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256 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
doubt, ie usually preceded by a great amount of public discusaion
and parliamentary wrangling. Sometimes there is plenty
of statistid inquiry-plenty, that is, if it were of the right
mrt, and conducted according to true scientific method.
Neverthless, I venture to maintain that, as a ganeral rule,
Parliament ignores the one true method of appealing directly
to experiment. Onr Parliamentary Committees and Royal
Oommissions of Inquiry pile up blue-books full of information
which is generally not to tho point. Tho one bit of information,
tho actual trial of n new measure on a small scale, is
not forthcoming, bccausc Parliamcnt, if it enacts a law at all,
onacts it fur tho whole kingdom. It habitually makes a leap
in tho dark, becausc, I suppose, it is not consistent with the
wisdom and dignity of Parliament to grope its way, and
confess to the world at largo that it is afraid of making
mistakos. Now, I maintain that, in large classes of legislative
&airs, there is redly nothing to prevent our making direct
experiments upon the living social organism. Not only is
social experimentation a possiblo thing, but it is in every part
of tho kingdom, cxcepting tho palace of St. Stephen's, the
commonest thing possible, tho universal mode of social progress.
It would hardly be too much to say that social progress
is social ouperimontation, and social experimontation is social
progress. Changes effected by any iulportant Act of Parliament
&ro liko earthquakcs nnd cataclysms, which disturb the
continuous course of social growth. They effect revolutionary
rather than habitual changes. Sometimes they do much
good ; sometimes much harm; but in any case it is hardly
possible to forecast tho result of n considerable catastrophic
chsngo in tho social organism. Therefore I hold unhesitatingly
that, whenever it is possible, legislation should observe the
order of nature, and proceed tentatively.
Social progress, I have said, is social experimentation.
Every n0w heading that is inserted in the London Trades'
Directory is claimed by those private individuals who have
tried a new trade and found it to mswer. The struggle for
existence makes us all look out for chances of profit. We are
a, perhaps, in some degree inventors, but some are more bold