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    platform in order to publish their . wares ore rottmdo to the gaping world . ¦ fr The noblemen and gentlemen gathered at Liverpool , forming the society for the improvement of the social sciences , we suspect , have an obvious misgiving about their undertaking .. They are not prepared to say how jtheir talk can impart to the public a knowledge which they do not possess , but they , can assure each other that their labours are ot prodigious service to mankind . Lord John Russell compliments , in a strain which rather surprises those who know the antecedents of both men , Lord Brougham for his noble exertions , and the ex-Chaucellor repays the ex-Minister in the same coin . LordShaftesbury does the like service to both the

    noble Lords , and Sir John Pakington , an humble squire , is delighted to join his voice in the laudatory chorus . Lord Carlisle , too , chimes in ; and by these several gentlemen complimenting one another , the world is informed what paragons of excellence , what an army of noble patriots , have met at Liverpool to improve mankind . We doubt not the testimony of right hon . gentlemen and noble lords to the merits of each other , but it would show a greater confidence in their undertaking if they said something less of themselves , and something more of the means by which their exertions at this subordinate gathering can be more beneficial to the public than their very similar exertions in Parliament .

    There they have been eminently unsuccessful . The imperfect statistics of which one complains , the confused jungle of laws which another acknowledges , are their doings . They are the law-makers They have had for years , some of them for nearly half a ¦ century , the management of the national concerns , and many of the evils they dilate on at Liverpool they decreed at Westminster . Lord Brougham has been tinkering at the Bankruptcy Laws for nearly thirty years , and the Bankruptcy Laws are a prominent part of the-jumble' denounced by Lord John . Russell . The noble lord has in his time added not a little to the complication of the Statute Book . A thick volume would

    scarcely contain the acts- concerning education * under the superintendence of the Privy Council , ot which he has been the parent . As long as noble lords and honourable gentlemen go on year after year making a hundred and thirty or a hundred and forty acts of Parliament—rules of action , as Blackstone calls them—on all sorts of subjects , some contradictiiig others , the codification which the noble lord recommends would not be worth the expense . He quoted the codification of New York as a praiseworthy example . In 1 S 55-6 , the legislature of that state added to the perfect code

    no less than 25 public acts , and 130 local acts , about 50 of them being acts of relief or exemption from the operations of some parts of the code . Unless " social science" should suggest a remedy for the cacoethes of law-making equally conspicuous in Congress and in Parliament , tho codification would be as worthless as tho noble lord ' s acts for taxing the people to make them learned . All that thq members of the Legislature have said , or are likely to say , at Liverpool , might be said with more advantage in their proper places iu Parliament . But

    they aim at a monopoly of talk at both . They are sensible of the policy of making a feint attack . They know of old , at least the reforming Whigs do , the advantages of heading a rising dissatisfaction such as begins to prevail with the desultory , confused , and worthless proceedings at Westminster , and may hope , by misdirecting it , or swimming with it , to bo deposited by it , which id all they really care for , in powoi * mid place . By their talk at Liverpool they expect probably to tlivort attention from their deeds at Westminster .

    Since newspapers , by interpreting Nature , havo becomo a power in tho State superior to noble lords and right honourable gentlemen , who , in the main , study only precedents , tho latter aspire to share their power . They cannot become habitual contributors , though somotimes they oven write for the newspapers , but they can usurp their critical functions . Tlioy can talk tho leaders they would liko to write to

    A society promote social soionco at which they can tako the lend in attacking their own devices and oritioising all their legislation , plaoos tho reporting journals ab their sorvieo , and they oanmako tho nowspapors , which thoy could not otherwise oontrol , do their work , whothor it bo dirty or clean , Lord Brougham could not havo procured insortion iu any journal of tho empire for the erroneous ¦ description ho gavo of tho defunct " Sooioty for tho Diffusion ot Useful Knowledge , "

