Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. Edinburgh meeting, 1863 / Edited by George W. Hastings.

  • National Association for the Promotion of Social Science (Great Britain)
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Transactions of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science. Edinburgh meeting, 1863 / Edited by George W. Hastings. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    way additional office accommodation could be obtained. This Committee were of opinion that it would be desirable for the Association to possess an office of its own, to form a library, and to give facilities to its members for obtaining information, legislative and other, on the subjects embraced within the operations of the Association. With these objects in view they entered into negotiations with the Law Amendment Society, which ultimately resulted in a union between that We believe that the time has come when an experiment may be tried with advantage to the Association, with a view to the establishment of a Department for Art; or for Art and Literature; which would ultimately form the Fifth in number on our programme. This experiment we recommend to be made by organizing at first a Section of the Education Department for Art and Literature. Impressed as we are with the advisableness of reducing the number of Depart- ments, we cannot recommend the Council to adopt the suggestion made at the late meeting in Edinburgh, for the organisation of a Department of Colouies and Emigration ; but we are of opinion that, looking to the importance of the questions which come before the Association respecting the Colonies, and the number of members in our ranks who have colonial experience, it would be advisable for the Council to appoint forthwith a General Standing Committee on the Colonies and Emigration, with the understanding that such Committee should be enlarged into a Section of the Economical Department, if such a course should at some future time be found expedient. II.—With regard to the second branch of our reference, we desire to call the earnest attention of the Council to that which we believe to be the principal drawback on the effectiveness of our Annual Meetings; the multiplicity of papers, and the short time left for discussion. If the chief usefulness of the Association is to be found, as we believe to be the case, in the influence which it exerts on the formation of public opinion, then it is clear that to cramp our dis- cussions is to deprive us of the most powerful means for attaining our object; an object for which the repetitions of facts and arguments contained in half-a-dozen papers on the same subject can do but little. We are, at the same time quite alive to the importance of obtaining a calm and instructive statement of the subject-matter of discussion at the commencement of debate, but we think this could be best accomplished either by a report purposely prepared by a Committee, or by, at the most, two papers, one on each side of the question, and not restricted to twenty minutes. [Then follow suggestions which are substantially embodied in the second resolution of the Council quoted above.] At the same time we are aware that there are branches of the work done at our Annual Meetings which would not be provided for in this scheme, such as the contribution of papers on purely statistical subjects, and of practical suggestions on points of social improvement not likely to be embodied in the proposed list of questions. Moreover, we feel that the popularity of the Association has in a considerable degree resulted from the open and accessible nature of its proceedings, and that to destroy this main characteristic of our body might imperil its future success. We are therefore of opinion that it would still be advisable to reserve one or two of the days at the Annual Meeting for purely voluntary papers, and also to enlarge the scope of the Reports of the Standing Committees so as to embody suggestions sent to the Secretaries by individual members. GEORGE W. HASTINGS. JOHN WESTLAKE.