Mr. W. E. Forster, in his able speech as President
of the Economic Section (to one part of which, that on the proposed league of capitalists, we have elsewhere referred at some length), remarked that the Economic Section ought to be retained, and ought not to be abandoned to the Social Science Association, because chiefly by its agency politicians are brought into contact with the students of physical science, so getting the advantage of intercourse . with the exacter scientific thought, and because the scientific theorist gains a good deal by hearing from practical politicians. what the force of friction in political life really is. No doubt Mr. Forster was thinking in his own mind of Secondary Educa- tion, when he observed that though any practical measure must fail which disregards true scientific laws, it does not follow at all that any measure must succeed which observes them. " We must be prepared for this very disappointing result, that though just in proportion as the laws of economic science are broken in any political measure, in that proportion will there be weak- ness and failure, it by no means follows that just in pro- portion as they are kept, there will be success. It is not• seldom the case that by its very truthfulness, a measure excites so much opposition that it insures its own defeat." That is true, we imagine, of any measure which grapples boldly and yet reasonably with very strong interests and privileges, like the Army Purchase Abolition Bill or the Endowed School reforms ; but in the case of the latter measures, no doubt Mr. F'orster's remark has been redundantly verified. Interests despise science ; and for a time often get the victory over it
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