-^e THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the law in one day. For this pnrpose a vast army of enumerators 

 is appointed from the central office.* The organization under the 

 British Census Act is under the control of the Local Government 

 Board, and the immediate chief is the Registrar-General. Local 

 registrars of births and deaths must divide their subdistricts 

 into enumerators' divisions, in accordance with instructions from 

 the Registrar-General, and subject to his final supervision and ap- 

 proval. Every registrar of births and deaths must furnish to his 

 superintendent registrar lists containing names, occupations, and 

 places of abode of a sufficient number of persons qualified, accord- 

 ing to instructions, to act as enumerators within a subdistrict, 

 and such persons, if approved by the superintendent registrar, 

 shall be appointed enumerators for taking the census. The 

 board causes to be prepared a table of allowances to be made to 

 the several enumerators, registrars, superintendent registrars, and 

 other persons employed in taking the census ; and such table, 

 when approved by the Treasury, is laid before both Houses of 

 Parliament for their action. Under the act' the schedule compre- 

 hends eleven inquiries, relating to the members of the family, 

 visitors, boarders, and servants who slept or abode in the dwell- 

 ing on the night of Sunday, April 5, 1891, and the schedule was 

 called for on Monday, April 6th, by the appointed enumerator, 

 whose business it was to see that the schedule was properly filled 

 by the head of the household, and, if not, to cause it to be so filled. 

 This method seems to be the one that attracts the attention of 

 statisticians as the ideal method. Under it, however, much com- 

 plaint exists in Great Britain, not only as to the processes of 

 carrying out the law, but relative to the inaccuracies in the re- 

 turns ; and I have been informed that much difficulty is experi- 

 enced in obtaining well-filled schedules. It is unreasonable to sup- 

 pose that in a population varying widely in the intelligence of its 

 individual members a schedule can be properly filled or so well 

 filled as to secure a reasonably scientific result. The English cen- 

 sus has been extolled for its accuracy. I do not believe it is any 

 more accurate than any other census taken by other methods. I 

 have before me a discarded schedule — that is, an improperly filled 

 one — left with an intelligent mechanic, well educated, of wide ex- 

 perience, a machinist by trade, and perfectly competent to write 

 an article for a magazine ; and yet he could not, or did not, 

 properly fill the schedule left with him, and on an examination of 

 it it is not strange that he did not. When the difficulties of fill- 

 ing the simple English schedule are considered, it becomes pre- 



* In an article in the North American Review for June, 1889, I stated that the English 

 census was taken through the constabulary. I made this statement on most excellent 

 authority. It was, however, an error. 



