Note 60 — Chapter XIX · AUTOMATIC CONTRASTED WITH SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION—Continued.
Reading edition
“History of Civilization in England,” Vol. I, p. 200. By Henry Thomas Buckle. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1864.
“In a paper read to the Statistical Society in May, 1873, Mr. Janson, Vice-president of the Law Society, stated that from the statute of Merton (20 Henry III.) to the end of 1872 there had been passed 18,110 public acts, of which he estimated that four-fifths had been wholly or partially repealed. He also stated that the number of public acts repealed wholly or in part, or amended, during the three years 1870-71-72 had been 3532, of which 2759 had been totally repealed. To see whether this rate of repeal has continued I have referred to the annually issued volumes of the ‘Public General Statutes’ for the last three sessions. Saying nothing of the numerous amended acts, the result is that in the last three sessions there have been totally repealed, separately or in groups, 650 acts belonging to the present reign, besides many of preceding reigns....
“Seeing, then, that bad legislation means injury to men’s lives, judge what must be the total amount of mental distress, physical pain, and raised mortality which these thousands of repealed Acts of Parliament represent.”—“The Man versus the State,” pp. 50, 51. By Herbert Spencer. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
[61] “So thoroughly have the conscience and intelligence of the North apprehended these facts [neglect to educate and enlighten the freedmen], that while the Nation has done nothing they have given in private charity, intended to remedy this evil, nearly a million dollars a year for nearly twenty years. This is the instinct of a people versus the stupidity of their legislators.... Of the true character of the South he [the author] was, like all his class, profoundly ignorant, almost as ignorant as the men who made the Nation’s laws.”—“An Appeal to Cæsar,” pp. 52, 56. By A. W. Tourgée.