SOCIAL • SCIENCE IN GLASGOW.

The annual session of the Social Science Assoffiation was opened. on Monday, at Glasgow, by Lord Brougham, who delivered an address to the metebers in the City Hall. This address was of great length, mas- terly, elaborated, and devoted to several topics—beginning with the his- tory of party and the moral effect of party upon our statesmen, touching on education, temperance, the mode of proceeding with business in Par- liament, law reform,. judicial statistics, sanitary affairs, strikes' taxation, and ending with praise of the policy which led to the French treaty, Lord Brougham's style of treating these subjects is well known, but some passages, from this address may interest our readers, for their own sake, and independently of their -value as specimens of Lord Brougham's oration, and proofs of the persistent vigour of his mind— Progress of Social Science.—" We shall best ascertain the progress of our science by casting an eye over the history of the parties which have divided both the rulers and the people, and observing what attention was given to it, and how far it entered into their controversies. In the early part of the last. century, after the restoration of peace with France, and the suppression of the first rebellion in Scotland, the contests of party: turned chiefly upon personal grounds, whereof the chief was the proportions in which the power and the emoluments of office should be shared by the great families, and the individuals chiefly but not exclusively connected with them, or who had acquired distinction in Parliament. Ministries were formed, or even broken up, not upon any questions of policy, foreign or domestic, but upon the claims • of some -persons to office—nay, occasionally upon the claim of some individual to one particular office—and the continuance for many years, it might be, of a single individual at the head of affairs, and his re- mond, formed the sole objects of the two great parties in the state, both of their chiefs in Parliament, and their adherents in the country. If mea- sures -were considered, they were viewed only in their bearing upon the personal question, but the conduct of -persons ocoupied all men's minds far more than the merits of their policy, or its results upon the wel- fare of the community. It has often been observed that Sir It. Wal- pole had uncontrolled power for twenty years, and that yet no one great measure—no chank,,e in our institutions, either for good or evil--can,be ascribed to him chumg that very long reign. His great merits as a ruler have, by all well-informed and considerate persons, been fully acknowledged. He saved the Revolution sottlemeni, when assailed by the most formidable adversaries, with a majority of the clergy -and landed interest ; he kept England out of the German quarrels of two successive sovereigns ; and- he . preserved the peace with her most powerful neighboue. But the only mea- sures of which he was the author were his excise scheme, in which he was defeated by the devices of a faction acting on the multitude; mid his Spanish war, into which the same faction and the, same mob forced him. That men of rare endowments flourished in thme times—indeed of the highest quali- ties ever displayed in public life—ieundeniable ; and that their talents fitted them for government in an extreordinary degree is as certain as that by their eloquence they were masters of debate. Besides Walpole, there was Pul- te.ney, of first-rate distinction as an orator, and Bolingbroke, according to all tradition, the very first of Modern times. But their lives were in. council devoted to the iutrigues of party, in the senate to party eloquence, in office to preserving all things as they had found them ; and when Lord Chetham, somewhat later, was et the head of affairs, either in opposition or in the Ministry, not only were his whole attacks upon his adversaries confined to purely party grounds, but his own policy shows him so little in advance of his age that, as regarded France, it was grounded upon the narrow an- tiquated notion of natural enmity ; and as, regarded America, upon the equally narrow and antiquated notion of natural sovereignty. To work.out those great minciples—to attack all invasion of the one either in alliance or in war, and of the other in Government—was the object of his life. Yet so powerful is habit, such the force of routine, he seemed wholly unable to comprehend that it is our first duty by all means to cul- tivate peace with our nearest neighbours as the first of blessings to both na- tions, each being able to do the other the most good in amity, the most harm in hostility ; but he could only see glory, or even safety, in the pre- carious superiority grasped by a successful man. In like manner, as often as the idea of American independence crossed his mind, he instantly and utterly rejected it as the destruction of our national existence, instead of wisely perceiving that to become the Let friends of •the colonies which we had first planted and long cherished under our protection would benefit both ourselves and them the more by suffering them in their full growth, to be as independent as we had always been. Was Lord Chatham singular in these feelings 3 ; Not at all; but he was not at all wiser than others. The Ameri- can war had raged for years before the word of separation crossed the lips of any man in either House of Parliament, the mismanagement of the war and ill-treatment of the colonists being the only topics of attack upon the Go- vernment, from those whose avowed object was to prevent the necessity of separation. But out of this war, and this revolution arose fundamental dif- ferences of opinion upon the great questions of allegiance, of popular rights, and generally of civil liberty—opimors carried still further by the great re- volution (not unconnected with that event) which convulsed Europe a few years later ; and parties became marshalled according to-principles thus en- tertained by many, professed by more ; and the end of the century was dis- , tinguished, as had been the greater part of the century before, not by the absence of all party and personal combination, but by important principles in matters of church and state becoming the ground of attachment or oppo- sition to persons, or of the ties that hold parties together."

