 the parson on religious doubts when on the sick-bed ; and 
 he does not spurn the doctor to cure him of his grievous 
 ailment. Yet it is well known that the Local Government 
 Board are afraid of the doctors in the administration of 
 Health Acts. Who besides them possess the knowledge ? 
 I can testify, from an experience of thirty years in sanitary 
 work — and impartially, because I am not in the medical 
 profession — that there is not a class of men in the counti^ 
 who labour so zealously for the prevention of disease as the 
 doctors, though their training hitherto has been cure, not 
 prevention. Certainly their private interests have never 
 been allowed to stand in the way of their efforts to uproot 
 disease, although their living depends upon its existence. 
 This unselfishness in the application of their science to 
 prevention has always been to me a source of high admira- 
 tion. Why, then, is there this vulgar distrust of the doctors 
 in the administration of our Health Acts? Extend this 
 prejudice against technical knowledge, and how absurd it 
 would be ! Would )'ou improve the progress of telegraphy 
 in this country by suppressing electricians ; or the law and 
 justice of the country by putting down lawyers? Would 
 the Secretary at War promote the conduct of war by sus- 
 pecting soldiers ; or the First Lord of the Admiralty the 
 efficiency of fleets by distrusting sailors ? \\'ould our rail-
 
 On Public Health. 37 
 
 roads and hnrbours be better governed if engineers were held 
 at a discount ? But this is actually the state of things at the 
 Local Government Board — the Health Ministry of the 
 country. The Privy Council handed over to that Board 
 Dr. Simon and his associates, with a wealth of medical 
 experience in public hygiene ; ever since, that wealth has 
 been locked away from public use. Certain I am that 
 their experience could not have guided the Board in the 
 utter confusion of organisation in regard to medical officers 
 of health. They have been appointed without any system. 
 Some have a small parish to attend to ; others have a 
 thousand square miles. The latter, unaided by assistants, 
 have the charge of large areas, made up of separate local 
 boards, over which the medical officer has no authority to 
 enforce the removal of sanitary defaults. The officers of 
 health are without any definite rule for obtaining avail- 
 able knowledge of prevailing sickness, even when it 
 is treated at the public expense within their own dis- 
 tricts ; and they are not, universally at least, informed 
 of the deaths as they occur. The medical officers ot 
 health have been appointed without any examination on 
 their knowledge of State medicine, and in the majority 
 of cases they do not possess this knowledge. I am 
 perfectly certain that this utter confusion could not have 
 resulted had the Local Government Board consulted the 
 experienced State medical officers belonging to them. This 
 distrust of the doctors in higher administration is simply a 
 general mistrust of science. And the time has now arrived 
 when science must be trusted in government. Science is 
 entering into the higher education of the country, and the 
 prejudice against it among legislators, who were educated 
 in classical universities, will in time be removed. For tlie 
 progress of a country depends upon the progress of science, 
 and the welfare of a nation is secured by the most intelli- 
 gent application of science to its manufactures and to its 
 
 439122
 
 38 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 government. The health of the country- — and that governs the 
 productive power of its people — depends as much upon the 
 right application of medical science as the working of a 
 machine depends upon a good application of mechanical laws. 
 To trust the whole administration of Health Acts to poor lavv 
 inspectors and lawyers is an amazing example of unbelief in 
 the first principles of the laws of health. The well-being of 
 the people depends upon physical causes, which, when in- 
 telligently understood, mean physical science, and the trained 
 physician is the natural and most intelligent agent for ex- 
 tending its knowledge and application to the prevention of 
 disease. 
 
 What we want in the future is not new law, but more 
 efficient administration of existing law. To heap up new 
 sanitary law on the decaying mass of indigested sanitary 
 law which already forms a dismal agglomeration, is like the 
 practice of our ancestors, who thought that a few clean 
 rushes, thrown upon the corrupt mass of foul rushes on 
 the floor, sufficed for sanitary purposes. What we want is 
 superior organisation and efficient administration of existing 
 law. But, in our happy-go-lucky st}le of government, are 
 we likely to get it ? It would be as absurd to put a man 
 trained in physical science at the head of the branch of 
 police and justice, as it is to put a man merely trained in 
 law in charge of the physical interests of the people. It is 
 an exploded fallacy that only lawyers are good men of 
 business, and that scientific men are not. Is my friend Sir 
 John Lubbock a worse banker because he is an eminent 
 man of science ? Is Mr. Spottiswoode a worse printer 
 because he has distinguished himself as a physicist ? Is 
 Mr. Warren De La Rue a worse stationer because he is 
 equally conspicuous as an astronomer and as a chemist? 
 The local government'of the country, in as far as it relates 
 to the physical interests of the peojjle, will remain an 
 example of arrested development, unless science receives a
 
 0>r Public Health. 39 
 
 recognised position in its administration. Now, the Local 
 Government Board is drifting into the i)Osition of a large 
 and responsible ministry dealing with the physical interests 
 of only one portion of the people, and having no imperial 
 object or comprehensiveness ; for though it includes Eng- 
 land, it excludes both Scotland and Ireland. 
 
 I have already shown that the sanitary conditions of 
 Scotland are deteriorating, while those of England are 
 improving. The natural course of administration, then, 
 should be to bestow upon the former even a greater portion 
 of ministerial care and responsibility; but it receives none 
 at all. The time may, however, arrive when English legis- 
 lators will remember that there is a certain portion of Great 
 Britain to the north of the Tweed, and that its local govern- 
 ment, as well as that of England, is worthy of imperial 
 care. In questions of such imperial importance as educa- 
 tion and public health, it is a foolish policy to treat the 
 three parts of the kingdom by fragmentary and unconnected 
 legislation. In relation to sanitary questions, public con- 
 science has been recently much aroused, and will ultimately 
 obtain attention to its calls. No doubt sanitary science, 
 both in the abstract and in its application, is, like many 
 other sciences, of slow growth. The crop of truths which 
 we are now harvesting results mainly from seed sown by 
 our forefathers. The seed which we ourselves may throw 
 upon the waters will assuredly come up into a harvest, 
 though it may not be for many days. But he who will not 
 sow for futurity deserves nothing from the past. It is our 
 duty to labour for a future which we may never see, and not 
 merely to live on the wealth of accumulated experience, 
 as the heir of riches does when he uses them for himself 
 alone. This Association contains many missionaries for 
 the propagation of sanitary knowledge. Their mission is to 
 stand between the living and the dead, and bid the plague 
 to cease. There have been times when a Scotch professor
 
 4© SuBfECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 like myself dared not have preached such doctrines in 
 Scotland, for his countrymen once hugged the belief that 
 pestilences were divine judgments, which ought not to be 
 interfered with by human agency. Even then they forgot 
 that there is far more of mercy than of wrath in all divine 
 arrangements. Undoubtedly pestilences are warnings that 
 man is transgressing the beneficent laws provided for his well- 
 being. But a god of wrath and pestilence is now a god of 
 the heathen, not of the Christian. That ought to have been 
 understood long ago. The prophet heard the wind which 
 clave the rocks, but the voice of God was not in the wind. 
 He felt the earthquake which shook the world, but the 
 voice of God was not in the earthquake. He saw the fire, 
 as it pursued its track of desolation, but the voice of God 
 was not in the fire. It was only after these terrors had 
 passed away that the prophet heard the voice of God as a 
 still, small voice. That whispers to us still, not in plagues 
 and pestilences, but, when these dangers have passed, as an 
 ever-present voice in all the ordinary occurrences of our 
 lives. It tells us of the beneficent wisdom which regulates 
 all the laws of creation made for our well-being, and not for 
 our destruction. It is by disobedience to them that we are 
 punished by 125,000 persons being unnecessarily cut off 
 every year in this country. Our own acts produce those 
 demons of destruction which the Jews of old credited with 
 the slaughter of the people, and by our own acts we can 
 convert them into preserving angels. I think it is in the 
 epilogue to " The Honest Man of Fortune " that Beaumont 
 and Fletcher thus describe our responsibilities for what 
 befalls us : — 
 
 " Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, 
 Our fatal shadows that walk by us still." 
 
 The object of the health section of this Association is 
 to show our countrymen how this sacrifice of preventable
 
 On Public Health. 41 
 
 deaths may be avoided. That number of deaths implies 
 more than four million two hundred thousand cases of 
 preventable sickness. It is upon these that we must operate, 
 by rooting out the causes which produce them. I began 
 by drawing your attention to the death rates of the country. 
 These have been derived from the excellent system of 
 death registration which we now possess. But there is 
 another system of registration which it would be important 
 to add to our sanitary records — the registration of sickness. 
 Registration of deaths represents the wrecks which strew 
 the shore, while that of sickness would tell us of the coming 
 storms, and enable us to trim our vessels to meet them. 
 Till we have such a system of disease registration, public 
 health cannot be administered with full intelligence. We 
 must not forget that the function of the sanitarian is pre- 
 vention. His function begins and ends before man reaches 
 his final state of decay, " or ever the silver cord be loosed 
 or the golden bowl be broken .... or the wheel be broken 
 at the cistern." When this wheel, or circulation of the 
 blood, is broken, a new and a great wheel begins, involving 
 in its rotation all organic and inorganic matter. In this 
 there is the highest example to us of hygienic organisation. 
 You know how the waste of animals during life, and of 
 their bodies after death, passes into the gaseous forms of 
 carbonic acid water, and ammonia. These substances form 
 the aerial food of plants, which, in fixing and moulding some 
 of their constituents into new forms of organic life, purify 
 the atmosphere of its noxious products, and restore the life- 
 giving oxygen abstracted in the respiration of animals. 
 Thus plants convert the foul products of animals into new 
 food necessary for their growth and development. The 
 great and abounding air into which passes all the foulness 
 of the living, and all the putrid products of tne dead, 
 becomes at once the grave of organic death and the cradle 
 of organic life. In this wonderful circle death and life
 
 42 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 rapidly appear in correlation ; and past generations of 
 animals, by a process of dissolution, produce living genera- 
 tions by a process of evolution. All this is in the harmony 
 of nature, without jar or disturbance. We should strive, in 
 our hygienic efforts, to take part in this great circle, without 
 vainly attempting either by ignorance or by design to mar 
 such wonderfully-conceived plans for preserving the world in 
 purity and sanity.
 
 SLEEP, 
 
 AND SOME OF ITS CONCOMITANT PHENOMENA. 
 
 Note. — This lecture was delivered at the Royal Institution, Man- 
 chester, in 1846, and published in \\iQ Northern Journal of Medicine 
 in that year. As I think, even now, that it contains an adequate 
 explanation of sleep, I publish it, with only some trifling additions, 
 showing that modern discoveries have given confirmation to tlie views 
 then expressed. — L. P. 
 
 The researches of Liebig have lately shown that much in- 
 formation may be obtained regarding the processes of life 
 in the animal economy, even when these cannot be sub- 
 jected to direct experiment. Thus he has thrown consider- 
 able light on the phenomena of motion, by applying to their 
 elucidation chemical laws, which analogy led him to expect 
 would come into operation during the exhibition of these 
 phenomena. There are many other processes to which he 
 has not devoted attention, and which seem to be explicable 
 on like principles. One of these— the subject of Sleep — is 
 of great importance in its relations to medical practice, and 
 yet very little is known of its cause, or of the chemical state 
 of the body during its occurrence. Park, in his able 
 Memoir "On the Causes of Sleep and Dreaming," has 
 pointed out the errors of those physiologists who preceded 
 him in investigations on this subject ; but he has not suc- 
 ceeded in doing more than establishing that certain physio- 
 logical states of the body offer inducements to sleep, 
 without showing in what manner these contribute to the 
 production of a quiescent state of the mind. He considers
 
 44 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 that the true causes of sleep are, the periodical diminution in 
 the action of the heart, and simultaneous relaxation of the 
 vessels of the brain, by which a slower though fuller circula- 
 tion of blood dirough the brain is effected. This merely 
 describes a physiological state of the body, without showing 
 in what manner that state favours the quiescence of the 
 mind. It therefore does not furnish an explanation of 
 sleep, but merely points out the condition of the body 
 which induces the repose of the mind. A more accurate 
 explanation is therefore desirable, in order that we may fully 
 understand the circumstances which predispose to sleep, or 
 occasion wakefulness. 
 
 In the present attempt to show what chemistry seems to 
 point out as the probable cause of sleep, and of its con- 
 comitant phenomena, I do so more with the object of 
 drawing attention to the subject, than with a view to insist on 
 the perfect accuracy of the chemical explanation. Chemists 
 are too apt to fall into the error of converting the animal 
 body into a laboratory ; and therefore it is the duty of the 
 physiologist to watch their steps narrowly, and prevent the 
 evils which may arise from this error. On this account I 
 wish the views here given to be only accredited so far as 
 they stand in unison with the acknowledged experience of 
 medical practice. 
 
 The production of animal heat, according to the chemi- 
 cal view of the subject, is due to the union of oxygen with 
 certain constituents of food, or with the tissues already 
 formed. The carnivora depend wholly on the waste of the 
 muscular tissues for the maintenance of the heat of their 
 bodies, for the flesh on which they subsist is destitute of 
 the unazotized organic constituents which are employed 
 in supporting the jjroper temperature of the herbivora. 
 Liebig has gone far to prove that the oxidation, or waste 
 of tissues in the carnivora, takes place only when the vital 
 powers are employed in the execution of a movement re-
 
 Sleep, and some of its Concomitant Phenomena. 45 
 
 quired by the will — at a time, therefore, when they are not 
 engaged in resisting the encroachments of chemical affinity, 
 represented in the body by the oxygen contained in arterial 
 blood. He has also shown that the waste of the muscular 
 tissues of the herbivora is effected under similar conditions. 
 According to this theory, there cannot be a movement in 
 the body without a corresponding waste (oxygenation) of 
 matter in the organ subjected to motion. The circulation 
 of blood in the body, and the constant conversion of venous 
 into arterial blood, afford an abundant supply of oxygen 
 to replace that expelled from the system in the excretions. 
 These consist mainly of carbonic acid (COo) and of urea, 
 which is an amido-carbonic acid CO, (NHj)^- 
 
 Whilst the animal receives a quantity of food sufficient 
 to restore the matter carried off by oxygen, there are ex- 
 hibited no peculiar phenomena. But when it is deprived 
 of food, as in the case of starvation, the changes of matter 
 which occur in the system are characteristic and worthy of 
 attention. As the oxygen of the blood does not now meet 
 food, with which to unite, it seizes upon the vital tissues 
 themselves, and effects their destruction. The sufferer now 
 becomes rapidly emaciated, and the urine is observed to 
 contain an excessive quantity of the products which result 
 from a waste of the tissues. After this emaciation has pro- 
 ceeded for some time, the substance of the brain begins to 
 yield to the destructive action, and, according to the rapidity 
 of its waste, excited action or delirious paroxysms ensue. 
 Then the heart becomes enfeebled, the blood flows less 
 quickly than it did before, the delirium subsides, and the 
 patient dies from exhaustion. The phenomena observed 
 in fever, and produced, according to chemists, by the en- 
 trance into the body of a substance already in a state of 
 oxidation, either as a specific contagion, by the intrusion of 
 certain specific living cells or microphytes, or as malarious 
 matter, are precisely of a similar character. The point in
 
 46 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 its progress, bearing upon our present subject, is the in- 
 crease of force in the involuntary organs, which in time 
 passes over to the voluntary organs, and to the brain, pro- 
 ducing, as in the former case, delirious paroxysms. 
 
 The great distinction between animal and vegetable life 
 is volition : vegetables, not being possessed of volition, are 
 constantly engaged in increasing their fabric ; and, therefore, 
 when volition ceases in the animal, it is aptly said to have 
 a vegetative life, for the vital powers are employed in in- 
 creasing the mass of the body. Sleep is the time when an 
 animal becomes assimilated to a vegetable. Physiologists 
 have shown that the two most marked points during sleep 
 are diminished respiration and decreased circulation. They 
 are agreed that, towards the evening, or at the lapse of a 
 certain number of hours of work, the involuntary organs, 
 the heart and lungs, lose their wonted activity, and suffer a 
 periodical diminution of action. Blumenbach describes 
 the case of a patient trepanned, in whom the brain was 
 observed to sink during sleep and enlarge on waking, 
 obviously arising from the circulation being diminished in 
 the former state and increased in the latter. The conse- 
 quence of this diminution is, that less oxygen is taken into 
 the system. Hence the proportion of venous blood is in- 
 creased, and the waste caused by arterial blood diminished. 
 The skull, being a close cavity, must contain a larger pro- 
 portion of venous, if there be a diminution of arterial blood 
 in the body. It is the latter alone which can cause the 
 waste of the brain, for venous blood has already parted 
 with its oxygen to materials met with in its course. [Modern 
 researches have conclusively proved that during sleep the 
 brain is in a condition of anemia, or partially bloodless 
 state. The temperature of the body falls from half a degree 
 to even two degrees in profound sleep. The pulse is less 
 frequent, the respiratory movements fewer in number and 
 almost wholly thoracic. Mosso, in 1881, showed, by the
 
 Sleep, and some of its Concomitant Phenomena. 47 
 
 graphic method, that there is a lessened amount of blood 
 in the brain and an increased amount in the extretuities 
 during slecj). Helmholtz found a large diminution of 
 oxidation during sleep, for while the amount of heat or 
 "calorics" was only 40 per hour, it increased to 112 during 
 wakefulness. All the recent researches have been con- 
 firmatory of the views given in this address.] 
 
 Matter in a state of inertia can never manifest the 
 existence of a power. Its motion alone shows that some 
 power is in operation. If the portion of matter used as the 
 organ of manifestation be placed in such a condition as 
 to render that manifestation impossible, there is no evi- 
 dence to the external world that power was exerted. It 
 has been perfectly demonstrated, that every manifestation 
 of power in the voluntary organs is accompanied by a 
 change in the matter of which they consist. The changed 
 matter being now unfit for vital structures is separated from 
 the body. Miiller and other eminent physiologists are of 
 opinion that tlie same change takes place in the brain, the 
 organ of the mind. In fact, the contrary opinion involves 
 such violation of analogy, that its adoption, unless founded 
 on the strongest grounds, is inadmissible. We look upon 
 a spot attentively; it gradually waxes dimmer, until it finally 
 disappears. We think upon a particular subject ; in time 
 our thoughts are less clear, soon they become strangely 
 confused, and we are obliged to give up the attempt at 
 concentration, by thinking on a subject quite different from 
 that which first engaged our thoughts. This of course 
 implies that the organs of manifestation have become in 
 part destroyed, and that the mind cannot manifest itself to 
 the world, until the impaired organs have attained their 
 proper integrity ; for it cannot be conceived that the mind, 
 disconnected with matter, could suffer exhaustion. This 
 involves, it is true, the idea that different parts of the brain 
 are employed in different manifestations, but we know that
 
 48 Su/jjECTS OF Social JVelfare. 
 
 as far as sensation and intellect are concerned, this is the 
 case, and probability indicates a still more minute division. 
 If, therefore, the brain suffer changes, as do the other organs 
 of the body, by their exercise, there is as much necessity for 
 repose in the action of the brain, as there is for a vegetative 
 state of existence to reinstate in their full integrity the 
 organs of volition. Hence the necessity for that quiescent 
 state of the mind known as sleep, when its manifestations 
 cease. The waste of cerebral substance could only have 
 been occasioned by oxygen, which is the only ultimate 
 cause of waste, as far as we are aware, in the animal 
 economy. A deficiency in its supply would therefore 
 retard waste, and allow vitality to remodel its impaired 
 structures. 
 
 Such, then, is the state into which the body is thrown by 
 the periodical diminution in the action of the heart and 
 lungs. The less rapidly that the heart beats, the less 
 rapidly can the blood be aerated, and the oxygen-bearing 
 fluid can be supplied to the brain. The slower that the 
 lungs act, the slower must oxygen enter the system to 
 supply the diminished circulation. And as the brain in 
 sleep is not in a state in which it can change, from a defici- 
 ency in the supply of oxygen, the consequence is (if it be 
 admitted that the manifestation of thought and sensation is 
 accompanied by changes in the material substance of the 
 brain) that the manifestations of the mind are prevented, 
 and it becomes no longer apparent to the external world. 
 
 This, then, is Sleep. If the theory be correct, it 
 must be able to explain the various circumstances which 
 occasion or act as predisposing causes to the production of 
 this state, and if it fail in the explanation of any of these, 
 then is the theory imperfect ; but if it explain more of 
 them than the other theories usually received, such as 
 those of Cullen, Blumenbach, Park, and others, it deserves 
 to be considered as a nearer approximation to the truth,
 
 Sleep, and some of its Concomitant Phenomena. 49 
 
 and the cases which it fails to comprehend may be included 
 as our knowledge adv'ances. 
 
 The first point demanding consideration is, how it 
 happens that a recumbent posture is favourable to sleep. 
 Park justly ascribes this to the diminished pressure of the 
 blood on the heart. The weight of the column of blood 
 from the head to the heart, estimated by Hales as equal in 
 force to five pounds, is removed, and thus its distending 
 force is diminished. The heart now relaxes, and the blood, 
 therefore, is sent less quickly through the system. Having, 
 by the horizontal posture assumed, acquired a retarded 
 flow, the blood now comes less rapidly in contact with the 
 organs of respiration, on which the same posture has pro- 
 duced a diminished action, and thus the quantity of arterial 
 blood in the body becomes diminished. Though all the 
 vessels in the brain may remain as full as they did before, 
 yet, by the deficient supply of oxygen, or, in other words, 
 of arterial blood, and by the retarded circulation of that 
 which does exist in the cavity of the skull, the causes of 
 waste are diminished, and, therefore, according to the theory, 
 sleep is produced. For the same reason, sleep ensues 
 when the aorta of an animal is tied, or when arterial 
 blood is removed in large quantity from the body by 
 excessive bleeding. Bichat has shown that when venous 
 blood is withdrawn from a vein and projected into an artery, 
 sleep ensues, amounting to asphyxia, or even to death. The 
 later researches of Dr. Kay-Shuttleworth have proved that 
 part of the results obtained by Bichat might have been due 
 to an increased pressure on the brain. Increased pressure 
 in a close cavity like the skull means the expulsion of 
 arterial blood from the brain, the very condition for coma. 
 The action of anaesthetics, like ether and chloroform, in 
 producing sleep, may possibly be owing to their power of 
 arresting oxidation, just as the vapour of turpentine stops 
 the oxidation of phosphorus in air. A diffused vapour in 
 
 £
 
 50 Subjects of Socjal Welfare. 
 
 the brain which arrests oxidation must, according to the 
 theory, produce sleep. 
 
 Anything which removes the oxygen from the blood 
 will in the same manner cause sleep. This is particularly 
 apparent in the debauch of a drunkard. The drunkard 
 takes alcoholic liquors with the production of two oppo- 
 site effects. At first his heart beats rapidly, the blood 
 flows more quickly, and he enters into that stage of fever 
 which I described at the outset of the paper, in which 
 the rapidity of circulation causes such an enormous supply 
 of oxygen to the brain that its substance wastes so ra- 
 pidly as to become unfitted for the seat of the intellect, 
 and delirium ensues. But even while this delirium is at 
 its height, the vapour of the alcohol is penetrating by 
 diffusion every part of his body. Its hydrogen and its car- 
 bon are converting arterial blood into venous by depriv- 
 ing the former of oxygen, which is its essential character- 
 istic. The delirium now subsides ; but the alcohol carries 
 on its work of depriving the blood of oxygen, and the 
 latter, now not reaching the brain in quantity as it did 
 before, prevents change in its substance, and the drunkard 
 falls down in deep stupor or sleep. To restore him from this 
 state, we withdraw the combustible fluid from the stomach 
 by means of the stomach-pump, and by ammonia and other 
 stimulants endeavour to excite respiration and circulation, 
 in order that the alcohol may be more speedily consumed. 
 
 The action of alcohol differs from that of opium or nar- 
 cotics, because the permanent effect of the latter, whatever 
 the first transitory effect may be, is to diminish the action 
 of the heart and lungs, and therefore the sleep thus 
 occasioned is brought about by causes exactly similar to 
 those which in the natural state of health produce ordinary 
 sleep. 
 
 The tendency to sleep in different animals is in inverse 
 proportion to the amount of oxygen consumed by them, and
 
 Sleep, and some of its Concomitant Phenomena. 51 
 
 to the amount of carbonic acid produced. Thus, reptiles 
 and the naked amphibia produce, relative to their weight, 
 according to the experiments of Miiller, one-tenth the amount 
 of carbonic acid evolved by mammalia, and one-nineteenth 
 that of birds. We have no numbers to express the tendency 
 to sleep of these animals, but it is known that reptiles are 
 peculiarly liable to be in a state of torpor or sleep ; while 
 birds are, on the contrary, wakeful animals. A reptile, such 
 as a frog, will exist in a state of torpor for twelve hours in 
 an atmosphere of pure hydrogen gas, while birds die in 
 the same number of seconds with the ordinary symptoms 
 of asphyxia. Hydrogen gas, when respired with air, gives 
 a tendency to sleep, as shown by the experiments of Allan 
 and Pepys, probably owing to the conversion of arterial into 
 venous blood, as ^n the case of alcohol. The same cir- 
 cumstance of a diminished supply of oxygen to the blood, 
 which induces sleep in reptiles, acts also in different mam- 
 malia in the promotion of this state, according to the rela- 
 tive size of their lungs. Possibly, the tendency to sleep or 
 wakefulness in different men may be due to the same cause. 
 The only explanation which I have seen of the tendency 
 to sleep after a heavy and excessive dinner is that first pro- 
 mulgated, I believe, by Macnish, who ascribes it to the 
 drafting away of a large amount of sensorial or nervous 
 power from the brain to complete the digestion of the 
 excess of food in the stomach. This implies the neces- 
 sity for considering the first act of digestion as an act con- 
 nected with the nervous centres, of which, to say the 
 least, there are great doubts. The drafting of sensorial 
 power — that is, as I take it, of power connected with the 
 operation of the mind ; for, if not, its removal could not 
 favour the quiescence of the latter — is a mode of explana- 
 tion which must, be considered very improbable. I am 
 not aware that an inducement to sleep is in general ex- 
 perienced when a small quantity of an indigestible food is 
 E 2
 
 ■52 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 taken into the stomach ; and yet this ought to be the case, 
 according to the vigw of Macnish. The tendency to sleep 
 is occasioned when the stomach is too much distended by 
 an excess of food (or if it do occur with a small quantity of 
 an indigestible aliment, then there is an excessive flow of 
 arterial blood to the stomach to assist in the more rapid 
 oxidation of its coat, to assist in the formation of the peculiar 
 substance termed pepsin). The consequence of this dis- 
 tension is, that the diaphragm which separates the intestines 
 from the heart and lungs is pushed upwards against the 
 latter, encroaching upon the space which ought to be occu- 
 pied by them, thus preventing their free play, or, in other 
 words, depriving the blood of its proper supply of oxygen, 
 and therefore producing sleep. A person subject to sleep 
 after dinner experiences a sensation of cold, obviously 
 arising from the diminished oxidation in his body. If this 
 cold continue, sleep is prevented ; because it excites — as 
 cold generally does — the respiratory organs to greater ac- 
 tivity, and this activity acts as an antagonist to sleep, or 
 in fact neutralises the effects arising from the pressure of 
 the diaphragm against the lungs. Hence it is that such 
 persons draw their seats towards the tire. The warmth of 
 the fire prevents the increased action of the lungs which are 
 excited to activity by a diminution in the temperature of 
 the body, and as they now remain in quiescence sleep 
 ensues. Hence, also, a gentle walk after dinner removes 
 the tendency to sleep by accelerating the play of the 
 lungs, which now, by their increased action, introduce 
 sufficient oxygen into the system to prevent sleep. It is 
 also possible that the increased flow of arterial blood to the 
 stomach after a heavy meal may cause a tendency to sleep 
 by withdrawing a corresponding quantity from the brain. 
 Insomnia is sometimes relieved by putting the feet into hot 
 water, which, by withdrawing the blood from the brain, 
 favours sleep. The effect occasioned by the pressure of
 
 Sleep, and some of its Concomitant Phenomena. 53 
 
 the diaphragm on the lungs until the distension has ceased, 
 is analogous to the more permanent effects produced in 
 fat individuals. It is well known that very fat people 
 are peculiarly prone to sleep. The fat accumulates 
 round the viscera, pushes up the diaphragm, and lodging 
 around the heart and edges of the lungs, the latter by 
 all these causes are compelled to play in smaller space, 
 and soon become permanently contracted. Hence, any 
 cause which occasions diminished respiration in such an 
 individual will cause him to fall asleep, by diminishing fur- 
 ther the supply of oxygen to the system. The mere 
 diminution in the action of the lungs produced by sit- 
 ting often occasions sleep in such persons. In their 
 case, the further protrusion of the diaphragm after meals 
 almost invariably produces sleep. This is more marked 
 in animals fattened for the butcher. Pigs in the last 
 stage of fattening exhibit this disposition in a marked man- 
 ner. After distending their stomachs with food, they give 
 a few ineffectual attempts at an active respiration, and fall 
 into deep sleep. The cause is the same as that first stated 
 — namely, the pressure of the diaphragm against the lungs, 
 which prevents a proper supply of oxygen from entering the 
 system. Macnish was not wrong in his observation that 
 the sensorial power became diminished in the brain after a 
 heavy dinner ; but he mistook the effect for the cause, 
 when he attributed the tendency to sleep to the abstraction 
 of this power. The diminution of the quantity of arterial 
 blood in the cavity of the skull appears to be the true cause 
 of sleep in this case ; and the decrease of sensorial power is 
 a consequence, but not the cause, of the sleep. It cannot 
 be considered that the absence of a disposition to sleep in 
 some kinds of dropsy, in which the diaphragm is pushed 
 against the lungs, forms a decided objection to the view 
 given of the tendency to sleep after dinner ; because the 
 contraction of the lungs being gradual, nature suits itself
 
 54 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 to the circumstances by exciting a more rapid respiration. 
 Besides, the results occurring in the diseased state ought not 
 to be considered strictly parallel to those we would expect 
 if the body were in health. 
 
 Perhaps I might venture to throw out this view as 
 explanatory of the winter sleep of hibernating animals. In 
 summer these animals accumulate fat in their bodies ; pro- 
 bably from the very fact of the smallness of their lungs, 
 which prevents the entrance of a sufficient supply of oxygen 
 to convert the unazotised portion of their food into carbonic 
 acid and water. This fat, accumulating around the caul 
 and loins, pushes forward the diaphragm against the lungs. 
 The fat also gathers round the edges of the heart and lungs, 
 and still further diminishes the space in which the latter 
 ought to play. Thus respiration is greatly retarded, in con- 
 sequence of which the animal falls asleep. This explanation 
 accords with the interesting experiments of Saissy, who has 
 shown that hibernating animals decompose most air when 
 they are in a state of greatest activity, that they respire 
 less during autumn as their fat accumulates, and that the 
 respiration becomes extremely feeble at the commencement 
 of their winter sleep, and ceases altogether when that sleep 
 becomes profound. Spallanzani has confirmed this fact, 
 showing that there must be a cutaneous respiration, for a 
 small amount of carbonic acid is evolved, although the lungs 
 cease to act. During the long-continued sleep of the hi- 
 bernating animals, the lungs play slowly ; in fact, several 
 minutes often elapse between each respiration, and the 
 diminished state of oxidation is proved by the reduced 
 temperature of their bodies, which is generally not higher 
 than four degrees above that of the surrounding medium. 
 In this state they are like lamps slowly burning, their fat 
 being the oil, and the lungs the wick of the lamp. It is 
 true that cold is favourable to the production of hiberna- 
 tion, and this is not in opposition to the theory ; but
 
 Sleep, and soa/e of its Concomitant Phenomena. 55 
 
 Berthold has shown that hibernation takes place in a warm 
 as well as in a cold atmosphere. If our view be correct, 
 very fat animals should show a similar disposition to sleep, 
 and it is known that a pig in its last stage of fattening is 
 rarely awake. Instances have occurred in which pigs, being 
 placed in a favourable condition, have actually proved their 
 capability of being in a state of hibernation. Thus Martell, 
 in the " Linncean Transactions," describes the case of a fat 
 pig overwhelmed with a slip of earth, which lived 160 
 days without food, and was found to have diminished in 
 weight in that time more than 120 pounds, an instance 
 quite analogous to the state of hibernation. 
 
 It is well known that intense cold is a powerful induce- 
 ment to sleep. This effect is partly mechanical. The vessels 
 containing blood become contracted ; the blood itself 
 becomes more dense, and flows more sluggishly; and 
 consequently the brain, from the operation of both these 
 causes, is less freely supplied with arterial blood. The 
 theory, therefore, explains the result. This is the case 
 only with extreme cold, for a slightly reduced temperature, 
 instead of promoting, often retards sleep. But here also 
 the theory is true to itself, for slight cold is known to 
 increase the rapidity of respiration, and therefore causes 
 an increased supply of oxygen to the system. Slight cold 
 cannot act in this way so easily in the case of hibernating 
 animals as in others, because the accumulation of fat, and 
 enlargement of the glands in the chest and neck, press upon 
 the respiratory nerves and prevent their proper action. 
 
 If, then, it be true, that before the mind can manifest 
 itself to the external world, its organ, the brain, must be in 
 the position to unite with oxygen, anything which tends to 
 withdraw it from that position must cause an impairment 
 of the faculties, even if the cause do not operate with suffi- 
 cient intensity to produce sleep. This is very apparent in 
 the cold stage of ague, when the blood circulates slowly
 
 56 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 through the body. In fever, on the other hand, when 
 the blood rushes in a torrent through the system, the mind 
 becomes acutely sensible to every perception. In fever 
 also we find little disposition to sleep ; and when this does 
 occur, it is restless and disordered, accompanied by troubled 
 dreams. The chemistry of this disease affords us an 
 instructive lesson with regard to phenome-na resulting in the 
 case of health. There are two states into which organic 
 matter passes — Decay, being the change which ensues when 
 a large supply of oxygen is present, and when the small 
 living organisms which exercise so much influence upon it 
 are able to appropriate this element ; Putrefaction, when 
 that supply is deficient. During the waking state in fever, 
 decay or eremacausis proceeds rapidly, and delirium, the 
 consequence of this state, appears when the heart beats 
 quickly and the lungs play strongly ; in other words, when 
 the greatest supply of arterial blood is sent through the 
 system. But during night, when the oxygen-bearing blood 
 is decreased in quantity by diminished respiration — when 
 oxygen is therefore not present in quantity sufficient to com- 
 bine with the changing matter — then it passes over into 
 putrefaction, indicated by the blue spots which then ap- 
 pear. This view of fever, either as exhibited in fevers of 
 the typhoid type, or those occurring in malignant forms of 
 disease, is not unimportant. If the appearance of petechiae 
 during sleep be, as I suppose, an indication that the body 
 has passed over from the chemical state of eremacausis to 
 that of putrefaction, from a deficiency in the supply of 
 oxygen, then the means for the prevention of these states 
 are very different, and the practice in the treatment might 
 be made to suit the periodicity of the return. I throw this 
 out as a mere suggestion for further inquiry. But there are 
 numerous points in support of this view. It is only in 
 the absence of increased action that we observe the am- 
 moniacal nature of the excretions, or the peculiar odour of
 
 Sleep, AiVD some of jts Concomitant Phenomena. 57 
 
 the breath which indicates a state of change, the very re- 
 verse of that of eremacausis. In this state, even on the 
 old system of treatinent, bleeding was not resorted to, but, 
 on the contrary, stimulants were employed to cause in- 
 creased circulation ; for experience pointed out that the 
 change thus begun is that which continues when vitality has 
 left the body. 
 
 This case affords a clue not only to the explanation of 
 chronic wakefulness, but also to wakefulness under ordinary 
 circumstances. Some organic matter, in a state of decay, or, 
 perhaps, some living organism capable of growth and multi- 
 plication, has entered the body, and has thrown the blood 
 into a state of change. To prevent any dispute as to 
 the kind of matter, let us take the case of sympathetic 
 fever, or of an allied disease. A patient enters the hos- 
 pital with a fractured bone, the case goes on favourably, 
 nothing is at first observed but local irritation ; then it may 
 assume a malignant form — pus, obviously by its odour in a 
 state of change, is observed to collect. Then some of this 
 is absorbed into the blood (for Gulliver states that he has 
 found it there), and communicates to that fluid the same state 
 of change which we now know is owing to the multiplication 
 of living organisms. Then fever, called sympathetic, ensues ; 
 but if it be " sympathy," it is sympathy exerted by one 
 matter upon another, as a decaying orange excites decay in 
 a fresh orange. This fever, be it observed, does not arise 
 usually when an abscess is unbroken. It is generally 
 excited when the pus has come in contact with air, and has 
 received the living germs. We try to prevent this by means 
 of pouhices, these poultices being made of materials which 
 will of themselves unite with oxygen, and thus prevent it 
 acting on the pus. Occasionally poultices are used made 
 of yeast and flour, as in the cataplasma fermenti of the 
 London Pharmacopoeia, the object being to surround the 
 pus with an atmosphere of carbonic acid, and thus prevent
 
 jS Subjects of Social IVelfare. 
 
 the access of oxygen. The most favourite poultice in use 
 is that made with linseed, which from its oil and mucilage 
 possesses a powerful affinity for oxygen. Very probably the 
 oxidation in these cases favours the growth of the micro- 
 phytes which enter the blood and which require for their 
 growth oxygen. The state of change, being once excited 
 goes on, and cannot be arrested without vigorous measures ; 
 sometimes not at all until death ensues, from the combined 
 effects of decay and putrefaction following each other as 
 the oxygen is sufficient or deficient. The point to be ob- 
 served is this, that the change in the blood, once begun, is 
 with difficulty arrested ; the disposition to oxygenise is com- 
 municated, and if there be oxygen sufficient, matter will be 
 oxidised. Then, to apply this to our subject, the brain 
 becomes excited by intense thought, by the exercise of 
 imagination, by exciting scenes of amusement, or by what- 
 ever cause it may be. The mind, being called into full 
 exercise, must in its manifestations cause a change of matter 
 in the organ in which it resides. In this case the change 
 of matter is excessive, and the tendency to oxidation is 
 communicated to the part of the brain contiguous to that 
 in a state of change. This also becomes oxidised, and the 
 cerebral substance does not get into that state which favours 
 the quiescent state of the mind known as sleep. The 
 student, after severe and exciting study, is familiar with this 
 state of wakefulness. If his studies have been such as to 
 demand the exercise of his reason, on retiring to rest he 
 endeavours to force his attention into subjects the reverse of 
 the former, generally those of imagination. In other words, 
 he endeavours to withdraw the mind from manifesting itself 
 through that portion of matter which is thrown into a state 
 of change, and by so doing it gradually resumes a state of 
 tranquillity, and sleep then ensues. But if, by excessive or 
 diseased action, such as in insanity, the inflamed (oxygen- 
 ising) matter cannot be made to yield its tendency to change,
 
 Sleep, and some of its Concomitant Phenomena. 59 
 
 then chronic wakefulness ensues, so often seen in the case 
 of the insane. To reduce this state, we endeavour to 
 extinguish the eremacausis, by lowering the temperature 
 either by cold ablution or by ice, or by administering opium 
 to diminish respiration and circulation. As soon as the 
 change is arrested in the substance of the brain (what 
 physicians call "inflammation," which chemists interpret 
 " union with oxygen "), the brain is placed in a state unfit 
 for being the organ of manifestation, and sleep ensues. The 
 wakefulness of patients afflicted with delirium tremens is 
 obviously connected with the amount of arterial blood and 
 consequent inflammation and oxygenation of the brain ; 
 and as disease is merely a disturbance of the equilibrium in 
 the causes of waste and those of supply, any magnified ex- 
 hibition of a phenomenon occurring in disease must have 
 its reduced analogue in the ordinary state of health. Wake- 
 fulness is that analogue, being a tendency to excessive 
 change in particular i:)arts of the brain, induced, it is true, 
 not primarily by the change, but by the activity of the 
 mind itself requiring that change to aid in its manifesta- 
 tion. Follow the analogy, and we come to dreaming, 
 which, apart from its metajihysical aspect, is a physiological 
 phenomenon, so far as concerns the state of the matter of 
 the brain during its occurrence. In fever and insanity we 
 attempt to reduce the keen perceptions or delirium by the 
 exhibition of remedies calculated to diminish the waste of 
 matter in the brain. Blood is sometimes withdrawn from 
 the system for the purpose of diminishing the number 
 of the carriers of oxygen. Narcotics are administered 
 in order to decrease the number of respirations, and 
 to diminish circulation. In extreme cases, large doses of 
 branciy or other alcoholic liquors are exhibited, for the 
 combined purpose of depriving the blood of oxygen and 
 of arresting putrefaction. 
 
 By all these acts it is admitted that the excessive waste
 
 6o SuByECTs OF Social Welfare. 
 
 or oxygenation of the substance of the brain renders it un- 
 fitted for the proper action of the mind. It is admitted that 
 the rapid change of matter prevents the brain attaining that 
 state which favours the quiescence of the mind. How it 
 does so we do not know, and perhaps never shall. But 
 these are established facts, the foundation of medical and 
 physiological practice, and therefore cannot be denied. 
 And if this be admitted with regard to the whole surface 
 of the brain, may it not be so of a part? Combe tells us 
 of a patient who was afflicted with an unnatural increase of 
 a feeling of the mind, but that by applying ice to a particular 
 part of the head which was inflamed, the feeling subsided to 
 its natural tone. Dreaming, then, might be considered (this 
 I throw out as a mere speculation) to be a disturbance 
 between the causes of waste and of supply in a particular 
 part of the brain. I mean that if — to use the language of 
 phrenologists without necessarily assenting to their doc- 
 trines — the organ of Wonder, from some cause or another, 
 be thrown into a state of oxidation during sleep, that part 
 of the brain would be thrown out of the condition which 
 favours the quiescent state of the mind. Wonder would 
 therefore manifest itself to the external world without being 
 guided by the reasoning powers or judgment, which are in 
 quiescence or sleep. Thus it would revel in all the absurd 
 phantasies to which that feeling of the mind gives rise. I 
 have selected this phrenological organ as a mere example 
 of my meaning, without wishing to insist upon the division 
 of organs as a necessary part of the speculation. If those 
 parts of the brain used as the organs of manifestation for 
 judgment were brought into play at the same time as 
 Wonder, the dream would be more coherent, and, as soon 
 as the change took place to such an extent as to throw the 
 brain into that state which did not favour the quiescence 
 of the mind, then waking would ensue. Hence, according 
 to this speculation, dreaming is a state of wakefulness of a
 
 Sleep, axd some of its Concomitant Phenomena. 6i 
 
 •portion of the mind manifested through particular parts of 
 the brain, while other functions of the mind, manifested 
 through other parts of the brain, are still asleep, and there- 
 fore not in a condition, by comparison and reflection, to 
 modify those awake. It is probable that during dreaming 
 there is more arterialised blood in the cavity of the head 
 than during sleep without dreaming, a circumstance indi- 
 cated by the red flushed appearance of the face during 
 dreams. In some experiments with trepanned dogs, the 
 brain, which was pale during sleep, became flushed in parts 
 during dreams. The speculation is also supported by the 
 class of persons subject to dreaming. A phlegmatic person, 
 whose heart beats slowly and whose lungs play slowly, rarely 
 dreams. A fat person, with a diaphragm well pushed up 
 against his lungs, rarely dreams. The greatest dreamer 
 is the man of nervous temperament, whose heart and lungs 
 do not play with all the steadfastness of the pendulum of a 
 clock, but are fitful in their action. For the same reason, 
 in fever, the quickly-circulating blood, sometimes propelled 
 more rapidly than at others, is apt to cause this state of 
 wakefulness in particular parts of the brain, by throwing 
 them into a state such as does not favour the quiescence of 
 the mind. 
 
 It may be objected to the view of sleep here given, that 
 if it were owing to a diminished state of oxidation in the 
 brain, the respiration of pure oxygen ought to retard sleep, 
 whereas, on the contrary, it is observed to render the animal 
 exposed to it comatose, and death ensues after the animal 
 has remained for some time in a state of deep stupor. Yet 
 both the blood in the veins and arteries was found by 
 Broughton to be very florid, and everything indicates a 
 high state of oxidation. Christison and other toxicologists 
 ascribe the death to an increased oxidation or hyper- 
 arterialisation of the blood. The phenomena, therefore, 
 seem in direct opposition to our theory of sleep. Let us
 
 62 Si^B7£:cTs OF Social Welfare. 
 
 consider the case closely. Arterial blood differs from venous 
 in the state of oxidation of constituents containing iron. 
 The oxidised ingredient parts with its oxygen to the tissues, 
 and converts the matter acted upon into carbonic acid and 
 water. The carbonic acid in a state of combination and 
 solution with a substance containing iron in a low state of 
 oxidation is carried by the venous blood to the lungs, where 
 it becomes oxidised, and the carbonic acid evolved. Now, 
 when an animal breathes oxygen, even the venous blood is 
 arterialised, or, in other words, there is no protoxide of iron 
 left in the system. But, owing to the excess of oxygen gas, 
 there must be a rapid waste of the tissues, and the formation 
 of a large quantity of carbonic acid gas, which has now no 
 iron in a state to carry it to the lungs. It therefore accumu- 
 lates in the system, and the animal becomes comatose and 
 dies, not on account of oxygen, but of carbonic acid which 
 has no means of escape. It has been remarked that there 
 is comparatively little carbonic acid evolved in poisoning by 
 oxygen, for the atmosphere in which the animal dies causes 
 a blown-out taper to burst into flame. The heart after the 
 death of the animal is found to beat rapidly, and shows the 
 excited state into which the body was thrown by oxygen, 
 until the accumulating carbonic acid produced the peculiar 
 effects for which it is remarkable. Thus, this simple ex- 
 planation, while it vindicates the truth of the theory, affords 
 an explanation of the cause of poisoning by oxygen, which 
 to.xicologists have always considered as most incomprehen- 
 sible and singular. The effects of nitrous oxide on the sys- 
 tem are very similar to those of oxygen, and are obviously 
 due to the same cause. Broughton found that even the 
 venous blood had become arterialised when an animal was 
 made to respire this gas. 
 
 The attentive study of the peculiar condition of matter 
 in the various states in which the mind manifests itself, oi 
 remains unmanifested to the external world, is of great im-
 
 Sleep, and some of its Concomitant Phenomena. 6^ 
 
 portance in the treatment of disease. To take the case of 
 apoplexy and its allied diseases. I do not allude to apoplexy 
 occasioned by the rupture of an apoplectic sac, but that form 
 in which it arises from the turgid state of blood-vessels in 
 the brain, or in the more rare form of what is termed "simple 
 apoplexy " by Dr. Abercrombie. The state in which the 
 brain is placed in this disease seems to be merely an in- 
 creased state of the condition in ordinary sleep. The con- 
 gestion or turgid state of the venous vessels necessarily 
 implies a diminished amount of blood in the arteries; for 
 the skull, being a close cavity, must always contain the 
 same amount of fluid ; and on this account, if the quantity 
 of venous blood be increased, that of arterial blood must 
 be diminished. Hence, although the use of the lancet may 
 awaken the patient from deep stupor, by removing the 
 deoxidised blood which may have accumulated in the brain 
 by the lesion of a vessel or by some irregularity in the action 
 of the heart, yet it becomes a question whether the re- 
 moval of blood, by diminishing the number of carriers of 
 oxygen to the brain, may not cause a tendency to relapse 
 when the temporary obstruction shall Have been removed. 
 All I mean by this is, that if we admit the cause of sleep to 
 be a diminished supply of oxygen to the brain, we must 
 admit certain forms of disease, such as congestive apoplexy, 
 syncope, perhaps even catalepsy, to be due to the increased 
 operation of the same cause — a circumstance attested by 
 the diminished temperature of the body which results in 
 this class of diseases ; if, then, we know the effects to be 
 due to a want of oxygenation of the substance of the brain, 
 we are in a position more completely to regulate our prac- 
 tice in the treatment of such diseases. So, also, in the 
 treatment of wakefulness, dreaming, restlessness, <S:c., for 
 which the physician is so often called upon to prescribe a 
 remedy, the knowledge of the state of the brain in the state 
 of waking and of sleep, may point out the way to throw it
 
 64 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 into the state which favours the activity or quiescence of 
 the mind. Hence a probable explanation of these states is 
 not unimportant in a practical point of view. 
 
 It does not necessarily impair the accuracy of such 
 explanation, that many assumptions are taken for granted to 
 explain one part of the phenomenon. When we see a wheel 
 revolved by the ascent and descent of a piston-rod, our 
 explanation of the means by which a perpendicular is con- 
 verted into a rotatory motion is not rendered valueless because 
 we do not trace it to the means by which the force is gene- 
 rated. We have a right to assume the existence of the 
 necessary force, and from this point alone attempt an ex- 
 planation. So, also, when I say that the effect of a diminu- 
 tion in the play of the respiratory organs induces sleep, as 
 in the case of intense cold, or that their accelerated action 
 retards sleep, as when the temperature is only slightly de- 
 pressed ; my conclusion may be perfectly correct, without 
 my being called upon to prove the cause of the diminution 
 in the action in the one case, or its increase in the other, 
 because my attention is confined only to one part of the 
 phenomenon. So, also, if I say that syncope is due to a 
 diminished quantity of arterial blood in the brain, I may be 
 correct as to the proximate cause, without being obliged to 
 show by what means the conducting power of the nerves 
 leading to the involuntary organs has become so impaired 
 as to cause the temporary obstruction of these organs. In 
 describing the chemical state of the body, and the effects 
 produced by this state, the duty of the chemist is only to 
 consider the proximate cause of its production, while the 
 physiologist ought to explain the ultimate causes which pre- 
 dispose the body to enter into that state. 1 have attempted 
 to explain in certain cases one part of the phenomenon, 
 with the hope that these speculations, if they do not repre- 
 sent the whole truth, may lead other persons to the con- 
 sideration of the same subject.
 
 ON VACCINATION. 
 
 Note. — The efforts of anti-vaccinators culminated in a resolution 
 proposed by Mr. Taylor in the House of Commons on 19th June, 1SS3. 
 There was an impression at the time that the resolution would receive 
 strong support, so the question was left open, and was not made a 
 Government issue, though Sir Charles Dilke, the then President of the 
 Local Government Board, spoke against it in his individual capacity. 
 
 The resolution of my hon. friend the member for Leicester 
 (Mr. Taylor) must be read between the lines as a dis- 
 tinct attack on vaccination, root and branch. When 
 my hon. friend began his agitation, he did not dispute 
 the protective powers of vaccination, though he objected 
 to its compulsory application. That is all that is im- 
 plied in express terms in his resolution now, but his 
 speech shows it means much more than it expresses. In 
 the mind of my hon. friend vaccination itself is an evil 
 thing, and ought to be extirpated. If he so believe, his 
 resolution ought to express his belief, and he should bring 
 in a Prohibitory Act, as was done in the case of inoculation 
 in 1840. 
 
 My hon. friend and the Association with which he acts 
 attack vaccination on two grounds. The first is that it is 
 positively injurious, as a means of introducing disease into 
 the bodies of the vaccinated ; and the second is, that it has 
 no protective power against small-pox, which it is supposed 
 to prevent or mitigate. I will deal with these fundamental 
 objections in order. 
 
 The as;ertion that vaccination produces disease was 
 
 F
 
 6b Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 carefully examined by a Committee of this House in 187 1. 
 An active member of that Committee was the hon. member 
 for Leicester (Mr. Taylor), and he will bear me out when 
 I say that we carefully heard the evidence of the anti- 
 vaccinators, and formed a unanimous conclusion upon the 
 evidence which they produced. The allegation that vaccina- 
 tion has been known to produce an offensive disease was 
 practically proved in a few cases in which vaccine lymph 
 had been taken from children suffering from the congenital 
 malady. The possibility of such infection is a terrible fact, 
 but, fortunately, one of the extremest rarity. We had it in 
 evidence that among 151,316 re-vaccinations of soldiers, 
 not one such case had ever been observed, although among 
 them the disease is far from rare. Since 1852 about 
 twenty million infants have been vaccinated in England 
 and Wales, and among these, if there were any large truth 
 in the allegations, not tens but hundreds of cases must have 
 been observed ; and yet it is extremely doubtful whether 
 half a dozen central cases of propagation have been reason- 
 ably suspected. Though this offensive disease is admittedly 
 only possible by the grossest neglect, certain skin diseases, 
 such as erysipelas and eczema, are alleged to be conse- 
 quences of vaccination. Admittedly, they may follow the 
 irritation of vaccination, just as they follow the irritation of 
 teething, or as erysipelas frequently appears after a surgical 
 operation. Generally they are instances of post hoc, but in 
 a few cases they may be propter hoc. Very rarely have they 
 been fatal. That they have been so in very rare instances 
 does not constitute an argument against vaccination. Who 
 would forbid the use of anaesthetics in surgical operations 
 because patients have died from their use ? Who would 
 stop the use of narcotics, because to some persons they 
 produce the sleep of death? Who would prevent men 
 drinking water because sometimes polluted water produces 
 typhoid fever? So the Committee of 1871, after hearing
 
 On Vaccination. 67 
 
 all the evidence tendered against vaccination as the pro- 
 ducer of disease, came to the conclusion, in the words of the 
 report, that " there need be no apprehension that vaccina- 
 tion will injure health or communicate any disease." It is 
 true that the hon. member for Leicester (Mr, Taylor) moved 
 the omission of these words, but what were those which he 
 proposed to substitute ? They were these — " That some 
 few cases of disease have been communicated by vaccina- 
 tion, but the danger is so infinitesimal in respect to pro- 
 portion, that, subject to the conditions mentioned above, 
 the Committee do not hesitate to express their conviction of 
 the practically safe character of the operation." I think, 
 then, as the hon. member for Leicester himself, acting as a 
 judge, after hearing the evidence, characterised the subject 
 " as infinitesimal in respect of proportion," I need not 
 trouble the House with any further remarks on this branch 
 of the subject. 
 
 I therefore pass to the second postulate of the hon. 
 member — that vaccination is no protection against small- 
 pox. Do not forget what is the nature of the disease against 
 which we seek protection. Sir Thomas Watson describes 
 it in a few words as " the most hideous, loathsome, dis- 
 figuring, and probably, except hydrophobia, the most fatal 
 also of the various diseases to which the human body is 
 liable." Against this mutilative and hideous disease we 
 seek to erect barriers by vaccination. Lidividually, persons, 
 since the time of Jenner, have protected themselves. The 
 amount of protection was thought, even by its discoverer, to 
 be equivalent — but no more than equivalent — to that of an 
 attack of small-pox. In most cases, when men have had 
 measles, scarlatina, or small-pox, they are protected from 
 future attacks, though not invariably, for there are some per- 
 sons who are subject to more than one attack. In the call 
 of the House of Lords to the Royal College of Physicians 
 to report to Parliament on the whole subject of vaccination, 
 F 2
 
 68 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 this liability is stated in express terms. This report is dated 
 1807, or nine years after Jenner had published his dis- 
 covery. The words are — " Where small-pox has succeeded 
 vaccination, it has been neither the same in violence nor in 
 the duration of its symptoms, but has, with very few ex- 
 ceptions, been remarkably mild, as if the small-pox had 
 been deprived by the previous vaccine disease of all its 
 usual malignity." That is precisely the state of our know- 
 ledge now, so that it is no discovery of the anti-vaccinators 
 that there are cases of post-vaccinal small-pox. In examin- 
 ing the state of vaccination, we must compare the mortality 
 from small-pox with that of the last century. Guy defines 
 an epidemic of small-pox as producing ten per cent, of the 
 total deaths. If this be accepted, there were thirty-two 
 epidemics of small-pox in the eighteenth century, and not 
 one in the nineteenth. The mortality from small-pox last 
 century may be moderately estimated at 3,000 per million 
 of the population annually for the whole country. In 
 London the mortality has always been greater than in the 
 country. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries it 
 was certainly not less than 4,000 per million. At the com- 
 mencement of the present century the mortality was 2,000 
 per million ; and in the ten years ending 1882 it was re- 
 duced to 262 in London, though the reduction was much 
 greater in the country at large. For the first forty years of 
 this century vaccination was promoted among the people 
 by charitable agencies, and the mortality had fallen to 600 
 per million by 1840, or was then only one-fifdi the amount 
 of last century. Still, 600 per million is a high rate of 
 mortality, and Parliament began in 1841 to give funds for 
 gratuitous vaccination, so as to spread it more rapidly 
 among the people. This continued till 1853, and the mor- 
 tality was now 305 per million, so that gratuitous vaccina- 
 tion of the State reduced the mortality to one-half Then, 
 in 1853, Parliament passed an obligatory law, which re-
 
 On Vaccination. 6g 
 
 mained without administrative means of enforcing it till 
 1871 ; but still during this period of obligatory vaccination 
 the mortality fell to 223 deaths per million. In that year a 
 law was passed making it compulsory on Boards of Guardians 
 to appoint vaccination officers, and since that time the 
 average mortality has been 156 per million. Every succes- 
 sive step, then, in promoting vaccination has been followed 
 by a great reduction in the rate of mortality. Voluntary 
 efforts reduced the mortality of the last century from 3,000 
 to 600 per million ; gratuitous vaccination by the State re- 
 duced it to 302, while obligatory law inefficiently adminis- 
 tered reduced it to 223, and the same law under vaccination 
 officers further reduces it to 156. 
 
 That is the general result as regards England and Wales. 
 Scotland and Ireland did not get a compulsory law till 1863, 
 or ten years later than England. In the next ten years 
 there were two years of a very heavy epidemic, but still the 
 average mortality of this decade was 214 per million in 
 Scodand and only 108 in Ireland. From 1875 to 1S82 the 
 rate in Ireland has been only 72 per million, and is scarcely 
 measurable in Scotland, for it is only 6 per million. My 
 hon. friend the member for Stockport (Mr. Hopwood), both 
 in and out of Parliament, points to the epidemic of 187 1-3 
 in Scotland as a refutation of what he deems a supremely 
 silly remark of mine, that the Vaccination Act in Scotland 
 was sufficient to stamp the disease out of that country. 
 That is e.Kactly what it has done. The words "stamp out" 
 are borrowed from the Cattle Plague Commission, of which 
 I was a member. The Catde Plague Commission thought 
 that the measures recommended by them were sufficient to 
 stamp out the disease, but not to keep it out, for great 
 epidemics are like huge tidal waves, which may roll over 
 any ordinary embankments. It must be borne in mind 
 that these embankments are never wholly continuous, for 
 the unvaccinated are like holes in them, through which the
 
 70 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 riood of disease finds its way. Vaccination is, under or- 
 dinary conditions, a sufficient protection ; but in the presence 
 of a great epidemic it is overtopped, and small-pox spreads 
 over a countr)', attacking the unvaccinated and those whose 
 protection has worn out by age. As it increases in volume, 
 the vaccinated too are carried away by it, but vaccination is 
 their life-belt, and they rarely perish. It was so in Scot- 
 land in the great epidemic to which I will allude later on 
 in greater detail. When such an epidemic strikes a popu- 
 lation, they become terrified, and they rush in crowds to be 
 vaccinated. At that time the compulsory law had existed 
 for eight years in Scotland, and only the infant population 
 had come under its influence. The people of Scotland, not 
 being agitated by Anti-Vaccination Societies, rapidly ex- 
 tended vaccination among themselves, and stamped out the 
 epidemic. Since then small-pox has scarcely existed in that 
 country. For the last few years the total number of deaths 
 have not exceeded ten per annum. 
 
 These great reductions in the rate of mortality from 
 small-pox 1 believe to be due wholly to vaccination ; but 
 my hon. friend the member for Leicester attributes them to 
 improved sanitation and to the improved habits .of the 
 people. If that were true, this sanitation must equally 
 affect other diseases besides small-pox, and no doubt it 
 does, but to what amount ? If we compare the period of 
 gratuitous vaccination with that of efficient compulsory 
 vaccination, the Registrar-General tells us that, among 
 children under five, the small-pox mortality has decreased 
 by 80 per cent, while that from all other diseases has only 
 decreased by 6 per cent. As age advances beyond fifteen 
 years mortality does decrease in other diseases, probably 
 from sanitation, but it increases as regards small-pox, show- 
 ing how little influence that has as a factor in governing the 
 progress of that disease. The cause of the increased mor- 
 tality in small pox at advanced ages is probably that there
 
 On Vaccination, 71 
 
 are still many unvaccinated, and that among the vaccinated 
 the protective power wears out as age advances. The fact, 
 however, conclusively shows that improved sanitation has 
 little connection with the large reductions in the rate of 
 mortality from small-pox over the whole community. 
 
 The results which I have described are the figures of 
 the Registrar-General, and are derived from an examination 
 of long periods, so as to include the epidemic and non- 
 epidemic years. How is it that they sound so differently 
 from the figures given by the mover of the resolution ? He 
 startles you with large figures, such as 40,000 deaths in the 
 Metropolis during an epidemic, and he rarely throws them 
 into comparable rates of mortality. He also relies chiefly 
 on the returns of London mortality, and puts on one side 
 the saving of life throughout the country. I intend to 
 meet him on his own ground, and to show that the case 
 for compulsory vaccination is best supported b}' epidemic 
 periods. 
 
 Modern science tends to show that such diseases as 
 small-pox arise from the growth in the blood of minute 
 organisms. Now, like other crops, there are good and bad 
 years for their growth. Just as there are good years for 
 pears, apples, and plums, so there are productive years 
 for small-pox, measles, and scarlatina. In the case of 
 small-pox, these productive years come every fourth or 
 fifth year, and then the crops are full or excessive. There 
 are three varieties of small-pox, which represent themselves 
 in the epidemics. The first is discreet small-pox, where 
 the pustules are separate and distinct, and it is rarely 
 fatal. Then comes the confluent small-pox, where the 
 pustules run together. In this form nearly half, or 50 per 
 cent., of the unvaccinated die. Of the vaccinated w-hen 
 attacked by confluent small-pox 15 per cent. die. Thirdly, 
 comes the black or malignant form, which rarely attacks the 
 vaccinated; but when it does, it proves as fatal to them as
 
 72 Susy EC TS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 to the unvaccinated, for 95 per cent, of the persons attacked 
 by this form of small-pox die. It rarely visits this country 
 now in an epidemic form, but it did appear ia a marked 
 manner in the epidemics of 1871-72, and the London 
 epidemic of 1881. 
 
 It was largely seen in the epidemic which devastated 
 France in 1870, and which passed all over Europe in that 
 and the two following years. Just as " Sweating Sickness " 
 followed in the train of the wars of the Red and White 
 Roses, so did malignant small-pox follow the camps of the 
 French and German armies in 1870. Both Powers had 
 about half a million of men in the field, though under 
 very different conditions. Germany was quite prepared 
 for the war, and had its troops under perfect organisation. 
 All its recruits were re-vaccinated. In ordinary times 
 France also encourages the re-vaccination of the recruits, 
 and in the year before the war about 40,000 recruits were 
 so treated. Prussia does it more systematically, and in the 
 same year vaccinated 216,426 of its soldiers. Nevertheless, 
 the Paris garrison in the early part of 1870 had scarcely any 
 small-pox, while 1,000 of the civil population had already 
 died. The recruits who were hurried in from the provinces 
 soon added to the military deaths. Dr. Leon Colin, the 
 Physician-General of the French army, has published a 
 work on the small-pox epidemic during the war. He tells 
 us that the levies hurriedly raised were unvaccinated. I 
 give his own words :— " The different armies raised thus in 
 haste, and placed in the field without time for re-vaccina- 
 tion, were exposed both at their places of gathering and 
 in their marches to the attack of this epidemic ; " and the 
 conseciuence was that during 1870 and 1871 a great number 
 of French soldiers died of the disease, of whom 1,600 died 
 in the garrison in Paris, out of an army of 170,000. The 
 small-pox followed the German camps also, but few of their 
 soldiers died. It was not because they were Germans that
 
 On Vaccination. 73 
 
 small-pox spared them, for it attacked the city of Berlin in 
 January, 187 1, and was nearly as fatal to the civil popula- 
 tion there as it was in Paris during the siege. I contend 
 that the German soldiers escaped on account of their re- 
 vaccination. Many hundreds of them were prisoners in 
 Paris during the siege, and only one of them was attacked 
 by a mild form of small-pox. Could a more pronounced 
 experiment on a large scale have been made in regard to 
 the value of vaccination ? 
 
 This epidemic became pandemic, for it not only devas- 
 tated Europe, but invaded both North and South America, 
 as well as the South Sea Islands. Before describing its 
 ravages in this country I may as well say how far it in- 
 fluenced our 90.000 re-vaccinated soldiers. It entered 
 our army, as it did this country, in 187 1, and lingered in it 
 during 1872, but during those two years it only killed forty- 
 two soldiers. The effects of re-vaccination in our own 
 army and navy have also been decided. It has only been 
 made compulsory in the navy since 1871, the year of the 
 epidemic. In that year and in 1872 there were thirteen 
 deaths from small-pox in the Home Naval Stations, and 
 since then there have been none at all with the exception of 
 one death in 1882. From 1873 to 1884 there were thirty 
 deaths in foreign naval service, of which fourteen occurred 
 in 1879. In the epidemic year of 187 1 the ratio of deaths 
 in the English army was 210 per million, and 260 in the 
 navy, the former having had compulsory re-vaccination, the 
 latter only beginning in that year. The ratio of the civil 
 population at corresponding ages was about 1,000. The 
 epidemic of 187 1 struck the civil population of England 
 and Wales strongly, and was exceptionally severe in the 
 Metropolis. With the exception of local outbursts in 
 Birmingham, Liverpool, and Salford, the small-pox since 
 1873 ^i^s been very small in all our large towns, except 
 London, where it has lingered, and came as a renewed.
 
 74 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 outburst in 1877 and 1881, Most of the arguments of the 
 anti-vaccinators are derived from metropolitan small-pox. 
 Thus, in 1880 the total deaths in England and Wales from 
 sraall-pox were 648, out of which London alone was 
 responsible for 471. The epidemic of 1871-72 was 
 general and severe, but the recent epidemics of 1877 and 
 1 88 1 have been mainly metropolitan. I mentioned that 
 before vaccination was introduced in last century the 
 deaths from small-pox throughout the country were 3,000 
 per million over periods embracing epidemic and non- 
 epidemic years, but in the heavy malignant epidemic of 
 1871-72 the death rate was 928 per million over the whole 
 country. The average death rate from small-pox in the 
 Metropolis before vaccination was 4,000 per million, and 
 in the great epidemic year 187 1 it was 2^420 per million. 
 So that even in this exceptionally severe epidemic the 
 death rate was only about one-half of that of average years 
 in last century. 
 
 The anti-vaccinators say. Why did it enter into a metro- 
 polis, of which at least 95 per cent, of the people are 
 vaccinated? That 5 per cent, means a residue of 200,000 
 unvaccinated persons, besides all the imperfectly vaccinated, 
 and those in whom the protective effects have worn away 
 by age. Surely that is soil enough for a good harvest of 
 small-pox. While, therefore, other parts of the country 
 seem to have recovered from the great epidemic influence 
 of 1 87 1, London has not yet gained control over the 
 disease. It had practical immunity in 1873, '74, '75, but 
 outbursts came in 1877 and 1881 — in the latter year to 
 about one-third of the extent of 187 1, but still amounting 
 to 640 per million. That, large as it is, represents only 
 one-fifth of the average mortality of the last century. The 
 other parts of England and Wales during the same year had 
 only a mortality of 100 per million. If we take the five 
 years ending 1884, the difference between the small-pox
 
 On Vaccination. 75 
 
 mortality in London and in the Provinces is marked, 
 for the ratio per million was 244 for the former, and only 
 34 for the latter. The anti-vaccinators point to the fact 
 that there were absolutely more cases of small-pox among 
 the vav„cinated than among the unvaccinated during the 
 epidemic — a fact which obviously must arise when 95 per 
 cent, of the people are vaccinated. 
 
 Looking at the epidemic generally throughout the 
 kingdom, the argument may be put in this way. When the 
 1 87 1 epidemic went over the country, there was an infant 
 population of more than three millions under five years of 
 age. It consisted of two classes in daily intercourse with 
 each other, though one class (the vaccinated) was thirty or 
 forty times more numerous than the other. They lived 
 intermixed, residing in like houses, eating the same food, 
 and breathing the same epidemic air. In the class which 
 was thirty or forty times the size of the other, 413 deaths 
 occurred; while in the smaller class 1,178 deaths occurred — 
 that is, four deaths occurred in the smaller class for every 
 death which occurred in the class which was thirty or forty 
 times larger. If you convert that into a rate of mortality 
 for each class, you will find that the rate of mortality was 
 from 1 20 to 160 times greater among the unvaccinated than 
 among the vaccinated children. The only circumstance 
 which differentiated these millions of children was vaccina- 
 tion 3 and as the incidence of small-pox was so enormously 
 different in its mortality according as the class was or was 
 not vaccinated, the conclusion as to a very large amount of 
 protection in the case of children is irresistible.* If you 
 carry the argument to tiie general i)opulation of all ages, the 
 Registrar-General tells us that in the same number of people 
 thevaccinated give one death and the unvaccinated 44 deaths. 
 
 • Since State supervision of vaccination infantile small-pox mortality 
 has sunk from 227 to 21, which, upon a population of 37 millions, means 
 an annual saving of 7,622 smallpox deaths.
 
 76 SunyECTS of Social Welfare. 
 
 The hon. member for Leicester bases his argument also 
 on the fact that the town which he represents, though so 
 badly vaccinated, has h id little small-pox, or practically none 
 at all in recent years. That is equally true of well-vacci- 
 nated and badly-vaccinated towns throughout the country. 
 In 1872 Leicester was not a badly-vaccinated town, and 
 perhaps my hon. friend might argue that was the reason why 
 it had 313 deaths. Well, I earnestly hope it will not soon 
 come under an epidemic wave, for I can give him an 
 instance of a large town which did neglect vaccination 
 among its people, and of the results which followed when 
 an epidemic struck it. Leipsic was the centre of a most 
 zealous propaganda against vaccination, in which the anti- 
 vaccination associations were powerfully assisted by the 
 press. The result of their agitation was that infantile vacci- 
 nation had been greatly neglected, and Leipsic was in that 
 happy state which Leicester now rejoices in, of having 
 refused to vaccinate its children. Leipsic had been singu- 
 larly free from small-pox, as Leicester now is. In 18 years, 
 from 185 1 to 1870, it had only 29 deaths from this disease, 
 and the anti-vaccination propaganda pointed to it with 
 triumph. But the pandemic reached this town of 107,000 
 inhabitants towards the close of 1870, and killed 1,027 o^^ 
 its people, or at the rate of 9,600 per million. The infantile 
 death rate was terrific. There were 23,892 children living 
 under fifteen years of age, and among them were 715 
 deaths — actually 3 per cent., or at the terrible rate of 
 30,000 per million. I have given an example and a warn^ 
 ing, but I doubt whether the hon. member for Leicester 
 will profit by it. If the hon, member for Leicester cares to 
 know my authority for these statements, I refer him to the 
 accounts of the Leipsic epidemic by the German physicians 
 Wunderlich and Thomas. Many German towns suffered 
 severely in the ])andemic, but in 1874 compulsory re-vacci- 
 nation was established by law, and since then small-pox
 
 On Vaccination. 77 
 
 scarcely attacks the large cities of Germany, and is almost 
 unknown in the German army. 
 
 If I may add to this speech of 1883 the German statistics 
 of 1886, the evidence in favour of compulsory vaccination 
 and of re-vaccination is overwhelming. The ratio of deaths 
 per million of the population from small-pox was only 3-3, 
 and of these two-thirds were on the border provinces of 
 countries having no compulsion. If we compare the mor- 
 tality in German towns with that of urban populations in 
 other countries, Germany now stands out in strong pre- 
 eminence : — Germany, 4; England, 77; Belgium, 194; 
 Switzerland, 218; Austria, 325 per million. In Germany 
 40 per cent, of the deaths occur in children under one year, 
 the period fixed for compulsory vaccination. In England 
 our law fixes three months, and there is a lower small-pox 
 mortality among English than among German children. 
 
 The Vaccination Acts are not sufficient to resist a great 
 epidemic wave, but they act as a breakwater and lessen its 
 force. In the metropolitan epidemic of 1881 it was found 
 that 90 in every million of the vaccinated died from its 
 effect, but no less than 3,350 per million of the unvaccinated 
 perished. The reason for this is that even when malignant 
 small-pox strikes the vaccinated, it becomes modified or 
 mild in 73 per cent, of the cases, and retains its virulent 
 form in only 27 per cent. But when it strikes the un- 
 vaccinated, 97^ per cent, of the cases pass through the 
 virulent form, and only 2\ per cent, become mild. Hence 
 the perils of attack are vastly greater among the unvaccinated 
 than among the vaccinated. An analysis of 10,000 cases 
 in the metropolitan hospitals shows that 45 per cent, of the 
 unvaccinated patients died, and only 15 per cent, of vacci- 
 nated patients. 
 
 The hon. member for Leicester treats these hospital 
 statistics as wholly incredible, but they are verified by the 
 hospital statistics in our provinces, and also by those of
 
 78 SuByEcrs of Social Welfare. 
 
 other countries during the pandemic. He can only deny 
 them by assuming that a huge conspiracy exists among the 
 medical men of all nations for the purpose of injuring man- 
 kind at large. A conspiracy has some supposed advantage 
 to be gamed by its success. But how can doctors all over 
 the world benefit by keeping doctors poor through making 
 their patients healthy ? These statistics of disease corre- 
 spond in countries which have compulsory laws and in those 
 which have not. Across the Atlantic there is no direct, 
 though much indirect, compulsion, and no motive to falsify 
 statistics of mortality. In America the mortality among the 
 unvaccinated was even greater than in London during the 
 pandemic. In Boston the rate of mortality among the un- 
 vaccinated was 50 per cent. ; in Philadelphia, 64 per cent.; 
 and in Montreal, 54 per cent. ; while the deaths of vacci- 
 nated patients ranged between 15 and 17 per cent. 
 
 The arguments of anti-vaccinators are so protean that 
 one never knows what they are. \Vhen they assert that 
 vaccination is no protection against small-pox, and does not 
 lessen mortality, our reply is conclusive. In the same 
 breath they admit a largely-diminished mortality by vac- 
 cination, but say that it does not lessen the sum of human 
 m.ortality, for when small-pox deaths lessen, other diseases 
 increase ; and they seem to invite us to enter a Golden Age, 
 when all of us should take small-pox as of yore in order to 
 protect us against other diseases. They attach no import- 
 ance to the discoveries of modern science, which clearly 
 point to the fact that each disease is specific in its character 
 and that as little could you produce bronchitis, scrofula, or 
 consumption, from vaccine virus as you could produce a rose 
 from a cauliflower, or a mastiff from a guinea-pig. That 
 other diseases may produce a greater number of deaths when 
 devastating small-pox is subdued is as certain as the mor- 
 tality of man, for if he does not die of one thing he will die 
 of another. An expensive return was made to the House
 
 On Vaccination. 79 
 
 in 1877, giving the deaths of fifteen diseases before and after 
 vaccination. This return shows that some diseases had 
 an increased and some a lessened mortaHty ; but for their 
 purpose they are ludicrously perplexing. Thus, the main 
 increase was in bronchitis, which has about the same relation 
 to vaccination as the Goodwin Sands have to Tenterden 
 Steeple. If they had any relation, will the hon. member for 
 Leicester tell me why that unvaccinated town has such an 
 excessive amount of infantile diarrhoea ? That is pronounced 
 by his followers to be a " jjost-vaccinal disease." How does 
 it happen that when vaccination in Leicester is at low tide, 
 diarrhoea is at flood tide } Erysipelas, scrofula, and con- 
 vulsions, which are the pet outcomes of vaccination, had 
 actually decreased upon the whole population. Syphilis, 
 indeed, had largely increased, but the Registrar-General has 
 since told us that the classification was different in the first 
 andsecondperiods.and could not be compared. While, there- 
 fore, fully admitting that man is mortal, and that he must 
 die of something, I believe, both in logic and in fact, that 
 the conclusions drawn from this 1877 return are just as 
 worthy as if I asked the House to accept as a conclu- 
 sion that the few deaths of small-pox in Ireland in 18S2 
 were the causes of the increased number of Fenian assassi- 
 nations in that year. 
 
