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258 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM.
has had nothing to do with planning it. From the first to
tho last the rule of progress has been that of the ancient
nursery rhyme-Try, try, try : And if at first you don't
succeeii, Try, try, try again.
To put the matter in the strongest light, let the reader
consider what hs would stay about a proposal that Parliament
should decido arbitrarily, by its own wisdom, concerning any
great impending improvement : take, for instance, that of
tramways and steam tramcnru. It is quito conceivable that
sham tramcars will eventually succeed so well as to replace
horse conveyance to n great extent. All main highways will
then, of courw, bo hid with tram-rails. But what should me
think of tho wisdom of Parliament if it undertook to settle
tho question onco for all, and, after taking a score of Blue
Books full of evidcnco, to decide either that there shou!d
bo no steam tramcars, or that steam tramways should be
immediately laid down betmccn all tho villages in the
kiugilu~n ? Tho House of Lords did take the former course
two ucssiuns ago, nuci prollibitcd the use of steam on tramways,
becnuso it might frighten horses. In tho next session
they felt the folly of opposing the irresistible, and expressly
allowed thc ealperin~entnl 'tlse of steam on tramways.
Ono of tho points about the railway system which the
Govornmcnt of the last generation undertook to settle once for
all, was the proper place for great railway stations in London.
A cornmittcq chiefly consisting of military men, decided that
t,lw rnilway stations should not, be brought into the centre
of London. Ecnce t.hc position of the stxtions at Euston,
Ring's Crom, Paddington, Waterloo, and Shoreditch. At great
cost their decision has been entirely reversed.
It mny perhaps be objected that these are matters of
physical scienco and practical engineering, in which the
supremacy of experiment has long been recognised. That is
not wholly so; for the snccess of a system, like that of the
railways or tramrvays, depends much upon social coneiderations.
However that may be, there is no difficulty in showing
that the same principles apply to purely social institutions. If
anything, it is the social side of an enterprise which is nsnally