Improvement in the condition of the poorer classes.—" There can be no greater encouragement to our efforts in augmenting the comforts of the • people than the high and pure gratification derived from the conviction that increase of happiness is attended with increase of virtue, that the good be- stowed makes men more worthy to receive and enjoy it. Nothing can be more gratifying in this, and in every other view, than the success of the great measure which the working- -classes themselves have lately adopted to provide for their comfort, to husband their resources, and to protect them from imposition, by the foimation of cooperative societies, and happily these have greatly multiplied, especially in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Such societies are of two kinds. The one has for its immediate object to expend the income of each member to the best advantage for himaetf ; the other to enable him to obtain the largest return for his capital and industry. Sixteen years ago, forty Rochdale artisans, desiring to establish a society of the first kind, amassed by a weekly sub- scription of 3d. from each member, the sum of 281., hired a room for a store laid in a stock of necessaries, and began to "trade, selling not only to mem- bers but to all who would buy. The enterprise provoked laughter. A neighbouring shopkeeper boasted that he could carry away the whole stock in a wheelbarrow. Now, however, that single room is multiplied into many distinct shops, spread over the town, and the weekly vend of the society exceeds 27001. Every member' must be the owner of five shares of 20s. each, the permitted maximum being a hundred such shares. The capital is paid in by small weekly or quarterly instalments. All the transactions of the society, whether purchases or sales, ate for ready money, the entire absence a credit being the corner-stone of the institution. The eus- tomer, whettmeemember, or stranger, is charged at the •same price as at the erdieemy., shops of the town ; but at the mie,of each quar- ter a dividend,- of net profits is made, and he receives his quota according to the amount of his purchases. To arrive at net profit, the following deductions are made, from, the gross returns ; the , emt prideof the goods, the current expenses, of the stores, including, the wages of the manager and his assistants, rents, repairs, a proper allowance to a depreciation fund, and 5 per emit for interest on capital. The residue is the net profit, from wbich, howeyer, before it is divided among the cus- tomers, 2i per cent is deducted for the maintenance of a library and news- room, The society is goierned by .a committee elected from the members, which meets weekly, when it giveepatient attention to all complaints. If real cause of dimatisfaction exists, it is removed ; if the complainant is in error, he is reasoned with ; and so successful has been the course taken by the committee that, although the arbitrators have been appointed from the

_first, pursuant to the Acts under which the association is registered, yet it

has never been necessary, even in a single instance, to engage their ser- vices. The bene8ts derived by the individual in the expenditure of his in- come upon this planare manifold. It is enough to enumerate a few. First, antagonism of interest between, buyer and seller is annihilated. All mo- tive, therefore, to adulteration, or in any way to lower quality, for the sake of diminishing price, is absent.. No extra price is put on the goods to pay the rent of shops in expensive situations, .'nor for the plate-glass or other costly fittings, nor for the less occasioned by the expensive articles in the windows to attract customers, nor for advertisements. Indeed, show is al- together discarded, and while no cost is spared to insure- high quality in the article} themselves, no money is wasted on the means of attraction. The

