Tap Social Science Congress has just gone through its avunal perforumnee, the city of Edinburgh having thix year been the scone. An immense namber of papers were road and discussed, bub except: in those departments in which the shrieking sisterhood lifted up their voices: against the iniquity of man, the! proceedings seem to have been of the dallest, Sociul science, as a title for ay association, opens a very wide vista, and might include almost everything that refers to the ordinary life of man.
Tt is, to be sure, rather an indefinite title; and when woe try to form an. opinion from the subjects, of the papers which have been read to the public this year, we are perplexed by their diversity, and by the difficulty of classing some of them as having anything whatever to do with science. When one reads that different-departments of the Cougrows were ni the same time occupying themselves with papers on the reintion of art to social science, on crime, education, sewers, divorce, and the silver question, with incidental discussion on such matters as the half-time system of mixed physical and mental training, rent, and railway accidents, we can only wonder fat the goodness which "leads sume people to write and read so much in the hope of benefiting the world. The reward of these authors is but small; © paragraph in the newspaper that Mr. Mrs., or Miss So-nnd-so rend paper, a few lines describing in the boldest manner the views of (he authors, and: the briefest possible record of the discussion on the opinions contained in it, ia all the reward for days and nights labour. Yet-this is considered sufficient; to judge by the large number of people who compose and deliver such essays, and travel considerable distances to take part in the proceedings of the Congresses.
The opening address wus delivered by Lord Reay, a Scotch Datchman, who has been naturalised within recent yeara, During Mr, Gladstone's Midlothian campaign lust year Lord Reay attended almost all Iris meetings, and since then he has been sedulous in keeping himself before the public. His address was chiefly occupied with diplomatic matters, and wase humdrum in style that we observe the Home newspapers have been sorely exercised to be complimentary, and have scarcely been able to avoid the candid admission that it was all very dull. But as soon as the Congress proceeded to real business, that is, to the reading of papers and commenting upon them, the Indies who honoured and enlightened it with their presence, made it at once impossible to Iny the charge of dullness against some of the departments. The inevitable Miss Lydia Becker was present, and relieved her mind of some of its bitterness against man and his misdoings in the matter of law-making. So anjust and bad were the laws of man that Miss Becker declared she knew many ladies who preferred to remain unmarried rather than come under them; and a few other Indies were exceedingly explicit in their language and very direct in the views they expressed in support of their friend Miss Becker. When two gentle-nien ventured to express a mild surprise at some of the misdeeds which the ladies attributed to men, and wondered what sort of company the fair lecturers had been keeping, and what kind of husbands some of them had, they wore very smartly disposed of by a matron who said that it was only women with good husbands who dared to speak on this question—that is, on the marriage laws.
Every now and then the Indies had these smart deadly skirmishes with the gentlemen, nud redeemed the protec of the Congress from utter dullness, They said what they had to say in the distinct manner which their sex so often expresses itself, and so afforded a pleasant contrast to the ambiguity of many of the gentlemen. In such questions as the Insy of divorce, some unmarried Indies declared very strong opinions, and in one instance one of them described with which of two very bad sorts of husbands she would prefer to live. But apart from the amuse. ment which is to be obtained from these passages, the records of this year's meeting of the Social Science Congress are very dull reading. Papers on an infinitude of subjects, many of which can scarcely be brought within the range of social science, were rend, but the authors were dull men or active bores. No paper of striking originality was delivered, and the newspapers, which seem to ave been relying on the Congress for the subjects of leaders during the dull season, appear to have had great difficulty in finding anything in its doings worthy of comment. The whole affair has been stale, fiat and auprofitable; nor are matters likely to improve in the future with such societies as this for the promotion of-social science, After a few years almost all has been said which men care to hear;, eveu when the scope of subjects, which may be written and spoken of, is so wide as in this Social Science Society; and after that the wise cease to speak or to listen, audthuse who are not distinguished by wisdom take their places. It is not to be expected, however, that such congresses as this we have been noticing will cease to be held. They, no doubt, supply-a want which is felt by many cultivated people, Given leisure, money, and either a command of words or the habit of allowing words to take command of one, there is to many people a constant. temptation to have one's say out, when it only costs a certain: amount of labour and money. Against these: expendi: tures there is all the pleasure of a little fleeting notoriety, the meeting and associating with many people who are really holiday-making, but pretend they are working in the cause of science, and being received as visitors of some distinction in the cities and towns in which the congresses are held. In a city like Edinburgh, it is very likely that the gratification to be: derived from this last consideration might be: greater than in places where life and thought are more active. Edinburgh lives upon its past, but her inhabitants do not know this, and those who go among them with the intention of enlightening the world with papers with high-sounding titles, might quite ensily permit themselves to be deluded into the belief that they were meeting men of the style and the calibre who made her famous in the days of the past, And there is nothing in the bouring of an Edinburgh man or woman of the present day which would make estranger doubt that they hold themselves to be the equals of all the great dead who have made their city illus. trious, For when all that made her famous has disappeared, the solfcomplacency of her inhabitants happily remains unimpaired, @utports,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.