 Surely the history of this last epidemic tells us most 
 clearly that the foe is at our doors, stronger and more 
 hostile than it has ever been during this century. It is 
 the same form of small-pox which killed Queen Mary, 
 wife of William III., described by Macaulay in these terms : 
 — " The plague had visited our shores only once or twice 
 within living memory, but the small-pox was always present, 
 filling the churchyard with corpses, leaving on those whose 
 lives it spared the hideous traces of its power, turning the 
 babe into a changeling, at which its mother shuddered, 
 and making the eyes and cheeks of the betrothed maiden
 
 8o Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 objects of horror to the lover." When he thiis described 
 small-pox, every one was as subject to it as we now are to 
 measles, and happy were the survivors who passed through 
 with unimpaired health or without disfigurement. Now, 
 thanks to vaccination, though the malignity of the disease at 
 the present time is as great as then, we have, to a large 
 extent, protected the population by compulsory laws ; and it 
 is this protection which it is sought to remove by a resolu- 
 tion, concealed in its purpose, but obvious in its design. I 
 fear that I have wearied the House by statistical results, but 
 they could not be avoided. To my mind, they prove con- 
 clusively that small-pox is now as malignant and loathsome 
 a disease as it was 200 years ago, and that it is only kept at bay 
 by the protective influence ofvaccination. This resolution, 
 if adopted, would bring us back to the year 1840, by which 
 time charity vaccination had reduced the mortality of 3,000 
 per million to 600 per million, for I presume it would be fol- 
 lowed up by another resolution preventing State funds being 
 used for optional vaccination. Compulsory vaccination has 
 reduced the mortality, including epidemic periods, to one- 
 fourth this amount; but we are to renounce this advan- 
 tage, because there are certain parents who think the law 
 is unjust and oppressive. Even in Leicester, which wars 
 against vaccination in the interests of human liberty, persons 
 suffering from small-pox are compulsorily taken from their 
 homes and are isolated in a special hospital. 
 
 We have many laws interfering with personal liberty. 
 We restrict hours of labour to working men, although many 
 of them think our restriction unjust. We punish the 
 rash traveller who jumps into a train in motion, although 
 it would injure no one but himself. If small-pox affected 
 an adult individual only, his right to take it could scarcely, 
 however, be disputed. We do not punish a man for 
 burning down his own isolated mansion if no one is 
 injured but himself; though we do punish him if he risk
 
 On Vaccination. 8i 
 
 a neighbour's property by his act. Every case of small-pox 
 is a new centre of contagion. A man may exercise his 
 own personal taste for any disease which he chooses, pro- 
 vided he does not injure his neighbours by his idiosyn- 
 crasy. When he produces omissional infanticide of his 
 own and his neighbours' children by neglect of duty the 
 State may intervene to protect the young population from 
 a fatal and mutilative disease. This disease is just as fatal 
 and hideous as it was in the last century, but it has been 
 controlled by wise and beneficent laws.
 
 VIVISECTION. 
 
 Note. — On the 4th of April, 18S3, Mr. Reid moved the Second 
 Reading of a Bill for the Total Suppression of Scientific Experiments 
 upon Animals. On that occasion the following speech was made : — 
 
 The Bill for the abolition of vivisection not only deals with 
 vivisection in the abstract, but it seeks to repeal the Act 
 passed in 1876 for so regulating vivisection as to produce 
 either no suffering, or the minimum amount of suffering, in 
 animals experimented upon. My hon. friend the member 
 for Hereford (Mr. Reid) proposes to abolish all experiments 
 on vertebrate animals for the purposes of physiology, medi- 
 cine, or science. The experiments prohibited are not con- 
 fined to painful ones. Under the plain interpretation of 
 this Bill, a man could not stroke the back of a cat to 
 show a student that electricity was developed without com- 
 mitting a crime. The Bill not only repeals the regulating 
 Act of 1876, but it renders illegal all experiments on animals 
 made for the purposes of physiology, medicine, and science, 
 even if they are wholly innocent and painless. A physiolo- 
 gist, after this Bill becomes law, could not put the web of a 
 living frog under a microscope to show the circulation of the 
 blood. 
 
 The House is familiar with the nature of the Act which 
 it is proposed to repeal. It provides that all painful experi- 
 ments, with the rarest exceptions, must be made when the 
 animals are unconscious under ancesthetics. As a matter 
 of fact, only i per cent, of all the experiments made under 
 the Act is as painful as a surgical operation. Of the 300 
 experiments made last year, only ten were attended with
 
 Vivisection. 83 
 
 real pain. The Reports of the Government Inspector for 
 Great Britain, Mr. Busk, and of the Inspector for Ireland, 
 Dr. Stokes, are conclusive on this point. The question is 
 not only whether vivisection, in the abstract, may or may 
 not be right, but whether a regulating Act, which was passed 
 in the year 1876, and which the Government Inspectors 
 assure us works well, and enforces the utmost jxjssible dimi- 
 nution of pain, is to be repealed. 
 
 The hon. member for Hereford, to prove that experi- 
 ments were cruel, cited experiments made before the re- 
 gulating Act was passed. He described, in terms which, 
 to those unacquainted with physiology, appear horrible, 
 some experiments made on the brains of cats and monkeys 
 by Dr.- Ferrier. But he did not explain that the animals 
 on which these experiments were made were wholly un- 
 conscious and not susceptible to pain, both in regard to 
 Dr. Ferrier, and also as to experiments made by Professor 
 Rutherford. Even if they had not been under anaesthetics 
 the brain is not a sensitive material, and experiments may 
 be made upon it without pain. This is fully proved in 
 the evidence before the Royal Commission. With these 
 exceptions, the hon. member for Hereford, and the societies 
 which back his efforts to prevent vivisection, chiefly rely on 
 cases of alleged foreign cruelties, although such are im- 
 possible under the present law in England, and are now, as 
 they have been at all times, repugnant to the spirit of the 
 English physiologists. That some of the old experiments, 
 made before anaesthesia was discovered, were carried on in 
 France and other foreign countries, with an indifference to 
 animal suffering that was truly horrible, I entirely admit. 
 That they are still carried on in foreign countries without 
 due regard to the use of anaesthetics, is, I fear, only too true, 
 although to a much less extent than formerly. We are not 
 called upon to legislate for foreign countries ; we are asked 
 to repeal an Act which has worked well in England, and to. 
 G 2
 
 84 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 substitute for it another Act, which prohibits all physio- 
 logical experiments in this country. The evidence is con- 
 clusive that English physiologists have always been re- 
 markable for the careful and humane consideration with 
 Avhich such experiments have been made. The hon. mem- 
 ber for Hereford does not care for proofs that experi- 
 ments on animals have been carefully and humanely prac- 
 tised in England. His Bill proposes to abolish them 
 altogether as being opposed to the moral law. I at once 
 make the admission that I am bound to traverse this argu- 
 ment, and not to shelter myself under the fact that he is 
 attacking a mere microscopical point in the field of animal 
 suffering. It is no sound argument against his Bill to say 
 that, because only 10 out of the 300 animals experimented 
 on last year suffered considerable pain, therefore it is right to 
 continue such experiments. The real question is, whether 
 there is a justification for sacrificing or inflicting suffering 
 on any animals with a view to benefit man. You do not 
 doubt this in the case of noxious animals. Last year, 
 in India, we hunted down, without mercy, 6,000 tigers 
 and leopards, besides many wolves, and we paid for killing 
 300,000 snakes. And what was our justification? It con- 
 sisted in the fact that they had killed more than 20,000 of 
 the natives of India. 
 
 The justification is that man's duty to man is greater 
 than man's duty to beasts. 
 
 The benefit to man is, in fact, our only justification for 
 a vast amount of pain which we are constantly inflicting on 
 animals during their lives. How otherwise can the farmer 
 justify the cruel mutilation of oxen, sheep, or swine, to im- 
 prove their condition for food, or of horses, to fit them for 
 labour ? How otherwise could we justify the cruel and 
 continued punishment of animals when we employ them in 
 labour? If I thought that a comparative argument as to 
 cruelty had much force, I could allude to the continued
 
 Vivisection. 85 
 
 sufferings of the horses, mules, and camels in the Afghan 
 and Egyptian wars, in terms which would be too horrible 
 for this House to listen to. Even in the relation of man to 
 man, how, otherwise than by a common or national benefit, 
 could we justify the sacrifice of whole battalions in assault- 
 ing fortified positions ? Or how could we justify the frightful 
 suffering which a surgeon inflicts when he excises a joint or 
 cuts out a huge tumour ? How otherwise could you justify 
 a parent when he corrects a child, or the State when it flogs 
 a garotter ? It is not the mere, or even the continuous, 
 infliction of pain which is an offence against moral law, but 
 the unnecessary infliction of pain without an adequate mo- 
 tive to benefit mankind by the act. It is not the mere 
 act, but the motive for that act, which either makes it an 
 offence against morality, or gives to it a justification. 
 
 Still, you may grant the motive, but deny the necessity. 
 I need say little as to the motive. Unquestionably the 
 motive is a high one which seeks to extend our knowledge 
 of Ufe and disease, so as, by a few experiments on animals, 
 to ameliorate disease and suffering, not only in the whole 
 human race, but also in all the animals which come in 
 direct relation to man. This is so clear that it requires no 
 argument in its support. The opponents of vivisection, 
 however, deny its utility under all circumstances, because 
 they assert that experiments on animals give no results to 
 be relied on as regards the human body. This is only one 
 of the ordinary appeals to human vanity, which seeks to 
 find a wide abyss between man and other animals. It is 
 altogether contradicted by the discoveries of modern science. 
 E.xcept in regard to his highly-developed brain, man does 
 not differ widely in his bodily functions from other animals. 
 As Aristotle has truly said, "Nature never goes forward by 
 leaps." There is a continuous chain, with slowly diminish- 
 ing links, from man to the lowest animal. If you place the 
 blood or flesh of a man and the blood or flesh of a sheep
 
 86 SuByECTs OF Social Welfare. 
 
 in the most expert chemist's hand, he can detect no differ- 
 ence between them. The same kind of heart, lungs, liver, 
 and spleen, is found in the animals experimented upon as in 
 man ; and the same anaesthetics, the same drugs or poisons, 
 and the same parasites, act upon man and such animals in 
 the same way. It is quite certain that the observations 
 made upon animals can be applied by physiology to man, 
 for man physiologically is the king of all animals. But I 
 deny altogether that an unskilled public can form an 
 adequate judgment on these points. The utility and the 
 necessity for such experiments are most important con- 
 siderations, but they must be determined by the opinion of 
 experts. I do not mean by the few experimentalists in this 
 country, not above forty or fifty in number, but by the 
 whole body of medical men, who devote themselves to the 
 cure and amelioration of disease. They are the qualified 
 judges of the utility and need of making such experiments, 
 and from the results of which they benefit. Outsiders, who 
 have no knowledge of the requirements of surgical and 
 medical science, are not witnesses having a right to be 
 heard in such a case. Now, among 24,000 medical men 
 m this country you will, no doubt, find a few who deny 
 the utility of such experiments. The vast majority of the 
 medical profession are emphatic in their testimony. In 
 August, 1881, there was a great International Congress of 
 medical men in London, and the Congress passed the 
 following resolution : — 
 
 " That this Congress records its conviction that experiments on 
 living animals have proved of the utmost service to medicine in the 
 past, and are indispensable to its future progress ; that, accordingly, 
 while strongly deprecating the infliction of unnecessary pain, it is of 
 opinion, alike in the interest of man and of animals, tliat it is not 
 desirable to restrict competent persons in the performance of such 
 experiments." 
 
 This Congress was remarkably representative of all countries
 
 Vivisection. 87 
 
 both from the Continent of Europe and of America. Lest 
 you should think it tainted by the presence of foreign ex- 
 perimentaHsts, I may cite the testimony of the British 
 Medical Association, which, on the loth of August in the 
 same year, passed the following resolution : — 
 
 " That this Association desires to express its deep sense of the 
 importance of vivisection to the advancement of medical science, and 
 the belief that the further prohibition of it would be attended with 
 serious injury to the community, by preventing investigations which 
 are calculated to promote the better knowledge and treatment of disease 
 in animals as well as man." 
 
 I cannot conceive that the House would reject such testi- 
 mony, coming from the great body of medical men, in- 
 cluding such names as Jenner, Owen, Paget, Darwin, 
 Carpenter, Sanderson, Huxley, Gull, and a host of others, 
 whose scientific knowledge is only equalled by their broad 
 humanity. 
 
 While, however, the House will admit the weight of such 
 testimony, it is entitled to ask what is the nature of the 
 knowledge acquired which has produced this conviction 
 on the minds of the great body of the medical profession. 
 
 There are three classes of experiments made upon ani- 
 mals. The first class aims at acquiring knowledge concern- 
 ing the processes of disease ; the second is concerned with 
 the action of drugs or poisons ; and the third tests the origin 
 of disease by actually producing it. 
 
 The first class seeks for knowledge of vital processes or 
 diseased conditions. Such experiments were made by the 
 ancients, and, since medicine became a science, by physio- 
 logists in our own country. The great discovery of the 
 circulation of the blood by Harvey was determined by 
 experiments on a variety of animals, and was ultimately 
 demonstrated before Charles I. and the princesses upon a 
 living deer. In the progress of such experiments by men 
 like Harvey, Hunter, Bell, Brodie, and many others, great
 
 88 SuByRCTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 and leading discoveries, such as of the circulation of the 
 blood, the lacteal and lymphatic system of vessels, and the 
 compound function of the spinal nerves, were established. 
 Such experiments, probably, often originated in the love of 
 knowledge only, without immediate reference to its applica- 
 tion to the amelioration of human or animal existence. 
 
 Nothing is more shortsighted than the utilitarian cry of 
 the ignorant against investigators in science. It is as super- 
 ficial as the remark of Savarin, when he said, " He who 
 invents a new dish does more for humanity than he who 
 discovers a star." But exactly as navigation is an outcome 
 of astronomy, or as bleaching or dyeing is an outcome of 
 chemistry, or as engineering is an application of mathe- 
 matics, so is medicine an outcome of the sciences of 
 physiology and pathology. To strangle these sciences, by 
 refusing to them the only modes of research which render 
 their progress possible, would be to relegate the medicine 
 of the future to empiricism and quackery. Indeed, nothing 
 is more certain than that every abstract truth given to the 
 world constantly leads to the most unexpected and most 
 useful applications to humanity. Thus, when Galvani put 
 a copper hook through the spine of frogs, and hung them 
 on the iron rails of his balcony at Bologna, in order to study 
 the muscular contractions which were thus produced, who 
 could have predicted that this experiment was to originate 
 the science of Galvanism, and lead to the discovery of the 
 electric telegraph, to the electric light, to new motors for 
 our machinery, and to the important use of electricity in 
 the cure of disease and relief of human suffering? So it is 
 with other discoveries in physiology, which, even when they 
 appear remote from practical application, constantly lead to 
 the most important benefits. When Pasteur and Lister 
 made experiments on the minute organisms which appear 
 during fermentation and putrefaction, who could have pre- 
 dicted that the experiments of the former jDhilosopher would
 
 Vivisection. 89' 
 
 have opened up such a wide field of promise in the treat- 
 ment of diseases which afiiict our flocks and herds, or that 
 the observations of Lister would give us that admirable 
 method of antiseptic treatment which now ranks as one 
 of the greatest improvements of modern surgery ? And yet 
 Lister had to go abroad to perform a few experiments on 
 animals, as the present Act was too restrictive for him to 
 perform them in this country, though the pain inflicted was 
 no greater than the healing of some slight wound. When 
 you recollect the horrible pain which used to be inflicted 
 after a surgical operation, by burning the bleeding vessels 
 with a red-hot iron, the successive steps in surgery that have 
 attended experiments in the healing of wounds, and which 
 have culminated in the antiseptic treatment of Lister, have 
 surely justified the small amount of brute suffering by giving 
 comparative safety to the most formidable surgical opera- 
 tions in the case of man. 
 
 The second class of experiments, with drugs or poisons, 
 are sometimes absolutely necessary, not only in the interests 
 of medical science, but in the cause of justice. The pro- 
 moters of this Bill would not even allow experiments in the 
 cause of justice. For myself, although formerly a pro- 
 fessor of chemistry in the greatest medical school of this 
 country, I am only responsible for the deaths of two rabbits 
 by poison ; and I ask the attention of the House to the 
 case as a strong justification for experiments on animals. 
 Still I should have been treated as a criminal under the 
 present Act, had it then existed. Sir James Simpson, who 
 introduced chloroform — that great alleviator of animal suffer- 
 ing — was then alive, and in constant quest of new anes- 
 thetics. He came to my laboratory one day to see if I had 
 any new substances likely to suit his purpose. I showed 
 him a liquid which had just been discovered by one of 
 my assistants, and Sir James Simpson, who was bold to 
 rashness in experimenting on himself, desired immediately
 
 90 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 to inhale it in my private room. I refused to give him any 
 of the liquid, unless it was first tried upon rabbits. Two 
 rabbits were accordingly made to inhale it ; they quickly 
 passed into anaesthesia, and apparently as quickly recovered, 
 but from an after action of the poison they both died a few 
 hours afterwards. Now, was not this a justifiable experi- 
 ment on animals? Was not the sacrifice of two rabbits 
 worth saving the life of the most distinguished physician 
 of his time — of one who, by the introduction of chloro- 
 form, had done so much to mitigate animal suffering? 
 Would that an experiment of a like kind on a rabbit or 
 a guinea-pig had been used by John Hunter, who pro- 
 bably shortened his own noble life by experimenting on 
 himself with the ignoble poison of syphilis. Let me give one 
 other instance, in which two valuable lives were sacrificed for 
 want of such experiments. A few years ago two young Ger- 
 man chemists were assistants in a London laboratory. They 
 were experimenting upon a poison which I will not even 
 name, for its properties are so terrible. It is postponed in its 
 action, and then produces idiotcy or death. An experi- 
 ment on a mouse or a rabbit would have taught them 
 the danger of this frightful poison ; but, in ignorance of 
 its subtle properties, they became its unhappy victims, for 
 one died and the other suffered intellectual death. Yet 
 the promoters of this Bill would not suffer us to make any 
 experiments on the lower animals so as to protect man from 
 such catastrophes. It is by experiments on animals that 
 medicine has not only learned the benefits, but has also 
 been taught how to avoid the dangers of many potent drugs, 
 as chloroform, chloral, and morphia. 
 
 The third class of experiments is in the production of 
 disease. At the first blush this would appear to be the 
 infliction of animal suffering without a beneficent motive. 
 But this is the exact reverse of the truth, for no one can 
 know how to prevent disease without knowing how to cause
 
 Vivisection. 91 
 
 it. Prevention of disease is a much higher aim of medical 
 science than its amelioration or cure. Now, in this class of 
 experiments, the greatest progress has been made in recent 
 years by the sacrifice of a few of the lower animals. A 
 large class of disease, both in man and animals, is now 
 ascertained to arise from the introduction into the system of 
 self-multiplying and destructive germs of a very low class of 
 living organisms. The promoters of this Bill would not 
 deny this, but would say — " Observe the necessary facts 
 when disease occurs, and draw your deductions from them, 
 without experimenting upon animals." So you may, if you 
 are content with the sacrifice of hecatombs of human beings 
 to obtain knowledge which the sacrifice of a few mice or 
 guinea-pigs would equally give you. 
 
 Take an instance in point. A foreign experimentalist — 
 Thiersch — by sacrificing fourteen mice, found that the germs 
 in choleraic discharges, imbibed through water, reproduced 
 cholera with certainty. The same fact, it is true, was sus- 
 pected in the cholera epidemics of 1848-9, and of 1853-4, 
 when the Southwark and Vauxhall, as well as the Lambeth 
 Water Companies, supplied water tainted with choleraic 
 evacuations to about half a million of their consumers. In 
 the case of Lambeth, during the first of the epidemics, 125 
 out of every 10,000 of the population died ; but in the 
 second epidemic, only 37 ; for, in the interval, the quality ot 
 the water was improved. The Southwark and Vauxhall 
 Company made no such improvement, and the cholera 
 deaths were, 18 to 10,000 in the first, and 130 in the second 
 epidemic. These experiments with water charged with 
 fKcal matter on 500,000 human beings were valuable to 
 medical science, but not in the least more valuable than 
 Thiersch's recent experiments on 56 mice, of which 44 took 
 the disease, 14 of these having died. Had these been made 
 anterior to the cholera epidemics, the great mortality might 
 have been averted.
 
 92 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 It is thus that much needless experimentation on man 
 is constantly saved by a few experiments on animals. The 
 recent experiments mnde for producing disease in animals 
 are full of promise for the future prevention and amelio- 
 ration of disease in man. This is especially the case in 
 consumption, which is accountable for one-seventh of the 
 total deaths, and for one-third of those persons who die 
 young. Time does not allow me to describe these experi- 
 ments. I will only mention one fact, that the milk of con- 
 sumptive cows is found to produce tuberculosis in animals. 
 As the milk of such cows is frequently distributed, it is 
 surely wise to make some experiments on animals, rather 
 than to parody them on some thousand men and women 
 before the danger is either negatived or affirmed. 
 
 The House then will perceive that numerous conse- 
 quences must flow from the establishment of the fact that 
 many diseases of animals arise from the planting in their 
 blood of minute germs of alien life. Take one instance 
 merely. Since the time when in Egypt there was a grievous 
 murrain, *' the breaking forth of blains upon man and beast 
 throughout all the land of Egypt," the same disease, anthrax, 
 or splenic fever, has desolated the flocks and herds of all 
 countries, from the reindeer in Lapland to the cavalry 
 horses in India. In France this fever kills sheep to the 
 value of 20,000,000 francs annually. Pasteur has shown 
 how the bacillus which produces it may in a milder form 
 mitigate its virulence, by becoming as protective and in- 
 nocuous as vaccine virus. Large flocks of sheep are now 
 thus protected by it in France. More recently, by a mas- 
 terly series of experiments, the violent virus of hydrophobia 
 has been mitigated, and that disease has been brought 
 under treatment. 
 
 I do not like quotations from the Bible in this House ; 
 but I cannot help recollecting that He who is all merciful 
 has said, " How much then is a man better than a sheep."
 
 Vivisection. 93 
 
 Tf we extend such protection to man against the attacks of 
 many maladies which are produced by similar germs, the 
 sacrifice of a few mice or guinea-pigs, which would only 
 suffer a short and slight pain in inoculation, would surely 
 be justifiable in obtaining a lasting boon to humanity. 
 How much more limited is this infliction of suffering than 
 that of our daily intercourse with animals. If the House 
 desire not to interfere with the cniel operations on cattle to 
 fit them for human food or labour, if it does not wish to 
 stop the inoculations which have produced such important 
 consequences in splenic fever and chicken cholera, in pro- 
 tecting cattle and poultry, why should we be asked to 
 prevent the extension of knowledge for the benefit of the 
 human race ? 
 
 I am much indebted to the House for listening to me 
 so long on a subject which requires so much scientific 
 explanation ; but to my medical constituents, who are num- 
 bered by thousands, the decision of the House this day will 
 either carry dismay or satisfaction. I must remind you 
 what the Royal Commission told us would be the conse- 
 quences of passing a Bill of this kind. They said, to pro- 
 hibit experiments on living animals " would inevitably lead 
 either to a general evasion of the law, or to a universal flight 
 of medical and physiological investigators to foreign schools 
 and laboratories, and that by this means the general 
 treatment of animals would certainly not be altered for the 
 better." 
 
 You may retard, but you cannot arrest, the progress of 
 science. Even the burning of the Alexandrian Library 
 did not stop the growth of Literature. By passing this Bill 
 you might produce the result which the Royal Commission 
 so much deplores. This House has already passed an Act 
 to regulate experiments on living animals, and I have shown 
 how successful that Act has been in its operation. You 
 might increase its restrictions ; but these are already tightly
 
 94 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 drawn, and increased restriction might be followed by 
 evasion. The present Act excludes the unqualified from 
 making such experiments, and entrusts them, with suitable 
 precautions, to the skilled physiologist. Why should you 
 show increased distrust, when there is no evidence of any 
 breach of the existing law ? The general presumption of 
 law is, that well-qualified medical men may be trusted for 
 their skill, and for their humanity, even with human life 
 You allow a medical man to judge whether, in certain cases 
 of childbirth, he may kill the child in order to save the 
 mother ; and we are asked to distrust the few and the most 
 specially qualified of that profession to judge whether a 
 mouse, a guinea-pig, or a frog, may be sacrificed for the 
 benefit of the human race. You cannot be surprised that, 
 as a representative of a great medical constituency, I should 
 speak warmly on this subject. That profession has always 
 been marked for its self-sacrifice and devotion to the 
 interests of humanity, and its members naturally resent 
 the imputations of cruelty which are made upon them, 
 because they desire that knowledge all-important to man 
 should be extended in the only way which is possible. I 
 do not at all undei-value the humane feelings and sentiments 
 of many of the promoters of this Bill, though much of the 
 out-of door agitation in regard to it has been got up in a 
 spirit of unthinking and aggressive ignorance. I assert that 
 physiologists are actuated by a higher humanity than that of 
 the opponents of vivisection. Their aim is to mitigate the 
 sufferings of humanity by studying the processes of life and 
 of disease. The only way in which they can prosecute this 
 aim is to experiment on living beings, not on dead corpses. 
 The total number of laboratoiies in the whole world 
 engaged in studying the laws of life, with a view of lessen- 
 ing the immense amount of suffering among all animated 
 beings, are but few in number. In this country, at least, 
 they are conducted and regulated under an Act which has
 
 Vivisection. 95 
 
 given statutory effect to the pervading spirit of English 
 physiologists, that the experiments on animals should be 
 made with a minimum amount of suffering. 
 
 I cannot believe that this House will give a second 
 reading to the Bill, which would drive English physiologists 
 to foreign countries, or make them work secretly to evade 
 an unjust law, and would thus brand as criminals men 
 whose whole object is to ameliorate the condition of suffer- 
 ing humanity. Limited as is the scope of this Bill, its 
 purpose is to repeal an Act under which the official in- 
 spectors assure us that scarcely ten animals in the year 
 suffer sensible pain ; but it would take no account what- 
 ever of the torture or cruelty perpetrated upon animals out 
 of the most wanton and purposeless malignity. 
 
 (Mr. R. T. Reid : That is a crime already.) 
 
 I beg your pardon. It is not a crime already. It is a 
 crime only in the case of domestic animals. I say, it is 
 only experiments made with the noble motive of relieving 
 the ills of suffering humanity with which you propose to 
 interfere. The existing Cruelty to Animals Act, called 
 Martin's Act, is confined to domestic animals only. All 
 other vertebrate animals are excluded from the operation of 
 that Act. If this Bill passes into law, no more protection 
 is given to them, however wantonly, wickedly, and cruelly, 
 any boy or man may treat such animals. It would be a 
 complete defence under this Bill to show that the most cruel 
 experiments were made out of pure malignity, and without 
 any reference to the promotion of physiology, medicine, or 
 science. As soon as the motive is high, noble, and humane, 
 the Bill proposes to brand those who experiment as criminals. 
 
 I cannot believe that this House will consent to pass a 
 Bill which has originated in benevolence, but in a benevo- 
 lence wholly indiscriminate, and which, I believe, will infi- 
 nitely augment the animal suffering that it ignorantly seeks 
 to alleviate.
 
 THE DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 
 
 Note. — This article appeared in Good Words, July, 1885. 
 
 The practice of burial as a mode of disposing of the 
 dead has become universal in all Christian countries, and 
 connects itself unconsciously with our hopes of resurrec- 
 tion. Burial existed as a practice in many heathen as 
 well as Christian countries, and was viewed by the former 
 as a mere means of concealing the dead. The word 
 " burial " is derived from an old Anglo-Saxon word, which 
 means concealment. This was touchingly expressed by 
 Abraham, on the death of Sarah, when he begged for a 
 piece of land " that I may bury the dead out of my sight." 
 The same result was obtained by burning bodies, and the 
 process of cremation prevailed at one time very extensively. 
 Indeed, it was more prevalent than burial, for with the im- 
 portant exceptions of Egypt, India, and China, burning 
 was the common method of disposing of the dead in the 
 old history of the world. From the earliest times burning 
 was practised in the interior regions of Asia, and was 
 followed in the Western World by the Thracians, the Celts, 
 Sarmatians, and other nations. The Jews generally buried 
 their dead, although occasionally they burned them, as 
 when Saul and his sons were burned and their ashes buried 
 under a tree. In Tophet, near Jerusalem, furnaces were 
 kept for destroying the garbage of the city, and also for 
 burning carcases, when made urgent by sanitary reasons 
 (Isaiah xxx. 2)"^. In Rome the burning of bodies was 
 practised from the close of the Republic to the middle 
 of the fourth Christian century. In Greece both burial
 
 The Disposal of the Dead. 97 
 
 and burning were recognised as legitimate funeral rites, 
 though the latter was perhaps more common, as legislative 
 exceptions were made to it in the cases of suicide, persons 
 struck by lightning, and mere infants. 
 
 The variations in the methods of disposal were in- 
 timately connected with the philosophies and religions of 
 the old world. In the old philosophies matter was sup- 
 posed to be derived from earth, or air, or fire, or water ; 
 and living bodies derived from these were after death sup- 
 posed to be resolved into them. So the earth philosophers 
 selected burial, while air and fire philosophers preferred 
 burning. Religions had even a more powerful influence in 
 determining the selection of the last solemn rite. Egypt, 
 having a firm belief in immortality, embalmed bodies so 
 that they might remain fit for a future state. Indeed, in 
 that country the most terrible punishment for malefactor^ 
 was to burn their bodies, so that they should not rise into a 
 more glorious life. In all Christian countries burial has 
 become universal, and the recent movement in favour of 
 cremation comes to us as a startling surprise. In the 
 earlier stages of Christianity there was a simple and primi- 
 tive belief, which still lurks among the uneducated, that the 
 actual bodies of the dead are to be changed into glorified 
 bodies for immortality. The burning of heretics and 
 infidels produced a horror of this mode of disposing of 
 the dead, and gave to burial a visible sign of faith in the 
 future. 
 
 It is useless to inquire whether the universal practice 
 of burial in Christian countries may have given a materiality 
 to our views of resurrection, and may have lessened the 
 spiritual view of immortality. To those who have studied 
 the beautiful words of St. Paul in i Cor. xv. the non-identity 
 of the natural with the spiritual body is manifest ; but the 
 loving memories which cling to the dead incline us to forget 
 the teachings both of religion and science. No Christian 
 
 H
 
 98 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 would deny that the blessed martyrs who were burned at 
 the stake, or devoured by wild beasts in the arena, were as 
 certain of immortality as the believers who are buried. 
 Socrates, who had faith in the future, was asked by his 
 friends, while the poison was numbing his body, whether he 
 would like to be burned or buried, and he replied in very 
 wise words that he cared not which, provided that his 
 friends did not think that they were burning or burying 
 _ Socrates. Lucan, who wrote in the first century of the 
 Christian era, expressed himself in like terms — " Tabesne 
 cadavera solvat an rogiis hand referi" — Whether decay or 
 fire destroys corpses matters not. It does not matter to 
 the dead, but it matters exceedingly to the living. We are 
 bound so to dispose of the dead that they shall not injure 
 the living during the process of resolution of the body. 
 Burial, when properly performed, is as innocuous a mode of 
 disposing of the dead as burning. If the coffin be of a 
 perishable nature, if the soil be dry and porous, if the graves 
 be not too crowded, the dead are resolved into air and into 
 ashes as certainly in three years as they are in a furnace in 
 the course of an hour, and in both cases without injury to 
 the living. How rarely are these conditions satisfied in our 
 modes of sepulture ! We often find in cemeteries that 
 twenty years are not sufficient to effect the change. The 
 modern Macedonian Greeks have a curious custom. They 
 bury the bodies temporarily, and at the end of three years' 
 open the grave. If nothing but bones remain, to these 
 they give permanent and respectful burial, because that 
 proves the goodness of the deceased. If flesh still adheres 
 to the bones, then the dead have become wicked vampires, 
 who are going through the world to do harm to the living. 
 I am afraid that in most of our churchyards the dead are 
 harming the living by destroying the soil, fouling the air, 
 contaminating water springs, and spreading the seeds of 
 disease. It is in the hope of improving our methods of
 
 The Disposal of the Dead. 99 
 
 burial that I write this article. Cremation and burial pro- 
 duce absolutely the same results, varying only in time. The 
 fact that a feeling for cremation has arisen compels those 
 who advocate burial to conduct it with hygienic precautions. 
 Science has reached positive knowledge in regard to the 
 changes of dead matter, and it is right that this should be 
 understood by the public. 
 
 It is now known with certainty that dead matter of all 
 organised beings passes into air for the most part, and a 
 small remnant into ashes which remain in the soil. The 
 changed products of the dead — carbonic acid, water, and 
 ammonia — are the food of plants, which, under the action 
 of the sun, mould them into new forms of organic life. 
 Death thus becomes the source of life, and the dissolution 
 of one generation is actually necessary for the support of a 
 succeeding one. The air, the all-abounding air, into which 
 pass all the waste of the living and all the products of the 
 dead, thus becomes the grave of organic death and the 
 cradle of organic life. You may retard the operation of this 
 law of Nature, but you cannot defeat it. The bodies of the 
 Pharaohs have existed, through embalmment, for thousands 
 of years, though they are now gradually being converted into 
 aerial constituents by slow decay in our museums. Every 
 modern burial contributes slowly or speedily to the aerial reser- 
 voir of plant food, and takes its part in the great cycle of life 
 and death. There is an old tradition that the body of man 
 becomes entirely changed in seven years ; as a fact, all the 
 soft parts disappear and are substituted every six weeks. 
 The materials of our living bodies have mainly come from 
 the air, and to the air must they return. Euripides saw 
 this, though he could not explain it with the lights of modern 
 science. 
 
 " Then that which springs from earth to earih returns, 
 And that which draws its being from the sky 
 Rises again up to the skyey height." 
 
 H 2
 
 loo Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 The main fact that death and life are necessary sequences 
 in the continued existence of the organic kingdom will be 
 most readily understood if we follow out the process in 
 specific cases. It is very obvious in the case of the carnivora. 
 An herbivorous animal lives upon plants which extract their 
 substance from the air. The flesh-eater kills the vegetible- 
 feeder, and the body of the former becomes the tomb of the 
 latter, so in this case death clearly becomes the source of 
 life. Victor Hugo calls the carnivora "the sextons of 
 Nature." The bodies of the consumed herbivora pass into 
 aerial products through the respiration of the carnivora, and 
 by the speedy decay of their excreta, in a quick cycle of life 
 and death, for only a small part remains in the body of the 
 devouring animal. Thus while plants feed animals, they 
 quickly return to the air the aerial food on which plants 
 depend, and here death and life rapidly alternate. Animals 
 which feed on carrion convert the dead bodies into aerial 
 ingredients in about twenty-four hours, just as the crematory 
 produces the same gases in one hour. There is one method 
 of disposing of dead bodies in India that illustrates this 
 change, though it is repulsive to our feelings. The Parsees 
 bury their dead in the " Towers of Silence." In the interior 
 of these towers there are sloping shelves, upon which the 
 naked dead bodies are placed. The mourners withdraw 
 and shut the door ; then immediately the expectant vultures 
 swoop down, and in half an hour only the skeleton remains. 
 The bodies of the vultures have become the tombs, and in 
 twenty-four hours the dead bodies have passed through living 
 tombs into air, to fulfil their destined purpose of feeding 
 plants. 'I'hat is a very speedy mode of burial, though a 
 repulsive one. At all times in history there has been a 
 strong objection to allow the bodies of men to be devoured 
 by beasts or foul birds. Tobit got into all his troubles by 
 Inirying the king's enemies who were exposed to the beasts 
 of the field. So also did Antigone dare the wrath of the
 
 The Disposal of the Dead. ioi 
 
 Theban rulers, when she buried the body of Polynices, her 
 brother, who was exposed to the birds of prey. While we 
 admire this sacred care for burial in the case of a human 
 body, we must not forget that we are daily performing the 
 living entombqient of the: ai^irriais which we' consume as 
 food. The carcases of- ♦he ox and the sheep a^e entombed 
 in our l)odies, and quickly' pass by 'resjliritlioho'r'd excretion 
 into the aerial food of plants. The disposal of the dead is 
 a question of sentiment, subject to a great and inexorable 
 law of Nature, that the dead must ultimately be resolved 
 into the living. 
 
 If we follow the process of decay which takes place in 
 the grave, it will be found that living organisms take part in 
 the decay of the buried body, just as they do when beef or 
 mutton is consumed by man. In absolutely pure air flesh 
 does not decay, being, in fact, preserved for an indefinite 
 time. Air is seldom absolutely pure, for in it are an 
 infinite number of floating micro organisms, either as spores 
 or fully developed. On the tops of mountains these 
 organisms, which are named bacilli, bacteria, or micrococci, 
 are sparsely found ; in the air of the country they are common ; 
 in that of towns they abound ; over sewers or above church- 
 yards they positively swarm. What are they ? Are they 
 plants or animals ? This is a question that science has not 
 yet decided. Chemists are inclined to consider them animals 
 of a very low type, because animals are chiefly engaged in 
 performing analytical functions, that is, pulling organic 
 matter to pieces ; while plants perform synthetical functions 
 — that is, build up complex organic matter out of simple 
 materials, their main purpose being to mould organisms out 
 of carbonic acid, water, and ammonia. The great function 
 of these micro-organisms which play such an important part 
 in the economy of the world is to convert potential energy 
 into actual energy, or to put it more simply, to convert 
 passive affinities into active affinities. In organised matter
 
 I02 SusyECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 there is for a time the repose of the chemical attractions of 
 the four elements — carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen 
 — which constitute the great bulk of the body. The micro- 
 organisms arc engaged in the /esolution of the dead body 
 into those active* forms 'of "chemical energy — carbonic acid, 
 water, and amm:onia. When theseinnumerable little beings 
 have free play,' 'they aVe th*? 'greatest benefactors to the 
 human race, for they are the most powerful of all scavengers, 
 as they purify air, water, and soil, so as to render them fit 
 for the living. If you oppose their free action, by restricting 
 their access, by shutting out the free circulation of air neces- 
 sary to their life-functions, they become intensely malignant 
 in their character, the true vampires of the dead : they then 
 fly about planting themselves in the blood of the living, and 
 produce our well-known epidemic diseases — zymotic, or 
 " filth " diseases. In the fluids of patients suffering from 
 such diseases these micro-organisms swarm. Mankind has 
 only recently recognised how much we owe to the micro- 
 organisms. Wine and beer are produced by their agency ; 
 by them vinegar is formed ; by them we get those vast 
 beds of saltpetre or nitre which is one of the forms into 
 which they convert decaying matter. Our ancestors used 
 to live with rushes on the floors. When the rushes 
 became filthy, new ones were put on the top, and fre- 
 quently accumulated to considerable thickness. Then the 
 dreaded '' petremen " of the king came, and insisted on 
 digging up the clay floor, which had become saturated with 
 saltpetre formed by these busy micrococci, in order to save the 
 inhabitants from pestilence produced by their filthy habits. 
 These little organisms, whether they be plants or animals, 
 are infinite benefactors to the human race or terrible 
 scourges, according as man is obedient or disobedient to 
 the wise laws of the Creator. 
 
 By our common practices of burial we do everything 
 to defeat these laws. We enclose dead bodies in close
 
 The Disposal of the Dead. 103 
 
 coffins, in impermeable soils, often saturated with water, 
 so that the air is excluded, and these busy micro-organisms 
 are unable to exercise their beneficial functions. Instead of 
 the simple resolution of the body into the food of plants, 
 which is the end of decay, a vast number of dangerous 
 vapours and fluids are produced as intermediate forms, 
 which may occasion disasters to the living before the little 
 active beings are able to bring them to their simple and 
 destined end of carbonic acid, water, and ammonia. Is it 
 surprising that men who see this with the eye of knowledge 
 should desire to recur to burning as a means of disposing of 
 the dead ? The earth is a slow crematory, the furnace is a 
 quick one, but the final results are the same in both cases. 
 The beautiful service of the Church appears to recognise this 
 fact in the alternative words, " Ashes to ashes, and dust to 
 dust." As a chemist, I know that both processes — burial 
 and cremation — are identical, except in point of time. As 
 a legislator, I see no reason why survivors should not be 
 allowed to select one or other method, according to their 
 desires. As a Christian, I wish both to be regulated in their 
 performance and hallowed by those services of religion which 
 are so necessary on such solemn occasions. 
 
 The time has come, in my opinion, when those who 
 prefer burial for the dead should be obliged so to conduct 
 it that it will do no harm to the living. I have officially 
 inspected many churchyards, and made reports on their 
 state, which even to re-read makes me shudder. I do not 
 intend to inflict any of these on my readers. The news- 
 papers within the last few weeks have given horrible in- 
 stances, especially in Ireland. My friend, Mr. Seymour 
 Haden, in his beautiful letters "Earth to Earth," has shown 
 how burial may be conducted with safety to the community. 
 The essence of his system is that the coffin should be of 
 perishable material, such as papier-mache, or wicker-work, 
 so that the air may obtain free access to the body, and
 
 I04 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 speedily effect that resolution which is not only inevitable, 
 but is necessary in the great cycle of life, that the dead 
 shall yield their material to the living. That is not enough. 
 The earth must be selected on account of its porosity, and 
 to keep it porous it must be adequately drained. Bodies 
 must have space and earth enough for resolution. The 
 holes or ditches into which the bodies of paupers are 
 placed, not separately, but in number, cannot be called 
 graves : they are pits of putridity. If land be too dear 
 to give them decent burial, respectful to the dead and in- 
 nocuous to the living, a thousand times better it would be 
 that their bodies should be burnt and their ashes buried. 
 Reforms in our modes of burial would vastly increase 
 those tender associations of the past which we desire to 
 preserve in connection with those that are dead. As at 
 present practised, the grave cannot be looked upon with 
 the eye of knowledge except as an evil to the living and a 
 dishonour to the dead. Over a dead body the survivors 
 have no power, for then chemical and physical forces reign 
 supreme. The great law of Nature prevails that death must 
 supply the materials for life. It is this close alternation and 
 mutual dependence of death and life that made old Bishop 
 Hall remark, " Death borders upon our birth, and our cradle 
 stands in the grave." Surely no religious feeling can be 
 offended because I state the well-established truths of 
 science in regard to the wonderful cycle of organic life and 
 death, one of the most exquisite proofs of creative wisdom 
 known to science. Let us take part in the fulfilment of this 
 great law, and not by ignorance or prejudice try to retard it, 
 for we cannot frustrate provisions which were established by 
 the Creator for the welfare of animated beings.
 
 19art HI. 
 
 INDUSTRIAL WEALTH. 
 
 1. THE DEPRESSION OF AGRICULTURE AND FAIR TRADE. 
 
 2. THE DISPLACEMENT OF LABOUR BY MODERN IN- 
 
 VENTIONS. 
 
 3. INDUSTRIALCOMPETITION AND COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 
 
 4. THE EFFECT OF PROTECTION ON WAGES. 
 
 5. ON BI-METALLISM. 
 
 6. THE INOSCULATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 
 
 7. SCIENCE AND THE STATE. 
 
 8. PETROLEUM THE LIGHT OF THE POOR,
 
 part M^ 
 
 Industrial Wealth. 
 
 THE DEPRESSION OF AGRICUL- 
 TURE AND FAIR TRADE. 
 
 Addrefs delivered at Leeds, 17th Dec, 1887. 
 
 To my mind the most significant political event since the close 
 of the session (1887) was the meeting at Oxford of 1,000 dele- 
 gates of Conservative associations in the last week of Novem- 
 ber. This gave us the opportunity of knowing the feelings 
 and convictions of the great body of the Tory party. At this 
 meeting little attention was given to the state of Ireland. 
 Its main purpose was to pass the following resolution : — 
 " That the continued depression in trade and agriculture, 
 the increase in the scarcity of employment, and the conse- 
 quent distress among all classes, render speedy reform in 
 the policy of the United Kingdom as regards foreign im- 
 ports and the influx of indigent foreigners a matter of vital 
 necessity." When this resolution was put in a substantive 
 form to the congress of 1,000 Tory delegates, only twelve 
 held up their hands against it. The resolution is sweeping 
 in its character, and means that the country must have pro- 
 tection against the imports of foreign commodities and 
 needy foreigners. My object is not to discuss the latter
 
 io8 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 proposal, although the argument to exclude needy foreigners 
 might be turned against needy Englishmen who leave this 
 country by emigration. It is a separate question, and may 
 mean more or less than the bare words seem to imply. 
 Protection against the import of foreign commodities is 
 thrown down as the gauntlet by the great body of the 
 Tories, and we must take it up. 
 
 The basis of this new outburst of fair trade (which, after 
 all, is nothing but protection in a domino) is a real anxiety 
 as to the serious depression of our great agricultural indus- 
 try. We must all admit and deeply sympathise with this 
 depression. It has been terrible in Ireland, where forty-one 
 per cent, of the people depend upon agriculture ; and it is 
 bad enough in Great Britain, where fourteen per cent, are 
 in this position. There is no doubt that the diminution of 
 produce and its lower exchangeable value have largely re- 
 duced the spendable income of the agricultural classes, and 
 this disaster to them has re-acted upon the manufacturing 
 classes. Let us try to understand how this state of things 
 has arisen. Agricultural depression was accentuated, but 
 was not produced, by the failure in the corn crops all 
 through Europe in 1879, 1S80, and 1881, a failure which, 
 in regard to duration and extent, had no parallel in the 
 last four centuries. There was no failure in the United 
 States, so imports from that country greatly increased. The 
 exports of wheat from that country — only 40 millions of 
 bushels in 1871 — rose to 190 millions in iSSo. 
 
 There was a deeper cause at work than the temporary 
 failure of our crops. The economical applications of science 
 in the vast improvements of the telegraph, the railroads, and 
 the steamships, have changed the whole system of com- 
 merce. The effect of these have been to destroy local 
 markets, and to consolidate all into one market — the world. 
 If our landlords and farmers want to know the names of 
 the three persons who have knocked out the bottom of our
 
 Depression of Agriculture and Fair Trade. 109 
 
 old agricultural system, I can tell them. Their names are 
 Wheatstone, Sir Henry Bessemer, and Dr. Joule. The 
 first, by telegraphy, has changed the whole system by which 
 exchanges are made ; the second, by his improvements in 
 steel, has altered profoundly the transportation of commo- 
 dities by sea and by land ; and the third, by his discoveries 
 of the mechanical equivalent of heat, has led to great 
 economy of coal in compound engines. By these changes 
 the United States, Canada, India, and Russia, have their 
 corn crops brought to our doors. The effect of these dis- 
 coveries upon the transport of corn will be realised when I 
 state that a small cube of coal, which would pass through a 
 ring the size of a shilHng, when burned in the compound 
 engine of a modern steamboat, would drive a ton of food 
 and its proportion of the ship two miles on its way from a 
 foreign port. This economy of coal has altered the whole 
 situation. Not long since, a steamer of 3,000 tons, going 
 on a long voyage, might require 2,200 tons of coals and 
 carry only a limited cargo of 800 tons. Now a modern 
 steamer will take the same voyage with 800 tons of coal, 
 and carry a freight of 2,200 tons. AVhile coal has thus 
 been economised, human labour has been lessened. In 1870 
 it required forty-seven hands on board our steamships for 
 every 1,000 tons capacity ; now only twenty-eight are neces- 
 sary. All these changes in the economy of fuel and of 
 labour have led to increased pro luction at a small cost. 
 Four men in the United States working for one year in the 
 growth, milling, and transportation of wheat, can produce 
 flour for a year's consumption of 1,000 other men, allowinf' 
 one barrel of flour to each adult. I need not elaborate this 
 point further, for you will all see how this has acted upon 
 agriculture. It has made one grain market all over the 
 world. Formerly we looked to the United States alone to 
 supply any deficiency in our crops, but now the transport of 
 grain from Bombay to England, by the Suez Canal, has
 
 no SunyECTS of Social Welfare. 
 
 been reduced, between 1880 and 1885, from sixteenpence 
 to eightpence a bushel. It is not England alone that suffers 
 in its agriculture from there being a world-market. Italian 
 farmers feel as keenly the competition of rice from Burmah 
 as English farmers do the imports of wheat from India, 
 America, and Russia. It will be no comfort for them to 
 know that farmers of other nations suffer, though it may 
 show the universality of the change if I tell them that 
 American farmers are as low in their minds as English 
 farmers, for the former are looking to a failure in their in- 
 dustry. There are twenty-six millions of people on the 
 other side of the Atlantic dependent on agriculture, who 
 see with alarm that the grain acreage of India is fast ap- 
 proaching that of the United States. The acreage in the 
 latter is now forty millions, and in India it is already thirty 
 millions of acres. And what does the last official report 
 published at Washington say of the feelings of American 
 farmers ? " The fear that Indian wheat and cotton and 
 Egyptian cotton are rapidly taking the place of American 
 wheat and cotton has caused producers to feel that the 
 future has no prosperity for them." Note, then, that the 
 farmers in Protectionist America feel the pressure of com- 
 petition as much as those of Free Trade England. It will 
 gratify the former to know that there are responsible poli- 
 ticians actually proposing, with a view of promoting bi- 
 metallism, to render Indian products dearer. This will 
 injure India, but it may benefit America. 
 
 I am not surprised that farmers still look with most 
 apprehension to imports of wheat from the United States, 
 because the cost of both land and ocean transport is now so 
 small. Not many years ago the charge for wheat in bulk 
 between New York and Liverpool was sixpence per bushel, 
 while last year its average was twopence-halfpenny. Live 
 and dead meats are also in competition with our home 
 produce, and that trade is still in its infancy. A given
 
 Depression of Agriculture and Fair Trade, in 
 
 acreage of land which produces six tons of grain will pro- 
 duce only one ton of live stock, so there is much less to 
 carry. Even now the transport of fresh meats from New 
 York to Liverpool, including freight, commission, and in- 
 surance, is only one penny per pound weight. Hitherto 
 the English farmers' natural protection against cheap flour 
 and fresh meat from America has been the great extent of 
 haulage, sometimes 1,400 miles to the port. The railways 
 are now doing this haulage with wonderful economy. Let 
 me illustrate it in this way. If I asked a boy to cross the 
 street and post a letter of an ounce weight he would think 
 it ill-requited by a farthing. The American railways will 
 haul 2,000 lbs. of grain for a distance of one mile for less 
 than a farthing. English farmers have had a formidable 
 lesson given to them, that they, like other producers, must 
 adjust themselves to changed conditions produced by the 
 advance of science. Some farmers in other countries have 
 had this lesson in a still ruder way. One of the most im- 
 portant crops in Holland, Belgium, France, and Turkey, 
 used to be the dyeing material called madder. The colour- 
 ing substance of that dye is now made chiefly from coal-tar, 
 and the agricultural industry for its production has been 
 swept away. So will the growth of indigo in India pass 
 away before long. The grower of sugar-canes is looking 
 with some apprehension at the substance three hundred 
 times sweeter than sugar that is now made from coal-tar. 
 All industries require to re-adjust themselves to the changed 
 conditions of modern production and competition, so that 
 agriculture is no exception to this pressing need. 
 
 You will now understand my point, that the agriculture 
 of this country has suffered because of the changes which 
 applied science has introduced. It has made the market 
 of the world one. Still our farmers need not despair, as 
 they have certain advantages. Our climate, notwithstand- 
 ing its fitfulness, is well adapted to a combined pastoral and
 
 112 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 arable culture, and our soil by good farming produces from 
 twenty-six to twenty-nine bushels per acre, while that of the 
 United States produces less than twelve. Canada is more 
 prolific. The labour on English farms is much cheaper 
 than that on American farms, though dearer than it is in 
 India. With these advantages there should be no despair 
 for the future. The great difference in favour of America 
 is in the cheapness of the land, which in the Far West can 
 be got as a freehold for less than our farmers pay for a 
 single rent. There are other differences in our land system 
 which must be altered. The state of the land laws divorces 
 the small tenants and peasantry from the soil, and keeps 
 the latter in a lower condition of agricultural knowledge 
 than in the leading countries of Europe. If all these things 
 be improved it will still take long to adjust British agri- 
 culture to the changed and permanent conditions of com- 
 petition. Hard times are the parents of progress. The 
 intestine war of the United States withdrew one million 
 men from labour on the land, but it stimulated progress in 
 the invention of agricultural machines, and the amount of 
 crops in that country increased every year during the war. 
 I have shown you that depression is not confined to this 
 country. Yet you cannot be surprised that the suffering 
 classes ask you for sympathy, and appeal for due con- 
 sideration of their difficulties. The landowners and farmers 
 complain that they pay undue burdens, and if that be so, 
 they should be lessened. These are not the cause of the 
 depression, for the local rates upon land are upon an 
 average only one-ninth of the usual rent. 
 
 The fair traders, seeing no real help in this direction, 
 turn to their own prescriptions, and desire to restore pros- 
 perity by taxing foreign food and taxing foreign manufac- 
 tures. Their programme is announced in the following 
 words : — 
 
 " Duties on foreign manufactures, combined with duties
 
 Depression of Agriculture and Fair Trade. 113 
 
 on all foreign imports of food, but stipulating for free 
 imports of raw material needed for home industry." 
 
 Let us see what this means, beginning with the exempted 
 raw materials. Every one would admit that coal is a raw 
 material, and as it is the source of all machine power, not 
 even a fair trader proposes to tax it Just as coal is the 
 source of power in the steam engine, so is food the source 
 of power in a man. Coal is simply the source of mechani- 
 cal power, as food is that of animal and human power, both 
 physical and mental. On what principle, then, is food to 
 be taxed and coal to remain free? Careful statistics have 
 been collected in the United States as to the annual expendi- 
 ture of the families of working men living without alcoholic 
 stimulants, and the result is that ;^4o is spent for food, 
 ^13 for clothing, and ^7 for coal and fuel. The amounts, 
 but not the proportions, may be a little different in this 
 country. Now, what is the fair trade proposal ? It is to 
 tax the ;^4o for food and the ;^i3 for clothing, but to leave 
 the jQ"] for coal free. Of course the tax is to be on foreign 
 imports ; though I need not tell you that universal experi- 
 ence in protected countries has shown that a commodity 
 produced at home has its price raised to the extent of the 
 tax put upon the same commodity when imported. If 
 foreign flour be taxed, home flour will rise in price to the 
 amount of the tax. In fact, the only motive of the tax is to 
 enable the English farmer to thrive by an increased price 
 of his produce. What is the tax to be ? Mr. Chaplin and 
 Mr. Lowther point out it could not be less than 10s. per 
 quarter if it is to be of any use. This means that wheat at 
 30s. is to be sold under fair trade at 40s. Thus for every 
 sixpence which you now pay for flour you must then pay 
 eightpence. Recollect the tax cannot stop at whc-at, but 
 must extend to all food, including meat. Supposing fair 
 traders were willing to stop at wheat, in order to benefit 
 the English farmer, who has thirty-four per cent, of his 
 I
 
 114 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 cultivated area in this crop, what are the Scotch and Irish 
 farmers going to say about oats, for the former have 
 seventy-eight per cent, and the Irish eighty- four per cent, 
 under that cereal ? You must tax all round if you tax at 
 all. When once the protectionist leech begins to draw 
 blood he becomes like the horse-leech of the Bible, who 
 had two daughters, ever crying, " Give, give ! " So pro- 
 tectionists have two daughters — selfishness and avarice — 
 shouting this ugly refrain If you doubt it, look at the 
 case of France and Germany, which have entirely failed to 
 restore agricultural prosperity by duties on food. The 
 French duty on corn was 5s. 3d. and is now 8s. 9d. The 
 German duty of 6s. 6d. did not produce the result ex- 
 pected, and the German Council of Agriculture now asks for 
 13s. 6d. If you once admit the seed of protection again 
 into the soil of England, you will find it to be a very pro- 
 lific weed. The cry for protection is as yet the cry of the 
 rank and file of the Tory party, and the leaders are sitting 
 on the fence. At present few of them incline to a tax 
 on food. Lord Salisbury and Mr. Goschen are certainly 
 opposed to that. The others may not be so foolish as to 
 help the farmer in this direct way, but be on your guard 
 that the same result is not proposed and carried by an in- 
 direct method. Do not let us forget the indirect proposal 
 to tax manufactures for the benefit of farmers made by 
 Lord Randolph Churchill at Oldham some years ago. It 
 was thorough : — 
 
 " Tax foreign iron, foreign machinery, foreign luxuries, 
 foreign calico, foreign wines and beer — in fact, all foreign 
 manufactures. The taxing of these would enormously 
 stimulate the home labour market. Tax all these articles 
 boldly, and without hesitation, for the pur])ose of increasing 
 the revenue, and apply the large sum you would derive 
 from such a source — from fifteen to twenty millions — to the 
 relief of the burdens on land."
 
 Depression of Agriculture and Fair Trade. 115 
 
 That is protection with a vengeance ; because, as our 
 imports of manufactures amount only to fifty millions, he 
 must put on duties of 40 per cent, to obtain the revenue 
 which is to relieve the land. No doubt Lord Randolph 
 Churchill has expressed opposite views more recently, but 
 there is no surety thathisconvictionsare permanentlychanged. 
 
 Having dealt with the causes of agricultural depression 
 and the proposed tax on food, let us now turn to the tax on 
 foreign manufactures. I wish to deal fairly with the Oxford 
 platform, and to answer argument by argument, but I can- 
 not find a plank in it that has not been kicked away a 
 thousand times. At Oxford much stress was laid on the old 
 argument that the value of imports into this country is 
 greater than the value of its exports, and that this must pro- 
 duce ultimate ruin because the difference has to be paid out 
 of the capital of the nation. The ruin is slow in coming, 
 although for the last twenty years the value of our exports 
 has, upon an average, been only about 55 per cent, of 
 that of the imports. England would be a bad trading 
 nation if it were otherwise. Suppose, for instance, that a 
 merchant sends coal to India worth p{^ioo, and with that 
 brings home rice valued at our ports at ^^150, the import 
 is greater than the export because it includes the profit 
 on the two transactions. The very essence of trading is 
 to get back more than we give away. Commodities, not 
 bullion, are the materials of exchange. If we paid in bullion 
 for all our imports there might be a case for the fears of 
 the fair traders. What is the fact ? Last year the excess 
 of imports over exports amounted to eighty-one millions, 
 but the excess of gold exported over that imported was only 
 ;;^3oo,ooo. That small excess probably represents our 
 foreign investments, as England is a great money-lending 
 nation. The annual returns of these investments chiefly 
 come back to this country in the shape of commodities, 
 and add to the excess of the imports over e.xports. 
 I 2
 
 ii6 Subjects of Social IVelfare. 
 
 The fair trader tries to captivate us with the idea 
 that his poUcy will promote the prosperity of our colonies 
 although it may act hardly on foreign countries. This might 
 be worth discussion if most of the colonies did not tax 
 English manufactures in the full spirit of protection. By a 
 differential treatment in favour of the colonies it is just 
 possible that you might convert them to the views of free 
 trade, but before that conversion is effected three-fourths 
 of the present foreign trade will be endangered or destroyed, 
 and that in its bulk is more important than the colonial 
 trade. The proportion which our colonial trade bears to the 
 foreign trade is about 25 per cent. 
 
 Instead of dwelling longer on this point it will be more 
 useful if I employ the remainder of my time in examining 
 the experience of protection in America, from which country 
 I have lately returned. I used my opportunities to obtain 
 the best knowledge from both sides. I spent a week with 
 the chairman of the Protection League, another week with 
 the largest landowner in a wheat-growing district, and I 
 attended various meetings and dinners of commercial clubs 
 and trade societies. In spite of all attempts to convert me 
 I am a free-trader still. The United States is at once a 
 country of complete internal free trade and of foreign pro- 
 tection. As a free trade country it consists of thirty-eight 
 States and eleven territories containing sixty-four million 
 ])eople. Excluding Alaska, the area of this free trade nation 
 is thirty times as large as that of the United Kingdom, and 
 it has a potentiality of production suited for at least ten 
 times its present population, which you know is rapidly 
 increasing by immigration. All through this vast country 
 unlimited internal free trade exists. No State can put up 
 a Customs barrier against another, so this compact group of 
 United States differs very much from the relation which 
 England holds to her sixty-seven colonies and possessions, 
 for many of them do charge protective duties against English
 
 DEPKEssioy OF Agriculture a.^d Fair Trade. 117 
 
 manufactures. The material interests of the thirty-eight 
 States are far from being identical. The manufacturing in- 
 terests of the New England States come into sharp rivalry 
 with those of the Southern States, but no protection to 
 either group is allowed on this account. As a nation the 
 United States offer an admirable example of the benefits 
 of free trade. It has risen to this prosperity chiefly by 
 this internal freedom of trade in a growing country, and it 
 will continue to prosper as long as its manufacturers do 
 not glut the internal market — that is, until their produc- 
 tion does not exceed the demands of the population with 
 its important annual increment. 
 
 On the otherhand, the United States is a land of protection 
 against all foreign nations, and let us see how this works. 
 All trades are not protected against the foreigner. Even 
 now there are only two and a half million working men in 
 protected industries as against seventeen and a half million 
 in unprotected. I admit at once that wages are higher in 
 America than here, and this is an absolute necessity, because 
 owing to protection the purchasing power of money is less. 
 It is not true that wages are higher in protected industries ; 
 on the contrary, they are generally lower. The highest 
 wages in America are given to blacksmiths, carpenters, 
 masons, tailors, shoemakers, and others who have no pro- 
 tection. In the cotton factories of New England working 
 under protection the cheap labour of the French Canadians 
 and Irish is driving the American operative out of the mills. 
 Asa general rule, subject, of course, to exceptions, high 
 wages rule in free industries and low wages in protected 
 industries. The reason for this will be readily under- 
 stood. Manufacturers have shut themselves out from 
 foreign markets, and are bound to work for the home 
 market. Any surplus of production becomes a glut on 
 the home market, and cannot be relieved by export, for 
 its character is not suited to other countries, even if its high
 
 iiS Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 cost allowed competition. When a glut comes upon the home 
 market, as it frequently does in manufactures of cotton and 
 wool, wages are lowered to meet the internal competition. 
 Over-production does not tell so quickly upon wages in 
 England because we are a great exporting nation, and if 
 there is no market at home we seek it abroad. The 
 United States cannot be so, for her cost of production is 
 raised so high by protection that her exports are of small 
 account in the markets of the world. Compare the two 
 countries — England and the United States — in their inter- 
 course with each other. America has raised against English 
 manufacturers fiscal barriers which might seem to be in- 
 surmountable, the duties imposed on our goods being from 
 30 to 100 per cent. In spite of this she has to buy from 
 this country goods to the value of twenty-seven millions, 
 while she exports to us less than three millions. A com- 
 parison of the markets of the world is still more striking. 
 Last year England sent out exports to the value of 2 1 2 
 millions, chiefly manufactures, and America only twenty- 
 three millions. Recollect I am now speaking only of manu- 
 factures, not of food. Yet the United States is essentially a 
 great manufacturing nation, with a population honest, indus- 
 trious, energetic, educated, and, above all, inventive. If 
 she level her hostile tariffs, England will in course of time 
 meet a very dangerous competitor in the markets of the 
 world. As long as there is a rapid increase of population, 
 aided by immigration, American manufacturers are content 
 with their internal free trade, and, fortunately for us, they 
 will not quickly abandon protection. If they do, the United 
 States will possess an enormous advantage over European 
 nations, because; while they prepare for wasteful war by 
 costly armaments, America only prepares for economical 
 industry by new inventions. 
 
 Still you may naturally think that the fact of a large 
 immigration in America proves that protection produces
 
 Depression of Agriculture and Fair Trade. 119 
 
 high wages, and that men go over there to seek them. That 
 is an argument quite fairly used by fair traders. What is the 
 fact? The value of immigrants in America is that they 
 become consumers of domestic manufactures and are use- 
 ful as labourers, not that they become workers in pro- 
 tected industries. I will take the year 1870 by way of 
 illustration, because that year reached the maximum of pro- 
 tection as well as the tnaxiimim of immigration. The 
 number of emigrants who landed in America that year 
 was 387,203. On analysing their occupations it turned 
 out that only 6,960, or less than 2 per cent., went over to 
 make manufactures which either could be or were protected. 
 I have not time to allude at any length to the 
 absurdities and crudities of the American tariff, though I 
 will give one single illustration in regard to the woollen 
 manufactures of Leeds. The highest quality of such goods 
 is West of England broadcloth. I am not sure of its market 
 price just now, but let us take it at 14s. 6d. per yard. Upon 
 that cloth America charges a specific duty of seventeen- 
 pence per pound weight and an ad valorem duty of 40 per 
 cent, making together a duty of 50 per cent, on the price 
 of the factory at Leeds. Pass down from the highest to the 
 lowest or cheapest kind of woollen goods, called " cotton- 
 warp reversible cloth " — a sort of imitation of a better kind, 
 which sells at about is. lod per yard at the factory. Upon 
 that low class of goods the same specific duty is charged 
 as upon fine broadcloth, and 35 per cent, on the value, so 
 that together the duty amounts to 181 per cent, on the price 
 paid at Leeds. That is to say, the rich man in America 
 who buys broadcloth pays an increase of 50 per cent, on 
 its value, while the poor man, who might satisfy himself 
 with the cheaper material, pays 181 per cent, on the 
 price. If duties are justifiable at all, they should be put 
 on the labour cost of production, but they are really put 
 haphazard, without any principle, and just as separate and
 
 I20 SuByECTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE. 
 
 selfish interests obtain ascendency in Congress. The fair 
 traders never tire of pointing to America, and wish us to 
 inaugurate a similar system in this country. If they are in 
 possession of a secret principle which will prevent inequalities 
 and absurdities, why do they not make it public ? I quite 
 agree with Mr. Bright when he says : — " I should like to see 
 a carefully drawn tariff of the fair traders, protectionists, 
 and monopolists, who are now asking for public support. 
 It would be an amusing exhibition of ignorance, and folly, 
 and confusion." 
 
 If you can bear with me a little longer I should like to 
 say a few words about American shipping. Oceans which 
 once separated nations are now the links which bind them 
 together in close union, and the telegraph under the ocean 
 effects a commercial union of the closest character. America 
 his an extended seaboard, and seems intended by nature to 
 be a great maritime nation. And so it was as long as ships 
 were built of wood, and propelled by sails. The Americans 
 had (and, as their yachts prove, still have) a genius for ship- 
 building. Formerly their fast clippers filled our ports and 
 gave us lessons in shipbuilding. Both countries — England 
 and America — were running a hard race for mercantile 
 supremacy in those days. There is something in the pride 
 of a people which makes commerce fascinating, for it lays 
 the world under contribution, and brings the treasures of 
 other climes to our doors : — 
 
 " Let India boast her palms ; nor envy we 
 The weeping amber nor the spicy tree, 
 While by our oaks these precious loads are borne, 
 And realms commanded which those trees adorn." 
 
 Since Pope wrote those lines the oak has been replaced by 
 iron, and this change caused America to lose her position as 
 a shi[)building nation. The reason of this is not far to seek. 
 Protection has so raised the price of iron and other materials
 
 Depression of Agriculture and Fair Trade. 121 
 
 for shipbuilding, that a steamship costs 30 per cent, more 
 to build in America than it does in England. There is 
 an economy in large ocean steamers as regards the crew. 
 A small steamer of 300 tons requires one sailor for every 
 20 tons, while a steamer of 1,000 tons needs only one 
 sailor to 41^ tons. The natural tendency, therefore, is to 
 make ocean steamers large, and already they are 4,000 tons 
 and upwards. Suppose a steamship of this size costs 
 ;;^ioo,ooo in England, if built in America its cost would 
 be jQi 30,000. This difference is caused by protection, and it 
 has practically swept the commercial flag of the Stars and Stripes 
 from the ocean. There are numerous passenger and cargo 
 steamers belonging to the United States built of wood, to 
 carry on the coasting trade from which foreign countries are 
 absolutely shut out by navigation laws. Altogether there 
 are only 200 mercantile iron and screw steamers of con- 
 siderable size under the American flag, used for the coasting 
 and Pacific trade. They have been all built since 1872, 
 chiefly in the Delaware River, and I do not think any of 
 them cross the Atlantic. We build as many steamships in 
 one year as America has taken fifteen years to obtain. Let 
 me quote the manifesto of the League which now cries out 
 for bounties on American shipping : — 
 
 " Thus England's marine to-day is triumphant on every 
 sea, and ours successful in none except in our coasting 
 trade, wisely covered by protection." 
 
 And so the daughters of protection, like those of the 
 horse-leech, again shout, " Give, give 1" in the form of 
 bounties. The League met in Boston while I was there 
 in October last. The bounty asked was an annual subsidy 
 of two millions of pounds, and this meeting was held in 
 1887 in the same Boston which in 1775 threw the tea into 
 the harbour because the English Parliament had put a small 
 duty upon it! but Boston is tolerant of opinion, for it 
 allowed me to deliver a free trade speech at a dinner of the
 
 122 
 
 SL'By£CTS OF Social JVelfare. 
 
 Commercial Club, and gave me a warm welcome. The main 
 difficulty in the settlement of the Fisheries question is that it 
 is necessary to keep the fishing vessels of New England in an 
 efficient condition as a nursery for seamen. Protection also 
 has ruined the fishing industry so far as American citizens 
 are concerned. The fishing vessels of New England are 
 manned by British or Canadian sailors to the extent of 
 75 per cent, of their crews. Although the law requires the 
 captains to be Americans, as a fact, i8 per cent, of them are 
 no longer so. 
 
 Protection, when it finds a large rent in any particular 
 industry, tries to mend it out of the same material. The 
 process is always the same — always mending, always de- 
 stroying. It is as if a man, having a hole in his coat, cuts a 
 piece out of his vest to repair it, and finding that unsightly 
 takes a piece of his trousers to mend the vest. In pro- 
 cess of time, by a round of these operations, the garments 
 become rags, and the nakedness of protection is seen 
 through them. The fair traders admit these anomalies in 
 American protection, but point to the prosperity and surplus 
 of the national revenue, and boast that there are no trade 
 depressions like those in our own country. I will show you 
 presently that this surplus is a great evil, and as to American 
 depressions, they occur simultaneously with our own, and of 
 late years they have been more severe. There have been 
 twelve series of marked depressions of trade in this century, 
 and America has felt them all, and since 1830 synchronously 
 with our own. The depression of 1882, which still partially 
 prevails but shows distinct signs of ending, acted severely 
 in America, for the official record says that in 1885 no less 
 than 1,000,000 working people were out of employment. 
 Applied to our own population this would give a proportion 
 of 600,000 unemployed in this country, which would be 
 a ludicrous exaggeration of our troubles in that year. 
 
 Now as to the American surplus revenue, which the fair
 
 Depkessioa of Agriculture and Fair Trade. 123 
 
 traders wave as a huge flag in our face. The recent 
 Message of President Cleveland has been expected for 
 years, because the lessening of taxation to diminish the 
 surplus was the main plank of the Democratic platform 
 when he was elected. There is now the wonderful surplus 
 of twenty-two millions sterling, all, except the Excise, got 
 from taxes on foreign goods. Recollect that Americans are 
 doubly taxed, first for the support of their own State, and 
 secondly, for the maintenance of the Union — together 
 ;^8 I OS. per head. The President naturally objects to the 
 Treasury of the United States being a hoarding-place for 
 money needlessly withdrawn from trade and the people's 
 use. To make this clear let me say a few elementary 
 truths about taxation. Taxes are a tribute paid to a State 
 or Government for protecting all of us against violence, 
 rapine, and other forms of crime. Taxation can never be a 
 productive force; on the contrary, taxes form a deduction 
 from the strength of labour and the fertility of the soil. 
 If this be true the more you tax a people the more you 
 decrease the common wealth of the nation. That is the 
 plain meaning of the President's vigorous words. " Heavy 
 taxation has crippled our national energies, suspended the 
 country's development, prevented investments in productive 
 enterprise, threatened financial disturbance, and invited 
 schemes of public plunder." Let us remember the meaning 
 of the word " State." In old times it would have been 
 diflficult to define it. A great French King once said, 
 " L'Atat c'est tnoi." In history we have known the State, 
 if not to consist of, certainly to be managed, in their own 
 interests, by a barber, a fiddler, or a courtesan. There is 
 no difticulty in defining a democratic Republican or a 
 democratic Constitutional State like the United States or 
 the United Kingdom. The State means all of us, or, at 
 least, selected men to take care of the interests of all of 
 us. When taxes are laid upon the whole people to favour
 
 124 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 particular classes, such as farmers or manufacturers, then the 
 State is losing its chief function of acting in the interests 
 of all of us, and is specially favouring some of us at the 
 expense of all of us. That is going back to bad and ex- 
 ploded forms of government, when it favoured class legisla- 
 tion. This is what protection must always do, and has so 
 conspicuously done in America. There privileged classes 
 have laid a claim to be upheld by the labour and self-denial 
 of other people. We allow only one class of the people 
 in this country to make such a claim, and that consists of 
 paupers ; and we should be specially jealous to allow any 
 other class to sit on the same plane. Ever since the intro- 
 duction of free trade, fifty years ago, we have laboured to 
 root out the privileges of class, so that all of us might have 
 equal participation in the protection of social order by the 
 expenditure of taxes. The principle of free trade is that 
 we should use our property and the products of our labour 
 as we like, and exchange them when and where and with 
 whomsoever we will. Protection, on the other hand, 
 hampers exchanges, regulates prices by tariffs, and acts as 
 if commerce meant a war of retaliation on other countries. 
 If protection be universal it raises the prices of all com- 
 modities ; if partial it forces the State to depart from its 
 only true function of taking care of all of us in order that it 
 may favour the interests of some of us. Its breakdown in 
 the United States shows conclusively that every unnecessary 
 tax becomes a source of positive injury, for taxation at its 
 best is an evil. If we were all good and virtuous over the 
 world it would not be required ; but it is a needful evil 
 because a government is necessary to sustain the weak, to 
 protect property, and to preserve the honour of women 
 — in fact, to maintain social order. Protection denies this 
 limited use of government, and, believing in the productive 
 power of taxation, is trying to make something out of no- 
 thing. It tries to uphold taxation by taxation, itself by
 
 Depression of Agriculture and Fair Trade. 125 
 
 itself — as sensible an effort as if you tried to lift yourselves 
 by tugging at the straps of your own boots. The develop- 
 ment of commerce, like all evolutions, depends on natural 
 laws, which ought to be left to themselves. By inter- 
 meddling you would be as foolish as the boy who, in his 
 impatience, manipulates a plant with the hope of getting a 
 bud to blossom before its appointed time. The competition 
 of the world has become so keen, owing to the causes which 
 I have explained, that many industries besides agriculture 
 have been fundamentally changed. Fashions change or 
 new demands arise, and factories must make a complete 
 alteration in their machinery to meet the new conditions. 
 When steel, for instance, substitutes iron, the whole manu- 
 facture has to be adjusted to the new application. Manu- 
 facturers do not dream of asking the State to bear the cost 
 of adaptation to new conditions of competition. They 
 bear the loss and ultimately benefit by the gain. It is only 
 because the producers of food constitute a large industry 
 that they persuade themselves they have an exceptional 
 claim to aid from taxation. A State that has enjoyed the 
 blessings and the liberty of free trade for forty years will not 
 consent that all of us should be taxed for the benefit of 
 some of us, or, in other words that the labour employed in 
 successful industries should be burdened to support another 
 industry which has not yet adjusted itself to the changed 
 conditions of the world.
 
 DISPLACEMENT OF LABOUR BY 
 MODERN INVENTIONS. 
 
 This article was published in the Contemporary Review, March, iSSS. 
 
 Periods of depression in manufacturing industries are com- 
 mon in all machine-using countries, generally occurring at 
 the same time and extending over the same periods. 
 During the present century there have been twelve marked 
 periods of depression,* short, sharp, and severe in the 
 early part of the century, because then machinery and 
 hand-labour were in full conflict. From the year 1837 to 
 1873 the periods of depression were at tolerably regular 
 distances of ten years. Since 1873 the depression has been 
 persistent, with a short cessation for special industries in 
 1879-1882, after which prices maintained their abnormally 
 low level. As this prolonged depression has been common 
 to all machine-using countries it must have one cause, 
 dominant and universal in its character, sufficient to govern 
 the local differences of countries and nationalities, with all 
 their diverse fiscal arrangements. It matters not whether 
 the countries were devastated by war or remained in the 
 enjoyment of peace ; whether they were isolated by barriers 
 of Protection, or conducted their industries under Free 
 Trade ; whether they abounded in the raw materials of 
 industry, or had to import them from other lands ; under 
 all these varying conditions, the machine-using countries of 
 
 * The marked depressions in the United Kingdom Iiave Vjeen in i8o^. 
 1810, 1815, 1818, 1826, 1830, 1837, 1847, 1857, 1865, 1873, 1883.
 
