Index

To

President’s Address

Trans. Devon. Assoc., vol. XXIV (1892), pp. 25-41.

by

A. H. A. Hamilton, Esq., M.A., J.P., C.C.

Prepared by Michael Steer

The Devonshire Association’s Presidential Address was delivered at its July 1892 Plymouth meeting. The notion that society can be studied in a standardized and objective manner, with scholarly rules and methodology, is a comparatively recent one. Mr Hamilton’s Speech is an interesting example of late Victorian era “Social Economics and Statistics”. His object was to examine “signs, or indicators of the times” and to this end he focuses on the economics of England’s “labouring classes,” particularly on their need for better, or more modern housing. The Association President for 1892 was noted historian Alexander Henry Abercromby Hamilton of Fairfield Lodge, Topsham, Exeter. Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he was for many years a prolific contributor to the Association’s Transactions and a reasonably prolific author. The Presidential Address, from a copy of a rare journal can be downloaded from the Internet Archive. Google has sponsored the digitisation of books from several libraries. These books, on which copyright has expired, are available for free educational and research use, both as individual books and as full collections to aid researchers.