The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-28 00:00:00

SOCIAL SCIENCE CONGRESS.

NEWCASTLE, TuEsDAY.
This morning's proceedings opened with the address °'
the President of the Economy and Trade Department
(Sir William Armstrong), which was practical and brief.
The address of Sir William dealt with the impolicy o/
protection, whether applied to commerce, to labour, or to
invention. On the subject of trades unions, he said :—As
'societies for affording mutual assistance amongst members!
these unions are deserving of all praise. As means of
opposing their powers of combinations against counter
combinations for reducing the price of labour they sr"
also perfectly legitimate, but when they attempt to give
fictitious value to their labour by restrictive rules, the/
commit the error of contending with natural laws, which
cannot be violated without very injurious consequences.
There is a species of restriction commonly practised by
trades unions which is much to be regretted. I refer t°
the regulations made for the purpose of establishing 3.
uniform standard of wages without reference to different
degrees of skill or ability, and also for the purpose et
deterring the able and the strong froM exceeding" 3
certain limit in the quantity of work they perfornr•
There is a feeling of brotherhood displayed in these
regulations to which I am ready to do justice, but at the
same time I must declare that it is impossible to conceive
anything more subversive of wholesome emulation, more rls"
just to able men, or more opposed to the public interest, than
rules of this nature. The acts of violence and coercion.
which are occasionally committed under the sanction of
trades unions for enforcing obedience to their edicts, °r/
compelling unwilling men to join their ranks have,
through the disclosures of the late Royal Commission,
brought Much discredit upon these societies. My oPinf°
of the English working classes, however, does not Peru'3l
me to believe that such practices are the rule and not the
exception in trades unions. Referring to the Patent Laws
the President said : My own opinion is, and always h°
been, adverse to patent laws. Not that I think that the
authors of valuable inventions should go unrewarded, but
because I believe that in the great majority of cases a sue•
cessful inventor makes for himself a position which carries
sufficient reward, and because I maintain that the State
could well afford to be liberal in special cases of hardship,
in consideration of the vast saving that would accrue tc'
the public if relieved from the burdens of the present
system. Whatever question there may be as to the P°l43;
of abolishing patents, it must be admitted that the law ,1
patents as it now stands is disgraceful to legislation. '`
we are to have patents, they should at all events be
granted with discrimination. The transaction should be
in the nature of a bargain, in which the public, in °'°l:
sideration of submitting to the disadvantages °f
tion
monopoly, are to acquire the use..of a valuable in 'les—,
which would otherwise be lost to them. Before such a barg.°l"
is concluded an Investigation should be made to ascertain
whether the offered invention is worth itsprice. At present
it is deemed sufficient that the assumed inventor asks f°t
a monopoly, and he receives it as a matter of course, svi,thb;
out reference either to the validity of the claim or
policy of the concession. The result is that patents esl;
in thousands which are utterly unworthy of so grave,,
privilege as a monopoly. Many of them are absolutem,
untenable. Many others are of doubtful validity,°Dl
they can only be set aside by a law suit, which is genet
°f
deemed a greater evil than submission to the exactions
the patentee. As to the alleged analogy between Colli
right and patent right, there is none whatever in re 1,13
to obstructive effect. Copyright involves no monopoly °is
ideas, but patent right does. The field of arthorshik
not narrowed by copyright, but the field of invention '""
and to a most serious extent, by patent right
The province of local option in respect 'Co the sale
intoxicating liquors, was discussed in a voluntary Psl'ir
prepared by the Rev. Dawson Burns, and read in the Sn,e,
division of economy and trade department. The folio 0
ing conclusions were arrived at by the author: IP
licensing system has hitherto been conducted without ofii
provision for the agency of local option, although Prg
fessedly controlled by a supreme regard for the I°e
08
good. The necessity of allowing local option to act to s°cl
extent is now universally admitted. The gr°„"--„ts
of this necessity the protection of local intereseij
—is an unanswerable reason for allowing
side,
ide,
option unlimited action on the no - license ch
in order that no bounds may be set to the benefits of stlon
action directed against the liquor traffic. The opPositib
11
of brewers and dealers, in and out of Parliament, wr
construed and treated as it deserves ; while the abs..l.i
objection that " Parliament, by passing a permissive or f,;
would be abrogating its legislative rights," is crushed 7
the consideration that the extent, and even existence'
of the liquor traffic in all localities, are now made sub) 6.8
to magisterial jurisdiction ; so that the only different°
consequent upon an act. for local option would heder
put the continuance of the local liquor traffic ou
es
a second controlling power —that of the people themsely
The very plea of the magistrates, that they are not 3 reit
presentative body, and there can apply only ccnventions
the
rules to the liquor traffic and its curses, affords, be
strongest reason why a co-ordinate jurisdiction should .„
established in the public body, on whose behalf Pu'-'l;ri,
