216 Notices respecting New Books. 



generality which his noble imagination has conceived, he nevertheless 

 consoles himself with the glorious but substantial prospect before himj 

 nor will he relinquish his labours, whatever be the amount of the ob- 

 stacles which beset him. 



There are persons, however, distinguished in other matters for a 

 fair share of sagacity, who gravely doubt the propriety of these re- 

 peated enumerations, and who now and then throw out dark and 

 unkindly hints respecting their accuracy. Such individuals, it would 

 seem, form but limited and imperfect views of the condition of man, 

 and have no notion that the necessity for more accurate statistical 

 results increases exactly in proportion as population advances, and as 

 the basis of civilization is widened. They forget that the numerical 

 amount of a people enters very largely into many important conside- 

 rations; and that the necessity for contemplating statistics on a wider 

 and much more liberal basis than has hitherto been done, has been 

 prodigiously increased, even within a comparatively short time. The 

 condition of man in almost every region of the globe is changed, and 

 we have only to look around us in the narrowest circle of the com- 

 munity, to behold elements and principles in action, of whose existence 

 a few years ago we had no conception. There are impulses on an 

 immense scale impelling population forward; — artificial wants of a 

 new and unthought-of kind continually creating ; and the basis of 

 the great social system is widening and spreading out into innume- 

 rable forms on all sides around. The " great constants" — to adopt 

 an idea of Mr. Babbage — which mark these important changes, it is 

 the business of statistics to collect; and we say therefore, and we say 

 it strongly, that so far from our permitting the slightest damper to be 

 thrown on these interesting labours, it should rather be our object 

 to cherish and extend them ; that no zeal can be too ardent, no in- 

 dustry too intense for its prosecution ; and that while we have before 

 us such splendid memorials of perseverance and skill, the mode by 

 which these admirable arrangements have been fulfilled should be 

 clierished and preserved. Evei-y succeeding census will thus be ren- 

 dered more perfect than its predecessor; each successive step of the 

 great statistical ladder will conduct us into a region more accurate 

 and refined ; and though the present generation may not reap all the 

 fruits of Mr. Rickman's labours, our successors will, we trust, regard 

 them as the foundation stones of that mighty pyramid of knowledge, 

 which it will be the duty of succeeding generations to raise ; and that 

 when its future history shall be written, the indefatigable labourer who 

 contributed so effectually to secure its basement courses, may have his 

 name engraved in deep and imperishable characters upon them. 



We wish Mr. Rickman could be prevailed upon to give us a short 

 history of the operations of each successive census ; what obstacles 

 were opposed to its execution, and how these impediments were over- 

 come ; what other difficulties remain to be conquered; and above all, 

 an account of the machinery which he himself has employed for di- 

 gesting the multihirious returns; — what has been the amount of labour 

 expended on each population volume, and what further views his en- 

 larged experience could suggest for rendering the future operations of 



