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264 METHODS CF SOCZ.4.L REFOR,M.
Beershops Act, which provided unlimited means for the drinking
of beer, pure and eimple, without food of any kind. But
my contention is that we must not proceed in such matters on
ci priori grounds at all. We must try.
Perhaps it. may bo said that every new lam is necessarily an
experiment, and affords experience for its owntimprovement,
and, if necessary, its abrogation. But there are two strong
reasons why au Act which has been made general, and has
come into genoral operation, can seldom serve as an experiment.
Of course, a great many Acts of Parliament are
experin~entaIly found to be mistnken, for t,hey never come into
oonsiderallo operation at all, like the Acts to promote regist.ration
of titleu, 11ot to mention the Agricultural Eoltlings Act.
Such cases provc little 01’ nothing, except the weakness, aud
possibly the insincerity, of the Legislature. But if an Act
comes largely into operation it is practically irrevocable.
Prrrliament cannot sny simply ‘I as you were,” and proceed to
LL new and more hopeful experiment. A social humpty-dumpty
cannot bo set up again just as it was before, even by the
Queen’s men. The vested interests created are usually too
formidtrblo to bo put aside, and too expensive to be bought up.
A good rnnny years, say seven, or ten at tho least, are needed
to develop properly any important legislative experiment, so
that tho YalllO gener:ltion of sOatesrnen mould not have more
thnn tllroo or four opportunities of experiment in the same
subject during the longest political career. If we divide up the
cowtry, and try oue experiment 011 one town or county, and
snothrr 011 mother, there is a possibility of rnakiug au almost
unlitnited number of valid trials within ten or twenty years.
But, upart from this consideration, a general legislative change
is not a true experiment at all, because it affords no clear
means of distinguishing its effects from the general resultant
of socid and iRdUStri81 progress. Statistical facts are usually
numerical or quantitative in character, so that, if many causal
ageucias ar0 in operation at the same time, their effects are
simply added together algebraically, and am inextricably
merged into a general total. Thus, the total numbers receiving
poor-law relief, or the numbers apprehended in the kingdom for