The Press.
London, England, 1857-10-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 17, 1857.

THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION.

THE inauguration of the National Association for
the Promotion of Social Science took place on
Tuesday last, with great eclat, at Birmingham. The
Town-hall was selected as the place of meeting, and
the proceedings appear to have excited an unusual
amount of interest. Lord Brougham, Lord John
Russell, Lord Stanley, M.P., Lord Hatherton, Sir
J. Pakington, M.P., Sir Fitzroy Kelly, M.P., Sir B.
Brodie, and a number of noblemen and gentlemen
eminent for their interest in social science, were
present on the platform. In the body of the hall a
vast crowd were collected in eager expectation. The
Mayor of Birmingham having in a few words intro-
duced Lord Brougham, that noble and learned lord
rose to deliver the inaugural address. Lord
Brougham, pointing out the division which may be
made of human knowledge into two great branches,
"the science which deals with abstract truths, and
the science which treats of real existences," explained
that of these divisions the latter was eminently
deserving of attentive study :

It is free from the doubts and contentions arising from
metaphysical philosophy,because it deals not with sub•
jects whereof not a few are placed beyond the reach of
the human faculties, but with more practical objects—
the laws which govern men's habits and the principles of
human nature, upon which the structure of society and its
movements depend; and respecting which safe conclusions
can with certain limits be drawn.
There were peculiar facilities too for cultivating
this branch. History, statistics, the contemporary
narrative of public events, and the details of national
affairs, were the sources from which materials could
be drawn and on which the political reasoner could
build his system. Arriving then at the objects
of this association, Lord Brougham explained them
as follows :

When the paramount importance of moral and political
science is regarded, and the facilities for its cultivation,
from the nature of the evidence it rests on, are duly
considered, it has struck observers whose efforts are
directed towards human improvement as somewhat extra-
ordinary that the course should not have been taken here,
which has proved so advantageous for assisting the progress
of inquiry in the other great department of knowledge—
natural philosophy ; and they have strongly recommended
the plan of assembling together occasionally, perhaps perio-
dically, the various individuals and bodies whose attention
is devoted to the ascertainment, illustration, and general
exposition of moral and political doctrines. It is very
possible that in the end this object may be obtained, and
that the association which we are met here to open may
bear as wide a relation to moral and political science as
the British Association, which has now been in successful
action for considerably more than a quarter of a century,
does to mathematical and physical science. At present,

however, a more limited view is taken. It is proposed
that five of the most important branches of morel and
political inquiry should be singled out—those which
especially form the practical portions of social science—
comprehending the plans, both in theirdetails and in the
principles that should govern them, for furthering the
improvement and securing the stability of the social
system ; correcting the faults and supplying the defects
of our institutions upon sound, rational, and temperate
views, and rendering desperate all attempts either to
check the progress of improvement or to gratify the wild
desires of those who would destroy rather than amend ; in a
word, steering the middle course between those who regard
all change as pernicious and those whom no change will
satisfy.

But if their subjects were to some extent limited,
the scope of their deliberations was not narrow. It
would embrace the great temporal interests of man-
kind, in the first rank of which were placei juris-
prudence and the amendment of the law. Remarking
upon the difficulty of arriving at an exact and logical
division of the different departments of inquiry which
the association proposed to discuss, Lord Brougham
pointed out the beneficial effects of united action,
and the immense advantage which must accrue to
social science from the mutual halp afforded to one
another by fellow labourers in the same cause :

The increased efficacy thus given to the efforts of each ;
the lights struck out by full discussion, with the valuable
suggestions thus produced, the experience, the reflecti.ns
of each individual being made as it were common to all ;
the security against error by timely examination of each
plan before its author's prepossessions have become too
deeply rooted, and before he has been committed to its
details ; the authority given to proposals ultimately, and
after mature deliberation persevered in, even if not sanc-
tioned by the assent of others; the influence which may
be acquired in various ways when that sanction has been
declared. These advantages attend all such unions, and
may be cited in favour of any combined operations,
whatever be the nature of the subject. But there is a
peculiv expediency—it may rather be said necessity—
for such a common or united action where a great variety
of opinion is likely to exist upon many matters, possibly
no universal concurrence upon all the particulars of
any one.
- -

The noble and learned lord then illustrated his
argument by deductions drawn from the labours and
successes of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful
Knowledge and of the Society for the Amendment