    and the partial puff he blew for the publications of one astute man ; but pronouncing them at Liverpool , he has got them inserted into half the journals of the empire . It is known to the present writer and to many other persons , that cheap and useful literature , in conjunction with Mechanics' Institutes , had started into life and was making great progress before the Diffusion Society came into existence . Lord Brougham—then Mr . Brougham— -for his own Eur poses diverted the progress to the Diffusion ociety and to one bookseller ; and by making the stream Whig instead of popular , it was soon lost in insatiable sands . It burst forth again , afterwards , and in a different quarter from that designed by Lord Brougham and his friends , and has now swept him , and them along with it , into the ocean of cheap , pleasing , and useful knowledge . He can no longer turn nor dam the stream , and so he hangs his own boat , not without murmuring aiid regret , on to John Cassell and the London Journal . As the chairman to the new association , the noble lord makes the newspaper subservient to his purposes , and makes it convey his griefs and his joys over the whole empire . To obtain this and similar ends the society is a very useful contrivance . Though we think it a mere sham , supported by politicians anxious to conceal discomfiture and shrink behind the public from parliamentary responsibility , we should be extremely sorry were the abuse of a great theme by the self-seekers at Liverpool to lead our readers into the error of supposing that " social science" is not more worthy of honour than the society . It is one of the most important objects that can engage attention , but it is looked on squintingly and with dread by all politicians . What is called political economy—in truth , the science of labour , an important portion of the science of society to the progress of which we are indebted for free tradewas denounced by the first Bonaparte as a means of reducing a " granite" State , such as he presided over , into dust . He was right- The science of labour , of the means by which individuals are fed and society sustained , leads directly to the overthrow and the destruction of such states as that founded by -Bonaparte , J 3 ut all politicians are , more or less , despotic ; they found their power more or less on coercion ; they cannot live without forced contributions , and , as a matter of course , they all , more or less , dislike political economy and every part of social science . Politics and it are in opposition . We arc quite sure , therefore , that the politicians who are taking tho lead at Liverpool will prevent or stiile the science they profess to patronise and promote ; Let us , therefore , say a very few words on this important subject . Society is but another name for population , and the natural laws which govern population govern society . Hence the production of subsistence , which" limits the increase of population , lies at the foundation of all the socitd phenomena . But , so far as man has to operate on the external world , all his exertions are expressed by one term — labour j and as labour is more or loss productive , society prospers . The science of labour ascertains all the circumstances which inlluence the productive power of labour . Foremost amongst these is the appropriation of its produce , in other words , a right of property , and as this is founded on the laws of nature or on the devices of conquerors and other ignorant usurpers , society prospers or decays . The nja « mcr in which this right practically exists exercises a great -iuflucnoo ovor tho progress of knowledge , the division o £ labour , and all the subsidiary means of conducing to the productive power of labour . To ascertain and determine the natural and just right of property is one of the great subjects which eau only be ascertained and determined by tho science of society . As sooicty , or population , depends on subsistence , any mid every right of property which in tho long run diminishes or lessens tho amount of subsistence or tho number of the people is contrary to the natural luws which govern society . ^* Society consists of two distinct , and yet unirca , branches—males and females—and these exist in conjunction with people of all ages . The natural relation of tho sexes is obviously tho foundation of the family , and families build up society . Communication is the adjunct of population , and as natural laws determine tho relation of tho sexes , so they dctormino all tho relations . wh | ph grovy up from thorn and ' govern communication , iu all its' -rumiflcfitions . To ascertain tho natural luws which regulate tho union of the sexes or govern the communication between individuals , is therefore another

    part of social science . As the great end of this union is the preservation and extension of society , all political regulations which stand in the way of it are contrary to the natural laws which govern all communication . These natural laws have not yet been ascertained , and the political regulations concerning communication are different in different countries , different in different ages , and different in the same age and in the same country . The political laws of marriage in England have been altered some three or four times within recollection , and they are different now in England and Scotland . To ascertain what these laws ought to be for society in all times and places is another object of social

    . Not to follow out in detail these great principles of labour and of communication as the essentials to the existence , the continuance , and the increase of society , _ it will suffice to say that they govern the whole subject . To the two great practical questions immediately dependent on them the politicians assembled at Liverpool neither will nor can give a fair and unbiased consideration . They are pledged and bound to existing political regulations ; and their respect for the

    laws of the land as to the relation of the sexes and as to the right of property will effectually obscure from their view the natural laws which govern these important parts of society . We assert strenuously the existence of a science of society and the paramount necessity of observing and diligently studying the facts involved in it , but we have not the least hope that this great theme will be even comprehended by the biased politicians -who compose the bulk of the association for the promotion of social science .

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    YOUNG WHIGS AND OLD TORIES . A morning contemporary asked the other day- ^ - * " Will there never be any more Young Whigs ?" We begin to think that people will soon be asking —" Will there never be any more Old Tories ¦ ' ?** Both species are confessedly fast becoming extinct . Political sterility has certainly befallen the halfdozen families who tried so long and so successfully to keep up the profitable , imposture of their own exclusive fitness to govern England . The names of Howard , Eitzwilliam , Townsend , Fox , Cavendish , Spencer , Lambton , audPonsonby , no longer aspire to fame . Pa « ets , Phippses , andEliotts still nestle thickly

    in the sunny nooks of p lace ; but the only public records that make mention of them are the estimates and the Court Guide . The houses of Russell and Grey are still defended , indeed , from the encroaching tide of oblivion by the veteran hands that a quarter of a century ago held high their " hereditarydevice , " but they arc ill supported by the younger offshoots of their ancestral stock ; while of the vast territorial wealth of the Sutherlands and Leinsters , the Graf-tons and Breadalbanes , the Grosvenors and the Cokes , there is hardly an articulate representative in either House of Parliament or elsewhere to

    be found . Yet never was so tempting an opportunity presented to a young man of the class in questionsi uliquid habet—for winning popularity and . distino tion . Amid the wreck of worn-out party combinations , a Government inherently weak from the heterogeneous nature of its component parts , floats ambiguously onward , no one knowing whither it is drifting , or whether , in the hour of trial , any hand on board will bo found capable of steering it at all . In vain it is expected to show its colours ; there is no one to challenge tho hue of its Hag , and tho crew therefore show none . The first bold

    and determined summons from any quarter would bring such uncertainty to an end . On the first hearty cheer from a well-manned rival , oraft Derbyism must cither show its colours and prepare for fight , or surrender without a blow . Had * the Whigs amongst them ono young man of tho oalibrc or fibre of tho late Lord Durham , wo should soon know where we arc , and to what wo may look forward ; and wore some three or four men of position and talent prepared to tako at the present moment a manly and resolute lino on tho question of Parliamentary Reform , they would evoke a national response so unmistakable that schemers and intriffuors of all shades and sootious would bo

    fain to profess acquiesconco , and ovvry minister t /» aspe or hi posso would nf ; once prepare to liifco ins side in the npprauohhwr struggle l ' or struggle assuredly there yet will do , ore Oio industrious many got their own ; and what wo want now . most to know is , who are to bo for us aud wlio against us .

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    JSTo . 447 , October 16 , 1858 . ] THE LEADEB , 1097

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 16, 1858, page 1097, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2264/page/17/