The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES,—There must always be a certain family
likeness between inaugural addresses, and there is
something more than a resemblance between the
objects of the Social Science Congress and those
professed by one department of the British Asso-
ciation. Yet how great is the contrast between
the discourses of Sir C, Lyell at Birmingham and of
Lord Brougham at York ! The one is a special and
minute discussion of two limited subjects, the other
a review of the advance made by civilisation in all
its branches during the past year. While Sir C.
Lyell strictly confines himself to the science of
which he is at once an acknowledged master and a
patient disciple, Lord Brougham ranges at large
over the vast field of human interests, dispensing
praise and blame in a tone of authority, and criti.
rising with parental confidence each effort at social
improvement. The difference is striking, but it is
not unnatural. It is partly due to the character of
the two Associations, and partly to the character of
the two Presidents. The Association for the Pro-
motion of Social Science purports to be a joint-
stock company, with unlimited liability, for making
the world better than it is. It is but eight years
old, and is still conscious of being on its trial.
Visible progress is a condition of its existence, and
unless some proofs of its practical success could be
produced yearly, the loyalty of its members would
be liable to flag. Science, properly so called, is a
very different thing, It reposes on a foundation
beyond cavil, it can appeal to victories achieved in
far-off times, when social relations were comprised
intercourse
of the bosom of the family, and the
of nations was an interchange of wrongs. It can
point to a long and august succession of apostles and
heroes and martyrs and confessors—a veritable
Church in the catacombs—whose sublime devotion to
the study of Nature in the evil days of tyrannical
ignorance would have ennobled researches ever so
barren of results. Physical science is not dependent
on popular support ; it can afford to wait for the
recognition of its services, and, though it never was
more " fructiferous" than in the present age, it
would be earnestly cultivated if these fruits should
chance to fail for a season. No one appreciates this
better than Lord Brougham, but Lord Brougham
as a savant is not identical with Lord Brougham as
a social philosopher, He can recollect the invention
of philanthropy, but he cannot recollect the invention
of natural science, and he is justified in patronising
the one as he would not venture to patronise the
other. Moreover, various as is the assortment of
theories and movements upon which he touches,
there is scarcely one in which he has not borne a
part more or less active. If he sometimes lapses into
Herodotean discursiveness, he has an Herodotean
experience to excuse and enliven it. To attempt a
digest of an address which is itself a digest of a
year's history would be an idle task. Lord Brougham
is a privileged man, but journalists are not, and our
readers would scarcely bear with us if we were to
take the same liberties with them. Perhaps a short
analysis of one column will give them an ach quate
impression of the work which the President has cut
out for his colleagues. First, then, comes the
question of extradition treaties, followed by some
remarks on colonial policy, a few sentences of rebuke
to the Americans, a notice of the plan for abridging
the labours of Parliamentary Committees, a well
deserved compliment to Mr. Gladstone's scheme of
Government insurance, comments on the Lord
Chancellor's County Courts Bill, a suggestion as to
the compilation of judicial statistics, a recommen-
dation of the sewerage problem to the Sanitary
Department, a good word for the security of railway
passengers, and a discussion on the present position
of the convict system. Multiplying this miscel-
laneous list by five, we get a tolerably fair idea of
the world of reform opened out to the students of
Social Science. It is like reading notices of motions
for the Parliament of Man foreseen in vision by the
poet. Still, it must be confessed that from this mass
of projects most of us could select some that are
really within our own power to promote, and are
manifestly worth promoting. It is a little unfortu-
nate, though perhaps unavoidable, that these, upon
which all can agree, should be jumbled, together with
others which are still fiercely disputed, and remain
unreaised, not for want of attention to them, but be-
cause their utility is not proved. An instance of
the former is the establishment of cooking depots
for the working classes—an experiment of which
the advantage is obvious and unqualified, so long as
the self-supporting principle is maintained. An
instance of the latter is Mr Lawson's abortive Bill,
miscalled Permissive,—since what it permits is an
arbitrary control of beer drinkers by their teetotal
neighbours—which happens to be the subject ime
mediately preceding cooking depots in Lord
Brougham's address. No one can deny that this is
a proper question for such an Association to enter-
tain, but until a new code of social rights can be
established, we do not anticipate much good from
referring it to the " Jurisprudence Department."