 Displacement of Labour by Modern Inventions. 127 
 
 the world have felt the fifteen years of depression in the 
 same way, although with varying degrees of intensity. 
 During this lengthened period the hand-labour countries 
 were not seriously depressed, though in the later years since 
 1883 they have suffered in sympathy, because the purchasing 
 power of Europe became lessened, and the commodities 
 grown by the hand-labour countries of Asia and Africa were 
 not in demand at the old prices. Thus, comparing the 
 years 1885 and 1886, the prices of exports, as given in the 
 Economist^ declined in the latter year 6 "34 per cent., while 
 prices of imports declined 6*37 per cent. In other words, 
 the prices fell all round, practically the same both as to 
 buying and seUing. The machine-using countries have a 
 population of 400 millions, or if we exclude Russia, which 
 is scarcely a machine-using country, of 300 millions ; while 
 the hand-labour countries contain one thousand million 
 people. The depression in the former has been general 
 and synchronous, so that this universal result must have a 
 universal cause. In a speech which I delivered at Liver- 
 pool some years ago I formulated this cause in the follow- 
 ing words — " That the world has not yet accommodated 
 itself to the wonderful changes which science has produced 
 in the modes of production and in the exchanges of com- 
 merce." Since that time many writers on political economy 
 have independently arrived at the same conclusion. Among 
 foreign writers may be mentioned Dr. Arthur von Studnitz, 
 of Dresden ; Piermez, of Brussels ; Jules Duckerts, of 
 Vervicrs ; Emil de Laveleye and Trasenster, of Li^ge ; 
 Annecke and Engel, of Berlin. In the United States, 
 Carroll Wright, the Commissioner of Labour, David Wells, 
 and Atkinson, have written admirable treatises supporting 
 this view as the cause of the long depression. It is im- 
 portant that the reason for this conclusion should be clearly 
 stated, because, if it be true, all partial remedies, such as 
 Protection, Fair Trade, Bimetallism, and the like, can only
 
 128 Subjects of Social IPelfare. 
 
 have local effects, which may benefit or injure particular 
 countries, but can do little to mitigate the universal de- 
 pression. All the great countries have had Commissions or 
 Committees of their Legislatures to inquire into the causes 
 of the general depression, but, as the inquiries have been 
 confined to their own countries, none of them have taken a 
 sufficiently broad view of a universal cause. The Com- 
 mittee of Congress in the United States have taken evi- 
 dence upon 286 causes for the depression, and point to 
 the same number of remedies. Our own very voluminous 
 inquiry in this country produced a majority and minority 
 report, the first being practically that things had better be 
 left to themselves, and the second that Fair Trade is to be 
 our salvation. My object in the present article is to con- 
 tend that there are only two causes of the universal depres- 
 sion, viz. : — 
 
 1. That the improvements in machinery, by new in- 
 ventions, have produced great changes in the quickness and 
 economy of distribution of commodities, and have pro- 
 foundly altered the whole system of commerce. 
 
 2. That the improvements of machinery used in pro- 
 duction have increased the supply of commodities beyond 
 the immediate demands of the world, and have too rapidly 
 displaced the old forms of labour. 
 
 At the end of last century and in the early part of the 
 present one there were severe depressions caused by the 
 rapid application of machinery to industrial employments 
 after Watts' improvement in the steam-engine. The suffer- 
 ings of the hand-labourers were severe, and labour riots, in 
 which mills were burned and machinery destroyed, showed 
 the acute conflict then existing between manual labour and 
 mechanical power. Our late depressions have been alto- 
 gether of a different kind. Labour has suffered much less 
 than capital, for, on the whole, there has been a general 
 tendency to increase wages. The general increase between
 
 Displacement of Labour by Modern Inventions. 129 
 
 1850 and 1883 is 39"i8 per cent. In the United States, a 
 land of protection, the increase is 28"36 per cent, between 
 1 860- 1 883. Even when they have not increased, the large 
 fall in the prices of the necessaries of life has been equiva- 
 lent to an increase in wages. But during the whole of 
 the depression there has been a downward competition 
 in prices of commodities, so that the margin of profit to 
 the capitalist is now exceedingly narrow. This fall in 
 prices has been nearly universal, though not equal in all 
 countries. The order of the descent is France, Germany, 
 Great Britain, and the United States, the two last countries 
 being at the bottom of the inclined plane. The fall in 
 the prices of food stuffs has profoundly affected the agri- 
 cultural industry of this country, though at the same time 
 it has given cheap food to the people. As our largest 
 importations of food are from America, I give in a foot- 
 note * the reductions in price. The reductions in the 
 prices of food stuffs are far too great to have any important 
 connection with the slight appreciation of gold or the larger 
 depreciation in silver. Countries with a protective fiscal 
 system feel the latter less than PLngland, because they have 
 few direct dealings with silver-using nations. The volume 
 of trade with hand-labour countries is immense, but their 
 credits are small, and their banking systems are limited. 
 The raw materials which they grow — such as tea, coffee, 
 sugar, rice, hemp, wool, cotton, spices, indigo, and dye- 
 wood — are shut out or hampered by duties in protected 
 countries, so this produce naturally gravitates to England as 
 a land of free ports. 
 
 During the continuance of the long depression both 
 wages and the prices of commodities have declined from 
 the high level on which they stood during the few prosperous 
 
 * The following are the percentage reductions of prices in the United 
 States between 1881 and 1886: — Mess pork, 48 J ; lard, 46; hams, 24A ; 
 oats, 39J; Indian corn, 43 ; butter, 47; tallow, 41 ; flour, 34^; cattle, iS^. 
 
 J
 
 130 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 years preceding 1873. This is true of all countries, but if 
 we contrast the relative position of England and the United 
 States — that is, of two nations under completely opposite 
 fiscal systems — it is found that wages fell more in the latter 
 than in the former. In the United States, between 1873-78, 
 wages of unskilled labour fell from 37 to 50 per cent., and 
 in the case of skilled artisans to a greater extent. In Eng- 
 land wages decreased in various trades. Some of them, as 
 among ironworkers, in 1874, to about 35 per cent. Among 
 miners and shipbuilders there was considerable reduction. 
 In the cotton industry, 1877-79, wages fell 20 per cent., 
 advancing lo per cent, in the two following years. On the 
 whole of the industries of this country wages are believed 
 to have risen 974 per cent, between 1872-1883, and to 
 have fallen in the United States 5-41 per cent. Thus 
 England suffered considerably less than the United States. 
 The demand for labour in the latter country contracted so 
 much that the immigrants, who had numbered 400,000 
 annually in the six years ending 1873, dwindled to 138,000 
 in 1878. In 1877, half the coal-miners and ironworkers in 
 the United States being out of work, labour riots became 
 serious. In 1885 depression in the United States was so 
 general that 1,000,000 labourers were out of employment. 
 At such times discontent exists and strikes arise ; in 1886 
 there were 350 strikes, involving 450,000 workmen. If 
 such events happen in America, with its protectionist policy, 
 there is little ground for the contention of Fair Traders 
 that Free Trade is the cause of depression in England. 
 
 The bi-metallists bring forward their own pet theory of 
 the appreciation of gold and the depreciation of silver, and 
 deem that to be a sufficient explanation of depression. 
 There might be something in this theory if the great trans- 
 actions of commerce were paid for in bullion. The latter 
 merely settles the balance of exchange, for exchanges are 
 conducted by an interchange of commodities. If the
 
 DiSPL A CEMENT OF LABOUR B V MODERN INVENTIONS. 1 3 I 
 
 depreciation of silver had been the cause of the depression 
 in England, which certainly has the largest traffic with silver- 
 using countries, it ought to have been specially severe in 
 1873-4 ; for in these years Germany adopted a gold standard, 
 contracting by extensive sales her silver coinage, while 
 France at the same time ceased to coin silver money. By 
 1875 English industry ought to have been crushed by these 
 changes, but the truth is that then and ever since both gold 
 and silver have been in excess of the demand. Before 
 dealing with what I believe to be the true causes of the 
 depression, it is desirable to consider the general features 
 which have given a common character to the depressions in 
 all parts of Europe. The common features have been the 
 same in all countries — first, that though prices of commo- 
 dities have been largely reduced, the volume of productions 
 and the business of commerce have not been lessened in 
 anything like the same proportion ; second, that when 
 wages have fallen, they have not declined at all in proportion 
 to the fall in prices ; and third, that the margin of profit to 
 the capitalist has been very small. Capital, then, during 
 this long-continued depression has suffered more than labour. 
 For some time past, capital, when applied to staple commodi- 
 ties, has been glad to be content with about lo per cent, of the 
 cost of conversion of raw material into a useful product, while 
 labour has been getting 90 per cent. Of the 10 per cent, which 
 goes to the capitalist only from 5 to 6 can be put to profit, the 
 rest going to the wear and tear of plant and machinery. There 
 is at present a want of harmony between capital and labour 
 which tends to continue the depression. Sometimes working 
 men, not content with the shorter hours of labour in this 
 country, put arbitrary limits to output and to the mode in 
 which the workers shall be emplo)cd. Such restrictions to 
 production, lessening the very narrow margin of profit that 
 prevails, have stopped some works and threaten to drive 
 others from this country to foreign parts. A better 
 J 2
 
 132 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 education of masters and men, which I contend for later, 
 will show that the interests of capital and labour are not 
 antagonistic, but identical. 
 
 Having dealt with these preliminary subjects, I now turn 
 to the discussion of the two immediate causes which have 
 led to the universal depression in all machine-using countries 
 for fifteen years. The first of these I have stated to be the 
 changes produced by science in the economy of distribution, 
 and the consequent and profound alterations which have 
 followed in the commerce of the world. In 1869 the Suez 
 Canal was opened, the result being that the old route round 
 the Cape of Good Hope was in a few years abandoned for 
 the shorter and more economical route to the East. On the 
 old route, sailing ships were chiefly used, and they occupied 
 from six to eight months in the round passage, while 
 now the time is shortened to thirty days. By the substitu- 
 tion of iron steamers carrying the commerce of the 
 \Vestern hemisphere through the Suez Canal, a tonnage 
 estimated at two millions was practically destroyed, and vast 
 arrangements in commercial industry were displaced. In 
 the old system of long voyages, large storehouses of goods 
 had to be provided for the shipping interest, not only in 
 foreign ports, but also in England, which became the centre 
 of warehousing, banking, and exchange. All this was 
 altered by the mighty power of electricity. The electric 
 telegraph had indeed been invented in 1837, but it required 
 many new discoveries in science to adapt electricity to the 
 growing wants of the world. All these have been made in 
 recent times. The three discoverers who have revolutionised 
 commerce — Oersted, of Copenhagen, Faraday and Wheat- 
 stone, of London — lived in my own day, and indeed were 
 my personal friends. The applications of their discoveries 
 to the various purposes of electricity — the telegraph, 
 telephone, and electric lighting — have created new labour, 
 but have at the same time displaced a great amount of other
 
 Displacement of Labour by Modern Inventions. -[-iiZ 
 
 labour. In the United Kingdom upwards of 42,000 persons 
 are engaged in work depending upon electricity, while 
 probably throughout the world more than 300,000 persons 
 win their subsistence by the recent applications of this 
 science. The amount of labour which it has displaced can- 
 not be calculated. The whole method of effecting exchanges 
 has been altered, because communication with other countries 
 is now immediate ; the consumer and the producer in 
 opposite parts of the globe making their bargains in a single 
 hour, without the intervention of mercantile agencies or the 
 large warehouse system which former methods of commerce 
 required. The Suez Canal and improved telegraphy made 
 great demands for quick and economical distribution of 
 material. Numerous steamers were built between 1870-3 
 for this purpose, but so rapid were the improvements that 
 they were nearly all displaced two years afterwards (1875-6) 
 and sold at half their cost. Iron has been largely sub- 
 stituted by steel, both on land and at sea, Bessemer's 
 invention having destroyed wealth ; but like the phcenix, 
 new wealth has arisen from its ashes. A ship which in 1883 
 cost ;^24,ooo can now be built forp^i4,ooo. The economy 
 of fuel has also been very great. Shortly before the opening 
 of the Suez Canal, the best steamers crossing the Atlantic 
 expended 200 tons of coal to carry an amount of cargo 
 which can now be driven across for 35 tons. The discovery 
 of Dr. Joule as to the mechanical equivalent of heat stimu- 
 lated builders, like Elder and others, to apply the compound 
 engine to steamers. This has produced an enormous 
 economy of fuel. In 1850 the fine steamer (the Persia) 
 carried over cargo at an expenditure of 14,500 lbs. of coal 
 to a ton ; now a modern steamer does the same work by 
 burning three or four hundred pounds. The effect of this 
 economy on haulage by land and transit by sea is immense. 
 In an experiment lately made on the London and North- 
 western Railway, a compound locomotive dragged a ton of
 
 134 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 goods for one mile by the combustion of two ounces of coal. 
 In ocean navigation there is a much larger economy. A 
 cube of coal which passes through a ring the size of a 
 shilling will drive one ton of cargo for two miles in our most 
 improved steamers. The cost of transit of a ton of wheat 
 from Calcutta to England was 715-. 3<2'. in 1881 and 275. in 
 1885. The haulage of a thousand miles, from Chicago to 
 New York, brings a whole year's supply of food for a man at 
 a cost of a single day's wage. A ton is hauled for less than 
 a farthing per mile.* The transport of food has thus told 
 heavily upon the agriculture of all countries, because it has 
 made one market — the world — and has largely destroyed 
 the advantages of national and local markets. I have dealt 
 with the effects of this lowering of prices upon the condition 
 of agriculture in a speech recently published, so I now limit 
 my remarks to manufacturing industry. The lowering of 
 prices, consequent upon the more ready and economical 
 distribution of commodities both by land and sea, has 
 necessarily had an important effect upon manufacturing 
 production as well as upon commerce. The old factors 
 which ruled production were the value of the raw material 
 and the representative value in money of the labour, skilled 
 and unskilled, used and directed by capital to convert the 
 crude material into a finished product. These factors still 
 rule production, but their relative values have rapidly 
 changed in recent times. The raw material can be dis- 
 tributed everywhere at low charges. England has lost its 
 great advantages in the possession of coal and iron — the 
 
 * The fall in the prices of ocean transit from New York to Liverpool has 
 been as follows : — 
 
 Grain, per bushel 
 
 ... 9\d. . 
 
 Id. 
 
 Flour, per ton 
 
 2SS. 
 
 ys. 6d. 
 
 Cheese 
 
 50s. 
 
 15-f- 
 
 Cotton, per pound 
 
 ... Id. 
 
 .. ^^d- 
 
 Bacon and lard, per ton 
 
 45^- 
 
 7s, 6d.
 
 Displacement of Labour by Modern Inventions. 135 
 
 first the source of power, the second the material for strength. 
 The value of raw material in industry is now the lowest 
 factor of production, while the value of intellect in converting 
 it into a utility, in the cheapest and best way, is the highest 
 and dominating factor in manufactures. 
 
 I now pass to the consideration of the second cause of 
 depression, as that has much more influence on manu- 
 factures than the changes in distribution. This cause is, 
 that modern inventions have produced commodities faster 
 than the world could absorb them at remunerative prices, 
 and in doing so have displaced old forms of labour with too 
 great rapidity for their absorption by replacement. This may 
 be best illustrated by a few special examples. As chemistry 
 is the only science which I profess, I begin with some exam- 
 ples of chemical industries. One of the most staple and 
 apparently permanent dye stuffs, used in dyeing and calico 
 printing, was the root called madder. It was grown as ex- 
 tensive crops in various countries of the world — Turkey, Hol- 
 land, Belgium, France and Italy — and gave employment to 
 a large number of cultivators. Commerce was startled one 
 day to learn that chemists had made the colouring prin- 
 ciple of madder, called "Alizarin," out of coal-tar, and 
 in a short time a great change took place in agriculture, 
 commerce, and dyeing. Madder is still used for some 
 purposes, as in the dyeing of Turkey red, but its im- 
 portation has decreased from twenty-eight and three-quarter 
 million pounds' weight, in 1872, to about two millions 
 in 1887. The value of the latter in money was only 
 ;;^24,ooo, while that of the import of "Alizarin" made from 
 coal-tar already exceeds ten times that amount, although it 
 is also manufactured in this country. It occasionally hap- 
 pens that a new invention produces large industrial results 
 without much displacement of labour. We see an instance 
 of this in lucifer-matches, an invention altogether new since 
 1836, before which time lights could only be got by the
 
 136 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 tinder-box. The mere saving of time to the population of 
 this country, by the modern matches, amounts to twenty-six 
 millions sterling annually, while the only displacement of 
 labour was to the makers of tinder-boxes. 
 
 Among the recent chemical industries which have most 
 affected the comforts of the poorer classes is the invention 
 of artificial petroleum and its derivatives. Natural petroleum 
 has been known from very early periods" of history, though 
 it has not been used extensively till recent years. Its re- 
 vival occurred in the following way. In the year 1847, Mr. 
 James Young, under circumstances which will be found de- 
 tailed in the article on petroleum, manufactured it from a 
 native spring in Derbyshire. This he did successfully, but 
 after a time found that he could make it more cheaply by 
 distilling it from bituminous schist. This industry was so 
 successful that it led to the industrial application of the 
 natural oil in America and the Caspian Sea. The industries 
 connected with sperm and vegetable oils were seriously 
 affected, and labour was largely displaced. Another sub- 
 stance got out of petroleum is the solid waxy substance 
 called paraffin, which has now, in the form of candles, given 
 to industry an illuminating agent of great value. Paraffin 
 candles gave a heavy blow to the old industries of making 
 candles from tallow, palm oil, sperm and wax, and displaced 
 labour to a great extent. 
 
 I^et me pass from these chemical industries to a staple 
 manufacture like cotton, and observe the effect of inventions 
 on production. A farmer growing cotton produces about 
 400 lbs. per acre, or as much as will produce one bale. 
 Before Whitney invented his cotton gin, the seed had to be 
 separated from the fibre by manual labour, but the work was 
 so tedious that it took one man about ninety days to prepare 
 the produce of an acre. The first form of the gin reduced 
 the time to six days. In recent years this gin has been greatly 
 improved, so that one man can now pick 4,000 lbs. daily
 
 Displacement of La bo ur by Modern Ini -entions. i 3 7 
 
 instead of the old amount of 4^ lbs. ; in other words, one 
 man with a machine displaced the labour of 999 workers by 
 hand. The cotton thus picked and cleaned is spun into 
 threads by rotatory spindles. They used to be worked by 
 manual labour, one man to each spindle, but now one man 
 and two children will work machines carrying two to three 
 thousand spindles. In 1874, at the beginning of the depres- 
 sion, each spindle made 4,000 revolutions : now it is possi- 
 ble to get io,coo revolutions. The yam is then woven into 
 cloth. With the old hand-loom a man could make from 42 
 to 48 yards daily. At present a skilled workman can tend 
 six power-looms and weave 1,500 yards. All these changes 
 tend to over-production, especially when the margin of profit 
 is low. I believe at recent prices this is only about one 
 penny for six yards of shirting, so a vast number of yards are 
 required to make a substantial profit to a mill. The demand 
 of a working man for cotton fabrics is, upon an average 
 40 yards yearly. This demand is determined by his habit 
 of wearing one shirt for a week, and it is difficult to induce 
 him, in order to augment the demand, to wear one daily ; 
 or, if he did, to persuade his wife to wash seven shirts weekly. 
 Cheapness of a commodity tends to increase demand, but it 
 does not all at once alter the habits of classes. Supply must 
 be adjusted to the ordinary comforts of the consumers. 
 There is always a growing increment of demand, for, even 
 in the United Kingdom, not far from 1,000 souls, provided 
 with bodies which must be fed and clothed, are daily added 
 to the population. The increase of the whole world during 
 the fifteen years of depression has been about 16 per cent, in 
 population, while the increase in the production of cotton 
 has been 86 per cent. It is not surprising that a surplus 
 like this thrown upon the markets of the world reduces 
 prices. 
 
 Manufacturers too often forget that it is not the reason- 
 able price of a commodity, but the surplus of it above the
 
 I38 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 demand, which regulates the quotations of the market. About 
 half of our exports of cotton go to countries using silver 
 coinage. When new markets are opened in half-civilised 
 countries, the demands depend not only upon the existing 
 standard of comforts, but also upon those which are created 
 by contact with higher civilisation. This is a hope and a 
 policy which Germany is now pursuing with great ardour. 
 Carlyle remarks that the bare problem of supply and de- 
 mand is very simple. " Here," he says, "are the milHons 
 of bare backs, and there are the millions of spun shirts. How 
 are they to be brought together?" The organisation of 
 commerce has to solve the problem, and in its solution 
 nations will take rank in the international competition ac- 
 cording to their relative intelligence. 
 
 I must be content with only one or two other illustrations 
 of the manner in which inventions give an abnormal increase 
 to production, and displace old forms of labour. It is not 
 in prosperous but in hard times that they chiefly arise. In 
 1870-72, when trade was active, there were comparatively 
 few inventions. Take the time before the American war in 
 1861 : the patents for new agricultural machines, on the 
 average of several years, numbered 350; while, during the 
 war in 1863, when at least half a million men had been with- 
 drawn from the labour of the field, the patents were 502, and 
 the result was that agricultural production was not lessened 
 at any time of the long campaign. Machinery, on the other 
 side of the Atlantic, is more extensively applied to large farms 
 than here. The reduction of manual labour has become so 
 great, and the methods of distribution are so improved, that, 
 according to Atkinson, the labour of four men will grow, 
 mill, bake, and distribute as loaves one thousand barrels of 
 flour, which suffices to feed one thousand men. Even with 
 less organised machinery we have seen in our times much 
 displacement of agricultural labour in this country, and the 
 result still prejudices the position of Ireland. Irish reapers
 
 Displacement OF Labour by Modern Inventions, i 
 
 39 
 
 cut the harvest crops in England, and took back English 
 money to pay rents in Ireland. With the old sickle a man 
 could reap one quarter of an acre daily ; but the machine- 
 reaper came in, and one man with two horses reaps from 
 fifteen to twenty acres. The Irishman was a good workman 
 to thresh out corn by the flail, and managed fifteen to twenty 
 bushels daily; but now one man, tending a machine, can 
 thresh out hundreds of bushels. 
 
 In the railways a vast amount of the labour of men and 
 horses has been displaced, but is replaced in other forms by 
 the necessity of feeding the railways with material. If the 
 locomotives on English railways were annihilated, it would 
 require the labour of seventy-five millions of men, or of 
 twelve millions of horses, to carry on the traffic, in an in- 
 ferior way and at a much larger cost ; for the cost of 
 carting a ton weight by a man with a cart and horse, is one 
 shilling per mile, while the railway carries it for a penny or 
 under. 
 
 I finish my illustrations by referring to the iron industry. 
 It is of such antiquity that the best and most economical 
 means of production might be supposed to exist. In the 
 year 1846 the British Association for the Advancement of 
 Science requested Professor Bunsen, of Heidelberg, and 
 myself to report upon the chemistry of blast-furnaces, and 
 we showed that at that time no less than 81 i per cent, of 
 fuel was absolutely lost in the form of gases which escaped 
 and were burned at the top of the furnace. In addition to 
 this waste of fuel was the total loss of the ammonia produced 
 by the coal — a substance most valuable to agriculture as a 
 manure. The economy of the ammonia has scarcely begun 
 to be realised at the present day, although our recommenda- 
 tions for the saving of fuel have long since been carried out 
 with much economy to the price of production. There has 
 been a rapid growth of the manufacture of iron over the 
 world, and naturally the increase has been greatest among
 
 I40 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 nations which were farthest behind. From 1870 to 1884 
 the make of pig-iron rose 131 per cent, in Great Britain, 
 and 237 per cent, in the rest of the world. In recent times, 
 steel has largely substituted iron for many purposes. 
 Formerly pig-iron was transformed into bar-iron in puddling 
 furnaces, and the latter was converted into steel by a 
 process known as cementation, which consisted in giving to 
 the iron more carbon. Now, by the Bessemer process, steel 
 is made direct from pig-iron, already to the extent of three 
 million tons annually, while four and a half millions of capital 
 invested in puddling furnaces have been destroyed, and the 
 labour of 39,000 workmen has been displaced. To counter- 
 balance these evils the price of steel, which was ;^i2 is. id. 
 per ton in 1874, was less than j£^ in 1887. 
 
 The illustrations already given must suffice to show 
 how largely modern inventions have increased production 
 and displaced labour. Ultimately, educated working-men 
 benefit by the changes, because increased production 
 absorbs skilled labour and pays high wages for it. Ignorant 
 workers — the hewers of wood and the drawers of water — 
 have a bad time, as they find that the demand for unintelli- 
 gent labour is constantly decreasing. In old lessons of 
 political economy, production upon a given raw material 
 was represented by a very simple equation — P=L + C. 
 The product equals labour plus capital. The equation 
 never was right, because capital is really accumulated 
 potential labour reserved as a subsistence fund for the 
 labourers who are employed to convert the potential into 
 actual energy. Capital or accumulated labour is exactly 
 like a storage battery in which electricity is accumulated. 
 This battery regulates the work which the electricity has to 
 perform, and steadies the electric lights. Labour is now of 
 two kinds ; labour in quantity and labour in quality — the 
 first lessening in value every year as a factor of production, 
 while the second is always rising in value. The product is,
 
 DlSPLA CEMENT OF La DO UR B Y MODERN INVENTIONS. 1 4 1 
 
 therefore, actually the result of three kinds of labour — 
 capital, or accumulated labour, labour of quality and labour 
 of quantity. Even now the terms of the two last forms of 
 labour could only be expressed by multiplying (not adding) 
 the labour of quantity by the labour of quality. Reducing 
 this to a simpler expression, the present state of manu- 
 factures depends mainly upon the intellectual condition of 
 the producers. The competition of the world has become a 
 competition of intellect. In the future of the world the 
 greatest industrial nation will be the best educated nation ; 
 it may not be so to-day, but it certainly will be so to- 
 morrow. I have already shown how the cheapness and 
 facility of the distribution of commodities have destroyed 
 national markets and local advantages, making all the world 
 into a single market. Formerly it sufficed that a merchant 
 or a trader should be a good citizen of his own country ; 
 now he must become a citizen and trader of the world. 
 Our merchants and manufacturers have been slow to see 
 this, and they are allowing other better-educated countries 
 to forge ahead. Every German clerk or trader knows two 
 languages besides his own, and is taught scientifically and 
 practically the wants of commerce. The German Govern- 
 ment has established a bank of commerce which, with the 
 efficient co-operation of the consuls living in Eastern and 
 African countries, has had a great effect in extending their 
 colonial markets. A country with a protectionist policy is 
 apt to have an over-production of commodities beyond the 
 wants of the home market, so there is a natural desire to 
 use this surplus in foreign markets at the very narrowest 
 margin of profits. These have certainly been supplied with 
 German goods for the last few years, though the prospect of 
 continued success is doubtful, as they are always handicapped 
 by increased cost of production ; still, so far as limited 
 statistics are to be relied on, the policy seems at present to 
 be successful. Taking the period of depression from 1872
 
 14 2 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 to 1886, the increase of German commerce has been 67 
 per cent, while the maritime tonnage has expanded by 120 
 per cent., and the bank discounts, indicating activity in 
 industries, have augmented by 240 per cent. How far 
 sacrifices in the prices of commodities have led to these 
 results in making new markets we do not yet know, but the 
 increase is out of all proportion to the growth of the German 
 population, which has only been iii per cent.* Berlin, 
 like other towns of Germany, is taking active measures to 
 promote technical education, A central technical insti- 
 tution, costing no less than ;^40o,ooo, has been erected in 
 Berlin. Might we not hope that the new Imperial Institute 
 in London, though it is on a smaller scale, will undertake 
 like work for London ? It may be profitable if we inquire 
 how far the education in Germany or in Switzerland tells 
 upon one particular kind of industry, so I take the silk 
 trade as an example. In the evidence given before the 
 Royal Commission on the Depression of Trade it was stated 
 that the silk industries of Coventry, Macclesfield, and 
 Spitalfields had decreased to about one-fourth their old di- 
 mensions. Spitalfields sank much lower, for its former 24,000 
 looms are now dwindled to 1,200. While Coventry was 
 losing its trade in silk ribbons, Basle, in Switzerland, was 
 making a like industry prosperous by establishing excellent 
 schools for dyeing and design, and that town imports to 
 this country what Coventry lost to it. The town of Crefeld, 
 in Germany, is a still more striking illustration, because by 
 the attention to education suited to its industries, it has, 
 within a few years, doubled its population and quadrupled 
 its trade. This small town, which has now grown to 83,000 
 inhabitants, has spent ;^2 15,000 on its lower schools, and 
 ;^42,5oo on a special weaving school. Who has paid for 
 
 • A report on this subject, by Mr. Giffen, has been issued, and shows 
 that English trade has as yet not materially suffered by German competition.
 
 Displacement OF Labour by Modern Inventions. 143 
 
 this large educational expenditure? Quite possibly the 
 consumers of silk in England, who get from Crefeld what 
 Macclesfield and Spitalfields fail to produce with equal 
 excellence. The melancholy result is this — that the ex- 
 ports of English silks amount to only ;^2, 670,000, while 
 the imports to this country of foreign silks reach eleven 
 millions. It is useless for our towns to battle by empiricism 
 or by fiscal laws with foreign nations which have equipped 
 their artisans to fight with trained intelligence in the com- 
 petition. Technical Education is simply the rationale of 
 empiricism. It is a melancholy spectacle to see a town like 
 Norwich, once famous for its shawls, actually contending 
 with the Charity Commissioners because they wish to 
 utilise its fine endowments by creating a system of technical 
 education, while the civic authorities struggle for alms- 
 houses. Figs cannot grow on thorns, nor can ignorance 
 among our workmen expect to compete with trained intelli- 
 gence in our industrial competition with other nations. 
 
 England is far behind in the technical training of our 
 artisans, but there is hope that we have awakened to our 
 shortcomings. When I first began to call attention to our 
 dangerous ignorance in 1852, there were no higher colleges, 
 except Universities, in any town of the United Kingdom, 
 except Owens College in Manchester, and Anderson's 
 College in Glasgow. Now there is not a large town in 
 Great Britain without such colleges. These are being 
 adapted to the education of the upper classes, and a great 
 step is gained ; but continuation schools for the working- 
 classes, and technical schools adapted to their wants, are 
 rising far too slowly. In London the progress is more 
 rapid, and perhaps in a few years we shall be able to boast 
 that we have gone beyond Paris in Polytechnics for the 
 working classes, though we shall still be far behind Berlin 
 and other manufacturing towns of Germany and Switzerland 
 in relation to the population. Still I have faith that the
 
 144 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 movement is in progress, for stern necessity will rouse the 
 manufacturers of England to train the intelligence of the 
 producers. Working men are alive to the defects in their 
 education, and their voices will soon be heard in the Parlia- 
 ment of this country. The wages of our artisans are higher 
 than those in Continental countries, and so are their pro- 
 ductive powers. I am informed by Sir Lowthian Bell, the 
 highest authority in the iron trade, that where ten men 
 are employed in a German blast furnace, five would suffice 
 in England for the same quantity of iron. 
 
 It would require a man much wiser than myself to pre- 
 dict the future of our industries with certainty. One thing 
 is sure, that they cannot recover from depression by putting 
 on their back the old man of the sea in the shape of 
 the fiscal proposal of the Fair Trade party. England 
 depends upon her export trade for her future prosperity, 
 and as exchanges are made in commodities, not in 
 bullion, the restriction of imports by taxation contracts ex- 
 ports to the same amount. Indeed, such a policy must lead 
 to the tariff war which now prevails among most of the Con- 
 tinental States. No fact in poUtical economy is more clear 
 than that taxation on foreign commodities must ultimately be 
 paid by the consumers, not by the producers. All taxation 
 is a deduction from the fruits of labour and from the fertility 
 of the soil of the country imposing it. No poHtical economist 
 has ever been able to show how prices to consumers can be 
 lowered by increasing the cost of production. In countries 
 with a Protection policy there is as much depression, though 
 one of greater intensity than in the countries with Free Trade. 
 In the former there are constant attempts to cure the de- 
 pression by adding restriction after restriction, in the hope of 
 remedying the evil. It is the same operation as when a 
 person dissatisfied with the working of a machine adds a new 
 cog, then a spring, then a lever, forgetting that with every 
 new addition he is increasing friction and lessening power.
 
 Displacement of Labour by Modern Inventions. 145 
 
 The great industrial machine of this country is good enough 
 in itself, but it needs proper oiling to make the parts work 
 smoothly ; and I have tried to show that the technical edu- 
 cation of working men is the lubricant which we so much 
 require. I do not believe that it will again work so as to 
 produce the large margin of profits which we enjoyed in the 
 past. Still there is encouragement that we may carry on a 
 good and steady trade. The cheapening and extension of 
 distribution have probably reached their limits, and little 
 more is to be expected in this direction. New inventions 
 will continue to be made, but not with the same marvellous 
 celerity that we have seen in the last fifteen years. If the 
 United States alters its Protection policy, and becomes a Free 
 Trade nation, it will be our great competitor in the world, 
 though the time is not close at hand. Her large surplus 
 revenue, amounting to twenty-two millions, has invited 
 schemes of public plunder, and her pension list of old 
 soldiers, and compensations to States for aid in the war, 
 amount to a charge equal to a large standing army. When 
 these lapse by time, the United States, with a standing army 
 of only twenty-five thousand men, will become a nation which 
 has only to prepare herself for the progress of industry by 
 new inventions without the cares and costs for tlie prepara- 
 tion of war. At the present moment the United Slates has 
 250,000 inventions protected by the patent law. This 
 activity of invention shows ability and intelligence among 
 her people, who are always ready to turn to account the 
 forces of Nature for the benefit of man. This country in 
 her working men is rich in producers, and if their intelligence 
 were trained in connection with their work, we need not fear 
 the industrial competition of any European nation. All 
 great foreign nations, except the United States, are terribly 
 handicapped in the industrial race by excessive armaments. 
 England is also weighted, but not to an equal extent. The 
 strength of nations consists in peace, but the weakness of 
 
 K
 
 146 Subjects of Social Welfare, 
 
 nations is in actual war, or excessive preparedness for it. 
 France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Belgium, and Great 
 Britain have 2,200,000 men withdrawn from being pro- 
 ductive citizens, in order to be protective militants, at a 
 cost for each man of ^^45. If we take all the civilised 
 nations, adding the Reserves to the permanent forces, 
 fourteen and a quarter millions of the strongest men are 
 or may be withdrawn from production. This is one man for 
 twenty-four of the population, or, if we exclude the Reserves, 
 one out of eighty-one. That is the reason why I point to 
 the United States as the great industrial nation of the future, 
 for her armed forces represent only one man in 1,610 of the 
 population. Luckily, her Protection policy is an incubus 
 upon her industry, and gives us breathing time to prepare 
 for tlie coming struggle.
 
 INDUSTRIAL COMPETITION AND 
 COMMERCIAL FREEDOM. 
 
 Address delivered to the National Liberal Club, lSS8. 
 
 If the depression of trade which has existed in this country 
 since 1874, with only a flicker of revival in special industries 
 from 1879 to 18S2, be in any way due to England's Free 
 Trade policy, as, indeed, many persons believe it is, then 
 you cannot be surprised that the working classes, and more 
 especially the unemployed, should have lost faith in the 
 principle which they adopted with enthusiasm in 1846. 
 The depression is universal in all machine-using countries. 
 It did not even originate in England, though in course of 
 time it reached this great industrial country, and has re- 
 mained with us ever since, as it has done with every other 
 machine-using nation. In former periods of history, de- 
 pressions in agriculture and manufactures sometimes lasteti 
 fifty years without a break, but they differed from the present 
 depression by chiefly affecting labour rather than capital, 
 while now labour has suffered comparatively little, though 
 capital has been struck with severity. Listen to the plaints 
 in former times. Richard Hakluyt, in 1584, writes: — 
 " Yea, there be many thousandes of idle persons within the 
 realme having no way to be set at worke .... whereby ail 
 the prisons of the land are daily pestered and stufled full of 
 them, where either they pitifully pyne away, or els at length 
 are miserably hanged, even XXI. at a clappe out of some 
 one jayle." And Sir William Petty, a century later (1691), 
 K 2
 
 1 48 Subjects of Social JVelfake. 
 
 speaks of the general conviction among the people of 
 England " that their agriculture and manufactures are going 
 to the dogs, because there is no trade or employment for 
 the people ; that Ireland and the Plantations of America are 
 a burthen to England ; that Scotland is no advantage ; that 
 the French trade grows too fast upon us, and they become so 
 rich and potent that it is only of their clemency that they 
 do not devour us ; and, finally, that the Church and State 
 of England are in the same danger with the trade of 
 England." You see, then, that depressions of trade are very 
 old, though England still survives, and looks much less like 
 going to the dogs than in Sir William Petty's time. Tlie 
 old depressions were local, or, at the worst, national. There 
 was such little intercommunication of nations then, that 
 depressions did not become like a pandemic as they do now. 
 In our times they are synchronous in all machine-using 
 countries, whatever may be the difference of their fiscal or 
 administrative policies. 
 
 Since 1873 there has been a profound transformation of 
 commerce ; and this, acting on increasing powers of pro- 
 duction, has largely lowered prices, leaving small profits to 
 the capitalist. It will be most convenient to consider, in 
 the first place, the changes which have occurred in commerce, 
 England could scarcely be called a commercial nation till 
 about a century and a half ago. In the time of Queen 
 Elizabeth this country began to develop its manufacturing 
 industries, but its ideas of commerce were exceedingly crude. 
 Commerce consists in the exchange of commodities for the 
 reciprocal advantage of the producers in the exchanging 
 countries. In England, at that time, there were few to 
 exchange, for all the world did not appreciate our coarse 
 woollen goods and fustians. The English got their luxuries 
 by capture instead of by exchange. Among the commercial 
 rovers of that time, Cavendish stands jiromincnt for his 
 sweet simplicity and earnest piety. He thanks God for
 
 Industrial Competition. 149 
 
 protecting him in his commercial dealings. Hear his own 
 description : — " It hath pleased Almighty God to suffer mc 
 to circumpass the whole globe of the world. ... I 
 navigated along the coast of Chili, Peru, and New Spain, 
 where I made great spoils. All the villages and towns that 
 ever I landed at I burned and spoiled ; and had I not been 
 discovered upon the coast, I had taken a great quantity of 
 treasure." And so the pious Cavendish says, " The Lord 
 be praised for all his mercies!" Better ideas of commerce 
 gradually prevailed. It is only in recent times that scientific 
 discoveries, by a more economical use of steam and the 
 electric telegraph, have narrowed space and abridged time. 
 The sea, which formerly was valued as separating nations, 
 has now become the very life-blood of commerce. It is the 
 circulating blood of the world. In the circulation of blood in 
 animals there are small bodies called corpuscles, which sail 
 from the heart to the farthest extremities., and, having dis- 
 charged their cargoes, take up new ones and return to their 
 original port. Their functions in the various organs are 
 regulated by the nerves. Commerce is the circulating force 
 of the world, and its ships go outward from and backward to 
 the heart of the nation which, with its telegraphic wires, 
 transmits the nervous influence that guides the sensory and 
 voluntary motions of commerce. The changes thus produced 
 have been so great that old merchants find their past 
 experience is of little value to their sons. The great high- 
 way of commerce to the East had been round the Cape of 
 Good Hope since the discovery of that route by Vasco de 
 Gama in 1498. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, a 
 few years before tlie present depression began, twisted com- 
 merce out of its old form, destroying at the same time the 
 capital invested in sailing ships. The Suez Canal became a 
 great spout through which was poured in two directions the 
 merchandise of the two liemispheres, just as duplex telegraphy 
 sends opposite messages through one wire at the same time.
 
 150 SusyECTS OF Social JFelfare. 
 
 The traffic on Indian railways increased marvellously in 
 consequence of this quick outlet, for in ten years, from 1 87 6 to 
 1 886, the volume of traffic trebled, while the average traffic 
 per mile doubled. The substitution of a double voyage of 
 sixty days for one of seven or eight months altered the whole 
 system of commerce, rendering useless the huge warehouses 
 for the storage of goods, and costly foreign agents to obtain 
 supplies. The producer and the consumer, at the two ends 
 of an electric wire, could make their arrangements within 
 an hour. This speedy interchange of views demanded a 
 (juicker and more economical means of transit by sea and 
 land ; and scientific invention has so improved these that 
 the whole system of markets has been altered. To a great 
 extent national markets have been destroyed, because the 
 world has become the one market for all nations. The 
 increased economy of transit has necessarily lowered prices. 
 Every ton of coal now carries thirty-two times more cargo 
 than it did a few years since. In the best compound loco- 
 motives two ounces of coal will move a ton of cargo one 
 mile ; and half that quantity will move, in our best steamers, 
 a ton of cargo and its proportion of the ship for two miles. 
 After all, this is only about two-tenths of the potential power 
 which exists in the coal. Take an instance of the effect of 
 this on commerce. A sack of flour can be moved from 
 Minneapolis, in the United States, down to the seaboard, 
 1,400 miles away, to be sent by steamer to Liverpool, at a 
 total cost for transport of less than ninej^ence upon the 
 bushel of Avheat. The British working man, when he buys 
 a four-pound quartern loaf made of American flour, may 
 reflect with astonishment that it has been brought four or 
 five thousand miles at a cost for transit of one halfpenny. 
 It is not in economy of fuel alone, but also in the economy 
 of labour that modern invention has produced this astonishing 
 result. When the depression began in 1873, the number of 
 hands required for 1,000 tons of shipping in this country
 
 Industrial Competition. 151 
 
 was forty-seven ; it is now reduced to twenty-seven. In 
 other words, by labour-saving contrivances at sea and in 
 the port, the same quantity of work can be done witli 70 per 
 cent, less manual labour. This explains the fact that while 
 our mercantile marine, between 1870 and 1880, increased 
 its foreign entrances and clearances by 22,000,000 tons, it 
 decreased the men employed by 3,000. 
 
 The general result of these changes in distribution 
 has been that all countries of the world have been brought 
 into a common market to compete for the margins of 
 profit. 
 
 The agriculture of this country was the first great 
 industry to suffer by the changed conditions. It is still one 
 of the few industries of a domestic character which remain 
 in this country. I'he formers rather glory in their indepen- 
 dence and want of combination. At the same time they 
 have to meet, in their isolation, the competition of land cul- 
 tivators in other countries, who carry on their industries in 
 enlarged combinations, and with the use of machinery of 
 the newest character, not only for the growth, but also for 
 the harvesting, handling, milling, and transport of the grain 
 and other products of the farm. Without this combination 
 and mechanical advantage, the United States could not now 
 grow 35 per cent, more food stuffs than they did in 1870, 
 allowing for their large increase of pojmlation. The harvest- 
 ing of this grain would require 160,000 labourers in order to 
 cut and bind the wheat, had not this labour been substituted 
 by self-binding reaping machines. The old mills with grind- 
 stones could not have converted it into flour ; but by steel 
 rollers and other improvements, more than three times the 
 quantity of flour can be got with the labour of fewer men. 
 The American millers now come into direct contact with their 
 customers, because, instead of sending over 200 lbs. of flour 
 in barrels or sacks, they pack it up in neat bags of 2 J, lbs. 
 or 5 lbs., to suit small purchasers. By this means they get
 
 152 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 a larger price; for while the 359 lbs. of flour got from a 
 quarter of wheat sells at 56s., the wheat itself, from 1882 to 
 1 886, only produced 33s. gd. Our farmers know these 
 facts, but they are conservative in their ideas, and prefer to 
 see the mills shut up rather than abandon their old modes 
 of work. It is not with the United States alone that our 
 farmers have now to compete, for new markets have arisen 
 in Canada, South America, India, Australia, New Zealand, 
 Egypt, and Russia. All kinds of food are subjected to the 
 same competition. Fresh meat, in various stages of pre- 
 paration, is imported from the United States, the Argentine 
 Republic, New Zealand, and Australia. This importation 
 is rendered profitable, because the live stock is dealt with 
 by large combinations of producers. The live animals are 
 killed by thousands, their carcases properly cooled, every 
 part of the offal converted into industrial commodities, while 
 the fresh meat is transported in refrigerating cars to the 
 coast, and then put into cooling chambers on board the 
 steamers. 
 
 Mr. Tallerman has lately shown, in a useful lecture, that 
 it would be easy to apply this system in the home markets. 
 Oxen sent alive by railway and driven to the butcher's are 
 stated to lose twenty-four pounds in weight by three days' travel. 
 County slaughter houses, conducted on a manufacturing 
 system, provided with proper cooling chambers, and with 
 appliances for the utilisation of the offal, might promote a 
 dead meat market, which would lessen the need for foreign 
 importation. Perhaps new county government may lead to 
 these ai)pliances. Unless the competition is met in tliis 
 way, it is likely to increase, because the weight of meat 
 products is less than that of grain, the same area of land 
 producing in live stock only a sixth the weight of cereal 
 food. Even at present the value of imported dead meat of 
 various kinds amounts to above thirteen and a quarter mil- 
 lions sterling. Our farmers have recently begun to attempt
 
 Industrial Competition. 153 
 
 combination in a small way with dairy produce. It is full 
 time that they should do so, when butter and butter substi- 
 tutes, which are really true butters made from the ox, insteaci 
 of from the cow, are imported to the extent of eleven to 
 twelve millions. Foreign cheese is imported to the extent 
 of four to five millions sterling; poultry and eggs of the value 
 of between three and four millions. Condensed milk, ob- 
 tained by simple evaporation, comes to us from the Continent 
 to the extent of twenty five millions of cans. It is neither 
 the climate, nor the soil, which stands in the way of our 
 successful competition in food products. The soil gives 
 nearly double the produce of grain that it does, on the 
 average, in the United States, and the climate, though 
 variable, is admirably adapted for a combined system of 
 pastoral and agricultural industry. The age of domestic 
 manufactures is past, and English agriculture has now come 
 under the common law of production. The conditions 
 under which its products can be manufactured by combina- 
 tion and machinery have been established, and are in them- 
 selves easy in application. Creameries, butter factories, and 
 cheese factories abroad succeed because they are conducted 
 under manufacturing organisation, and not by isolated domes- 
 tic producers. The farmers in the United States who have 
 entered into these combinations get about twice the price 
 for their produce which they did on the individual system of 
 sale, and yet compete with our home producers. It is true 
 that certain qualities of products may best be obtained in 
 isolated farms. Thus, cheese in Somersetshire of the highest 
 quality may fetch 80s. per cwt., when factory cheese sells for 
 60s. ; but the great bulk of the consumers content themselves 
 with the lower quality, just as machine lace suits most peo])le, 
 while Brussels hand-made lace still preserves its position 
 among the rich. Farmers have been told by their leaders 
 that a tax upon food is now altogether outside practical 
 politics, so they must abandon the hope of relief through
 
 154 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 protective duties. There need not, however, be discourage- 
 ment for the future of their great industry, if they would 
 recognise the fact that they, Hke farmers abroad, must act in 
 combination, and cease, for the bulk of their produce, to 
 carry on domestic production as isolated individuals. 
 
 In prosperous times few inventions or improvements are 
 made, while in bad times they arise quickly. Let us hope 
 that we shall not continue to spend not much less than 
 seventy millions annually on foreign food, when, by combi- 
 nation and modern machinery, much of this could be pro- 
 duced at home. 
 
 I now pass to the consideration of the economical appli- 
 cation of machinery and of inventions upon manufacturing 
 industries. The quantity and quality of products have been 
 greatly altered, and this, coming at a time when the means 
 of distribution became so extended and cheapened, produced 
 a surplus of commodities beyond the immediate wants of 
 the world, and, as a surplus determines price, lowered that 
 for every staple commodity. As the margin of profit became 
 less, a demand for greater economy in production arose, so 
 that machines were invented to produce with the minimum 
 of human labour. By these inventions a great amount of 
 old forms of labour were displaced, and higher forms came 
 into demand. I have given illustrations of this displacement 
 of labour in the article which precedes this in the series, and 
 many others might be given, though they all possess common 
 characteristics. Sometimes the displacement of labour is 
 enormous, as when the cotton-gin, worked by one man in its 
 most improved form, does the work of one thousand manual 
 labourers ; or, when the bobbin-net machine is supposed to 
 have a six-thousandfold greater production than hand-labour. 
 Those are extreme instances of displacement of hand-labour 
 by machinery; but it would be probably below the mark to 
 put the displacement on an average, since 1873, from 30 to 
 50 per cent, of hand-labour. Every invention produces
 
 Industrial Competition. 155 
 
 social change and dislocation of labour. The application of 
 the invention demands higher intelligence in labour, so the 
 labourers of low intelligence go to the wall, and we are 
 familiar with them under the name of the " unemployed." 
 These flock to London, and find it still more difficult than 
 in the provinces to obtain employment for their unskilled 
 labour ; so they become an incubus on the metropolis. 
 
 It is the essence of invention to displace unskilled 
 labour, and to replace it by machinery. Ultimately the 
 change is beneficial to humanity, for the sweat of the brow 
 and the mere labour of the body are relieved by the 
 intelligence of the brain. Let us clearly understand the 
 change which is passing over industry in regard to the two 
 kinds of labour, that of quantity and that of quality. The 
 labour of quantity is little more than brute- animal force, 
 which is continually decreasing in value as a factor of pro- 
 duction. With efficient training in gymnastics it would be 
 impossible to toughen the muscles of workmen more than 
 those of Greek athletes, and we do not care for this result, 
 for Nasmyth's hammer will do the work of a thousand 
 athletes. The labour of quality, or labour carried on and 
 directed by skilled intelligence, is rising in value as the 
 second factor of production. As invention advances, the 
 steam engine in the basement of the factory pushes aside 
 the labour of quantity, or the brute animal force, while the 
 men, women, and children upstairs supply the labour of 
 quality, which requires observation and intelligence, qualities 
 which have not yet been imparted to machinery. In a few 
 exceptional cases a machine may become nearly automatic, 
 like the cotton-mule, which leaves little for intelligence, 
 tl'.ough a good deal for observation in catching and mending 
 the broken threads. All machinery, in fact all inventions, 
 tend to progress from complexity to simplicity. Remember 
 Charles Lamb's story of Hoti and roast pig. The division 
 of labour in tending a machine is apt to be condensed or
 
 156 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 simplified, and therefore the workmen require a superior and 
 versatile intelligence to be able to adapt themselves to the 
 changes which constantly arise in the economy of labour. 
 The inspectors of factories, in their last report, mourn the 
 fact that children are lessening in the factories. To me this 
 is a subject of rejoicing, as it indicates an advance in the 
 social condition of the people. From the beginning of the 
 1874 depression, children in textile factories have decreased 
 by 34,000, but, on the other hand, the adults have increased 
 by 65,000. The labour now requires more skill and 
 intelligence than uneducated children can give to it. 
 
 I need scarcely tell you that this cold-blooded discussion 
 in regard to labour of quantity and labour of quality gives 
 little sympathy to the unemployed. Science is essentially 
 colourless and impersonal. Since I began my addresses on 
 the subject of the depression, I have received many letters 
 from unemployed labourers. They tell me that their 
 lamentable condition is due to machinery, and some of them 
 have proposed that I should organise, and even become 
 a president of a European association for the destruction of 
 machinery ! They point out that the unemployed armies of 
 Europe might be used for this purpose with economy and 
 advantage to labour. Ah ! gentlemen, do not laugh ; these 
 labourers of quantity are in this condition because they have 
 no educated intelligence, and until they obtain it, many of 
 our people must remain low in the scale of civilisation, for 
 they do not possess that labour of quality which is essential 
 to give them entrance into the new forms of production. 
 Labour may be displaced so rapidly that the industries of a 
 nation may actually perish. You recol'ect that the Moors 
 were wonderfully intelligent labourers, skilled in science and 
 art, and they raised Spain to be the envy of European 
 nations. The Inquisition, in the time of Philip III., insisted 
 that they should be expelled as heretics from Spain, and 
 they were banished in a barbarous manner. They had been
 
 IkDL'SJRIAL CoMPETlTiON. I57 
 
 excellent cultivators of the soil, and expert artificers. On 
 the expulsion of the Moors, the cultivation of rice, cotton, 
 sugar, and the manufacture of cotton, wool, and silk goods 
 rapidly dwindled. The 16,000 silk-looms of Seville fell to 
 300. Toledo had 40,000 workmen engaged in silk indus- 
 tries, and lost their labour. Burgos, the most famous town 
 for manufactures, continued to exist only in name. The 
 labour of quality had been displaced from Spain by the 
 ruthless expulsion of the Moriscoes, and nothing remained 
 but the labour of quantity. The result may be given in the 
 words of Froude :— " The Spaniard's intellect shrivelled in 
 his brain, and the sinews shrank in their self-bandaged limbs." 
 This was the cause of England developing into a manu- 
 facturing nation, for our manufactures expanded as ihose of 
 Spain contracted. The cotton industry had been introduced 
 into Spain as early as the tenth century. It practically 
 passed over to England on account of the great political 
 crime of the seventeenth century. It has been the good 
 fortune of_^this country to benefit by the political crimes 
 against liberty committed by other nations. The expelled 
 Flemish Protestants and the French Huguenots developed 
 our woollen and silk industries. A feeling is ^rowin", 
 especially in the metropolis, against the importation of 
 foreign labour, but we ought to watch this with jealousy, 
 even though a committee is now engaged with its con- 
 sideration in the House of Commons. In the historical 
 cases which I have cited, foreign countries suffered because 
 they displaced their skilled, intelligent labour. Our late 
 
 depressions have resulted from the very opposite cause 
 
 that unintelligent labour has been displaced, while skilled 
 labour remains in employment. There are rare exceptions 
 to this statement. Thus Bessemer's steel substituted the use 
 of bar iron, and 39,000 skilled producers of that manufacture 
 lost their employment; but because they were skilled, they 
 quickly became absorbed into the new industry. ]\Iore
 
 158 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 usually when industries decline in this country, as in the case 
 of the silk trade, the reason is that the manufacturers have 
 not kept up the labour of quality in competition with 
 foreign countries. Thus when Coventry, Macclesfield, and 
 Spitalfields were declining in silk manufactures, Basle, in 
 Switzerland, and Crefeld, in Germany, were rising, because 
 they established complete systems of technical education for 
 their artisans. Where we have enterprising manufacturers 
 like Lister of Bradford, with technical schools such as they 
 have in that town, the silk industry maintains its ground. 
 
 The effect of inventions upon the rate of wages of 
 labourers is decidedly to raise the wages of those who are 
 able to carry on the industry under the new conditions. 
 Machine hands are better paid ; manual labourers are worse 
 paid. Mr. Lakeman's recent report on female labour in 
 London shows this in a striking way, though it is true 
 universally. The factory workers are both better paid, 
 better cared for, and more moral than manual workers 
 carrying on the same trade without machinery. Wages 
 depend a good deal upon the social condition and wants 
 of a community. Machine-producing countries give high 
 wages to their workmen, but the products made represent 
 in exchange much more labour than in countries which 
 depend on manual labour. Thus, one day's wage of an 
 English workman will buy as much coffee in Java as could 
 be produced by forty days' labour ; as much tea in China 
 as costs seventy days' labour ; as much sugar in Cuba, or 
 hemp in Manilla, as is equivalent to seventeen days' labour; 
 and as much wool in South America as equals seven days' 
 labour. High wages in machine factories mean a low cost 
 of production, and low wages in hand industries mean high 
 cost of production. Take as an illustration the manufacture 
 of watches by machinery. A skilled girl can earn 36s. 
 or more, weekly, by putting the wheel into watch cases. 
 She can insert 1,600 daily (having to handle four pieces in
 
 Industrial Competition. 159 
 
 each operation — the wheel, two washers, and the pinion 
 wire). The whole watch consists of fifty-eight pieces, re- 
 quiring 370 single operations. All the workers have high 
 wages, but the watch is sold at only ten shillings. In 
 England the wages of working men are higher, and their 
 hours of work less than those of similar industries on the 
 Continent; though at the same time they produce cheaper 
 things. If we compare the wages of our skilled mechanics 
 with those of the United States, which manufactures under 
 heavy protective tariffs, there is little reason to regret our 
 position, and none at all to attribute our lower rate of wages, 
 as compared with America, to Free Trade. In these two 
 countries the social wants and condition of the people are 
 nearly identical. If the people chose to go back to the 
 time of leather breeches and coarse fustians, and were con- 
 tent to live in rude huts without window panes, their wages 
 would be small, but they would be earned with a much 
 simpler trade organisation. In the United States, and in 
 the United Kingdom, the social demands are high, and so 
 are wages. The increase of average wages for mechanics in 
 the former country between 1850 and 1886 is stated to be 
 9s. weekly; while in the United Kingdom it has been 8s. 5d. 
 As the necessaries of life are not taxed in this country, the 
 purchasing power of the lower sum makes our increase the 
 greatest. Between this period Mr. Atkinson has shown 
 that the common labourers can buy 66 per cent., factory 
 operatives 78 per cent, and skilled mechanics 90 per cent. 
 more of the necessaries of life with a single day's wage. 
 The Bureau of Labour gives the average weekly wage of 
 the American mechanic at 43s. 4d., as compared with 
 29s. lod. for the English mechanic. In both countries 
 
 food can be obtained for the year by the same efibrt 
 
 viz., 113 days for the British workman, and 114 days for 
 the American. In this respect both are in a better position 
 than workers on the Continent, as it requires the wages of
 
 i6o Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 1 20 days in France, 133 in Belgium, and 150 in Germany 
 to obtain food for the family. If working men are good at 
 their craft, there is no doubt that high wages mean cheap 
 things and lower wages mean dear things. If it were not 
 so, how could it happen that with wages 84 per cent, higher 
 in England than the average for the whole of the Continent 
 the general cost of production in this country is at least 
 30 per cent, less? If this were not so, England would 
 cease to be the great trading nation of the world. The 
 explanation of this is, that the use of steam machinery in 
 this country is 1 1 7 per cent, greater than on the Continent. 
 If we are to continue this prosperity it must be by raising 
 the amount of the labour of quality, which can only be 
 done by giving to workers a trained intelligence in regard to 
 their work. 
 
 By the observations which have preceded I desire to con- 
 vince you that the continued depression of fifteen years has 
 nothing whatever to do with our Free Trade policy. The 
 real cause may be summed up in a single sentence — that the 
 world has not yet accommodated itself to the wonderful 
 changes which science has produced in the modes of pro- 
 duction and in the exchanges of commerce. If you accept 
 this conclusion, I have little to say in regard to Free Trade, 
 the principles of which you understand as well as I do. 
 England, for the last fifteen years, has had her share, but 
 not more than her share, in the depression produced by this 
 transition of trade. Her unemployed have been fewer, and 
 her labour disturbances or strikes much less frequent and 
 acute than in the United States with its policy of Protection. 
 The reason for the difference is that our Free Trade policy 
 leads to a large export trade, which carries oft' the surplus of 
 manufactures ; while the Protective policy of the United 
 States limits her exports to a great extent to food stuffs, and 
 prevents her manufactures meeting us in the markets of the 
 world. Notwithstanding this fact, the United States is
 
 Industrial Competition. i6i 
 
 really a great manufacturing nation, with a population in- 
 dustrious, educated, and inventive ; but her fiscal policy 
 cramps her development. She tries to compete with us in 
 foreign markets, though with small results. In China, 
 English imports amount to 28 per cent, of its total imports; 
 those of the United States to 4 per cent. To South 
 American States we send from 28 to 39 per cent, of their 
 hnports ; while the United States send only 7 per cent. 
 Even to Japan, though geographically so well placed on the 
 Pacific, the United States send but 7 per cent, and England 
 43 per cent, of the imports. The tariff wall is so high in 
 the United States, that their own exporters get over it with 
 difficulty ; while, in spite of its height, our merchants send 
 into that country nine times more manufactured goods than 
 she sends to us, although our ports are free. The prosperity 
 of the United States is owing to her immense territory, with 
 its rapidly-increasing population, which has jealously pre- 
 served internal free trade throughout all her thirty-eight 
 States, though she shuts out external trade by high protec- 
 tive duties. The absurdity of this system in America is its 
 assertion of the principle that scarcity is better than abun- 
 dance in its dealings with foreign States. The wealth of 
 nations as well as of individuals is described in the 
 Proverbs : — " There is that scattereth and yet increaseth ; 
 and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it 
 tendeth to poverty." In one sense I am sorry to say the 
 people on the other side of the Atlantic are coming to our 
 view of Free Trade more rapidly than is for the interest of 
 England. Let me quote from the speech of Mr. Hard at 
 the Free Trade Congress in Chicago : — " You ask the 
 reason that so many workmen are out of employment. 
 Why, because our mills are idle from there being no demand, 
 and this absence of a demand results from the so-called 
 over-production, which is only another term for 'no export 
 markets,' caused by the absende of foreign trade, which 
 
 L
 
 1 62 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 the selfishness of protected manufacturers prevents." One 
 more quotation only, and it is from the late Secretary 
 Manning, of the Treasury at Washington. He is still more 
 pithy : — "While our tariff encumbers with clumsy help a few 
 thousand employers, it has trodden down the millions of 
 wage-earners." The whole truth lies in this, that the policy of 
 the United States retains the market for its own 6c,ooo,ooo 
 of people, and loses the markets for the world's population 
 of 1,400,000,000. Some of her industries, like those of 
 cotton and wool, are already producing a surplus which the 
 home market cannot absorb. They will soon pass to the 
 side of Free Trade. Let us get ready for the fierce 
 competition which will follow when the scales fall from the 
 eyes of our kinsmen on the other side of the Atlantic. 
 You will readily comprehend from my argument in what 
 manner we must prepare to keep our position in the in- 
 creasing struggle of nations. We must give more of a 
 trained intelligence to our producers, intelligence to the 
 rank and file, high technical education to the officers of our 
 industrial armies. What is technical education? It is 
 simply the rationale of expert empiricism. We must con- 
 vert, as much as we can do, labour of quantity into labour 
 of quality. We now know with tolerable certainty the 
 conditions which produce low wages, and those which 
 produce high wages. Our interest as a nation is to aim at 
 the latter. What class of labourers produce dear things ? 
 They are ignorant labourers with faint ambition, who are 
 badly housed, badly clothed and fed, who have few pleasures 
 of the mind, and who trust to the Poor Law to stand 
 between them and starvation. These are the labourers who 
 are content to work for low wages ; but the product of their 
 labour is low and its cost is high. What class of workmen 
 produce cheap things? They are the working men of 
 technical skill and trained intelligence who seek more 
 education for themselves and children, because they know
 
 Industrial Competition. 163 
 
 that it both dignifies and fructifies their labour. They are 
 men who by combination have raised their position and 
 shortened their hours of labour, so that they may enjoy 
 some of the pleasures as well as take their share in the toil 
 of the world. They hate the workhouse as much as they 
 hate that kingdom over which the devil is supposed to reign. 
 Their wages are high, but so is their productiveness, and 
 consequently they give us our cheap things. They are the 
 men who are the props of our industries. Though their 
 wages are high, they are cheap at the price. Protection is 
 not a force to raise wages. If it were they should be high 
 on the Continent of Europe. The interest of a labourer is 
 to sell his labour dear and to buy his commodities cheap. 
 Protection enhances the price of the latter ; but how can 
 this benefit the labourer ? Though the labourer does not 
 gain by Protection, the monopolist does, and it is he who is 
 encouraged and over-remunerated by high tariffs. England 
 has abolished monopolies and refused to support privileged 
 classes by taxation. She is a country small in area and 
 limited in population, but great in productive energies. 
 She is a world-wide trader, because her manufacturers can 
 barter on advantageous terms with other nations which 
 seek her free ports for the disposal of their commodities^ 
 and are forced to accept English goods in exchange. The 
 industrial prosperity of England is as much due to com- 
 mercial freedom as the social condition of her people is due 
 to their political liberties. 
 
 " For what avail the plough or sail, 
 Or land or life, if freedom fail." 
 
 L 2
 
 THE EFFECT OF PROTECTION ON 
 WAGES. 
 
 Speech delivered at Leeds, i Dec, 1888. 
 
 I HAVE lately returned from the United States, where a very 
 important issue has been before the people during the Pre- 
 sidential election. It would be false to call that issue one 
 of Free Trade, because the proposal was whether the high 
 Protectionist tariff, now averaging 47 per cent, on the price 
 of imports, should be reduced to 42 per cent. If a man took 
 fort) -seven drinks in the day and reduced them to forty- 
 two, you would not call him a teetotaler ; so a small reduc- 
 tion of a high tariff cannot be dignified as one of Free 
 Trade ; but it is the thin end of the wedge, and may be 
 driven home so as to rend in twain the system of Protec- 
 tion. The real question before the people was whether 
 Protection is the source of high wages among the working- 
 classes. 
 
 You are aware that wages in America are notably higher 
 than they are in this country. This is generally but not in- 
 variably true. Nominal wages mean so many dollars or 
 shillings per week ; while real wages are the necessities and 
 comforts which can be bought by them. Let me give you a 
 concrete illustration. I know the case of three men who 
 emigrated from Bradford to America. They earned 32s. in 
 this country, and went under an engagement to receive 50s. 
 in the United States, where they have been for two years. 
 About six weeks since they wrote to their old English master 
 o tiering to come back at their old wages, because they found
 
 The Effect of Protection on Wages. 165 
 
 these went farther in England than their higher nominal 
 wages did in America. Upon hearing what they had done 
 their American employer raised their wages to 56s., and they 
 remain to see whether this will render their position more 
 favourable. In considering my observations, bear in mind 
 the important difference between nominal and real wages. 
 What makes nominal wages higher in the United States? 
 The real wages of unskilled labourers are certainly higher in 
 that country, but I am by no means so certain that those of 
 skilled workmen are. 
 
 There are two great political parties in America — the 
 Republicans and the Democrats. The former support Pro- 
 tection, and contend that wages are raised by this system 
 and maintained at a high level. The Democrats, in the late 
 contest, have with some misgivings now ranged themselves 
 in favour of a reform of the tariff, and they deny that Pro- 
 tection influences wages in any sensible degree. Protection, 
 say the Republicans, creates industries which would not 
 exist without it, and therefore it gives work to labour. It is 
 not work for itself that the labourer desires ; he wishes to 
 obtain a comfortable living from his work. He does not 
 live to work ; he works to live. Good living at the 
 lowest price is the workman's aim. How can taxes on 
 most of the necessaries and upon all the comforts of life 
 help him to that end.-* When taxes, averaging about one- 
 half the value of commodities, are put on foreign imports, 
 home-made goods must rise to the increased selling price, 
 otherwise Protection would neither have meaning nor justifi- 
 cation. It is obvious that, under these conditions, each 
 man as a consumer pays a tax to himself as a producer. 
 You work in a woollen mill under this Protection, and are 
 gratified that the toolmaker, the shoemaker, and hatter 
 pay taxes for the support of your industry ; but they are con- 
 soled because you pay taxes to support them in their trades. 
 This is a vicious circle, and you might as well transfer money
 
 1 66 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 from your left to your right pocket in the vain hope that you 
 are enriching yourself. If Protection gives to a man more 
 wages, where does the more come from ? It comes from 
 the taxes, which all working men have to pay to support 
 Protection. 
 
 A httle consideration will convince you that Protection 
 has nothing but a deteriorating influence on the rate of 
 wages. In the first place, the unprotected industries in 
 the United States have higher wages than the protected 
 trades. The carpenters, who have no Protection, make 
 ^go yearly, while the protected cotton spinners and weavers 
 get ;^49. The unprotected bakers win ^^4, while the pro- 
 tected makers of men's clothes get £si- The free printers 
 obtain ;^ii8 in wages, but the protected machine makers 
 have only ;£^i wages. The workers in stone and marble 
 have ;£<)! wages ; but the closely protected industries of 
 iron and steel average £,'j^. These are the averages which 
 I take from the returns in the census, and they might be 
 largely multiplied. They are conclusive as to the fact that 
 the wages of protected industries are lower than those which 
 have no Protection from the tariff. 
 
 Stilfyou may think that Protection must at least regulate 
 and render uniform the wages of like industries all over the 
 country. It does nothing of the kind. The variation 
 between the wages of the same industries in different parts 
 of the Union is greater than between it and the United 
 Kingdom. Ohio and Connecticut are states with woollen 
 manufactures, but the wages vary by 70 per cent. New 
 Jersey and North Carolina have cotton mills, and their 
 wages differ by 80 per cent. Now, the alleged difference 
 between the wages of America and England is generally 
 taken at 50 per cent. Observe, then, that Protection neither 
 ensures the highest wages to its industries, nor does it 
 equalise them in the same trades. That wages are not 
 governed by I'rotection follows from the fact that they are
 
 The Effect of Protection on Wages. 167 
 
 no higher under an industry protected by 100 per cent, duty 
 than they are under one having only 25 per cent. 
 
 The most serious evil of Protection in America is that it 
 practically restricts the markets for manufactured goods to 
 the domestic demand of its population of sixty millions. 
 This, no doubt, is a large market, but it is not nearly so 
 large as the market of the world. The exclusion of foreign 
 markets produces a constant glut of commodities, and 
 many mills make in seven or eight months as much as they 
 can sell in twelve ; so they shut up for three or four months 
 in the year. Of all material evils insecurity in the means of 
 living is the most disheartening, the most exasperating? 
 and the most demoralising to working men. An enforced 
 idleness for a third or fourth of the year is disastrous 
 to working men. It means seven months' pay for twelve 
 months' living. I quote, as an illustration of what is 
 constantly happening, a single paragraph from the Boston Post 
 of loth November: — "The carpet mills of E. S. Higgins & 
 Co. gave notice of a reduction of 600 men from Monday 
 next. At Reading to-day the ironworks were shut down for 
 an indefinite time, and 300 men and boys were thrown out 
 of work. The Boston sugar refinery will be closed to-night 
 for an indefinite period. This refinery reduced the wages of 
 the workmen 7 per cent, on October ist." Periodical 
 stagnation of this kind must be hateful to working men, who 
 like steady and continuous labour. In 1885, of 816,000 
 operatives in Massachusetts, 241,000, or 29^ per cent., were 
 out of employment in this way for part of the year. In the 
 cotton mills, 39 per cent, males and 43 per cent, females ; 
 in the woollen factories, 39 per cent, males and 45 percent.* 
 females; and in the boot and shoe machine shops, 67 per 
 cent, males and 7 1 per cent, females, had these stoppages in 
 
 * David A. Wells — " Relation of the Tariff to W.ages," p. 42. Fifty- 
 six other occupations were enumerated in this State, of which half the whole 
 number were idle part of the year.
 
 1 68 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 their annual work. The nominal high rate of wages thus 
 suffers a serious reduction. Except in the face of grave 
 depressions of trade, we do not experience this evil in 
 England, because the cheap cost of production enables our 
 goods to be sent to foreign markets, although the domestic 
 market may be glutted by over-production. The autumn 
 steamers bring back to England many of these idle workmen. 
 They come to England to spend the three months when 
 there is no employment for them at the mills, because they 
 may get work here ; and even if they do not, it is much 
 cheaper to live here, and they return to America in spring 
 to get their high nominal wages when the factories are again 
 open. 
 
 The Republicans assert that Protection is necessary for 
 the employment of native American labour. The real 
 truth is that protected factories now employ few Americans. 
 In a large mill in New Hampshire, employing 6^000 hands, 
 only 230 Americans are found among them; the rest 
 consisting chiefly of French Canadians, a good many Irish, 
 with a few Germans and English. You have lately heard a 
 good deal about the fisheries, which are now straining the 
 relations between this country and the United States. These 
 fishing vessels sail from the coasts of New England to fish 
 on those of Canada, and it is contended that they must be pro- 
 tected, because they are the chief nursery for American seamen. 
 In these fishing vessels there are only 25 per cent, of American 
 seamen, the remainder of 75 per cent, consisting of 
 Canadians and English sailors from New Brunswick and 
 Nova Scotia. I state this on the authority of the chairman 
 of a Committee of the House of Representatives, which has 
 been appointed to inquire into the fact that Americans are 
 so rapidly lessening in the protected industries. The 
 causes of this diminution are not far to seek ; they are due 
 to the circumstance that native Americans desert protected 
 industries, which are constantly lowering wages owing to
 
 The Effect of Protection on Wages. 169 
 
 the pressure of competition in a limited market, and they 
 pass over to the unprotected labour, which is better paid. 
 
 Allow me now to give my reasons for the general fact 
 that Protection not only fails to maintain good wages, but 
 that it is a force, and a strong force, to lower them. Buyers 
 and sellers are correlative. If a man cannot sell his labour 
 for the whole of the year, he cannot buy manufactured 
 products when he is idle, except by stinting his purchases, 
 and encroaching on his savings to purchase the actual 
 necessaries of life. When mills stop for some months in 
 the year, the workmen become poor and discontented. 
 This leads to the strikes and depressions which are so 
 painfully frequent in America, and about which I shall have 
 something to say later on. In the mutual dependence of 
 buyer and seller, the American workman sells his labour 
 under conditions of Free Trade, because there is perfect 
 Free Trade in the thirty-eight states and eleven territories 
 of the Union ; but he buys his commodities under Protection. 
 The workman as a buyer cannot get any foreign manufactures 
 except at a price 50 to 70 per cent, higher than its cost in 
 Europe, while the home manufactures, except when there is 
 a glut of them, are sold at a price which represents the duty 
 of the tariff added to the production. These high-priced 
 goods largely lessen real wages, which, as I have explained, 
 are the amount which you can get for your money in 
 providing the needs and comforts of life. This lowering of 
 real wages is represented in a concrete form by. the higher 
 price of all protected commodities, whether they are im- 
 ported from abroad or are made at home. Taxes thus laid 
 upon labour come out of the pockets of the people, and 
 have exactly the same effect as if you made a direct 
 deduction from the power of tools, from the fertility of the 
 soil, or the capacities of the climate. You must then see 
 that Protection is a force which cuts down nominal wages, 
 and that the high cost of production caused by them forces
 
 lyo Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 the competing manufacturer either to lower wages or to seek 
 for cheaper labour from the foreign emigrants who flock to 
 America from every other country : — 
 
 " Great Empire of the West, 
 The dearest and the best, 
 Made up of all the rest." 
 
 I have denied that Protection detennines the high rate 
 of wages in America, and I must now explain what causes it. 
 
 Why are wages higher there than in England ? Cobden 
 explained the condition of wages in a single sentence. 
 " When two men ask work from one employer wages are 
 low ; when two employers are after one man wages are 
 high." This is the law of supply and demand, and it rules 
 wages in America as it does in England. In the United 
 States there are only fifteen persons to a square mile, while 
 in England and Wales there are 446. Sir Walter Scott 
 said — " Whenever a Scotchman gets his head above water 
 he makes for the land." The very reverse is true as regards 
 America, for whenever the labourers of any nation in Europe 
 get their heads below water, they strike out for the prairies 
 of America. The land of that country now requires eight 
 millions of labourers to cultivate it, while those in other in- 
 dustries amount to about three millions. These are only 
 partly under Protection — the general estimate being that 
 there are from seventeen to twenty unprotected labourers 
 for every one who is working in a protected industry. In 
 order to be on the safe side, let us put the proportion as ten 
 to one. Is it not obvious, when the unprotected industries 
 compete for ten men, and the protected industries for one, 
 that it must be the former and not the latter which deter- 
 mine the rate of wages? Of the unprotected industries, 
 agriculture is much the most important. Out of seventeen 
 and a-half million breadwinners in the United States, the 
 land employs eight millions; so that is necessarily the
 
 The Effect of Protection on Wages. 171 
 
 industry which rules the rate of wages. Protection has . 
 absolutely nothing to do with it, except as a force which 
 lowers the rate. Compare wages in the east and west of 
 America. The State of Maine, in the east, is occupied 
 with the lumber and other trades, fully protected, and its 
 average wages are jQ'^2 yearly; while California, in the 
 west, with its farms and its orchards, having no protection, 
 has an average wage of ;^96. Farming, a perfectly free 
 industry, is the chief competitor for labour, and has to pay 
 more for it. You see exactly the same thing in our new 
 colonies when they possess large tracts of virgin land. 
 Australia is an excellent example, because there, side by 
 side, is one colony with a policy of Protection and another 
 with Free Trade. Victoria enjoys Protection, while New 
 South Wales has adopted the policy of the mother country, 
 although latterly she has shown a retrograde action. What 
 has been the result of the two systems ? Victoria, twenty 
 years ago, had the largest population, and has increased it 
 by 62 per cent. ; while Free Trade New South Wales has 
 grown by 139 per cent, and now pays wages which are 
 even higher than those of the United States. The male 
 wage-winners of Victoria emigrate to the neighbouring Free 
 Trade colony, and the Protectionist colony has now an 
 excess of female labour. The wages of a man in Victoria 
 being £,'^2>'> if he pass to New South Wales he gets for the 
 same work ;^ioo. 
 