, exact-price of the article, too, is very material. If the price is high, the

customers' returning profit is able high, and vice versa. But not only eco- nomy-is consulted, the improvement of tho, character and habits is meal- celably pronioted. The workman is stimulated to the exercise of self- control beyond his reach in, ordinary circumstances, He must refrain horn anticipating this income by retuning into debt, in order that lie may be able to pay ready money, and also ..to acquire capital ; he is urged when he has these advantages clearly and forcibly set forth by his brother mem- bers, and more than all by the example of the body of which- he forms one. Finding then strict economy.a necessary consideration to his maintaining the rank tq which ha has aspired, he caste about that he may so exercise his thrift and abridge his expenditure, only in what is not essential to health and comfort, and,soon discevere that his abstinence from drink and tobacco not only substreets nothing from his well-being, but greatly adds to it. But a working men* out of debt, acquiring capital, however slowly, and abetain- ing from stirnalents, is on the road to happiness, and with a prospect of attain- ing it as bright as is vouchsafed to any citizen ef the state,- eyed the highest in the-land. The second class of these institutions, namely, these which have for their object to enable each member to augnient his income, are at present but few m number, and their experience hits been short. At Roch- dale, a society was founded four or five years ago for spinning cotton yarn, and weaving it MO mike. The principal distinction as regards finapffial arrangements between the twe classes is, that the net profits are divided among the animus instead of,the customers, each in, proportion to'his or her wages, the wages being fixed according to the rate of ,payment in the mills of the district. The disastrous years of 1857 and1858 sorely tried this in- fant establishment, but it weathered the storm successfully ; and although during a peeled of fifteen weeks no sales were effected, or sales only to a limited amount, yet the hands were never put upon short hours, although the other mills of the town yielded in this respect to the pressure of the times. It is, liewever, far too early to predict success for cooperative socie- ties of this class with any degree of- confidence, or to speak of them other- wise than as hopeful. It appears manifest, and the observation is import- ant, that cooperation is not only distinct from communism or socialism, but repugnant to it, far more than to the ordinary course of trade, with which indeed Hammes in giving to every man the benefit of his own industry, skill, and economy."

Parliamentary Business.—"The greatest obstruction to the conduct of busi- ness in.the two Houses of:Parliament, particularly in the Cotninons, arises from the reluctance to fetter discussion either by rules binding upon the mem- bers, or by restraining the speakers in their addresses. Beside the question before the House, and on the merits of which a speech must always be regular, there are many questions in debating which great latitude is taken, so as to introduce topics quite foreign to the subjectematter itself. Thus upon-a motion for adjournment, although the only matter in question is whether there shall be an adjournment or not, it is the inveterate habit to introduce any subject on which any speaker desires to- be heard, however foreign to the question of adjourning. Now, the motion to adjourn either the House or the debate may be made at any time, and may be repeated any number of times. Then, as the rule is absolute that except in committees no Member shall speak more than once in any debate, he may evade this rule by moving an adjournment, and could only be prevented by the general up- roar which it would probably occasion from speaking again upon the question, under colour of supporting the motion to adjourn. Yet this is really the only abuse of the motion, to adjourn, which has hardly ever been committed. Upon this motion often repeated speeches are made and di- visions had, sometimes for the avowed .purpose of_defeating a measure supported by a vast majority, sometimes in order to delay its progress. It is to be observed that all obstructions of this kind, indeed of every kind, arise from the rights of a minority, however - inconsiderable. If but a few persona league themselves together, they may occasion as great a delay, as, if they composed a numerous and powerful body. •The mere .prolixity of speech is far from'being the only cause of obstruction. The number of speakers is a very great cause. There are many members so insignificant:that, beyond a few of their own connexions, they are wholly un- known except-to their constituents. , But they desire to speak, first, because they would court these constituents, or impress them with a notion of their

- importance ; next, because they consider that they gain general reputation

by their speeches. It is, therefore, undeniable that the two causes or this excessive speaking—the speaking of members whose talents, information, or personal importance gives them no claim to be heard—are their return to Parliament by bodies of electors, and the.report of their speeches in the daily papers. Thus the combination of small parties, the determination to resist whatever proceeds from certain quarters, the Government especially, in whose halide soever it is placed, the desire to make their support of conse- quence, which, insignificant in itself, may be of moment when the great parties are equally balanced, and the countless numbers of endless speeches without any mint, by persona of no mark, have of late times made the House of Commons a byword as a place of talk and not of work, the caricature of a popular assembly- . Where policy is busied all night long In setting righ't what faction has set wtong ; Where flails of oratory thresh the floor

That yields them chaff and dust, and nothing more.'

