Report of Proceedings at the Seventh Annual Congress of the
National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, held in Edinburgh, October, 1863. (W. P. Nimmo.)—A reprint from the Scots man news- paper of the addresses of the Presidents of Departments and an abstract of the proceedings of the Congress. Of the addresses we noticed that of Lord Neaves while the Congress was sitting, and must now content ourselves with calling attention to that of Sir John 31'NeilL If the correspondents of the Times who have been lamenting over the Irish exodus, and proposing all sorts of impossible remedies, were to look to the condition of the West Highlands they would find a precisely similar state of society. A population, too large to be maintained by the soil, and eking out a subsistence by fishing and by going from home for labour in summer, of necessity gradually disappears before the advance of civilization. It mast emigrate, and when it is reduced by one-half, the productive power of the residue per head is just four times what it was. In Scotland this result cannot be attributed to non-resident landlords, or popery, or whisky, or potatoes, or evictions. "It is curious," says Sir John, "and perhaps mortifying, to observe how little the difference el management and the efforts of individuals appear to have influenced the progress of the population, and how uniformly that progress answers to the amount of intercourse with the more advanced parts of the Country and the length of time during which it has been established." The War Powers of the President and the Legislative Powers of Con- gress in relation to Rebellion, Treason, and Slavery. By William Whiting.
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