 Senator Sherman, a politician of mark in the United 
 States, is agitating the American people to annex Canada, 
 and sever it from England. Vast as is the territory of the 
 United States, and rapid as is the growth of its population, 
 which ought to count two hundred millions in another 
 thirty years, it is not vast enough for a system of Protec- 
 tion relying on home markets for the disposal of its pro- 
 ducts. So its politicians want Canada, a country about 
 the same area as the United States, now thinly peopled, but
 
 172 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 with great potentiality of growth. The annexation of Canada, 
 either by negotiation or by force, would wound our national 
 pride ; but would it wound our commercial supremacy, as 
 American politicians beHeve ? Its effect upon the whole 
 continent of North America would be to keep up nominal 
 wages over that vast area for another hundred years, and to 
 exclude it still more effectually than at present from the 
 foreign markets which buy our manufactured goods. How 
 wise are statesmen in their generation ! 
 
 Perhaps you are not yet convinced, and wish me to 
 explain why it is that extensive emigration goes to America 
 if Protection does not keep up wages. No doubt Protection 
 stimulates emigration, but not in the way which its advocates 
 believe. The chief emigration to America is from countries 
 of high Protection, which, by lowering wages, drive out their 
 working men. China is the father of the protective system, 
 and Chinese labourers swarmed to the Pacific coast until 
 their influx was prohibited by law. It is the protected 
 countries of Germany and Italy which send out the bulk of 
 emigrants to America. The country which sends out fewest 
 is Free Trade England. From 1880 to 1887 highly pro- 
 tected Germany sent out 1,235,926 emigrants, or 29 per 
 cent, of the whole number ; while England and Wales 
 supplied 496,037, or ii| per cent. Ireland, during that 
 time, sent out 534,691 emigrants, or 12^ per cent, 
 and you know the causes which make Ireland unhappy 
 and discontented. If Protection is a guarantee for high 
 wages, why did protected Germany send out nearly three 
 times as many of her people as Free Trade England ? 
 Very few of our skilled labourers emigrate from Great 
 Britain, because for them real wages are not very dif- 
 ferent on either side of the Atlantic. Unskilled labourers 
 are wise to emigrate, as the demand for them is greater than 
 in this country, and the real wages are higher. It is not 
 Protection which to any considerable extent beckons the
 
 The Effect of Protection on Wages. 173 
 
 labourers from other lands. In the last ten years, excluding 
 the women and children, only 2 per cent, of the emigrants 
 went into protected textile and metal industries, and another 
 2 per cent, into mining. 
 
 As we are dealing with the effect of Protection on wages, 
 let me interpolate an observation in regard to European 
 countries. The low-priced labour of Russia seeks to protect 
 itself by a heavy tariff against the higher wages of Germany. 
 Italy, with its badly paid labour, desires to exclude the 
 German goods. Most of the European countries unite to 
 protect their cheap labour by high tariffs against England, 
 where the average wages are from 80 to 100 per cent, higher 
 than on the Continent. Mistaken as to their means, we 
 still recognise a general purpose that it is well to protect the 
 weak against the attacks of the strong. But Protection in 
 the United States is the very reverse of this, for there it is a 
 case of the strong trying to protect themselves against the 
 weak, the high wage-earners endeavouring to shut out what 
 their politicians call "the pauper labour of Europe." 
 
 I come back to the comparison of American and English 
 wages, and will try to explain myself more fully. It is 
 almost impossible to compare rates of real wages between 
 two countries, as the conditions vary materially. Blaine, the 
 leader of the Republican party, tried to do so when he was 
 Secretary of State, by getting excellent consular reports from 
 different parts of England. I give the conclusion in his own 
 words : — " The hours of labour in the Lancashire mills are 
 56 ; in Massachusetts they are 60 per week, and in the other 
 New England States, where the wages are generally lower 
 than in Massachusetts, they are 66 to 69 hours per week. 
 Undoubtedly the inequalities in the wages of English and 
 American workmen are more than equalised by the greater 
 efficiency of the latter and their longer hours of labour." 
 During tiie election, the Protectionists posted a placard in 
 the chief mills and workshops of New York, giving the
 
 174 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 average wages of seventeen staple industries in various 
 countries. I give you the comparison for what it is worth, 
 as I have no means of testing its accuracy. The wages in 
 Germany are given as 14s. j in England at 30s. 8d. ; and 
 in New York at 49s. 6d. Let us draw our own conclusions 
 from this Protectionist statement. Wages in these seventeen 
 staple industries are in per cent, higher in Free Trade 
 England than in protected Germany, though they are 61 
 per cent, higher in America than in England. On the other 
 hand, the latter figure represents the average amount of 50 
 to 70 per cent, levied by taxation upon manufacturers. 
 Wages are not measured by money, but by the worth 
 which can be bought by it. Another estimate of American 
 and English wages has been made by CaroU Wright, the 
 head of the Labour Bureau, and, whether he is right or 
 wrong, his calculations are painstaking and honest. He 
 says that a Massachusetts mechanic with a wife and three 
 children, two of them working, makes in a fully employed 
 year ;£i6o; while the English mechanic, under like condi- 
 tions, makes ;^io3. But it costs the American workman, 
 according to the same authority, ;^i5i to live comfortably, 
 and the English operative spends only ;^ioi. If this com- 
 parison be true, at the end of the year the American 
 mechanic will have saved £()^ and the Englishman only 
 ^2. Recollect that the latter has less work per week to 
 the extent of four to six hours. I have looked to the 
 savings banks to test this estimate, but they are only one 
 method of ascertaining the thrift of a whole people. Build- 
 ing societies, prudential associations, and other agencies for 
 promoting thrift complicate the question. Taking all the 
 people of the United States, their deposits in savings banks 
 are £4. per capita, while in the United Kingdom they are 
 ^2)- The latter sum has in this country more purchasing 
 power, so that the savings of the working classes in the two 
 countries may be considered equal.
 
 The Effect of Protection on Wages. 175 
 
 It is the custom of American politicians to magnify the 
 efficiency of their working classes as a contrast to the worn- 
 out and effete people in Europe, especially in " decrepit old 
 England." Thus it is said that, while an English operative 
 can only manage three looms, an American undertakes five 
 or six. I think, for the same class of work, American 
 managers get more work out of their men than English do, 
 for the discipline of the workshops is more severe. Usually, 
 however, the comparisons are made upon incomparable 
 conditions. The cotton operative here is usually engaged 
 on a fine class of goods, when his American brother chiefly 
 produces coarse fabrics. In England cotton is dear and 
 labour is cheap, so we use more labour and less cotton than 
 they do in America. Besides, an operative in their mills 
 will turn out more product when he w'orks from four to ten 
 extra hours per week. I have told you that native Americans 
 are disappearing from the mills ; so the comparison is not 
 between American and English operatives, but between 
 untrained French Canadians and Irish, who take their 
 places, and the trained English worker in his own country, 
 and how the latter can be inferior to the former passes 
 human comprehension. The real American working man 
 is a most efficient operative ; but that he is better than a 
 good, honest English artisan I could not find out in my 
 investigations. I must conclude this part of my observations 
 by asking your assent to my conclusions, that Protection 
 makes a gigantic error when it claims to be the source of 
 
 high wages. 
 
 " Wheresoe'er I turn my view, 
 All is strange, yet nothing new ; 
 Endless labour all along, 
 Endless labour to be wrong." 
 
 Recollect that I have been discussing the effect of Protec- 
 tion not on infant but on matured industries. I do not here 
 care to^ deny, though I do not admit the argument, that
 
 176 Subjects of Social IVelfare. 
 
 protected infant industries, when first initiated, may enhance 
 wages and profits. Even if it were necessary to attach a third 
 horse to pull a load up a hill, it is too costly to continue it 
 when you reach the level. The evils of Protection become 
 more palpably manifest when infant industries have grown 
 into maturity and produce glutted markets by excessive com- 
 petition. Then the evil of Protection shows itself by low 
 wages, strikes or lock-outs, and periodical stagnation, result- 
 ing in the destruction of the weak and the survival of the 
 fittest. 
 
 I now direct your attention to the Trades Unions in 
 America. In the acute year of depression, 1884, the reduc- 
 tion of wages was chiefly in protected industries. In cotton 
 and woollen mills it was from 20 to 30 per cent., while there 
 was no lowering in the wages of unprotected house builders, 
 carpenters, stone cutters, and brick makers. In the pro- 
 tected iron industries wages fell from 15 to 22 per cent, but 
 the unprotected butchers, bakers, millers, tanners, and printers 
 did not suffer. Wages in the protected silk mills fell 15 to 
 25 per cent., though those of labourers on the land were 
 maintained at their old rate. - Trades Unions cannot regulate 
 markets, but they are useful in getting the benefit to the 
 labourer when they improve. Even in years of prosperity, 
 strikes — the last resort of workmen — are painfully frequent 
 in America. In 1887 there went out on strike 340,854 per- 
 sons, and of these 1 1 2,31 7, or about one-third, were in Penn- 
 sylvania, a State in which the highly protected iron industries 
 are situated. From 1881 to 1886 no less than 1,323,203 
 workers were out on strike, and their loss in wages, accord- 
 ing to the report of the Labour Bureau, was twelve and 
 one third million sterling. Putting the complete and 
 partial successes to the credit against the failures, a 
 gain of average wage of one shilling and a halfpenny 
 per day was achieved ; but to obtain this the whole of 
 the strikers would have to work ninety nine days before they
 
 The Effect of Protection on Wages. 177 
 
 covered the loss during the strikes. This uneasiness of 
 labour, which has been marked for some years, led to the 
 formation of a gigantic organisation called " The Knights of 
 Labour." The bread-winners of the United States number 
 seventeen and a half millions, and of these this organisa- 
 tion claims that it enrolled from one and a half to 
 two million members. Its aims were much larger than 
 those of Trades Unions. The latter have been an im- 
 portant educational force in the industrial life of Eng- 
 land, and have raised the level of conduct and political ability 
 of our working men. Even in our past history there have 
 been no doubt instances in which Trades Unions have been 
 wild and irrational in their means and ends ; but as they got 
 experience and education, the relations of the employers and 
 the employed became more harmonious, while the acts of 
 our unions in asserting fair and just consideration for the 
 claims of labour became more temperate, steady, and wise. 
 The American Trades Unions have not yet won this experi- 
 ence. They scarcely existed before the war of secession, 
 and they are still noisy and irrational in their ways, which 
 are neither so effective nor cleanly as with us. The Knights 
 of Labour arose to make them all-powerful. Many Trades 
 Unions merged themselves in this organisation, and gave up 
 their self-government. It was a huge confederation of labour, 
 and aimed to subordinate all local and special interest in a 
 centralised government. It grew with amazing rapidity, and 
 showed so much political power that, as General Walker, the 
 distinguished American political economist, remarks, " it 
 goes without saying that the politicians grovelled, as only 
 American politicians can grovel, before all who were sup- 
 posed to exercise influence among the Knights of Labour." 
 This organisation asserted its right and power to transfer the 
 whole initiation of production from the employing to the 
 labouring class. No employer could, under such conditions, 
 enter into contracts or extend his business. The huge force 
 
 M
 
 1 78 SusyECTS of Social Welfare. 
 
 of the new confederation was to be thrown in favour of local 
 strikes, while boycotting and other means of pressure were 
 to be unsparingly used. This tyranny at one time seemed 
 as if it would prove intolerable, and thoughtful men looked 
 with alarm to a wholesale destruction of wealth, and to the 
 general prostration of industry. The Knights of Labour 
 have dismally failed. Their one and a half million of mem- 
 bers have shrunk to 200,000 in the few years of their exist- 
 ence, and now, even among American politicians, there are 
 none so poor as to do them reverence. The Trades Unions 
 have withdrawn from the confederation and resumed their 
 former autonomy. In condemning some of the ways of 
 Trades Unions in America, such as the outburst of lawless- 
 ness in the middle States in July, 1877, we must not forget, 
 in extenuation, that, in good times, protection brings exces- 
 sive profits to a few capitalists, while to an undue extent it 
 throws the burden of bad times upon the wage-earners. 
 
 All political economists now agree that high-priced labour 
 produces low-priced commodities, while cheap labour means 
 dear goods. This is now understood by most trades, but 
 not by all. In the black country round Wolverhampton the 
 manufacture of nails and chains is still a domestic industry, 
 carried on in the house of the workman, with the most primi- 
 tive machinery, like a hammer called " the oliver," which is 
 an instrument of home construction fearfully and wonder- 
 fully made out of old bedposts or other ready contrivances. 
 The wages of the workers are deplorably low, yet the peace- 
 ful, orderly population work on with the hope of improved 
 times, although factories, with machinery conducted by 
 labourers highly paid, are destroying the domestic trade. 
 The machine-made nails from America now push hand- 
 made nails out of the market. In factories run by machin- 
 ery the labour cost in the finished product is small, varying 
 from 15 to 21 per cent, of its cost. You will readily under- 
 stand this because there are fewer workmen to the product,
 
 The Effect of Protection on Wages. 179 
 
 although their wages are high. Though the cost of the sum 
 of labour in a machine product is low, its cheapness is com- 
 passed through high wages. The skilled English workman 
 has no fear of low-priced inexpert labour, but he does fear 
 high-priced expert work. The high wages in this country 
 are not lowered by the low wages of the European Conti- 
 nent. Yet it is this "pauper labour of Europe" that is used 
 in America to stalk as a spectre round the ramparts of 
 Protection — a grim sentinel to scare the working men. The 
 employer as well as the employed now know that Adam 
 Smith was right when he said that high wages produce more 
 active, diligent, and expeditious work than when they are 
 low. Wages are really a share in the product of industry, 
 and must ultimately be determined by the value of the pro- 
 duct in the markets of the world. When a \vDrking-man in 
 Free Trade England has earned his wages he can spend 
 them on untaxed commodities, with the exception of a few 
 necessaries such as tea, or some luxuries like spirits and 
 tobacco, which contribute to the imperial revenue. The 
 working-man in America finds himself face to face with 
 taxation in every act of his life. Henry Philpot, a farmer's 
 boy, describes his own experience as follows : — " When I 
 rise from my humble cot in a log farm-house, throwing off 
 my bed-clothes, taxed 40 to 100 per cent, and putting on 
 my clothing, taxed 35 to 100 per cent., I eat my breakfast 
 from dishes, taxed 45 per cent, on a tablecloth, taxed 40 
 per cent ; and when the Sabbath bell, taxed 35 per cent., 
 sounded its inviting notes, I took my Bible, taxed 25 per cent, 
 and went to the church built of lumber, taxed 20 per cent, 
 and there I sung from my hymn-book, taxed 25 per cent" 
 It is surely needless to explain more fully than I have done 
 that high nominal wages are not real wages in a protected 
 country. 
 
 The last experience which I derived from my study 
 of the effects of Protection may surprise you. It is thai 
 
 M 2
 
 I So Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 Protection leads slowly, but surely, to Socialism, and tends 
 even to Communism. There are certain Socialistic aims that 
 all but the laissez faire politicians approve. The State ought 
 to be empowered by health, factory, mining, and education 
 laws to secure for the people an unmutilated and undeformed 
 manhood, or, in other words, to preserve by public means 
 the conditions for a humane existence in a civilised country. 
 That common and limited Socialistic action of the State is 
 very different from that which unwisely intervenes to save 
 individuals from the labour and struggles of their daily lives, 
 by taxing all of us to compensate for the deficiencies or idle- 
 ness of some of us. If a State, through protective laws, can 
 say that some of us are to be taxed, not for the security of 
 all of us, but for the exclusive benefit of those who are 
 monopolists or manufacturers, in order that they may obtain 
 steady and large profits, on what principle can the latter 
 object, when the working men, who have the controlling 
 power in politics, turn round upon them and say, " You 
 have taxed us to guarantee your profits, now we propose to 
 get the State to tax you manufacturers to guarantee us our 
 wages "? That is rank Socialism ; but so is Protection. The 
 man who asserts his right to take away some of the earnings 
 of a working man through taxation to support the industry 
 of another, whether he be a manufacturer or an operative, is 
 very near being a Communist, differing very little from the 
 man who denies the right of property altogether. It is not 
 the way in which you are despoiled, but it is the fact that 
 you are despoiled which constitutes the wrong. If it be 
 right that the State should tax you because your neighbour's 
 ironworks or cloth mills do not pay, it cannot be wrong for 
 workmen to insist that it should provide public workshops, 
 or to insure their lives, or promote any of the various 
 devices which Socialists demand as a means of lessening the 
 struggle for existence among individuals. Within the last 
 few weeks you have seen an instance of this in France.
 
 The Effect of Protection on Wages. i8i 
 
 Protection in that country has raised the price of the loaf, 
 and the people have demanded that a maximum price should 
 be put upon bread, a power which French law gives to the 
 Government. This was conceded, and private bakers shut 
 up their shops, whereupon a new cry has risen for national 
 bakeries. If you think my view is fanciful — that Protection 
 leads to Socialism and tends to Communism— look at the 
 movements in many countries under that fiscal system. 
 Russia is honeycombed by Socialists ; so is France ; while 
 Germany has passed severe laws for their repression. In 
 the recent International Trades Union Congress held in 
 London, it was not the British workman who talked Social- 
 ism or Communism, but the deputies who came over from 
 the protected countries. In America, Socialistic outbreaks, 
 supported by dynamite, have occurred, and the leaders have 
 been hanged in Chicago. The Knights of Labour, had they 
 been successful, were tending to Socialism in labour. Can 
 you be surprised at it ? Protectionists live on the product 
 of the labour of others. In the United States one protected 
 labourer is supported by a tax on seventeen unprotected. The 
 principle of living on the labour of others is a principle which 
 leads to great expansion. 
 
 I need not draw a moral from my sermon. England for 
 forty years has rejoiced in Free Trade. Before that period, 
 when she was under Protection, her working classes had 
 few comforts of life, and were unable to lay by savings for 
 their old age. Under Protection our industries had become 
 stationary, though the population increased. In 1815 our 
 annual exports amounted to fifty millions, and in 1840 they 
 were exactly the same. Free Trade was gradually intro- 
 duced, and became complete in 1856. In the next thirty 
 years exports had mounted to 212 millions, and wages 
 rose with the increasing trade. Between 1850 and 1883 
 the average increase in British wages has been about 
 39 per cent., while in the same period in America it has
 
 i82 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 been 30 per cent. In the prolonged period of depres- 
 sion from 1873 to 1883 wages rose 10 per cent, in this 
 country; but they fell 5| per cent, in the New England 
 States under Protection. Nominal wages in most cases, and 
 real wages in some, are higher in America than in England. 
 This difference depends upon the conditions which prevail 
 in a new and undeveloped country, but not upon Protection. 
 American politicians are fond of speaking of " decrepit old 
 England, with its pauper labour." What are the signs of 
 its decrepitude ? Not commerce, for that largely increases ; 
 not diminution of population, or increase of pauperism. 
 The best test of the prosperity of a country is the rate of 
 increase of its population, for that indicates what its indus- 
 tries can support. Between 1851 and 1861, when Free 
 Trade was on its first trial, the increase of population in the 
 United Kingdom was 5"6o per cent.; in the next decade 
 it was 8*8, and in that ending 188 1 it amounted to io'8, or 
 nearly double the increase of the first period. Yet Senator 
 Fry, of Maine, a State with one-nineteenth of the density 
 of population, and one-fourth the ratio of growth of Eng- 
 land and Wales (3I as against 14*4), has the boldness 
 to assert in the Senate that our country is rapidly declin- 
 ing under Free Trade. There are some States in America, 
 like Ohio, Indiana, and Delaware, which have increased 
 by ratios of from 17 to 19; but the old-established States, 
 like New York and Connecticut, have not yet reached an 
 increase of 16 per cent, in the last decade. The great Pro- 
 tectionist State — Vermont — only increased by half of i per 
 cent. Test the whole question, in any way you choose, by 
 leal wages, by savings, by commercial prosperity, by popula- 
 tion, by reduction in pauperism and crime, and you will not 
 find the slightest support from American experience that 
 Free Trade is a delusion, that Protection adds to the 
 remuneration of labour, or that it acts in any other way 
 than as a drag upon the development of nations.
 
 ON BI-METALLISM. 
 
 Address as Chairman of the Political Economy Club dinner at the 
 National Liberal Club, 31st January, 1SS9. 
 
 Bi-METALLiSM is not a new demand for the currency of the 
 world. In fact, mono-metallism does not exist. The 
 general practice of the world is tri-metallism — gold, silver, 
 and copper— varying in proportion according to the needs 
 of various countries. Of course, I refer to currency,' not to 
 legal tender. Silver is the currency most widely adopted, 
 for it is used by one thousand million people, or by three- 
 fifths of the entire population of the globe. In the lowest 
 stages of civilisation copper is used, because it is the most 
 convenient way of paying the very low wages and small 
 prices of commodities. As civilisation advances in countries 
 like India, China, and Mexico, silver is found to be the 
 most convenient standard, and is adopted. When a country 
 advances in wealth and commerce, silver is too bulky for 
 large transactions, and gold is added, frequently in bi- 
 metallic tie with silver, as we had it in England up to 1S16, 
 when the gold standard was adopted and silver became a 
 mere fractional coin. It is obvious, then, that nations adopt 
 currencies which best suit the money work which they have 
 to perform. For a great commercial nation like England 
 our implement of exchange must be the metal which will 
 most quickly and efficiently perform the money work. 
 
 Though barter of commodities is the chief method of 
 effecting exchanges, there is a good deal for bullion to do 
 in settling their balances. As transport improves, the same 
 quantity of bullion passes to and fro more readily, and does 
 more work. Gold thus becomes the implement of quick 
 work. Supposing that we have a balance of exchange to
 
 184 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 pay of ;^ioo, we count out one hundred sovereigns and 
 transmit them to the creditor, who spends Uttle time in 
 authenticating the payment. If we had the option of paying 
 him in silver, we might transmit 2,000 shilUngs, which would 
 not be received with the same gratitude. The Bank of 
 England had a run upon it in 1745, when the Pretender 
 reached Derby, and to lose time it paid the cheques 
 presented in shillings and sixpences ; but in this case 
 procrastination was its object. Gold is certainly the im- 
 plement for quick work, even if a fixed ratio of 16 to i be 
 given to silver coin. Silver being sixteen times heavier than 
 gold for equal values, it requires sixteen times more time to 
 count it ; sixteen times more strength to handle it ; thirty- 
 one times more space to hold it ; sixteen times more trans- 
 port to carry it. If you legally fuse sixteen parts of silver 
 with one of gold, which is the proposal of the bi-metallists, 
 you are practically misapplying sixteen-seventeenths units 
 of effort in the process of exchange by means of bullion. 
 
 Experience has shown that the French circulation 
 suffered by excessive exportation of gold when the market 
 ratio of value differed from the legal ratio by il per cent, 
 that is, when the value of gold became 15I, instead of the 
 legal ratio of 15I. Under such conditions debts are paid 
 in the cheap metal, and gold disappears. From 1820 to 
 1847 the premium on gold varied from i to 2 per cent. 
 In France, during the Latin Union, the amount of gold and 
 silver coin issued depended upon the price of each metal, 
 as, sometimes, nearly all the coin minted was made of 
 gold, and at other times of silver. From 1821 to 1850, the 
 gold coined was only 12^ per cent, of the whole; while 
 from 185 1 to 1870 it was no less than 90 per cent. 
 Every bank in the country would have to reconstruct its 
 strong rooms and tills to meet a changed currency of this 
 kind, more inconvenient to us now with England's enormous 
 commerce than it was in 1816, when we had to establish a 
 gold standard.
 
 Bi-Metallism. 1 85 
 
 The bi-metallists argue with considerable force from past 
 experience that a legal ratio of silver and gold would produce 
 a par of exchange, and that such a result would add much 
 strength to the bi-metallic currency of nations. Even in- 
 creased strength to the money implement might not 
 compensate for the loss of speed with which the work is 
 now performed. Currency should be nimble as well as 
 strong. A cart-horse might be firmly yoked to a racer, and 
 the two together might be stronger, but the racer would no 
 longer have its quality of speed. I cannot admit the 
 assumption of the bi-metallists that a par of exchange would 
 be the consequence of a legal ratio between gold and silver. 
 These metals are governed by the cost of production and 
 the state of supply and demand, like all other commodities. 
 Supposing that Governments established a legal ratio be- 
 tween the values of silk and cotton ; nobody would care for 
 it, but the demand would be regulated by the market value. 
 A Chinese Emperor called Wang Mang proclaimed a legal 
 ratio of value between five shells, which circulated as coins 
 in his empire, but he completely failed. The inherent value 
 of money is not in statute law. Good money requires no 
 force of law to make it acceptable. Governments do not 
 make money ; they only certify its value as bullion. Law 
 has been used to force bad or unsuitable money as legal 
 tender, and there have been periods in history when heavy 
 commercial disasters followed a conflict in regard to the 
 nominal value of money, between statutory law on the one 
 hand, and the law of supply and demand on the other. 
 
 What is money ? The apostle of the bi-metallists, 
 Cernuschi, gives a good definition, "That only is good 
 money which will stand the test of fire, and which is worth 
 as much as bullion when melted as it has been worth in 
 the coin itself" This is practically true as regards gold 
 now. Take gold bars to the Bank of England, and they are 
 exchanged for the same weight of gold coin, with a trifling 
 charge of a penny per ounce, which represents the interest
 
 i86 SuByECTS OF Social IVelfare. 
 
 for the time lost in coining. Silver at a fixed ratio would 
 not stand this definition, and therefore is not "good money." 
 Nor could any statute fixing a bimetallic tie make it so. If 
 it could, why not enact the logical end of the Bi-metallists, 
 and declare that silver be made the equal of gold, ounce 
 for ounce, instead of the ratio i6 to i. A market value 
 and a legal value would still exist. About one - half 
 the production of the precious metals is used in the in- 
 dustrial arts, the other half in coinage. An electro-plater 
 can now get twenty-two ounces of silver for one ounce of 
 gold, though he would have to pay more for it if all nations 
 made a free unlimited coinage of silver on a fixed ratio. 
 But there would always be a competition between industrial 
 wants and coinage supply that would make a market value 
 and a legal value. Under such circumstances an agio must 
 be put either on gold coin or silver coin to represent the market 
 rate. Even during the coinage of silver by the Latin Union, 
 there never was a time when full-weighted coins of gold and 
 silver circulated together at the legal ratio. When they were 
 employed for bullion, one or other was always at premium ; 
 so there was no true metallic equilibrium. Of course I am 
 aware that monopoly coins, often with a heavy seignorage, 
 have had forced circulation in a country like inconvertible 
 paper : but I speak of countries with a true bullion standard 
 like our own, and in these gold and silver coins stood at the 
 market premium, whatever may have been the legal ratio. 
 At the same time, I do not doubt that combination may 
 raise the market price of metals. There is an instance in the 
 copper ring at the present time. The object of that ring of 
 producers and vendors of copper is to make fortunes for the 
 men inside the ring, to the infinite derangement of many 
 industries ; but even they do not think that the combination 
 can last beyond a brief period. An international silver 
 ring, backed by the Legislatures of the combining nations, 
 may raise the price of silver and even maintain it for a 
 period at a given ratio to gold, just as separate nations have
 
 Bi-METALLisyf. 187 
 
 forced their monopoly coinage or inconvertible paper. 
 Countries like England, which have a true bullion standard, 
 are not likely to enter such a ring, and their merchants with 
 their world-wide transactions would place the premium upon 
 the gold or silver at their market value, and not at the legal 
 ratio, even if they took coins with the bi-metallic tie. 
 
 Let me now examine the reasons which have made many 
 earnest and thoughtful men seek for a remedy in our coin- 
 age by constituting a bi-metallic tie in gold and silver. 
 They believe that the fall in the price of silver is due to the 
 scarcity of gold, which has appreciated in value. They 
 point to the fact that most commodities have fallen in price 
 since 1873 owing to this one common cause, the scarcity of 
 gold. If the common fall in prices is due to any one 
 cause, it is difficult to find any other than that suggested. 
 I have no intention of dogmatising, and denying that there 
 may be some effect produced by the appreciation of gold, 
 but I wish to show that there are far more potent causes 
 than that for the fall in the prices of staple commodities. 
 Let us understand what is meant by the term "appreciation 
 of gold." If it simply mean that a gold sovereign in 1889 
 will buy more bread, beef, mutton, sugar, calico, &c., than it 
 could have bought in 1872, I accept the term, for in this 
 limited sense appreciation of gold and fall of prices are 
 synonymous, and no one can contest the fact. A gold 
 coin in purchasing commodities in 1888, gets more of 
 them than it did in 1873, and therefore represents a 
 greater quantity of human effort. But the term ap- 
 preciation of gold is often used in a different sense, as 
 when the bi-metallist contends that the scarcity of gold 
 (if there be a scarcity) is the main cause of the fall in prices 
 of commodities. The difference between the first and 
 second definition will be apparent, because gold might be 
 stationary in quantity and value, while the prices of com- 
 modities might fall from causes having no relation to it, and 
 then its appreciation or power of increased purchase would
 
 1 88 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 be a contemporaneous fact, but not a cause of the deprecia- 
 tion of commodities. Though gold has been able to buy- 
 many things cheaper since 1873, it has not been able, except 
 in agriculture, to buy cheaper labour, for, as a fact, wages 
 have risen in machine-using countries, steadily though 
 slowly, even during the periods of depression. What 
 things can gold buy cheaper? Most machine-made com- 
 modities have lower prices. In hand-labour countries 
 neither gold nor silver can buy any wide range of com- 
 modities at lower prices than formerly. In recent years 
 there has been a small fall in prices even in the products of 
 hand labour, owing to the lessened demand in the periods 
 of depression ; but this is an accidental and not a general 
 lowering of prices as in the case of machine-made goods. 
 
 Let me take three staple commodities — cotton, iron, and 
 wheat — as illustrations of potent causes which have lowered 
 their price irrespective of the appreciation of gold. There 
 are three causes common to all of them : increased pro- 
 duction by new inventions, great saving in the proportion 
 which wages bear to the product (now generally 15 to 20 
 per cent, of the cost of machine-made products), and 
 wonderful economy in their distribution. Let us begin 
 with cotton. The application of machinery to the cultiva- 
 tion, harvesting, and cleaning of cotton has been so great, 
 that while in 1873 a given amount of human labour in 
 America produced three and eight-tenths million bales 
 — a much less amount of labour in 1886-7 turned out 
 six and a half million bales. A cotton-gin worked 
 by one man can clean cotton as well as 1,000 labourers 
 working by hand. Besides this great economy of 
 production, cotton, as a bulky article, benefited greatly 
 by increased and cheaper transportation by railways and 
 steamboats. While these changes produced a large re- 
 duction in the price of the raw material, the economies 
 introduced into its manufactured products were still greater. 
 In 1873 spindles made 4,000 revolutions in a minute 3 now
 
 Bi-Metallism. ~ 189 
 
 they have been increased to 10,000. The progress of 
 weaving has been very great. When I lived in Lancashire 
 forty years ago, a weaver working thirteen or fourteen hours 
 in the day could produce about 10,000 yards of standard 
 sheeting in the year. A clever weaver now, working ten 
 hours daily, can turn out 30,000 yards. So much has 
 productive power increased that a single operative working 
 for a year in a first-class mill can now clothe 1,600 fully clad 
 Chinese, or 3,000 half-clad East Indians. This increase 
 and economy of production lead to over-production, and a 
 glut of the market necessarily lowers prices. In the last 
 fifteen years the population of the world has increased by 
 about 16 per cent, while the increase in the production of 
 cotton goods has amounted to 86 per cent. 
 
 Let us turn to iron, the price of which has greatly fallen 
 since 1873. Formerly England was the world-producer of 
 iron. After 1870 other nations became competitors. Be- 
 tween 1870 and 1883 England increased her production by 
 143 per cent., while the competing countries augmented 
 their output by 239 per cent. In 1870 the labour of an 
 English workman produced 173 tons of iron ; it now makes 
 261 tons. Bessemer's steel was in its infancy in 1873, and 
 its price was ^^14; it has now fallen to £^. Has the ap- 
 preciation of gold knocked down the humbler metal iron .? 
 The reduction in price is chiefly due to improved produc- 
 tion. In 1873 it required double the number of men to 
 produce a ton of steel than it does now, and 10,000 lbs. of 
 coal were used to make a ton, while now 5,000 lbs. suffice. 
 Surely these changes and economies of production are potent 
 causes in lowering the price of iron without attributing it to 
 the alleged scarcity of gold. 
 
 Lastly, I turn to wheat, the stronghold of the bi-mctal- 
 lists. The original fall in price was in America. Tliere 
 invention has been most active in labour-saving machines, 
 because the price of hand labour in the Far West ran'^ed 
 from ^80 to ;,^94 per man. Almost every step, from the
 
 igo SuByscTS of Social Welfare. 
 
 sowing of the grain to the delivery of the flour to the con- 
 sumer, is now made by machinery. It would require 
 160,000 reapers to harvest and bind the present crop of 
 American wheat by the old sickle and hand-binding ; now 
 comparatively few are required. The economy of labour, 
 both in production and transportation, has become so great, 
 that Atkinson assures us the labour of four men for a year 
 will grow, grind, mill, and transport 1,400 miles to the sea- 
 board as much flour as will feed one thousand men for 
 a whole year. These economies in production and trans- 
 port of American wheat coming into competition with our 
 home produce have struck down the wages of agricultural 
 labourers in England. There has been no important intro- 
 duction of machinery in the production of East Indian 
 wheat, and yet the price of that has fallen. Is the cause of 
 its low price chiefly due to appreciation of gold ? There 
 was little movement in Indian wheat till 1873, when the 
 Suez Canal was opened to traflic. Up to that time there 
 had been an export duty of 7 per cent, on Indian wheat, and 
 this was removed. In 1881 Indian wheat was still 42s. per 
 quarter, but in 1886 it fell to 31s. 6d. During this interval 
 the cost of sea transport fell 6s. 6d. per quarter, that of rail- 
 way transport 2s., while each gunny bag cost 6d. less. Thus 
 9s. out of the fall of los. 6d. is accounted for without the 
 appreciation of gold, and perhaps the active competition of 
 America and Russia in recent years had a good deal to do 
 with the remaining is. 6d. Exchanges in India are made 
 by commodities as in all other countries. One pound 
 sterling may get 45 per cent, more wheat from that country 
 now than it could in 1873, but the merchant must send 
 45 per cent, more commodities to get it, so that the ex- 
 changing value is the same in both years. 
 
 The illustrations which I have given show that since 
 1873 there have been causes far more potent than variation 
 in the price of gold to account for the fall in prices of staple 
 commodities. Had that fall been mainly due to scarcity of
 
 Bi-Metallism. 191 
 
 gold and the consequent appreciation of its purchasing 
 power, one single cause such as that must have had effects 
 all-pervading, practically synchronous, and as constant as 
 the law of gravitation. The scarcity of gold, like the scarcity 
 of capital which it represents, must gradually, but surely, 
 have produced less movement, less production, and less 
 consumption of commodities. This has not occurred, be- 
 cause, though prices have been low from 1873 to 1888, 
 there has been throughout the whole period greater move- 
 ment, greater production, and greater consumption of com- 
 modities. The volume of commerce has not lessened. All 
 these facts are incomprehensible if we try to explain the fall 
 of prices solely by the appreciation of gold. If, however, 
 that fall has been the consequence of increased activity of 
 inventiveness, resulting in enlarged capacity and increased 
 economy of production, and in the cheap facilities of trans- 
 port by sea and land, no fixed ratio between gold and silver 
 can raise prices of commodities to their old standard. Low 
 prices are not necessarily an evil. They have been com- 
 passed through high wages paid to men for superintending 
 machinery instead of through low wages formerly paid for 
 hand labour. The people as a whole have benefited by low 
 prices, though profits have contracted. Still, the welfare of 
 the many is more important than the wealth of the i&w. 
 
 For thirty years before 1873 machinery was steadily im- 
 proving, and railways and telegraphs were gradually changing 
 the old methods of distribution, but, on the whole, prices 
 rose. Why did they fall so rapidly in the fifteen years after 
 1873 ? This is a fair argument on the side of the bi-metallists, 
 because in this period there were great changes in the rela- 
 tive values of gold and silver. It so happened, however, that a 
 marvellous change in commerce took place during these years. 
 The Suez Canal was opened in 1873, and it gave a great 
 impulse to steam navigation. Soon after this, the duplex 
 steam-engine introduced great economy of fuel, and steam- 
 ships drove two million tonnnge of sailing vessels out of
 
 192 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 their old routes, for instead of having their chief space 
 occupied with coal, they could now devote it to cargo. 
 The cost of ocean transit became amazingly reduced, so 
 that local and even national markets became of less im- 
 portance, and soon there was but one world-market for the 
 chief commodities. The importance of the telegraph as 
 a great commercial agent became more fully recognised, 
 and thoroughly changed the old methods of commerce. 
 This stimulated the improvements in production, which I 
 have described in the case of the staple commodities which 
 I selected to show what had been effected in the last fifteen 
 years. 
 
 Let us now come to the changes in the values of gold 
 and silver during the same period. I admit that I cannot 
 give an equally satisfactory reason for the fall of the price 
 of silver, and on this account I do not dogmatise and deny 
 that there has been appreciation of gold, though I have shown 
 that it has had little effect on the price of staple commo- 
 dities which have had far more potent causes for their fall 
 in price. It would have been natural to expect that these 
 would have cheapened silver also. As a fact, however, 
 there have been no striking inventions since 1873 to 
 lessen the cost of the production of silver, either in labour- 
 saving appliances for its extraction, or in the processes 
 of desilvering lead. Such improvements as have been 
 made are no doubt represented in the lower prices but are 
 insufficient to explain it. In recent years there has been 
 increased production of silver and a lessened output of gold, 
 but both facts stand in such slight relation to the mass of the 
 metals in use, that neither the depreciation of silver nor the 
 appreciation of gold can be explained in this way. There 
 has only been \ per cent, less average production of gold 
 during the last fifteen years. Gold, in relation to silver, 
 increases most in production over a long term of years. If 
 we take three hundred and fifty years preceding 1850, and 
 the thirty five years after that date, the latter short period
 
 Bi-Metallism, 193 
 
 shows an increase of 134 per cent, increased production of 
 gold and only 38^^ per cent, increased production of silver. 
 It is true that for a few years there has been an annual 
 decline in the production of gold. But with the recent 
 activity in gold mining, this small loss is likely to be made 
 up. The new gold, fields in South Africa, New Zealand, and 
 Australia are opening up new sources of supply. It is 
 difficult, then, to connect the fall in the price of silver with 
 the small appreciation of gold due to the lessened produc- 
 tion of gold in the last few years. There has undoubtedly 
 been some potent cause cormected with silver itself which 
 has caused its fall in price, for neither excessive production 
 of silver nor excessive scarcity of gold give adequate 
 explanations. I have no doubt that the Commission is 
 right in attaching much importance to the fact that Ger- 
 many and France and other countries of the Latin Union 
 reduced the value of silver by adopting a gold standard. 
 Germany forced a large quantity of silver on the market, 
 and the Latin Union, when it ceased the free coinage of 
 silver, did so also. And so it has come about, from these 
 and other causes, that the ratio of silver to gold, instead of 
 being 15.^ to i, is now 22 to i. England has felt this 
 change keenly, because, on account of her Free Trade 
 ])olicy, she is the chief mart for the produce of silver- 
 using countries. It must be borne in mind that the 
 depreciation of silver has not yet been felt in these 
 countries, so it is not world-wide, because, if it were, the 
 prices of commodities and the rate of wages would have 
 risen in them, and there is no evidence to show that they 
 have. London, as the great commercial exchange, has the 
 chief dealings with silver-using countries. It is a huge 
 spout, into which most of the silver flows for the settlement 
 of the balance of trade. In recent years the natural flow 
 of silver into this huge London spout has been disturbed 
 by forced sales of silver, having no natural connection 
 
 N
 
 194 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 with ordinary commercial dealings, and varied the usual 
 course of exchange. The sale of silver coin by Germany ; 
 the stoppage of silver coinage by the Latin Union, were in 
 themselves serious causes of disturbance. Then the issuing 
 end of the London spout got continually blocked by bills 
 of the India Council. All of these causes have acted by 
 forcing the sale of silver at a more rapid rate than the silver- 
 using countries could absorb it, and the silver market has 
 been kept in a state of panic. I do not say that this is the 
 only cause of the fall, but I believe it to be the chief cause, 
 and if it be, the effects will only be temporary. 
 
 I know that high authorities like Mr. Gififen expect a 
 continued and permanent fall in the price of silver, and 
 ultimately this is likely enough. But there are counteract- 
 ing causes which may retard the fall for a considerable 
 tmie, and may even produce a substantial rise in the gold 
 price of silver. The silver-using countries are opening 
 themselves to the telegraph, to railways, and even to the 
 use of machinery in manufactures. India is showing a 
 remarkable development in cotton manufactures. Mexico 
 and other silver-using countries in South America are being 
 opened up by railways to increased trade. An industrial 
 revolution will take place when China breaks down her 
 Chinese wall of exclusiveness ; when Russia opens Central 
 Asia and completes the Trans-Siberian Railway ; when the 
 Euphrates is paralleled by a railway ; and when Africa fails 
 to resist advancing civilisation. None of these events are 
 impossible, and some are in prospect of realisation. New 
 vistas of commerce are opening in silver-using countries, 
 and increased demand will support the price of the metal. 
 No doubt in time, as these nations become rich, they will 
 demand a gold standard, just as Germany, and the Latin 
 Union, Holland, Scandinavia, and the United States have 
 done, and then the price of silver will fall — but that is 
 an influence of the distant future. Whether silver falls or 
 rises in price in the future is only interesting as showing
 
 Bi-Metallism. 195 
 
 that a legal ratio of gold to silver cannot prevent a market 
 ratio existing side by side with it. 
 
 After my remarks you will see that I cannot even 
 contemplate the possibility of a great commercial country 
 like England tampering with a gold standard, or joining any 
 international conference to consider whether an arbitrary 
 ratio should be established between the two money metals. 
 It was no duty of the State to interfere when prices were 
 rising, and it cannot be its duty now when prices are falling. 
 We are invited to enter into a conference, as the great 
 creditor nation of the world, with other nations who are our 
 debtors, and would gladly pay gold loans in cheap silver. 
 ^V'e now possess the best currency in the world, and work 
 with ease our gigantic commerce by a gold implement 
 admirably suited to perform money work. The bi-metallists 
 desire that both gold and silver m a fixed ratio should 
 be legal tenders. In other words, they wish a two-fold 
 implement by attaching to gold a bulky and inferior metal 
 which is suited to and used by half-civilised States, and is 
 abandoned by nations when their trade increases. The 
 exchanges of England are regulated by a fine balance-wheel 
 made of gold. If we are to increase its bulk and weight by 
 fusing it with sixteen or twenty parts of silver, is it not 
 likely that we may derange the whole working of the very 
 delicate and complex machine by which our commerce is 
 moved ? It does not follow because a gold balance-wheel 
 is best for England, that a silver one should not be more 
 adapted for countries with less civilisation and less 
 commerce. A process of natural selection determines the 
 use of metal money. It is by natural selection, and not by 
 statute law, that money does its work in settling inter- 
 national balances. Gold and silver as commodities are 
 subject to the cost of production and to the laws of supply 
 and demand. These laws are all-powerful, and no statute 
 law of one nation, or of ten combined nations, can prevail 
 against them. 
 
 N 2
 
 THE INOSCULATION OF THE ARTS 
 AND SCIENCES. 
 
 Address, as President of the Midland Institute, delivered at the Town 
 Hall, Birmingham, on the 29th September, 1870. 
 
 I DO not remember that I ever began an address by a con- 
 fession of inability ; for a man has no right to lecture to an 
 audience unless he be capable, and ought to sink his per- 
 sonality in the subject matter before him. When I began 
 to reflect how I ought to address an assemblage of Birming- 
 ham men and women with any fitness to the occasion 
 for which we are assembled, I frankly confess that I 
 regretted having accepted the high office of President 
 which you bestowed upon me. I knew how much I had 
 learned in past times by visiting your manufactories, and 
 how much remains for me to learn from the triumphs of 
 industry in a town where a Watt and a Boulton, a Priestley 
 and a Murdoch, an Elkington and a Chance, a Muntz, an 
 Osier, a Hardman, and a Winfield have laboured, so it 
 seemed to me a mockery that my small knowledge of 
 science should be brought into comparison with your great 
 industrial achievements. I became the more discouraged 
 when I recollected the character and the ability of the man 
 who occupied the chair at your last meeting. On this sub- 
 ject, at least, our sympathies are in common, for your 
 esteem and admiration for our late president are not greater 
 than mine. Charles Dickens was a man of tender heart, 
 who mourned for the sorrows, the injustices, and ills of 
 mankind. He was a man of strong heart, too, and loved
 
 The Inosculation of the Arts axd Sciences. 197 
 
 to crush the injustices and tear out the ills from society in a 
 righteous indignation. Hence he was an active social re- 
 former, and produced, by his writings, many more effective 
 reforms than professed politicians. There is scarcely one of 
 his books in which he did not aim to eradicate or amend 
 some evil under which society was suffering. The high ad- 
 ministrators and the lazy clerks of the Circumlocution Office, 
 the maladministrators of the Poor Law, the pompous pleaders 
 in Courts of Law, the dawdlers in the Court of Chancery, 
 the upholders of all systems of beadledom, the minister of 
 religion when he was blatant and hypocritical, the professor 
 of philanthropy when he traded on the woes of mankind, 
 the sinecurist like the deputy chaff-wax of the patent office, 
 the idler and the criminal who preyed upon the earnings of 
 society — all came under his lash, until they reformed their 
 ways and served society with honesty and efficiency. Charles 
 Dickens was not a mere novelist. A great man, of noble 
 sympathies and beliefs, has departed from us — one who was 
 of the people, and worked for the people — for their profit 
 and advantage, as well as for their entertainment and recre- 
 ation—and who tried to unite all classes of society, because 
 his own breadth covered them all. One of his last public 
 appearances was at our Institute, and our period for mourn- 
 ing has not yet passed away. 
 
 All these mixed feelings confirmed me in my distrust 
 that I had not done wisely in acting as your President. 
 Gradually I separated myself and my shortcomings from the 
 subject matter of your invitation, and became emboldened 
 to address you on the intimate union between science and 
 labour. Their interdependence is far from being simple. 
 It is not science which creates labour, or the industries 
 flowing from it. On the contrary, science is the progeny of 
 the industrial arts on the one side, and on the other, of the 
 experiences and perceptions which gradually attach them- 
 selves to these arts. So that the evolution of science from
 
 198 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 the arts is the first circumstance of human progress, which, 
 however, quickly receives development and impulse from 
 the science thus evolved. Industrial labour, then, is one of 
 the parents, and science is the child ; but, as often happens 
 in the world, the son becomes richer than the father, and 
 raises his position. It may not be the waste of an hour if 
 we consider these relations more closely. Had I not been 
 frightened with the length of the word, I would have 
 entitled my discourse the inosculation of the arts and 
 sciences. In one sense that means their embrace ; but in 
 another it signifies junction with open mouths, as when two 
 arteries join and mutually pour their contents into each 
 other. Well, this word has found a practical expression in 
 the minds of the Birmingham people when they founded 
 this Institute ; and though it is long and pedantic, I will 
 take it after all. The industrial arts spring clearly out of 
 the necessities of man. Man is peculiarly helpless as 
 regards his own personal and physical belongings. With an 
 intellect which, when developed, approaches that of an 
 angel, he has a naked, unprotected body, like that of an 
 earthworm. Covered neither with chitine like the lobster, 
 nor thick hide, nor with fur or feathers, he looks as helpless 
 at his birth as the unfledged gosling ; but, unlike it, never 
 gets a better protection from wind or weather as he grows 
 older. Nor has he any natural tools with which he can 
 labour. The earthworm can mine and tunnel so as to seek 
 protection under ground ; but even this is denied to man. 
 Every lower animal has within itself admirable tools for 
 work. The tailor-bird can sew ; the fishing-frog can throw 
 out line and bait ; the beaver can build bridges ; the silk- 
 worm can spin ; the spider can weave ; the bees can manu- 
 facture sugar ; the ants can construct storehouses for their 
 corn — all of them self provided with admirable tools for the 
 Ijurpose, existing within themselves, and capable of being 
 renewed by themselves when wasted by work. Man has
 
 The Inosculation of the Arts and Scjences. 199 
 
 neither in hands nor feet tools sufficient for his protection or 
 sustenance. 
 
 We know of no race of savages so absolutely wild 
 as to possess no arts. One of the rudest races of savages, 
 the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands, robe themselves 
 by plastering yellow clay over their bodies ; but even 
 they have arts, for their canoes are large and fitted for 
 heavy seas ; their fishing implements and arrows, and their 
 shell chips for shaving, are effective. Such degraded tribes 
 as the Diggers of the American continent, or the Bosjesmans 
 of Africa, have primitive tools and primitive arts, which 
 grow slowly only because their surroundings have stunted 
 the development of intellectual observation and application. 
 These are the faculties which enable man to take a position 
 so much higher than that of all the animals around him, 
 notwithstanding their natural physical advantages. Man 
 has sometimes been described as a fire-making animal, 
 because none other than he has learned how to use it. Fire 
 occurs naturally under various circumstances on the earth, 
 so that it was quite unnecessary for the ancients to invent 
 the fable of Prometheus, who had to climb for it to heaven, 
 and bring it back in a nanhex staff, or stem of the giant 
 fennel, which has a tinder that would keep it alight. Fire 
 exists in volcanoes ; it is said to occur in tropical forests by 
 tiie friction of dry branches during a storm ; it comes during 
 the fermentation of litter cut for cattle, and in various other 
 ways. It requires the intellect of a man to keep fire alive, 
 and use it for industrial purposes. Not even a monkey, 
 though possessed of strong imitative faculties, is able to 
 continue a fire for the mere purpose of warmth. There 
 must at one time have been a race of fireless savages, though 
 there is no distinct evidence of them in the voyages of 
 travellers. Even Maghalhaen's alleged discovery of fireless 
 savages in the Ladrones, in 152 1, was an invention of a 
 Jesuit father a hundred and eighty years afterwards. In
 
 200 SUByECTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE. 
 
 fact, fire is the essential condition for industrial development, 
 and without it man would be a miserably helpless creature. 
 It is his first substitute for want of fur and feathers as a 
 protection against the inclemency of the weather. It is the 
 origin of all his arts. He throws stones into the fire, and 
 then casts them, when heated, into water, and thus boils his 
 food. Soon he finds out that the water will boil in vessels 
 placed upon the fire ; but the vessels, being made of wood, 
 burn, so he plasters them over with clay ; the clay is baked 
 by the heat, and he thus discovers pottery. Thus, step by 
 step arise the arts — so slowly, indeed, that an acute writer 
 like Archbishop Whateley believed that no savage tribe 
 improved the arts, unless by introduction from another 
 tribe of higher civilisation and culture. This is certainly a 
 mistake. The growth of arts is indeed very slow ; but few 
 savage tribes lose a step in progress when it has been made. 
 The stone age was succeeded by the metal age. In the 
 progress of metallurgy it was comparatively easy to use 
 silver, gold, and copper, which occur native, ready to hand 
 for use; and a far greater achievement to smelt a metal 
 from its ores. The extraction from an earth involves an 
 immense amount of experience already gained. It does 
 not suffice that the material should be common around you. 
 Clay, for instance, is found in every part of the world, and 
 contains a large quantity of a useful metal. Yet it is less 
 than twenty years since that we succeeded in extracting 
 aluminum from clay, so as to use it for industrial purposes. 
 So also the ancients knew how to make brass by throwing 
 the ore calamine into melted copper, but the extraction of 
 zinc from the ore is a modern invention. The true metal- 
 lurgic art of extracting metals from their ores came later 
 among the arts invented by man. When the natives of 
 Tahiti got a present of iron nails from Captain Cook, they 
 very prudently sowed them in the ground in order to raise a 
 crop for the next season. The Tongans were so impressed
 
 The IxoscuLATioN of the Arts and Sciences. 201 
 
 with the qualities of axes and chisels that it was natural for 
 them to think that, after they were worn out by use on the 
 earth, their souls flew away to do service to the gods. No 
 doubt it was a more intimate acquaintance with the know- 
 ledge of fire that developed metallurgy and other arts. We 
 see that this is so by the classical fables of Vulcan. The 
 burning of a forest on Mount Ida is said to have led to the 
 discovery of iron. The cooking of food in a pot set on the 
 ashes of the kali plant, at the mouth of the river Belos, is 
 given as the origin of glass, though Mr. Chance would tell 
 you that this pretty story must be nonsense, because the heat 
 of a common fire does not incorporate sand with alkali. 
 
 I cite these stories only to express disbelief in them 
 on another ground. No mere isolated chance observations 
 of this kind ever produce an art or a science. Livingstone 
 tells us that African savages are familiar with electric sparks 
 coming from their fur karosses \ but he also remarks — 
 "Nothing came of it, however, for they viewed the light as 
 with the eyes of an ox. The human mind has remained 
 here as stagnant to the present day as it once did in 
 England. No science has been developed, few questions 
 even ever discussed, except those which have an interest in 
 connection with the wants of the stomach." The observation 
 is a just one. No science or art is developed in uncultured 
 minds, or even in cultured ones, except as the result of very 
 long experience and observation. Nakedness and want of 
 tools form the stimulant to man's industry, and the arts 
 grow slowly, and at first almost imperceptibly, from his 
 necessities. The experience which he thus acquires becomes 
 an inheritance of common knowledge. 
 
 Science is the evolution of that knowledge, and the mode 
 of it is worthy of your consideration. Accumulated facts are 
 necessary for science, but do not create it, for that arises only 
 when man's reason acquires dominion over his senses, and 
 teaches him to verify the impressions conveyed by them. In
 
 202 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 savage life science is not developed, because die gratification 
 of the senses, and subordination of everything to them, are 
 incompatible with the evolution of science from any number 
 of facts. Even in civilised life it is long before men learn how 
 to subdue their senses to their reason. If you doubt it, look 
 to the lamentable hold which spirit-rapping and table-turning 
 got upon our communities. The believers in such pheno- 
 mena tell you that they saw them with their own eyes, or 
 heard them with their ears. So they did ; but they do not 
 understand that to see rightly, and to hear with accuracy, 
 are about the last things a man learns. When an experi- 
 mental philosopher thinks that he has made a discovery, he 
 does not rely even on his trained faculties of observation, 
 but spends months, sometimes years, in testing and looking 
 at his discovery in every possible light before he announces 
 it to the world. Yet an untrained observer, if he see a table 
 turn round, or listen to a physical rap on a floor or ceiling, 
 believes that he is justified in ascribing them to some 
 odylic or spiritual influence. A nation is observant or 
 unobservant, according to the necessities of its existence. 
 Thus an American Indian, or an Australian native, would 
 follow a trail over the prairies when we would be helpless. 
 One of my friends, now resident in Edinburgh, was occupied, 
 as a magistrate in Australia, in searching for a missing man, 
 and was aided by natives. One of them took up an ant, 
 and after examining it, declared it was carrying a piece of 
 white man's flesh. Taking that as their cue, they followed 
 other ants going on a contrary course, and came upon the 
 body of the murdered man. Take any single subject in 
 science, and you will find how slowly correct observation 
 accumulates round it. A savage finds that a particular 
 animal is fitted to serve him as food, and he kills it. 
 Sooner or later conceptions of a Superior Being arise in his 
 mind, and he tries to propitiate the gods by sacrificing the 
 animals which are so valuable to him. The priests become
 
 The Inosculation of the Arts and Sciences. 203 
 
 imperceptibly acquainted with their internal structure. After 
 a time the priests observe that animals are weak or vigorous, 
 and their intestines more or less healthy, according to the 
 pastures on which they feed, so they select the sites of 
 towns after sacrifices and inspections of the animals of 
 the district. Thus medicine and public hygiene arose by 
 accumulated experience, but not through science. When 
 Alexander the Great established a department for dissection 
 in his noble museum at Alexandria, he founded the science 
 of anatomy, because he brought the experience of the past 
 and the thinking materials of his day into close and active 
 relations. You will see, then, that science does not depend 
 upon facts alone, but upon the increase of mental concep- 
 tions which can be brought to bear upon them. These con- 
 ceptions increase as slowly as the common knowledge 
 derived from experience. They both descend by inheritance 
 from one generation to another, until science, in its pro- 
 gress, becomes a prevision of new knowledge by light re- 
 flected from the accumulated common knowledge of the past. 
 Let me cite water as an illustration. It comes under 
 your observation every day, and was as familiar to the 
 ancients as to you. You look at it, taste it, use it ; and yet 
 how slowly our knowledge of water has grown, and how 
 much we have yet to learn. In fact, you can only see a 
 thing and understand its properties to the extent that your 
 inheritance of mental conceptions empowers you to do so, 
 or according as your faculties, if trained beyond those of 
 your fellows, enable you to march a short step further than 
 they can go. Thales, who lived 640 years before Christ, 
 was such a man, and boldly told us all about water. He 
 had been in Egypt, and had seen with his own eyes crops 
 growing from the fertilising waters of the Nile, so he knew 
 that plants must be made of water. He had seen the 
 exhausted sun dip below the western wave, and rise in the 
 morning mightily refreshed with his huge drink, so he could
 
 204 SusyECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 affirm that the sun also was made of water. He had seen 
 it during the day send down its scorching rays and dry up 
 lakes and pools, which went back to the sun in the reflected 
 beams ; so could any further proof be required that the sun 
 needed water for its sustenance ? Well, this became the 
 foundation of the philosophy of the Ionian school ; and, 
 though Thales had not learned to bring his senses entirely 
 under the dominion of reason, he gave a great impulse to 
 the study of natural phenomena. It required two thousand 
 five hundred years more to look at water and study its 
 nature before it was found out that it is a compound body, 
 consisting of two gases, oxygen and hydrogen. All this 
 time our knowledge of this familiar body was slowly accumu- 
 lating, and we were acquiring a continually-increasing 
 inheritance of mental conceptions which enabled us to 
 understand its properties. From the beginning of the world 
 ice, water, and steam were known ; but it was only my third 
 predecessor in the chair of chemistry in the University of 
 Edinburgh who showed how they were related to each other 
 by containing different quantities of latent heat. Then we 
 began to see how important this is in the economy of the 
 universe. The sun of summer melts our snows, and stores 
 up a vast quantity of heat in the water. Winter comes, and 
 during freezing the water emits this heat again. So that 
 the rigours of winter are tempered, and the scorching heats 
 of summer are lessened, by this beneficent provision. Then 
 we begin to understand how the sun acts like a great pump- 
 ing engine, converting water into steam in hot districts of 
 the tropics, and carrying it by the return trade winds to 
 more temperate lands, which are not only watered but 
 heated by the rays of the sun, thus transported to us from 
 regions which might otherwise have had their oceans " boil- 
 ing under the intolerable fervour of the heavens," as the 
 wise men of Spain told Columbus would be the state of the 
 seas through which he must pass to reach America. It was
 
 The Inosculation of the Arts and Sciences. 205 
 
 the study of the latent heat of water which led Watt, first in 
 Glasgow, and then in Birmingham, to his great improvements 
 in the steam engine. In this illustration of water the argu- 
 ment of my address is fully borne out, that experience is the 
 foundation of science, which in return gives a rapid develop- 
 ment of that experience as soon as cultured reason governs 
 the unaided senses. 
 
 One more illustration will suffice. Our acquaintance 
 with coal tar is old and familiar. It was formerly supposed 
 to be useful for crude purposes, and was frequently employed. 
 Bishop Berkeley thought it contained wonderful healing 
 properties, and used it as a sort of universal medicine, and 
 recently various anti-periodic medicines have been prepared 
 from it. No one, until recent years, suspected that it was 
 a storehouse of the most beautiful dyes — of mauve, maf^enta, 
 of alizarin, the colouring matter of madder, and even of 
 indigo. No one dreamt that out of it could be extracted 
 the materials for preparing artificial perfumes, such as the 
 artificial oil of bitter almonds. A few years ago even 
 chemists would have laughed if a manufacturer bought coal 
 tar in order to prepare from it a rival to sugar, exceeding its 
 sweetness by three hundred times. Thus gradually arises 
 our acquaintance with familiar objects — so slowly indeed 
 that there is no common object around us in regard to which 
 we have anything like a complete knowledge. 
 
 You will also observe that, in the progress of time, com- 
 mon knowledge passes into scientific knowledge. The first 
 is knowledge acquired by the senses ; the second is an 
 extension of these perceptions by cultured reason. As a 
 necessity for its growth in a nation, a higher degree of 
 civilisation and prosperity is necessary than is involved in 
 a mere struggle for existence. A class of men who devote 
 themselves to the increase of mental perceptions imply a 
 superfluity of riches beyond the immediate necessities of the 
 community. A learned class, or even an educated class of
 
 2o6 SueyECTS op Social Welfare. 
 
 manufacturers and artisans, involve the condition and will- 
 ingness of a certain amount of wealth being diverted from 
 material necessities to mental development. And so we 
 find that just as early nations became rich and prosperous, 
 so did philosophy arise among them, and it declined with 
 the decadence of material prosperity. In those splendid 
 days of Greece, when Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno were the 
 representatives of great schools of thought, which still 
 exercise their influence on mankind, Greece was a great 
 manufacturing and mercantile community ; Corinth was the 
 seat of the manufacture of hardware; Athens that of jewellery, 
 shipbuilding, and pottery. The rich men of Greece and all 
 its free citizens were actively engaged in trade and commerce. 
 The learned class were the sons of those citizens, and were 
 in possession of their accumulated experience derived through 
 industry and foreign relations. Thales was ah oil merchant ; 
 Aristotle inherited wealth from his father, who was a 
 j.hysician, but, spending it, is believed to have supported 
 himself as a druggist till Philip appointed him tutor to 
 Alexander. Plato's wealth was largely derived from com- 
 merce, and his master, Socrates, is said to have been a sculp- 
 tor. Zeno, too, was a travelling merchant. Archimedes is 
 ] erhaps an exception, for he is said to have been closely re- 
 lated to a prince; but if so, he is the only princely discoverer 
 of science on record. These intellectual heroes of antiquity 
 s[)rang from the people, whose experience and knowledge be- 
 came their inheritance. It was by applying their cultured 
 reasons to this accumulated stock of experience that they 
 advanced philosophy among mankind. Even now the same 
 ihing is requisite. You see it illustrated in a great thinker like 
 Spinosa, who refused rank, pensions, legacies, wealth, in 
 order that he might keep himself among the people, and 
 inspire their intellectual vigour ; so he preferred to support 
 himself by grinding object-glasses for microscopes and 
 telescopes. How seldom is it, though leisure and wealth
 
 The Inosculation of the Arts and Sciences. 207 
 
 exist among the aristocracy of a country, that science is 
 promoted by them ! Boyle, who was once described as 
 " the father of modern chemistry and brother of the Earl 
 of Cork," and Cavendish, are exceptions ; but the giants of 
 our period are born of the citizens as of old. It is not 
 superfluity of riches in the individual that draws out a 
 learned or inventive class ; it is rather superfluity of riches 
 in a nation actively engaged in industrial occupations. 
 Poverty in the individual is the stimulant to exertion, while 
 wealth is not unfrequently the narcotic producing intellectual 
 torpor. No doubt there are men in all classes who do not 
 succumb to the benumbing influences of wealth. Formerly 
 the aristocracy furnished a large proportion of our statesmen, 
 though latterly they also have come from the productive 
 classes, as instanced in the Cobdens, Brights, and Glad- 
 stones. Still there are eminent statesmen from the upper 
 classes, showing that hereditary talents among them are of 
 a high order. Why is it, then, that they advance science so 
 little ? Precisely because, like the schoolmen of the middle 
 ages, their education separates them from the fund of 
 common knowledge accumulating among an industrious 
 people. 
 
 Long after Greece and Rome had flourished and faded, 
 most part of Europe was in a state of barbarism. As it 
 grew in civilisation, the learned classes grasped at the philo- 
 sophy of the past, for there was nothing among themselves 
 comparable to it. They were truly dark ages, for they had 
 no light of their own ; and the borrowed light of Greece and 
 RomCj though it illumined dimly the studies of the learned, 
 yet was obscured from the people. Even the languages of 
 these nations of antiquity were used by the learned class to 
 express their ideas, and they thus chained themselves to the 
 past ages, and became separated from the experience and 
 growth of conceptions among the people around them. No 
 philosophy or science could grow under such conditions.
 
 208 SUDJECTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE. 
 
 Hence the philosophy of Aristotle sufficed for fifteen centu- 
 ries after his death ; nay, now, twenty-two centuries after, it 
 is still taught at our universities. So late as the year 1771, 
 the University of Salamanca recorded, by solemn decision, 
 that they could not teach the discoveries of Newton because 
 they were discordant with the system of Aristotle. Nothing 
 so stunts the growth of intellect as a credulous dependence 
 on past authority and its separation from active industry. 
 You see this evil intensified in China, where there is a learned 
 class approaching in theory to all that we could wish. There, 
 the only source of power is intellect. By that she has solved 
 the great problem of keeping a population equal to a third 
 of the human race on a surface not so large as Europe, and 
 with climatic variations not far differing from it. To this in- 
 tellectual organisation is no doubt due her national longevity; 
 though she is losing her vitality. Her agriculture is still 
 marvellously advanced, but her other industries are failing. 
 The reason is that just as Europe so long worshipped the 
 philosophies of Plato and Aristotle, so China still worships 
 the philosophy , of Confucius and Mencius, and bases her 
 official examinations on the writings of these philosophers. 
 So China chains herself to the past, and allows the present 
 to float past her. The schoolmen would have done this evil 
 for Europe, had it not been that the industrial classes, from 
 whom they had separated themselves by the adoption of 
 extinct languages, began to advance beyond them in per- 
 ceptions and experience. The name of "journeymen," still 
 existing among workmen, shows how artisans in former 
 times, by travelling from place to place, gathered up ex- 
 perience and increased their perceptions. And what these 
 journeyings did for individuals, the great geographical dis- 
 coveries did for nations. You see that well illustrated in 
 the Venetian Republic. When the inhabitants of the penin- 
 sula were driven into the lagoons and marshes of Adria in 
 the fifth century, few could have told their future greatness.
 
 The Ixosculation of the Arts and Sciexces. 209 
 
 Yet they became the carriers of the world, while their ener- 
 gies were strengthened by the inroads and attacks of the 
 Saracens. Their merchants brought back knowledge and 
 experience as well as wealth ; and Marco Polo and Marino 
 Sanudo explored distant lands where Venetian commerce 
 had not yet reached. Following these discoveries came the 
 boundless thirst for knowledge that characterised the Vene- 
 tians ; and Venice has left its mark on time less by its com- 
 merce than by its intellectual activity. 
 
 By the end of the fifteenth century most of our present 
 industries, especially those for which Birmingham is famous, 
 were well established. Guns, watches, wire-drawing machines, 
 telescopes, table forks, knitting-needles, horse-shoes, glass, 
 and mirrors made from it, had been already invented. 
 About the middle of that century printing was introduced, 
 and learning, hitherto confined to the few, could be scattered 
 among the many. The pulpit lost its power, and the press 
 gained it. In the sixteenth century, newspapers began to 
 appear in Europe — first in Venice, then in France — though 
 they did not fully establish themselves in England till the 
 period ofthe Civil Wars. They were published in the vernacular, 
 and the learned class began to feel themselves outside the 
 world with their intercommunications in Latin and Greek. Yet 
 none other would have enabled Europe in her barbarism to 
 have profited by the intellectual civilisation of antiquity. At 
 this time the accumulated experience derived from ad- 
 vancing industries, and the mental perceptions flowing out 
 of them, were greater than in the best days of Greece and 
 Rome. Yet it was not till the close of the eighteenth 
 century that the vernacular was generally used in our 
 schools. This knocked down the great barrier to progress, 
 for the learned class and the industrial class became again 
 united, and could travel on the same road, as they had done 
 when Greece and Rome accumulated their intellectual trea- 
 sures for posterity. To this day the upper classes do not 
 o
 
 2IO Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 realise this fact, and they continue to cut off one-third of 
 the Hves of their children by an exclusive devotion to classi- 
 cal literature ; and when the youth of the upper classes 
 awake to the realities of life, they find themselves unpre- 
 pared to profit by them. Like Rip Van Winkle, they wake 
 from their sleep only to find that they are twenty centuries 
 behind their generation, and can do it little good. They 
 rarely advance the science or philosophy of- the present ; 
 though they make good statesmen, because they have had 
 noble studies of human mind and human actions in the 
 glorious records of antiquity ; for these have the same 
 springs now as when Greece had its greatest prosperity 
 and intellectual vigour. 
 
 So far as regards politics, ethics, sculpture, painting, and 
 architecture, the world has advanced little beyond, if it has 
 reached the position attained by Greece and Rome. These, 
 though they grace, do not now form the foundation of a 
 nation's prosperity. That is formed from the applications 
 of science to industry. It is through the industrial class 
 that new experiences and perceptions accumulate , it is 
 tlirough -them that a superfluity of wealth is directed to 
 the support of a separate learned class ; and it is from them 
 mainly that this learned class takes its origin. 
 
 Hitherto we have been looking at the evolution of 
 science from the arts. Now let us see how the latter re- 
 ceive their great impulse from the former. In early ages 
 the raw material at hand led to its industrial application ; 
 and, in later ages, it impressed the character of industries 
 upon the country possessing it Thus the mound builders 
 of the Mississippi became coppersmiths, because native 
 copper was found near them, though the ignorant savages 
 thought it a mere variety of stone, and chipped and ham- 
 mered it into tools without even knowing how to forge it hot. 
 Those who did not dwell near native metals became workers 
 in stone, in flint, in bone, horn, or shell, according as the one
 
 The IxoscuLATioy of the Arts axd Sciences. 211 
 
 or other was nearest to their hands. As civihsation pro- 
 gressed and commerce became estabhshed, the mere posses- 
 sion of raw materials was not the only condition of industry. 
 Adventurous nations emerged out of the surrounding bar- 
 barism. The Phoenicians, at a time when their neighbours, 
 the Thracians, scalped their enemies and tattooed their own 
 bodies, navigated the Mediterranean, and, following the 
 Tyrians, made their way across the ocean to Great Britain, 
 where they found its natives dressed in skins, or with bodies 
 daubed over with ochre or woad. They brought back tin, 
 with other minerals, and established metallurgic industries, 
 which are still carried on by all nations. When any tribe or 
 nation can take from another the raw material, which the 
 last either does not use or uses with less intelligence, the 
 first nation must be under the guidance of science. The 
 science may be undeveloped, dealing with qualities only and 
 not with quantities, but science it must be ; for it is impress- 
 ing upon the material the conceptions derived from cultured 
 intelligence, and making these of a higher relative value than 
 the mere local possession of the material itself This is the 
 great element of industrial competition in the world at the 
 present time. Take the case of Great Britain in modern 
 days. We have coal, ironstone, and lime, in large quantities, 
 and in fortunate proximity. We have copper, and tin, and 
 zinc, in smaller proportion. As intelligence arose in this 
 countr}', and initiatory science became evolved from indus- 
 trial pursuits, the inhabitants no longer sold their mineral 
 wealth to distant nations, but manufactured it for them- 
 selves. As long as the growing intelligence of our inhabit- 
 ants equalled or exceeded that possessed by any neighbouring 
 nation, our prosperity was secured ; because, in addition to 
 the science of the time, the raw material of industry was in 
 our possession, and competition with us was an impossibility. 
 And so is it with all nations. The moment that any nation 
 allows the intellectual element of production to fall below 
 o 2
 
 212 SunyECTS of Social Welfare. 
 
 that of its neighbours, the local advantage no longer suffices 
 for superiority. When commerce and science open up paths 
 of rapid intercommunication throughout the world, the 
 cost of transit of raw material is diminished, and the 
 intellectual superiority of another nation far more than 
 balances the possession of raw material. Roads, railways, 
 ships, and steamboats, arising in the march of science, can 
 spread raw material everywhere, and enable nations to test 
 their relative intellectual powers applied to it. Intellect now 
 largely exceeds the value of the raw material as a factor in 
 production. Cotton is grown in America, crosses the broad 
 Atlantic as a bulky and expensive freight, is seized hold of 
 by our mechanical science and manufacturing enterprise, 
 crosses the Atlantic again as calico, pays a heavy import 
 duty, and yet undersells the products of the mills at Lowell. 
 When the great American people, through their rising col- 
 leges, and by a better understanding of the effects of restric- 
 tive tariffs, apply their intellectual powers in this direction, 
 such relative superiority of manufacturing science will be 
 impossible in the presence of the raw material at the doors 
 of their mills. More strange still to see Switzerland, with 
 no seaboard and no coal, bringing cotton from America, 
 transporting it through the defiles of the mountains, then 
 back again over land and sea, in tlie form of high priced 
 cotton goods, and underselling America in her own markets, 
 What enables such a country to do this ? It is not cheap- 
 ness of labour ; it is intellectual or scientific superiority in 
 relation to the manufacture which competes successfully 
 against local advantages. Take another instance. Sweden 
 has excellent iron, and sends it to Birmingham, where you 
 convert it into tools, axes, chisels, and hoes. You send 
 these to America, though good iron ore exists in that country. 
 Well, some day the Americans find that by giving a different 
 edge and temper to their axes, or a different form to their 
 hoes, they can do their own work better ; so they send to
 
 The Ikosculatio,\ of the Arts and Sciences. 213 
 
 Sweden for the iron, and fashion it into their peculiar forms, 
 and Birmingham does not send so many axes and hoes 
 as formerly ; while America actually sends some to this 
 country, to see whether we like their new forms better 
 than our own. You see that, in an advanced period of 
 manufacture, the mere possession of the raw material 
 confers but a small advantage on the country, and that 
 the changes which are continually taking place are not 
 regulated by it. The intellect, which has such a predomi- 
 nant value, receives its expression, at least to a large extent, 
 in incessant efforts to convert the brute labour of a man 
 into an intellectual superintendence of labour performed 
 by a machine. This may be illustrated by any branch of 
 industry taken at random. I see opposite my study window, 
 as I write, a house in course of erection, and the labour of 
 the builder will serve my purpose as well as any other. An Irish 
 hodman is carrying a quantity of bricks up a ladder, in order 
 to supply material to the builder. The sight is familiar to 
 us still, though not so much so as it was a few years since, 
 because a change is passing over this form of labour. Let 
 us study the reasons for the change. The Irish hodman is a 
 human machine, unskilfully and expensively put into opera- 
 .ion. He felt that himself, in his fine, confused way, when 
 he wrote to his friend in Ireland, " Dear Pat, come over 
 here and earn your money : there is nothing for you to do 
 but to carry the bricks up a ladder, for there is a man at 
 the top who takes them from you and does all the work ! " 
 The man at the top is a skilled workman, more nearly 
 fulfilling his human functions, for he is using intellect in 
 his work. The hodman is a worker also, but only a user of 
 his own brute force in a very unintelligent way. Every time 
 that he ascends the ladder with his load of bricks he is 
 carrying up his own weight in addition to that of the bricks ; 
 his force is thus wastefully expended. After many years his 
 employer perceives this, and substitutes for human labour,
 
 2 14 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 first that of a horse, then that of a steam engine. Now, 
 when you pass a house in course of erection, you will see a 
 horse trotting over a prescribed course. It is pulling up a 
 whole barrowful of bricks by a rope and pulley. The horse, 
 tended by one man, is doing the work of seven or eight 
 hodmen, and with much economy of money, inasmuch as 
 the cost of the hay and oats, from which its power is derived, 
 scarcely exceeds that of the beef, potatoes, and beer of a 
 single hodman ; while increased economy of labour is also 
 attained, because the weight represented by the bodies of 
 seven hodmen is not drawn up along with the bricks. Food, 
 burned within the bodies of the men and the horse, is ir. 
 both cases the source of power. Again, in large houses the 
 horse disappears, and a small steam engine draws up the 
 bricks. Economy is again achieved, for the coal, which is 
 the food of the engine, is less costly than the hay and oats 
 required for evolution of force in the horse. A single man, 
 using trained intelligence in the guidance of the engine, is 
 now through it doing the work of several horses or many 
 men. Let us analyse the changes which pass over the forms 
 of labour illustrated in this particular case. The first ten- 
 dency is to substitute the brute force of a man by an intel- 
 lectual superintendence of a cheaper form of force, either 
 animal or physical, the aim being to obtain economy of pro- 
 duction, either through economy of time, or by the substi- 
 tution of cheaper forms of force for human labour. In fact, 
 economy of time generally follows the economical substitute 
 of force. Savages have an utter disregard of time in the 
 performance of labour. They will expend a month in 
 sharpening a single arrow. Some of the rock crystal 
 cylinders, worn by chiefs as ornaments, are stated to take 
 two men's lives to perforate. The Kamchadals of North- 
 Eastern Asia take three years to hollow out a canoe, and 
 one year to scoop out the trough in which they cook food. 
 As soon as a savage tribe employ fire, instead of imple-
 
 The Inosculation of the Arts and Sciences. 215 
 
 merits made of stone or bone, to hollow out their canoes, 
 they are using a natural power to economise time and brute 
 human force, and are on the high road to civilisation. In 
 human progress it is always so, for it is a natural law that 
 the sweat of the brow should be lessened by the conception 
 of the brain. The economy produced by the substitution 
 of cheaper for dearer forms of force is remarkable in all 
 cases where it is applied. The Prussians saw this very well 
 when they tried to make England declare coal contraband 
 of war in the Frencli campaign, for it is representative of so 
 many men added to the enemy ; three or four pounds of 
 coal, even in the wasteful way in which it is used, are more 
 than equal to a man's force. The importance of the trans- 
 formation may be better understood if you view the force of 
 coal as expressed in men's power; just as we do in speaking 
 of an engine as having so many horse-power. If human 
 force were alone used in this country, the sum of production 
 must be limited by the number of inhabitants. In such a 
 case the United Kingdom could not produce more than the 
 products of the labour of its thirty-six millions of inhabitants 
 of all ages. The coal excavated annually in this country 
 represents, in actual attainable work, almost exactly the sum 
 of the force of the whole population of the globe, viewed as 
 adults. So that the use of a natural force, in substitution 
 of human power, augments vastly the productive resources 
 of our small insular kingdom, and enables it not only to 
 supply its own wants but also to export to other countries 
 its superfluity of production. 
 