. . . . The subject forced itself upon the reluctant consideration of the

House twelve years ago, when it was referred to a Committee presided over by the present Speaker, and which had the great benefit of his predecessor's testimony and opinions ; and some years later another inquiry was con- ..

ducted by our able and excellent• colleague, Sir J. Pakington. -Both these bodies examined the niatthr tea considerable extent, and obtained impor- tant information as well is suggestions, but neither showed any remarkable boldness in dealing with the subjeet. They appeared to shrink from any proposition• which involved a material change in the standing orders, yet the facts which they have left on . record must needs lead • to those alterations so much dreaded by them in the manner of conducting business. Lord Everslers opinion must have been known to the Committee of 1848. He retains it fully at the present day, and the report plainly adopts it, that at the root of the evil is the great mass of private business, 'which exhauats the Members in the morning, and lends to their absenting theinseltes from seven to ten o'clock in the evening, so that they are put upon moving adjournments in order to have an opportumty of being heard, and on such motions to deliver their speeches, which they had no opportunity of doing before. Besides this effect of private business stated by Lord Eversley, it is liable to another objection— it is extremely ill-performed from the inexperience of the members and their ignorance of law, especially of the rules of evidence. One great and manifest improvement, therefore, would be the adoption of the resolutions laid before the Lords in 1845, and again this year, upon the plan suggested by the Duke of Wellington as long ago as 1834, and then acted upon to the extent of altering a bill, and providing that a joint Committee -of the two Houses should examine the whole facts, and that their repOrt on them should be conclusive, leaving each House to deal with the bill in other re- spects at its pleasure. This was the happy suggestion of that great man, the first captain of the age, and one of the first statesmen. He did me the honour of asking my aid and cooperation in working out the details. We proposed our plan, which was applicable to all bills, as well as the one under consideration, and we again brought it forward in 1837, when the new standing orders were proposed by me, he being of opinion that we should carry the more -effectual measure, and when told that we should be defeated in the Committee to whom the matter was referred, he said, Never mind ; let us try, and if beaten we can retreat upon the lesser plan.' We were beaten ; the lesser plan was adopted ; it forms the rule of both Houses—the Commons having for some years refused it, but aftewards passed it with a material improvement. The larger measure, which we had in vain endeavoured to carry, aided by Lord Ellenborough (for whose great ta- lents and manly nature, so congenial to his own, the Duke ever entertained the highest respect) is once more before the Lords, and, if adopted by both Houses, it will afford the greatest relief to each, at once removing the load of private business, and mightily abridging that of public also. But a fur- ther curtailment of all legislative labour is to be obtained from the more careful preparation of bills before their introduction into either House, in- stead of keeping all secret till they are brought in, and thus launching them with all the defects produced by ignorance, oversight, and want of skill— defects which might be remedied by previously consulting able and learned persons acquainted with the several subjects. The committee of the Law Amendment Society -have, in many remarkable instances, shown how bene- ficial such previous discussion may prove, and such a body commands the means of bringing various experience and knowledge to bear on measures

i proposed beyond what any ndividual or even any Government board can possess. After reducing the business within a narrow compass, and reliev- ing Members from the labour of Committees, the diminishing the number of stages through which each bill must pass, and thereby excluding needless debate and removing the pretext for debating, seems absolutely necessary. At present, there are in the Commons eighteen questions which must be put, 'besides all those in Committee, before a bill can pass and be sent to the Lords ; and upon each question, a debate of any length, or on any matter connected, or supposed to be connected, with the subject, may be raised. Is it not plain that the whole matter might be as thoroughly discussed as is desirable upon much fewer questions on the three readings and the vote to 'pass, and perhaps on the leave to bring in, which is not required in the Lords, where, indeed, the first reading is aIso allowed by courtesy, amounting practically to a right ? The length of debates would pro- bably be thus increased, and their adjournment rendered more fre- quent. But a rule should be adopted against adjourning more than twice. Some further restrictions upon motions of adjournment seem quite necessary ; and can any one doubt that it would be safe to forbid all repetition of such motions when more than a certain proportion of those present had not supported the first proposal ? The Committee in 1848 ex- amined evidence from France upon the cloture (stopping the debate), and from the 'United States upon the previous question, amounting to the cloture, and on the restriction of speeches to one hour. In France, the cloture is often proposed and carried. It is most positively stated by experienced persons to have no effect whatever in restraining freedom of discussion. That all measures are first considered in the bureaux, and that this somewhat lessens the occasion for debate, may be admitted. But what passes in the bureaux is secret, and therefore not reported ; and, for the same reason, very little debating takes place. The American plan of closing a debate, if the majority so decide, '

