3. The Improvement of Labourers' Cottages.
By Rev. J. O. BEVAN, M.A., F.G.S.

The author discussed the following questions:—
Influence of surroundings on health and character.
Taking stock of present condition of things.
Growing importance attached to health questions.
Additional knowledge of hygienic requirements.
Vastness of area involved.

Magnitude of numbers affected.

Considerations involved in constructing dwelling:

Affecting health.
Affecting comfort.

Classes appealed to:

Landlords, farmers, labourers.

Act of Parliament:

Additional powers conferred.

Affecting efficiency.

Hygienists, reformers.

1. On Agricultural Depression. By H. H. ScOTT.

The business of farming is so popular that in all ages up to recent times men were inclined to drift into it, but the uninitiated find out to their cost that it is not without its full share of troubles and disappointments.

The decline in prices and the market value of agricultural products are now less than the cost of production, turning farming, which was never very money-making, into a money-losing process.

The causes of the decline:

The danger that farmers still having some money may come to realise that capital invested in the pursuit is no longer either profit-giving or safe, and may consequently withdraw both the money and themselves from the industry.

The alleviations suggested by theorists, and why they fail :

Alleviations which would tend to stay the rapid decline in agriculture, but although favourable in this direction might be construed by some people as unfavourable to those having no connection with land.

Alleviations which are practicable without doubt, because, although advantageous to agriculture, could not be construed as being correspondingly disadvantageous to the non-agricultural classes of this country.

2. The Diminution of the Net Immigration from the rest of the country into the great towns of England and Wales, 1871-91. By EDWIN CANNAN, M.A.

In London, with the remainder of Middlesex and Surrey and the registration districts of Bromley, Dartford, Gravesend, Romford, and West Ham, the difference between the actual increase of population and the excess of births over deaths was 271,648 in the decade 1851 to 1860, 271,155 from 1861 to 1870, 304,918 from 1871 to 1880, and only 171,442 from 1881 to 1890. For fifteen other great urban districts, with a total population of six millions in 1891, the corresponding figures were 253,492, 215,342, Î70,726, and 4,261.

Difference between the Increase of Population and the Excess of
Births over Deaths.

The net immigration into the towns is affected by migration between the towns and other countries as well as by migration between the towns and the rest of England and Wales. The immigration from Ireland, Scotland, the colonies and foreign countries must have been somewhat less from 1881 to 1890 than from 1871 to 1880, as the number of non-natives residing in England and Wales increased from 1,020,101 to 1,118,617 in the first period, and only from 1,118,617 to 1,119,896 in the second. This decrease of immigration into the country at large cannot possibly account for the whole of the diminution of net immigration into the towns. That the remainder can be accounted for by an increase of emigration from the towns to the colonies and foreign countries is shown to be highly improbable by the fact that the difference between the population of the predominantly urban counties and the number of persons in England and Wales who were born in those counties has not increased between 1881 and 1891, though it increased considerably between 1871 and 1881. The difference between the population of London with the rest of Middlesex and Surrey, and the natives of that area living in England and Wales, was 933,374 in 1871, 1,061,194 in 1881, and 1,056,401 in 1891. Between the population of Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, and Durham, and the natives of those counties, the difference was 826,384 in 1871, 1,032,995 in 1881, and 1,031,982 in 1891. In the case of Staffordshire the population outnumbered the natives by 38,233 in 1871 and by 3,660 in 1881, while in 1891 the natives outnumbered the population by 32,100. It seems certain, therefore, that there has been a diminution of net immigration from the rest of the country into the great towns.

Whether this means a diminution of the exodus from the country to the town' depends chiefly on the meaning given to that somewhat indefinite phrase.

3. On Poor Law and Old Age. By Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON.

4. On Statistical Correlation between Social Phenomena.
By Professor F. Y. EDGEWORTH.

Correlation in statistics denotes such a connection between two (or mutatis mutandis more) measurable attributes (e.g., height of stature and length of arm)

that to the mean value of one attribute corresponds, as being most probably (frequently) associated therewith, the mean value of the other attribute; and to every deviation from the mean of one attribute corresponds a deviation of the other attribute, equal to the former deviation multiplied by a certain factor which is constant for all values of the attributes.1

