The Social Science Congress held its last sitting on Wednesday,
and it preserved to the close the character of dullness imparted by the President's opening address. Indeed, although the Associa- tion has attained its majority—the meeting at Aberdeen was the twenty-first—its raison d'elre is still not very evident. If we may judge by the work of the Sections, the world is seldom made the wiser or better for its deliberations, and even the addresses of the Presidents of Sections, though chosen because of their special acquirements, on this occasion at least have but little interest. 'file address of Mr. Caird, however, is an exception. He spoke on agriculture and the food-supplies of the United Kingdom, subjects on which he never speaks without instructing. Mr. Caird points out that in her commercial relations with the rest of the world, England is to be regarded as one great town, drawing from other countries the raw material, which she works Up and returns in an altered and more valuable form. Since the adoption of Free-trade, she depends more and more every year on elietant regions for her food-supplies, and the proof that she is wise in doing so is found in the fact that wheat on an average of years is cheaper now than under Protection. Yet if any combi- nation of accidents were to cut off our foreign supplies, we have land enough to grow our own wheat, though more dearly than we buy it now. In regard to meat, however, the operation of Free-
trade has not been equally beneficial. At home we have improved the quality, not the quantity ; and abroad, the sources of supply have hitherto not responded to the demand.
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