British Association

“ That which makes the success of the British Association possible is at once the weakness as well as the strength of British science, and the influences which make these meetings what they are are intimately connected with the educational and social conditions which exist in England. ”

“ The London Working Men's Association was the last of a series of similar organisations, extending as far back as 1829, and including the First London Co-operative Trading Association, the British Association for Promoting Co-operative Knowledge, and the National Union of the Working Classes and Others, which covered the period from 1829 to 1833. ”

“ The number of members and associates at present on the list of the corresponding societies approaches 25,000, and no organization is in existence anywhere in the country better adapted than the British Association for stimulating, encouraging and coordinating all the work being carried on by the seventy societies at present enrolled. Your committee are of opinion that further encouragement should be given to these societies and their individual working members by every means within the power of the association ”

“ If the united interest of the king, nobility, priesthood, stockjobbers, placemen, chartered companies, army and navy, with their associates, governs the British government, then the national association (if there is or ever was one) has no government. There is no British nation, except a combined minority of interests, distinct from the general interest. ”

“ What these institutions are powerless to avert or helpless to bring about is, we repeat, within the scope of the British Association to effect. All institutions, political or educational, will bow to a strongly-formed committee of scientific men, formally commissioned by the Association and speaking with authority, delegated as well as personal, on scientific subjects. ”

“ The British Empire is being transformed into a free association of free States. And we may add that the highest directing agency in the Empire, the British Cabinet, is a combination of the leading men of the strongest party for the time being, who in the main hold the same political views, and who are united, not according to a statute or a written constitution, or any kind of formal contract, but by what for want of a better name we may call a gentlemen’s agreement. The British Cabinet may be regarded as a free association of gentlemen, the Premier presiding primus inter pares. ”

“ The British Economic Association was founded at a Meeting held at University College, London, on November 20th, 1890, the Chancellor of the Exchequer being in the chair. The object of the Association is the advancement of economic knowledge by the issue of a Journal and other printed publications, and by such other means as the Association may from time to time agree to adopt. ”

“ But there were two or three words in it which apparently were not quite consistent with the catholicity which Professor Marshall had rightly demanded as the prime characteristic of the association. Persons were required not only to desire to further the aims of the Association, but to be approved by the council before they could be admitted to membership. ”

“ However, as the New Commonwealth Society is nearer to the Cause than perhaps any other organisation of its kind, the Guardian would advise the friends to participate, occasionally and in an informal manner, in its activities, to attend some of its meetings, and to contribute articles to its publications. Association, as you certainly realise, is quite different from affiliation, and it is the latter which the Guardian wishes the friends to strictly avoid. ”

“ The current state of deterioration of our country being the result of three-quarters of a century of a cordial devotion to our connection with England, and of our trust misled in British honour, it would be to show ourselves criminal and born for slavery to limit our resistance to simple representation. The perfidious projects of the British authorities broke all bonds of sympathy with a motherland that shows herself to be insensitive. ”

“ We thus saw British administrators displaying a cowardice and a perfidy completely unworthy of a powerful nation, never ceasing to delude the Canadien people with promises full of disappointment, and who, in times of urgent need and once the crisis had passed, would not redden when resorting to all kinds of expedients to differ or avoid to honour their most solemn engagements. ”

“ There were the relations of capital and labour—currency questions—the great controversies with respect to the functions of the State. It seemed to him that none of the great problems which were occupying the national mind could be foreign to the studies of the economist, who would be doing a great service if, standing as he did outside the political atmosphere, which might in so many cases warp the judgment, he examined all these great questions and concentrated as much light as possible upon them—light which should not be dimmed in any way by the prejudices of any particular school. ”

“ The circular continues: “The great drawback to my cure, so far as the medical profession is concerned, has always been the fact that I would not reveal its formula. This is now done away with; its formula is 80 grains of umckaloabo root and 131⁄3 grains of chijitse to every ounce, prepared according to British Pharmacopœia methods.” The farce of revealing a formula by the employment of such fancy names as these is one of the oldest dodges of the quack medicine man, and no such names as “umckaloabo” and “chijitse” appear in any available work of reference on pharmacy. ”

“ The concentrated compound solution of sarsaparilla in the British Pharmacopœia contains about 21 parts of solids in 100 fluid parts, so that it may be concluded that the amounts of extracts of “Sarsaparilla, Dandelion, Mandrake, Dock, Pipsissewa, Juniper Berries, and other valuable vegetable remedies” in this mixture were not large. The liquid had a somewhat aromatic odour and taste, in which oil of juniper could not be detected, nor was it recognizable on distillation; none of the other ingredients mentioned is capable of being identified in such a mixture. ”

“ Birmingham has not been so remarkable as some other towns for its societies formed of lovers of literature and science, and it is certainly remarkable, and almost reprehensible, that so large a centre has never had a definite Literary Society or Literary Club, associating all, and they are many, who are lovers of books in all departments, and not merely of literature of a scientific, technical, and practical kind. Such a society, or such a club, should certainly exist in a great Midland town, as in Manchester, Liverpool, and other places. ”