houses (according to their name) are annually lice/I'ol
In a word, there ought to be no limits to -d
option on the drink traffic except the public g°° •bY -
and that good could not be better promoted than
giving the locality full power to secure a parochial P.ro„.
hibition, when so disposed, by some simple plan of votr
against the issue of all licensed. This action, thou;
decried by some as' punitive and excessive, would Pr° it
salutary and effcient ; it would, as far and as fast as t,
succeeded, purge the social system from its darkest tau'
and it would directly forward those kinds and degrees pr.
social good which no numerical reduction and police sup
vision of drinking-houses can ever ensure.
The two sections devoted to the subject of " Educational
had a full complement of papers, while the Heal
Department was occupied with the discussion of a Ara': s
of sanitary matters. In the Repression of Co°,
Section a paper was read on " Juvenile ParWerte
and Mrs. Meredith repeated the paper se
read the other day in the Ladies' Conferee
~'
on " Righteous Baby Farming." Miss Emily Faithful
in the Economy and Trade Department, brought forWsr„
the question of the influence of working men's clubsi-t.
homes. The Contagious Diseases Acts were .011.1ret
discussion in the Municipal Law Section, the suM,
being introduced in a paper by Dr. Amos Sherw•i:
which dealt with the working of the Acts
this and - other countries, and argued their
potency to check the evils of prostituti?si;
and their violation of certain principles of legisistl.,,°
which ought under no temptation whatever to be viol
gressed, these principles being that no law should eve
be enacted which has the direct effect of affording the
minutest encouragement to immoral action, that the 131.°'
tection of the individual against the abuses of authol
should be guaranteed and that no statute sh°3lo
be passed which may impair real efforts tt
get rid of immorality by attacking it at
its source. Prior to the discussion which ensued after t
e
reading of the paper, Dr. Dalrymple, M.P., complais
c
of the statement made by Mrs. Butler, on behalf of 11,,es
husband, at the Ladies' Conference on the Contagi°"
t 11°
Diseases Acts on Saturday, to the effect tha
b .1 g
had been guilty of .some indelicacy in e 3-
present at the medical examination of a nodber of Arab women in Algeria. He thought stir
Mrs. Butler could not have been aware that for thir_
years he had been a member of the medical profession,
The Rev. Dr. Hooppell, in the absence of Mrs. Butlers
that neither that lady nor her husband was asv—f
that the member for Bath was a member. °,
the medical profession, or they would certainlJ
not have made the statement in questi°ll"
The resolution which formed the basis of the discussion,
was to the effect that in the opinion of the Section the Co.,3ii
tagious Diseases Acts were unjust, cruel, despotic, be
immoral, and that the Council of the Association
requested to urge upon the Government the necessity °
immediately suspending, and eventually repealing them.
The resolution was passed unanimously after the suf,
gestion that the Council should urge upon the. Goveri
ment that there should be an immediate suspension I°,o
the Acts had been struck out, it being held that t
Government ought to be asked to at, once
peal them only. The discussion on Disarmarrie'it,
and Arbitration in the Jurisprudence resulted in,,r)
resolution being passed to the effect that the seswi,;l4
trusted that Her Majesty's Government would fibrin
from no step to be taken either alone or in connection
with other friendly nations which might appear to vu`st
conducive to the termination of the present war on 3 0
and durable basis, and requesting the Council of ,er
a,
Association to appoint committee to consider whet..o
some general scheme of international arbitratioea
or conciliation cannot be usefully ream:Line/lido
for adoption. A paper on national defences was rea of
this section by G. W. Dudley Baxter. The launch ot
F. W. Froullad's frigate Triumph, attracted a la t.
number of members and associates to Palmer's Shipbur ej
ing-yard, where they were very courteously entertaisd,
at luncheon by the directors of the company. On I'v
nesday morning the last business meeting of the ass'eest
will be held, and an adjournment made to Leeds tb.
year. The Congress will probably be held at piirrao
in 1872.

A. shocking carriage accident took place at Cred
ton, near Exeter, on Sunday. Miss Buller and her sistetart
their housekeeper, and Miss Cleave were returning fr9he
church in their carriage when the horse shied near t
railway station, and, becoming unmanageable, the neccfs
pants of the vehicle were thrown out. The eldest N-I,'
Buller was seriously injured in her head, and blood vi'""
flowing from her ears. Her sister had a cut on the %ire
head, The other occupants escaped serious injury. -Abe
Misses Buller were immediately conveyed to DownesFrel
ancient family seat of the Bullers), and several na euml-or
men were sent for from Exeter and elsewhere ; and 31
pronounced the eldest sister to be in a very critic
position, as she was suffering from concussion of the
brain.
The Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard ran°
that we are .losing food, and the farmers are therefor.
losing the value of that food, in consequence of the fooli,.
and-mouth disease and pleuro-pneumonia, to an exte,.!
which would be equal to a rise of 10s. on a low estinian
or 14s. on a high one on every quarter of wheat that sn
shall require to import between this and next harvest
say nothing of the deterioration of the quality of a
large quantity of the meat which is not actually
cotio
demned as diseased, the value of which it is not easy
estimate,