and of limiting all speeches to one hour, is represented as approved of by all parties in successive Congresses since it was established twenty years ago, as having not only greatly expedited business, but made speeches more impressive, more argumentative, and more confined to the subject, as having given rise to no discontent whatever in any party, and as having been universally popular in the country. If there were no question of social improvement, no desire of amendment of the law ; if the name of social science were no more heard, and the thing occupied men's minds no more, there is a paramount interest to beconsulted, a great catastro- phe to be warded off. The cause of constitutional regimen is in Jeopardy ; the continuance of free, that is of Parliamentary, Government is at stake Let us not be too sure that a regimen differing in little but the name from absolute Government might not be gradually introduced among us under shelter of the cry, Anything is better than the Session of 1860.' If, how- ever, from that Session we have derived little benefit to our great cause of social science, we have at least received the lesser advantage of salutary warnings ; and of these, two are of considerable practical importance. In the first place, the necessity of a Minister of Justice has become manifest ; what before was deemed highly expedient is now plainly shown to be requi- site. It can hardly be doubted that any one of the late failures, of which all men now complain, would have been prevented had we possessed the inesti- mable advantage of a department responsible for carrying the measures judi- ciously selected, and with care and skill prepared. No one can deny that, to take the most remarkable instance, the Bankruptcy Bill, dismembered of the provisions which were little more than enactments, but formed a huge, an appalling mass, relieved from the clauses most objected to, and intrusted to those who had no other work, and were answerable for its pas- sing through the Commons, would have reached the Lords in time to be

i considered and adopted—if, indeed, it had not, as most probably would have been the case, been first brought into the Lords at a period when they had little to do, and the Commons were overwhelmed, or acted as if they felt overwhelmed, with work. The like would have happened with every one of the other law bills, as well those which failed as those which passed in debate, or with an amount of discussion barely decent. But further illustration was given of such a department's importance in con- ducting the important duty of deciding in the exercise of the high and deli-

cate prerogative of merey: Does anyone now affect to doubt that this should be vested in a lawyer ? The whole subject of a department of justice has long been in-the hands of our able learned[ and excellent colleague, the late Chancellor of Ireland, who, indeed, obtained the sanction of the Commons to a resolution which he moved ; and we may truly affirm that no reflecting person now entertains any doubt upon the question, except as to whether the undivided responsibility of a single Minister should not be preferred to the advantage derived from the concurrence of several, and from the greater weight thus possessed, as well as the fuller investigation of difficult ques- tions."

Educalion.—" The subject was brought before Parliament by our col- league, Sir J. Pakington, in an admirable speech, urging the claims of Bagged Schools to a share of the Privy Council grant. The refusal to assist in preventing pauperism and crime by diligently educating and training the class of children from whom vagrants and criminals are bred, is perhaps one of the greatest economical, let us rather say social, mistakes ever committed. It is an abdication of the moat imperative duties of a State, that of helping those who cannot help themselves, as well as the self-destructive impolicy of withholding a little outlay in schooling from those on whom they must after- wards spend largely in the way of gaols and workhouses. We shall, no doubt, have Miss Carpenter's protest added to ours in this momentous question. The whole reformatory measures are intimately connected with this subject, and the success of these with female offenders is now clearly proved iu the diminution of their crimes. The diminution of other offences' it is to be hoped, has taken place likewise ; but a disturbing influence of akind deeply to be lamented has operated from the impolitic restricting of the remunera- tion of witnesses. The case of juvenile offences affords the strongest reason for extending to adults the reformatory system so ably and satisfactorily ex- plained by Captain Crofton, at our Liverpool meeting. Its success in Ire- land has been complete."

