adopted by the Council in 1860, and will be found in the introduction to the Transactions of 1860. The Deputation have reason to believe that their representations were not without effect, though the Irish Registration Act of last Session, as finally passed, leaves very much to be desired.*

In consequence of the discussions at the London Meeting on the subject of establishing a uniform international system of general average, the Council determined to appoint a Special Committee to prepare a Bill, or series of resolutions, having for object the establishing one uniform system of general average, and to consider and report the best means of proceeding, with a view to obtaining legisla tive or other competent sanction for such system in the different countries in the world. The Council are informed that considerable progress has already been made by the Committee in obtaining the opinions of chambers of commerce, boards of underwriters, and other commercial bodies in the different States of Europe and America; and at our next annual meeting a full report may be expected.

In September, 1862, an Association was formed upon the continent for the same objects as our own, and modelled on the same plan. It had, indeed, originated with some continental friends who had attended our meetings; and at the London Congress a paper was read by Monsieur Corr Vander Maerren, describing the plan of an International Association for the Promotion of Social Science. This offspring of our body held its first meeting at Brussels, at the time already mentioned, and its second congress has recently taken place at Ghent with great success. On the first occasion the Council sent their General and Foreign Secretaries as a Deputation, to congratulate the founders of the International Association on the commencement of their undertaking, and to express their warm sympathy with its objects. The Council trust that these two kindred societies will always be found working together in harmony and mutual help.

The members of the Association are well aware that the Congrès de Bienfaisance, in 1862, held its sittings in London conjointly with our own meetings. The Council undertook to guarantee the cost of printing and publishing the many valuable papers which were read to the Congrès, and the Compte Rendu of that body has accordingly been published in a French and English volume, and may be obtained by members of this Association at a reduced price.

See the Report of the Standing Committee of the Public Health Department, p. 551.

+ The following are the Members of the Committee:

Ernst Emil Wendt, Esq., Chairman of the Committee; Richard Lowndes, Esq., Secretary; Laurence R. Baily, Esq., Liverpool; J. Russell Bradford, Esq., Boston; L. C. Driebeck, Esq.. Rotterdam; Theodore C. Engels, Esq., Antwerp; S. Gram, Esq., Copenhagen: George W. Hastings., Esq.; William J. Lamport, Esq., Liverpool; Edouard Van Peborgh, Esq., Antwerp; E. N. Rahusen, Esq., Amsterdam; P. H. Rathbone, Esq., Liverpool; R. M. Smith, Esq., Edinburgh; J. J. Suenson, Esq., Copenhagen; Edward Thune, Esq., Copenhagen; J. Wer. theim, Esq., Amsterdam.

The accounts of the year have been, as usual, prepared and audited by direction of the Council, and a statement of the income and expenditure is appended to this Report.

We have had to lament, since the Association last met, the deaths, among others, of the following members :-Sir Benjamin Brodie, Bart.; Sir Joshua Jebb, K.C.B.; Mr. J. W. Gilbart, F.R.S.; Dr. Duncan; Mr. J. Meadows White.

The London meeting added largely to the number of our members resident in the metropolis, and the Council have kept in view the expediency of giving a more active development to the central operations of the Society. With this view they engaged, in 1862, the services of a permanent assistant-secretary, and during the spring of the present year, as already mentioned, they summoned a general meeting of the members in London to consider the question of transportation. The complete success of this meeting has convinced the Council that it would be well to hold periodical meetings in London for the discussion of specific questions during the intervals between the annual meetings, and they propose to obtain adequate rooms and offices for this purpose. The Council believe that a series of meetings on juridical, educational, sanitary, and economical topics, would largely increase the number of permanent members, and would be productive of great public benefit. Some additional organization would, no doubt, be required to carry out this proposal, and the Council suggest that they should be empowered by the Association to frame new and suspend existing laws, subject to confirmation at the next annual meeting.

The Council, in taking upon themselves the conduct of the seventh annual meeting, must express their thanks to the local officers and reception committee for the preparations that have been so well made, and which are about to result in a brilliant success. The Council believe that the papers and discussions in the Departments will be of great interest, and they have requested the Standing Committees to present Reports of the proceedings of the Departments during the last year, and of the Acts of Parliament and other public documents which have been issued concerning the questions with which they deal.

The Council have more than once had occasion to anxiously consider the expediency of passing resolutions at these annual meetings. On the one hand they feel the importance of giving as practical a character as possible to the discussions of the Association, and, on the other, they are alive to the danger of resolutions rashly passed in a moment of impulse, or by an accidental majority. They therefore suggest to the Departments, that when it appears expedient to pass a resolution on any question before them, a motion should be made to refer the subject to the consideration of the Committee of the Department, who shall draw up a resolution, if they think it advisable to do so, and submit it to the approval of the whole Association at the concluding meeting. By this means the opinion of our whole body will be pronounced, but it is hoped only on those ques

tions which have been thoroughly sifted, and concerning which a considerable preponderance of opinion is found to exist.

The Departments met as usual during the week of the meeting; the Parliament House and the Assembly Halls having been liberally placed at their disposal. The Addresses of their Presidents were given on successive mornings, to the whole Association, in the Free Church Assembly Hall.