 Such substitution of physical powers for human force 
 arises only in the countries in which labour is free and un- 
 fettered by servile restrictions. Liberty is one of the great- 
 est springs of human progress. If you wish to see human 
 labour in its lowest and least productive forms, stifling pro- 
 gress and choking science, which can only breathe in a free 
 atmosphere, you must look to it as exercised in a state of
 
 2i6 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 slavery. Both Greece and Rome perished as nations by 
 accumulating slaves. These represented property, and the 
 substitution of human labour by natural forces was a menace 
 to that property. A citizen with slaves crushes invention, lest 
 it should interfere with their value in the market; just as our 
 workmen, two generations ago, destroyed machinery, as being 
 likely to affect the selling price of their labour. The great 
 empire of Assyria perished by the number of its captive slaves. 
 Slavery was the worm that gnawed at the root of Greece's 
 prosperity ; and she perished. It is true that Greece, unlike 
 Rome, encouraged and honoured industry, so long as human 
 labour could perform it, and, by associating it with cultured 
 reason, she had 1,200 years of splendid intellectual develop- 
 ment. Rome, on the other hand, contemned industry, and 
 depended on the spoliation of other countries for her wealth. 
 She drove their able-bodied inhabitants into slavery. When 
 Paulus Emilius conquered Epirus, he is said to have killed 
 or carried into slavery 150,000 people. Roman citizens 
 were soldiers, or lived on the produce of slave labour, look- 
 ing upon trade as vile and ignoble, only suitable for a servile 
 class. Slaves are mere machines, and cannot invent ; for 
 machines do not invent new ones. So when Rome, which had 
 become a huge baracoon for slaves, exhausted the wealth that 
 had been won by rapine and conquest, she had no elements for 
 continued prosperity. The practical aptitudes and energies 
 of her people were immense, but they had been misdirected. 
 Without active productive industry there can be no con- 
 tinued prosperity in a nation. The depressing effect of 
 slavery is seen in all periods of history. If there could have 
 been an exception to it, this must have been shown in the 
 empire founded by Charlemagne. That great Emperor of 
 the West tried to foster learning and to organise slavery at 
 the same time. Aided by our countryman, the learned Alcuin 
 of York, and two Scotchmen, Hepburn and Melrose, he 
 founded universities and schools both in Italy and Germany.
 
 The Inosculation of the Arts and Sciences. 217 
 
 He tried to lessen the evi's of slavery by apprenticing the 
 slaves to special crafts and trades, but he had not courage to 
 destroy utterly the accursed thing. And so, even during his 
 life, the canker worm of slavery gnawed away the props of 
 his splendid throne, and soon after his death it crumbled to 
 pieces. Did time not fail me, I should like to have shown 
 how it injured this country through its colonies, even in the 
 lifetime of many of us. You may think that all these things 
 are of the past, and have no application to us now. You are 
 mistaken. There is a slavery in ignorance which is seriously 
 deterimental to a people. Liberty in thought, in expression, 
 and in action is essential to human progress. Science can 
 only prosper when she follows Descartes' maxim, that you 
 are to take nothing as true on the authority of others. "iV^ 
 recevoir jamais auaine chose pour vraie qu'on ne la connaisse 
 evidevient etre telle.'''' If science be not free enough and 
 strong enough to battle against all untrue opinions, whether 
 in religion or politics, she cannot advance; and "/a science 
 arretee arrete la inonde." If industries be hampered by 
 selfish rules of unions, whether they be those of masters or 
 men, by which production is retarded, and intelligence and 
 skill discouraged, the industries must languish and die in 
 those places deprived of a natural liberty. The masters or 
 the labourers may ruin themselves or their children by slav- 
 ish restrictions on trade, but they are powerless in restraining 
 the advance of scientific applications to industry. It is a 
 law of progress which neither nations, trades, nor individuals 
 can resist — that as civilisation progresses the brute labour of 
 the man must be lightened by the use of natural forces. 
 The latter can often do in a few hours, under the guidance 
 of intellect, what the unaided labour of a man could not do 
 in a lifetime. This is how all men should work: they should 
 use their heads as well as their hands, so as to save the labour 
 of the hands by the well-conceived thoughts of the head. As 
 inventions can only be made by free men, the wonderfully
 
 2i8 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 rapid growth of manufactures in Great Britain is closely con- 
 nected with our free laws and institutions. 
 
 The amazing changes which have taken place since 1838 
 are also due to our better conceptions of force, and their 
 mutual relations and conversions. Formerly heat, light, 
 electricity,, magnetism, and chemical affinity were thought to 
 be separate and independent existences, not even related to 
 each other. Now we know that forces are convertible and 
 interchangeable. This knowledge has already given great 
 stimulus to their application, and will do so more in the 
 future. Further, we know that the primary source of nearly 
 all the power on the earth is the sun above us. Steam en- 
 gines are worked by solar force stored up in coal, the residue 
 of extinct plants that grew by the agency of sunbeams, which 
 they trapped and stored up for our use. The gas in the 
 streets is this old trapped sunlight of some millions of years 
 since let loose to illuminate the darkness. Our waterwheels 
 are turned by the sun, which licks up water by his heat, 
 transports it in clouds, and lets it loose as rain on the moun- 
 tains, whence, by its descent, it turns the mills and grinds 
 the corn. Recollect that all this is effected by a mere pencil 
 of light reaching the earth ; for our globe receives only 
 about the two millionth part of the solar energy rayed from 
 the sun. It is strange to see the human intellect trying to 
 catch this idea in all countries and in all times, though it has 
 only been patent to philosophers within the last few years. 
 Thus, the sun is made the patron of craftsmen, as in the 
 old Sanscrit hymn : "He steps forth the splendour of the 
 sky, the wide-seeing, the far-aiming, the shining wan- 
 derer ; surely enlivened by the sun, do men go to their 
 tasks and do their work." You have his power typi- 
 fied in the mythology and solar myths of the ancients, from 
 Sol, the Son of the Ocean, who taught men the arts of 
 mining and metallurgy, to the great Quetzalcohuatl of the 
 Mexicans, who was the sun typified as a warrior, and a
 
 The Inosculation of the Arts and Sciences. 219 
 
 founder of many countries and teacher of all sciences, arts, 
 and crafts. So important was the sun deemed as the author 
 of all work, in the most widely-separated lands, that every- 
 where you find tales of how nooses and traps were set for 
 him as he came out of the east in the early morning, in order 
 that hemight be subjugated to theuseof man. In Greece nature 
 was disguised underattractive polytheistic agencies, yet wefind 
 Anaximander giving great prominence to the action of the 
 sun and fire, and Herakleitus actually announcing the inter- 
 changeable character of forces, though he naturally confused 
 them with the properties of matter. In the life of George 
 Stephenson, an anecdote is told of how, at Drayton Manor, 
 he described, in a flash of genius, that it was the sun which 
 drove locomotive engines, by being liberated from coal in 
 which it had remained trapped for ages. The anecdote 
 proceeds to tell how the late Sir Robert Peel induced P'ollett 
 the great lawyer, to act as counsel for Stephenson against 
 the arguments of the scientific men who were there, and 
 who opposed the startling assertion as purely fanciful. The 
 story is quite true ; for I myself was one of the party, and 
 was employed to cram FoUett with scientific arguments in 
 support of the startling proposition, though I confess that I 
 could not then see the beauty of the conception, which all 
 now acknowledge as a truth. I have referred to the nature 
 offeree because I wish you to understand that in all you do, 
 by new inventions or applications of old ones, you cannot 
 turn natural forces, or the properties of bodies derived from 
 their action, by a single hairbreadth out of their course. 
 You can neither create forces nor endow anything with pro- 
 perties. All that you can do is to convert and combine 
 them into utilities. If you do this with knowledge, you are 
 saved the dismal failures of ignorance ; but if you try to use 
 powers for your own purposes without understanding them, 
 the invariable operation of law is shown in the punishment 
 of your presumption. This is the cause of the heavy
 
 2 20 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 mortality and disease which follow in the wake of civilisation. 
 You use a defective grindstone ; it flies and kills the work- 
 man using it. A weak plate is put in a boiler, or sound 
 plates are allowed to corrode through carelessness ; the 
 boiler bursts, and scatters desolation around. The employer 
 of labour or the workman may have no other fault, in these 
 accidents, except that of ignorance; but neither civil law 
 nor natural law admits that as a palliation of its breach. 
 Nature is wondrously bountiful to the wise, but has no 
 bowels of compassion for the ignorant. Break but one of 
 her laws, wilfully or ignorantly, and the punishment is swift 
 and sure. On this account we cannot go anywhere in our 
 great manufacturing towns, or crowded communities, "with- 
 out treading on dead men's bones." Take any illustration you 
 like in proof of this. Even with our long acquaintance with 
 fire, the ignorance of its laws is great, and the punishment of 
 this ignorance is also great. Surely in civilised England one 
 would think that no human being need be burnt alive by 
 fire, or scalded to death by boiling water. Yet in the last 
 twenty years 56,000 people in England and Wales have per- 
 ished in this horrible way. You could not parallel such a 
 holocaust either in the sacrifices of the Druids, in the fires 
 of Moloch, in the auto-da-fes of the Inquisition, or in the 
 Suttees of the Hindoos. And if history refuse to hear of any 
 palliation of these human sacrifices, depend upon it the nine- 
 teenth century will be held responsible for such preventible 
 mortality. Englishmen used to hear with horror of the 
 deaths of Hindoos, crushed under the wheels of the car of 
 Juggernaut; and they never rested till they put an end to the 
 human sacrifices of that remorseless god. They think little 
 of the far more terrible sacrifices of victims daily crushed to 
 death by wheels and waggons in our overcrowded streets. 
 We shudder now and then at the account of some 
 mine explosion, when twenty or thirty human beings are 
 killed. Yet the total results of all such explosions through-
 
 The IxoscuLATioy of the Arts and Sciences. 221 
 
 out the United Kingdom only equal the number who actu- 
 ally perish in London alone by the traffic of its streets. In 
 intelligent, well-educated, and well-ordered communities, 
 deaths by violence should be impossible, and yet, in the 
 last five years, 83,853 persons have perished by violence in 
 England and Wales. The needle-guns, chassepots, mitrail- 
 leuses, and rifled cannon which have been lately belching 
 forth destruction between two civilised nations cannot 
 match this wonderful feat of a period of peace. Just as in 
 war, while twenty per cent, of its victims perish on the fieKl 
 or die of wounds, eighty per cent, die of diseases which 
 follow a camp life, so in peaceful occupations, the preventi- 
 ble deaths by violence are small in comparison with the pre- 
 ventible deaths which follow as infringements of sanitary 
 laws. They are as definite and inexorable as any law in 
 physics. You go to the top of a precipice and topple over 
 it, and the law of gravitation most surely pulls you down 
 with increasing swittness, till it dashes you to pieces on the 
 ground. You brought yourself under the law of gravitation, 
 and never dreamt that it would alter its action, by a hair- 
 breadth, to save you from your folly or ignorance. So is it 
 with sanitary laws. Swift, stern, inexorable, and invariable 
 in their action, they punish all violations. Man was net 
 born into the world that he might pine and die, but that he 
 might grow in vigour, and live his allotted period. Health 
 is the normal state of obedience to law, disease the penalty 
 of its infringement. In consequence of this disobedience, 
 our kingdom has 110,000 lives ruthlessly sacrificed every 
 year, while 220,000 people are needlessly sick all the year 
 round. And why ? Because neither our rulers nor our 
 l)eople will become acquainted with and obey simple sani- 
 tary laws. Our systems of education are based en the re- 
 finement and embellishment of an existence which we are 
 never taught how to preserve. Even now, out of the thirty- 
 three million persons who die yearly in the world, one
 
 2 22 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 human being dies needlessly at every breath we take. In 
 Goethe's celebrated educational allegory, he makes all the 
 children study the laws which bear on their well-being. 
 The passage is a fine one — " From the bounty of the earth 
 we are nourished. The earth affords unutterable joys ; but 
 disproportionate sorrows she also brings us. Should one of 
 our children do himself external hurt, blameably or blame- 
 lessly ; should others hurt him accidentally or purposely ; 
 should dead involuntary matter do him hurt ; then let him 
 well consider it ; for such dangers will attend him all his 
 days." 
 
 What I have said hitherto has been merely the long text 
 of a very long sermon which, however, I do not intend to 
 preach on the present occasion ; for its application to your- 
 selves will arise in your own minds without the necessity of 
 listening to it. We have seen that the necessities of man 
 gave birth to the arts, and that from them is evolved 
 science, as soon as cultured reason begins to connect, to 
 explain, and previse knowledge acquired by experience. 
 Then science, in its turn, gives speedy and vigorous develop- 
 ment to the arts, so powerfully indeed that the raw material 
 of industries, or the manual skill applied to its conversion 
 to utilities, becomes altogether subordinate to the intellect 
 engaged in production. 
 
 I have addressed you to little effect if you are not con- 
 vinced that human progress is under the dominion of law, 
 beneficent in its wisdom, but so perfect that all man's 
 attempts to twist or turn it to his own advantage result in 
 the swift and sure punishment of his folly. Nations rise in 
 l)rosperity because they are in harmony with law, and they 
 fall because they put themselves in opposition to it. One 
 nation of antiquity had such a marvellous industrial develop- 
 ment, even at remote periods, that there are men who 
 believe that its knowledge was derived, not from experience, 
 but through direct inspiration. I allude to ancient Egypt,
 
 The Inosculation of the Arts and Sciences. 223 
 
 whose arts of engineering and architecture, whose know- 
 ledge of hydrauHcs and metalkirgy, of glass-blowing and 
 pottery, of spinning and weaving, of dyeing, and, in fact, 
 of most of the industrial arts as well as some of the sciences, 
 were immensely superior to the nations around; for even 
 Greece derived a large part of her knowledge from that 
 ancient people. So great was the learning of Egypt, that 
 when we are told of Moses being " learned in the wisdom 
 of the Egyptians," we require no further evidence of his 
 qualifications to be a great leader of men. When he con- 
 ducted the exodus of the Children of Israel, Egypt was 
 already hoary with age. Her great pyramid, which still 
 remains a monument of her greatness, had existed as long as 
 our Christian era when Jacob passed into Egypt. The 
 fertilising power of the Nile over a region protected on the 
 one side by a burning desert, and on the other by the Red 
 Sea, gave her the elements of prosperity and security. But 
 where is Egypt now ? Let me answer in the quaint words 
 of old Sir Tiiomas Browne : " Egypt itself is no.v become 
 the land of obliviousness, and doteth. Her ancient civihty 
 is gone, and her glory hath vanished as a phantasma. Her 
 youthful days are over, and her face hath become wrinkled 
 and tetrick. She poreth not upon the heavens ; astronomy 
 is dead to her, and Knowledge maketh other cycles." 
 
 It is true that knowledge changeth her cycles, so let no 
 nation glory in her strength or plume nerself in the practical 
 aptitudes of her people. Yet it would be sad to think that 
 knowledge coming round in her cycles is unable to re- 
 generate degenerated lands. Those who know the educa- 
 t:onal efforts which are now making in Rou mania, Bulgaria, 
 Greece, and Italy, would be loth to deny it. If a iiation 
 do not keep herself on a level with scientific discoveries, 
 which are always making and never ending, she must be 
 content to slip back while the world is advancing. A nation 
 ought to resemble the globe on which we live, by being
 
 224 Subjects of Social JVelfare. ■ 
 
 always in motion. That motion, however, is not merely of 
 one kind, a mere turning round and round on its own axis, 
 for ever and ever in the same way. The world, while it 
 does turn round, moves onwards with a rapid, resistless 
 sweep. Since I began to address you this evening, our 
 world has moved in rotation only by a few hundred miles, 
 but its onward motion has advanced it more than eighty 
 thousand miles through space. It is this forward advance 
 for which nations should strive. No fear of the progress 
 of the world, though nations should stand still and vanish 
 out of sight. Knowledge does not perish because nations 
 decay. Just as an object attracted by the earth falls to it 
 with an ever-increasing velocity, so does human progress 
 advance with an accelerating speed towards knowledge. 
 Pascal said truly, " The entire succession of men, through 
 the whole course of ages, must be regarded as one man, 
 always living and incessantly learning." This is a true 
 expression of human progress. Nations, like the ripples on 
 the sand, may stand for a time, or make their impress so 
 permanent, that we find them, as we do ancient ripple 
 marks, in a fossil state, for study in future ages ; or they may 
 be obliterated altogether by a reflux wave ; yet the tide of 
 knowledge is flowing steadily onwards, and will cover the 
 land in its appointed time.
 
 SCIENCE AND THE STATE. 
 
 This was the Presidential Address at the Aberdeen meeting of the 
 British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1885. 
 
 I. — Science and the State. 
 
 I CANNOT address you in Aberdeen without recollecting 
 that when we last met in this city our President was a great 
 prince. The just verdict of time is that, high as was Iiis 
 royal rank, he has a far nobler claim to our regard as a 
 lover of humanity in its widest sense, and especially as a 
 lover of those arts and sciences which do so much to adorn 
 it. On September 14, 1859, I sat on this platform and 
 listened to the eloquent address and wise counsel of the 
 Prince Consort. At one time a member of his household, 
 it was my privilege to co-operate with this illustrious prince 
 in many questions relating to the advancement of science. 
 I naturally, therefore, turned to his presidential address to 
 see whether I might not now continue those counsels which 
 he then gave with all the breadth and comprehensiveness of 
 his masterly speeches. I found, as I expected, a text for 
 my own discourse in some pregnant remarks which he made 
 upon the relation of Science to the State. They are as 
 follows : — " We may be justified in hoping . . . that 
 the Legislature and the State will more and more recognise 
 the claims of science to their attention, so that it may no 
 longer require the begging-box, but speak to the State like 
 a favoured child to its parent, sure of his paternal solicitude 
 for its welfare ; that the State will recognise in science one 
 p
 
 220 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 of its elements of strength and prosperity, to foster which 
 the clearest dictates of self-interest demand." 
 
 This opinion, in its broadest sense, means that the 
 relations of science to the State should be made more 
 intimate because the advance of science is needful to the 
 public weal. 
 
 The importance of promoting science as a duty of state- 
 craft was well enough known to the ancients, especially to 
 the Greeks and Arabs, but it ceased to be recognised in the 
 .dark ages, and was lost to sight during the revival of letters 
 in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Germany and 
 France, which are now in such active competition in pro- 
 moting science, have only in recent times publicly acknow- 
 ledged its national importance. Even in the last century, 
 though France had its Lavoisier and Germany its Leibnitz, 
 their Governments did not know the value of science. When 
 the former was condemned to death in the Reign of Terror, 
 a petition was presented to the rulers that his life might be 
 spared for a kw weeks in order that he might complete some 
 important experiments, but the reply was, " The Republic 
 has no need of savants." Earlier in the century the much- 
 praised Frederick William of Prussia shouted with a loud 
 voice, during a graduation ceremony in the University of 
 Frankfort, " An ounce of mother-wit is worth a ton of 
 university wisdom." Both France and Germany are now 
 ashamed of these utterances of their rulers, and make 
 energetic efforts to advance science with the aid of their 
 national resources. More remarkable is it to see a young 
 nation like the United States reserving large tracts of its 
 national lands for the promotion of scientific education. In 
 some respects this young country is in advance of all 
 European nations in joining science to its administrative 
 offices. Its scientific publications, like the great paleeonto- 
 logical work embodying the researches of Professor Marsh 
 and his associates in the Geological Survey, are examples
 
 Sc/ENCE AND THE StATE. 2 2"] 
 
 to Other Governments. The Minister of Agriculture is sur- 
 rounded with a staff of botanists and chemists. The Home 
 Secretary is aided by a special Scientific Commission to 
 investigate the habits, migrations, and food of fishes, and 
 the latter has at its disposal two specially-constructed 
 steamers of large tonnage. The United States and Great 
 Britain promote fisheries on distinct systems. In this 
 country we are perpetually issuing expensive Commissions 
 to visit the coasts in order to ascertain the experiences of 
 fishermen. I have acted as Chairman of one of these 
 Royal Commissions, and found that the fishermen, having 
 only a knowledge of a small area, gave the most contra- 
 dictory and unsatisfactory evidence. In America the 
 questions are put to Nature, and not to fishermen. Exact 
 and searching investigations are made into the life-history 
 of the fishes, into the temperature of the sea in which they 
 live and spawn, into the nature of their food, and into the 
 habits of their natural enemies. For this purpose the 
 Government give the co-operation of the navy, and provide 
 the Commission with a special corps of skilled naturalists, 
 some of whom go out with the steamships and others work 
 in the biological laboratories at Wood's HoU, Massachusetts, 
 or at Washington. The different universities send their best 
 naturalists to aid in these investigations. The annual cost 
 of the Federal Commission is about ;!^4o,ooo, while the 
 separate States spend about ^(£"20,000 in local efforts. The 
 practical results flowing from these scientific investigations 
 have been important. The inland waters and rivers have 
 been stocked with fish of the best and most suitable kinds. 
 Even the great ocean which washes the coasts of the United 
 States is beginning to be afiected by the knowledge thus 
 acquired, and a sensible result is already produced upon 
 the most important of its fisheries. The United Kingdom 
 largely depends upon its fisheries, but as yet our Govern- 
 ment have scarcely realised the value of such scientific 
 p 2
 
 223 Subjects of Soc/al JVelfare. 
 
 investigations as those pursued with success by the United 
 States. Less systematically, but with great benefit to science, 
 our own Government has used the surveying expeditions, 
 and sometimes has equipped special expeditions to promote 
 natural history and solar physics. Some of the latter, like 
 the voyage of the Challenger, have added largely to the 
 store of knowledge ; while the former, though not primarily 
 intended for scientific research, have had an indirect result 
 of infinite value by becoming training-schools for such in- 
 vestigators as Edward Forbes, Darwin, Hooker, Huxley, 
 Wyville Thomson, and others. 
 
 In the United Kingdom we are just beginning to under- 
 stand the wisdom of Washington's farewell address to his 
 countrymen, when he said: "Promote as an object of 
 primary importance institutions for the general diffusion of 
 knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government 
 gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public 
 opinion should be enlightened." It was only in 1870 that 
 our Parliament established a system of national primary 
 education. Secondary education is chaotic, and remains 
 unconnected with the State, while the higher education of 
 the universities is only brought at distant intervals under 
 the view of Parliament. All great countries except 
 England have Ministers of Education, but this country has 
 Ministers who are only the managers of primary schools. 
 We are inferior even to smaller countries in the absence of 
 organised State supervision of education. Greece, Portugal, 
 Egypt, and Japan have distinct Ministers of Education, and 
 so also among our colonies have Victoria and New Zealand. 
 Gradually England is gathering materials for the establish- 
 ment of an efficient Education Minister. The Department 
 of Science and Art is doing excellent work in diffusing a 
 taste for elementary science . among the working classes. 
 There are now about 78,000 persons who annually come 
 under the influence of its science classes, while a small
 
 Science and the State. 229 
 
 number of about two liundred, many of them teachers, 
 receive thorough instruction in science at the excehent 
 school in South Kensington of which Professor Huxley is 
 the Dean. I do not dwell on the work of this Government 
 department, because my object is chiefly to point out how 
 it is that science lags in its progress in the United Kingdom 
 owing to the deficient interest taken in it by the middle and 
 upper classes. The working classes are being roused from 
 their indifference. They show this by their selection of 
 scientific men as candidates at the next election. Among 
 these are Professors Stuart, Roscoe, Maskelyne, and Riicker. 
 It has its significance that such a humble representative of 
 science as myself received invitations from working-class 
 constituencies in more than a dozen of the leading manu- 
 facturing towns. Before long I do not doubt that a 
 Minister of Education will be created as a nucleus round 
 which the various educational materials may crystallise in a 
 definite form. 
 
 II. — Science and Secondary Education. 
 
 Various Royal Commissions have made inquiries and 
 issued recommendations in regard to our public and endowed 
 schools. The Commissions of 1861, 1864, 1868, and 1873 
 have expressed the strongest disapproval of the condition of 
 our schools, and, so far as science is concerned, their state 
 is much the same as when the Duke of Devonshire's 
 Commission in 1873 reported in the following words : — - 
 *' Considering the increasing importance of science to the 
 material interests of the country, we cannot but regard its 
 almost total exclusion from the training of the upper and 
 middle classes as little less than a national misfortune." No 
 doubt there are exceptional cases and some brilliant ex- 
 amples of improvement since these words were written, but 
 generally throughout the country teaching in science is a 
 name rather tlian a reality. The Technical Commission
 
 230 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 wliich reported la'^t year can only point to three schools in 
 Great Britain in which science is fully and adequately 
 taught. While the Commission gives us the consolation 
 tliat England is still in advance as an industrial nation, it 
 warns us that foreign nations, which were not long ago far 
 behind, are now making more rapid progress than this 
 country, and will soon pass it in the race of competition 
 unless we give increased attention to science in public 
 education. A few of the large towns, notably Manchester, 
 Keighley, Bradford, Huddersfield, and Birmingham, are 
 doing so. The working classes are now receiving better 
 instruction in science than the middle classes. The com- 
 petition of actual life asserts its own conditions, for the 
 children of the latter find increasing difficulty in obtaining 
 employment. The cause of this lies in the fact that the 
 schools for the middle classes have not yet adapted them- 
 selves to the needs of modern life. It is true that many of 
 the endowed schools have been put under new schemes, 
 but as there is no public supervision or inspection of them, 
 we have no knowledge as to whether they have prospered or 
 slipped back. Many corporate schools have arisen, some 
 of them, like Clifton, Cheltenham, and Marlborough Colleges, 
 doing excellent educational work, though as regards all of 
 them the public have no rights and cannot enforce guaran- 
 tees for efficiency. A Return just issued, on the motion of 
 Sir John Lubbock, shows a lamentable deficiency in science 
 teaching in a great proportion of the endowed schools. 
 "While twelve to sixteen hours per week are devoted to 
 classics, two or three hours are considered ample for science 
 in a large proportion of die schools In Scotland there are 
 only six schools in the Return which give more than two 
 hours to science weekly, while in many schools its teaching 
 is wholly omitted. Every other part of the kingdom stands 
 in a better position than Scotland in relation to the science 
 of its endowed schools. The old traditions of education
 
 SciEiXCE AND THE StaTE. 23 1 
 
 Stick as firmly to schools as a limpet does to a rock ; though 
 I do the limpet an injustice, for it does make excursions to 
 seek pastures new. Are we to give up in despair because 
 an exclusive system of classical education has resisted the 
 assaults of such cultivated authors as Milton, Montaigne, 
 Cowley, and Locke? There was once an enlightened 
 Emperor of China, Chi Hwangti, who knew that his country 
 was kept back by its exclusive devotion to the classics of 
 Confucius and Mencius. He invited five hundred of the 
 teachers to bring their copies of these authors to Pekin, and 
 after giving a great banquet in their honour, he buried alive 
 the professors, along with their manuscripts, in a deep pit. 
 Confucius and Mencius still reign supreme. I advocate 
 milder measures, and depend for their adoption on the force 
 of public opinion. The needs of modern life will force 
 schools to adapt themselves to a scientific age. Grammar- 
 schools believe themselves to be immortal. Those curious 
 immortals — the Struldbrugs— described by Swift, ultimately 
 regretted their immortality, because they found themselves 
 out of touch, sympathy, and fitness with the centuries in 
 which they lived. 
 
 As there is no use clamouring for an instrument of more 
 compass and power until we have made up our minds as to 
 the tune. Professor Huxley, in his evidence before a Parlia- 
 mentary Committee in 1884, has given a time-table for 
 grammar-schools. He demands that out of their forty hours 
 for public and private study ten should be given to modern 
 languages and history, eight to arithmetic and mathematics, 
 six to science, and two to geography, thus leaving fourteen 
 hours to the dead languages. No timetable would, 
 however, be suitable to all schools. The great public schools 
 of England will continue to be the g) mnasia for the upper 
 classes, and should devote much of their time to classical 
 and literary culture. Even now they introduce into their 
 curriculum subjects unknown to them when the Royal
 
 232 SosyECTS OF Social JVelfare. 
 
 Commission of 1868 reported, though they still accept 
 science with timidity. Unfortunately, the other grammar- 
 schools which educate the middle classes look to the higher 
 public schools as a type to which they should conform, 
 although their functions are so different. It is in the 
 interest of the higher public schools that this difference 
 should be recognised, so that, while they give an all-round 
 education and expand their curriculum by a freer recognition 
 of the value of science as an educational power in developing 
 the faculties of the upper classes, the schools for the middle 
 classes should adapt themselves to the needs of their exist- 
 ence, and not keep up a slavish imitation of schools with a 
 different function. 
 
 The stock argument against the introduction of modern 
 subjects into grammar-schools is that it is better to teach 
 Latin and Greek thoroughly rather than various subjects less 
 completely. Is it true that thoroughness in teaching dead 
 languages is the result of an exclusive system ? In 1868 the 
 Royal Commission stated that even in the few great public 
 schools thoroughness was only given to 30 per cent, of the 
 scholars, at the sacrifice of 70 per cent, who got little benefit 
 from the system. Since then the curriculum has been 
 widened and the teaching has improved. I question the 
 soundness of the principle that it is better to limit the 
 attention of the pupils mainly to Latin and Greek, highly as 
 I value their educational power to a certain order of minds. 
 As in biology the bodily development of animals is from the 
 general to the special, so is it in the mental development of 
 man. In the school a boy should be aided to discover the 
 class of knowledge that is best suited for his mental capaci- 
 ties, so that, in the upper forms of the school and in the 
 university, knowledge may be specialised in order to cultivate 
 the powers of the man to their fullest extent. Shakespeare's 
 educational formula may not be altogether true, but it con- 
 tains a broad basis of truth —
 
 Science and the State. 233 
 
 *' No profit grows, where is no pleasure ta'en;— 
 In brief, sir, study what you most affect." 
 
 The comparative failure of the modern side of school 
 education arises from constituting it out of the boys who are 
 looked upon as classical asses. Milton pointed out that in 
 all schools there are boys to whom the dead languages are 
 " like thorns and thistles," which form a poor nourishment 
 even for asses. If teachers looked upon these classical 
 asses as beings who might receive mental nurture according 
 to their nature, much higher results would follow the 
 bifurcation of our schools. Saul went out to look for asses 
 and he found a kingdom. Surely this fact is more en- 
 couraging than the example of Gideon, who "took thorns of 
 the wilderness and briars, and with these he taught the men 
 of Succoth."* The adaptation of public schools to a 
 scientific age does not involve a contest as to whether 
 science or classics shall prevail, for both are indispensable to 
 true education. The real question is whether schools will 
 undertake the duty of moulding the minds of boys according 
 to their mental varieties. Classics, from their structural 
 perfection and power of awakening dormant faculties, have 
 claims to precedence in education, but they have none to a 
 practical monopoly. It is by claiming the latter that 
 teachers sacrifice mental receptivity to a Procrustean 
 uniformity. 
 
 The universities are changing their traditions more 
 rapidly than the schools. The via antiqua which leads to 
 them is still broad, though a via vwderna, with branching 
 avenues, is also open to their honours and emoluments. 
 Physical science, which was once neglected, is now en- 
 couraged at the universities. As to the 70 per cent, of 
 boys who leave schools for life-work without going through 
 the universities, are there no growing signs of discontent 
 
 * Judges viii. i6.
 
 234 Subjects of Social JJ^elfare. 
 
 wliich must force a change ? The Civil Service, the learned 
 professions, as well as the army and navy, are now barred 
 by examinations. Do the boys of our public schools easily 
 leap over the bars, although some of them have lately been 
 lowered so as to suit the schools ? So difficult are these 
 bars to scholars that crammers take them in hand before 
 they attempt the leap ; and this occurs in spite of the large 
 value attached to the dead languages and the small value 
 placed on modern subjects. Thus in the Indian Civil 
 Service examinations, 800 marks as a maximum are assigned 
 to Latin, 600 to Greek, 500 to chemistry, and 300 to each 
 of the other physical sciences. If we take the average 
 working of the system for the last four years, we find that 
 while 68 per cent, of the maximum were given to candidates 
 in Greek and Latin, only 45 per cent, were accorded to 
 candidates in chemistry, and but 30 per cent, to the other 
 physical sciences. Schools sending up boys for competition 
 naturally shun subjects which are dealt with so hardly, and 
 so heavily handicapped by the State. 
 
 Passing from learned or public professions to commerce, 
 how is it that in our great commercial centres, foreigners — 
 German, Swiss, Dutch, and even Greeks — push aside our 
 English youth, and take the places of profit which belong 
 to them by national inheritance ? How is it that in our 
 colonies, like those in South Africa, German enterprise is 
 pushing aside English incapacity ? How is it that we find 
 whole branches of manufactures, when they depend on 
 scientific knowledge, passing away from this country, in 
 which they originated, in order to engraft themselves abroad, 
 although their decaying roots remain at home ? * The 
 answer to these questions is that our systems of education 
 are still too narrow for the increasing struggle of life. 
 
 * See Dr. Perkins' address to the Soc. Cliem. Industry, "Nature," 
 Aug. 6, 1885, p. 333.
 
 Science and the State. 235 
 
 Faraday, who had no narrow views in regard to educa- 
 tion, deplored the future of our youth in the competition of 
 the world, because, as he said with sadness, " our school- 
 boys, when they come out of school, are ignorant of their 
 ignorance at the end of all that education." 
 
 The opponents of science education allege that it is not 
 adapted for mental development, because scientific facts are 
 often disjointed and exercise only the memory. Those who 
 argue thus do not know w'hat science is. No doubt an 
 ignorant or half informed teacher may present science as an 
 accumulation of unconnected facts. At all times and in all 
 subjects there are teachers without sesthetical or philo- 
 sophical capacity — men who can only see carbonate of lime 
 in a statue by Phidias or Praxiteles; who cannot survey 
 zoology on account of its millions of species, or botany 
 because of its 130,000 distinct plants; men who can look 
 at trees without getting a conception of a forest, and can- 
 not distinguish a stately edifice from its bricks. To teach 
 in that fashion is like going to the tree of science with its 
 glorious fruit in order to pick up a handful of the dry fallen 
 leaves from the ground. It is, however, true that as science 
 teaching has had less lengthened experience than that of 
 literature, its methods of instruction are not so matured. 
 Scientific and literary teaching have difi'erent methods; for 
 while the teacher of literature rests on authority and on 
 books for his guidance, the teacher of science discards 
 authority, and depends on facts at first hand, and on the 
 book of Nature for their interpretation. Natural science 
 more and more resolves itself into the teaching of the 
 laboratory. In this way it can be used as a powerful means 
 of quickening observation, and of creating a faculty of 
 induction after the manner of Zadig, the Babylonian de- 
 scribed by Voltaire. Thus facts become surrounded by 
 scientific conceptions, and are subordinated to order and 
 law.
 
 236 Subjects of Sucial Welfare. 
 
 It is not those who desire to unite literature with science 
 who degrade education ; the degradation is the consequence 
 of the refusal. A violent reaction — too violent to be wise — 
 has lately taken place against classical education in France, 
 where their own vernacular occupies the position of dead 
 languages, while Latin and science are given the same time 
 in the curriculum. In England manufacturers cry out for 
 technical education, in which classical culture shall be ex- 
 cluded. In the schools of the middle classes science rather 
 than technics is needed, because when the seeds of science 
 are sown, technics as its fruit will appear at the appointed time. 
 Epictetus was wise when he told us to observe that though 
 sheep eat grass, it is not grass but wool that grows on their 
 backs. Should, however, our grammar-schools persist in 
 their refusal to adapt themselves to the needs of a scientific 
 age, England must follow the example of other European 
 nations, and found new modern schools in competition with 
 them. For, as Huxley has put it, we cannot continue in 
 this age " of full modern artillery to turn out our boys to do 
 battle in it, equipped only with the sword and shield of an 
 ancient gladiator." In a scientific and keenly competitive 
 age an exclusive education in the dead languages is a per- 
 plexing anomaly. The flowers of literature should be 
 cultivated and gathered, though it is not wise to send men 
 into our fields of industry to gather the harvest when they 
 have been taught only to cull the poppies and to push aside 
 the wheat. 
 
 HI. — Science and the Universities. 
 
 The State has always felt bound to alter and improve 
 universities, even when their endowments are so large as to 
 render it unnecessary to support them by public funds. 
 When universities are poor, Parliament gives aid to them 
 from imperial taxation. In this country that aid has been 
 given with a very sparing hand. Thus the universities
 
 Science and the State. 237 
 
 and colleges of Ireland have received about ,^^3 0,000 
 annually, and the same sum has been granted to the 
 four universities of Scotland. Compared with imperial aid 
 to foreign universities such sums are small. A single 
 German University like Strasburg or Leipzig receives above 
 ;^4o,ooo annually, or ;^io,ooo more than all the col- 
 leges of Ireland or of Scotland. Strasburg, for instance, 
 has had her university and its library rebuilt at a cost of 
 _;!^7ii,ooo, and receives an annual subvention of ;;{^43,ooo. 
 In rebuilding the University of Strasburg eight laboratories 
 have been provided, so as to equip it fully with the modern 
 requirements for teaching and research.* Prussia, the most 
 economical nation in the world, spends ^391,000 yearly 
 out of taxation on her universities. 
 
 The recent action of France is still more remarkable. 
 Before the great Revolution France had twenty-three 
 autonomous universities in the provinces. Napoleon de- 
 sired to found one great university at Paris, and he crushed 
 out the others with the hand of a despot, and remodelled 
 the last with the instincts of a drill-sergeant. The central 
 university sank so low that in 1868 it is said that only 
 ;!^8,ooo were spent for true academic purposes. Startled 
 by tlie intellectual sterility shown in the war, France has 
 made gigantic efforts to retrieve her position, and has 
 rebuilt the provincial colleges at a cost of ^3,280,000, while 
 her annual budget for their support now reaches half a 
 million of pounds. In order to open these provincial 
 colleges to the best talent of France, more than five hundred 
 scholarships have been founded at an annual cost of 
 ;i^3o,ooo. France now recognises that it is not by the 
 
 * The cost of these laboratories has been as follows : Chemical 
 
 Institute, ;^35,ooo ; Physical Institute, ^^28,000 ; Botanical Institute, 
 
 ;^26,ooo; Observatory, ;/^2S,ooo ; Anatomy, ;^42,ooo ; Clinical Surgery, 
 
 ^26,000 ; Physiological Chemistry, 16,000 ; Physiological Institute, 
 
 ;^I3,900.
 
 238 ^usyscrs of Social Welfare. 
 
 number of men under arms that she can compete with her 
 great neighbour Germany, so she has determined to equal 
 her in intellect. You will understand why it is that 
 Germany was obliged, even if she had not been willing, to 
 spend such large sums in order to equip the university of 
 her conquered province, Alsace-Lorraine. France and 
 Germany are fully aware that science is the source of wealth 
 and power, and that the only way of advancing it is to 
 encourage universities to make researches, and to spread 
 existing knowledge through the community. Other Euro- 
 pean nations are advancing on the same lines. Switzerland 
 is a remarkable illustration of how a country can compensate 
 itself for its natural disadvantages by a scientific education 
 of its people. Switzerland contains neither coal nor the 
 ordinary raw materials of industry, and is separated from 
 other countries which might supply them by mountain 
 barriers. Yet, by a singulady good system of graded 
 schools, and by the great technical college of Zurich, she 
 has become a prosperous manufacturing country. In Great 
 Britain we have nothing comparable to this technical college, 
 either in magnitude or efficiency. Belgium is reorganising 
 its universities, and the State has freed the localities from 
 the charge of buildings, and will in future equip the uni- 
 versities with efficient teaching resources out of public 
 taxation. Holland, with a population of 4,000,000 and a 
 small revenue of ^^9,000,000, spends ;^i36,ooo on her four 
 universities. Contrast this liberality of foreign countries in 
 the promotion of higher instruction with the action of our 
 own country. Scotland, like Holland, has four universities, 
 and is not very different from it in population, but it only re- 
 ceives ^30,000 from the State. By a special clause in the 
 Scotch Universities Bill the Government asked Parliament 
 to declare that under no circumstances should the Parlia- 
 mentary grant be ever increased above ;^4o,ooo. Accord- 
 ing to the views of the British Treasury there is a finality in 
 science and in expanding knowledge.
 
 Science and the State. 
 
 239 
 
 The wealthy Universities of Oxford and Cambridge are 
 gradually constructing laboratories for science. The mer- 
 chant princes of Manchester have equipped their new- 
 Victoria University with similar laboratories. Edinburgh 
 and Glasgow Universities have also done so, partly at the 
 cost of Government and largely by private subscriptions. 
 The poorer Universities of Aberdeen and St. Andrews are 
 still inefficiently provided with the modern appliances for 
 teaching science. 
 
 London has one small Government college and two 
 chartered colleges, but is wholly destitute of a teaching 
 university. It would excite great astonishment at the 
 Treasury if we were to make the modest request that the 
 great metropolis, with a population of four millions, should 
 be put into as efficient academical position as the town of 
 Strasburg with 104,000 inhabitants, by receiving, as that 
 town does, ;!^43,ooo annually for academic instruction, 
 and ^700,000 for university buildings. Still, the amazing 
 anomaly that London has no teaching university must ere 
 long cease. 
 
 It is a comforting fact that, in spite of the indifference of 
 Parliament, the large towns of tiie kingdom are showing 
 their sense of the need of higher education. Manchester 
 has already its university. Nottingham, Birmingham, Leeds, 
 and Bristol have colleges more or less complete. Liverpool 
 converts a disused lunatic asylum into a college for sane 
 people. Cardiff rents an infirmary for a collegiate building. 
 Dundee, by private benefaction, rears a Baxter College with 
 larger ambitions. All these are healthy signs that the 
 public are determined to have advanced science teaching, 
 but the resources of the institutions are altogether inade- 
 quate to the end in view. Even in the few cases where the 
 laboratories are efficient for teaching purposes, they are 
 inefticient as laboratories for research. Under these circum- 
 stances the Royal Commission on Science advocates special
 
 240 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 Government laboratories for research. Such laboratories, 
 supported by public money, are as legitimate subjects for 
 expenditure as galleries for pictures or sculpture ; but I 
 think that they would not be successful, and would injure 
 science if they failed. It would be safer in the meantime if 
 the State assisted universities or well-established colleges to 
 found laboratories of research under their own care. Even 
 such a proposal shocks our Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 who tells us that this country is burdened with public debt, 
 and has ironclads to build and arsenals to provide. Never- 
 theless our wealth is proportionally much greater than that 
 of foreign States which are competing with so much vigour 
 in the promotion of higher education. They deem such 
 expenditure to be true economy, and do not allow their 
 huge standing armies to be an apology for keeping their 
 people backwards in the march of knowledge. France, 
 which in the last ten years has been spending a million 
 annually on university education, had a war indemnity to 
 pay, and competes successfully with this country in iron- 
 clads. Either all foreign States are strangely deceived in 
 their belief that the competition of the world has become a 
 competition of intellect, or we are marvellously unobservant 
 of the change which is passing over Europe in the higher 
 education of the people. Preparations for war will not 
 ensure to us the blessings and security of an enlightened 
 peace. Protective expenditure may be wise, though produc- 
 tive expenditure is wiser. 
 
 " Were half the powers which fill the world v\ ith terror, 
 Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts 
 Given to redeem the human mind from error- 
 There were no need of arsenals and forts." 
 
 Universities are not mere storehouses of knowledge ; 
 they are also conservatories for its cultivation. In Mexico 
 there is a species of ant which sets apart some of its
 
 Sc/£.yCE AND THE StATE. 24 1 
 
 individuals to act as honey-jars by monstrously extending 
 their abdomens to store the precious fluid till it is wanted 
 by the community. Professors in a university have a higher 
 function, because they ought to make new honey as well as 
 to store it. The widening of the bounds of knowledge, 
 literary or scientific, is the crowning glory of university life. 
 Germany unites the functions of teaching and research in 
 the universities, while France keeps them in separate institu- 
 tions. The former system is best adapted to our habits, 
 but its condition for success is that our science chairs should 
 be greatly increased so that teachers should not be wholly 
 absorbed in the duties of instruction. Germany subdivides 
 the sciences into various chairs, and gives to the professors 
 special laboratories. It also makes it a condition for the 
 higher honours of a university that the candidates shall give 
 proofs of their ability to make original researches. Under 
 such a system, teaching and investigation are not incom- 
 patible. In the evidence before the Science Commission 
 many opinions were given that scientific men engaged in 
 research should not be burdened with the duties of education, 
 and there is much to be said in support of this view when a 
 single professor for the whole range of a physical science is 
 its only representative in a university. I hope that such a 
 system will not long continue, for if it do we must occupy a 
 very inferior position as a nation in the intellectual com- 
 petition of Europe. Research and education in limited 
 branches of higher knowledge are not incompatible. It is 
 true that Galileo complained of the burden imposed upon 
 him by his numerous astronomical pupils, though few other 
 philosophers have echoed this complaint. Newton, who 
 produced order in worlds, and Dalton, who brought atoms 
 under the reign of order and number, rejoiced in their 
 pupils. Lalande spread astronomers as Liebig spread che- 
 mists, and Johannes Miiller biologists, all over the world. 
 Laplace, La Grange, Dulong, Gay-Lussac, Berthollet, 
 Q
 
 242 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 and Dumas, were professors as well as discoverers in 
 France. In England our discoverers have generally been 
 teachers. In fact I recollect only three notable examples of 
 men who were not — Boyle, Cavendish, and Joule. It was 
 so in ancient as well as in modern times, for Plato and 
 Aristotle taught and philosophised. If you do not make the 
 investigator a schoolmaster, as Dalton was, and as practi- 
 cally our professors are at the present time, with the duty of 
 teaching all branches of their sciences, the mere elementary 
 truths as well as the highest generalisations being compressed 
 into a course, it is well that they should be brought into 
 contact with the world in which they live, so as to know its 
 wants and aspirations. They could then quicken the preg- 
 nant minds around them, and extend to others their own 
 power and love of research. Goethe had a fine perception 
 of this when he wrote — 
 
 " Wer in der Weltgeschichte lebt, 
 Wer in die Zeiten schaut, und strebt, 
 Nur der ist wertli, zu sprechen und zu dichten. 
 
 Our universities are still far from the attainment of a 
 proper combination of their resources between teaching and 
 research. Even Oxford and Cambridge, which have done 
 so much in recent years in the equipment of laboratories 
 and in adding to their scientific staff, are still flxr behind a 
 second-class German university. The professional faculties 
 of the English universities are growing, and will diffuse a 
 greater taste for science among their students, though they 
 may absorb the time of the limited professoriate so as to 
 prevent it advancing the boundaries of knowledge. Profes- 
 sional faculties arc absolutely essential to the existence of 
 universities in poor countries like Scotland and Ireland. 
 This has been the case from the early days of the Bologna 
 University up to the present time. Originally universities 
 arose not by mere bulls of popes, but as a response to the
 
 Sa£A-C£ AND THE StATE. 243 
 
 Strong desire of the professional classes to dignify their 
 crafts by real knowledge. If their education had been 
 limited to mere technical schools like the Medical School 
 of Salerno which flourished in the eleventh century, lengtli 
 but not breadth would have been given to education. So 
 the universities wisely joined culture to the professional 
 sciences. Poor countries like Scotland and Ireland must 
 have their academic systems based on the professional 
 faculties, although wealthy universities like Oxford and 
 Cambridge may continue to have them as mere supplements 
 to a more general education. A greater liberality of 
 support on the part of the State in the establishment oi 
 chairs of science, for the sake of science and not merely for 
 the teaching of the professions, would enable the poorer 
 universities to take their part in the advancement of 
 knowledge. 
 
 I have already alluded to the foundation of new colleges 
 in different parts of the kingdom. Owens College has 
 worthily developed into the Victoria University. Formerly 
 she depended for degrees on the University of London. 
 No longer will she be like a moon reflecting cold and sickly 
 rays from a distant luminary, for in future she will be a sun, 
 a centre of intelligence, warming and illuminating the regions 
 around her. The other colleges which have formed them- 
 selves in large manufacturing districts are remarkable ex- 
 pressions from them that science must be promoted. In- 
 cluding the colleges of a high class, such as University 
 College and King's College in London, and the three Queen's 
 Colleges in Ireland, the aggregate attendance of students in 
 colleges without university rank is between nine and ten 
 thousand, while that of the universities is fifteen thousand. 
 No doubt some of the provincial colleges require consider- 
 able improvement in their teaching methods ; sometimes they 
 unwisely aim at a full university curriculum when it would 
 be better for them to act as faculties. Still, they are all 
 Q 2
 
 244 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 growing in the spirit of self-help, and some of them are 
 destined, like Owens College, to develop into universities. 
 This is not a subject of alarm to lovers of education, while 
 it is one of hope and encouragement to the great centres of 
 industry. There are too few autonomous universities in 
 England in proportion to its population. While Scotland, 
 with a population of three and three-quarter millions, has 
 four universities with 6,500 students, England, with twenty- 
 six millions of people, has only the same number of teaching 
 universities with 6,000 students. Unless English colleges 
 have such ambition, they may be turned into mere mills to 
 grind out material for examinations and competitions. 
 Higher colleges should always hold before their students 
 that knowledge, for its own sake, is the only object worthy 
 of reverence. Beyond college life there is a land of research 
 flowing with milk and honey for those who know how to 
 cultivate it. Colleges should at least show a Pisgah view 
 of this Land of Promise, which stretches far beyond the 
 Jordan of examinations and competitions. 
 
 IV. — Science and Industry. 
 
 In the popular mind the value of science is measured by 
 its applications to the useful purposes of Hfe. It is no doubt 
 true that science wears a beautiful aspect when she confers 
 practical benefits upon man. But truer relations of science 
 to industry are implied in Greek mythology. Vulcan, the 
 god of industry, wooed science, in the form of Minerva, with 
 a passionate love, but the chaste goddess never married, 
 although she conferred upon mankind nearly as many arts 
 as Prometheus, who, like other inventors, saw civilisation 
 progressing by their use while he lay groaning in want on 
 Mount Caucasus. The rapid development of industry in 
 modern days depends on the applications of scientific 
 knowledge, while its slower growth in former times was due
 
 Science and the State. 245 
 
 to experiments being made by trial and error in order to 
 gratify the needs of man. Then an experiment was less a 
 questioning of Nature than an exercise on the mind of the 
 experimentalist. True questioning of Nature only arises 
 when intellectual conceptions of the causes of phenomena 
 attach themselves to ascertained facts as well as to their 
 natural environments. Much real science had at one time 
 accumulated in Kgypt^ Greece, Rome, and Arabia, though 
 it became obscured by the intellectual darkness which spread 
 over Europe like a pall for many centuries. The mental 
 results of Greek science, filtered through the Romans and 
 Arabians, gradually fertilised the soil of Europe. Even in 
 ages which are deemed to be dark and unprolific, substantial 
 though slow progress was made. By the end of the fifteenth 
 century the mathematics of the Alexandrian school had 
 become the possession of Western Europe ; Arabic numerals, 
 algebra, trigonometry, decimal reckoning, and an improved 
 calendar, having been added to its stock of knowledge. 
 The old discoveries of Democritus and Archimedes in 
 physics, and of Hipi)archus and Ptolemy in astronomy, were 
 producing their natural developments, though with great 
 slowness. Many manufactures, growing chiefly by ex- 
 perience, and occasionally lightened up by glimmerings of 
 science throughout the prevailing darkness, had arisen 
 before the sixteenth century. A knowledge of the pro- 
 perties of bodies, though scarcely of their relations to each 
 other, came through the labours of the alchemists, who had 
 a mighty impulse to work, for by the philosopher's stone, 
 often not larger than half a rape-seed, they hoped to attain 
 the three sensuous conditions of human enjoyment — gold, 
 health, and immortality. By the end of the fifteenth century 
 many important manufactures were founded by empirical 
 exjicriment, with only the uncertain guidance of science. 
 These manufactures arose from an increased knowledge of 
 facts, around which scientific conceptions were slowly
 
 246 Si^£7£CTS OF Social IVelfare. 
 
 concreting. Aristotle defines this as science when he says, 
 " Art begins when, from a great number of experiences, one 
 general conception is formed which will embrace all similar 
 cases." Such conceptions are formed only when culture 
 develops the human mind and compels it to give a rational 
 account of the world in which man lives, and of the objects 
 in and around it, as well as of the phenomena which govern 
 their action and evolution. Though the accumulation of 
 facts is indispensable to the growth of science, a thousand 
 facts are of less value to human progress than is a single 
 one when it is scientifically comprehended, for it then be- 
 comes generalised in all similar cases. Isolated facts may be 
 viewed as the dust of science. The dust which floats in the 
 atmosphere is to the common observer mere incoherent 
 matter in wrong place, while to the man of science it is all- 
 important when the rays of heat and light act upon its 
 floating particles. It is by them that clouds and rains are 
 influenced ; it is by their selective influence on the solar 
 waves that the blue of the heavens and the beauteous colours 
 of the sky glorify all Nature. So, also, ascertained though 
 isolated facts, forming the dust of science, become the 
 reflecting media of the light of knowledge, and cause all 
 Nature to assume a new aspect. It is with the light of 
 knowledge that we are enabled to question Nature through 
 direct experiment. The hypothesis or theory which induces 
 us to put the experimental tjuestion may be right or wrong ; 
 still, priidens qiicestio dimidium scient'uc est — it is half way 
 to knowledge when you know what you have to inquire. 
 Davy described hypothesis as the mere scaffolding of science, 
 useful to build up true knowledge, but capable of being put 
 up or taken down at pleasure. Undoubtedly a theory is 
 only temporary, and the reason is, as Bacon has said, that 
 the man of science " loveth truth more than his theory." 
 The changing theories which the world despises are the 
 leaves of the tree of science drawing nutriment to the parent
 
 Science and the State. 247 
 
 stems, and enabling it to put forth new branches and to 
 produce fruit ; though the leaves fall and decay, the very- 
 products of decay nourish the roots of the tree and reappear 
 in the new leaves or theories which succeed. 
 
 When the questioning of Nature by intelligent experi- 
 ment has raised a system of science, then those men who 
 desire to apply it to industrial inventions proceed by the 
 same methods to make rapid progress in the arts. They 
 also must have means to compel Nature to reveal her secrets. 
 .•Eneas succeeded in his great enterprise by plucking a golden 
 branch from the tree of science. Armed with this, even dread 
 Charon dared not refuse him a passage across the Styx ; and 
 the gate of the Elysian fields was unbarred when he hung 
 the branch on its portal. Then new aspects of Nature 
 were revealed — 
 
 " Another sun and stars they know 
 That shine like ours, but shine below." 
 
 It is by carrying such a golden branch from the tree of 
 science that inventors are able to advance the arts. In 
 illustration of how slowly at first and how rapidly afterwards 
 science and its applications arise, I will take only two out of 
 thousands of examples which lie ready to my hand. One of 
 the most familiar instances is air, for that surely should have 
 been soon understood if man's unaided senses are sufficient 
 for knowledge. Air has been under the notice of mankind 
 ever since the first man drew his first breath. It meets him 
 at ever)' turn ; it fans him with gentle breeze<;, and it buffets 
 him with storms. And yet it is certain that this familiar 
 object — air — is very imperfectly understood up to the pre- 
 sent time. We now know by recent researches that air can 
 1)6 liquefied by pressure and cold ; but as a child still looks 
 upon air as nothing, so did man in his early state. A vessel 
 filled with air was deemed to be empty. Man, as soon as 
 he began to speculate, felt the importance of air, and deemed
 
 248 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 it to be a soul of the world upon which the respiration of 
 man and the god-like quality of fire depended. Yet a really 
 intelligent conception of these two essential conditions to 
 man's existence — respiration and combustion — was not 
 formed till about a century ago (1775). No doubt long 
 before that time there had been abundant speculations 
 regarding air. Anaxiuienes, 548 years before Christ, and 
 Diogenes of Apollonia, a century later, studied the pro- 
 perties of air so far as their senses would allow them ; so, in 
 fact, did Aristotle. Actual scientific experiments were made 
 on air about the year 1 100 by a remarkable Saracen, Alhazen, 
 who ascertained important truths which enabled Galileo, 
 Torricelli, Otto de Guericke, and others, at a later period to 
 discover laws leading to important practical applications. 
 Still there was no intelligent conception as to the composition 
 of air until Priestley in 1774 repeated, with the light of science, 
 an empirical observation which Eck de Sulbach had made 
 three hundred years before upon the union of mercury with 
 an ingredient of air and the decomposition of this compound 
 by heat. This experiment now proved that the active 
 element in air is oxygen. From that date our knowledge, 
 derived from an intelligent questioning of air by direct 
 experiments, has gone on by leaps and bounds. The air, 
 which mainly consists of nitrogen and oxygen, is now known 
 to contain carbonic acid, ammonia, nitric acid, ozone, be- 
 sides hosts of living organisms which have a vast influence 
 for good or evil in the economy of the world. These micro- 
 organisms, the latest contribution to our knowledge of air, 
 perform great analytical functions in organic nature, and are 
 the means of converting much of its potential energy into 
 actual energy. Through their action on dead matter the 
 mutual dependence of plants and animals is secured. 
 
 The consequences of the progressive discoveries have 
 added largely to our knowledge of life, and have given a 
 marvellous development to the industrial arts. Combustion
 
 Science and the State. 249 
 
 and respiration govern a wide range of processes. The 
 economical use of fuel, the growth of plants, the food of 
 animals, the processes of husbandry, the maintenance of 
 public health, the origin and cure of disease, the production 
 of alcoholic drinks, the methods of making vinegar and 
 saltpetre — all these and many other kinds of knowledge 
 have been brought under the dominion of the law. No 
 doubt animals respired, fuel burned, plants grew, sugar fer- 
 mented, before we knew how they depended upon air. As 
 the knowledge was empirical, it could not be intelligently 
 directed. Now all these processes are ranged in order 
 under a wise economy of Nature, and can be directed to 
 the utilities of life ; for it is true, as Swedenborg says, that 
 " human ends always ascend as Nature descends." There 
 is scarcely a large industry in the world which has not 
 received a mighty impulse by the better knowledge of air 
 acquired within a hundred years. If I had time I could 
 show still more strikingly the industrial advantages which 
 have followed from Cavendish's discovery of the composition 
 of water. I wish that I could have done this, because it 
 was Addison who foolishly said, and Paley who as unwisely 
 approved the remark, " that mankind required to know no 
 more about water than the temperature at which it froze and 
 boiled, and the mode of making steam." 
 
 When we examine the order of progress in the arts, even 
 before they are illuminated by science, their improvements 
 seem to be the resultants of three conditions. 
 
 1. The substitution of natural forces for brute animal 
 power, as when Hercules used the waters of the Alpheus to 
 cleanse the Augean stables ; or when a Kamchadal of 
 Eastern Asia, who has been three years hollowing out a 
 canoe, finds that he can do it in a few hours by fire. 
 
 2. The economy of time, as when a calendering machine 
 produces the same gloss to miles of calico that an African 
 savage gives to a few inches by rubbing it with the shell of a
 
 250 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 snail; or the economy of production, as when steel pens, 
 sold when first introduced at one shilling apiece, are now 
 sold at a penny per dozen ; or when steel rails, lately cost- 
 ing ;^45 per ton, can now be sold at ;£^. 
 
 3. Methods of utilising waste products, or of endowing 
 them with properties which render them of increased value 
 to industry, as when waste scrap iron and the galls on the 
 oak are converted into ink ; or the badly-smelling waste of 
 gasworks is transformed into fragrant essences, brilliant 
 dyes, and fertilising manure ; or when the effete matter of 
 animals or old bones is changed into lucifer-matches. 
 
 All three results are often combined when a single end 
 is obtained — at all events, economy of time and production 
 invariably follows when natural forces substitute brute 
 animal force. In industrial progress the sweat of the brow 
 is lessened by the conceptions of the brain. How exultant 
 is the old Greek poet, Antipater,* when women are relieved 
 of the drudgery of turning the grindstones for the daily 
 supply of corn. " Woman ! you who have hitherto had to 
 grind corn, let your arms rest for the future. It is no longer 
 for you that the birds announce by their songs the dawn of 
 the morning. Ceres has ordered the water-?iymj>hs to move 
 the heavy millstones and perform your labour." Penelope 
 had twelve slaves to grind corn for her small household. 
 During the most prosperous time of Athens it was estimated 
 that there were twenty slaves to each free citizen. Slaves 
 are mere machines, and machines neither invent nor dis- 
 cover. The bondmen of the Jews, the helots of Sparta, the 
 captive slaves of Rome, the serfs of Europe, and uneducated 
 labourers of the present day who are the slaves of ignorance, 
 have added nothing to human progress. As natural forces 
 substitute and become cheaper than slave labour, liberty 
 follows advancing civilisation. Machines require educated 
 
 * Analccta Veterum Grtxconim, Epig. 39, vol. ii. p. 119.
 
 Science and the State. 251 
 
 superintendence. One shoe factory in Boston by its machines 
 does the work of thirty thousand shoemakers in Paris who 
 have still to go through the weary drudgery of mechanical 
 labour. The steam power of the world, during the last 
 twenty years, has risen from eleven and a half million to 
 twenty-nine million horse-power, or 152 per cent. 
 
 Let me take a single example of how even a petty manu- 
 facture, improved by the teachings of science, affects the 
 comforts and enlarges the resources of mankind. When 
 I was a boy, the only way of obtaining a light was by the 
 tinder-box, with its quadruple materials, flint and steel, 
 burnt rags or tinder, and a sulphur-match. If everything 
 went well, if the box could be found and the air was dry, a 
 light could be obtained in two minutes ; but very often the 
 time occupied was much longer, and the process became a 
 great trial to the serenity of temper. The consequence of 
 this was that a fire or a burning lamp was kept alight through 
 the day. Old Gerard, in his " Herbal," tells us how certain 
 fungi were used to carry fire from one part of the country to 
 the other. The tinder-box long held its position as a great 
 discovery in the arts. The Pyxidiaila Igniaria of the Romans 
 appears to have been much the same implement, though a 
 little ruder, than the flint and steel which Philip the Good 
 put into the collar of the Golden Fleece in 1429 as a repre- 
 sentation of high knowledge in the progress of the arts. It 
 continued to prevail till 1833, when phosphorus-matches 
 were introduced, though I have been amused to find that 
 there are a few venerable ancients in London who still stick 
 to the tinder-box, and for whom a few shops keep a small 
 supply. Phosphorus was no new discovery, for it had been 
 obtained by an Arabian called Pechel in the eighth century. 
 However, it was forgotten, and was re-discovered by Brandt, 
 who made it out of very stinking materials in 1669. Other 
 discoveries had, however, to oe made before it could be used 
 for lucifer-matches. The science of combustion was only
 
 252 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 developed on the discovery of oxygen a century later. Time 
 had to elapse before chemical analysis showed the kind of 
 bodies which could be added to phosphorus so as to make 
 it ignite readily. So it was not till 1833 that matches be- 
 came a partial success. Intolerably bad they then were, 
 dangerously inflammable, horribly poisonous to the makers, 
 and injurious to the lungs of the consumers. It required 
 another discovery by Schrotter, in 1845, to change poisonous 
 waxy into innocuous red-brick phosphorus in order that 
 these defects might be remedied, and to give us the safety- 
 match of the present day. Now what have these successive 
 discoveries in science done for the nation, in this single 
 manufacture, by an economy of time ? If before 1833 we 
 had made the same demands for light that we now do, when 
 we daily consume eight matches per head of the population, 
 the tinder-box could have supplied the demand under the 
 most favourable conditions by an expenditure of one quarter 
 of an hour. The lucifer-match supplies a light in fifteen 
 seconds on each occasion, or in two minutes for the whole 
 day. Putting these differences into a year, the venerable ancient 
 who still sticks to his tinder-box would require to spend 
 ninety hours yearly in the production of light, while the user 
 of lucifer-matches spends twelve hours ; so that the latter 
 has an economy of seventy-eight hours yearly, or about ten 
 working days. Measured by cost of production at one 
 shilling and sixpence daily, the economy of time represented 
 in money to our population is twenty-six millions of pounds 
 annually. This is a curious instance of the manner in which 
 science leads to economy of time and wealth even in a small 
 manufacture. In larger industries the economy of time and 
 labour produced by the application of scientific discoveries 
 is beyond all measurement. Thus the discovery of latent 
 heat by Black led to the inventions of Watt ; while that of 
 the mechanical equivalent of heat by Joule has been the 
 basis of the j)rogressive improvements in the steam-engine
 
 SCJENCE AND THE StATE. 253 
 
 which enables power to be obtained by a consumption of 
 fuel less than one-fourth the amount used twenty years ago. 
 It maybe that the engines of Watt and Stephenson will yield 
 in their turn to more economical motors ; still they have 
 already expanded the wealth, resources, and even the terri- 
 tories of England, more than all the battles fought by her 
 soldiers, or all the treaties negotiated by her diplomatists. 
 
 The coal which has hitherto been the chief source of 
 power probably represents the product of five or six million 
 years during which the sun shone upon the plants of the 
 carboniferous period, and stored up its energy in this con- 
 venient form. We are using this conserved force wastefully 
 and prodigally ; for although horse-power in steam engines 
 has so largely increased since 1864, we only apply a small 
 portion of the power existing in coal. It is only three 
 hundred years since we became a manufacturing country. 
 According to Professor Dewar, in less than two hundred 
 years more the coal of this country will be wholly exhausted, 
 and in half that time will be difficult to procure. Our not 
 very distant descendants will have to face the problem — 
 "\^'hat will be the condition of England without coal ? The 
 answer to that question depends upon the intellectual de- 
 velopment of the nation at that time. The value of the 
 intellectual factor of production is continually increasing ; 
 while the values of raw material and fuel are lessening 
 factors. It may be that when the dreaded time of exhausted 
 fuel has arrived, its importation from other coal-fields, such 
 as those of New South Wales, or the supply of petroleum 
 from America or the borders of the Caspian Sea, will be so 
 easy and cheap, that the increased technical education of 
 our operatives may largely overbalance the disadvantages of 
 increased cost in fuel. But this supposes that future 
 Governments in England will have more enlightened views 
 as to the value of science than past Governments have pos- 
 sessed.
 
 254 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 Industrial applications are but the overflowings of science 
 welling over from the fulness of its measure. Few would 
 ask now, as w^as constantly done a few years ago, " What is 
 the use of an abstract discovery in science ? " Faraday once 
 answered this question by another, " What is the use of a 
 baby?" Yet round that baby centre all the hopes and 
 sentiments of his parents, and even the interests of the 
 State, which interferes in its upbringing so as to ensure it 
 being a capable citizen. The processes of mind which pro- 
 duce a discovery or an invention are rarely associated in the 
 same person, for while the discoverer seeks to explain causes 
 and the relations of phenomena, the inventor aims at pro- 
 ducing new effects, or at least of obtaining them in a novel 
 and efficient way. In this the inventor may sometimes suc- 
 ceed without much knowledge of science, though his labours 
 are infinitely more productive when he understands the 
 causes of the effects which he desires to produce. 
 
 A nation in its industrial progress, when the competition 
 of the world is keen, cannot stand still. Three conditions 
 only are possible for it. It may go forward, retrograde, or 
 perish. Its extinction as a great nation follows its neglect 
 of higher education, for, as described in the proverb of 
 Solomon, "They that hate instruction love death." In 
 sociology, as in biology, there are three states. The first of 
 balance, when things grow neither better nor worse; the 
 second that of elaboration or evolution, as we see it when 
 animals adapt themselves to their environments ; and third, 
 that of degeneration, when they rapidly lose the ground they 
 have made. For a nation, a state of balance is only possi- 
 ble in the early stage of its existence, but it is impossible 
 when its environments are constantly changing. 
 
 The possession of the raw m.aterials of industry and the 
 existence of a surplus population are important factors for 
 the growth of manufactures in the early history of a nation, 
 but afterwards they are bound up with another factor — the
 
 Sc/E.VC£ AND THE StaTE. 255 
 
 application of intellect to their development. England 
 could not be called a manufacturing nation till the Eliza- 
 bethan age. No doubt coal, iron, and wool, were in abund- 
 ance, though, in the reign of the Plantagenets, they pro- 
 duced little prosperity. Wool was sent to Flanders to be 
 manufactured, for England then stood to Holland as 
 Australia now does to Yorkshire. The political crimes of 
 Spain from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella to that of 
 Philip III. destroyed it as a great manufacturing nation, and 
 indirectly led to England taking its position. After that 
 period cotton mixed with linen and wool became freely 
 used, but it was only from 17 38 to the end of the century 
 that the inventions of Wyatt, Arkwright, Hargreaves, 
 Crompton, and Cartwright, started the wonderful modern 
 development. The raw cotton was imported from India or 
 America, though that fact as regards costs was a small factor 
 in comparison with the intellect required to convert it into 
 a utility. Science has, in the last hundred years, altered 
 altogether the old conditions of industrial competition. She 
 has taught the rigid metals to convey and record our 
 thoughts even to the most distant lands, and, within less 
 limits to reproduce our speech. This marvellous applica- 
 tion of electricity has diminished the cares and responsi- 
 bilities of Governments, while it has at the same time altered 
 the whole practice of commerce. To England steam and 
 electricity have been of incalculable advantage. The ocean, 
 which once made the country insular and isolated, is now 
 the very life-blood of England and of the greater England 
 beyond the seas. As in the human body the blood bathes 
 all its parts, and through its travelling corpuscles carries 
 force to all its members, so in the body politic of England 
 and its pelagic extensions, steam has become the circulatory 
 and electricity the nervous system. The colonies, being 
 young countries, value their raw materials as their chief 
 sources of wealth. When they become older they will
 
 256 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 discover it is not in these, but in the culture of scientific in- 
 tellect, that their future prosperity depends. Older nations 
 recognise this as the law of progress more than we do ; 
 or, as Jules Simon tersely puts it — "That nation which 
 most educates her people will become the greatest nation, 
 if not to day, certainly to-morrow." Higher education is 
 the condition of higher prosperity, and the nation which 
 neglects to develop the intellectual factor of production 
 must degenerate, for it cannot stand still. If we felt com- 
 pelled to adopt the test of science given by Comte, that its 
 value must be measured by fecundity, it might be prudent 
 to claim industrial inventions as the immediate fruit of the 
 tree of science, though the only fruit which the prolific tree has 
 shed. The test is untrue in the sense indicated, or rather 
 the fruit, according to the simile of Bacon, is like the 
 golden apples which Aphrodite gave to the suitor of Atalanta, 
 who lagged in her course by stooping to pick them up, and 
 so lost the race. The true cultivators of the tree of science 
 must seek their own reward by seeing it flourish, and let 
 others devote their attention to the possible practical advan- 
 tages which may result from their labours. 
 
 There is, however, one intimate connection between 
 science and industry which I hope will be more intimate as 
 scientific education becomes more prevalent in our schools 
 and universities. Abstract science depends on the support 
 of men of leisure, either themselves possessing or having 
 provided for them the means of living without entering 
 into the pursuits of active industry. The pursuit of science 
 rec^uires a superfluity of wealth in a community beyond 
 the needs of ordinary life. Such superfluity is also ne- 
 cessary for art, though a picture or a statue is a saleable 
 commodity, while an abstract discovery in science has no 
 immediate, or, as regards the discoverer, proximate commer- 
 cial value. In Greece, when philosophical and scientific 
 speculation was at its highest point, and when education
 
 Sc/EKCE AXD THE StATE. 257 
 
 was conducted in its own vernacular, and not through 
 dead languages, science, industry, and commerce were 
 actively prosperous. Their philosophers were the sons of 
 burghers, and generally carried on the trades of their fathers. 
 Now, if our universities and schools created that love of 
 science which a broad education would surely inspire, our 
 men of riches and leisure who advance the boundaries of 
 scientific knowledge could not be counted on the fingers as 
 they now are, when we think of Boyle, Cavendish, Najjier, 
 Lyell, Murchison, and Darwin, but would be as numerous as 
 our statesmen and orators. Statesmen, without a following 
 of the people who share their views and back their work, 
 would be feeble indeed. But while England has never 
 lacked leaders in science, they have too few followers to 
 risk a rapid march. "We might create an army to support 
 our generals in science, as Germany has done, and as 
 France is now doing, if education in this country would only 
 mould itself to the needs of a scientific age. It is with 
 this feeling that Horace Mann wrote : — '' The action of the 
 mind is like the action of fire ; one billet of wood will 
 hardly burn alone, though as dry as the sun and north-west 
 wind can make it, and though placed in a current of air ; 
 ten such billets will burn well together, but a hundred will 
 create a heat fifty times as intense as ten — will make a 
 current of air to fan their own flame, and consume even 
 greenness itself." 
 
