The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-10 00:00:00

Social Science Conference.

MANCHESTER, Tuesday.
Sir J. P. Kay Shuttleworth, Bart., this morning
read a paper, which he entitled " A Sketch of the
Laws of Social Progress, illustrated by the Growth
of the Freedom and Political Capacity of the Manual

Labour Class in England." He said—How necessary

an element time is in all permanent changes becomes
evident also, if we reflect that revolutions seldom
accomplish the objects which are embodied in their
principles, except after the lapse of a long period
from that of the destructive oatbreak. For example,
the French revolution was in the first instance most
powerful to destroy all privilege, to confiscate and
disperse the estates of the noblesse, and on this basis
to create, not simply equality of civil rights before
the law, but, as far as the law could accomplish it,
to provide an equality of civil conditions by the
compulsory subdivision of property under the law of
bequest. But the idea of personal and civil liberty
has been of slow growth, and that of self-govern-
ment has not had power to develope itself, under
the centralised bureaucracy of France and the mili-
tary organisation which have subordinated personal

and civil liberty to that of the external influence of
France in Europe. France has become an armed

democracy, with a chief wielding the military and
civil power, but holding his authority as the expres-

sjon for the time being of the strongest force in the
revolution, viz., that love of equality which tends
ultimately to the domination of numbers,and which,

having failed repeatedly to establish a republic in
France, exalts a chief on the condition that he make

himself its instrument. The French are, therefore,

far from liberty, and they have attained equality
only by the creation of a despotism supported by
the peasantry, the artisans, and the army. The
fruits of the French revolution cannot be said to be

reaped until among this subtle and enlightened

people there is perfect freedom in the expression of

Political opinions, nor until the faculty and institu-

tions of self-government are developed. The revo-

lution of 1792 was, therefore, powerful to destroy

privilege and to establish equality, but probably

another century must elapse before the French
people attain the powers of self-government and all
the privileges of personal freedom. Time is, there-

lore, required for great changes, and all changes
axe the results of the continuous operation of na-
tural forces which evolve phenomena in a regular

succession.

Nothing endures which is not

in harmony with this law. The improvement

in the condition of any class, the growth of any in-

stittrtion—such, for example, as a representative go-
verning body—the relative powers and privileges of
the great forces which create and sustain society. It
is impossible to overleap intervals of time, so that
conditions of society which a philosophic observer
may foresee to be possible and to be ultimately bene-
ficial, shall exist otherwise than as the result of that
irresistible development to oppose which is to enter
into a war with nature. Thus, in our own history,
no change has been permanent which has not been
a logical consequence of other antecedent conditions,
all proceeding from the same social force, and has
not also been in harmony with surrounding condi-
tions. The progress of civilisation is continuous,
and for the most part not interrupted by catas-
trophes, but when such revolutions occur they result
from the accumulated force of social causes, the na-
tural effects of which have resisted, and which at

length break the orderly succession of events. Re-
volutions, however powerful to remove obstacles,
contain in a less degree the constructive principle.

They destroy the obstacle, and the formative forces
then proceed with the new creation ; but this may
require centuries for its development. But if a re-
volution establish some institution or form of go-

vernment which is not the effect of the formative
force, or in harmony with surrounding conditions,

the new creation will soon perish. All sanguine
expectations of the rapid evolution of the new forms
of government, in nations ill-prepared by their an-

tecedent conditions, are not warranted by the expe-
rience of history, and generally all sudden transitions
in national polity, as, for example, from the go-
vernment of one class to that of another, unless
brought about by the irresistible force of the growth

of intelligence and virtue, partake of the character
of revolutions, and of their weakness in the presence
of surrounding conditions not in harmony with

One of two things would therefore be con