The theory, verified in the case of the animal organism, presumably extends to social phenomena. For in the latter as well as in the former case there presumably exists the condition from which the properties of correlation flow, viz., the agency of a number of independent causes. The theory of correlation is required to justify the method of ascertaining typical family budgets. The theory may be extended to cases where the attributes are not numerically measurable, such as dulness.' 2

5. On the Lessons of the Australian Banking Collapse. By C. GAIRDNER.

Conditions of deposit-banking in the colonies essentially different from those at home. Proportion borne by indebtedness to capital greater in the colonies than at home. Depositors at home not in touch with the management in the colonies. No means of sustaining confidence when once disturbed. Stipulation for notice prior to withdrawal of deposits of little avail in a time of discredit. Need for convertible reserves, and for a market where they can be converted. High rates of interest on deposits incompatible with maintenance of large reserves. Suggestion that deposits should be invited for longer periods, or in form of debenture stock criticised. Statistics relating to suspended banks. Liquidation being impracticable. Reconstruction inevitable. Necessity for rigid economy in management of reconstructed companies. Reduction of their number. Suppression of branches. Difficulties of the banks greatly aggravated by excessive borrowing through other channels. General inflation and subsequent collapse. Need for suppressing all extravagance and waste. Work and thrift sole means of surmounting financial difficulties. With favourable seasons recuperation may be rapid.

6. On Bishop Hugh Latimer as an Economist.
By the Rev. W. CUNNINGHAM, D.D.

The 'Examination of Common Complaints,' which was issued by W. S.' in 1581, is the most remarkable English Economic tract of the sixteenth century, as is shown by the frequency with which it has been reprinted. Fresh interest has been given to it, however, since the discovery by the late Miss Lamond of two MSS. of this dialogue. She has proved that the text given by W. S.' is corrupt, and that the dialogue was written as early as 1549. She has also furnished good grounds for believing that Hugh Latimer is the original of the Doctor who takes such a leading part in the discussion. Her edition, which has just been issued by the Cambridge University Press under its proper title as a Discourse of the Common Weal of this Realm of England, not only fixes the date, but gives us a text which has not been tampered with, and which affords a sound basis for critical investigations as to the authorship and place of writing, as well as to the originals of the persons represented in the dialogue. The argument by which Latimer is identified is too detailed to summarise; but the case is a strong one, and if this view comes to be accepted, it will give a fresh interest to the economic principles which the Doctor advocates. These principles are remarkable in many ways. The general position. which is taken is completely modern. The system of finance which is assumed is of a modern type, since taxation forms the ordinary source of revenue. But a more remarkable departure from the media val standpoint appears in the treatment of Self-interest. The Doctor does not merely denounce 'private lucre' as immoral, he recognises that it is a powerful agent which the statesman may control, so that it shall not be injurious at all, but shall tend to the advantage of the individual

1 See F. Galton, Proc. Roy. Soc., 1888.

* See Dr. Francis Warner, Journal of the Statistical Society, March 1893.

and of the community also. In matters of economic doctrine the Doctor advocates views both in regard to the effect of the debased currency on prices and to the importance of the balance of trade which were not current in his time, though they subsequently won general acceptance. He also anticipates the policy of a later time by his practical suggestions for agriculture and industry, as well as by his recommendations for the amendment of the coinage. The Doctor, in the original form of the dialogue, did not, however, recognise the effect on prices of the influx of American silver. The remarkable passage in the printed copies which calls attention to this phenomenon was interpolated by 'W. S.,' and does not appear in the MSS. Miss Lamond's edition adds immensely to the value of the dialogue as historical evidence, while it brings to light elements of personal interest which had hitherto been obscured. By her work on this Discourse, even more than by her edition of Walter of Henley,' Miss Lamond has succeeded, despite the difficulties with which she had to contend, in making additions of permanent value to our knowledge of English Economic History.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16,

The Section did not meet.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18.