 V. — Abstract Science the Condition for Progress. 
 
 The subject of my address has been the relations of 
 science to the public weal. That is a very old subject to 
 select for the year 1885. I began it by quoting the words 
 of an illustrious prince, the consort of our Queen, who ad- 
 dressed us on the same subject from this platform twenty-six 
 years ago. He was not the first prince who saw how closely 
 science is bound up with the welfare of States. Ali, the son- 
 
 R
 
 258 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 in-law of Mahomet, the fourth successor to the CaHphate, 
 urged upon his followers that men of science and their 
 disciples give security to human progress. Ali loved to 
 say, " Eminence in science is the highest of honours," and 
 " He dies not who gives life to learning." In addressing 
 you upon texts such as these, my purpose was to show how 
 unwise it is for England to lag in the onward march of 
 science Avhen most other European Powers are using the 
 resources of their States to promote higher education and to 
 advance the boundaries of knowledge. English Govern- 
 ments alone fail to grasp the fact that the competition of 
 the world has become a competition in intellect. Much of 
 this indifference is due to our systems of education. I have 
 ill fulfilled my purpose if, in claiming for science a larger 
 share in public education, 1 have in any way depreciated 
 literature, art, or philosophy, for every subject which adds 
 to culture aids in human development. I only contend 
 that in public education there should be a free play to the 
 scientific faculty, so that the youths who possess it should 
 learn the richness of their possession during the educative 
 process. The same faculties which make a man great in 
 any walk of life — strong love of truth, high imagination 
 tempered by judgment, a vivid memory which can co- 
 ordinate other facts with those under immediate con- 
 sideration — all these are qualities which the poet, the 
 philosopher, the man of literature, and the man of science, 
 equally require and should cultivate through all parts of 
 their education as well as in their future careers. My con- 
 tention is that science should not be practically shut out 
 from the view of a youth while his education is in progress, 
 for the public weal requires that a large number of scientific 
 men should belong to the community. This is neces- 
 sary because science has impressed its character upon the 
 age in which we live, and as science is not stationary but 
 progressive, men are required to advance its boundaries,
 
 SCIEXCE AND THE StATE. 259 
 
 acting as pioneers in the onward march of States. Human 
 progress is so identified with scientific thought, both in its 
 conception and realisation, that it seems as if they were 
 alternative terms in the history of civilisation. In literature, 
 and even in art, a standard of excellence has been attained 
 which we are content to imitate because we have been un- 
 able to surpass. There is no such standard in science. 
 Formerly, when the dark cloud was being dissipated w^hich 
 had obscured the learning of Greece and Rome, the diffusion 
 of literature or the discovery of lost authors had a marked 
 influence on advancing civilisation. Now, a Chrysoloras 
 might teach Greek in the Italian universities without hasten- 
 ing sensibly the onward march of Italy ; a Poggio might 
 discover copies of Lucretius and Quintilian witliout exercis- 
 ing a tithe of the influence on modern life that an invention 
 by Stephenson or Wheatstone would produce. Nevertheless, 
 the divorce of culture and science, which the present state 
 of education in this country tends to produce, is deeply to 
 be deplored, because a cultured intelligence adds greatly to 
 the development of the scientific faculty. My argument is 
 that no amount of learning without science suffices in tha 
 present state of the world to put us in a position which will 
 enable England to keep ahead or even on a level with 
 foreign nations as regards knowledge and its applications to 
 the utilities of life. Take the example of any man of learn- 
 ing, and see how soon the direct consequences resulting 
 from his learning disappear in the life of a nation, while the 
 discoveries of a man of science remain productive amid all 
 the shocks of empire. As I am in Aberdeen, I remember 
 that the learned Dutchman Erasmus was introduced to 
 England by the encouragement which he received from Hector 
 Boece, the Principal of King's College in this university. 
 Yet even in the case of Erasmus — who taught Greek at 
 Cambridge, and did so much for the revival of classical 
 literature as well as in the promotion of spiritual freedom — 
 
 R 2
 
 2 6o SusyECTs OF Social Welfare. 
 
 how little has civilisation to ascribe to him in comparison 
 with the discoveries of two other Cambridge men, Newton 
 and Cavendish. The discoveries of Newton will influence 
 the destinies of mankind to the end of the world. When 
 he established the laws by which the motions of the great 
 masses of matter in the universe are governed, he conferred 
 an incalculable benefit upon the intellectual development of 
 the human race. No great discovery flashes upon the world 
 at once, and therefore Pope's lines on Newton are only a 
 poetic fancy : — 
 
 " Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night, 
 God said, ' Let Newton be,' and all was light." 
 
 No doubt the road upon which he travelled had been long 
 in preparation by other men. The exact observations of 
 Tycho Brahe, coupled with the discoveries of Copernicus, 
 Kepler, and Galileo, had already broken down the authority 
 of Aristotle and weakened that of the Church. Though the 
 conceptions of the universe were thus broadened, mankind 
 had not yet rid themselves of the idea that the powers 
 of the universe were still regulated by spirits or special 
 providences. Even Kepler moved the planets by spirits, 
 and it took some time to knock these celestial steersmen on 
 the head. Descartes, who really did so much by his writ- 
 ings to force the conclusion that the planetary movements 
 should be dealt with as an ordinary problem irt mechanics, 
 looked upon the universe as a machine, the wheels of which 
 were kept in motion by the unceasing exercise of a divine 
 power. Such theories were only an attempt to regulate the 
 universe by celestial intelligences like our own, and by 
 standards within our reach. It required the discovery of 
 an all-pervading law, universal throughout all space, to en- 
 large the thoughts of men, and one which, while it widened 
 the conceptions of the universe, reduced the earth and 
 solar system to true dimensions. It is by the investiga-
 
 Sc/E.XCj; AND THE StATE. 26 1 
 
 tions of the finite on all sides that we obtain a higher 
 conception of the infinite — 
 
 " Willst du ins Unendliche schreiten, 
 Geh nur im Endlichen nach alien Seiten." 
 
 Ecclesiastical authority had been already undermined by 
 earnest inquirers such as Wycliffe and Huss before Luther 
 shook the pillars of the Vatican. They were removers of 
 abuses, but were confined within the circles of their own 
 beliefs. Newton's discovery cast men's minds into an 
 entirely new mould, and levelled many barriers to human 
 progress. This intellectual result was vastly more important 
 than the practical advantages of the discovery. It is true 
 that navigation and commerce mightily benefited by our 
 better knowledge of the motions of the heavenly bodies. 
 Still, these benefits to humanity are incomparably less in 
 the history of progress than the expansion of the human 
 intellect which followed the withdrawal of the cramps that 
 confined it. Truth was now able to discard authority, and 
 marched forward without hindrance. Before this point was 
 reached Bruno had been burned, Galileo had abjured, and 
 both Copernicus and Descartes had kept back their writings 
 for fear of offending the Church. 
 
 The recent acceptance of evolution in biology has had a 
 like effect in producing a far profounder intellectual change 
 in human thought than any mere impulse of industrial de- 
 velopment. Already its application to sociology and educa- 
 tion is recognised, though that is of less import to human 
 progress than the broadening of our views of Nature. 
 
 Abstract discovery in science is then the true foundation 
 upon which the superstructure of modern civilisation is 
 built ; and the man who would take part in it should study 
 science, and if he can advance it for its own sake and not 
 for its applications. Ignorance may walk in the path lighted
 
 262 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 by advancing knowledge, but she is unable to follow when 
 science passes her, for, like the foolish virgin, she has no oil 
 in her lamp. 
 
 An established truth in science is like the constitution 
 of an atom in matter — something so fixed in the order of 
 things that it has become independent of further dangers in 
 the struggle for existence. The sum of such truths forms 
 the intellectual treasure which descends to each generation 
 in hereditary succession. Though the discoverer of a new 
 truth is a benefactor to humanity, he can give little to 
 futurity in comparison with the wealth of knowledge which 
 he inherited from the past. We, in our generation, should 
 appreciate and use our great possessions — 
 
 " For me your tributary stores combine, 
 Creation's heir ; the world, the world is mine."
 
 PETROLEUM THE LIGHT OF THE 
 POOR. 
 
 Note. — This Article appeared in Good Words, March, 18S4. 
 
 Petroleum {petri oleitni, rock oil) has, within the last gene- 
 ration, been the chief source of hght to the poor classes in 
 many countries, and soon it may compete with coal as a 
 source of power in steamships and railways. It may, there- 
 fore, be interesting to the readers of this article to know 
 some facts in regard to it from a writer who had some 
 influence in bringing petroleum and its products into eco- 
 nomic use in this country. 
 
 Petroleum has been known in some parts of the earth, 
 where it occurs native, from the earliest periods of human 
 history. The sacred fires of the sun-worshippers were fed 
 by the gases which issue from it. The asphalte left by its 
 evaporation was the basis of the mortar with which Nineveh 
 and Babylon were built. It seems to be frequently referred 
 to in the Bible, though biblical chemistry is much obscured 
 by bad translation. As an instance of this, carbonate of 
 soda, when referred to, is translated nitre, and is made to 
 do things impossible to that substance. Thus Solomon 
 tells us that as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth 
 songs to a heavy heart. This has no meaning, for vinegar 
 does nothing to nitre ; but it causes a lively and unpleasant 
 commotion when poured upon soda {viirpov). So also 
 when Jeremiah speaks of washing with nitre and soap, there 
 is no meaning ; though soda and soap are used constantly
 
 264 SuByECTS OF Social JVelfare. 
 
 in this relation. It is thus that petroleum in the Bible is 
 concealed under the general word " salt." That word is 
 both generic and specific in all countries. In the latter 
 limited sense it is sea or kitchen salt. In the more general 
 sense it includes a vast number of substances, of which 
 Epsom salt and Glauber salt are familiar examples. The 
 connection of salt with petroleum, in biblical language, 
 begins early in Genesis, when the Dead Sea, or Lake of 
 Sodom, is called the Salt Sea. That sea abounds in pe- 
 troleum springs, and has asphalte on its ancient shores. 
 Accordingly it has also been called the Lake Asphaltites. 
 Many things become comprehensible if we take the generic 
 term " salt," and apply it to petroleum and its residue, 
 asphalte. Lot's wife, if convened into a pillar of common 
 salt, would have been washed away by the first shower of 
 rain ; but a pillar of asphalte, even as a memorial of her, 
 would have been an enduring monument, and might have 
 been seen by Josephus and his contemporary, Clement of 
 Rome, both of whom declare that they saw it. So also 
 when we are told by Mark that " every one shall be salted 
 with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt," I see 
 a meaning only when I recollect that, in regions containing 
 petroleum, sacrificial fires were fed with this fuel to aid the 
 burning. In like manner, when Matthew likens the blessed, 
 first to salt, and immediately afterwards to a lighted torch 
 (for candles, as translated, were then unknown), I see the 
 connection in his mind. He had just said tlu.t salt which 
 had lost its savour was only fit to be trodden under foot 
 of men. Now salt never does lose its savour, and is never 
 fit to be trodden under foot. But petroleum does lose its 
 essence by exposure, and out of the residue the ancients 
 used to make asphalte pavements, as they do at the present 
 day. I only give some reasons for my belief that the salt of 
 the Bible, in its generic sense, was often applied to petro- 
 leum; but I admit at the same time that the readers of
 
 Petroleum the Light of the Poor. 265 
 
 this article ought not to attach much importance to my 
 opinions on any subject of biblical criticism. In the 
 Apocrypha petroleum is called '"thick water." There 
 is a remarkable description of it in Maccabees (Mace. II. 
 ch. i. vv. 19 to 36). It shows not only how it was used 
 in burnt sacrifices, but also how the modern word 
 " naphtha " arose. Neemias was searching for the sacred 
 fire and was taken to a pit in which there was " thick water." 
 This he poured on the sacrifice, and when the sun came from 
 behind a cloud, it took fire, and burnt the sacrifice. " And 
 Neemias called this thing Napthar, which is as much as 
 to say a cleansing : but many men call it Nephi." 
 
 Petroleum occurs as a greenish or dark-coloured fluid in 
 many countries. In small quantity it occasionally occurs 
 in England. I found a well of it in Derbyshire in 1846, 
 and induced the late Mr. Young to establish a manufac- 
 tory of burning oil, and ultimately of paraffin candles. This 
 suggestion led gradually, in his energetic hands, to the 
 great petroleum industry which has carried cheap light into 
 the houses of the poor. The small supply of native 
 petroleum of Derbyshire soon became exhausted, but the 
 discovery that it could be distilled out of Boghead coal and 
 bituminous shales gave a great impulse to its manufacture. 
 In 1859 America began to introduce native petroleum from 
 Pennsylvanian wells. During that year eighty thousand 
 barrels were supplied to commerce, and that quantity was 
 thought to be immense, though it was insignificant compared 
 with the present supply, which has reached seventy-seven 
 million gallons. Other copious supplies of native petroleum 
 have been found in India, Burmah, and the Caucasian lands 
 about the Caspian Sea. The last source of supply is of such 
 extraordinary magnitude that I will refer to it more in detail 
 at a later part of this article. I may mention, however, that 
 at Surakhani, on the western shore of the Caspian, sacred 
 fires have been burning probably longer than recorded
 
 266 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 history. The priests allege that the fires in their temple, fed 
 by gas issuing from the petroleum below, have burned with- 
 out cessation since four hundred years before Christ. 
 
 Before, however, describing the uses of petroleum, I 
 ought to say something as to its probable origin. This is 
 not thoroughly understood. When we prepare artificial 
 petroleum, we distil, at a low red heat, the remains of 
 organic substances such as highly bituminous coals or shales. 
 We know that coal has been produced by plant life, so, 
 when we extract petroleum from it, we naturally look to or- 
 ganic matters as its ultimate source. Nevertheless, petroleum 
 occurs in many geological formations where organic life 
 has only sparsely existed. If petroleum be a result of 
 a slow distillation of organic matter, where are the re- 
 sidues of distillation ? They are never found in the borings 
 for wells. Nor does petroleum when examined by the 
 microscope exhibit the least traces of organised structures. 
 
 The range of geological formations in which petroleum 
 is found is considerable. In the Caspian Sea it is found in 
 tertiary sands, having a comparatively modern origin in a 
 geological sense. But, in Canada, it occurs as low down 
 as the Silurian formation and in the lower parts of the De- 
 vonian, while in Pennsylvania it is in the upper series of 
 the Devonian, below the coal measures. An elementary 
 knowledge of geology shows us that these facts render it 
 difficult to connect petroleum with pre-existing organic 
 debris. Ordinary rocks result from the waste of pre-existing 
 systems, or are pushed up by volcanic energy from central 
 depths. Neptunists could not explain the formation of 
 petroleum by aqueous action ; for it is so light that it would 
 float on the top of water, and would not be buried by de- 
 j)osit. Vulcanists of the old school would be equally per- 
 plexed, because petroleum is so volatile that heat would 
 convert it into vapour, and it would be dissipated. Indeed, 
 I recollect an instance of this kind in a quarry near Dysart, .
 
 Petroleum the Light of the Poor. idi 
 
 in Fifeshire, where every fragment of stone freshly-broken 
 smelt of petroleum. 
 
 Is then petroleum cosmic? Perhaps the question is 
 not so absurd as it appears. Recent observations on the 
 tail of the great comet which adorned the heavens not long 
 since showed that it contained hydrocarbons very similar to 
 petroleum. I do not mean to indicate that the comet was a 
 hugepetroleumlamprushing through space ; still, the detection 
 of hydrocarbons in it is a significant fact. It lends con- 
 siderable support to the idea that petroleum is being con- 
 tinually formed anew in the deeper parts of the earth. In 
 all petroleum wells water is also found. In the depths of 
 the earth there is probably a large abundance of compounds 
 of the metals with carbon, for we find them in basaltic and 
 other rocks. When the crust of the earth becomes fissured, 
 water would reach these at a high temperature, and be 
 decomposed, its oxygen passing over to the metals, while 
 the carbon and hydrogen would unite to produce hydro- 
 carbons, the most common form of which is petroleum. The 
 gaseous hydrocarbons, formed by the same action, are pent 
 up in these cavities, and, when a boring is made for a well, 
 force up the petroleum frequently as high fountains. Wells 
 of this substance are generally found at the base of mountain 
 ranges, as of the Alleghanies in America, or of the Caucasus 
 in Russia. These elevations indicate cavities, fissures, or 
 crevasses below, and into these, as into a receiver, the 
 hydrocarbons may have been distilled and become con- 
 densed. This is only a theory, but it is the one which is 
 the most satisfactory to my mind ; and if it be true, it is a 
 comforting one, for while we find forests disappearing from 
 the earth, and coal being exhausted without being formed 
 afresh, petroleum, which as fuel has about twice the value 
 of coal, is being constantly formed and deposited in nature's 
 reservoirs. I have admitted that this is nothing more than 
 a theory, and, as such, the practical mind is accustomed to
 
 268 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 look upon it with contempt. Theory is the best explanation 
 of all known facts. We probably may soon have a better 
 theory, and when it comes I will embrace it. 
 
 If I am asked to define petroleum, I should have to 
 answer by giving a general chemical formula which, at first 
 sight, might look puzzling. It belongs to the series of 
 hydrocarbons, C". H™ + ^, or to a group of bodies containing 
 double the atoms of hydrogen to those of carbon, with two 
 more of hydrogen in addition. It contains rather more 
 hydrogen than olefiant gas, the chief illuminating agent of 
 coal gas, for that and its numerous congeners have the 
 general formula C". H""". The need of such a general 
 formula as I have given for the complex fluid called petro- 
 leum is manifest when I state that it contains members of 
 the same family of hydrocarbons, varying from the solid 
 paraffin, with which all ordinary candles are now made, to 
 the most volatile liquids nearly resembling gases. Here I 
 cannot help interpolating an anecdote as to how paraffin 
 candles were thought of. This solid wax from tar had 
 been discovered by Reichenbach, but was so rare when I 
 first became Professor of Chemistry that I was proud in 
 having a quarter of an ounce in a bottle to show my students. 
 One cold day Mr. Young called upon me with some 
 Derbyshire petroleum, and asked me what I thought the 
 solid crystals floating in it could be. I answered that they 
 must be paraffin, and asked whether he could not prepare 
 sufficient for me to make two candles. With these I lighted 
 the desk on the lecture table of the Royal Institution, and 
 pointed out that though the cost of these candles was more 
 than twenty shillings each, yet before long they would 
 become the common candle of the country. This safe 
 prophecy has long since been realised, for paraffin is now 
 manufactured in thousands of tons annually. There is an 
 island on the eastern side of the Caspian Sea called 
 Tcheliken, where the very cliffs are stated to be composed
 
 Petroleum the Light of the Poor. 269 
 
 of crude paraffin, or " ozokerit;" while east of Krasnovodsk, 
 on the same shore, " there are immense hills of ozokerit 
 and petroleum," according to the statements of travellers. 
 Intermediate between the solid paraffin and burning oil 
 there is another oil fitted for lubricating machinery. In 
 some kinds of petroleum and paraffin oil distilled from 
 shale this is neither important in quantity or in quality, 
 though in the heavier kinds of petroleum, such as that of 
 the Caucasian range, it exists in abundance. Besides this 
 lubricating oil, there is also in the tars, at present barbarously 
 rejected as useless, volatile benzole and certain solids known 
 as naphthaline and anthracene. From the benzole can be 
 made those beautiful aniline colours known as mauve and 
 magenta ; while out of the soUd naphthaline and anthracene 
 can be prepared alizarin, the red colour of madder, and 
 also indigo, the staple blue dye. In the future development 
 of the native petroleum industry these higher products are 
 likely to be a very important branch of production. As 
 competition becomes keen, these waste products may be- 
 come the largest source of profit. 
 
 Thus it will be seen how largely petroleum has become 
 an article of industrial necessity, and how much more it will 
 enter into manufactures when the present waste products of 
 the heavier kinds are applied, as they are sure to be, to the 
 preparation of staple colours, such as alizarin and indigo. 
 For the present, however, the great consumption of petro- 
 leum, whether it is found naturally, or made artificially, as 
 in Scotland, by the distillation of bituminous shales, is for the 
 production of light. I have explained already that though 
 it contains a little more hydrogen than olefiant gas, it may, 
 for all practical purposes, be viewed as essentially belonging 
 to the group of "olifenes." Now, as olefiant gas is the chief 
 illuminating ingredient of rich coal gas, refined petroleum, as 
 well as solid paraffin, made into candles may be looked 
 upon as representative of all that is illuminating in coal gas,
 
 270 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 without being diluted or contaminated by unnecessary in- 
 gredients. A paraffin candle is in reality a portable gas 
 machine. The charred fibres of the wick are the retorts in 
 which the gas is manufactured for use, just in proportion as 
 it is wanted. A petroleum lamp is the same little gas fac- 
 tory, in which the oil is sucked up by the capillary attraction 
 of the wick, and there is converted into gas just in pro- 
 portion to its requirements. Unluckily ordinary refined pe- 
 troleum has an offensive smell, though this is gradually 
 disappearing as the manufacture improves. In the better 
 varieties, now burned in good houses under the name of 
 crystal or water oil, there is little to be desired in this 
 respect. 
 
 In America, where the abundance of petroleum leads to 
 considerable inventiveness in its use, I have seen applica- 
 tions of it which have only recently been adopted in this 
 country. I happened, this autumn, to visit various large 
 houses in country districts of New England, which were 
 lighted with beautiful white gas. On inquiring into the 
 sources of supply, I found there was no gas in the ordinary 
 sense, but that common air saturated with a light petroleum 
 naphtha was being burned. A tank containing the latter 
 was buried in the garden, while a small machine in the base- 
 ment of the house, worked by falling weights, drove common 
 air through this tank. The air, saturated with naphtha, re- 
 turned from the garden to the house and burned in every room 
 exactly like gas. Again, I stayed some weeks in a seaside 
 watering-place called Nahant. The town, to all appearances, 
 was well lighted with gas. And so it was, but the gas was 
 manufactured at each lamp. A small holder of light petro- 
 leum dropped its contents on a heated disc which converted 
 it into gas, and this was burned, and had all the appearance 
 of ordinary gas illumination. In fact, it was only a few days 
 before I left that I found out the absence of ordinary gas 
 from the town, though I constantly passed the street lamps.
 
 Petroleum the Light of the Poor. 271 
 
 This adaptability of petroleum to give a pure white light is 
 the cause of its singularly rapid diffusion in different countries. 
 The prejudices of the people in India are rapidly giving way, 
 so that the consumption of petroleum in our Indian posses- 
 sions has been increasing about 200 per cent, annually. In 
 China its consumption is also rapidly increasing. Of Ameri- 
 can petroleum alone India last year consumed 94,000 tons, 
 Japan 56,000 tons, and China 82,000 tons. As American 
 oil is thus penetrating so extensively and rapidly into the 
 great Eastern, as well as into the European markets, it would 
 appear to be beyond competition. Nevertheless, a formida- 
 ble competition is arising in Russia. On the shores of the 
 Caspian Sea there are vast deposits of petroleum, and these, 
 though they have scarcely yet been opened, already amount 
 toone-sixthof the American production. Theold proverb says, 
 " It is a far cry to Loch Awe," and it is a much farther cry to 
 the shores of the Caspian Sea. But if the reader will look at the 
 map he will see that a railway, just opened between Baku, 
 on the Caspian, and Batoum, on the Black Sea, alters the 
 geographical position exceedingly. Baku is the centre of 
 the Russian petroleum industry. The oil-bearing strata 
 stretch from Baku, past the island of Tcheliken, 300 miles 
 across the Caspian, through the great steppes of Turkestan, 
 until it is lost close to the Himalayas. The bottom of the 
 Caspian must contain much oil, for naphtha springs occur 
 in that sea, and may be lighted by throwing a match upon 
 the water, where oil is seen floating. Baku is situated on 
 the Apsheron peninsula, with an area of 1,200 square miles, 
 throughout which there are oil-bearing strata ; but as yet 
 only three square miles have been worked. The accounts 
 of this district given by O'Donovan in his wonderful ride to 
 Merv, by Mr. Marvin, Colonel Stewart, Mr. Arthur Arnold, 
 and others, have made the district familiar to us. Without 
 putting too much stress on their singular descriptions of 
 fountains of petroleum 300 feet high, wasting themselves
 
 272 Subjects of Social U'elfare. 
 
 into petroleum lakes, it is sufficient to know that there are 
 400 wells of oil in the small explored area. Around it the 
 hamlet of Baku has become a city of 30,000 inhabitants. 
 The price of petroleum at these wells is less than that of 
 water. The crude oil has been selling at 4d. per barrel 
 of forty gallons. Still all this resource of petroleum is 
 worth little if it cannot be purified cheaply and be trans- 
 ported economically. This difficulty has been solved by 
 the ability and energy of Mr. Ludwig Nobel, a practical 
 engineer. He is of Swedish extraction, and has become the 
 Russian oil king. Mr. Nobel has built steam fleets entirely 
 for the quick transport of the finished oil, and these steamers 
 are propelled by the refuse of the distillation. The refined 
 oils pass by pipes to the end of a jetty, and are pumped 
 directly into the holds. These ships, when they reach har- 
 bour, pump the petroleum into specially-constructed railway 
 vans or reservoirs, twenty-five of which form a train. When 
 this arrives at its destination, the petroleum is again pumped 
 out into distributing tanks, of which there are many of vary- 
 ing capacity throughout Russia. In this way American 
 petroleum has been driven out of Russia, while Caucasian 
 petroleum has taken its place. This would not affect the 
 rest of Europe greatly, were it not that the Russian oil king 
 is already pouring petroleum through the Baltic into Ger- 
 many ; and he is preparing to flood the Mediterranean and 
 India through the Black Sea, by the railway connecting 
 Baku with Batoum, or, to speak more generally, the Caspian 
 with the Black Sea. If these ventures have a commercial 
 success, there is, undoubtedly, petroleum in the Caucasian 
 lands sufficient to supply the world with that commodity for 
 a prolonged period of its history. Already, in different parts 
 of Russia, both steamboats and railway locomotives are 
 driven by burning the waste of petroleum under the boilers. 
 It will certainly be a marvel, but one which may be before 
 long realised, to see a petroleum fleet laden at Batoum with
 
 Petroleum the Light of the Poor. 273 
 
 Caucasian oil, pass through the Suez Canal without the aid 
 of coal. This would be an immense gain to the stokers, 
 who have a bad time in the Red Sea, one of the hottest 
 parts of the world ; for petroleum ships require no stoking 
 to their fires. For myself, I should like to see such a 
 Russian invasion of India through the Suez Canal in a 
 peaceful, industrial competition. If a trade of this kind 
 could be established with a good profit, a warlike invasion 
 by the Himalayas would be an absurdity, for peaceful com- 
 merce with Russia would tend more to the security of our 
 Indian Empire than all our diplomatic watchfulness in 
 Central Asia.
 
 NATIONAL Education. 
 
 1. PRIMARY EDUCATION. 
 
 2. TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 3. TEACHING UNIVERSITIES AND EXAMINING BOARDS. 
 
 4. UNIVERSITIES AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION. 
 
 S 2
 
 i3art iM. 
 
 National Education. 
 
 ON PRIMARY EDUCATION. 
 
 This Presidential address was delivered at the meeting of the Social 
 Science Association, in September, 1870. 
 
 For thirty years previous to 1870 efforts had been made to 
 bring the State into proper relations with the education of 
 the people ; but they had been unsuccessful, on account of 
 the conflicting interests and jealousies of religious bodies. 
 The churches charged with the promotion of religious senti- 
 ment among the laity naturally thought that they should 
 charge themselves with the education of the people, in order 
 to advance their moral and religious welfare. But the want 
 of union among churches led to a discordant action in the 
 means employed, and though much was accomplished by 
 voluntary zeal, still no common national system of educa- 
 tion was evolved from these ecclesiastical cares. Hence, 
 while other nations in Europe have spread primary and 
 secondary education in well-organised systems throughout 
 their lands, England had not even laid the foundation-stone 
 of a national system till 1870. And so we had the disgrace 
 of having the worst educated people, as a whole, of any 
 country which professes a high civilisation. It is true that, 
 since 1839, the State has made various attempts to found 
 a national system ; but they have been baffled by tiie
 
 278 Subjects or Social Welfare. 
 
 jealousies of religious bodies. Bill after Bill brought 
 before Parliament has been sunk under the cross fire of 
 sectarian artillery. Happily, the Act of 1870 resisted this 
 antiquated firing, although it was freely enough opened on 
 the Bill, as it sailed through the House. 
 
 I have said that the State began its connection with 
 education in 1839. Then Parliament interested itself in 
 the efforts of voluntary agencies to spread education among 
 the people. It voted sums of money in aid, and sent 
 inspectors to the schools to see that the money was pro- 
 perly applied ; but that was the whole connection of the 
 nation with elementary education. Where no voluntary 
 efforts had been made in a district, the State left that un- 
 fortunate district alone, and its people continued in their 
 ignorance. So it came to pass that rich, prosperous 
 localities received education ; while poor, miserable places, 
 having no population fitted to make the preliminary volun- 
 tary sacrifices, got nothing at all. The rich were filled ; 
 but the poor were sent empty away. In no point of view 
 could such a system be called national. Yet England was 
 the only part of the United Kingdom which did not enjoy 
 a national system. Scodand possessed one for nearly 200 
 years, and Ireland had one of more modern growth. It 
 became, therefore, intolerable that England should remain 
 m dependence on the efforts of religious bodies alone, 
 without possessing a system that would, at all events, step 
 in to do the work^ when they, from inability or unwilling- 
 ness, left the work undone. 
 
 At last Parliament passed a measure of national educa- 
 tion for England and Wales. Whatever are its short- 
 comings, it has the great merit that the State has at last 
 been brought into national relations with education. Govern- 
 ment has been entrusted with powers both of initiation and 
 control, while localities have been made responsible for the 
 education of their inhabitants. It is the duty of localities,
 
 On Primary Education. 279 
 
 either by voluntary efforts or public rates, to supply ade- 
 quate school accommodation for the people, though Parlia- 
 ment holds the Government responsible for seeing that this 
 great end is achieved. Three leading principles in the Act 
 give it a national character. First, that it is the duty of 
 localities to bring education within the reach of every child 
 in England ; secondly, that it is the duty of parents to 
 make their children attend the schools thus provided ; and, 
 thirdly, that it is the duty of the Government to see that 
 the objects of the Legislature are fulfilled. In giving 
 powers to effect this triple obligation, the Act is sometimes 
 vigorous, sometimes feeble, and has received various 
 amendments to secure its efiicient working. Yet with all 
 its defects it is an enormous stride in advance, as it has 
 substituted well-defined responsibilities for the past ignoble 
 relations of the State to education. It was high time to 
 impose them. Under the old system of mere contributory 
 help, schools, indeed, multiplied, but education slipped 
 backwards. The ages of school children were lowered 
 year by year, and, as a necessary consequence, the amount 
 of education had to be lessened. In our schools in 1870 
 there was now only about half the proportion of children 
 between the ages of thirteen and fourteen that there was 
 twenty years ago, and there was one-third fewer between the 
 ages of ten and eleven. This was a melancholy outcome of 
 State interference with education by the contributory 
 method. The Revised Code rather accelerated the deca- 
 dence. Its principle had much of vitality — individual 
 examination and payment by results — but the examination 
 led to mechanical teaching in the lower standards chiefly, 
 while the results were scarcely worth paying for. And 
 so the education of the country is in a truly melancholy 
 state. The Act which made education national deals 
 with the quantity of education, but not with its quality. 
 [As regards quantity, Mr. Forster's Act has produced the
 
 28o Subjects of Social IVelfare. 
 
 most satisfactory results. In 1870, when this address was 
 delivered, there were only 8,281 inspected schools with 
 1,878,584 scholars taught by 28,000 teachers. In 1886 the 
 schools had increased to 19,133, with 5,145,292 scholars 
 taught by 87,000 teachers. In fact, these represent nearly 
 the whole children of school age. The number of School 
 Boards amounts to 2,225.] Still, the number of schools in a 
 country is of small consequence as compared with the nature 
 of the education given in them, just as the number of 
 bottles in a cellar matters little if the wine be bad. Under 
 these circumstances, bear with me in discussing the subject 
 of quality in our schools, even if I appear in the light of the 
 uncommonly candid friend whose indication of one's faults 
 is generally not soothing. 
 
 In education, as in everything else, our position is not of 
 our own making; for our experience, our conceptions, and our 
 prejudices, have descended to us by inheritance. Accord- 
 ingly, we find that our present system is very much of an 
 ecclesiastical inheritance. It is needless to go so far back 
 as the days of monasteries, w^hen excellent schools were 
 attached to them, often for the political purpose of raising 
 the middle classes as allies to the Church in resisting the 
 power and encroachment of the nobles. These were grand 
 old schools, but they represented our Etons, Harrows, and 
 Rugbys, rather than the elementary schools with which we 
 are dealing. The latter are the growth of modern times, 
 and were raised by Churches, which naturally thought that 
 the chief preparation of man ought to be for the future, and 
 that the school, like the Church, was intended for his eternal, 
 not for his temporal condition. Some duties, with regard 
 to the latter, it was important to inculcate — humility, obedi- 
 ence ; give unto Caesar the things that are Cesar's ; pay your 
 taxes, and above all things your tithes ; touch your hat to 
 the parson, the squire and his lady ; for these, in a tempo- 
 ral sense, form the chief end of man. And so village schools
 
 On Primary Education. 281 
 
 became things of small temporal use, but well fitted, as the 
 old phrase went, to keep men satisfied with the sphere in 
 which they were born. The old parish aspiration of a school 
 used to be — 
 
 " God bless the Squire and his relations, 
 And keep us in our proper stations." 
 
 Gradually the Church was emancipating itself from these 
 narrow views, and was developing the village schools into 
 broader and more useful institutions. The State has thrown 
 them back to their pristine narrowness, and our schools 
 are little more than mere mechanical manufactories, turning 
 out no end of yards of the three R's, in standards one, two, 
 three, and four, but very few of standards five, six, and seven, 
 for the latter do not pay. 
 
 The original idea of the Church, if it could have given 
 a fair amount of consideration to the temporal condition of 
 man in comparison with his eternal state, was to educate 
 him in correlation to his work and condition of life. The 
 same idea is manifested whenever the State, in olden times, 
 interested itself in education. The ancient laws of apprentice- 
 ship were in fact laws of education. Only the State reversed 
 the process followed by the Church, and thought of man's 
 temporal condition first, and of his eternal state afienvards. 
 The State took up all vagrant boys, and sent them, by 
 compulsion, to a farmer, blacksmith, or a shoemaker, first 
 to follow the plough, to hammer iron, or make shoes as 
 their chief end, and to learn the Ten Commandments as a 
 supplement. Ability to labour and support yourself formed 
 the main idea of education in olden times, when the State 
 passed laws relating to it ; and it must be owned this went 
 to the root of the matter. The State had no idea that edu- 
 cation was worth much, unless it fitted a man for his work 
 in life. The first direct compulsory law relating to education 
 in this kingdom, that I have met with in my studies, was
 
 282 SusyECTS OF Social IVelfare. 
 
 passed by James IV., of Scotland, in 1494. He ordained 
 that all sons of freeholders and barons should go to school 
 under penalty, and that their eldest sons, who were to have 
 the estates, should, after their preliminary education, attend 
 three years at a school of law, in order that they might ad- 
 minister, discreetly and wisely, justices' justice to the poor 
 folk of the realm. It is a pity that this compulsory law does 
 not still exist for eldest sons ! You see in it the idea that 
 education should be adapted to the work of life. This main 
 idea of fitting a man for his work was vigorously supported 
 by our old reformers. John Knox held firmly by it, espe- 
 cially in his scheme for secondary education, which, unfor- 
 tunately for Scotland, was never adopted, though his plan 
 for primary education was. In the former he announced 
 that no boys should leave school till they had devoted a 
 proper time to " that study which they intend chiefly to 
 pursue for the profit of the commonwealth." This is the 
 old conception of the object of education, and reappears at 
 the present day under the modern garb of " Technical Edu- 
 cation." All the reformers urged its necessity, especially 
 Luther and Melanchthon. Most European States have held 
 fast to the idea with more or less of development, but it 
 has vanished utterly from our English schools. Goethe 
 brings out the idea finely in the travels of Wilhelm Meister 
 in the pedagogic province, where he left his boy for educa- 
 tion. Every boy in that province was specially trained 
 according to his aptitudes, in whatever direction these 
 manifested themselves. Wilhelm Meister, after a twelve 
 months' absence, revisits the province. He comes upon a 
 cloud of dust produced by a troop of wild horses under a 
 course of training by mounted boys. One of these was his 
 son, for horse-breaking was made his main education, as he 
 was found most fitted for it. To soften his mind under 
 such a system, he was also carefully instructed in Italian 
 literature. So was it with all the boys in this educational
 
 Ox Primary Education. 283 
 
 province. Some were masons or carpenters, some artists 
 or musicians, all being treated according to their main apti- 
 tudes, though each had a collateral study to supplement 
 the mental deficiency which experience showed to arise in 
 such a course of training. Every pupil in the pedagogic 
 province learned reverence {E/irfiirc/it\ and that of three 
 kinds — reverence for that above him, reverence for that 
 around him, and reverence for that beneath him. In 
 this quaint allegory of the pedagogic province, }'ou will 
 find the secret of the prosperity of Prussia, a State at 
 the back of Europe, which only got its civilisation long 
 after the Christian community of Europe had organised 
 themselves. She has lately shown what education can 
 achieve in the union and advancement of a people. Even 
 in the least productive of arts — that of war— see how she is 
 served by the universal education of the soldiers. In Eng- 
 land, the conception of a soldier is that of a mere obedient 
 tool in the hands of an officer ; the Prussian conception is 
 that a soldier should not only be obedient, but also self- 
 intelligent. Trusting to this intelligence maps of the invaded 
 districts are distributed among the privates, who have the 
 main geographical features thoroughly explained to them, so 
 that every private can co-operate intelligently with his 
 general. In the Franco-German war we were startled to 
 hear of large bodies of French foldiers being cut off by 
 losing their way in their own country. No German losses 
 from such ignorance, not even of Uhlan scouts, are recorded. 
 In fact, two countries in these days are not fairly matched 
 in war, whatever may be the personal valour of their in- 
 habitants, when one like France has 28 per cent, of her 
 soldiers unable to read and write, while the other, like 
 Germany, has not 3 per cent Knowledge is as important 
 as valour in modern combats. 
 
 The educational principle of continental nations is to 
 link on primary schools to secondary improvement schools.
 
 284 Subjects of Social Welfare, 
 
 The links are always composed of higher subjects, the three 
 R's being, in all cases, the mere basis of instruction. 
 Elementary science, and even some of its apphcations, is 
 uniformly encouraged and generally enforced. I shall not 
 detain you with examples, as they are to be found in any 
 work treating of continental schools. But as we have no 
 schools corresponding to the secondary improvement schools 
 for the working classes, we suppose that we can do without 
 the higher subjects used as links. With what result? Our 
 primary schools, on the whole, do not teach higher instruc- 
 tion than a child of eight years of age may learn. In our 
 class of life, our children acquire such knowledge as a 
 beginning ; with the working classes they get it as an end. 
 What an equipment for the battle of life! No armour 
 plate of knowledge is given to our future artisan, but a mere 
 thin veneer of the three R's, so thin as to rub off completely 
 in three or four years' wear and tear of life. I am speaking 
 on official record, for we are assured by inspectors, that 
 nothing under Standard IV. suffices for permanent use, and 
 yet the Committee of Council tell us that four-fifths of the 
 children of ages at which they leave school pass only in 
 lower standards. Under new minutes, inducements have 
 been given for subjects higher than the three R's, but for 
 some reason they produce scarcely any result. At the 
 present time, little more than three years, between the ages 
 of six and ten, is the period devoted to the education of the 
 working classes. Less than ten in the hundred attend 
 four years at one school. What are we to do against such 
 difficulties ? How are we to economise precious time, so 
 as to make the most of it, and how are we to induce parents 
 to give us more time for the benefit of their children ? Our 
 ancestors appear to have had a greater educational power 
 than we now possess, for John Knox tells us, in his First 
 Book of Discipline, that two years " are more than sufficient 
 for to learn to read perfectly, to answer the Catechism, and
 
 On Primary Education. 285 
 
 to have entries in the first rudiments of grammar." Ger- 
 many, with her trained staff of teachers, organised and 
 recognised as a profession, gives three years for elementary 
 instruction, such as is embraced in our Privy Council 
 Standards ; but in this country we do not succeed in accom- 
 pHshing it. So, under our present system of elementary 
 teaching, no knowledge whatever bearing on the hfe work 
 of the people reaches them by State education. The air 
 they breathe, the water they drink, the tools they use, the 
 plants they grow, the mines they excavate, might all be 
 made subjects of surpassing interest and importance to 
 them during their whole Hfe ; and of these they learn not 
 one fact, and yet we are surprised at the consequences of 
 their ignorance. A thousand men perish yearly in our coal 
 mines ; but no schoolmaster tells the poor miner the nature 
 of the explosive gas which scorches him, or of the after-damp 
 which chokes him. Boilers of steam-engines blow up so 
 continually that Committees of the House of Commons 
 have been engaged in trying to diminish their alarming fre- 
 quency, but the poor stokers, who are scalded to death or 
 blown to pieces, were never instructed in the nature and 
 properties of steam. In Great Britain alone more than 
 100,000 people perish annually, and at least five times as 
 many sicken grievously, out of pure ignorance of the laws 
 of health, which are never imparted to them at school ; and 
 they have no chance of learning them afterwards, as they 
 possess no secondary schools. The mere tools of education 
 are put into the hands of children during their school time 
 without any effort being made to teach them how to use the 
 tools for any profitable purpose whatever ; so they gel 
 rusty or are thrown aside altogether. And we fancy that 
 we have educated the people ! Our pauperism, our crime, 
 and the misery which hovers on the brink of both, are very 
 heavy, and our panacea for their cure is teaching the three 
 R's up to Standard IV. or V. The age of miracles has
 
 285 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 passed by, and our large faith in our little doings will not 
 remove mountains. It is best to be frank. Our low quality of 
 education is impoverishing the land. It is disgracefully 
 behind the age in which we live, and of the civilisation of 
 which we boast ; and until we are convinced of that we 
 cannot be roused to the exertions required for its amend- 
 ment. This is no new complaint, and has been long ago 
 made by far higher authorities than myself. On the 4di of 
 May, 1835, Lord Brougham moved a resolution in the 
 House of Lords in the following terms : — " That the kind 
 of education given in the greater number of schools, now 
 established for the poorer classes of the people, is of a kind 
 by no means sufficient for their instruction, being, for the 
 most part, confined to reading, writing, and a little arith- 
 metic ; whereas, at no greater expense, and in the same 
 time, the children might easily be instructed in the elements 
 of the more useful branches of knowledge, and thereby 
 trained to sober, industrious, prudent, and virtuous habits." 
 In censuring the low condition of knowledge in our 
 primary schools, as represented by the results of the Revised 
 Code, I do not aim to restore them to the position which 
 many of them had before it. That Code was, in fact, 
 rendered necessary, because their aggregate teaching was 
 not sufficiently large and diffused to justify the increasing 
 expenditure. In imitation of our classical schools, verbalism 
 and memory-cramming had grown up as tares, and choked 
 the growth of the wheat. Words had taken the place of 
 conceptions. A child could tell you about the geography 
 of the wanderings of the children of Israel, but had no con- 
 ception whatever of the ordinary phenomena around it. It 
 was hopeless to put to him the commonest scientific 
 questions. Whence comes the water that fills the Thames? 
 What is the origin of hail, snow, rain, or dew ? Why does 
 the sun rise in the east, or set in the west ? What produces 
 night and day, summer and winter ? In history scholars
 
 C>.v Primary Education. 287 
 
 could rattle out to you the names and dales of Kings and 
 Queens, perhaps even the names and ages of all Queen 
 Anne's children as they died in childhood ; but, as to a true 
 historical conception, apart from memory-cramming of 
 words and dry facts, to be vomited forth upon the examiner, 
 it required a very good school under the old system to find 
 it. Words, instead of ideas, were worshipped. Inspectors, 
 under the old system, did something to correct this tendency 
 to verbalism and cram ; under the new system they have no 
 time, and, if they had, they would find fewer of the higher 
 subjects taught in any way. 
 
 The teaching of science, if properly done, is the reverse 
 of all this, and will go far to remedy its defects. I agree 
 with my friend, Professor Huxley, that books in this case 
 ought only to be accessories, not principals. The pupil 
 must be brought in face of the facts through experiment 
 and demonstration. He should pull the plant to pieces and 
 see how it is constructed. He must vex the electric 
 cylinder till it yields him its sparks. He must apply with 
 his own hand the magnet to the needle. He must see 
 water broken up into its constituent parts, and witness the 
 violence with which its elements unite. Unless he is 
 brought into actual contact with the facts, and taught to 
 observe and bring them into relation with the science 
 evolved from them, it were better that instruction in science 
 should be left alone. For one of the first lessons he must learn 
 from science is not to trust in authority, but to demand 
 proof for each assertion. All this is true education, for it 
 draws out faculties of observation, connects observed facts 
 with the conceptions deduced from them in the course of 
 ages, gives discipline and courage to thought, and teaches a 
 knowledge of scientific method which will serve a hfetime. 
 Nor can such education be begun too early. The whole 
 yearnings of a child are for the natural phenomena around 
 until they are smothered by the ignorance of the parent
 
 288 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 He is a young Linnaeus roaming over the fields in search of 
 flowers. He is a young conchologist or mineralogist gather- 
 ing shells or pebbles on the sea shore. He is an ornitholo- 
 gist and goes bird-nesting; an ichthyologist, and catches 
 fish. Glorious education in nature, all this, if the teacher 
 knew how to direct and utilise it. But as soon as the child 
 comes into the school-room, all natural God-born instincts 
 are to be crushed out of him ; he is to be trained out of all 
 natural sympathies and affections. You prune and trim, 
 cramp and bind the young intellect, as gardeners in olden 
 times did trees and shrubs, till they assumed monstrous and 
 grotesque forms, altogether different from the wide-spreading 
 foliage and clustering buds, which God himself gave to 
 them, and which man is idiot enough to think he can 
 improve. Do not suppose that I wish the primary school 
 to be a lecture theatre for all or any of the " ologies." All 
 the science which would be necessary to give a boy a taste 
 of the principles involved in his calling, and an incitement 
 to pursue them in his future life, might be given in illustra- 
 tion of other subjects. Instead of mere descriptive 
 geography, drearily taught and drearily learned, you might 
 make it illustrative of history, and illustrated by physical 
 geography, which, in the hands of a real master, might be 
 made to embrace most of what we desire to teach. The 
 properties of air and water, illustrations of natural history, 
 varieties of the human race, the properties of the atmo- 
 sphere as a whole — its life-giving virtues when pure, and 
 its death dealings when fouled by man's impurities — the 
 natural products of different climes, these and such like 
 teachings are what you could introduce with telling and 
 useful effect. Far better this than overlading geography 
 with dry details of sources and mouths of rivers, of 
 isothermal lines, latitudes and longitudes, tracts of ocean 
 currents, and other tendencies towards the old verbalism 
 and memory-cramming. If I have explained myself with
 
 O.y Primary Education. 28 9 
 
 clearness, you will see that while I advocate the introduction 
 of higher subjects into our schools, I wish them to be of 
 immediate interest and applicability to the working classes. 
 The main difficulty in educating them is to get them to stay 
 long enough at school. Teach them, while you have them, 
 subjects of interest and utility. The short time will thus be 
 made productive, and inducement will be offered for its 
 extension. Six months spent in teaching future labourers 
 the geography of the wanderings of the children of Israel is 
 sheer waste of time, either for their eternal or temporal 
 interests. Think of the few precious hours as the training 
 for a whole lifetime, and let us use them by giving living and 
 intelligent learning, not obsolete and parrot instruction. 
 Those who are believers in the teaching of the great 
 secondary schools of this country will deem my aspirations 
 for the improvement of primary education low and utilitarian. 
 Frankly I admit the latter. Such a style of education will 
 never realise Lord Brougham's hope that the time may 
 come when every working man in England will read Bacon; 
 but it may contribute to the fulfilment of Cobbett's desire, 
 that the time might come when every man in England could 
 eat bacon. I deny, however, that the utilitarian view of 
 primary education is ignoble. The present system is truly 
 ignoble, for it sends the working man into the world in crass 
 ignorance of everything that he is to do in it. The utilitarian 
 system is noble, in so far as its treats him as an intelligent 
 being, who ought to understand the nature of his occupation, 
 and the principles involved in it. If you bring up a plough- 
 man in utter ignorance of everything relating to the food of 
 plants, of every mechanical principle of farm implements, of 
 the weather to which he is exposed, of the sun that shines 
 upon him and makes the plants to grow, of the ram which, 
 while it drenches him, refreshes the crops around, surely that 
 ignorance is not conducive to his functions as an intelligent 
 being made after the image of Him who has done all things 
 
 T
 
 290 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 wisely. Would not the ploughman feel a truer nobility in his 
 education, and a more grateful feeling to God and man, if he 
 had been taught to see in everything, even in the tree which 
 shades his cottage, an illustration of infinite wisdom ? To his 
 uneducated vision, that tree is a mere thick piece of wood, 
 with other smaller pieces sticking out of it, in as prosaic 
 conception as the primrose was to Peter Bell in Words- 
 worth's poem. To his educated vision these branches 
 would appear like arms stretching forth to heaven to pray 
 for food, and he would see in what a wondrous manner that 
 prayer was granted. From the transparent air around, 
 aerial food is extracted and moulded into forms of organic 
 life, while from the earth beneath comes the terrestrial food 
 co-operating with the air in the process of nutrition. In all 
 the operations of the field, from the breaking up and manur- 
 ing of the soil to the harvesting of the grain, which of the 
 ■ two men would feel that he had the most noble education — 
 the ignorant clodhopper knowing nothing that he is doing, 
 the mere tool or slave of his master, as little advanced now 
 as he was when described in the old book of Ecclesiasticus 
 — or the worker, intelligent, and knowing his occupation, 
 aiding nature to fulfil her wise laws, and by doing so feeling 
 himself like St. Paul, and with his humility also, to be "a 
 fellow-worker with God"! I have selected for illustration 
 the occupation in which the working man is now the least 
 cultured and intelligent, but there is not a single craft which 
 could not be dignified in a similar way. 
 
 In the original minute of 1839, the Committee of Council 
 pledged themselves to connect the subject matters of educa- 
 tion with the occupation of the people. The words of the 
 minute are : — " To give such a character to the matters of 
 instruction in the school as to keep it in close relation with 
 the condition of workmen and servants." This refers to a 
 normal school which was to be an example to all others, 
 but the precept and the practice have alike been forgotten.
 
 Ox Primary Education, 291 
 
 Let me refer you to an example, scarcely known, as it is 
 separated from us by stormy seas, though it is singularly 
 instructive and significant. You will find it fully described 
 in Mr. Tuffnell's Report on the Employment of Men and 
 Women in Agriculture. Those of us who have passed 
 middle life recollect the chronic state of misery and poverty 
 which used to exist in the Scilly Islands, off the coast of Corn- 
 wall. In such a wretched condition were they, that the inhabi- 
 tants were only preserved from starvation, during the winter 
 months, by constant contributions from the mainland. Now, 
 we never hear cries of distress from these islands, and for 
 what reason? In 1834, Mr. Smith, who became their lessee, 
 undertook their improvement. He abolished the cottar 
 system, consolidated holdings, founded good schools under 
 a compulsory system of his own, and kept them up to the 
 mark by constant inspection. He did not content himself 
 with the three R's, but directed the instruction towards the 
 occupations of an insular people. History, geography, the 
 rudiments of mathematics, and navigation were taught to 
 the children. And with what result ? So much esteemed 
 are the youths of the Scilly Islands as sailors, that vessels 
 sometimes stop there to procure them, and frequently they 
 rise to be mates and masters. Pauperism has vanished 
 from the islands, so that it is difificult to find any of its 
 population poor enough to accept the alms offered in the 
 Communion Service. The well-educated population show 
 a disposition to pass to the mainland, for they are much 
 appreciated there, and receive high wages. All this is as it 
 should be, and Mr. Smith deserves our thanks for having pre- 
 served to us an example of what the Government intended 
 to do, but failed to accomplish, viz., to direct the subject 
 matter of education to the occupations of the people. 
 
 The great advantage of directing education towards the 
 pursuits and occupations of the people, instead of wasting it 
 on dismal verbalism, is that, while it elevates the individual. 
 T 2
 
 292 SusyECTs OF Social Welfare. 
 
 it at the same time gives security for the future prosperity 
 of the nation. In the industrial battles of people, we are 
 content to leave our working classes armed with the old 
 Brown Bess of warfare, while men of other countries are 
 arming themselves with modern weapons of precision. In 
 the competition of nations, the two factors of industry — raw 
 material and intellect applied to its conversion into utilities 
 — are altering their values. The first is rapidly decreasing, 
 the second quickly augmenting in value. We anchor our 
 hopes on the sand, which the advancing tide of knowledge 
 IS washing away, while other nations throw out their 
 anchors on firm ground accumulating around, and enable 
 their vessels to ride in safety. There are instances of 
 nations, rich in the natural resources of industry, yet poor 
 from want of knowledge to apply them ; and there are 
 opposite examples of nations utterly devoid of industrial 
 advantages, but constituted of an educated people, who use 
 their science as a compensation for their lack of raw 
 material. Spain is an example of the first class, and 
 Holland of the second. Spain, indeed, is wonderfully 
 instructive, and her story is well told by Buckle, for you 
 see her rise in glory or fall in shame, just as there are 
 conditions of intellectual activity or torpor among her 
 inhabitants. Sometimes animated with life, Spain seeks a 
 high position among nations ; at other times she is in a 
 death-like torpor. She is an apt illustration of that 
 sentence — " He that wandereth out of the way of under- 
 standing, shall remain in the congregation of the dead." 
 During the period of the Inquisition education was only 
 allowed so far as it did not interfere with ecclesiastical 
 fears, and the country fell into a state of abject misery and 
 dejection. The Duke of St. Simon, then French Ambassador 
 at Madrid, declared that "science in Spain is a crime, 
 and ignorance a virtue." During the next century, there was 
 a period of three generations when foreign science and
 
 On Pri.uarv Education. 293 
 
 experience were imported by the Spanish kings, and the 
 country began to rise again to some condition of education 
 and prosperity. In the last half century it has relapsed, 
 ecclesiastical power having again assumed its old sway, and 
 Spain has returned to a position of obscurity, from which, 
 let us hope, she may emerge by her late revolution. For 
 this nation has everything in the richest profusion to make 
 it great and prosperous. Washed both by the Atlantic and 
 the Mediterranean, with noble harbours, she might command 
 an extensive commerce both with Europe and America. 
 Few countries have such riches in the natural resources of 
 industry. A rich soil and almost tropical luxuriance of 
 vegetation might make her a great food-exporting nation. 
 Iron and coal, copper, quicksilver, and lead abound in pro- 
 fusion, but these do not create industries, unless the people 
 possess knowledge to apply them. When that knowledge 
 prevailed, Spain was, indeed, among the most advanced of 
 industrial nations. Not only her metallurgic industries, but 
 her cotton, woollen, and silk manufactures were unequalled ; 
 her shipbuilding also was the admiration of other nations' 
 All have decayed because science withers among an un- 
 educated people, and without science nations cannot thrive. 
 Turn to Holland, once a mere province of Spain, She has 
 nothing but a maritime position to give her any natural 
 advantage. Not so bad, indeed, as Voltaire's statement 
 that she is a land formed from the sand brought up on the 
 sounding leads of English sailors, though she is actually 
 created from the debris of Swiss and German mountains 
 brought down by the Rhine. Hence within her lands are 
 no sources of mineral wealth ; but she has compensated for 
 its absence by an admirable education of her people. For 
 my own country I have no ambition higher than to get 
 schools approaching in excellence to those of Holland. 
 And so this mud-produced country, fenced round by dykes 
 to prevent the ocean sweeping it away, is thriving, prosperous.
 
 294 Subjects of Social U^elfare. 
 
 and happy, while her old mistress — Spain — is degraded and 
 miserable. 
 
 Let me here interpolate some remarks on physical 
 education, for events around us press it upon our attention. 
 In the first minute of the Committee of Council, dated 
 April 13, 1839, the following passage relating to it is to be 
 found : — " Besides the physical training of the children in 
 various employments, such exercises are to be introduced 
 during the hours of recreation as will develop their strength 
 and activity." Wise words these, but wholly forgotten in 
 practice, except in a few Union Schools. Yet physical 
 training of the young is a subject of national importance, 
 scarcely less weighty than their intellectual training. I need 
 not remind you of the importance which Greece and 
 Rome attached to it. Greece had an exercise ground in 
 every city, and Rome had its Campus Martins. No doubt 
 the main reason for its encouragement was to preserve the 
 martial spirit and physical powers of the people. . The 
 militia of the Greek and Roman Republics was of such 
 moment to them, that an exaggerated value of physical 
 training arose. Prizes in the Olympic, Isthmian, or Nemean 
 games, made not only the winners but their kinsmen illus- 
 trious. Modern events have been bringing back nations 
 to these ancient customs. Separate standing armies, 
 selected from, but not backed by the body of the people, 
 are less in favour than they were. A splendid standing 
 army of Prussia, though admirably equipped and drilled, 
 was vanquished in four weeks by the great Napoleon in 
 1806. In the same number of weeks in the late war a 
 French standing army, under another Napoleon, was 
 crumpled up by a German militia under the King of 
 Prussia. Three years' service in the line and a national 
 militia make every able-bodied Prussian a soldier. In 
 Prussia and Switzerland, where militias are now more im- 
 l)ortant than standing armies, an increasing value is attached
 
 On Primary Education. 295 
 
 to gymnastic training in their schools. Efficient school 
 instruction, with good physical training, shortens by a year 
 a man's military service in some of the German States. 
 This is wise and easy to be understood. When military 
 drill is thrown into schools, as in the Hibernian Academy, 
 the Chelsea School, some of the Union Schools, and the 
 Middle-class Corporation Schools in London, an important 
 national result is secured, for the scholars are habituated, at 
 the most plastic period of their life, to soldierly obedience 
 and exercises which will induce them, even when they go 
 into trades and occupations, to join the volunteer or militia 
 services of the country. You thus throw back the ac- 
 quisition of military training to a non-productive age, and 
 thus economise the labours of the people. No nation can 
 afford to neglect her defensive resources. If you can 
 actually develop these in a way which, far from crippling, 
 increases the industrial resources, it is no small matter. 
 Any one who has seen the children in well-drilled Union 
 Schools will understand what I mean. A class of ill-fed, 
 stunted children, brought up in badly-ventilated, dirty 
 localities, come into those schools under the most un- 
 favourable conditions for success. Under the half-time 
 system, with drill and gymnastic exercises, this unpromising 
 raw material is fashioned into productive utilities anxiously 
 sought for in the labour market. Their physical condition 
 becomes rapidly improved, their intellectual capacities 
 brightened, and their habits of working together in strict 
 obedience make them valuable labourers. Schools, with 
 children in a less depressed condition would give still better 
 results ; though, even in such Union Schools, only about 
 3 per cent., instead of the old 50 or 60 per cent., are re- 
 turned as unprofitable servants. I wonder whether Eton 
 or Harrow yields a smaller percentage of useless lads. In 
 them athletic games are also practised, though less syste- 
 matically, and with perhaps an excessive zeal, resulting as a
 
 296 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 reaction from the unutilitarian nature of the studies. A 
 population, Hke that of this country, having a disposition to 
 gather in cities in order to work in foctories, must necessarily 
 degenerate in physical power. The excessive mortality is a 
 proof of this. This degeneracy may be much counteracted 
 by good courses of physical training in schools. A better 
 and more productive class of labour would thus be assured, 
 while the nerve, sinew, and pluck of the people would be 
 preserved as a store for emergencies which may happen in 
 the life of any nation. School drill in military and naval 
 exercises, besides their educational value in discipline and 
 united action, sow the seed of national strength in an 
 economical way. Nearly 20,000 children die each year of 
 filth and foul air diseases in England and Wales, and far 
 more have their vitality lowered by such influences. The 
 Greek and Roman Republics may have exaggerated the 
 importance of physical training, but we have certainly de- 
 preciated it unwisely. When we see Germany, Holland, 
 Switzerland, and France making it a part of school life, we 
 had better take the matter into our serious thoughts. 
 
 I now pass to compulsory education. An improved 
 quality of education is a necessity for its enforced reception 
 by the people. The logic of circumstances drove Parliament 
 into the recognition of compulsion ; and the same logic will 
 oblige the Legislature to make it efficient. Let us look at 
 the facts which compelled the recognition of the principle. 
 The right of suffi-age has for its corollary the duty of in- 
 struction. You cannot give political power to a people and 
 allow them to remain ignorant. That would be the political 
 suicide of a nation. The people, in all their grades, are 
 surrounded and imbued with the prejudices acquired in 
 their upbringing, either from their parents or those around 
 them. An uneducated people are like a nation one or two 
 generations back in its history. They cannot grasp the 
 ideas of the age in which they live, and are powerless to
 
 Ox Primary Education. 297 
 
 shake themselves free from the prejudices which the progress 
 of thought has proved to be dangerous errors. They are 
 unable to do so, as they cannot take possession of the 
 inheritance of intellectual wealth accumulated by their 
 predecessors; for they do not know how to read the 
 books forming the testament by which it was bequeathed. 
 An uneducated people, endowed with political power, is, 
 therefore, an anomaly, in the highest degree dangerous to a 
 nation. Hence, when we bestowed the suffrage on the 
 people, it became necessary that they should have efficient 
 instruction as its corollary. Secondly, we have now es- 
 tablished what every civilised nation except England has 
 long had — education by local rates. A civic support of 
 education has again for its corollary enforced instruction of 
 the individual citizen. For if it be right that the State shouM 
 compel a community to educate all its citizens, it must be 
 right to give power to that community to extend the education 
 to every citizen. You cannot enforce education unless 
 you make it of a quality which you are certain will be 
 useful to the person receiving it. To compel every boy and 
 girl to continue at school until thirteen years of age, in- 
 volves the necessity that the instruction should aim at some- 
 thing more than a boy of eight may readily learn. Yet, as 
 an aggregate result, that is all our elementary schools do at 
 present. Compulsory education, then, involves an improve- 
 ment in its amount and quality. It would be an unredeemed 
 hardship to compel children to attend schools unless these 
 were made suitable to their wants in life. Compulsion is of 
 two kinds, direct and indirect. By the direct method every 
 parent is bound to keep his children at school, or be 
 punished for the neglect. The indirect compulsion means 
 that education shall be made the first tool with which labour 
 can be begun, and if that tool be not in the possession of 
 the candidate for employment, the employer must not engage 
 him. Thp indirect plan has the high authority of Adam
 
 29S Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 Smith in its favour, but it is unnecessary to indicate a 
 preference between the two methods, for both may be good 
 and necessary. Direct compulsion is most easily applied 
 when it is least required, that is when public feeling is 
 entirely in its favour, and denounces the parent who neglects 
 the education of his child as just as much a brute as if he 
 starved it by refusing bread. In England you have about half 
 a million of these brutes to deal with, and their commonness 
 prevents an adequate public censure of the magnitude of 
 their crime against society. The two difficulties we have to 
 contend with, in applying a compulsory law to neglected 
 children, are the following : — Firstly, the ignorance and 
 lethargy of parents ; and secondly, the demands of the 
 labour market for a supply of juvenile workers. The 
 children form part of the productive powers of the family 
 circle, and their wages are required for its support. Even 
 when the daughters are not in receipt of wages, they are 
 handmaids at home, and enable the father, mother, and 
 boys to earn wages. This being so, how are you to reconcile 
 education with these demands? Unless you can devise 
 some method of making the parents allies of the State, 
 compulsory laws will be vain. In this country all laws 
 require the co-operation of those for whose benefits they are 
 framed. While there is nothing in direct compulsion to 
 induce parental co-operation, there is much in the indirect 
 l)lan to do so. If the law firmly ruled that employers shall 
 not give work to inefficiently educated children, every 
 motive of the parent is enlisted for their education. The 
 prudent, loving parent will always be an ally of the State ; 
 but the sordid, selfish parent will be so also, when the 
 education becomes the only tool through the possession of 
 which wages can be earned. Even in States which have 
 had direct compulsion for a century, the system of indirect 
 compulsion is being enacted as a supplement and support 
 to the former. The Act of 1870 was based on direct
 
 Oy Primary Education. 299 
 
 compulsion, but it has since been supplemented by the 
 indirect compulsion of the Factory Acts, although it was 
 left to localities to determine their own standards of ex- 
 emption, some being as low as Standard II., while others 
 took Standards IV. and V. In foreign countries no children 
 are discharged from education at such low standards, but 
 they must continue it at improvement schools up to the age 
 of sixteen, and generally they must acquire a foreign language 
 as part of their training. 
 
 Graded education is one of the subjects which the 
 section, over which I have the honour to preside, is asked 
 to consider ; and I must not pass it over in silence, even 
 though it is too large a subject to be treated among so 
 many others in this address. No doubt it is one of the 
 most important questions of education before this country. 
 In England the University is at one end of the chain and 
 the elementary school at the other, but so far apart that it 
 seems hopeless to bring them together. It is not so every- 
 where. In Scotland the national universities and the 
 parochial schools are in intimate union. It was once so also 
 in England when the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge 
 were the great upper schools of the kingdom, attended by 
 many thousands, not only from England, but from Scotland 
 and Ireland also. Poverty was no bar to their attendance, 
 for they begged their way or lived at friendly monasteries. 
 Chaucer refers to the poor scholars who could only return 
 prayers for gifts : — 
 
 " Busily 'gan for the souls to pray 
 Of them that gave him wherewith to scolay." 
 
 Bishop Latimer, in one of his sermons, alludes to the ease 
 with which yeomen attended the universities in his early 
 days, though he mourns the decay of the custom. The 
 Scotch and German Universities accept the discipline of 
 poverty as a part of education. You could not possibly
 
 300 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 believe that a man like Heyne, who, while editing 
 "Tibullus," had to gather peas-cod shells in the streets 
 to boil for his dinner, and whose pillow consisted of 
 two quartos, could have been educated at an English 
 University. But in Scotland the poverty of the student 
 would not have been remarkable, though his scholarship 
 would. It is believed that about 500 working men, or 
 sons of working men, are in attendance at Scotch Uni- 
 versities. Many that I have personally known have worked 
 hard during the summer as ploughmen, fishermen, masons, 
 carpenters — in one or two cases which I happen to know 
 as gillies to young English University students during grouse 
 shooting — in order that they might save enough to pay 
 their moderate fees, and live on porridge and milk during 
 the winter sessions of the universities. The parochial 
 schools, from which they come direct to the university, 
 have prepared and given them ambition for the work. 
 Greek and Latin, mathematics, French, German, history, 
 in addition to elementary subjects, are taught in these 
 schools, not to all, but to those who desire them, and the 
 son of the minister, the doctor, and the tradesman, sit on 
 the same bench with the son of the ploughman. I have 
 just left a Scotch town in which I was at a parochial school, 
 and many a friendly grip of the hand did I get from work- 
 ing men and tradesmen who were schoolfellows with me. 
 Neither of us had lost our respect for the other in our 
 different careers in life, and it was a very hearty thing 
 to feel that your old schoolfellows had an honest word of 
 congratulation, if you happened to be in a more conspicuous 
 position than themselves. 
 
 I have alluded to this mixture of classes in Scotch 
 schools, in the hope of seeing it arise in England as a con- 
 sequence of rate-supported schools. Every contributory 
 ratepayer has a right to their use. Englishmen are sometimes 
 astonished how Scotchmen get on in the world, but the
 
 Oy Primary Edccation. 301 
 
 whole secret of it is that every Scotchman knows it to be 
 his own fault if he is not educated. Since the time of the 
 early Reformers this has been the case. Every presbytery 
 had the pious duty imposed upon it of sending up lads "of 
 pregnant parts " to the nearest university at the cost of the 
 Church. This practice is no longer obligatory, though the 
 numerous small bursaries or scholarships keep up the old 
 habit still. It is quite true that the intimate connection of 
 the people with the universities prevents the latter aiming 
 at high scholarship ; still, in metaphysics, science, medicine 
 and law, they stand well in comparison with the English 
 Universities. The poverty of a Scotch school renders a 
 poet like Byron an impossible conception, but it makes 
 natural one like Burns. I would not have alluded to our 
 Scotch experience in regard to higher education for the 
 poor, except as an encouragement for the English poor to 
 follow up the paths opened up to them by the Endowed 
 Schools Act. The enormous wealth of England, often 
 wested in restricted endowments, will, if well applied, open 
 up ways of secondary education to the talented poor, such 
 as the poorer northern division of the kingdom never had 
 or can hope to have. The interval between the primary 
 and the endowed school must be bridged over, otherwise the 
 poor cannot pass. Standards III. and IV. of the primary 
 school are far too narrow and weak structures to connect 
 two educational systems. Hence it is likely that the talented 
 poor will be defrauded of the inheritance devised for them 
 by the Endowed Schools Act ; and that the schools will be 
 again appropriated as formerly by the middle and upper 
 classes of society. The only mode of preventing this is to 
 improve the quality of instruction in the lower schools. 
 The higher subjects of a primary school need not be taught 
 to all, though all should feel it to be in their power to seize 
 hold of the instruction offered. In Scotch schools, from 
 5 to 7 per cent, of the scholars go on to higher subjects,
 
 302 SuBy£crs OF Social Welfare. 
 
 forming the intellectual fund of the country ; and no nation 
 has ever too large an amount of that. Perhaps the English 
 Universities may yet, in the progress of reform, open portals 
 of entrance to the talented poor, but the outlook is distant. 
 The Endowed Schools Commissioners have recently shown 
 an enlightened desire to improve the condition of schools 
 for which new schemes are framed, though they have to 
 battle against the ignorant prejudices of localities, and 
 sometimes against representative ignorance in the House of 
 Commons. These schools are not inspected, and the public 
 remain in ignorance of the results of the revised schemes. 
 
 All nations which have in recent years revised their 
 educational systems have provided a class of secondary 
 schools for the industrial classes, specially devoted to teach 
 them the principles of science and art relating to their in- 
 dustries. Holland compels every town of io,oco inhabi- 
 tants to erect such schools. Switzerland has her improve- 
 ment and technical schools in profusion. So has France, 
 Prussia, Austria, and other countries. Our endowed 
 schools will not supply this want ; hence we must look for 
 them in another direction. Casting my eyes over the 
 educational barrenness of our land, they fall upon a class 
 of schools which might be converted to such a purpose. 
 I allude to our half-time factory schools. At present they 
 are nothing but primary schools. When compulsory 
 education is fully at work, these factory schools might be 
 made of material advantage both to the emplo} er and the 
 employed, if they were converted into useful secondary 
 schools to teach the principles of science and art relating to 
 the actual industries of the half-timers. The evening 
 schools recognised by the Education Department are 
 falling off in the numbers of their pupils. This is natural, be- 
 cause primary education is now compulsory in day schools. 
 They would revive if they were converted into improve- 
 ment schools for pui)ils of advanced age, especially if their
 
 Oy Fkimarv Education. 303 
 
 instructiun were directed into the form of technical training 
 of the industries of the locahties in which they are situated. 
 It will be a relief to you to know that I have now 
 reached the last division of my subject, though it is one 
 which I cannot pass over in silence, for it forms the kernel 
 of the whole matter. I allude to the position and qualifica- 
 tions of teachers in our primary schools. Any one who has 
 experience in education will agree with the common saying, 
 " As is the teacher, so is the school." The Rev. Canon 
 Moseley, who has done eminent service to education, and 
 was at one time a school-inspector, says, "As I go from 
 school to school, I perceive in each a distinctive character, 
 which is that of the master ; I look at the school and the 
 man, and there is no mistaking the resemblance. His 
 idiosyncrasy has passed upon it. I seem to see him re- 
 flected in the faces of the children, as in so many frag- 
 ments of a broken mirror." Ever since 1846 the Govern- 
 ment have watched the training of teachers with care, and 
 have taken securities that they should possess character, 
 learning, teaching method and teaching aptitude. They 
 have been chosen from the working classes in order to 
 enlist their sympathies and to preserve for them an identity 
 of interests. The school itself has been made the scene of 
 a live years' training, and to this has been added two years 
 of a collegiate life. Then provided with certificates of com- 
 petency and trained fitness, and having given seven yeais' 
 security of character, they are spread over the country to 
 carry on their work of civilisation. In following this course 
 we have only imitated the example of all States in which 
 elementary education has been productive of public weal. 
 In fact, it is the universal experience of nations, that how- 
 ever vigorous may be the central administration, however 
 active the local management, and however lavish the public 
 expenditure, the success and civilising powers of education 
 depend wholly on the character, position, and attainments
 
 304 Subjects of Social JVelpare. 
 
 of the teacher. If our training schools produce teachers 
 who are fitted to discourage mere verbahsm and cram, and 
 if the Code were framed so as to encourage useful and 
 higher subjects of education, we might have confidence in 
 the present system. In Scotland the training of teachers 
 is partly confided to the universities, and recently efficient 
 colleges of a like character have been founded in the chief 
 provincial towns of England. These might, with great ad- 
 vantage, be coordinated with our present limited system of 
 training teachers. As long as Government instruction and 
 aid are limited to the three R's of the Revised Code, it is a 
 matter of little consequence. I see no justification for a 
 high class of teachers, or for a high class of Government 
 inspectors on such a system ; and if it be continued, the 
 country is likely to make a clean sweep of both. To have 
 trained teachers and university-bred inspectors to teach and 
 to test the mechanical system of the three R's, is like using 
 Nasmyth's steam hammer, which can forge a beam, to 
 crack an egg-shell. In the view which I have laid before 
 you, the money of the nation is wasted in producing such 
 results and no other. They are doubtless an excellent 
 foundation for a superstructure, but what is the use of an 
 expensive foundation if you never build the superstructure ? 
 I, who attach the very highest value to trained and certifi- 
 cated masters, feel that I am unable to defend either them, 
 or inspectors of culture, on the present system ; so what 
 arguments will those who believe them to be unnecessary 
 have for their abolition ? Petty results are to be paid for ; 
 and these can be manufactured and appraised by a much 
 cheaper staff" than we have at present. My idea of results is 
 not encircled by the three R's. The results to be desired 
 are the formation of character of the people, the moral and 
 intellectual development of the rising generation, and their 
 preparation for the battle of life. The discipline, the high 
 tone, and the moral atmosphere of the school, requisite to
 
 On Primary Education. 305 
 
 attain such results, find no place in the standards of the 
 Revised Code. It is for these higher results that trained 
 teachers and a cultured class of inspectors are necessary. 
 Unquestionably the teachers trained for such purposes form 
 a protected class, and protection is an unpopular word ; but 
 it is in no other sense than as the public has protection 
 from ignorant quacks, in the shape of unqualified medical 
 practitioners, or lawyers, or clergy. It is a protection of ihe 
 poor against ignorance, and a protection of the State from 
 the inroads of barbarism. No more important object lies 
 before the Education Department in the future than the 
 efficient organisation of the scholastic profession as a whole, 
 so that it may become an object of ambition to the best 
 youth of the country, and may afford to them adequate 
 remuneration in their years of working vigour, with the 
 power of providing for their old age. This would be a 
 true economy to the nation, for a country which has suffi- 
 ciently large resources in schools and teachers, possesses 
 the elements of continued prosperity, and has little to fear 
 in the advancing competition of the world. 
 
 I have now done. This year is memorable because, for 
 the first period in our history, the State has been brought 
 into national relation with education, and has accepted large 
 responsibilities. If you believe that this Act has settled the 
 scheme of national education, even for a few years, I trust 
 that you are much mistaken. It has just touched the out- 
 skirts of the subject. The great object before us is to 
 establish an efficient organisation of public intellect. Now, 
 the national relations to it are in a state of chaotic confusion. 
 There is the Committee of Council with two departments 
 running side by side on parallel rails, yet never touching 
 each other lest disagreeable collisions might result. The 
 Elementary School Department will have no aid from the 
 Science and Art Department ; and yet both are under the 
 same masters — the President and Vice-President of the
 
 3o6 Subjects of Socjal IVelfare. 
 
 Council. Again you have a third body, the Endowed 
 School Commissioners, tacked on to the same Committee 
 by a loose sort of thread, but not bound to co-operate with 
 either department. Then you have all sorts of Government 
 schools outside the Education Department altogether. 
 Union and workhouse schools under the Poor Law Board ; 
 military and regimental schools under the War Office ; naval 
 and ship schools under the Admiralty ; factory and in- 
 dustrial schools under the Home Office. Some of the 
 universities receive large sums from Parliament, but are 
 responsible to no public department for their proper use. 
 In fact, we have educational materials in abundance, but 
 no architect to make a national edifice out of them. We 
 have not even decided which of them should be selected for 
 the building of the future. Brick, stone, wood, iron are all 
 useful in building ; any one will do, yet all united would 
 answer the purpose better. We quarrel among ourselves 
 as to which should be used, so a substantial building is not 
 even begun, and our castle is in the air. Humanists, 
 realists, religionists, and secularists contend for their 
 separate views, and refuse to co-ordinate them for the 
 public good. In this confusion the public call for a 
 Minister of Education, in the hope that he may be a 
 nucleus round which the various educational materials may 
 crystallise in a definite form. In the competition of nations, 
 both in war and in peace, their position for the future will 
 dejiend upon the education of their peoples. Local advan- 
 tages or practical aptitudes may give them jne-eminence 
 to-day, but, unless supported by knowledge, that will vanish 
 to-morrow. The competition of the future will be one of 
 public intellect. The national system of primary education 
 which I have criticised is our first effort to elicit order from 
 disorder. It is the mere beginning of a mighty work, which 
 this country must perform, if she is to escape the sentence 
 passed on the Church of Sardis — " Thou hast a name that 
 thou livest and art dead."
 
 TECHNICAL EDUCATION. 
 
 This address was delivered to the Philosophical Institution in 
 Edinburgh in 1870. 
 
