IMPORTANCE OF STATISTICAL IDEAS. 123 



It Ib expedient, however, in an address like this, to avoid anything 

 which verges on party politics, and I shall only notice that while the 

 topic has lately become of keen interest to politicians, it is not new 

 to statisticians, who were able long ago to foresee what is now so much 

 remarked on. This very topic was discussed at length in the addresses 

 of 1882-83, to which reference has been made, and even before that in 

 1876 it received attention.* Another topic which might have been 

 added is that of the economic growth of the different countries which 

 was discussed in the address in 1883; and such topics as the increase 

 of population in a country like India under the peace imposed by its 

 European conquerors, by which the stationariness of the country in 

 numbers and wealth under purely native conditions has been changed, 

 and something like European progress has been begun. Enough has 

 been said, however, it may be hoped, to justify this mode of looking at 

 statistics, and the ideas suggested by them. 



May I once more, then, express the hope, as I have done on former 

 occasions, that as time goes on more and more attention will be given 

 to these common statistics and the ideas derived from them? The 

 domination of the ideas suggested by these common figures of popula- 

 tion statistics, in international politics and in social and economic 

 relations, is obvious; and although the decline in the rate of growth 

 of population in recent years, the last of the topics now touched on, 

 suggests a great many points which the statistics themselves are as yet 

 unfit to solve — what can be done with a great country like the United 

 States, absolutely devoid of bare records of births, marriages and 

 deaths? — still the facts of the decline as far as recorded throw a great 

 deal of light on the social and economic history of the past century, 

 prepare the way for discussing the further topics which require a more 

 elaborate treatment, and enforce the necessity for more and better 

 records. We may emphasize the appeal then, for the better statistical 

 and economic education of our public men, and for the more careful 

 study by all concerned of such familiar publications as the 'Statistical 

 Abstracts,'" the 'Statesman's Year-book,' and the like. The material 

 transformations which are going on throughout the world can be sub- 

 stantially followed without any difficulty in such publications by those 

 who have eyes to see; and to follow such transformations, so as to be 

 ready for the practical questions constantly raised, is at least one of the 

 main uses of statistical knowledge. 



* See Essays in Finance, 2nd series, p. 290 et seq.; p. 330 ct seq.; and 1st 

 series, p. 280 et seq. 



