142 MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 



Great Britain, either in co-operating with the Royal Asiatic So- 

 ciety, or independently, for the following objects : — 1st. To ascer- 

 tain what articles, the produce of India, now imported into England, 

 are of inferior quality to those produced in other countries ; to inves- 

 tigate the causes of the inferiority, and to explain and suggest the 

 means of removing them ; 2nd. To ascertain what articles now in 

 demand in England, or likely to be used, if furnished, but not ge- 

 nerally forming part of our commerce with India, could be profitably 

 provided in that country, or their place advantageously supplied by 

 other things belonging to it ; to take measures for making known 

 in India the wants of England, and in England the capabilities of 

 India ; and to suggest and facilitate such experiments as may be ne- 

 cessary to determine the practicability of rendering the resources of 

 one country subservient to the exigencies of the other ; 3rd. To as- 

 certain what useful articles are produced in countries possessing cli- 

 mates resembling those of different parts of India, which are not 

 known to this country, and vice versa ; to consider the means of 

 transplanting the productions and transferring the processes of one 

 country to another, and to encourage and facilitate all useful inter- 

 changes of that nature ; 4th. With the above views, and for the 

 sake of general knowledge and improvement, to consider how the 

 ology, geology, botany, and zoology, may be most conveniently and 

 statistics of Indian agriculture and arts, including climate, meteor- 

 economically ascertained and recorded ; and to encourage and faci- 

 litate all inquiries directed to these objects, numerous illustrations 

 of such views were made, particularly by Mr. Royle. 



Several gentlemen from the manufacturing districts professed 

 their anxiety to aid the views of the Asiatic Society, in establishing 

 the proposed Committee. 



Wednesday. — A paper on Statistical Desiderata, by W. R. 

 Greg, Esq., of Manchester, was presented by the Rev. E. G. Stan- 

 ley. The author complained of the great deficiencies in all the Eng- 

 lish statistical tables. In the population returns the census was 

 less than the truth, it having been imagined that the government 

 had some capitation tax in contemplation when it was resolved to 

 number the people. Births and deaths were irregularly recorded ; 

 one source of error was that children who died before baptism were 

 entered among the deaths, but not among the births. The bills of 

 mortality were slovenly and incomplete ; it was impossible to ascer- 

 tain which were the months of greatest mortality, and in which the 

 most fatal diseases prevailed. In the returns of marriages, no at- 

 tempt had been made to ascertain the ages of the parties. The cri- 

 minal statistics of the country, though greatly improved, were still 

 deficient in classification. But the greatest errors were to be found 

 in the educational reports, the formation of which were intrusted 

 to overseers, who were at once ignorant and careless. The inqui- 

 ries of the Manchester Statistical Society had shewn that the re- 

 turns made on the motion of the late Earl of Kerry were erroneous 

 to the extent of one-third of their total amount. He pointed out 



