| OCR Text |
SOCIAL PROGRESS the boston herald makes the point that when reference la Is made by some e sanguine individual to the possibility of future government and social re forms forma we are apt to look upon the proposition as indicative of an excited imagination and as having but little basis of possibility in the experience of mankind but it Is ie not improbable that those who judge fudge of human nature and an i social and government institutions by what they see ee around them are entirely in the wrong as to the adaptability of mankind to better conditions mr froude pointed out in one of his essays tb that atthe the difference between men of the present day and their predecessors censors in early historical times is that while we believe that the world is ie improving that there is a better time coming and that our own con condition to la preferable to that of our ancestors the anc ancients lents thought that the golden age of the worlds world when mankind was happiest and therefore had the best right to be contented was in the past and that society was wa deteriorating teri orating instead of improving this is ia from a strictly liberal standpoint aland point but as aa an abstract proposition its truth may be accepted that manki mancid id progresses sers in the arts ana and sciences i i the more abstruse departments of physical life aud in the weans lubans of di his imbres an I 1 rm atlon cannot be dispute 1 that he has bus become more humane in civilized modern etian baa jn jim times is also undisputed anis ania incites our to place t telore etore us a study ol of 1 oo temporary history i class of research that was denied to tun atio ancients as having been the hief cause of ou our r belief in I cial progress and this supplies U in 4 with evidence of improvements kimt in it have taken place within a relatively short space of time for ex maple mr J C Jeffre jeffreson sou has recently coated 0 hated and printed a large number of extracts from the middlesex county eng records these including indictments convictions coron coroners erPs in incesti vesti from tho tb seventeenth year ot t charles 11 II to the fourth year of his t successor james 11 II that to Is at a period of about years ago one ow sins a tolerably fair idea from the crimes committed from their character who committed them and the pu nish ment accorded for them of the nocial conditions of the people and taxing a few of them as samples the condition of years ago would seem as impossible to englishmen of today if it were not for historical proofs that can be furnished as the conditions shadowed foreshadowed fore by some of the most rad radical boal of social reformers A number of cues cases might be cited showing the into intolerance lefrance cruelty and oppression of of those in Au authority thorit y toward their in thorp tam W wt but these them are individual illustrative of he wa la wa delay or inman inaction in dealing with one clan and ite rigorous prompt noet neep nd severus vor claw ft condition which this age go has modified 90 somewhat b abit b but u t w who h 0 how ha the hardihood to eay y abat b M i it t h ha a m entirely overcome it the publication of the record entire louia ad nothing to the general proposition nor take anything frodi ft It so ao there is no point gained by the repeated references made to cruelty and wrongdoing wrong doing in thadayo the days agone one more instance however being valuable as a feature of those times timea and people may be given another offense which these records show to have been very prevalent was that of kidnapping young women who were seized near the water side aide put on board ship and sent to the west weal indies to be sold as slaves to the planters judging by the number of persons both male ani and were convicted of the offense of kidnapping the crime of thus depriving ones follow fellow citizens of their liberty and all that made life enjoyable was astonishingly prevalent in england two centuries ago apparently the punishment for this offense was entirely entirely 11 incommensurate with its enormity 9 occasionally aaion the of offenders tenders were heavily fine dand were even sewen sen encee ced to sit ait in the pillory but in many oases I 1 the kidnappers kid escape escaped with a fine of a few shillings but surely we of this generation do not have to wander so far back on the causeway of time to find incidents of kidnap kidnapping ping for the purpose of belling into slavery olav eity or of indignities and outrages ever even crimes committed upon the victims of that dastardly business As A a plain matter of fact we d ni have to go back at all current history tur furnishes tishe us with such events now and then growing fewer and fewer lot let it be thankfully said but not yet lete in such light the summing up of our able and always brilliant boston loses something wits force from this and other evidence that hat could be given 00 it concludes one is in made aware of the immense di distance distajo in social ondi condition tion and restraint that separates those who lived years ago from those living at the present time our progress in this brief space of time has ha been made toward greater equality and the better protection of individual rights and happiness which being the case one has a right to argue that changes equally great may take place in the years that are to come for be it remembered it is not ane alone that official guardianship is exercised at t the presen nime and that ma t individual rights are respected under the law jaw but the of lenses tenses then committed and the punishments then bestowed are many of them of a character which would be considered abhorrent by those now living even if there were no legal restraint imposed certainly years hence and even much less time will bring upon the earth and the children of the earth many changes changes of more import and greater extent than are set down in the vocabulary of man |