Sir John Pakington, in a speech brimming over with expressions of affectionate reverence for Lord Brougham, moved a vote of thanks, which. Lord Ardmillan seconded in a similar strain, and the meeting carried by acclamation.

The proceedings on Tuesdcy opened with an address from the Lord.. Advocate on Jurisprudence, a very considerable essay on law. Then the sections assembled—Lord 'Brougham presiding over the section on international statistics : Sir James Shuttleworth in that on Education ; . Mr. Arthur Kinnaird in that on Punishment and Reformation ; Lord Ebrington in that on Public Health ; Sir James Tennent in that on Social Economy ; Mr. Walter Buchanan in that relating to Commercial matters.

After Sir James Shuttleworth had made his opening speech in the education section, Lord Brougham made some characteristic remarks-

" It is now many years—I won't say how many—since I took occasion in.. the House of Commons to make a declaration which has been much remem- - bered and much cited since—that the schoolmaster was abroad. (Laughter and applause.) The phrase, I have said, has been remembered and cited ; and why'? Because it was the expression of a fact, and a very important fact at that time and since. And 1 said, that the schoolmaster being abroad, . I had no fear whatever of another person who had been said to be abroad in these times—I mean the soldier. I think that with the schoolmaster, with his primer in his hand, I would meet, for the benefit of society, the soldier with his sword. (Loud applause.) But I will now add another declaration —a phrase also embodying a fact, and an important fact ; but I fear not of so hopeful a nature as the other. If the schoolmaster is abroad, the work- master is also abroad, and be counteracts the schoolmaster, which I have no fear of the soldier doing." In the evening, the Lord Provost entertained the Members of the Congress at a conversazione.

On Wednesday evening a meeting of working men was held in the Glasgow City Hall, to engage their services in promoting social science. There were present among others the Lord Advocate, Mr. Arthur Kin- naird, Dr. Craik, M. Gamier Pages, M. Desmarets, and M. Louis Blanc. Lord Brougham made a speech to tho working men, in which lie said-

" That you should take part, my friends and fellow-workmen, let me call you, for I myself have been a working man all my life. (Cheers.) I began work many more than the sixty. years that I have mentioned ago. I began work, and from that hour to this I have constantly been, like yourselves, a working man ; and to be a working man will I continue as long as Provi- dence bless me with health of body and strength of mind to continuo my avocations. (Loud cheers.) And I claim no merit for this, I like it. 11 has become my second nature. It has become my habit. I cannot possibly lay it aside ; I do not see why I should lay it aside ; if I see any reason—if I see that the public would be better served by my laving it aside, then I would lay it aside and take the ease which I have earned, or thought I had earned. But till I find that I can work no longer, or that there is any good reason why I should work no longer, work I shall, and work I will, as long as work I can. (Loud cheers.) As for you, my friends and fellow-work- men, we belong to the same class, and I only hope and trust that you will continue to have that health with which I have been previously blessed, and continue to be able to work, as I am sure willing to work, like me, you will continue to be. ("Hear, hear," and loud cheers.) Now, I am about to propose to you a resolution. Though I have dealt very much in generals, I think it better to propose to you a resolution which will meet, I think, the exigencies of the case, and give you an opportunity of declaring what I may venture to call your adhesion to our great movement of social science—of our great pursuit—of that which is for the interests of all men, of all classes of the community alike, without distinction—I propose to you that you should resolve—

"That working men, by giving attention to the principles of social science, and communicating to this Association facts relative thereto coming under their own observation, will aid in the discovery of laws on the observance of which depends the welfare of all classes of the community."

M. Gamier Pages spoke in French, and M. Desmarets addressed them in English. When he mentioned the name of M. Louis Blanc in cordial terms, the whole meeting rose and cheered vociferously, and Lord Brougham shook hands with the accomplished exile.