On the evening of Thursday, the 8th, the Principal and Professors of the University received the Association at a conversazione in the Library of the College, and on the following Monday a similar reception took place in the National Gallery, on the invitation of the Commissioners of the Board of Trustees for Manufactures. In the latter soirée the Royal Scottish Academy co-operated by placing on the walls a magnificent exhibition of paintings by Scottish artists. The College of Surgeons also opened their Hall and Museum to the members and associates en the evening of Friday, the 9th. On the evening of Tuesday, the 13th, there was a Public Dinner in the Music Hall, under the Presidency of Lord Brougham.

A meeting of upwards of 3,000 working-men was held in the Circus on the evening of the 9th, and addresses were delivered by Lord Brougham and other leading members of the Association.

The concluding meeting took place on Wednesday, the 14th, in the Free Assembly Hall. A Report was read from the Council stating that the number of members at the Meeting had been 678; of associates, 1,245; and of ladies who had taken transferable tickets, 907, making a total of 2,830. The Report further acknowledged with the warmest gratitude, the reception accorded to the Association, by the Lord Provost, Town Council, Public Bodies, and Citizens of Edinburgh, and expressed deep obligation to the Local Secretaries, Treasurer, and Committees, as also to the Local Secretaries and Committees of Departments. The Report further stated that the

d

Council had requested the General and Foreign Secretaries to consider the organization of the Departments and the conduct of the business of the annual meetings, and to report thereon. This Report was adopted, and the Council was empowered to alter or suspend existing laws, and to enact new laws, for the purposes stated in the Report, subject to the approval of the Association. The Secretaries of Departments also presented their Reports containing brief summaries of the proceedings recorded in this volume.

The Edinburgh Meeting, which was honoured throughout by the presence of H.R.H. Prince Alfred, was of a most successful and agreeable character. In addition to the public entertainments already mentioned, the inhabitants of Edinburgh exercised a liberal hospitality towards the distinguished visitors, both British and Foreign, who were attracted to their city on the occasion.

The proceedings of the Council since the date of the meeting, remain to be noticed. On the 26th of November last, the Council received a Deputation from York, inviting the Association to hold its eighth annual meeting in that city, an invitation which was unanimously accepted. At the same meeting a Report was received from the General and Foreign Secretaries, on the reference made to them, as mentioned above, on the designation and business of the Departments. This Report stated the original design as to the Departments, and recommended their reduction in number to four. It also laid before the Council a detailed scheme for reducing the number of papers at the annual meetings, and for regulating the discussions. These proposals were carefully

*The bulk of the Report is as follows:

At the Meeting of Council held in the Parliament House, Edinburgh, on the 14th of October last, we were requested "to consider and report to the Council whether any and what alterations are desirable in the Designation and Business of the Departments."

The two branches of the reference are distinct, and we have dealt with them separately.

I.-The fundamental conception of the Association was that of a united body dealing with the science of society as a whole, but divided, for purposes of

considered by the Council and the Executive Committee, and at a Meeting of the former body, on the 26th of February, the following resolutions were passed:

1. That the Departments (with the understanding that they will when necessary be divided into Sections), be for the present reduced to four, as follows:

First.-Jurisprudence and Amendment of the Law, including the Principles of Law and Legislation; Comparative Jurisprudence; International Law; Municipal Civil Law; and Criminal Law, with the Treatment of Criminals. Second.-Education, including all its present subjects, with the addition of Ragged Schools, and also of a section (when ready to be organised) of Art and Literature.

Third.-Health, with all its present questions, adding those relative to Habitation, and to Recreation and Amusement.

Fourth.-Economy and Trade.

2. That the principal subjects for discussion be fixed by the Committees of Departments, in the form of questions, some time previous to the meeting, and with a view, among other considerations, to the specialities of the members likely to attend; that no Department or Section take up more than one such question on any day; that the Committees obtain reports and papers to open the discussion on these questions, without subjecting the authors to the twenty-minute rule; that other papers, nevertheless, may be sent in under that rule at the option of the authors; but that the Committees take care that the total number of papers read do not occupy more than one-half of the day, the other half being reserved for discussion, under a limit of twenty minutes for each speaker; and that the papers not read may nevertheless be published in the Transactions, if the Council think fit.

3. That it is still advisable to reserve two or three 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.

For some time past a desire had existed

among our

members

practical utility, into so many divisions as would answer to the leading branches of that science. The style of "Departments," rather than " Sections," was proposed for these divisions, to show that they were intended, not to be mere temporary adjustments, but to form a true and exhaustive nomenclature of the permanent beads of Social Science. It was supposed from the first that it might become expedient from time to time to divide more than one of the Departments into Sections, which might be accommodated with separate rooms at the Annual Meetings, and have the benefit of separate secretaries and committees. But it was also an essential element of the original idea that the division into Departments should be scientific, and therefore exhaustive and final, and that any further development should take place by sub-division, and not by anomalous additions. The Departments into which it was thus proposed to divide the Association were five, as follow:

First, Jurisprudence, including the principles of law and legislation; comparative jurisprudence; international law; municipal civil law; and criminal law.

Second, Education, or the training of the young of all classes for the full duties of citizenship, whether in their moral, intellectual, or physical faculties. Third, Health, or the science of the laws of life and bodily welfare. Fourth, Economy, including all that relates to the production and distribution of national wealth, the trade, and material prosperity of a State. Fifth, Art, or the æsthetic and recreative life of the people.