A still more questionable function, and one which
Lord Brougham exercises with great freedom on
these occasions, is that of dogmatising upon the
policy of foreign Governments. This is no part of
the legitimate duty of a quasiescientific body, and it
must tend, if it become a general practice, to excite
most unscientific dissensions. Perhaps there is no
more useful province of its operations than the cor-
respondence with foreign reformers, and the accu-
mulation of facts which may correct and modify our
national prejudices. The very opposite effect, how-
ever, would be produced if the laudation of our own
institutions should become the order of the day, and
foreign visitors should hear attacks on their own
which they cannot answer, and which can serve no
conceivable purpose. There are a great many pas-
sages in this discourse which we cannot but regard
as mischievous digressions. The conduct of Prussia
towards Denmark has, indeed, been infamous, and
neither the English Press nor the English Parliae
I meat has failed to characterise it as it deserved, but
the Concert-room at York at the opening of the
Social Science Congress is no fit place for denounc-
ing it. The emancipation of the serfs in Russia comes
within the scope of Social Science, if it has any scope,
but the oppression of Poland does not. The develop-
ment of
epublic instruction in France, and the
changes en the French code of bankruptcy, are
steps in social progress, but the continuance of
restrictions on liberty and the doctrines of Duke
Persigny belong exclusively to politics. The same,
we think, may be said of Lord Brougham's novel
proposal that the show of hands should govern an
election in this country unless it should be nega-
tived by the poll in a certain proportion ; but this,
though a political, is at least a domestic affair, and
connected with the prevention of bribery. What
really does harm and would ultimately prove fatal
to the existence of the Association is the pretension
to take cognisance of everything that passes in the
world. If its centre is indefinite, there is the more
reason that its circumference should be defined, and
that it should not ramble into spheres where the
moral enthusiasm of individuals must be wasted or
crushed. There is, indeed, hardly any limit to the
power of organised agitation where it can be car-
ried on long enough to leaven the opinion of a
whole generation. Duelling in this country yielded
much more easily than could have been expected,
and those who did so much to abolish slavery may
be pardoned for indulging the hope of diminishing
oppression and war. It is doubtless the recollec-
tion of the marvellous triumphs that have been thus
won in his own lifetime, and a sincere faith in the
force of reason and unity of truth, that actuated
Lord Brougham in uttering these protests. From
his own point of view he may be right, and no one
can refuse respect to the testimony wbich he some-
times delivers in the House of Lords against prin-
ciples which he has spent his life in combating, We
honour, as a special gift, the sympathy with pro-
gress in every form which leaves hirn no rest, even
at the age of 87, unless he speaks his mind in this
way. Only we counsel his followers not to be mis-
led by his example, nor to suppose that arbitrary
monarchs or powerful demooruoiee eau be conyerted

from the error of their ways by the machinery at
their disposal.
