PROSPECTUS 



OF THE 



OBJECTS AND PLAN 



STATISTICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, 



Founded on the \5th March, 1834. 



The Statistical Society of London has been established 

 for the purposes of procuring, arranging, and pubHshing " Facts 

 calculated to illustrate the Condition and Prospects of Society." 



The Statistical Society will consider it to be the first and 

 most essential rule of its conduct to exclude carefully all opi- 

 nions from its transactions and publications, — to confine its 

 attention rigorously to facts, — and, as far as it may be found 

 possible, to facts which can be stated numerically and ar- 

 ranged in tables. 



The first operation of the Society will probably be to sub- 

 divide and organize its general council in such a manner as may 

 enable that council to deal conveniently with all the subdivisions 

 of the subject-matter before it. Those subdivisions will ne- 

 cessarily be numerous. 



The whole subject was considered, by the Statistical Section 

 of the British Association at Cambridge, as admitting a division 

 into four great classes : 



1. Economical Statistics. 



2. Political Statistics. 



3. Medical Statistics. 



4. Moral and Intellectual Statistics. 



If these four classes are taken as the basis of a further ana- 

 lysis, it will be found that the class of 



Economical Statistics comprehend, 1st, the statistics of the 

 natural productions and the agriculture of nations ; 2ndly, of 

 manufactures ; 3rdly, of commerce and currency ; 4thly, of 

 the distribution of wealth, or all facts relating to rent, wages, 

 profits, &c. 

 Political Statistics furnish three subdivisions : 1st, the facts re- 

 lating to the elements of poHtical institutions, the number of 

 electors, jurors, &c. ; 2ndly, legal statistics ; 3rdly, the statis- 