“ The hours of labour have been reduced, and thanks to the Education Act of 1870, the intelligence and docility of the younger operatives are their notable characteristics. What is now wanted is the establishment of Science and Art classes where the principles which underlie processes may be learnt, and the power to add beauty of form to articles of utility may be acquired. When these branches of technical training are added to the course of elementary instruction in our public Schools, all that is needed to secure the prosperity of British industry will have been done. ”

“ At any rate these insects have not hitherto been detected in any other British localities. It is much to be regretted that local entomology suffers greatly from two untoward circumstances, viz., the lack of students and the want of a carefully compiled list of species of the several orders. The publication of a catalogue of local insects as far as our present knowledge extends, would undoubtedly tend to stimulate the intelligent pursuit of this study, and it seems surprising that such an important work has not long ago been undertaken by the Natural History Societies of the district. ”

“ It can fairly be said that there is probably no town in England which possesses a more complete educational system than Birmingham. This system has been no effect of a pre-conceived design, but has grown up, piece by piece, in the stress of the life of a great manufacturing centre, where people of leisure may be counted on the fingers of one hand. ”

“ Surely Honourable Members ought to speak of the Condition-of-England question too. Radical Members, above all; friends of the people; chosen with effort, by the people, to interpret and articulate the dumb deep want of the people! To a remote observer they seem oblivious of their duty. Are they not there, by trade, mission, and express appointment of themselves and others, to speak for the good of the British Nation? Whatsoever great British interest can the least speak for itself, for that beyond all they are called to speak. ”

“ In this respect the delegation have helped the British Trade Union Movement, through Congress, to maintain the best traditions of British democracy in rendering service to the development of working-class organisation, irrespective of creed, colour, or country. ”

“ Soho itself has perished, scarcely a relic remains, but James Watt’s house at Heathfield still exists with relics which will ever be an honour to his genius, and will keep his memory green. All admirers of the genius of Watt will hope and desire that these remains of an industrial hero, a genius of the useful arts, may become a public trust, to show posterity how so illustrious a man of science was valued in his life, and is honoured by those who rejoice in the fruits of his genius and skill. ”

“ All the more, probably, it has been constantly and definitely adapting itself to the needs of the locality. The boast is at any rate a just one, that in this busy population the road is clear, clear that is of all artificial obstructions, clearer far than in many a more polished and cultivated society, for a boy to rise from the gutter to the University, or to eminence in any science or art. ”

“ English Sculpture.—In England John Banks, who may be regarded as the father of English ideal sculpture, paved the way for his great successor John Flaxman, and the latter with his deep appreciation of severe simplicity and true form, his love and admiration for the Greek statues, brought into this country the classical spirit, and founded the schools of the nineteenth century. To judge by the progress which modern sculpture has made, and by the many noble works erected of late years, it is on a far safer road than during the end of the sixteenth century. ”

“ Famous Men: the Soho Circle—One of the most remarkable chapters in the history of Birmingham would be a full record of the men of the latter half, or even the last quarter, of the last century who gave lustre to the town, and who materially helped its constant progress. “Soho” had not only supplied what the world had long wanted, “power,” but it had set up a standard of excellence, and had trained a class of workmen who were to go forth to conquer, at home and abroad, in all industrial work. ”

“ It is to identify them with us—it is to make them part of the same Community, by giving them a full share of those accumulated blessings which are diffused throughout Great Britain; it is, in a word, by giving them a full participation of the Wealth, the Power, and the Stability, of the British Empire. ”

“ We can somewhat measure this noble gift when we remember that the collection contains portraits of some of our ablest and most famous men, as well as large and important figure pictures, the work of a lifetime, and that these are the best works of an artist of world-wide reputation. The English School of portraiture has attained a high standard in the works of such artists as Millais, Holl, Ouless, and Richmond; but the portraits by Watts stand apart from even these in their nobility of treatment, scheme of colour, and rendering of the man, his very life and soul. ”

“ There was scarcely a department of the science where it was not necessary to look to the very foundations of their doctrines, because these very foundations were attacked in so many quarters. It was impossible for any economist to look for the acceptance of certain axioms, for in these days those very axioms were disputed by those who derided economists. In fact, it seemed to be a daring undertaking to profess themselves economists, because there was a general idea that economists had finished their proper work in the education of the nation. ”

“ Great Britain has proposed to settle them by an amicable arrangement, and our minister at London is instructed to enter into negotiations on that subject. A commission for adjusting the claims of our citizens against Great Britain and those of British subjects against the United States, organized under the convention of the 8th of February last, is now sitting in London for the transaction of business. ”

“ On the proceedings of the assembly, his grace remarked that if a union, either partial or complete, should hereafter be proposed, with the concurrence of all the provinces to be united, he was sure that the matter would be weighed in England by the public, by parliament, and by Her Majesty’s government with no other feeling than an anxiety to discern and to promote any course which might be most conducive to the prosperity, the strength, and the harmony of all the British communities in North America. ”

“ Now, he was for the simple diffusion of truth, and he was entirely in favour of a journal of this kind to receive contributions from every school of economists. He had the greatest possible confidence that economic truths, when fairly examined, would show themselves as capable of demonstration as the truths of any other science to which men devoted their attention. ”