 Technical Education means that those who are engaged 
 in industry should have a trained intelHgence and under- 
 standing of the special industries which they enter as bread- 
 winners. In one sense it should begin in the Kindergarten 
 and end at the College, for its great object is to train the 
 faculties so as to teach working men how to observe, to 
 appreciate, and to think. The primary schools of this 
 country do not take the proper part in this system of 
 education. The eye, the ear, the hand should be exer- 
 cised in them much more than at present ; the body should 
 be kept in health by physical exercise ; mere verbalisim 
 and useless knowledge should be discouraged. These 
 defects in public elementary schools might be remedied 
 by a more extended use of drawing, by the use of tools, by 
 popular scientific lectures, and by arithmetic being taught 
 more practically and less abstractedly. In other words, 
 our schools should be made less bookish and more ob- 
 jective, 
 
 I do not intend to argue this question on the panic cry 
 that this country is losing her position among manufacturing 
 nations. I believe this cry to be true, and that the in- 
 dustrial supremacy of England is endangered for lack of 
 knowledge, in spite of the practical aptitudes of her people. 
 I prefer to rest the argument on general principles, which 
 will convince your understanding that the immense attention 
 bestowed upon the scientific and artistic education of the 
 U 2
 
 3o8 Sl'bjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 people in foreign States arises from a necessity of modem 
 civilisation, and must be followed by this kingdom. The 
 question does not involve any suppression of classical 
 systems of education for scholars who desire to follow 
 them. In France, Germany, Switzerland, and other coun- 
 tries, which are moving so earnestly to promote the 
 technical education of the industrial classes, the lycees and 
 gymnasia are, to say the least, as numerous and good 
 as our corresponding classical schools. The difference is 
 that a much greater portion of the population has been 
 induced to cultivate a higher education than formerly, 
 because the idea has been abandoned that one kind of 
 education is suitable to all schools, and colleges have been 
 erected to teach the principles involved in occupations, the 
 very names of which were unknown to Herodotus and 
 Pliny. 
 
 In the early history of nations, the possession of raw 
 materials or of local advantages determined their industries. 
 Calicut, for a time, had an advantage over the rest of the 
 world on account of her indigenous cotton. Under 
 Abderrahman III. cotton was introduced into Spain, and 
 the most notable improvements were made by Arabs and 
 Spaniards in its manufactured products. Instead of paint- 
 ing calico by hand, the former invented the system of 
 printing by blocks, and the latter invented cotton paper. 
 In process of time, the cotton manufacture migrated from 
 Hindustan, Arabia, and Spain, and settled in this country, 
 far distant as it is from the source of the raw material. 
 Why was this ? Because, gradually though certainly, the 
 value of the raw material as a factor in industry became 
 less and less, while the value of the second factor — the 
 skill and intelligence applied to it — became greater and 
 greater. Note that the increasing factor was not mere 
 human labour, for that is still cheaper in the countries 
 from which the manufacture has departed than it is in
 
 Teciinical Education. 309 
 
 England. That is to say, it was not the brute labour of 
 men, but the intelligent labour of artisans, either in pos- 
 session of intelligence themselves, or reflecting the skill 
 and science of their employers. No nation continues in 
 the full enjoyment of a high state of national life unless 
 the conditions of its existence remain the same, or un- 
 less it possesses sufficient elasticity to adapt itself to new 
 conditions. Permanence of existence demands immutability 
 of, or adaptability to, the surrounding conditions. This is 
 the law of animated beings, as it is the law of nations. At 
 one time the islands in which we live were inhabited by 
 gigantic saurian reptiles, whose exuviae we still use to 
 fertilise our fields. They have passed away, or at the best 
 are represented by degenerate types. Even among the 
 lower creatures of the sea, living in conditions of greater 
 permanence, and who have persisted through various geo- 
 logical periods to the present day, we see many changes, 
 some of degeneracy, some of development. The recent 
 dredging expedition found certain creatures, which are 
 fully develoi)ed about the coasts of Arran, dwindled into 
 dwarfed varieties, from having been drifted out of their 
 favourable feeding grounds to other parts not so suited for 
 their growth. This law of individuals is also the law of nations. 
 Countries high in industrial position, like Greece and Arabia, 
 have degenerated, because nations cannot be stationary, 
 and they did not, or could not, adapt themselves to the 
 changing conditions around them. Nations, like animals, 
 have their changing struggles for existence. To remain 
 prosperous they must possess the conditions which Herbert 
 Spencer prescribes for individual welfare — "A constant 
 progress towards a higher degree of skill, intelligence, and 
 self-regulation — a better co-ordination of actions — a more 
 complete life." 
 
 As the world progresses the conceptions of the head 
 relieve the labour of the hands. In olden times women
 
 3IO SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 and oxen did the brute labours of the household. Women 
 ground the corn, till science taught mankind how to use the 
 natural powers of water to turn mills. In modern times the 
 puffing, panting engine represents the old brute labour 
 employed in the early stages of manufacturing industry. 
 We saw this illustrated, when 18,000 forced labourers on 
 the Suez Canal were suddenly withdrawn, and their brute 
 force was substituted by steam-engines, which did the work 
 with greater efficiency and economy. In the progress of 
 manufactures fewer labourers are employed, but they are 
 ])aid higher wages, because their skill and the product of 
 their labour is greater and cheaper. The cost of labour in 
 the product of a machine factory is a decreasing quantity ; 
 it was 25 per cent, in 1840, 23 in 1850, 21 in i860, 18 in 
 1870, 17I in 18S0. In cotton factories the brute strength 
 of the man has been substituted by the quick fingers and 
 eyesight of women and children, while the man's educated 
 intelligence is employed instead of his physical force. The 
 growth of the factory system changed our civilisation. With 
 the ripid production due to steam power, the wares could 
 no lo iger be sold by packmen carrying them on their backs 
 for distribution throughout the country, so these human 
 beasts of burden were tlirust aside by the railway train. 
 Let me illustrate this by the progress of the coal trade, 
 especially as coal itself is the source of most of our 
 mechanical power. When coal was originally got from 
 the mine, miners mined the coal at the bottom of the shaft, 
 then it was brought up in a basket by the men carrying it 
 up ladders on their backs to the surface. After that, other 
 bodies of men took it from them and they carried it down 
 to the sea-coast, each man having a basket of coal on his 
 back. A man could carry in this way a half-hundredweight 
 of coal to the coast. After a little while a horse was brought 
 m — the hay and oats were cheaper than the food of man. 
 They put the coal on a pack-horse, which took three hundred-
 
 Technical Education. 311 
 
 weight, so that was more economical. After a little while 
 someone thought of putting it in a cart dragged by a 
 horse. That was done, and the weight was increased from 
 three to sixteen hundredweight by the new application of 
 the horse and cart. After that came the tram-line, which 
 was laid down from the mine to the sea-shore, and a horse 
 and wagon drawn over the lines carried forty instead of 
 sixteen hundredweight. Then came the iron horse, eating 
 coal and drinking water, and snorting steam out of its 
 mouth as it went along, and this instead of forty hundred- 
 weight carried forty tons. So they would see that coal, 
 the source of power, gradually used its own force in cheaper 
 and more economical ways until the labour of the human 
 beasts of burden, who were only using brute animal force in 
 the most degrading and wasteful way, was pushed aside, and 
 the steam-engine did the labour and left the man to super- 
 intend it with his skill and intelligence. These displacements 
 of labour are universal. Mechanical forces are displacing 
 brute animal power, and the working men are gradually 
 being converted more and more into intellectual workmen, 
 who could exercise the thought, skill, and intelligence which 
 they had never been able to get from or give to machinery. 
 No wonder that, with this rapid change of conditions, loud 
 cries of distress came from uneducated labourers who knew 
 nothing except their acquired handicraft. No wonder that 
 even now astonishment and consternation exist among like 
 labourers, who see industries failing, and yet hope to pre- 
 serve them by protective laws. They will as little affect 
 the progress of intellectual industry as the Inquisition 
 affected the revolution of the earth, though it burnt Bruno 
 and imprisoned Galileo. Now if it be true that intelligent 
 labour is continually supplementing brute labour, it must be 
 equally true that no nation can remain in a condition of 
 permanent prosperity, that does not give to its population 
 as full an intelligence and as high an intellectual life as
 
 312 SuByEcrs of Social Welfare. 
 
 all other competing nations. This thought made Michel 
 Chevalier recently say, in speaking of the great technical 
 school at Paris, " If the Ecoie Centrale des Arts et Manu- 
 factures were not in existence, it would be necessary to 
 create it as the complement of the treaties of commerce." 
 It is this conviction, shadowily conceived, and even yet 
 imperfectly expressed, which makes the provincial colleges 
 slowly abandon their imitation of old university methods 
 by adapting themselves to the wants of their own localities. 
 The managers have not even yet emancipated themselves 
 from these old traditions, though the wants of the popula- 
 tion are gradually carrying them into the conviction that 
 Pope's maxim is a wise one, when he counsels us to " con- 
 sult the genius of the place in all." It is a similar conviction 
 that has induced my own University of Edinburgh to grant 
 degrees in science,* engineering and agriculture. 
 
 We may take another illustration of our general principle 
 from the art of war. The old Trojan and Grecian heroes 
 did everything to develop their physical powers, for their 
 combats and battles were chiefly won by endurance and 
 strength. Sometimes, indeed, Pallas, the goddess of wisdom, 
 punished them for prizing too exclusively their physical 
 force, as when she tripped Ajax in his race with the wise 
 Ulysses, who had prayed to her for aid ; while the former, 
 relying on brute force alone, was left grovelling in the offal 
 of the lowing kine. Now war is a game of science and 
 skill, not of mere material strength and valour. Our ships 
 
 * The degrees in science, which some of our universities think are un- 
 wise and a modern innovation, were, in point of fact, recognised by our 
 ancestors. In the organisation of tlie Scottish universities after the Re- 
 formation, such degrees were distinctly referred to. In St. Andrews, one 
 of the three colleges was to devote itself to teaching dialectics, mathematics, 
 including arithmetic and geometry, cosmography, astronomy, and natural 
 philosophy. The student who attended tliis course for three years and 
 passed a successful examination "shall be laureat and gradual in 
 philosophy."
 
 Technical Education. 313 
 
 of war, with their heavily-clad armour-plates, will have to 
 dispense with them, as our knights of old had to do with 
 their armour when gunpowder was invented. Great speed 
 in cruisers will soon render useless our lumbering ironclads. 
 The charges of our infantry and cavalry, with bayonets and 
 swords, please women at reviews, but are rapidly becoming 
 traditions of the past. Before long they will be as innocent 
 weapons in wars of the future as are the halberds of those 
 formidable beef-eaters who protect the Queen's palace at a 
 levee. Chassepots, Sniders, magazine rifles and revolvers, 
 firing their ten and twenty shots in a minute. Catlings and 
 Nordenfelts, firing their hundreds, would annihilate any regi- 
 ment that attempted a dashing charge. The animal courage 
 and brute strength which rendered the English soldiers 
 irresistible, must give place to the skill and intelligence 
 required to manage the new arms. Every Prussian in the 
 late war was a man of education, and, throughout the 
 campaign, was specially instructed by regimental classes 
 in the science as well as in the practice of war. It was not 
 true, in this case, as Napoleon used to say, that "God was 
 on the side of the great battalions." The valour on both 
 sides was equal, but the science and intelligence were un- 
 equal, and the campaign was won by the latter. France 
 and Austria herself have recognised this, and are now spend- 
 ing vast sums in giving a higher education to their people. 
 
 A mere elementary instruction is of small value, except 
 by way of preparation for this competition among nations. 
 A scientific education of a higher kind is still better as a 
 preparative, but even that is insufficient. There is a wide 
 gap between science and practice, and this must be bridged 
 over by men having technical information and special apti- 
 tudes. The history of science and its applications is as old 
 as human history. From Tubal-Cain, skilled in all metal 
 work, to King Ptolemy Philadelphus, working with his 
 furnaces and crucibles, through Dalton drawing atoms to
 
 314 Sc'ByEcrs of Social IVelfare. 
 
 illustrate his Atomic theory, there is a consecutive histor}-, 
 which has ended in chemical arts that have added so much 
 to the resources and happiness of mankind. From Eratos- 
 thenes measuring the earth, to the faith of Christopher 
 Columbus in its rotundity, and the French savants measur- 
 ing the meridian as the basis of a metrical system, there 
 is a sequence of progress which may be intermpted but is 
 never lost. The little fire on the solitary tower of Pharos 
 made Ptolemy II. the first discoverer of lighthouses, and 
 many intermediate inventions only culminated in the 
 dioptric lenses of Fresnel and Brewster. The revolving 
 engine of Hero, made practical by Avery, was the precursor 
 of numerous inventions which led to the double-acting 
 engine of Watt. No great discoveries are made by a 
 bound ; for all are legitimate offspring of those which have 
 preceded. And though science lies at the foundation of 
 the arts, her immediate cultivators are rarely the appliers 
 of the knowledge which they help to discover. Science 
 may be likened to a perennial stream with a bountiful supply 
 of fertilising waters ; but those who desire to use them 
 must cut channels for irrigation. It is neither in the 
 interest of science nor of manufactures, that the cultivators 
 of the former should direct their attention from it in order 
 to minister to the wants of productive industry. This is 
 the proper function of the productive classes. Hence the 
 necessity that they should receive a high education, so that 
 they may apply science to their wants and necessities. 
 This is now recognised pretty generally by manufacturers, 
 who are content to admit that such knowledge should be 
 possessed by their foremen and managers, though they do 
 not see any necessity for it among the artisans. At least 
 they act on this view in practice, even when they deny it in 
 theory. I was lately attacked in a vigorous and effective 
 way, for my views on technical education, by an eminent 
 manufacturer in the north of England. To show my appre-
 
 Technical Education. 315 
 
 ciation of a worthy opponent, I called at his works, but at a 
 time when he was obliged to leave them. He nevertheless 
 politely instructed his manager to show me everything. I 
 found that the manager was a Frenchman, who had received 
 a thorough technical education at the Ecole des Arts et 
 Metiers of Angers ! A distinguished engineer lately ex- 
 pressed a similar view in a lecture delivered in this city, 
 and on that occasion he gave the following description of 
 what should, and should not, be the education of a working 
 man. His definition is as follows : — "Clearly every branch 
 that can help him to perfection in work, but as clearly 
 nothing that wall simply occupy his time without furthering 
 the all-important acquisition of manipulative skill." The 
 engineer who wrote this is a man of professional attain- 
 ments, but when I read the passage, I said to myself, " Does 
 he view an artisan as a man made in God's own image, or 
 as a mere ambidextrous monkey ? " We need not be sur- 
 prised, if such ideas are prevalent, that employers of labour 
 speak of their workmen as so many " hands," and rarely 
 think of or use them as having so many heads and hearts. 
 This limitation of men to mere handicraft skill, in which 
 their ten fingers work dissociated from their head and 
 heart, has made poets rail against mechanical inventions, 
 when in reality these, if rightly used and intelligently under- 
 stood, are means of intellectual elevation, because their very 
 purpose is to substitute the sweat of the brow by the thought 
 of the brain. 
 
 It is, perhaps, natural that engineers should often be 
 opposed to the creation of technical schools. They know 
 that they have largely advanced the industries of the 
 country when such schools did not exist. They feel with 
 just pride that their offices and workshops have been schools 
 for engineers, and have produced admirable men. It is 
 true that the office of the engineer aims only to teach the 
 apprentice manipulative skill and constructive work, leaving
 
 3i6 SuDjECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 him to pick up scientific knowledge where and how he can. 
 When engineers see that schools and colleges are actually 
 furnished with workshops in which mechanical drawing is 
 thoroughly taught, and that pattern-making, moulding, and 
 founding form part of the curriculum, and where an intimate 
 acquaintance with the use of ordinary machine tools is given 
 simultaneously with scientific education, the old engineers 
 shrug their shoulders, and give scant encouragement to the 
 new modes of technical education. Every one admits 
 that English engineers in the past have efficiently trained 
 young men by their system of apprenticeship. There are 
 many other industries, like those of metallurgy, chemical 
 manufactures, and textile fabrics, which have never given 
 methodical training within their factories. For those who 
 have to follow their pursuits, outside technical education is 
 necessary. Even in regard to engineers a growing demand 
 for more methodical instruction than that given in the 
 workshop has arisen. It is stated by those who have 
 especially attended to preliminary instruction in engineering 
 that three years at colleges of this kind, combined with two 
 years in the workshops, turn out better men than five years' 
 apprenticeship in the latter. The proof of this is that there 
 is an active demand for men trained in this way. On my 
 last visit to the great technological school of Boston, I 
 found a display of competitive designs for a particular kind 
 of bridge. While I was looking at the drawings, the 
 largest builder of bridges in America came in, and being 
 much struck with the excellence of one of the designs, he 
 sent for the student and engaged him at a good salary. 
 The hundreds of students who pass through that school 
 find no difficulty in obtaining employment, though at first 
 their salaries are moderate, for they have much useful ex- 
 perience to learn in the actual workshops of industry. 
 The reason for this is obvious: the object of a school is 
 to teach, while that of the workshop is to pay, so the pur- 
 poses of both must be brought into combination.
 
 Technical Education. 317 
 
 In former times all industries were taught by apprentice- 
 ship, which really afforded a good technical education suited 
 to past periods, when industries were carried on by rule of 
 thumb, and not on scientific principles. In past periods 
 medical men were trained in the same way, until science 
 illumined their profession, and then special technical 
 education in it became essential for the safety of the public. 
 Industrial occupations are acquiring the dignity of a pro- 
 fession, because they are now based on a knowledge 
 of science. Science has, in recent times, produced so 
 many applications, that the modern manufacturer stands 
 at a great disadvantage when he is ignorant. The associa- 
 tion of masters and apprentices, in regard to crafts, is a 
 matter of history ; for competition has converted it into 
 that of capitalist and workman. The capitalist, with his 
 large factories worked by machinery, has neither the time 
 nor the inclination to bring up young men with a trained 
 knowledge of his industry like the apprentices of olden 
 times. Technical schools now intervene, and offer to teach 
 the workmen, the foremen, and the managers the scientific 
 principles lying at the base of their industries. The 
 capitalist does not always encourage this intervention ; he 
 is inclined to rest content when the workman confines his 
 labour and attention to one minute division of the industry, 
 because constant application at that renders the labourer 
 more economical to the employer. It is only when he 
 sees the labour-market changing from places which neglect 
 to those which promote efficient technical education that 
 he awakes to the new conditions under which industries 
 are carried on. It is surely creditable to working men that 
 they should wish to have an intelligent acquaintance with 
 the whole industry in which they are engaged, and not to 
 remain satisfied with the mere empirical skill spent upon 
 the small comer of work allotted to them in the division of 
 labour. In addition to this desire there is also a practical
 
 3t8 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 necessity for a more extended knowledge of their industry 
 than is attainable in the workshop. The rapid improve- 
 ments in machinery are producing constant dislocations in 
 labour. 
 
 The true education of a labourer is to make him an intel- 
 ligent being, not a mere dexterous manipulator, so that he 
 may have the moral dignity and intellectual force derived 
 from a thorough understanding of the principles of the work 
 in which he is engaged. Instruction in manipulative skill 
 is no complete education at all; and, such as it is, belongs 
 to the workshop, not to the school. They may, it is true, 
 be often combined with mutual advantage, as in the half- 
 time system of factories and union schools, or in the way it 
 is done in Scotch universities by winter study and summer 
 work. If Faraday's education had been limited to that 
 which bore on his manipulative skill as a newsboy or a 
 bookbinder, many arts would be far behind their present 
 position, and science might have had to wait another 
 century for a knowledge of the laws which are now the 
 property of mankind. Faraday's first experiment, made 
 as a newsboy while waiting outside for a paper, was to put 
 his head through a railing and then speculate on which side 
 he was ! Here we see the philosopher acknowledging the 
 head as of preponderating importance, though it was in- 
 capable of being dissociated from the body. He got a 
 practical proof of the fact that both ought to be kept in 
 good connection ; for, while he speculated, the door opened 
 and he received a severe wrench. Faraday never afterwards 
 dissociated his manipulative skill, great as it was, from his 
 wise head and warm heart. If Wheatstone had limited his 
 education to the manipulative skill of making musical instru- 
 ments, space would not have been abridged or time abbre- 
 viated by the electric telegraph. If George Stephenson had 
 only acquired the manipulative ' skill of shovelling coals 
 adroitly into the furnace when he acted as a stoker, we
 
 Technical Education. 319 
 
 might still have to go from London to Edinburgh by a four- 
 horse coach. No ! the proper education of a man is the 
 widest that is attainable by him, and the greater his know- 
 ledge the more useful will he prove to himself and to those 
 .around him.* It is, however, contended that these very 
 instances prove that the great discoveries in science, and 
 the great applications in industry, have been made by men 
 of genius who never had any technical education. It is 
 quite true that men of commanding genius have made their 
 mark in the world without teclmical education, and that 
 they have profoundly altered important industries, although 
 it is probable that their difficulties would have been lessened 
 had they possessed it. These great revolutions of industry 
 
 * As a contrast to the a^ove description of what the education of a 
 working man should be, I give another from a great practical body — the 
 Steam Navigation Company — the " Messageries Impcriales'" of France. .A. 
 committee of their Directors, in recommending a further development of 
 their excellent schools, report as follows : — "The instructions to be given 
 to the working man ought, in our opinion, to be such as will raise his in- 
 tellectual and moral level, facilitate the practice of his trade, make him 
 more skilful in his craft, increase his power of production, and consequently 
 his own means and the common weal, by gradually suppressing the ignor- 
 ance and vice which are the cause of so much misery and the ruin of families. 
 In addition to the subjects taught in elementary primary schools, we think 
 technical education ought to comprise — Man's duty to God, his fellow- 
 creatures, and himself ; the study and recitation of select passages in prose 
 and verse ; caligraphy ; the rules of French grammar and parsng ; com- 
 plete practical arithmetic ; the elements of geometry ; the elements of 
 applied physics ; industrial chemistry ; industrial mechanics; linear draw- 
 ing applied to ornament, machines, and naval constructions ; the rudiments 
 of sanitary science ; the elements of history, especially that of France ; the 
 English language ; the elements of geography, particularly as regards 
 France ; and gymnastics. For those of our pupils who desire to become fore- 
 men, heads of workshops, managers of factories, and engineers, the prepara- 
 tory technical instruction must have the same basis as for the workman, but 
 be far more extended, so as to enable them to enter a school of arts or 
 trades, or the Central School of Arts and Manufactures, which for the 
 working classes may be regarded as the schools of application, just as the 
 Schools of Bridges and Roads, the School of Naval Engineers, etc. , are for 
 the upper classes."
 
 320 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 are generally produced by outside men of genius, who were 
 not driving in the usual ruts of an industry, but viewed its 
 needs from without. Possibly technical education might 
 have contracted their originality and power of work, though 
 I do not think it would, for genius is irrepressible. Never- 
 theless, the fact is true that the great revolutions of industry 
 come from without and not from within. Watt, who trans- 
 formed the steam-engine, was a mender of philosophical 
 instruments, and first thought of the engine when called 
 on to repair a model for the Andersonian Institution in 
 Glasgow. There he got lectures in science, and the cross- 
 fertihsation of this with his practical aptitude bore its 
 glorious fruits. George Stephenson, the collier, had no 
 facilities for early education — a subject of much regret to 
 him in after-life : he took care that his son Robert, the 
 eminent engineer, should have the fullest scientific educa- 
 tion within his reach. Arkwright, who revolutionised cotton- 
 spinning, was a barber, and from want of education lost 
 much time in trying to discover perpetual motion, but at 
 last triumphed in industrial invention by his mechanical 
 genius. Cartwright, the inventor of the power-loom, was a 
 clergyman, and certainly was not educated in technics. 
 Hargreaves, the inventor of the carding machine and 
 spinning-jenny, was a handloom weaver, and may be said 
 to be an inventor from the inside of the industry : he was 
 unquestionably illiterate. Many other names in science 
 and industry, as Davy and Dalton, the druggists ; Faraday, 
 the bookbinder ; Wheatstone, the maker of musical instru- 
 ments ; Bell of the telephone, who was a teacher of deaf 
 mutes, are instances of genius from the outside, illumining 
 the science or industry which they advanced by such 
 gigantic strides. I do not at all dispute the fact that 
 men of genius can overcome the defects of their education, 
 and can surmount difficulties which would prove fatal to 
 men who had not the gift of genius. Such men are rare in
 
 Techxical Education, 321 
 
 the history of the world, and education is not modelled to 
 suit their needs. The men who carry on the great indus- 
 tries of nations are rarely in this category, and do benefit by 
 a training of their intelligence in direct relation to their 
 respective occupations. 
 
 The working man should be a partner in the intellect of 
 labour. In our country his share is miserably small. Brain 
 may monopolise, in the persons of the managers, 95 per 
 cent, of the intellect, and allows the 5 per cent, to be spread 
 over perhaps a thousand "hands." 
 
 Having said so much in regard to the principles of 
 techmcal education, I now propose to illustrate them by 
 showing how certain countries have conquered nature, and 
 made for themselves important positions, in spite of 'local 
 disadvantages or deficiency in the raw materials of industry, 
 and then we will take a contrast to heighten the effect of 
 these examples. My illustrations will be Switzerland, Hol- 
 land, and Scotland ; their contrast must be Ireland. The 
 three countries have some common features, in the fact that 
 their civilisation has been retarded by cruel and bloody 
 wars of independence, and by those resulting from religious 
 intolerance ; yet all of them, owing to the education of'tlieir 
 people, enjoy an amount of material prosperity dispropor- 
 tionate to their area and geographical position. 
 
 Let us begin with Switzerland. It is a country far 
 removed from the ocean, and girt by mountains, many of 
 which are covered with eternal snow. Her land is poor in 
 the raw material of industries. Even in such a staple as 
 iron, she can only produce two-fifths of her consumption ; 
 for fuel, she has only wood, and must import coal from the 
 mines of France, Belgium, and Germany. Until 1864, the 
 surrounding countries drew a cordon around her by hostile 
 tariffs, so that this small nation presented the strange 
 spectacle of seeking an outlet for her manufactures in the 
 most distant markets of the world. To show you how little
 
 322 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 the raw material of manufacture compares in value with the 
 skill and intellect applied to its production, I may mention 
 that Switzerland imports cotton from America, and sends it 
 back again across the ocean in a manufactured state, so as 
 to undersell the products of the American mills. In like 
 manner she imports tobacco from Havannah, and making 
 it into cigars, undersells the indigenous country in the South 
 American markets. Now the (question before us is — What 
 has enabled this little nation, so remote from the pathways 
 of commerce, and so poor in the mineral resources of 
 industry, to carry on manufacturing production by the aid 
 of a prosperous and contented people, while England, 
 washed by the ocean, and abounding in mineral wealth, is 
 burdened with an ever-increasing proportion of the unpro- 
 ductive poor ? There is only one answer — that Switzerland 
 has a highly educated people. Education in that republic, 
 where liberty has long asserted her independence, is com- 
 pulsory from five to sixteen years of age. In one or two of 
 the cantons this is not the case, but even in these, from the 
 force of the surrounding examples, there is no need of com- 
 pulsion. The compulsion is both direct and indirect — that 
 is, it extends not only to the parent, but also to the 
 employer of labour. From six years of age to twelve or 
 thirteen, the children must attend primary schools, which, 
 as the age advances, become practical in the character of 
 instruction ; for, instead of being confined to the miserable 
 " three R " standards, they include geometry, natural history, 
 geography and history, drawing, singing, and calisthenics, 
 all of which are rendered compulsory. After this elemen- 
 tary course of six years, follow three years at what are 
 termed the "improvement" schools, in which every effort 
 is made to apply to practical purposes what has been 
 learned in the primary school. These improvement schools 
 must be attended, or proof must be given to the State that 
 the scholars are receiving equally good instruction else- 
 where. Then come the cantonal schools of a high class.
 
 Techxical Education. 323 
 
 like our High School and Academy, but divided into two quite 
 distinct divisions — the classical and the trade schools. Any 
 of us who have visited them can testify that, as classical 
 schools, they leave nothing to be desired, when compared 
 with our own standards, while we have no analogies at all 
 to the trade schools, in spite of our wealthy endowments, 
 managed by merchant and trading companies. The little 
 Canton of Zurich, w^ith a population midway between that of 
 Edinburgh and Glasgow, has sixty-seven of the various 
 secondary schools to which I have alluded. Above them 
 all, are two universities. The University of Zurich belongs 
 wholly to the canton, and is supported by it. The pro- 
 fessors are 42 in number, and have 29 assistants. They 
 are men of eminence, and do their work well; but the 
 demand for this university is not nearly so great as for the 
 Technical Institute, to which I am about to allude. This 
 great institution is supported by the Federal Government. 
 The canton supplied the buildings, which are larger than 
 those of Buckingham Palace, and, in addition, subscribes a 
 large annual sum in its aid. In it there are 40 professors 
 and 20 assistant-professors, who have 700 students in 
 attendance. In our own university we rather boast of 
 having 20 or 30 students of engineering. At the institution 
 in Zurich there are 150 for civil engineering and 169 for 
 mechanical engineering. Of the 600 matriculated students, 
 there are 216 from Germany, but only 9 from England. I 
 wish every Edinburgh citizen could inspect this noble insti- 
 tution, with its two sets of splendidly equipped laboratories, its 
 excellent apparatus, and its educational museums. I am sure 
 that then the pride, as well as the interest of the Scottish 
 metropolis, would not let our university be so poorly pro- 
 vided with educational appliances as it is at the present 
 time.* Recollect that I am speaking of a small State, 
 
 • Since the date of this address the University of Edinburgh has built 
 new laboratories, and is now amply equipped with the means for teaching 
 the sciences. 
 V 2
 
 324 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 republican in government, and inhabited by a thrifty and 
 prudent people. Is it not significant that they find it 
 for their interest to spend nearly one-third of the local taxa- 
 tion of the industrial canton .in the lower and higher 
 education of their youth? 'I'his frugal people do so because 
 they find that such expenditure is productive of the best 
 economies. The Coventry ribbon trade, which has deserted 
 England, has settled itself in the valleys of Switzerland. 
 The Polytechnic Institution has aided in this result, because 
 it turns out 72 persons annually, trained in the science and 
 art requisite to conduct such a manufacture successfully. In 
 this single branch of the ribbon trade there are already 
 30,000 weavers, besides the collateral workers, such as dyers 
 and superintendents. The ribbon trade of Switzerland is 
 prosperous and increasing, having an annual value of 
 ;^i, 600,000, most of which is export, while the Maccles- 
 field and Coventry trade, languishing and pining, has her 
 exports represented by only ;£6 1,000. And so our Coventry 
 weavers shout for protection for native industry, or, in other 
 words, for native ignorance. The difference between the 
 Swiss trade and the Coventry trade is very simple ; it is 
 involved in the answer given by Opie, the painter, to a youth 
 who asked him how he mixed his colours, — " I mix them 
 with my brains, sir ! " In the one, high science and art 
 superintend every branch of the industry, and a trained 
 intelligence sits at the loom. In the other, the first is repre- 
 sented by a practical empiricism, the latter by ignorance. 
 As long as this is the case, no reciprocal treaties which man 
 can devise will raise an industry declining from natural 
 causes. Laws of nature are inexorable, and never vary like 
 human laws. Our operatives may find restored prosperity 
 by putting themselves submissively into harmony with them, 
 but never by seeking refuge in the worn-out economical 
 l^olicy of a past age. 
 
 Our next illustration is Holland, a country at the mouth
 
 Tr.ciixiCAL Education!. 325 
 
 of the Rhine, while Switzerland is at its source. It is, in 
 fact, formed by the debris of the Swiss and German lands, 
 carried down towards the sea by that great river. Naturally 
 it is nothing but a gigantic swamp, which has been drained 
 and converted into a fertile country by the untiring industry 
 of its inhabitants. Over this swamp the North Sea used to 
 lash in fury, but was gradually pushed back by dykes. 
 There is a constant warfare between man and the ocean in 
 this strange country. During one of these conflicts of the 
 thirteenth century the North Sea was victorious, and, 
 breaking through the ramparts built to exclude her, robbed 
 Holland of a province larger than Yorkshire, and formed the 
 gulf known as the Zuyder Zee. In the sixteenth century 
 another invasion of the ocean was again successful, and the 
 Haarlem Sea was the result of the victory. But the Dutch 
 people are lustful of conquest, and carry on constant war, 
 not through blood and rapine, but by industry and science. 
 Within a few years Haarlem Sea has been won back from 
 the ocean, and 45,000 acres have been reclaimed for the 
 people. In fourteen years from now, in all probability, the 
 Zuyder Zee will be thrown back into its parent ocean, and 
 a province capable of supporting 250,000 inhabitants will be 
 added to the country. These are great achievements, and 
 show that Holland is peopled by an intelligent and in- 
 dustrious race. Yet that country had few natural advantages 
 in its dismal flats and dreary swamps. At one time, indeed, 
 a favourable maritime position enabled her merchants to be 
 the carriers for a large part of Europe. But this national 
 monopoly has long ceased to exist, since navigation has 
 been improved, and the wealth of the country is now largely 
 derived from productive industries. For their prosecution 
 Holland has fewer advantages than Ireland. With the 
 exception of a small coal-field around Limburg, there is none 
 of this important fuel in Holland. Yet, despite her natural 
 poverty in the raw materials of industry, Holland sends to
 
 326 SvBjECTs OF Social Welfare. 
 
 this country alone exports of food to the annual value of five 
 millions of pounds, and manufactured products worth six 
 millions more. Recollect that we are not speaking of a 
 great State, but only of a small kingdom, having one-tenth 
 the area of the United Kingdom, and one-eighth of its 
 population. The secret of her prosperity is the high state of 
 education among the people, though, from want of a com- 
 pulsory law, there is still a residue of ignorance. In the 
 primary schools of Holland, a wide foundation is laid for 
 practical purposes in the attention given to science. Beyond 
 this primary instruction, there is a complete scheme of 
 technical education, not only for workmen, but also for the 
 foremen and managers of works. The law compels e\'ery 
 town of 10,000 inhabitants to erect technical schools. In 
 these, working men receive systematic instruction in 
 mechanics, natural philosophy, chemistry, natural history, 
 technology, agriculture, geography, history, the native 
 language, political economy, freehand and mechanical 
 drawing, and calisthenics. Above these are the higher 
 technical schools, of which there are thirty-two in Holland 
 — twelve, I believe, being supported by Government and 
 twenty by municipalities. In them are 2,500 pupils, who 
 pass through a course of five years, about one-third of it 
 being devoted to the study of the exact sciences, one-third 
 to the political, mercantile, and historical sciences, and one- 
 third to their own and at least two foreign languages. 
 When you go into a shop in Holland, you feel quite secure 
 that the shopkeeper will speak either English or French, 
 and generally both. Such liberal salaries are given to 
 teachers that they are readily obtained. Neglecting a few 
 country parishes in which poverty prevails, the minimum of 
 their salaries is ;^ioo, and the maximum £zS'=>' Need I 
 say one word more in explanation of the causes which make 
 Holland an industrious and prosperous nation, in spite of 
 its small area, and poverty in industrial resources ?
 
 Technical Educatioi^. 337 
 
 Lastly, I select Scotland as an illustration, not for what 
 education will do for her in the future, but for what it did 
 for her in the past. Scotland was still a country of savages 
 when Ireland had the elements of civilisation and the 
 promise of increasing prosperity. I need not remind you 
 how long the Scotch wars retarded the development of 
 industry. So deplorable were they, that the very treasures 
 of our coasts were taken away by other nations, for the 
 Dutch worked our fisheries to the extent of two millions of 
 pounds per annum for two centuries before we had leisure 
 or ei..erprise enough to do it for ourselves. How long it 
 took to cradle our industry may be known from the astonish- 
 ing fact, that there was an actual slavery or serfdom among 
 the colliers and salters till nearly the end of last century. 
 Though the Union gave a great impulse to trade in Scotland, 
 by a relief of the navigation laws, yet it required another 
 century to improve the roads and means of communication 
 sufficiently for the purposes of commerce. About a century 
 since, ;;^2oo,ooo sufficed as a circulating medium for all the 
 wants of commerce, agriculture, and manufactures ; now we 
 require four and a half millions of notes, and two and 
 a half millions of coin. The reason for the rapid rise in 
 the industrial prosperity of the country was that there had 
 been a long preparation for it in the education of the 
 people. As soon as the natural obstacles to commerce were 
 removed, the people were ready to do their part with 
 energy, and to take advantage of the richness of our natural 
 resources. -A national system of education, and an easy 
 access to the four universities, had given to them advantages 
 far exceeding those available to the people of England * or 
 
 * At one time, in the sixteenth century, the English universities were 
 chiefly attended by yeomen, and the poor had ready access. "In limes past, 
 when any rich man died in London, they were wont to help the poor scholars 
 of the universities with exhibitions. When I was a scholar in Cambridge 
 myself, I heard a very good report of London, and I knew many that had
 
 328 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 Ireland. I need say little more, as I dwelt upon this subject 
 in a former address, yet it is important to consider whether 
 Scotland is now in the position to retain this proud pre- 
 eminence. Her parochial system of education does not 
 apply to towns, and her schemes of secondary education are 
 imperfect. Possessed of wealthy endowments for educational 
 purposes, they are worked so as to be positively injurious to 
 the progress of the people. While England is in a state of 
 the greatest activity for the reform and extension of primary 
 education, and holds meetings of great unions and leagues 
 in every town, Scotland is asleep and is dreaming of her 
 past glories. While England is about to reform all her 
 educational endowments, by throwing them into one grand 
 scheme of secondary education for the whole body of the 
 people, with the agency of responsible commissioners 
 nominated by the Crown, Scotland has allowed her endow- 
 ments to remain under irresponsible corporations, who seem 
 to have no inclination to give up their patronage and class 
 privileges for the benefit of the nation. How much longer 
 Scotland intends to sleep on I do not know, but the world at 
 large sees clearly enough that the lions passants of England 
 on their four feet are now making much more way than the 
 lion rampant of Scotland on its two hind legs. It was not 
 by dwelling on the past that John Knox laid the basis of 
 prosperity for his country. Past glories ought to be honoured, 
 but future glories require to be achieved.* 
 
 Lastly, I bring Ireland into contrast with the three 
 countries which I have described in their relations tb 
 education. She has had troubles, even more severe than 
 
 relief of the rich men of London, but now charity is waxen cold ; none 
 helpeth the scholar, nor yet the poor. Oh, London ! London ! repent, 
 repent, for I think God is more displeased with London than ever He was 
 with the city of Nebo." — Latimer's Sermons, vol. i., page 64. 
 
 * Since 1870, many of the educational endowments of Scotland have 
 been efficiently reformed ; while the Education Act of 1872 has worked 
 admirably for the better education of the towns.
 
 Technical Education. 329 
 
 those of the Netherlands under Philip II., or of Switzerland 
 and Scotland in the Wars of Independence. Worse than 
 these wars of conquest and rebellion has been the ruthless 
 stamping out of her industries, as they began to appear 
 above the surface of the soil. In the whole history ot 
 Protection, nothing is so deplorable as the ills which it has 
 brought on Ireland. Only a single industry, that of flax, 
 has been strong enough to resist the prohibitory laws of 
 England against exportation. Even the internal industries 
 of the country were paralysed by the protective spirit, which, 
 in the form of bounties, robbed the people of their self- 
 reliance. The channels of industry being closed, the people 
 flowed over the land, which, under excessive competition, 
 rose to rack rents, and the tenants scourged it in order to 
 obtain a return. Thus, even the national industry of agri- 
 culture has gone to the bad, for the soil of Ireland, im- 
 poverished by bad cultivation, has lost the ability within 
 the last ten years of feeding nearly two millions of the 
 population. Supposing that this had not been so, agricul- 
 ture possesses only a small power of expansion when com- 
 pared with manufactures. I have shown you by the ex- 
 amples of Switzerland and Holland, that poverty in natural 
 resources is no bar to industrial development, if the popula- 
 tion possess an educated intelligence sufficient to com- 
 pensate for their local disadvantages. There is nothing 
 inherent in the soil, in the Celtic origin of the people, or in 
 the religion of Ireland, that should prevent it becoming an 
 important manufacturing country, for all of these conditions 
 are represented in other prosperous nations. The chief 
 difficulty for its development consists in the fact that 
 England has impressed a character upon the people by 
 centuries of misrule, and that time is requisite for the 
 change of character ; because a State, responsible for the 
 upbringing of a people, cannot escape the judgment which 
 savs that the sins of the father shall be visited on the
 
 330 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 children, even to the third and fourth generation. Ireland, 
 though possessing but little coal, is near to the coal-fields of 
 Scotland and Wales, nearer, in fact, than many parts of 
 England, and far nearer to such fuel than Switzerland. She 
 possesses fine rivers and unequalled ports. Her climate is 
 specially favourable to the spinning of cotton. Her wool, 
 hides, and tallow point to manufacturing woollen fabrics, 
 leather, candles, and soap. Yet only one-half of the people 
 are engaged in trade and manufactures that ought to be so 
 occupied, according to the experience of England and 
 Scotland. No measure of improvement which stops at the 
 notion that agriculture is sufficient for the people, can make 
 Ireland prosperous. The quickest remedy for the ills 
 which aftlict her will be the secondary education of the 
 people in practical subjects. It is only through such 
 education that you can diminish the craving hunger for 
 land, and raise a desire for other forms of industrial occupa- 
 tion. It is true that Parliament has already expended 
 much money in giving what England calls primary education 
 to the people of Ireland. Well, if that were enough, Ireland 
 should have ceased to be England's difficulty, for there is a 
 wider diffi.ision of the three R's in the former than in the 
 latter country. And what has it all come to ? That the 
 Irish have been enabled to read the seditious newspapers 
 of their country, and, like Caliban in the Tempest, to turn 
 upon us and say — 
 
 " You taught me language ; and my profit on 't 
 Is I know how to curse : " 
 
 Such miserable instruction as we give to working people 
 under the name of education, can produce no better result 
 in a disaffected population. For them there is no hope of 
 a higher education in the practical sciences of life, such as 
 is given in other countries. In Scotland, out of 3,500 
 students at the universities, probably 500 are sons of the
 
 Technical Education. 331 
 
 wage-making class. In all the Queen's Colleges of Ireland, 
 since their foundation, the Vice-President of one of them 
 writes to me that he recollects only one instance of the sort, 
 though there are many sons of farmers holding twenty or 
 thirty acres. If we except the half-dozen royal scholars to 
 Trinity College, Dublin, who are now graciously allowed to 
 wear velvet caps, there is no aid to the poor from this 
 quarter. So the education of Ireland, in its present con- 
 dition, has but small ameliorative power on the working 
 classes ; for it possesses none of those powerful means of 
 pushing forward the meritorious poor which were long the 
 characteristics of Scotch education. Where instances occur 
 of nations abounding in paupers and criminal classes being 
 made prosperous and happy in less than a generation, 
 through the powerful influences of education, that has never 
 been confined to a smattering of the three R's. Such an 
 instance is Baden, which, by eight years of industrial educa- 
 tion, lessened the number of prisoners from 1,426 to 691 ; 
 to such an extent, indeed, that prisons had to be closed for 
 want of occupants. The technical education which led to 
 this result was not only high but special ; and, through its 
 agency, new industries were introduced into the country, 
 and declining industries were revived. If we think direct 
 schools for teaching not merely the principles but the actual 
 practice of special industries are generally impolitic for a 
 State to encourage, let us honour and recognise the excep- 
 tions to our rule ; for, in the case of Baden, they have made 
 a poor population jirosperous and happy. Like results, by 
 the same means, have been attained in West Flanders, and 
 the nuisance of mendicity, with which that province was 
 affected, is wholly abated, just as it was at the end of last 
 century in Bavaria, under the administration of the Ame- 
 rican schoolmaster, Count Rumford. So it is in Silesia, in 
 which the poor population has been vastly benefited by the 
 industries thus introduced through the agency of special
 
 332 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 technical schools. Without declaring myself in favour of 
 actual industrial schools of this kind, I would much desire 
 to see secondary or improvement schools for teaching 
 practical science and art made available to the artisan class 
 in Ireland. It may be that the artisans thus trained will 
 not be absorbed by Irish industry as quickly as they are 
 produced, but they would be readily drafted to other 
 countries, just as the Swiss are at present, for their higher 
 schools educate more scholars than are required by Switzer- 
 land. The absorption of the surplus of educated Irish 
 artisans would be beneficial to Great Britain and the 
 colonies, and would have a most powerful reflex action on 
 Ireland. Agriculture would then cease to be the only in- 
 dustry kept before the eyes of a great part of the population 
 of Ireland; while new thoughts, new ambitions, and new 
 occupations would raise the population of Ireland, as cer- 
 tainly, if not so rapidly, as similar causes have raised Scotland 
 within the last century. 
 
 Having now, I trust, established that a high education 
 of the people in a country gives to them the conditions of 
 industrial success, I would direct your attention to the diffi- 
 culties which present themselves to the adoption of a system 
 of technical instruction in England. Every effort made to 
 promote it is met, both in Parliament and out of it, by the 
 statement that it is in vain to ask the tax-payer to augment 
 taxes for such a purpose, as he already pays more for educa- 
 tion than any tax-payer in the world, notwithstanding that 
 the results are confessedly miserable. Compare, said a 
 statesman to me on a recent occasion, our educational 
 expenditure with that of France, Germany, or any other 
 great State, and you will find it both absolutely and relatively 
 greater. Let us, then, make the comparison with France, 
 for, next to England, she stands lowest as regards the 
 primary education of her people. Well, the first thing that 
 meets our eye is that the educational expenditure of England
 
 Technical Educat:on. 333 
 
 in this year (1870) is ;^i, 390,000, while that of France is 
 only ;^776,ooo. So stand the figures on the budgets of the 
 two countries, and, if they were susceptible of no explana- 
 tion, it would be a deep cause of humiliation to us, for 
 France, though not in the primary, yet in the secondary 
 education of the people, is far ahead of England. The 
 figures assume a very different aspect if we add the municipal 
 taxation for education in France to the amount of imperial 
 taxation. 
 
 France. England. 
 
 Public taxes for primary education . . ;i{^2, 1 16,994 ;^I, 023. 071 
 ,, ,, ,, secondary and higher education 506,241 368,525 
 
 ;^2,623,235 i:i,39i,596 
 
 So that in reality France taxes herself for education nearly 
 twice as much as England does.* Doubtless, in our case, 
 voluntary subscriptions supplement Government expen- 
 diture, but these have nothing to do with the present 
 grumbles of the tax-payers. The reason why England re- 
 ceives so much from the imperial funds, and yet has only 
 about half the educational resources of France, is that our 
 country has fallen into a great educational error. Other 
 countries consider that primary instruction is the duty of 
 localities, and ought to be supported by local rates, the 
 duty of Government being limited to superintendence and 
 inspection of the schools, or to supplementing the salaries 
 of teachers. This will be seen clearly in the French budget, 
 which applies only ^£"2 60, 000 to subjects of primary in- 
 struction, the remaining ;^5oo,ooo being devoted to higher 
 education. You observe that nearly twice as much is spent 
 on the latter, while in England the very reverse system is 
 
 * Since 1870 both countries have largely increased their educaiional 
 expenditure. France has spent very large sums in improving secondary 
 and university education ; while the United Kingdom has raised the Parlia- 
 mentary votes, so that in 1888 they reached ^4,822,471.
 
 334 SuByECTs of Social Welfare. 
 
 pursued — two-thirds of the expenditure being on the lower, 
 and only one-third on the upper branches of education. 
 Do you begin to see that England, with all her apparently 
 high educational expenditure, is in reality spending, both 
 absolutely and relatively, much less than France, Austria, 
 and Prussia, and far less proportionally than Holland, 
 Switzerland, and many other nations ? Yet this error of 
 loading the Exchequer with burdens which ought to have 
 fallen on localities, has made a heavy educational difficulty 
 for the future. England has taught the localities to look 
 to the Treasury for payment of their primary education, and 
 they are not now willing to accept the natural burdens 
 which have been imposed upon them in all other countries. 
 Foreign States have rightly understood that the functions of 
 Government are chiefly to promote the well-being of the 
 people, by giving to them such higher educational develop- 
 ment as will enable them to compensate for disadvantages 
 in local position, or lack of raw material, or sterility of soil. 
 England, on the other hand, until recently, has been con- 
 tent, as an empire, to discharge the duties of a hamlet ; 
 and when science and art look for aid to develop them- 
 selves as in other countries, the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer shakes his head, and the Premier cheers the Vice- 
 President of the Council when he deprecates the increase 
 of taxation. I aver that our educational expenditure, instead 
 of being the largest, is least among the great States. Never- 
 theless, if the localities assumed their natural burdens, as in 
 other countries, our present amount of imperial expenditure 
 would probably suffice for the higher education of the 
 people. It will be a long time before the localities will 
 wean themselves from looking to the imperial funds for aid 
 in primary instruction ; so, if we desire to see a higher 
 education of the people, we must either seek the means in 
 increased taxation, or preferably in the conversion of un- 
 productive into productive expenditure. It cannot be for
 
 Technical Education. 335 
 
 ever that Europe will spend 140 millions, or 32 per cent, 
 of her total expenditure, on standing armaments. When I 
 gave this address in 1870, the United Kingdom spent 
 ;;^4oo out of every ;i{^i,ooo of expenditure on the army and 
 navy, and less than ;!^2o on education. In this year, 1888, 
 the war expenditure remains the same in proportion, while 
 that for education has mounted to £,^0. This is satisfac- 
 tory, though we may well hope that the time will arrive 
 when protective expenditure will be lower and productive 
 expenditure will be still higher. 
 
 I do not know how far I have carried you with me in 
 my arguments ; but I trust that I have given good grounds 
 for some of them, so far as our time permitted. The whole 
 ideas of education are travelling back to the position that 
 John Knox left them in three centuries since. At one time 
 it was an almost accepted rule, that there should be a 
 liberal education for a gentleman, and a limited one for a 
 peasant. John Knox taught us that there should be one 
 education for a man, who ought to be able to equip himself 
 for any vocation in life that his talents justified him to 
 assume. And this comprehensive conception of education 
 was, at the same time, the glory and power of Scotland. 
 England has not yet fully realised this, and still keeps its 
 primary schools to the narrow limits of the three R's. 
 Scotland has not allowed herself to drift to this narrow 
 view. Scotchmen hitherto have entered life covered with 
 the armour of knowledge, and able to fight their way 
 through difficulties. Instead of the old thick armour-plates 
 of knowledge, the Privy Council wish to cover your children 
 with the thin veneers of the perishable three R's. Which 
 of them will crack first in the conflict of life ? 
 
 In conclusion, let me ask you seriously whether you 
 think that this country can continue in a career of pros- 
 perity, when she is the only leading State in Europe that is 
 neglecting the higher education of the working classes, and
 
 336 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 of those men above them whose duty it is to superintend 
 their labour ? True education consists in fitting a man for 
 a complete life. That is no education at all which gives 
 him knowledge useless for the activities and duties of his 
 existence. I have said that science and art must be studied 
 for their own sake by those who try to advance their 
 boundaries ; and are only available to producers who know 
 how to apply the discoveries of philosophers. Science is 
 like the fertilising rain, which invigorates crops growing on 
 land fitted for its reception, though it runs to waste, Avithout 
 percolating the soil, if that be hard and untilled. So, just 
 in proportion as different States prepare their population by 
 culture, will they increase in strength or dwindle in weak- 
 ness. The future histories of the world will not be those of 
 blood and rapine. They will recount the achievements of 
 those nations which have ameliorated the conditions of the 
 human race by the discoveries and applications of science. 
 It is for the United Kingdom to determine whether she 
 desires her history to be that of a country which was raised 
 to the highest place among States by the genius of mighty 
 men, though she lost that position by a blind reliance 
 on the practical empiricism of her people ; or whether her 
 future history is to be that of an enlightened nation which, 
 seeing that a general diffusion of science and art is giving to 
 other countries advantages in industrial competition, added 
 this intellectual power to the practical aptitude of her popu- 
 lation. It is a truth incapable of being gainsaid, that 
 science must be joined to practice in the advancing com- 
 petition of the world, in order that a nation may retain the 
 strength and energy of manhood ; for States, like ind» 
 viduals, fall into decrepitude and decay.
 
 ON TEACHING UNIVERSITIES AND 
 EXAMINING BOARDS. 
 
 This address was given in 1873, when the Irish University Bill was 
 brought before Parliament. 
 
 The subject of this address has recently received a large 
 amount of attention, on account of the able speech of the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered at Halifax. Mr. 
 Lowe represents a university of a peculiar character, unlike 
 all other universities since the time when the conventual 
 institutions of Charlemagne and King Alfred crystallised 
 into an academic form. The University of London is a 
 mere Examining Board,— one, it is true, of high character, 
 but having none of the traditions or habits of any other 
 European Universities. It is, as I will show hereafter, for 
 more related to the Examining Boards of China than to any 
 European model. Captivated with the spirit of the uni- 
 versity which he represents, I^Ir. Lowe has announced startling 
 views as to the position which the State should take in 
 relation to the universities of the kingdom. You are no 
 doubt aware that a statesman in a position of responsibility, 
 is inclined to speak like a Delphic oracle, and so we are 
 never sure what interpretation to put upon words which often 
 cover an unavowed or mere tentative purpose, I happen 
 to know, from an active correspondence which Mr. Lowe's 
 speech has brouglit upon me from the Irish and Scotch 
 universities, that they, at least, have come to a single 
 interpretation of his meaning. They conceive that the 
 immediate, though not the expressed, purpose of his speech, 
 was to prepare the public mind for the conversion of the 
 w
 
 33S Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 teaching universities of Ireland into a joint Examining 
 Board like that of London ; and that, as a later operation, 
 the four Scotch universities would be requested to execute 
 upon themselves the Japanese operation of the " Happy 
 Despatch " in a like manner. Mr. Lowe's general thesis is 
 this — that it is not the duty of the State to assist higher 
 educational institutions, though it is the duty of the State 
 to control and regulate the examinations in them. His 
 words are : — " What the State ought to have to do with the 
 universities is to decide of what the curriculum should 
 consist, or list of subjects on which the examination should 
 be held." He defines a university as follows : — " ^Vhat I 
 mean by a university is an' examining board ; " and of these 
 boards he would found two or three, perhaps only one, like 
 the University of France, for he says "the fewer the better." 
 Mr. Lowe lauds the University of London as the type of all 
 that is excellent, and compares with it, to their disadvantage, 
 the other universities of the kingdom. Any opinions com- 
 ing from a man of such distinction and political power as 
 Mr. Lowe demand careful attention, and more especially 
 when we connect them with opinions which Mr. Glad- 
 stone has expressed in relation to the Scotch universities, 
 and is supposed to have shadowed out as principles for the 
 reconstruction of the Irish universities. If a University of 
 Edinburgh and a University of Dublin, as mere examining 
 boards, swallow up the graduating powers of the Scotch and 
 Irish universities, the inexorable logic of events must compel 
 the University of London to swallow, although the pills are 
 larger, the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Durham. 
 If the Chancellor of the Exchequer really intended to 
 throw down the gauntlet on such an important issue, I am 
 a small knight, and of low renown, to take up the gage of 
 such a doughty champion ; but I should be unworthy of the 
 confidence bestowed upon me by two Scotch Universities if 
 I refused to consider the question in relation to its public
 
 On Teaching UyivERsmEs. 339 
 
 policy. I therefore propose to show to you that there is 
 already ample experience to guide our policy in this matter, 
 and the result of it has been, that wherever a State has 
 destroyed the separate autonomy of universities by establish- 
 ing common examining boards, disastrous effects on the 
 national character and national intellect have ensued ; and 
 further, that in the single case in which an examining uni- 
 versity — that of London — has been establislied as supple- 
 mentary to other universities, the effect upon the higher 
 education of the people has been singularly small. I must 
 begin by denying altogether Mr. Lowe's definition that " a 
 university is an examining board." There is nothing in 
 history to justify this definition, except the single instance of 
 the University of London, founded thirty-three years since. 
 From the very earliest days, the teaching and examining 
 functions of universities have been united. The first time 
 perhaps that the term " university," in relation to a seat of 
 learning, appeared in an official document, was in 1209, 
 when Pope Innocent IIL included the whole corporation of 
 teachers and students '■^ Dodoribus d universis scholaribus 
 Parisicnsibus . . . universitateiii restrain rogamus" etc. ; 
 and the style taken by that university in 1221 was, "We, 
 the university of the masters and scholars of Paris." Before 
 that period degrees were given, and their organisation was 
 even regulated by a Papal Bull. I need not remind you 
 that all European universities, except the University of 
 London, are founded on separate or mixed types of the 
 ancient universities of Paris and Bologna. If students and 
 teachers were essential, in their corporate capacit}', to a 
 graduating system in Paris, you may be sure they were so 
 in all other universities ; for Paris was a " Universitas 
 Magistronim" which retained the chief power in the 
 hands of the teachers ; while Bologna was a Universitas 
 Sc/ioiariiiin, and gave the preponderance of power to the stu- 
 dents. We all know that the term " graduates " originally 
 w 2
 
 340 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 meant graduation in the office of qualified teachers ; for 
 all university graduates had not only the power but were 
 under an obligation to teach. So essentially was the union 
 between teaching and graduation deemed a part of univer- 
 sity existence, that when universities began to split up into 
 colleges, the separate colleges were not unfrequently em- 
 powered to grant degrees, though the superiority of the 
 university, as a whole, was recognised by the visitorial 
 powers of the rector. Thus the College of Sorbonne 
 became practically the faculty of theology, and granted 
 degrees with the consent of the Chancellor of Notre Dame. 
 The other professional colleges in Paris united into faculties, 
 and their deans granted degrees in like manner. As it was 
 in Paris so was it in Bologna. From and after 1362 there 
 were actually four degree-conferring universities in Bologna ; 
 two for law, one for medicine and philosophy, and one for 
 theology — the degrees being conferred by the regent doctors, 
 that is, by the professors in each. In our own country, in 
 1468, Pope Paul II. granted to the College of St. Salvador 
 in St. Andrews, the full power of granting degrees ; and his 
 successor, Paul III., in the following century, gave the same 
 power to St. Mary's College. In Aberdeen the case became 
 more marked, for two colleges became two distinct univer- 
 sities in the same town, and have only been united in our 
 own day. It was somewhat different in the English uni- 
 versities, where the colleges gradually usurped the principal 
 teaching functions from regent graduates of the university. 
 These duties have, however, been preserved in theory, 
 though relinquished in practice, by the professors, who are 
 the representatives of the old regent graduates. Within 
 the last few years the original practice is beginning to re- 
 assert itself, for the professors of the natural and medical 
 sciences, with their assistants, do the whole work of teach- 
 ing. In Scotland the teachers carried within the walls of 
 the college the graduating powers of the university ; for the
 
 On Teaching UNirERSiriES. 341 
 
 colleges, which were rather homes and refuges for professors 
 than for students, became the university ; wliile in England, 
 the colleges, arising out of students' halls, carried away 
 the teaching functions of the university, although they were 
 unable, or too careless, to carry the graduating power along 
 with them. The German and Italian Universities are simi- 
 lar to those in Scotland, and have preserved unimpaired 
 the original and intimate union between the teaching and 
 graduating powers. 
 
 France has completely separated these two functions, 
 and its university forms an excellent study for those who 
 would advocate a State interference with university exami- 
 nations. I have alluded to the early history of the Univer- 
 sity of Paris, when its teaching and examining functions 
 were united, and for nearly six hundred years it produced 
 men of intellect and men of action, who made France the 
 wonder and admiration of nations. The provinces of 
 France imitated the University of Paris, and, before the 
 great Revolution, twenty-three universities, each with a 
 separate autonomy, were spread over the kingdom, adding 
 largely to its intellectual productiveness. These provincial 
 universities were destroyed by the great Revolution, 
 Napoleon I. reconstituted the University of Paris in 1808, 
 by making it the single university for France. The Univer- 
 sity of France now became the department of State in- 
 struction, and inckided every kind of education, Primary, 
 Secondary, and Collegiate. The State in France now 
 received, in its highest form, that function which Mr. Lowe 
 has announced to be the duty of the State, the dictation of 
 the curriculum and the examination of scholars. It carried 
 on this double function for more than sixty years, and thus 
 has had a more prolonged trial than French institutions of 
 any kind usually enjoy ; but the result has been, in the 
 opinion of the most eminent Frenchmen, that its operation, 
 more than any other cause, has led to the humiliation of
 
 342 SuByEcrs of Social IVelfare. 
 
 France as a nation. Recent events have strengthened the 
 conviction which De Tocqueville expressed twenty years ago, 
 that there is a continually increasing poverty of eminent 
 men in France. I will cite the evidence only of men of 
 the highest eminence, Members of the Institute, or Profes- 
 sors in the university itself Their opinions may be taken 
 as answers to the question which forms the title of Pasteur's 
 pamphlet : " Pounpwi la France n'a pas trouv'e d homines 
 super ieiirs an momoit .du peri/? " That is a grave question 
 for France, and its best sons are tr>dng to answer it ; but il 
 is melancholy to see the assaults that they are obliged tc 
 make on a university which, in its days of independence, 
 used to be hailed as " the fountain of knowledge," the " tree 
 of life," and the "candlestick of the Lord" — tenns which 
 were accorded by the enthusiastic admiration of all coun- 
 tries. First let Pasteur, whose eminence I need not advert 
 to in an academic assembly, answer for himself: — "While 
 Germany was multiplying its universities, and establishing 
 among them a most salutary emulation ; while it was sur- 
 rounding their masters and doctors with honour and con- 
 sideration ; while it was creating vast laboratories furnished 
 with the best instruments, France, enervated by re\'olutions, 
 always occupied with sterile aims at a better form of govern- 
 ment, gave only a heedless attention to its establishments 
 of higher education." The unanimity is surprising with 
 which eminent men ascribe the intellectual paralysis of 
 the nation to the centralisation of administration and exami- 
 nation by the University of France. Claire Deville says — 
 " The success of Germany is due to the liberal organisation 
 of the German universities. It is science that has vanquished 
 us." Dumas, one of the most eminent men in France, 
 formerly a Minister, and for years actively engaged as one of 
 the eight Inspectors of Superior Instruction in the Uni- 
 versity, gives his testimony as follows : " If the causes of 
 our marasmus appear complex and manifold, they are still
 
 (9.V Teaching Universities. 343 
 
 reducible to one principle, administrative centralisation, 
 which applied to the university has enervated superior 
 instruction." He proceeds to show that municipalities and 
 provinces lose all interest in their colleges and schools when 
 these are deprived of their powers of self-government, and 
 when their instruction and their examinations are regulated 
 from a centre, and he contrasts the French system with that 
 of other countries. " In Switzerland," says Dumas, " in 
 Sweden, Germany, England, and the United States, numer- 
 ous universities, diverse in their origin and tendencies, each 
 having their own budget and management, which they direct 
 for the best interests of their students, prosper, on account 
 of their separate life and autonomy, offering to us a spec- 
 tacle full of interest." Dumas then indicates what is 
 necessary for the restoration of France to her position 
 among nations : '' Restore to our universities, under the 
 surveillance of the State, when connected with State grants, 
 the independence which they enjoyed before the Revolution. 
 The great men of those times are glorious historical 
 witnesses of the vigour of the studies, and of the discipline 
 effected by the liberty of education enjoyed by our fathers. 
 . . I plead for the autonomy and liberty of our univer- 
 sities." QuatrefageS; General Morin, and others, express 
 themselves in nearly similar terms. Lorain, Professor in the 
 Faculty of Medicine, gives testimony if possible still more 
 emphatic : " The University of Paris now influences higher 
 education only through the faculties of law and medicine, 
 for though the schools of literature and pure science have 
 still their professors, they have no longer pupils." He tells 
 us that a central university, professing to direct everything, 
 really directs nothing, but it trammels all efforts in the 
 provinces. " Originality in the provinces is destroyed by 
 this unity." After quoting the opinions of the Commissioners 
 of 1870, as to the want of unity of degrees in France, not- 
 withstanding the unity of examination, he sums up the
 
 344 SuByECTS of Social Welfare. 
 
 demands of reformers in the following words : — " What we 
 demand is not new ; it is siriiply the return to the ancient 
 system, to the tradition of the ancient universities. We 
 demand the destruction of the University of France, and the 
 creation of separate universities. That is our programme." 
 I have hitherto quoted the opinions of men of science, but 
 I might add to them those of a long list of politicians and 
 men of literature, from Talleyrand, Turgot, De Tocqueville, 
 Prevost-Paradol, down to the present day ; but to econo- 
 mise time I must content myself with two more quotations. 
 In a letter to myself, Michel Chevalier, after stating that the 
 liberalisation of the university frequently engaged the atten- 
 tion of the Senate daring the last Empire, sums up his 
 opinions of the necessary reforms as follows : — " Much 
 more of autonomy in our faculties than they have at present, 
 even for those which are supported by the State ; a large 
 vote for their maintenance in the budget ; liberty for indi- 
 viduals and associations to found rival faculties ; reservation 
 to the State, under equitable guarantees, of the right of 
 granting degrees as long as there are degrees." And finally, 
 I quote the words of Renan : — " The system of examina- 
 tions and competitions, on the great scale, is illustrated 
 in China, where it has produced a general and incurable 
 senility. In France we have already gone far in the same 
 direction, and that is not one of the least causes of our 
 abasement. The paltry faculties created by the first Empire 
 in no way replace the great and beautiful system of rival 
 universities, with their separate autonomies — a system which 
 all Europe borrowed from France, and which all countries 
 but France have preserved. We must create in the provinces 
 five or six universities, each independent of the other." I 
 have already quoted too much ; but you will deem it to be 
 very surprising that the system which has so much injured 
 France in the past is to benefit England in the future. 
 France has not failed because she was deficient either in
 
 On Teaching Universities. 345 
 
 institutions, teachers, or pupils. Of all three she is far 
 richer than this country. Her lycces were full, and the 
 number of their pupils has been eulogised by Matthew 
 Arnold. Her higher institutions were numerous — eight 
 schools of law, five of medicine, eight for science, and six 
 for arts. But they were separate schools, such as Mr. Lowe 
 hopes to see arise by private efforts ; they were not, with 
 the single exception of Strasburg, united faculties working 
 together ; they had no university organisation, none of the 
 activity of little intellectual republics ; nothing to nourish or 
 stimulate the independent growth of intellect throughout the 
 nation. An empire of thirty-eight millions of people had only 
 one university, situated in the capital, and that one subject to 
 the State. It thought that intellect might be fostered by 
 special schools acting as organs to one great nervous centre; 
 but the organs have not fulfilled their functions, and the 
 nervous centre itself has consequently dwindled away. 
 
 The mode of granting degrees in Belgium is instructive 
 and peculiar, and as it is triennially reported upon by the 
 Minister of the Interior, its results can be fully studied. To 
 that Minister, and to my friend Senator Fortemps, I am 
 much indebted for full information on the system. The 
 17th Article of the Belgian Constitution declares education 
 to be free, and, in the spirit of that declaration, the mode of 
 granting degrees has been adapted to schools of all kinds. 
 But difificulties have been experienced in the practical 
 working of the measure, and consequently the laws relating 
 to it are frequently altered. The substantial law, now in 
 operation, is that of loth June, 1857, as amended in 1861 
 and 1865. To understand its operation, I must remind you 
 that Belgium possesses two State universities, those of 
 Ghent and Liege, and two "free" universities, maintained 
 by communal grants and private endowments, at Brussels 
 and Louvain. At all the four universities there were 1,898 
 students in the year 1869-70. The university system is
 
 346 SrByECTS OF Social JVelfare. 
 
 therefore developed to about the same extent as in Ireland, 
 both being Roman Catholic countries. In Belgium there 
 was in 1872 one student to 2,600 of the population; in 
 Ireland one to 2,700. In granting degrees the universities 
 are divided into two groups, so that one State and one free 
 university are in each. A combined jurj^ is formed for the 
 group by the nomination of an equal number of professors 
 from each of the two universities, and a president is 
 appointed by the State, selected on account of his high and 
 independent position. The candidates for degrees must 
 first establish, to the satisfaction of the jury, that they have 
 passed through a well-ordered curriculum of study, and 
 their certificates must prove " que la frequentation dcs cours 
 
 vniversitaires fut assidue et fructueuse." 
 
 Theoretically, a candidate may present himself without such 
 certificates, if he have studied privately, but then he must 
 go through a severe preliminary examination, in order to 
 show that he has studied systematically and efficiently; 
 jM-actically, no private candidates do go before the Academic 
 juries. For private students the Central Jury of Brussels 
 was organised. That jury also consists of professors, but 
 half of them are from the universities and half from private 
 institutions, the president being a man of position. The 
 candidates must first prove by certificates that they have 
 gone through a regular curriculum of study, or submit to 
 the examination already referred to. Previously to 1S67 
 this jury had numerous candidates, and the supposition was 
 that they represented private instruction, but suspicions 
 having arisen on this point, it was determined, on the 
 recommendation of a Commission, that the Central Jury 
 should hold its examinations before those of the Academic 
 Juries, the former practice having been to hold them after. 
 ■J'his change was made at the beginning of 1867, and it 
 produced a startling result. The candidates for degrees 
 now disappeared, as the Minister of the Interior says
 
 On Teaching Universities. 347 
 
 '■^ comme par renchaniemoit." The fact was — as the Admi 
 nistration had for some time suspected — that the Central 
 Jury was a mere refuge for the rejected candidates of the 
 universities.* Since 1S67 the report states that not a single 
 candidate has come before the Central Jury, either for law 
 or medicine, and very few for science or philosophy. 
 In fact, no longer is any attempt made to have examina- 
 tions at the Central Jury in any faculty except arts or 
 science. In the last report, published in 1872, the three 
 years ending 1870 are included. As a result of all the 
 examinations, 2^701 candidates passed; 287 "with great 
 distinction," and 752 " with distinction ; " but, in the Central 
 Jury for free study, only sixty-one candidates passed, none 
 with great distinction, and only ten with distinction. The 
 central examining system, then, apart from regular university 
 training, has practically failed. As the Central Jury was 
 chiefly the resort of " plucked " students, the result is not 
 surprising that, in the triennial report, the figures show the 
 rejection of 60 per cent, of its candidates, while only 32 
 per cent, were refused by the Academic Juries. I have tried 
 to push the question home, by inquiring of the Belgian 
 authorities what proportion of privately-instructed candidates 
 were successful in obtaining degrees in comparison with 
 university-trained students, but the only reply that I have 
 obtained is — '•'■ Le noinbi'e de ceux qui rC ont frequetite auame 
 universite est irop minime pour qti'une staiistique en fasse 
 mentio7iy It will thus be seen that the Belgian system is per- 
 fectly conclusive as to efficient graduation being only com^ 
 patible with a well-ordered curriculum of study. A system 
 founded expressly with the view of giving the freest opening 
 
 * This is such an important experience that I quote the words of the 
 Minister of the Interior: ''Lamesure mit en pleine luniiere . . , que 
 les recipiendaires formes par des etudes privees faisaient completement 
 defaut au jury central, pour le droit et pour la medecine par exemple, et que 
 des inscriptions n'y avaient ete prises que par les el^ves des quatre 
 universites qui viennent d'etre quahfit^s."
 
 348 Si'ByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 to private institutions and home studies, has been, in spite of 
 itself, forced more and more into an academic channel, and 
 is now as completely university in its character as the me- 
 thod of graduation followed by the Queen's University in 
 Ireland. It is true that an unacademic door still remains 
 open for candidates, but as they have nearly ceased to enter 
 it, the State may soon be tired of continuing an invitation 
 which the people will not accept. No wonder that Guizot's 
 Commission of 1870, in reporting of the past experience, 
 said — " le sysieme Beige n^a pas donne de bons resultats ;'''' nor 
 that the distinguished Belgian politician I.aveleye thus 
 writes of it : — " The rivalry of these four institutions ought 
 to have produced an intellectual life and activity of a kind 
 most profitable to the progress of knowledge. That happy 
 result has not been attained, because they adopted a 
 detestable system of examination for conferring degrees. 
 Diplomas are granted by mixed juries, composed, in equal 
 proportions, of professors of one state and one free 
 university. The candidates are questioned by these pro- 
 fessors under the control of professors from a rival university. 
 Hence it results, to begin with, that the students content 
 themselves with learning their note-books off by heart ; next, 
 that the professors, thus controlled "hy their colleagues, have 
 to conform to a uniform programme, and thus, by degrees, 
 routine stifles initiative and the genuine spirit of reseaich." 
 
 We now come to the London University. If it were 
 necessary, I could say much in its favour as a useful and 
 faithful examining board, supplementary to the other 
 universities of the country. It has been put forward as 
 a type for the reconstruction and concentration ' of other 
 universities ; and in that point of view I have a right to 
 show that its past history entirely fails to give us confidence. 
 As an educational machine it is singularly unproductive in 
 comparison with existing universities. Understand the limit 
 of my indictment in this respect. I do not deny that its
 
 On Teaching Universities. 349 
 
 lower matriculation examination is successful ; for it is 
 good in itself, though too extensive in the demands of sub- 
 jects ; but still it is not beyond adequate preparation, and 
 the proof of this is, that both candidates and undergraduates 
 increase. Like the Abiiurienten Exameii of Germany, it 
 has a useful influence on the schools of the country. Never- 
 theless, such an examination is the lowest function of a uni- 
 versity. The main function of a normal university is to pro- 
 mote the study of higher education in a systematic and regular 
 way, and only to use degrees as a support to its curriculum. 
 The London University prescribes no curriculum, except 
 in medicine, and has no teaching functions, so it depends 
 upon degrees as its only educational power. It is a univer- 
 sity of modern foundation, and hence it would be unfair to 
 test its achievements in its early years ; I therefore leave the 
 period from 1838 to i860 without a close examination, and 
 will chiefly rely on the ten subsequent years. The follow- 
 ing points will be considered as fair tests of work :— 
 
 1. Is the educational influence of the University of Lon- 
 
 don extending as shown by an increase in the 
 number of its degrees ? 
 
 2. Is the proportion of degrees to matriculated students 
 
 increasing or diminishing ? 
 
 3. Does the number of its degrees stand favourably 
 
 with that of other universities in the United 
 
 Kingdom ? 
 It is only by distinct answers to such questions as these 
 that we can find out whether a mere examining university, 
 dissociated from teaching functions, is capable of exerting 
 an important, though indirect, influence on the higher edu- 
 cation of a kingdom. It is usual to look at the degrees of 
 Arts — representing, as they do, general culture in a univer- 
 sity — as an index of its effect on higher education. I take 
 the three last quinquennial periods of the London University 
 in illustration. In the five years ending i860, there is an
 
 350 SrsyECTS of Social IVelfake. 
 
 annual average of sixty-three Bachelors of Arts ; in the five 
 years ending 1865 the average is sixty; and in the last 
 period, ending 1870, the average is sixty-five. About ten of 
 these go up annually to the higher degree of M.A. This, 
 then, represents the outcome and want of progression of the 
 London University on the general higher culture of the 
 United Kingdom and df the British Colonies, including 
 India ; for the charter of 1849 added these to its province. 
 It is a marked feature in the University of London, that its 
 influence on all forms of higher education now appears to 
 be practically stationary. There is no substantial increase 
 in any one class of its degrees, either in arts, in science, in 
 law, or in medicine.* This is the more remarkable, when 
 we recollect the large increase in its matriculated students, 
 who have risen from 265 in 1861 to 420 in 1870. Both 
 the experience of the DubUn and the London University 
 is against any large expectation of efficient arts training 
 except in organised colleges having a distinct university 
 aim and feeling. Trinity College has external students 
 enrolled for degree examinations, but, according to Professor 
 Andrews, less than 30 per cent, of them actually go up for 
 degrees, and not one of them, in the years which he investi- 
 gated, took a first-class at the degree examination. In the 
 London University exhibitions and gold medals are given 
 at graduation, and these represent the first class of the 
 Dubhn and other universities. Since its foundation forty- 
 four of these have been given in mathematics and natural 
 philosophy, of which thirty-eight were taken by Oxford and 
 Cambridge, or by University College men, leaving only six 
 for less collegiate institutions. In the same period twenty- 
 five exhibitions and medals were given for classics, of which, 
 
 * In the two qviinquennial periods ending 1865 and 1870, the number of 
 graduates, including higher degrees, was respectively— for arts, sixty-nine 
 and seventy-five ; for science, twelve and twelve ; for law, thirteen and ton ; 
 for medicine, thirty-two and thirty-tlnee.
 
 On Teaching Universities. 351 
 
 twenty-two were taken by students of Oxford, Cambridge, 
 University College, or King's College, leaving only three 
 for private institutions. The latter were, however, more suc- 
 cessful in moral philosophy, logic, and the cognate subjects, 
 for out of thirty-two exhibitions and medals, the private in- 
 stitutions carried off seventeen. 
 
