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Leader (1850-1860), 23rd October 1858, Edition 2 of 2, Page 17, \ • ¦ ¦** v / ~ SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 18...

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    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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      No. 448. October 23, I*«.1 The Leader. H...

      No . 448 . October 23 , i *« . 1 THE LEADER . H 2 &

      Notices To Correspondents. No Notice Can...

      NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS . No notice can be taken of anonymous corresponaence . Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated b ^ lheTaml a nd address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication , but as a guarantee of »»¦ W * *** £ _ _ It is impossible to acknowledge the massof JettersMre re eeive . Their insertion is often delayed , owing to a press ofmatterTandwhen omitted . it is frequently from ^ rea , soils quite independent of the merits of the commumcawl cannot undertake to return rejected communications .

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      \ • ¦ ¦** V / ~ Saturday, October 23, 18...

      \ ¦ ¦** v / ~ SATURDAY , OCTOBER 23 , 1858 .

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      There Is Nothing So Revolutionary, Becau...

      There is nothing so revolutionary , because there is nothing so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep things fixed . -when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —Dk . Arnold .

      What Is Social Science ? The Many Days' ...

      WHAT IS SOCIAL SCIENCE ? The many days' talk at Liverpool ended as it began in fulsome panegyric . Noble Lords and Hon . Gentlemen seemed to compensate themselves for a simulated hostility in Parliament by an equally simulated friendship in the hall devoted to social science . We should be unjust to the public if we said that one single gleam of light broke from the many orations there on this universally important subject . One or two useful statistical papers were read , but statistics are no more social science than a catalogue of the stars is astronomy . The orators only usurped its name to shed a lustre over their

      owii trivial or worthless pursuits , and . covered it with a confused mass of every-day polities . We , however , cannot allow the opportunity of the public attention being called to the subject -to pass away without attempting to draw from it some more instruction than the members . . the Social Science Association gave , or were able to give , the public . Some persons deny the existence of social science , and in reply to them a contemporary said , " There is no doubt a science actual or possible underlying all questions of social economy . " Our faith is much more vivid than that of the Saturday Review Not only docs the science exist , it has been laijgely

      cultivated , and has done as good service to the art of government as ever astronomy did for the art of navigation . Our contemporary admits that the truths established by Adam Smith and others informed the exertions of tho Anti-Corn-law League , which ended in the abolition of the corn laws , Adam Smith ' s principles , too , in opposition to Adam Smith ' s teaching , led other students of the science to reflect on the navigation laws , to observe their effects , and to procure the abolition of them . Our contemporary practically docs implicit homage to social science , while theoretically ho expresses , in opposition to others , merely a faint belief in its possible existence .

      Supplying , however , an example of what another contemporary { the Economist ) professedly regards as the master vice of our popular literature , and , he might have added , of our statesmanship , c < hasty judgment on great questions , " the Saturday Review represents social science ns like a struggle for existence , whilo tho physical sciences " march like u conqueror to take possession of new realms . " The comparison is very inappropriate , it is an example of hasty judgment once passed and assumed ns a

      point of departure for iuturo argument ; and wo shall show , in opposition to it , that social science has already conquorcd vast realms , aucl is continually conquering now ones . Tho first Trench Involution was an nttompt to get rid of bad government or despotism by violence , and it ended in tho establishment of violcuoc . Every succossiyo revolution in franco and on tho Continent , and cvory attempt at revolution by the samo means with a view to tho samo end , has led to similar

      results . Hence a great social truth has becu tuught mankind , and becoino as sure a guido to future action as any physical truth whatever .. They cannot get rid of badgovornment by violonco . Tho violence that overthrows it is itself had government or despotism . There may bo a ohaiiffo of names and persons j tho thing is unaltered . Not nioroly a few

      philosophers , but the bulk of mankind , have learned that revolutions begun in violence are fatal to freedom . Despotism cannot be put down by despotism taking the name and assuming the colours of freedom . Men may hate it all the more on this account , despise it all the more , discountenance all the more everything that bears a resemblance to it —relying with confidence that , like Protection and Intolerance , it will in due time hang itself , —but by violence it cannot be extinguished . The results ot the attempts to mend society by this means since 1780 have indelibly impressed a great truth on mankind . ...

      Has not the establishment of a republican government in the United States taught us another equallv important lesson ? It was framed by the wisest " men of the time . It has theoretically received the approbation of most of the succeeding wise men of the United States and of Europe , lhe present result of that government , however , is continual political turmoil , and vast political corruption , scarcely to be surpassed by the corruption in Russia , or the corruption that goes forth from our own Treasury without the turmoil . The constitution and government of the States , then , are hot with truth .

      no longer respected , if we may say they have fallen into general contempt both abroad and at home . But the people of the States have prospered amazingly notwithstanding , and haye advanced so rapidly in knowledge , skill , and the practice of many useful arts , as to teach even us many valuable lessons , while they have actually shamed other Europeans into adopting many ot their improvements . No human being can attribute this to habitual log-rolling in Congress , or habitual barter of office for political support . Accordingly , no reflecting man now in this country would risk his head and aim at exciting a popular insurrection , like

      the estimable but mistaken members of the Constitutional Society in 1793 , in order to establish in England a republic like that of the United States . The short-comings , the extravagance , the vices of our own government are readily recognised , but we should gain nothing by adopting that of the United States . Corruption and extravagance , then , are not peculiar to any form of government ; they are the . properties of all modern governments , as conquest and brutal coercion were the properties of ancient governments , llemovcd from the ordinary and mutual influence of man over man , which is the

      basis of all justice , they only endure by violence or corruption . We have now therefore learned that constitutions are of far less importance than the spirit in which they are worked . When men rely on them , they are beguiled into apathy . Only by incessant vigilance can freedom be preserved , and the despotism or corruption proper to government be effectually resisted . For the shrine of liberty to be safe , it must be watchfully guarded by living men . Dead angels will not suffice ; and we have no worse enemies than those who would lull political vigilance to sleep , and instruct us to trust implicitly to them and to constitutions .