The following Papers were read :—

1. On Nottingham Lace and Fashion. By J. B. FIRTH.

Nottingham no longer holds a complete monopoly of the lace trade, as she did thirty years ago, but she still has a monopoly in the manufacture of fine cotton lace, and it is upon the accident of this being in fashion that her prosperity depends. The ordinary constant yearly trade in lace is not sufficient to keep one-half of her lace machines employed; and as, roughly speaking, lace only becomes the predominant fashion once in ten years, it follows that for the trade to be depressed is the rule, for it to be prosperous the exception. The history of the trade shows that the fashion has usually lasted three seasons-one in which it is coming to its height, another in which it is paramount, and a third in which it gradually dies away. During these three years the manufacture of lace has been enormously profitable, and fortunes have been piled up with almost a dangerous ease; and they have dwindled away with the same ease during the periods of seven years' depression which have always followed the shorter bursts of prosperity. What is true of the profits of the master is also true of the wages of the workman; and the consequence has been that Nottingham has been forced to introduce other and more constant industries into the town to provide work for the men who are inevitably thrown out of employment by the bad times of the lace trade. The conditions of the industry are thus radically unsound, although they cannot be altered because the control of the fashion-books does not lie in the lace manufacturer's hands. He has to keep up his manufactory as if the normal condition of the trade were prosperity and not depression, for he never can be certain when the change will come, and he has to devote himself to precipitating the change by the beauty of his designs. Lace being a luxury, the taste of the public being capricious, the lace-making machines being excessively costly, and the processes of its manufacture necessitating its passage through so many hands, the result is that the flush of good trade is only obtained after years of patient loss, in which the manufacturers' energies are devoted to keeping down their losses rather than making profits; and the influence on the town has been both good and bad: good because the artistic properties of lace have insensibly improved the taste of all connected with its manufacture; bad because the character of the industry, dependent for

prosperity upon caprice, is directly opposed to thrift. Nor does it seem likely that the future of the Nottingham lace trade will be more stable than it has been in the past. Fashion is beginning to change more rapidly than it did, but, on the other hand, more things become fashionable in a single season, and the choice for the public is greater. There may be a greater volume of trade done as lace becomes increasingly popular with the million, but there are more rivals springing up to share that trade. Prices will never reach the fabulous height that the Nottingham monopolists used to obtain; and thus, while there is no diminution in the expensiveness of the manufacture, the profits will be seriously lessened.

2. On Agricultural Depression. By W. J. ALLSEBROOK.

3. On Home Work-The Share of the Woman in Family Maintenance. By Miss ADA HEATHER-BIGG.

A little while ago it was generally believed that excessive toil, starvation wages, and insanitary surroundings were due to the action of sub-contract. The painstaking inquiries of Mr. C. Booth, Mr. David Schloss, and Mrs. S. Webb soon showed that sub-contract was not responsible for these evils. It is now asserted that home work is. The outcry against sub-contract had been swelled by the antagonism of labour to capital-by the dislike of the man who works for wages to the man who works for profit.

The outcry against home work is being swelled by the hostility of the working man to the woman wage-earner.

Common sense and a fear of alienating public sympathy prevent the workingclass leaders from too openly condemning the employment of women altogether, but special classes of women-workers are being constantly singled out for attack.

The wage-earning of married women (albeit in their own homes) is particularly denounced. It is alleged that this makes women joint earners with their husbands, and tends to substitute the wife for the husband as bread-winner.

As a matter of fact, however, women of the working classes always have been joint bread-winners with their husbands. At no time in the world's history has the man's labour alone sufficed for the maintenance of his wife and children. So far from keeping his wife, the true account of the matter is that he and she have kept themselves and the children.

This truth has long been admitted and acted upon in France. It was affirmed of England before the Ind. Remun. Conference. Not more than half the whole number of working-class families,' said Miss Simcox, are maintained by the labour of the father assisted only by the elder children.'

It has been shown to apply even to the United States, where, though the total family income is higher than in Europe, and the husband's contribution to it is also larger, there are only a few industries in which, unaided, he can support his family. Even in the bar-iron industry one-tenth has to be made up.

In Belgium it is calculated that the husband earns three-fifths and the wife two-fifths.

Talk about the gradual substitution of the woman for the man as bread-earner is absurd. The woman's share in household maintenance is no more than it ever The facts have not altered, but the conditions of modern industry enable us to see what the facts are.

was.

In short, a revelation is going on, not a substitution.

Formerly, a woman working for a family in her home had to pick up faggots, fetch water, bake bread, spin flax and wool, cure, pickle, preserve, churn, wash, knit, &c.

To-day, at any rate in big cities, the wife's household work means only mending, washing, cleaning, cooking, care of children being the same in both cases.

Even amongst working men there are some enlightened enough to see that the ideal to be aimed at is not that the man should be the sole bread-winner, but