 If the influence of the University of London on higher 
 education be progressive, a larger crop of students should, as 
 in all healthy universities, produce a larger crop of degrees ; 
 but this is not the case with that examining board, for its old 
 and new degrees now remain stationary, though its enrolled 
 students increase. From 183S to 1862 four matriculated 
 students produced a new graduate in arts ; for the last five 
 years nearly six students are required for that purpose. Nor 
 can it be said that increased severity of examination ex- 
 plains the anomaly, because, during those five years (the 
 only period comparable among its years on account of the 
 institution of new degrees), the number of candidates is as 
 stationary as that of its degrees.* If the standard of de- 
 grees be increased, so must the corresponding standard 
 of matriculation ; for whereas six candidates previously to 
 1862 produced five matriculated students, it now requires 
 ten to pass the same number ; yet, with these presumably 
 more highly qualified students augmenting in number, the 
 degrees are stagnant. The fact that a smaller proportion of 
 candidates than formerly passes the matriculation examina- 
 tion has another important signification. If a mere ex- 
 amining board suffice to direct the course of superior 
 education in a country, the London University has now 
 had time enough to exercise its influence on the schools 
 which attach themselves to it ; yet we find that they have 
 
 * From 1866 to 1870 inclusive the candidates at all degree examinations 
 are 615, 610, 649, 620, 631 ; while the degrees are 158, 131, 127, 128, 131. 
 This period of five years is large in its arts candidates as compared with 
 the preceding five years, 200 as against 158, yet the degrees arc only 65 as 
 against 60.
 
 352 Subjects of Social JVelfare. 
 
 not responded to the demands for higher qualifications ; 
 because, though they have sent numerous candidates, these 
 are in a worse state of preparation than formerly, as indi- 
 cated by their increased proportion of failures. Thus, 
 though matriculation candidates are more numerous, the 
 candidates for degrees do not augment, nor do the gradu- 
 ates substantially increase in number. One thing does 
 increase in a notable degree, and that is the ages of the 
 graduates. If we take the three decennial periods of the 
 operation of the university, this will be apparent : in the 
 first periods, the average age of art graduates was less than 
 twenty-two; in the second it was twenty-two and a half; 
 and in the third it was close on twenty-five years. At this 
 rate of increase, the time may come when the University of 
 London will have to rule, as the Emperor of China has done 
 in regard to its great Chinese prototype, that if a candidate 
 regularly attend all examinations, though without success, 
 till he is eighty years of age, he then becomes a graduate de 
 jure. The increase of age is not a good sign. It shows that 
 instead of being for the many, the ambition of the University 
 of London is to become a fancy and a select university for 
 the few. This is the reason why the influence of that uni- 
 versity, apart from its matriculation, is so singularly small in 
 comparison with the area which it professes to cover. For 
 the last ten years the average number of all its graduates, 
 scholastic, scientific, legal, and medical, is 130; while the 
 arts degrees alone in the two Irish universities amount to 
 338 ; and yet the proposal has been made to reconstruct 
 them on the type of the University of London, which would 
 be to replace an excellent productive machine by a singularly 
 unproductive one — a strange phenomenon in the history of 
 human progress ! 
 
 The stereotyped answers to all such comparisons are 
 well known. Look to the wide extent of subjects and the 
 difficulty of attainment of the London degrees in comparison
 
 On Teaching Universities. 353 
 
 with those of Other universities ! I refuse to admit either of 
 these reasons, presuming them to be true, as a justification 
 for the small productiveness of a State-supported institution. 
 I admit that a wide extent of subjects, when offered for 
 selection, is a merit ; but when it is demanded from each 
 individual, according to the London practice, then it is not 
 so fitted for mental training as the less ambitious plan of the 
 older universities. Any one university may easily raise a 
 fancy standard, and, supported by public funds in the shape 
 of scholarships, exhibitions, and gold medals, make its 
 graduates double-buttoned instead of single-buttoned man- 
 darins, and yet fail in its national purpose. For the object 
 of a university is not merely to have an honour list, but also 
 to promote efficient study among many, as proved by their 
 attaining degrees on fair and reasonable, though adequate 
 conditions. Unless it does that, the general higher educa- 
 tion of the country is sacrificed to the glory of a few select 
 graduates.* The London University is fast drifting into 
 this position. Originally it had a useful, well-defined, and 
 carefully-considered position, which it has abandoned in 
 successive charters, and the limitation of its effect on educa- 
 tion is, as I think, much due to this abandonment. Now, it 
 has separated itself from all other universities, and has no 
 academic traditions to cling to, except those in China. 
 
 There, Examining Boards are constituted, on a like prin- 
 ciple, by the State ; and the graduates form the aristocracy 
 and bureaucracy of the Empire. Doubtless that system 
 has had an important influence in preserving China in 
 its integrity, outside the rest of the world, but also in hold- 
 ing it back centuries behind the age. The object of the 
 
 * This effect is seen in operation at University College, which is the chief 
 preparer for medical degrees. Its first-year medical students average about 
 90, and its fourth-year about 40. Yet, even of those completing their medical 
 studies, only an average of 4^, or about one-ninth, proceed with their de 
 grees at the University of London, the rest contenting themselves wiih the 
 licence of the College of Surgeons or Apothecaries' Company. 
 
 X
 
 354 Si^ByECTS of Social Welfare. 
 
 Examining Boards of China is to suppress the liberties 
 and development of the people by educating them only in 
 ancient traditions and in abject reverence to the ruling 
 powers. It does not do for State purposes that the people 
 should have other sages than Confucius and Mencius, so 
 the five classics confine their knowledge and repress all 
 freedom of thought. China has not often had such an 
 enlightened Emperor as the great Taitsou, who knew how 
 important it was to found and endow teaching colleges, but 
 it has had many Chancellors of the Exchequer who have 
 repressed Government aid to colleges as being dangerous 
 in promoting the growth of individual and intellectual 
 liberty, and who have substituted for them the cramping 
 unity of Examining Boards. The origin of the Chinese 
 system is lost in antiquity ; but we ought not to forget that 
 the Byzantine Empire had an organised examining system 
 of much the same character. The graduated schools of 
 the Roman type soon lost their vitality in the Empire of the 
 East ; and education, fostered through examination, on a 
 system nearly as organised as that of China, struggled with 
 difficulty to keep the Empire imbued with classical lore. 
 Even women, as instanced in the cases of the Empress 
 Theodosia and the Princess Anna Comnena, graduated in 
 the trivium and quadrivium. Intellects, so fostered, lan- 
 guished and ultimately died of inanition. Voltaire has de- 
 scribed the result with fierce invective ; though judgment 
 may be given in the calmer words of Gibbon, who says, 
 " their languid souls seemed alike incapable of thought or 
 action. In the revolution of ten centuries, not a single 
 discovery was made to exalt the dignity or promote the hap- 
 piness of mankind." 
 
 I do not accuse the London University, in its present 
 form and with its existing limitations, of producing a 
 Chinese unity of education. On the contrary, its existence, 
 as a supplement to other universities, adds to the variety.
 
 On Teaching Universities. 355 
 
 In fact, one of the leading objections which schools urL;e 
 against this system is, that its degrees have not unity within 
 themselves ; that, having no curriculum to guide it, and no 
 teaching functions, its standards are ever varying ; that its 
 examinations " are in the air,'' and can only be caught by 
 a flying leap. When the University of London was first 
 founded, the two great English universities had a narrow 
 and monotonous uniformity of examination, and the diver- 
 sity thus introduced was important. The system of the 
 London University is now proposed, not as an adaition to, 
 but as a substitute for, the varying systems of other univer- 
 sities, and educationalists may well be amazed. The recent 
 discourses of Dollinger have shown how precious in the eyes 
 of Germans are the independence and varieties of their 
 universities. These have produced the vigour and breadth 
 of German thought. Though the German universities are 
 supported by the State, they are invariably left in indepen- 
 dence, variety both in studies and in examinations being 
 encouraged ; the State never attempts to obtain an intellec- 
 tual unity, which would be as hideous in mental develop- 
 ment as it would be in animal organisation. The import- 
 ance which the North German Confederation attaches to 
 variety of teaching and examination in the universities 
 is well shown by the system of " Staats Exaincn " for 
 medical practitioners. All of them must pass that, as 
 well as the degree examination, before they are allowed to 
 practise. Previously to 1S62 the State Examination was 
 held at Berlin or other centres of administration, so that it 
 was quite disconnected with the universities. This was 
 found so damaging to medical education, that the system 
 has been decentralised, and it is now carried out at the 
 separate universities by an Examining Board, partly com- 
 posed of professors and partly of cjualified medical practi- 
 tioners, the President being an outsider nominated by the 
 Government. The examinations of this Board, though 
 X 2
 
 356 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 supplementary to the degree examination, are still pervaded 
 by university influences, which prevent the stereotyping 
 character of a central examining system. The importance 
 of this university connection is obvious. A State pro- 
 fessional examination must always aim at a miniimnn, not a 
 vmximiivi of knowledge. If the State imitated the Univer- 
 sity of London, for instance, in demanding a high standard 
 of requirements, it might, like it, get some thirty highly 
 qualified practitioners, but it would leave the ranks of the 
 profession empty. And, if this Examining Board were 
 altogether external to the universities, as formerly was the 
 case in Germany, it creates an overpowering incentive to 
 work only to the minimum and to neglect higher qualifica- 
 tions. Infinitely worse would it be, if this " one portal " 
 system of admission to professions were accessible before 
 instead of after University graduation. In Germany the 
 State Examination has always been supplementary to, not a 
 substitute for, university graduation. 
 
 The old universities of Italy, as long as they were 
 objects of interest and pride to the municipalities, and 
 while their examinations were independent of Church and 
 State, were famous and productive \ but when Popes, Kings, 
 Grand Dukes, and little Dukes, tried to reconcile them to a 
 Church standard, by producing unity from diversity, they 
 tumbled into decrepitude. 
 
 Want of unity in degrees may indicate different levels of 
 qualifications, which public opinion would soon correct if 
 they fell too low ; but it produces a variety in intellectual 
 attainments and modes of thought which are infinitely pre- 
 ferable to a stereotyped system of examination, like that of 
 the Chinese, or even that of the London University, if it 
 were made a type for State adoption. A free country like 
 England will not tolerate State unity in education any more 
 than it has tolerated it in any region of her politics. She 
 has long struggled for individuality in her liberties. A one
 
 O^r Teaching Universities. 357 
 
 monarchical Government, a one Church, a one system of 
 Colonial government, a one classical system of education, 
 have all yielded to diversity ; but we are now told that the 
 State ought to bring back universities to a unity. The genius 
 of a free people will prevent it. As despotism consists in 
 forcing one will and opinion upon others, no doubt that 
 principle could easily and insensibly be introduced into the 
 universities, our manufactories of thinkers, by a State uni- 
 formity of examination ; nothing more easy than to pull 
 men through holes of the same size, after the fashion of 
 manufacturing wires. Our diversity of education does a 
 good deal for us even in trade. England and Germany, 
 with their free universities and diverse thinkers, do much 
 in the spread of freethought. We export annually ;^65o, 000 
 worth of books from this country, and import only ^i iS,ooo 
 worth to supi)ly our deficiencies in originality. Cast all our 
 intellects into one mould, or into three moulds, one for each 
 part of the kingdom, and see how long the originality will 
 last. France has managed to do this, and has no many- 
 sidedness in the characters of her people to break up the 
 revolutionary waves produced by the impulse of a class. A 
 man does not live alone for the State ; he lives also for 
 himself, and the more complete is his individuality, the 
 better citizen is he likely to become. The French Revo- 
 lution did not understand this, and raised a Spartan view of 
 the State as the idol for universal worship. Since then, that 
 unhappy country has been visited by many troubles, in 
 punishment for ignoring the fact that each one of its people 
 had an intellect and a soul to develop according to his own 
 individuality, and not according to a State pattern, approved 
 and sealed by a Government authority. The French nation 
 began by worshipping a Greek idol, and have finished by 
 bowing the knee to the Chinese god who presides over 
 common examinations. 
 
 In England, as yet, we have too much variety of character
 
 358 SuByECTS OF Social JVelfare. 
 
 and thought to be subject to revolutionary' danger, but our 
 statesmen may manage to change all this. The University 
 of London, though only one of the universities in the king- 
 dom, has already done much to make mental philosophy 
 run in a single channel, because the examinations are not 
 local but universal in their range. No committee or senate 
 is stronger than the strongest man in it ; and the London 
 University had a very strong senator in the late Mr. Grote, 
 who gave to it and to the country the most loyal service. 
 He was much interested in, and deeply impressed with, the 
 truth of one particular school of thought, of which my 
 friend Bain, the former examiner, is an eminent professor ; 
 and that system has struck its roots deep into those schools 
 which connect themselves with the university. Examiners 
 may be and now are changed, but the senate which ap- 
 points them does not vary except by the death of its 
 members, and then is apt to continue its traditions. The 
 evil of sameness attaches both to localised and general 
 universities ; but it is reduced to a minimum in the former, 
 because ihe students circulate and may vary the character 
 of instruction, while in a general examining board it rises 
 to a maximum. Even as regards the physical and natural 
 sciences, the evil has been keenly felt in France. It is far 
 more important, however, in the case of the mental sciences, 
 for they form the moulds into which the opinions of our 
 students are cast. If a general examining university were 
 made a substitute for, instead of a supplement to, other 
 universities, that influence would be intolerable. Watt, 
 when asked what he sold, told the king that he sold 
 power ; he never sold so much as the examiner in mental 
 jihilosophy for the University of London has through his 
 books. The creation and distribution of intellectual power 
 are, it is true, the great objects of higher academic training ; 
 and none, in my own humble judgment, is of better quality 
 than that which has emanated from my professional col-
 
 On Teaching Universities. 359 
 
 league and friend in Aberdeen ; but the system under which 
 he has spread it does not necessarily provide for power of 
 a good quahty, but only for that which suits the taste of one 
 or two men ; and yet it is general, not local, in its applica- 
 tion. One great evil of university education, and still more 
 of university examination, is to create faithful disciples 
 rather than independent thinkers. The diversity of teach- 
 ing in different universities tends to mitigate this evil, but the 
 uniformity of a common system of examination vastly aug- 
 ments it. When the Government takes graduation in hand, 
 and stamps our intellects, as it does its sovereigns, with one 
 uniform die, the power at its disposal will be immense, but, 
 as in France, the intellects will in time be crushed under 
 the stroke, and then will not be worth the coining. 
 
 It is now necessary to point out why it is desirable to 
 keep together the teaching and examining functions of uni- 
 versities as of old, and how it is that examinations alone 
 fail to produce a large educational, though, as I have just 
 shown, they do produce a directive effect. A combined 
 university, when well conducted, aims and succeeds at pro- 
 ducing an educated man ; an Examining Board can only be 
 assured that it has produced a crammed man. It is the 
 curriculum of the university, not the examination, which 
 educates the man. Laboulaye, a member of Guizot's Com- 
 mission of 1870, who visited foreign universities with the 
 view of reforming the University of France, points out how 
 little influence examination by itself has as an educational 
 power. In Austria there are perpetual examinations, but 
 Laboulaye says, " Austria, the very country of examinations, 
 is precisely that where the students do not work." Cram- 
 ming is not an unmitigated evil, and I defended it in the 
 House as being a reaction against the slow teaching of our 
 classical public schools. When you cram a goose, the food 
 is converted into diseased liver, which is not good for the 
 goose, though it may be for those who live upon it in the
 
 360 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 form of Strasburg pies. It is obvious that subjects en- 
 joined by an examination, without any co-ordination 
 through a curriculum, are Hkely to be introduced by cram. 
 The Examining Board looks only to knowledge, however 
 acquired, as the result; while the real university looks upon 
 it less in that light, and more as a manifestation of the 
 student's successful attention to a prescribed course of study 
 organised for and necessary to his mental discipline and 
 development. In view to this end, the course of instruc- 
 tion is varied, and gradually is strengthened according to 
 the natural evolution of the mental faculties. Strong food 
 like oatmeal is good for Scotchmen and Scotch students, 
 but it is not adapted for babes ; and baby-farmers have 
 learned this, for it is the chief means they use for slaughter- 
 ing the children committed to them, with the view of being 
 put out of the world in the most innocent manner. Like 
 the judicious feeding of the young, the mode of getting 
 and keeping true knowledge is by a process of natural 
 sequence and development; its indiscriminate acquirement 
 is cram. Isolated facts and truths acquired by rote or by 
 cram, unconnected and arranged by educational processes, 
 are like useful objects thrown into a lumber press, forgotten 
 when required, or not to hand when remembered. It is 
 clear that you raise the tendency to cram when you separ- 
 ate the tests of knowledge from the processes of acquiring 
 it. You see that, though in a mitigated form, in Cam- 
 bridge. There you have seventeen colleges, with an out- 
 side university examination. The consequence is that in- 
 tellectual training has passed away from the professors ; 
 while preparation for degrees, which is its substitute, is 
 undertaken by private " coaches," who drive their pupils, 
 not on the high-road of learning, but by those short cuts 
 which lead to the examiner's little paddock ; for their art 
 consists in knowing what " is likely to be set," not in 
 inspiring a love of knowledge for its own sake. Colleges
 
 Oi^ Teaching Universities. 361 
 
 ought not to be separate from, but slioukl be integral parts 
 of a university, and then they will become what Pattison 
 wishes, healthy organs of a common organisation. When 
 examinations are used as a test of acquired information, 
 instead of as an evidence of a course of mental training, a 
 good memory will always have an advantage over a thought- 
 ful and trained intellect with less retentive power as to 
 existing knowledge. The Chinese are forced to acknow- 
 ledge that this is a result of their separate examining 
 systems, and they honestly give large credit to it, as when 
 they force every candidate to write out from memory the 
 whole of the sacred Edict of the Emperor Kanghi. Such a 
 feat of memory is as useless as that of Xerxes when he 
 learned by heart the names of a hundred thousand soldiers. 
 Pascal has told us that Epictetus and Montaigne should 
 always be read as correctives of each other, so, as I have 
 already quoted the Phrygian philosopher, I may remind 
 you of an opposite saying of the old French essayist, '•'■ Sca- 
 voir par cccur ji'est pas sfavoir.^' It is true that memory is 
 essential in education, as it is in cram, but, in the first case, 
 it is only one of several intellectual faculties which are 
 simultaneously developed, while, in the second, it is chiefly 
 relied on to obtain a result that, at the best, is only a sham 
 representation of undeveloped faculties. The one method 
 resembles that of the prudent trainer for a boat-race, when 
 he carefully trains all parts of the body, and not merely 
 those which are to be brought into play in the race; the 
 other is the system of the unskilful trainer who presses the 
 muscles into over-action, and damages the heart for life. 
 
 A university, fulfilling its purpose to the nation, is, or 
 ought to be, something far higher and far more useful than 
 even a combined teaching and degree-conferring institution. 
 It ought to be one of the great intellectual treasuries of the 
 nation, always stored to the full with the richest learning ; it 
 ought, through its educative functions, to be the distributor
 
 362 Subjects of Social IVelfare. 
 
 of that wealth to those who can use it well ; and it ought 
 in itself to be productive and creative of new treasures of 
 science and literature by the researches of its Professors. 
 None of our universities in the United Kingdom are, to the 
 full extent, what they might and should be in these three 
 points ; many in Germany have become so during the last 
 half-century. Their union is perfectly compatible with 
 teaching. " The greatest advances," says John Stuart Mill, 
 " which have been made in the various sciences, both moral 
 and physical, have originated with those who were public 
 teachers of them : from Plato and Aristotle, to the great 
 names of the Scotch, French, and German universities." 
 
 A smaller conception than I have given is unworthy of a 
 university in the present age. It is this conception that 
 has made Germany great in the last half-century ; it is the 
 want of that conception which has made France little. You 
 may have teaching institutions, technical schools, examining 
 boards, and institutes for the advance of science and liter- 
 ature, but not one of these forms a university. Only when they 
 are united by a common organisation, mutually supporting 
 each other, each efficient organs of a common body, that the 
 idea of a university is complete, or the possibility of large 
 results attainable. 
 
 The great objection, in the mind of Mr. Towe and others, 
 to the present union of tuition and examination is, that the 
 professors have a preponderating influence in the appraise- 
 ment of the results of their own labours. He would not 
 even have the examiners selected from the genus teacher, 
 for he states, " I do not presume to say that the very same 
 men examine students who have had the teaching of those 
 students, but they are men of the same class, of the same 
 es/n'^ de corps^ He alludes, in that passage, to Oxford 
 and Cambridge, but he would still more condemn the 
 Scotch system, in which the actual professors, associated 
 with extra-academical assessors, are the examiners. I do
 
 On Teaching Universities. 363 
 
 not say that we do not need reform in Scotland in this 
 respect, for I think the proportion of the latter to the 
 former is still too small; and most willingly would we 
 increase them, but we possess no further funds for their 
 payment. Still, in principle, I think the combination of 
 professorial and extra-academical examiners is a most ex- 
 cellent system. It is essential to the diversity of university 
 teaching and university degrees ; and I have already shown 
 of what national importance that is. I do not believe that 
 it leads to any favouritism or lightness in examinations, at 
 least, during ten years' experience as an examiner, I never 
 met a single case in which the extra-academical assessors 
 have complained of the leniency of the examinations, al- 
 though I have seen instances, both with myself and others, 
 where they have remonstrated with us for our severity. 
 This naturally arises from the circumstance that the pro- 
 fessorial examiner is always fresh in the whole subjects of 
 his course, while the outside examiner, if not himself a 
 teacher, can only possess a general acquaintance with them. 
 I do not think Mr. Lowe can have meant, what his reported 
 words imply, that teachers, as a class, should not be 
 examiners, or I would lay down the contrar}^ proposition 
 with great breadth, that no one but teachers can be good 
 examiners. Even in the Abiturienteii Exavien of Germany, 
 the questions are selected by the Board from those sent in 
 by teachers of the schools for approval. In the University 
 of London the examiners are chiefly teachers ; in its proto- 
 type, the Chinese Examining Board, the college professors 
 are associated with the Examining Mandarins ; in the 
 Belgian graduation system, university professors examine 
 university students, and, associated with private professors, 
 form the Central Examining Board for private students. In 
 the Queen's University in Ireland, the professors are the 
 examiners, and, in the medical degrees, are associated with 
 extra-academical examiners. In the German Universities, 
 and, in fact, nearly all over Europe, the same conditions of
 
 364 Si^ByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 examination prevail. All that I think Mr. Lowe can have 
 meant is, that teachers should not examine their own pupils, 
 and I would assent to this view if it were limited to the 
 proposition that they should not do so without the presence 
 and assistance of extra-academical examiners. I would be 
 inclined to go further, and open the oral examinations to 
 the public, to give the most ample evidence of their fairness 
 and impartiality. If the views I have put before you of the 
 national importance of keeping up complete diversity among 
 our universities be true, it would be far better for the 
 interests of education to abolish degrees altogether, than to 
 blow them, like a pint bottle in a mould, into a single shape 
 through a common examination. Diversity in graduation 
 is impossible, unless the teachers, who produce variety by 
 their peculiarities of thought, can impress it on the degree 
 as well as on the teaching.* 
 
 Far be it from me to say that our Scotch universities 
 do not require improvements, or that they fear the touch of 
 the prudent reformer. In my own day, twice have they been 
 the subject of inquiry by Royal Commissioners, and have 
 accepted the reforms urged upon them without hesitation, 
 and with gratitude. These reforms have been in consonance 
 with their national character, and had for their purpose 
 development, and not revolution. The Act of Parliament 
 that gave power to the Royal Commission which reported 
 in 1863, enjoined the Commissioners to inquire as to the 
 expediency of converting the four universities of Scotland 
 into colleges, and of joining their examining powers into one 
 common Examining Board. The deliverance of the Royal 
 Commission was as follows : — " .... It is impossible 
 
 * It is to me no demerit that the University of London employs teachers 
 as examiners. From i86i to 1871 inclusive, there have been 47 medical 
 examiners, of whom 39, or 83 per cent. , were teachers in mediad schools — 
 34 examiners, or 72 per cent., being from schools in London, which give 
 more than four-fifths of the candidates. So that actually these London 
 examiners are teachers examining their own pupils. In my eyes this is no 
 evil, but stones should not be cast out of a glass house.
 
 On Teaching Universities. 365 
 
 for us to report that such a measure would be practicable, 
 and our own deliberations have led us to the conclusion 
 that it would not be expedient. After the most careful con- 
 sideration, we are unable to see that any important corre- 
 sponding advantage is likely to be derived from so serious a 
 step as is implied in reducing the ancient universities of 
 Scotland from the position of universities, and convertinc^ 
 them into colleges of a new National university." This, I 
 think, you will now admit, was a wise report. Improve our 
 universities as you like— let the full light of day into all their 
 proceedings— but do not lightly alter the fundamental consti- 
 tution of those universities which have done so much to stamp 
 the national character of Scotland, and which have added 
 so largely to the material prosperity of the whole kingdom. 
 
 The immediate object of Mr. Lowe's speech, as I believe, 
 is Ireland, not Scotland. The Irish Roman Catholics claim 
 increased facilities for university instruction. If it were the 
 habit of the Irish poorer classes to frequent universities, the 
 numbers of them actually in collegiate attendance would be 
 unsatisfactory. This is a peculiarity of Scotland, and is not 
 found either in England or Ireland. At Trinity College, 
 for instance, out of 1,390 students who matriculated in the 
 five years ending 1872, there were only 37 "trad&smen and 
 artisans," or little more than 2^ per cent. As is well known, 
 the bulk of university students, in these two countries, come 
 from landowners, professional men, and wealthy merchants 
 and manufacturers ; and comparatively few come from the 
 lower portion of the middle classes.* In the following 
 
 * In the five years ending 1872 there were 1,390 matriculated students at 
 Trinity College, the occupations of their fathers being as follows :— 
 Gentlemen . . o 
 
 Professional Class-s . . . '. \ ' g 
 
 Merchants and Manufacturers . " * ' -i^ 
 
 Stipendiary Magistrates and Civil Service . '. re 
 
 Farmers ■ • . . . • oo 
 
 Agents and Overseers ..'.',,' ^° 
 Tradesmen and Artisans , , , * '31 
 
 Miscellaneous and unreturned . * ' "37 
 
 1,390
 
 366 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 Irish return of the two former classes, the Roman Catholic 
 priests are excluded, because they have no families to send to 
 universities, and the religious profession of merchants and 
 manufacturers is unknown to me. 
 
 Landowners having more than loo acres 
 Barristers and Attorneys 
 Physicians and Surgeons 
 Apothecaries . . • . 
 
 Clergy .... 
 
 Other learned occupations 
 
 Protestants. 
 
 Catholics. 
 
 10,000 
 
 2,500 
 
 1,750 • 
 
 890 
 
 1.597 . 
 
 751 
 
 209 
 
 210 
 
 3.264 . 
 
 — 
 
 708 . 
 
 35S 
 
 17,528 4,709 
 
 The proportion of the main bulk of the university-send- 
 ing classes in Ireland is therefore, as regards religions, nearly 
 four Protestants to one Roman Catholic; and as the students 
 in actual attendance at the colleges are about 1,200 Protest- 
 ants to 300 Roman Catholics, the result is what might have 
 been anticipated.* With these facts before us, ought we to 
 revolutionise the university system of Ireland, which is now 
 producing excellent results, to gratify a doubtful demand ? 
 Is there any evidence whatever that, in the present condition 
 of Ireland, a large accession of lay Roman Catholic students 
 will be gained by the universities ? If there be such a 
 demand, why do they not go to the Roman Catholic Uni- 
 versity ? That has already received the sanction of the 
 Pope, and, therefore, in the eyes of the Church, it is as 
 much a university as if it had a Royal Charter. Students go 
 to its halls in remarkably scanty numbers. I do not deny 
 that there are upwards of a thousand young men in Ireland 
 training for the Roman Catholic priesthood, to whom it 
 
 • This proportion is only approximately true for all students, but it is 
 strictly true as regards lay students. The lay students attending Trinity 
 College and the Queen's Colleges amount to 1,360, of whom 1,091 are Protest- 
 ants and 269 Roman Catholics. Resides these, there are 240 Episcopalians 
 and 63 Presbyterians preparing for the ministry.
 
 On Teaching Universities. 367 
 
 would be desirable to extend the benefits of a liberal educa- 
 tion. As long as their Church refuses for them a mixed 
 education, and keeps them apart, as a principle of their 
 training, it is impossible to reconcile a free teaching uni- 
 versity system with their wants. In the future an increased 
 lay demand may be beyond the capabilities of the existing 
 university system in Ireland ; but of that the signs are not 
 apparent. Reforms in the Irish universities require mature 
 consideration, for, in their present state, they are active both 
 in teaching and graduation. In Oxford and Cambridge one 
 graduate is found annually to every five students in attend- 
 ance; in the Scotch universities one to every seven ; in the 
 Irish universities one to every three and a half; and in the 
 London University, if we take four years of matriculation as 
 representing the students, one to every eleven. The Irish 
 universities, therefore, stand highest in relation to gradua- 
 tion. In their influence on the general poi)ulation, they 
 stand in an intermediate position to England and Scotland : 
 for Scotland has one student to S60 of the population, Ire- 
 land one to 2,700, and England one to 4,020. 
 
 I have now finished, and I hope I have given good 
 reasons for my belief that nothing would be more injurious 
 to higher education than limiting the diversities of uni- 
 versities by the uniform action of examining boards estab- 
 lished under the authority of the State. Ear better would it 
 be to use that power to suppress altogether the system of 
 conferring recognised degrees. Such an exercise of power 
 would still leave unfettered the individual development of 
 intellectual thought. The imposition of uniform examina- 
 tions, in every case where it has been tried, has not only 
 restricted intellectual liberty, but ultimately has produced a 
 mental paralysis in the nation which adopted it. 
 
 It has been necessary for me to enter into much illustra- 
 tion and proof of the ruinous effects which follow the de- 
 struction of the autonomy of separate universities, by schemes
 
 36S SuByECTs OF Social JVelfare. 
 
 of common examinations, and I have not had time to follow 
 Mr. Lowe into his view that as " teaching is a trade, it 
 should be arranged as a trade," and consequently, that 
 Government should have nothing to do with the support of 
 that teaching, at least in regard to higher instruction. No 
 doubt he could quote high authority in his support, for 
 Adam Smith, Dunoyer, Herbert Spencer, and others, have 
 argued in the same sense. There are other great thinkers 
 who have maintained with much vigour the contrary con- 
 clusion, by showing that it is the duty of the State to foster 
 those higher studies for which there is not a sufficient de- 
 mand on the part of those occupied with the affairs of life. 
 Sanscrit and Quaternions may not be in such demand as 
 potatoes and cabbages, and still their study may be im- 
 portant for the advancement of learning. When we find 
 that wise men, like Bacon, Hobbes, Berkeley, Locke, Kant, 
 and Mill, take an opposite view of the duties of the State, 
 we may feel sure that the question will not be hastily de- 
 cided. Adam Smith was wise when he pointed out that 
 excessive endowments are dangerous to the activity of 
 universities, though Plato was wiser when he saw that two 
 causes, instead of one cause, are in operation in all such 
 cases. You recollect his illustration of the potter in the 
 fourth Book of the " Republic. " When the potter becomes too 
 wealthy, he is apt to be indolent and careless, and then he 
 deteriorates in his art. A potter, on the other hand, may be 
 too poor to buy proper tools or instruments, and in that 
 case he not only does his work badly, but he is sure not to 
 teach his sons and apprentices equally well with the potter 
 who is well provided with the implements of his craft. If 
 the first condition form the reason why the great English 
 universities have not done work equal to their resources, 
 the second is undoubtedly the exj^lanation why the Scotch 
 universities are not so productive as they desire to be.
 
 UNIVERSITIES 
 
 IN THEIR RELATION TO 
 
 PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION. 
 
 Address to St. Andrew's Graduates' Association, 
 8th February, 1873. 
 
 The subject of my address is the position which Universities 
 should occupy in relation to Professional Education. It 
 has recently been the custom to state, especially in debates 
 on the Queen's Colleges in Ireland, that universities ought 
 not to be places for professional instruction, and that, how- 
 ever numerous students for professions may be, the success 
 of colleges should not be measured by them, but only by 
 such students as pass through the curriculum of the faculty 
 of arts. This assertion is made in total ignorance of the 
 origin of universities, and of their duties as instructors of 
 all who have occasion for learning, and not merely of the 
 wealthier classes of society. The older universities did not 
 spring from kings or popes, but had their origin deep down 
 among the professional classes. The latter wished to 
 glorify their professions by raising them above mere em- 
 piricism. This could only be done by rationalising and 
 generalising the facts gathered by experience. Hence 
 universities could not spring into being with a completed 
 organisation, panoplied in their armour, as Minerva did out 
 of the brain of Jupiter. At first they were mere schools, 
 which slowly developed into an academical form ; for it was 
 not till the twelfth or thirteenth century that they assumed 
 their present university state. Salerno is one of the most 
 ancient and illustrative instances of this development. We 
 
 Y
 
 37° SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 do not know how long a medical school flourished at 
 Salerno, though there is evidence of its existence in the 
 tenth century. In the middle of the eleventh century 
 Monk Rodulf visited it, and what is curious, in its relation 
 to female education, found no one so learned as himself, 
 except a learned lady. Salerno was even then a well-known 
 school of ancient date, for it is described " in urbe Salerni- 
 tana ubi maxima medicorum schol^ ab antiquo tempore 
 haberent."* It was a century later, or in 1140, that Roger, 
 first King of Sicily and Naples, directed his attention to 
 Salerno, and gave legal force to its own consuetudinary 
 statutes.! His grandson, the Emperor Frederick 11. , in 
 1 23 1, threw a net over the school, for he assumed power 
 to give a State impress to Salernian medical degrees. This 
 seems to have been the origin of the claim made by the 
 State to secure the qualifications of medical practitioners ; 
 and, though his statutes were abrogated by Queen Joanna 
 in 1365, it is interesting to know what they were. The 
 Roman Emperor claimed a sort of veto over the graduations 
 of Salerno and Naples, because he ordered the graduates 
 who had passed the magistri of these schools to come 
 ** before ourselves, or, in case of our absence from this 
 realm, before our vicegerent, and receive from him a licence 
 to practise." Except that there does not appear to have 
 been an examination, this practice is identical in theory 
 with the Staats Exavien of the German States. Both are 
 radically different from the " one-portal " system which has 
 been advocated in this country, and regarding which I shall 
 have a good deal to say hereafter. At present our point of 
 attention is that the old universities arose out of the needs 
 of professions ; that in their development they acquired 
 consuetudinary rights, which the State subsequently made 
 
 * Quoted by Bulseus, " Hist. Univ. Parisiensis," i. 478. 
 f Ackermann, "Regimen Sanitatis Salerni," 1776, p. 42; see also 
 Giannone, " Istoria Civile del Regno di Napoli," i., p. 188.
 
 Umi'ersities and Professional Education. 371 
 
 statutory, and finally controlled. As Salerno arose out of 
 medicine, so did Bologna arise out of law. Round the 
 law school of Bologna other professional schools gradually 
 clustered, until it assumed a university form in the middle 
 of the twelfth century. Even beyond 1360 the separate 
 professional schools maintained their independence, and 
 granted their degrees ; for there were actually four degree- 
 conferring universities at Bologna — two for law, one for 
 medicine and philosophy, and one for theology. 
 
 The University of Paris had its origin in a school of 
 theology, though subsequently becoming remarkable for its 
 philosophy, it attracted a large number of students of all 
 ages. Faculties of medicine and law then grouped them- 
 selves around the original theological schola. When pro- 
 vincial universities arose in France, they sometimes took up 
 a single profession, and even now we find this tradition pre- 
 served, as a survival, in the separate provincial faculties for 
 medicine, law, and science, which still exist in France. For 
 the Stadium generate of the old universities did not mean 
 that all studies were taught, but only that certain studies 
 were taught to all. It was only after universities had grown 
 into importance, that popes or kings threw the mantles of 
 the Church or State over them ; but they did not attempt to 
 lessen their position as places for professional training. The 
 newer universities were founded by royal charters or papal 
 bulls, and generally included faculties for philosophy, theo- 
 logy, law, and medicine ; though not always, as instanced in 
 the migratory university for theology and canon law founded 
 by Innocent IV., or the partial universities of Altdorf, 
 Rostock, Bamberg, and Gratz. Sometimes, as in St. 
 Andrew's, the faculty of arts was external to the professional 
 faculties, and even extramural in position ; for then it was a 
 mere pedagogium, or preparatory school for the professional 
 system. It is difficult to say how soon the arts teaching 
 became on a level with the other faculties. In the University 
 
 Y 2
 
 372 Si'ByECTs OF Social Welfare. 
 
 of Paris the higher and lower classes of instruction seem 
 to have run together, for children as well as youths were 
 among the circs of the university. Thus we find a curious 
 old statute of the University of Paris enjoining all students 
 to refrain from passing through the faculty of arts till they 
 were twelve years of age. This mixture of ages produced 
 strange results, as instanced in the flogging of Bacon at 
 Cambridge, when a mere boy, and of Ignatius Loyola at 
 Paris, when thirty years of age. In the thirteenth century 
 the same mixture of men, youths, and children, was found 
 in the English universities; even then, the faculty of art was 
 rising in importance, as we see in the conflicts between the 
 realists and nominalists, although they had not the dimen- 
 sions which they assumed under Duns Scotus in the begin- 
 ning of the fourteenth century. That struggle was like the 
 one now impending, for the realists wished to travel by the 
 Via a?itiqua, and the nominalists by the Via tnoderna. It 
 is very likely that, at Oxford and Cambridge, the importance 
 of the faculty of arts asserted itself sooner than in other 
 universities. It is true that civil law was taught by Vicarius 
 in the middle of the twelfth century at Oxford, along with 
 canon law and theology, and soon after with medicine, but 
 the philosophical faculty very soon emerged into importance. 
 Ultimately, professional teaching at Oxford and Cambridge 
 became subordinate to teaching in arts, which is now looked 
 on as the end, instead of as the beginning, of university life. 
 Recollect that this is a peculiarity confined to our great Eng- 
 lish universities. As you are aware, they have almost wholly 
 let slip the main object for which universities were founded 
 — to liberalise the professions — while instruction in arts has 
 become their chief end. Hence also they lost their hold on 
 the people, as a whole, and became the universities of the 
 rich. That was not the case in their early days, when poor 
 scholars begged from monastery to monastery till they 
 reached the seats of learning from all parts of the kingdom ;
 
 Universities and Professional Education. 373 
 
 nor was it so even when Bishop Latimer was an under- 
 graduate, for he tells us that many yeomen were among his 
 fellow students. Though Oxford and Cambridge have thus 
 exaggerated the importance of the faculty of arts by making 
 its degrees and honours the end instead of the beginning q{ 
 university life, the very existence of such a faculty is *the 
 foundation and justification for professional training in 
 universities. It is the power of liberalising the professions 
 that distinguishes universities from technical schools. The 
 latter are too apt to look to the more practical ends of pro- 
 fessional life, while the former bestow more attention to 
 the scientific foundations on which practice should always 
 be built. The importance of infusing liberal culture into 
 medicine has induced our medical legislators, within the last 
 few years, to insist on a preliminary examination of students 
 before they begin their medical studies. Notwithstanding 
 this, how seldom do we find the seal of the faculty of arts 
 impressed upon medical graduates ! In Dublin University 
 an M.D. must be a graduate in arts, but in the Queen's 
 University, and in the Scotch universities, the possession 
 of such graduation is the exception and not the rule. Let 
 us carefully examine into this rarity of methodical academic 
 training among our professional men. In the early con- 
 stitutions of our universities, the faculty of arts was the pre- 
 paratory pedagogium of the priest, the lawyer, and the 
 doctor. The subjects embraced in it were selected for their 
 use. At that time the common language of the learned 
 classes was Latin, in which they thought, spoke, and wrote. 
 All the professional treatises were written in the language of 
 Rome. When Descartes wrote in French his famous work 
 on Method, the innovation was thought so great that it was 
 at once translated into Latin. In Scotland, Dr. Gregory 
 was the Ulthnus Romaiiorum, as he had to apologise for 
 writing in Latin, a language which his professional brethren 
 had nearly ceased to understand. Classical instruction,
 
 374 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 until then, was necessarily made the basis of educational train- 
 ing. In itself it was a renaissance, and was at the same 
 time a revolution of the scholastic system of education, 
 which still feebly struggled on till the Reformation. The 
 scholastic system was long supported by its subservience to 
 theology, " philosophia theologi^ ancilla." It was then that 
 the Protestant universities renounced the necessity of an arts 
 degree for study in the professional faculties, because the 
 controversies of the scholastic system were so unprofitable. 
 Classics replaced it ; and Latin orations and Latin composi- 
 tion became as necessary to professional men of former 
 times, as English speaking and composition are to those who 
 practise at the present day. Our Latin and Greek education 
 still goes on, though, for its practical uses, it is as much a 
 survival as the two buttons behind our coats are survivals of 
 the time when the slits and flaps of our ancestral coats had 
 to be buttoned away. Their existence survives their utility. 
 IMedical men no longer write or speak Latin, and yet a 
 fourth of a professional man's life is spent in the venerable 
 deception that it is indispensable to him. In fact the only 
 thing that is left of it is that queer survival of writing pre- 
 scriptions in an abbreviated mongrel Latinity. So the 
 professional man, after spending a fourth of his life at school 
 in learning that which he little uses in after-life, naturally 
 has little disposition to go through a further course of it in 
 the faculty of arts of a university. Yet the latter still runs 
 slowly on the old and worn-out grooves of a system origin- 
 ally framed to aid the professions, though these now run 
 along new courses altogether. The advocates of the old 
 classical system of education only claim for it an indirect 
 utility as a means of culture. If liberal culture be, as it 
 should be, a part of professional training, then the culture 
 should be made to bear directly on the training, and not 
 remain a mere survival of an educational condition that is 
 only known lo us in history.
 
 Universities and Professional Education. 375 
 
 New professions are arising, and for these our old 
 universities make no provisions ; old professions have 
 completely changed their aspects, yet the schools and 
 colleges remain as of old. Perhaps the most robust men 
 of our time have been our engineers and mechanicians, 
 for they have given more impulse to civilisation than any 
 other class of men. I look in vain for a single represen- 
 tative man among our Telfords, Watts, Stephensons, Ark- 
 wrights, Wedgwoods, whose intellect was nurtured on 
 ancient classical learning, or who could find anything in 
 school life to aid the development of their genius. I look 
 in vain among our scientific heroes — among our Newtons, 
 Daltons, Youngs, Davys, Brewsters, Faradays — for one who 
 owed the cultivation of his intellect to classical education, 
 or who did not push aside the school learning afforded to 
 him as a heavy weight on his mental development. I turn 
 to our medical discoverers, who were obliged to take a 
 classical education, and how difficult do we find it to 
 select one with even a respectable knowledge of classics ! 
 Harvey was a B.A. \ but, among our Jenners, Hunters, 
 CuUens, and Bells, I do not recollect another instance. 
 And yet our Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, and Home 
 Secretary, Mr. Bruce, make orations on the same day, 
 telling us that the old classical system is that which is 
 best fitted for mental culture, under all conditions. That 
 it is so for the culture of statesmen is most probable, for 
 they have to deal with men, rather than with things. That 
 it is the most suitable for priests or for lawyers, I would 
 admit with a great deal more reserve. I know that Scotch 
 lawyers do not care to take our degree of M. A., and ask us 
 to make another degree more suitable to them ; but I am 
 glad to say that our Scotch theologians commonly graduate 
 in arts. The fact is that all professions have reached a 
 stage when a single curriculum for an arts degree is neither 
 possible nor tolerable for them, if universities intend to
 
 376 Subjects of Social Welfare 
 
 maintain their chief function of liberalising the professions. 
 You must not judge of other universities by Oxford and 
 Cambridge, for they are exceptional. The old English 
 universities have not the same function as the Scotch and 
 Irish universities. The former teach men how to spend 
 a thousand a year with dignity and intelligence, while the 
 latter aim at showing' men how to make a thousand a 
 year under the same conditions. The first two attract the 
 rich, and can only secure the poor by paying for their 
 attendance ; for it is a remarkable fact, according to Mr. 
 Mark Pattison, that one out of every three students at 
 Oxford is paid, by means of a scholarship, to attend its 
 instructional classes. Even our popular universities, which 
 still give prominence to professional degrees, have a poor 
 outcome of graduates in arts. Let us compare them in 
 proportion to students in annual attendance, and this will 
 be at once apparent. In the Irish universities there is 
 one degree in arts to every six students ; while in Scotland 
 there is only one to thirty students, and in the London 
 University there is one to twenty-four. This is, no doubt, 
 owing to the circumstance that the- Scotch universities 
 exaggerated as much in one direction their teaching func- 
 tions, as the English Universities exaggerated in another 
 direction their examining functions. It is due also to 
 the fact that the revival of the practice of taking degrees 
 in arts by examination, which arose in the English uni- 
 versities at the beginning of this century, only commenced 
 in the Scotch universities thirty years later ; and still more 
 to the circumstance that the latter were at an early period, 
 and are now, so largely occupied with professional teaching. 
 In a true academic system, teaching and examining functions 
 should be held in an even balance. This also shows that, 
 in the struggle for professional existence, there is little time 
 to go aside for a degree in the faculty of arts according 
 to its present curriculum. Professional training begins at
 
 UXIVERSITIES AND PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION. 377 
 
 seventeen or eighteen years of age, before an arts degree 
 is attainable. Though society refuse to adapt itself to 
 the ancient liberal curriculum of a university, is it un- 
 reasonable to expect that the latter should adapt itself to 
 society ? or, in other words, instead of the liberal curri- 
 culum being a mere survival of a preparation for professions 
 which have advanced with science, and left it behind, might 
 they not go on pari passu ? Universities cannot accom- 
 plish this by simply heaping up new subjects on an over- 
 loaded curriculum ; for, in this way, study in arts and 
 the requirements of an active profession, ever developing 
 by discoveries in science, can never be made compatible. 
 The curriculum must not be uniform for all professions ; 
 it should be made to adjust itself to their several require- 
 ments. Universities can no longer stand on their ancient 
 dignity, and refuse even to consider such adjustments. 
 The demand, as I have expressed it, is not one of a few 
 half-educated radical reformers. It is the demand of a 
 changed civilisation, which has resulted from three main 
 causes. These are, the rapid advance of science and its 
 numerous applications to industrial life ; the free and con- 
 stant intercommunication of peoples ; and the liberalisation 
 of political institutions. It is true that these causes have 
 been long in operation on nations, but they have produced 
 a singularly accelerated effect in the last half-century. The 
 youth of our country cannot chain itself to the past, and see 
 the modern stream of thought and action flow swiftly past 
 them. Unless our universities go with the stream, by fitting 
 themselves to the changed requirements of modern society, 
 need they be astonished if society soon get accustomed to 
 look upon them as venerable monuments of a past age ? 
 
 You cannot suppose that I could stand before my fellow 
 graduates, who have honoured me by election as their repre- 
 sentative for two ancient universities, and advocate the study 
 of professions shorn of their liberal culture. Mental culture
 
 378 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 is the mother of science. Without mental culture mere 
 scientific and professional training becomes narrow and 
 unproductive. As the mother teaches her progeny to speak, 
 so does literature teach science to be articulate in the 
 expression of her thoughts, and to bring them into relations 
 with human progress and human desires. It is because I 
 feel that liberal culture is not only necessary to adorn, but 
 ought to be the foundation of all professions, that I advocate 
 the necessity of bringing the universities and the professions 
 into a harmony which once existed, but is now replaced by 
 discord. My object is to see universities assume their old 
 function of being the great liberalising power of the pro- 
 fessions. Every profession is now vastly more extended in 
 its knowledge and requirements than it was when univer- 
 sities were first founded ; yet life is little longer than it was 
 among our ancestors. The skull of a man is a close and 
 rigid cavity, which can only hold an average quantity of 
 brains ; it is not a vulcanised indiarubber bag, capable of 
 swelling out at each pressure applied to it. We must put into 
 this space of fixed dimensions a continually growing quantity 
 of knowledge ; and you cannot be astonished if you find a 
 disposition to reject that which is useless for that which is 
 useful. Liberal culture is not only useful but indispensable ; 
 only the same kind of crop is not suited for food under all 
 conditions. If our professions reconcile themselves to our 
 faculties of arts, the latter must first adjust a variable curri- 
 culum to the wants of the former. In the active competition 
 of the world, men cannot afford to spend their life up to 
 twenty-one or twenty-two years of age in the study of a 
 preparatory degree which is to be the mere foundation-stone 
 of their professional edifice. The difficulty might be met by 
 making the M.A. degree a real step only attainable by a 
 high educational standard ; while the lower degree of 
 bachelor — the bas chevalier or inferior knight — ought to be 
 reached not by one road only, but by various converging
 
 Universities and Professional Education. 379 
 
 roads, suitable to the varying kinds of knowledge required 
 by different professions. They might thus be induced now, 
 as in past times, to resort to the faculty of arts for its seal of 
 liberal culture. Look at the struggles of the doctors, the 
 lawyers, and the clergy, to get, in all sorts of strange fashions, 
 the suitable culture which the universities deny them, 
 except under conditions that are inconsistent with their 
 professional life. The clergy in England become " Hterates " 
 in institutions which are cheaper and more accessible than 
 the universities. Medical men have to undergo a pre- 
 liminary literary examination before commencing their 
 professional studies ; and lawyers are constituting new 
 standards of study at their inns, or requiring them before 
 admitting men on the roll of attorneys or solicitors. The 
 divorce between the professions and the older universities 
 will soon be complete ; and the gap is widening between 
 them and the arts faculties of the Scotch and Irish univer- 
 sities. Why do the universities not study the nature of the 
 culture expressed by these preliminary literary examinations, 
 and offer the degree of B.A. to those who pass them with a 
 thorough and satisfactory knowledge ? That lower degree 
 may not include everything, though it may include much. 
 If the medical profession insist upon having a modern 
 language, or English literature — something of Latin, and 
 more or perhaps all of Greek, may have to yield to the new 
 requirement. The preliminary examination for medical 
 students in the Scotch universities includes five compulsory 
 subjects, viz. : — English, Latin, arithmetic, lower mathematics, 
 and mechanics ; but the M.B. must take two and the M.D. 
 three of the following optional subjects, viz.: — French, 
 German, Greek, higher mathematics, natural philosophy, 
 logic, moral philosophy. Surely this range of subjects is 
 wide enough for a lower degree in arts. High liierary 
 culture is not confined to the glorious classical relics of 
 ancient Rome and Athens. In Italy, France, and Germany,
 
 380 SusyECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 there are illustrious authors in recent times. Surely a 
 university must be hard to satisfy, if it cannot extract the 
 graces of polite literature from such modern authors. The 
 inductive, deductive, and perceptive faculties of professional 
 men might assuredly be developed and strengthened by 
 mental and physical science without necessarily going back 
 to the days of Plato and Aristotle. Such sciences might 
 serve them better in the struggle of professional existence 
 than the Satires of Juvenal, the Odes of Horace, or the 
 " Republic " of Plato. New co-ordinations of knowledge, 
 certified by a literary degree, would win back the professions 
 to an organised curriculum of a liberal culture compatible 
 with the active callings in life represented in modern society. 
 In thus recommending an opening up of various roads 
 converging on the minor degree of B.A., I am an advocate 
 for liberal culture, which is now becoming, so far as our 
 universities are concerned, more and more rare among 
 professional men. 
 
 Although I have more hope that the Scotch and Irish 
 universities will sooner adapt their liberal culture to the 
 professions than the old English universities, still there are 
 many signs that Oxford and Cambridge are alive to the 
 necessity of specialising the studies for degrees, and of not 
 confining them to a single curriculum. This tendency is 
 apparent in the various schools from which honours may 
 be obtained. The pass examination for B.A. in the EngUsh 
 universities satisfies 70 per cent, of its students, and yet 
 has no more intellectual significance than the title of 
 Esquire has a distinct social value. Under altered circum- 
 stances, as a preparation for professional life, it might not 
 mean, as it certainly does not. now mean, a thorough 
 grounding in the seven arts, but it might denote a thorough- 
 ness in preparation for those limited subjects of liberal 
 culture which lie at the basis of each profession. If Oxford 
 and Cambridge made its M.A. an honour degree, open only
 
 Universities and Professional Education. 381 
 
 to scholarly attainments, and its B.A. a lower degree in- 
 dicating efificient preparation for professional study, or even 
 for manufacturing industry, they would not only bring 
 themselves into better harmony with the professions, but 
 would also improve their relations with the secondary 
 schools which now scarcely send a fifth of their whole 
 number for university training. These, under the pressure 
 of parents, are now rapidly introducing modern subjects 
 into their schemes of instruction. 
 
 The monopolists of our faculties of arts may characterise 
 such proposals as revolutionary ; but the public, in whose 
 interests they are conceived, know that they are only 
 divisions of mental labour, rendered inevitable by the pro- 
 gress of society. Revolution is an ugly word, though it 
 applies to education as well as to politics. The educational 
 system of Plato has now no existence, and is only interesting 
 in history. The old methods of teaching through dialectics 
 answered well for centuries, although they are now as 
 extinct as mammoths. Afterwards the scholastic system 
 did the world good service, and then wore itself out. Our 
 exclusive system of classical education has had its day, and 
 must be content to see new educational co-ordinations, in 
 which it may sometimes have to assume a subordinate 
 position. The wisest of books tells us that, though we 
 should stand upon the ancient way, we should look about 
 us and discover what is the straight and right way, and so 
 walk in it. I have shown you that the ancient way in 
 education was for universities to make their arts curri- 
 culum a careful propaedeutic, or course of mental prepara- 
 tion for the professions ; and the straight and right way is 
 for them to adjust it to the professions as they are in modern 
 times, and not as they were in ancient times. 
 
 As the professions found university training unfit as a 
 propaedeutic, they began to create special schools — schools 
 of medicine, engineering, architecture, navigation — alto-
 
 382 SuByECTs OF Social JVelfare. 
 
 gether outside the universities. Sometimes these technical 
 schools, as at Zurich and Paris, have altogether dwarfed 
 the university systems. I am not likely to be thought an 
 enemy to technical education, for I have long directed 
 attention to the deficiencies of technological instruction in 
 this country. I have, at the same time, been chary in re- 
 commending the establishment of special schools, unless 
 strong grounds exist, as illustrated in the Indian College for 
 Civil Engineering, and in the School for Navigation at 
 Greenwich, for giving to them a character of practical 
 training such as the universities are not at present pre- 
 pared to afford. Such special schools may produce length, 
 but they cannot produce breadth, in education. They look 
 only to one subject and its applications ; they focus the 
 light, as it were, on a particular spot, and illumine that 
 brightly, but they thus intensify the darkness all around. 
 Unluckily the universities allowed profession after profession 
 to slip away from them, because they could not escape from 
 their mediteval traditions. Nothing is more strange, for 
 instance, than their abandonment of the teaching profession, 
 which was of their own creation, while the older professions 
 were rather the creators of the universities. Originally 
 graduates were not only empowered, but they were com- 
 pelled, to be teachers. The graduation was the diploma 
 of a teacher ; yet the universities have allowed independent 
 normal schools for the training of teachers to grow up 
 around them. The Education Act, especially that for 
 Scotland, obviously contemplates that the universities will 
 resume their ancient functions of training teachers, for it 
 agrees to accept a university degree as equivalent to a 
 special examination in all subjects covered by it. A little 
 adaptation of the arts degree would, in fact, include every- 
 thing which the State demands from the teachers of a public 
 school, except practice in teacliing and in music. If, then, 
 the universities choose to adapt their lower degrees to the
 
 Universities and Professional Education. 383 
 
 vocation of the elementary teacher, and to found a higher 
 pedagogic degree, they may soon place themselves in 
 harmony with that profession which originally was of their 
 own creation. I look with confidence to the time when 
 the State will use universities instead of normal schools, as 
 means of producing public teachers, and when special 
 degrees for teachers will induce men who enter into the 
 teaching profession to assume that occupation with those 
 sureties of qualifications which are now given by other 
 recognised professions in which the public have an interest. 
 
 I have always lived in the hope of seeing our universities 
 resume their old function of liberalising the professions. It 
 has, therefore, been a source of pride and gratification to 
 me to see my own University of Edinburgh developing 
 courses of engineering and agriculture, and opening its 
 degrees to industrial professions. It is only by thus de- 
 veloping professional instruction in connection with general 
 culture that you can hope to remedy the exclusiveness 
 and narrowness with which all professions are apt to be 
 surrounded. Suppose, for instance, that there were as 
 distinct colleges for painting and sculpture as there are 
 for medicine, how soon would the study of nature, in its 
 wonderful varieties, be cramped and crippled by the con- 
 ventionalism of the professors ! Schools of drawing and 
 modelling are, of course, necessary, but a college of these 
 subjects would be detrimental to the fine arts. Hence 
 it is wise to connect fine arts professorships with the 
 universities, because the artist depends for the grace of 
 his creations, far more on his cultured perceptions, than 
 on any manipulative dexterity of his brush or chisel. 
 
 In medicine, special schools have grown numerous, 
 because Oxford and Cambridge neglected their duties as 
 liberalisers and cultivators of professions. Though rivers 
 will not flow back to the sources whence they came, yet, 
 in the future, the sources may supply healthier waters to
 
 3S4 SuByECTS OF Social Welfare. 
 
 the streams than they have done in past times. So our 
 English universities, though they have lost their hold on 
 the medical profession, may at least adjust a preparatory 
 curriculum to suit it, and thus secure to medical students 
 a liberal culture bearing on their future life before they 
 begin their purely professional training. 
 
 Universities should understand that, if they desire society 
 to uphold their ancient academic rights, they must show 
 themselves willing to extend modern obligations to society. 
 
 I do not presume to give detailed schemes for the 
 construction of the various academic roads which might 
 lead through the faculty of arts to the professional faculties. 
 Each of these would be the best adviser how the several 
 roads should be constructed. All I venture to press is, 
 that the roads should be sufficiently numerous not only 
 to lead to recognised academic professions, but also to 
 the great occupations of manufacturing and mercantile 
 industries, which above all require to be mellowed by 
 liberal culture. 
 
 As I have now the honour of addressing an audience 
 chiefly composed of the medical profession, allow me to 
 explain the attitude of hesitation, if not of opposition, 
 which the Scotch universities have taken up in reference 
 to a general and popular cry for a " one-portal " system 
 of examination. This demand has arisen from a just dis- 
 content with the laxity of examination on the part of some 
 of the nineteen licensing bodies in the United Kingdom. 
 It is contended that a single State examination would give 
 better security for the qualifications of medical men than 
 the separate licensing systems. No one can dispute the 
 right of the State, to fix its own standard of qualifications 
 for licences involving civil rights and affecting the health 
 of its citizens. That right, as I have shown, was exercised 
 as early as the thirteenth century, and it now receives full 
 expression in the Staats Examen of Germany. That, both
 
 Universities and Professional Education. 385 
 
 in its former and present state, is a very different thing from 
 the one-portal system which has been proposed for this 
 country. In Germany the State examination was always 
 supplementary to the academic curriculum. It was simply 
 a State door, through which the university-trained student 
 had to pass before he assumed civil rights of practice. The 
 one-portal system proposed for this country might be ante- 
 rior to university or corporate graduation, so that the State 
 licence would be, instead of a supplement, a substitute for 
 academic graduation. Any single licensing system must 
 aim at a minimum and not at a maximum standard of quali- 
 fications. Suppose it aimed at a maximum, like the Univer- 
 sity of London, what would follow ? Necessarily the ranks 
 of the profession must remain empty. Under such a system 
 the demand for medical men could not be supplied, and the 
 public would suffer. The one-portal system can only pre- 
 vent a man from passing in under a minimum standard, but 
 it cannot insure higher qualifications. Yet such a minimum 
 plan of licensing would govern the whole medical schools 
 of the country, as surely as the main motive wheel in a 
 factory governs the motions of a thousand bobbins. 
 
 Under such circumstances, the ornamental degrees of 
 universities and corporations would have no more influence 
 on medical education, as a whole, than the brightly polished 
 brass-work on the standard of an engine has upon its motive 
 power. The qualifications of medical men would then be 
 exactly what the minimum involved, and, except rarely, 
 would be no higher. For all experience teaches us that the 
 great bulk of students, with a compulsory examination before 
 them, concentrate their vision on that alone, and refuse to 
 look beyond it. So that teaching schools and universities 
 must then teach down to this minimum, and not teach up 
 to their maximum, if they are to preserve their students from 
 mere crammers. It is this that has rendered uniform 
 standards of examination so fatal to intellectual develop-
 
 386 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 ment in every country where they have been tried. It is 
 this that has made Germany abandon its old centraKsed 
 system of State examination ; for it is now carried on at the 
 seat of each university, chiefly by the professors and partly 
 by assessors appointed by the State. Even in this modified 
 form it has much injured medical graduation, because 
 students work for the essential licence and neglect the mere 
 academic honours. Germany is the typical country of 
 universities, for it counts twenty-four of them, and these 
 contain 20,000 matriculated students. Its principle is to 
 give to each university a separate autonomy and the utmost 
 liberty of teaching and examination. It preserves for the 
 State a right of proof that these functions have been dis- 
 charged efficiently when civil rights are conferred; but it 
 carefully makes the exercise of this right a nt re supplement 
 to a well-ordered university curriculum.* This is well 
 
 * In a letter to me, dated 8th February, 1873, Baron Liebig, President 
 of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, thus describes the action of the 
 German system: — "We require that the physician, before he practises, 
 should prove his capability and knowledge. The same is required from 
 the theologian if he become a priest, as well as from the lawyer. All can- 
 didates must submit to two kinds of tests — the university and likewise the 
 State examination. In the first all the examiners are professors. The 
 State Commission requires, first of all, that the candidate shall present the 
 evidence that he has passed the university examination, which gives certifi- 
 cates or degrees of three grades. Then the State supplements tlie know- 
 ledge thus evidenced by requiring its officials (doctors, lawyers, and ministers) 
 to show further qualifications which entirely relate to practical subjects. 
 At this examination university professors are associated with other ex- 
 aminers. Wewoulu, m fact, think an examining board without university 
 professors defective. It is true that we do not think every medical man 
 should be an M.D. The State licenses him to practise after he has passed 
 the university test. The M.D. is now looked on as a university honour, 
 only imposed as a necessity on men who intend to follow an academic 
 career. You will understand from this that the State examination does not 
 affect the independence of our universities, because the university examina- 
 tion precedes the Stale examination. It is the university that determines 
 the scientific qualifications of the candidate, and what practical tests the 
 State cares to apply to its officials do not concern us."
 
 Universities and Professional Education. 387 
 
 illustrated in the Bills now before the Prussian Parliament 
 in respect to theological studies. The State proposes to 
 insure that every clergyman shall possess liberal culture, and 
 with this view, whether Protestant or Catholic, he must go 
 through a curriculum of classics, literature, philosophy, and 
 natural science in the universities, and not merely in special 
 seminaries. The examination in these subjects is to be in 
 the hands of the State and not in those of the bishops. 
 The curriculum of study belongs to the university, the 
 evidence of its fruition to the State. Such paternal functions 
 of the State, even though chiefly exercised through university 
 professors, are rather incomprehensible to us. Doubt is 
 expressed in Germany itself as to whether it is wise for the 
 State to secure its end by examination, for Professor 
 Planck, in his recent rectorial address at Munich, counsels 
 the State to take other means for obt lining good professional 
 men " than its narrow and doubtful " examining systems. 
 While no country in the world has benefited so much as 
 Germany by its university system, none, except China, has 
 suffered so much as France by giving a preponderance to 
 examination, and subordinating to that the teaching functions 
 of universities. I have shown fully elsewhere* how France 
 now admits that the poverty of intellect displayed during 
 her recent crisis was the consequence of her having sacrificed 
 the national intellect to a uniform State-examining system. 
 
 It is not easy, in the short time at my disposal, to show 
 you how Germany has managed to reconcile free university 
 teaching with a State-examining system, without injurious 
 consequences to intellectual development, but this has been 
 well done by Matthew Arnold. Certainly, German ideas of 
 examination are as opposite to those that prevail in our 
 universities as they can well be. With us examination is 
 the end of vmiversity life, while in Germany it is the mere 
 test of a well-ordered course of study. All " specielle Vor- 
 
 * "Teaching Universities and Examining Boards." — Ante.
 
 3S8 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 studien" are expressly discouraged, and the examination aims 
 at the proof that the student has attained " das VVesentliche 
 und Daiiernde" or a substantial and enduring result of 
 study. Under our examining systems cram flourishes ; in 
 Germany it has little existence, for the examination, which 
 is a subordinate function of their university system, aims at 
 the proof of intellectual development fitted for a future 
 career of usefulness. 
 
 Let us apply these national experiences to the satisfaction 
 of a reasonable demand that the medical practitioners in 
 this country should at least possess a minimum standard of 
 efficiency. While the State has a right to demand that, it 
 is clearly its interest and policy to effect its purpose in such 
 a way as will insure maximum and not minimum qualifica- 
 tions. It is not wise to have either uniformity in teaching 
 or in examination ; for differentiation is as important in 
 intellectual as it is in physical life. A one-portal system is 
 based on uniformity, and it would effect it as surely on the 
 student, as the single hole of the wire-drawer does upon the 
 wire drawn through it. To avoid this, we now find the one- 
 portal system abandoned for a three-portal system, one door 
 of entrance being proposed for each section of the United 
 Kingdom.* No doubt this is better, for it would secure at 
 least national differentiation, though it would still cramp 
 professional development in each section of the country. 
 The only justification for the interference of the State is the 
 assumed position that the nineteen licensing bodies, by 
 their competition, have a tendency to lower qualifications. 
 I doubt this as a fact, but I have no doubt whatever that a 
 downward competition would be the inevitable result of a 
 single examining board. Though the corporations, under 
 conjoint schemes of examination, continue to give the licence 
 
 * When I held the office of Vice-President of the Council I carried 
 through an Act for medical qualifications on the principles enunciated in 
 this address. — L. P.
 
 Universities axd Professional Education. 3S9 
 
 in name, they will be virtually superseded in testing the fit- 
 ness of candidates to receive the titles which they confer. 
 It does not require a sage political forecast to know that 
 such a conjoint system possesses neither the conditions of 
 permanence nor of strength. Coherence it cannot have, 
 for the public would soon doubt the wisdom of continuing 
 corporate powers when they are exercised in name and 
 not in reality ; and, as soon as the danger becomes patent, 
 the corporations will dissolve a voluntary union which saps 
 their existence. Unless they wake quickly to a sense of 
 their danger, the system may be riveted by legislative action. 
 The corporations are not teaching, but licensing and examin- 
 ing bodies; and when they resign these powers to a conjoint 
 body of examiners, it becomes very difficult to understand 
 why provincial candidates, at least, should care to belong to 
 them, or why the public should prolong their existence. I 
 should regret their extinction, because I value them as pro- 
 ductive of professional strength and of esprit de corps. It 
 is by such unions that the medical profession possesses 
 political power and influence. The effect of their absence 
 may be seen in such incoherent professions as the Merchant 
 Navy, which contains men of high qualifications, but pos- 
 sessing small power, from want of bonds of union such as 
 the Medical Corporations afford. The only bodies which 
 are likely to be long survivors of a conjoint examining system 
 are the universities, for they have specific teaching functions, 
 which would still remain after the corporations have been 
 swallowed by the ogre of conjoint examinations. Should 
 the State, under the influence of the popular cry, assume 
 the function of examination, it would be productive of the 
 least evil, if it limited that to strictly clinical subjects. The 
 teaching bodies would then occupy themselves with laying 
 down a sound scientific and systematic basis of professional 
 knowledge ; while the State would gain assurance that the 
 practitioner could apply his science to the actual practice of
 
 390 Subjects of Social Welfare. 
 
 his profession. A second contingency is possible, for present 
 State interference may be the future forerunner of free trade 
 in medicine; because, when the corporations succumb to the 
 feeUng of their inutiHty, and the State becomes disappointed 
 with the results of a minimum examination, medical men as 
 individuals may have to submit to whatever relations the 
 State cares to establish with them. When legal recognition 
 is asked by medical men from the State, it has a right to 
 fix their qualifications in the interest of the public. That 
 right follows legal recognition and the bestowal of civil rights, 
 but the State is not bound to repress irregular practitioners 
 who demand no recognition ; and the time may come, when 
 the profession has yielded itself to the influences of the 
 State, that the latter may look upon regular and irregular 
 practitioners as outside its functions altogether. In other 
 regions of politics, as, for instance, in regard to religion, 
 there is a tendency for the State to cut itself adrift from 
 complications of this sort. Under the present system the 
 medical profession is in no danger, for it regulates its own 
 affairs, and has little connection with the State. The less 
 it has to do with it the better, if the dignity and independ- 
 ence of the profession be consulted. The Medical Council 
 is not supported by imperial taxation, but by professional 
 contributions. Though it is not constituted with that popu- 
 lar representation which ought to be the basis of such an 
 assembly, it is in theory and in fact a representative 
 body. Into this the State also sends members of the pro- 
 fession, always men of a representative character ; and as 
 long as it continues to do so, its right is not likely to be 
 questioned, though it is doubtful in principle. The Medical 
 Council needs reform, but this may be eftected without sub- 
 verting the teaching and examining functions of universities 
 and corporations. I am sure, when the medical profession 
 realises the disastrous effects which uniform examining 
 systems have produced in other countries on national intel-
 
 Universities and Professional Education. 391 
 
 lectual development, that it will be slow to introduce them 
 into this kingdom, or to relinquish the independence of the 
 profession for the doubtful advantages of direct State recogni- 
 tion. No doubt the Medical Council ought to take ample 
 securities, either by efficient inspection or by participation in 
 examinations, that every separate examining board never 
 descends below a minimum standard of qualifications ; but, 
 in doing this, so far from seeking uniformity in examinations, 
 they should encourage variety, and should welcome all aims 
 at higher qualifications on the part of the examining bodies, 
 stimulated to differentiation by whatever methods or sub- 
 jects their teaching staffs choose to introduce. It would, of 
 course, be possible in a central examining system to have 
 degrees of qualification, but such a plan would assuredly 
 destroy variety in teaching, still more effectually than a 
 minimum test, because it would suppress university degrees 
 and corporation honours, and substitute State uniformity in 
 honours and in the means of attaining them. 
 
 After what I have said, you will see how impossible it is 
 for me, as representing two Scottish universities, to yield to 
 a popular cry of a one-portal system. It is a matter of 
 indifference to Oxford, Cambridge, and the London Univer- 
 sity, whether they accept or refuse such a system. Their 
 medical degrees, taken altogether, do not equal one of the 
 universities which I have the honour to represent. The 
 teaching functions of the English universities, as regards the 
 professions, have little more than a nominal existence. The 
 Scotch universities, both as to teaching and graduation, are 
 in most intimate connection with the people of Scotland, 
 and derive their whole strength from them. You recollect 
 that even Hercules was not a match for the Libyan giant 
 Antseus, as long as he was in contact with his mother earth, 
 whence all his strength was derived ; but when Hercules 
 lifted the giant from the earth he lost his power, and was 
 easily squeezed to death. The Scotch universities feel that
 
 392 SusyECTs of Social Welfare. 
 
 a conjoint scheme of examination would part them from the 
 people, and turn their strength into weakness. With the 
 remembrance of what happened to Antsus of old, are you 
 surprised that they cling with all their force to the people, 
 and decline to be severed from them, lest they receive the 
 embrace of death from some Hercules in the guise of a 
 medical officer of the Privy Council or Local Government 
 Board ? The Scotch universities will cordially welcome any 
 system of thorough inspection of their examinations on the 
 part of the Medical Council, or they will willingly receive 
 accessory examiners, who may be appointed by the Council; 
 but they resolutely oppose a concentration of examinations, 
 which all experience has shown to be most detrimental 
 to higher intellectual culture. 
 
 I have now finished, and I trust I have convinced you 
 that it is not only possible, but easy, to put our universities 
 into harmony with active professional training. To do so is 
 only to bring them back to their original purpose of liberal- 
 ising the professions. Liberal culture must, however, have 
 a wider meaning than it now has, if this harmony be re- 
 established. Each profession has its own foundation of 
 liberal culture. At present the universities try to build all 
 professions on one uniform foundation, though this is as 
 foolish as it would be to build a palace, a gaol, or an infir- 
 mary, on a single ground-plan common to all. The profes- 
 sions have indicated, by their special literary examinations, 
 what their several foundations should be ; and if the univer- 
 sities know how to extend their obligations to modern 
 society, they should have little difficulty in again assuming 
 their original purpose of affording a liberal culture to the 
 professions. The universities would thus gain in strength, 
 and the professions in dignity and in efficiency. 
 
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 German Dictionary, Cassell's New. German-English, En^^lish- 
 
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 Vikiiig Life in the Days of 
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 ihe Komance of Invention. 
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 ture in the \avi-ator Islands. By 
 
 Tad: or, "Getting Even " with 
 Him. By lidward .S. Ellis. 
 
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 Houi;h. 
 
 r^ rt _ . stoii. 
 
 Crown 8vo Library. CJuap Editions. 2S. 6d. each 
 Eambles Round T.nnrt«„ -n.. n . _•='''-"• 
 
 ^rim^f^^^,^^^^^'"-" By Talbot 
 T w*^*",!,' °*" a Mistake. By Sar."; 
 T oe^ -^eliool- By I.. T. .Meade. 
 
 Dawi^Kef ^'^"^ Africans. By 
 
 T^°, I'alace' Beautiful. By L T 
 
 Meade. 
 
 ^'^ iSnfr'^H^^'i "Esmeralda." By 
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 s?o"u" °^ ^°-^ ''y '^- St. Jolin. 
 
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 Decisive Events in History. 
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 '"°S|'S^pjJ^f^^,,«y.,Tho^- 
 
 Early Explorers. ByThrm.ij !>,,., 
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 The England of Shakespeare. By 
 h. (,o.,dhv ^v,th FulTpage luS- 
 
 Goad by. 
 trations.
 
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 The "Cross and Crown" Series. Illustrated. 2s. 6d. each. 
 
 Through Trial to Triumph. By 
 
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 By i'ire and Sword : A Story of 
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 Freedom's Sword: A Story of the 
 
 Days of Wallace and Bruce. 
 
 By .\nnle S. Swan. 
 Strong- to Suffer: A Story of 
 
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 Heroes of the ludiaa Empire; 
 
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 In Letters of Flame : A Story 
 
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 Mateaux. 
 
 Archer 
 
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 No. XIII., ^., 
 Lost Vestal. 
 
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 Searchfiekl. 
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 the Author of "May Cunninghams 
 
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 g^Eisell's Picture Story Books. Each containing about Si.xty Pages of 
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 Little Lizzie. 
 
 Little Bird, Life and Adven- 
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 Little Pickles. 
 
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 The Delft Jug. 
 
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 Bunty and the Boys. 
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 Clever Frank. 
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 Seventeen Cats. 
 
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 ■little Tattle Tales. 
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 Picture Album of All Sorts. With 
 
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 Great Grindroarama. Bv Georijina M. Syngc. 
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 E. .Scire. 
 
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 Iluury Frith. 
 
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 Red Feather: a Tale Of the 
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 Seeking a City. 
 
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 Faith's Father. 
 
 Bv Land and Sea. 
 
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 Jeff and Leff, 
 
 Tom Morris's Error. 
 
 Worth more than Gold. 
 
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 Major Monk's Motto. By the Rev. 
 
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 TXncle W^illiam's Charges; or. The 
 
 Broken Trust. 
 Pretty Pink's Purpose: or. The 
 
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 Ursula's Stumbling-Block. Byjuha 
 
 Goddard. 
 Ruth's Life-Work. By the Rev. 
 
 Joseph Johnson. 
 
 Stories of the Tower. 
 
 Mr. Burke's Nieces. 
 
 May Cunningham's Trial. 
 
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 Madge and Her Friends. 
 
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 Maid Marjory. 
 
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 Little Folks' Sunday Boo'i. 
 
 Two Fourpenuy Bits. 
 
 Poor Nelly. 
 
 Tom Heriot. 
 
 Through Peril to Fortune. 
 
 Aunt Tabitha's Waifs. 
 
 In Mischief Again. 
 
 School Girls.
 
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 Cheap Editions of Popular Volumes for Young People. Dound in 
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 Perils Afloat and Brigands Ashore. 
 
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 Peeps into China. 
 
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 Hound Airica. 
 
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 Woi'ders of Common Things. 
 
 Truth will Out. 
 
 Soldier and Patriot (George Wash- 
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 The Young Man in the Battle of 
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 The True Glorv of Woman. By tlie 
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 At the South Pole. 
 
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 The Pilgrim's Progress. Witli 
 
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