Some debatable questions and how to solve them / by Sampson Gamgee.

  • Sampson Gamgee
Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some debatable questions and how to solve them / by Sampson Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the more rapid transaction of business, by sub-division in separate centres, where special facts can be investigated and dealt with by competent men. But what chance is there of such a consumma¬ tion, with the consensus of Parliament, if, in local assemblies, minorities are to be silenced, or assailed with a seemingly inex¬ haustible vocabulary of insult ? It is a question worth debating how it has come to pass that in a community, which won its way to the Municipal and Parliamentary franchise by fighting against majorities, scarcely a generation elapsed before the energy of its leaders was bent on silencing the minority within their boundaries ? By what psychological process does it come to pass, that one of the most eloquent and conscientious advocates of religious Nonconformity is ever in the van enforcing the tenets and practice of the most absolute political conformity? How is it that so many of our most uncompromising advocates of free trade are opposed to freedom of thought and of discussion, in matters of the highest possible local interest ? What would be the fate of our manufacturers and merchants in the competing markets of the world, if a standard of uniformity could be enforced for the design and quality of their goods ? If honourable rivalry be essential to material production, it is no less so in mental work, in thought and in speech. Mediocrities take care of themselves; they are proverbially prolific and tenacious; the instinct of self-preservation is strong in all weak creatures. But, for the production of specimens of superior excellence, nurseries and training grounds are required. Encourage¬ ment and free scope for development must be given, quite as much in the case of men and women as in that of cabbages and cattle. To measure the progress of a community by its mere accumulated wealth, is a fallacious standard. During this century, the rich men of the world have been growing richer, at a rate previously unknown. The difficulty of finding safe employment for large capital is steadily on the increase; and it is generally % conceded that that nation will go, and keep, to the fore, which can
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