HERALD.—We have looked up and down the tall
coiueans of Lord Brougham's address, and we have
well nigh shaken in Dar shoes to think how creation
is being sectionised by these terrible philosophers'
There are lady philosophers who wear gold'
mounted spectacles, and who look as though
they
were ready to go on 'Change and buy stocks, or
Prepared to show us the only correct method et
laying out a kitchen garden. Then, there is the
male philosopher, with voice preternaturally Cahn'
with a heard most scientifically arranged, and with
i
facial muscles so perfectly composed that we fee,
assured he must long ago have settled every /aorta,
question to his complete satisfaction. It is in vain
that we devote oar attention to the most ordinary
pursuits, and profess that we have no desire to be
either scientific or philosophical. We want to del,
ordinary things in an ordinary way, sad to
them by ordinary names ; but we find to our dis;
may that a powerful organisation has determined
that we shall do nothing of the kind. The philoses
phers are after us—hue and cry—and we find that
we can neither poke our fire nor eat our dinner
without being terrified with some awful lecture on
the scientific principles which we are said to be
recklessly attempting to set at defiance. Even poor
Betsy is harassed almost to the point of giving noc;
tice, by being bored about " domestic economy'
when she only wants to sweep the room or dust our
bookshelves. The " poor little ploughboy" is chased
" across the lea" by a female illuminati, who appears
to call out—" Yon little rascal, you have forgotten
all you learnt at school ; I'll put you in Section C 1
that I will." We almost dread the sections as we
do the stocks, and are inclined to look upon the
whole process as something closely akin to vivisecs
tion itself. What with the National Association for
the Promotion of Social Saience, and the British
Association for the Advancement of Science which
is not considered social, we are upon the horns et
a dilemma. Whether we are social or unsocial,
whether we meddle with bodies organic, inorganic,
or disorganised, we find the trap with its mouth
open, and incontinently tumble in before we are
aware of it. There is a perfect mania in the present
day for systematising, classifying, cataloguing, and,
pigeon-holing. To those philosophers men and
women are like physic bottles or luggege at a rail'
way station, forthwith to be labelled. We go about
with tickets on our backs, and are grouped accord'
ing to some particular system—we are looked st
through microscopes, and are put into algebraical
formals°. We become " quantities," and are
reckoned up as decimals ; our peculiarities
are photographed, and we are " classed" ace
cording to peculiarities which have their founds,'
Lions somewhere in the origin of species, and
which go up into the region of the fixed stars.
Every avenue of escape is closed, and for all prat'
tical purposes we are as surely ticketed, cabinetedt
and microscoped, as if we were so many Oar
beetles stuck upon pins, or fossilised relics of the
preeAdamite earth. The spell is upon us, and there
is no getting away. Learned ladies and pedantic
gentlemen have noted our peculiarities and our
surroundings, and whether we consent or protest
they will write their " papers" about us and read
us down at the very next meeting—or "congress
—of their several tribes. But what did Lord
Brougham say on these various topics, and on the
hundred and one other subjects which his lordship
managed somehow or other to cram into hie orato-
rical carpet bag? The noble president said a great
many very wise things, not a few very good things,
and, upon the whole, said just what he liked and,
what the people were pleased to hear. He tripped
himself up a little in his own net while wading
through the depths of the German Ocean, telling
his hearers, firstly, that " it is never honourable'
nay, hardly even safe—for a great nation to stand
by and witness unmoved acts of inexcusable aggree'
sion, to the violation of all national rights ;" then,
secondly, that although England left the Danes to
their fate, " the outcry that she was humbled is 06
groundless as it would be to say that any one who
saw a murder committed by a gang of armed
ruffians was humbled if he did not stay their
hands ;" and then, thirdly, that when we told Den-
mark she should not "stand alone," yet "promise
of help there was none given." Let us hope that if
ever Lord Brougham, in going down from London
to some Jericho in the provinces, should be so un4
fortunate as to fall among thieves, his lordship will
be spared the misery of being told that although
neither priest, Levite, nor policeman came to his
help, yet they do not feel at all "humbled" by
having left him to shift for himself, notwithstanding
their previous intimation that he should not " stand
alone," and despite their present confession that he
has been subjected to an act of " inexcusable aggres‘
sion." Nevertheless, his lordship's harangue has
many excellent points, and is worthy of his declin"
ing years. '' The old man eloquent" shines to the
last, though he dates from 1778; and vast, indeed,
are the mental stores—wonderful the protracted
vigour—which at so advanced an age can fix the
attention and excite the admiration not only of a
coterie at York but of the nation at large.