21 NOVEMBER 1885, Page 3

The Duke of Argyll, in a letter to the Times

defending Free- trade and the older Political Economy, says the refusal of man- kind to accept those doctrines every now and then makes him reconsider himself, and ask if they can be right. He decides in the affirmative ; but is he not mistaken even in pausing ? The consensus of mankind on a moral question is important, because one of the first tests by which to try morals is the universal conscience ; but that conscience can tell us nothing about science. When Galileo stood alone, the earth went round the sun.