      public writers , they continually yield to toonsn petitions , which tend to preserve or enlarge their power . They are already working under a responsibility they are unable to bear ; but , gluttons of power , they grasp after more . In one important particular all the cases now mentioned are very different from the discoveries of physical truths . These are generally ascertained by the exertions of individuals directed to one object j and the fortunate man who binds them into one general deduction imprints on it his name and obtains the honour of having made a great discovery . But the social truths are arrived at by the observations and exertions of a far greater number of

      persons than engage in p hysical discoveries ; and the politician who is obliged to give effect to them , though he be praised by ignorant partisans , only hands down to posterity his own disgrace by giving his name to the concession . When the late Sir . Robert Peel gave way to the pressure for commercial reform and the abolition of the Corn Laws , he branded his previous life , much devoted to opposing such measures , as completley misemployed . While every discovery in physical science confers honour on the discoverer , the unfortunate politician who lends his name to any social progress only stigmatises his art and himself .

      To theorise these facts and demonstrate that the march of social science is as irresistible and certain as the march of the . physical sciences , we must remind the reader of the admitted fact that the chief impulse to action is appetite or passion . The pre servation of the species and the progress of society are not entrusted to reason or knowledge which is limited to the past , but to more vulgar and active motives . Humanity has not to wait for statesmanship . Actions are ail followed by consequences , as eertaiu . and invariable , as closely connected , in the relation of cause and effect , as events in the physical world . All these consequences , too , are good or evil , and they impress themselves on the senses . We must notice them , though we may not learn 1 . 1 . ^ ' ~ —11 „ 1 . ^ . ' _ ' MM- * l- « . n . n . 1 rtJma *" fcf + It nlYI OQ 4 " II A « r \ jmkui /

      end going—departing more and more from conservatism ; till conservatism itself has become a hurried flight to innovation . The emancipation of the Catholics , Parliamentary Reform , the abolition of numerous laws to protect class interests , went step after step in-wriggling progress , spite of the conservatism which all statesmen adopt and adore , towards unrestricted freedom . Old prejudice ' s yet make the people believe , in opposition to Goldsmith s well-known lines , that legislation can cure all evils , and they demand continual legislation . Statesmen know better , but they have a strong interest in fostering these prejudices , and , backed by ignorant

      , 1 / 1113111 illl ai / UUUU . XJIU Miunicugg . iji »«> «< "v * jr afFect society , systematically arranged , is social science . This science must be learnt , and we need not inform those who are . conversant with the doctrines of political economy that a very great progress has been made in it in modern times . Nowhere is a writer now to be found who doubts that the productive power of labour is increased by knowledge of the material world and by division of labour , or doubts that both these latter are increased by intercommunication ; or doubts , therefore , that exchange or trade is as necessary to the welfare of society as division of labour and increase of knowledge Not only are the social sciences making certain progress commensurate with tho physical sciences , the knowledge of them , from their very nature , is sure to be diffused .

      In like manner , great victories have been gained at home over political ignorance . The inefficiency of the Parliamentary retorm of 1832 and the present design to give , us a further reform , the wasteful and even wanton extravagance of tho ministries subsequent to that period , their disgusting selfishness , the terrible distrcss . of 1839-1811 , and tho great comparative prosperity , since the work of abolishing restrictions began , have convinced all politicians that measures very different from making new constitutions arc necessary to sccuro the welfare of the people and tho satety of society . Tho nation latterly has made a very groat progress , but nobody

      Social science necessaril y advances , too , as the population of tho oarth multiplies .. There arc more observers and more persons in communication . The consequences of actions become more and more regular ; there is no caprice in multitudes— -as wo leam from avorages and statistics—as in individuals . All tho impulses , all tho passions , all the appetites assume moro tho character of general laws as people becomo numerous , giving more and moro to all actions tho characteristics of certainty and necessity , such as wo acknowledge in the matcriul world and in tho physical sciences . We have gained then as many victories in the social sciences as have been achieved over the outer world , and may hope for as many more .

      attributes this to the Parliament . On tho contrary , its proceedings , like those of Congress , have been very generally condemned . Though wo all sco the advantages o ' l having tho Government controlled by tho ponular sentiments—bringing it under tho same kind of mutual influenco which is tho basis of all justice betwixt individuals' —no ono oxpects , since wo have been taught by tho example of America , that legislation will necessarily bucomo wise because it is mado by tho whole people . To us this seems a great acquisition iu social science , us eertaiu to bo proserved and to guide conduct as any discovery of Mr . Faraday or Professor Owen .

      , , Social reformers who have any knowledge of social science—not the political talkers at Liverpool , who wittingly or unwillingly cemfuso tho subject , tiioy talk ubout—and not tho ignorant inUonutublo political quaeks , who ftmoy that they have only to suggosfc a restriction , and improvomoul . follows , and ilioraforo nro always sutfgesiintf roslnolions — sooml reformers do not suppose Unit evi can bo got rid of . They know tluit evil , like good , is inherent m

      Sinco 1888 , when tho strong administration of the Duko of Wellington was obliged to abolish tho Test Acts , tho march of government has boon n continual wrigglo between a determination to stop and a compulsion to # o on , liko Unit of a half-drunken inaa in tho hands of the police , but ulwuys iu tho

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 23, 1858, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23101858/page/17/