"742 REPORT— 1886. 



own offspring.' ' Nor have indications beeii wanting of a desire, still more recently 

 expressed, to break down the wall of division between statistics as generally under- 

 stood and political economy, and to treat the two, if not as identical, at least as so 

 closely allied as to be capable of similar or simultaneous consideration.- 



Enough has been said to show how very indeterminate have been the positions 

 of economics and statistics from the time when they first obtained recognition as 

 subjects of special study ; how attempts have been made and resisted to restrict 

 economics to the narrow circle of political arithmetic, or how statistical study has 

 attempted, and that successfully, to vindicate for itself a more enlarged scope than 

 the mere tabulation of figures. Dr. V. John of Berne, and Dr. Geo. Mayr of 

 Strasburg, and among ourselves the late Dr. W. A. Guy, have amply summarised 

 the history and terminology of this branch of inquiry. It would be superfluous to 

 add to or to repeat what these and others have written ; it is sufficient to insist— if 

 indeed it be necessary to dp so— that as in the debatable etymology of the word 

 statistics we may find by implication the whole range of political economy, so in 

 the word economy are included all things that pertain to the due regulation of the 

 body corporate, whether State or household, and not those only that pass in the 

 former as laws of the distribution of wealth, and in the latter as the keeping of 

 accounts. But from whatever standpoint we may regard either economic or 

 statistical study, whatever maj^ be their mutual connection one with the other, 

 and whatever afiinities we may trace between either of them and the branches of 

 knowledge which divide with them the attention of this Association, we must 

 always bear in mind that we in this Section, though by no means utilitarian only, 

 are yet pre-eminently liable to be called on to show how far our works have been 

 of practical advantage to mankind. In other departments of inquiry, as in our 

 own, science and art go hand in hand ; astronomy depends not only on the inter- 

 pretation of nature's laws reduced to mathematical formulae, but on the art of the 

 instrument-maker as taught by the science of optics : the microscope, the spectrum, 

 the retort, and the blowpipe lend their assistance equally to the chemist, the 

 geologist, and the physicist. So with us are figures, if not the slave or the 

 handmaid, yet in any case an indispensable adjunct to and an inseparable com- 

 panion of economic research. But while the word utilitarianism has an luipleasing 

 sound to the majority of scientific ears, it is one by which ours need not be 

 offended. The astronomer will be slow to admit that the knowledge of the 

 causes that affect the tides and the better guidance of the adventurous navigator 

 are the highest outcome of his science ; the chemist or geologist alike will demur 

 to_ the proposition that his proudest achievement has been the facilitation of gold- 

 mining, or the improved application of artificial manure to the soil. The services 

 of physical science to humanity have, indeed, been many and splendid ; they have 

 affected the conditions of man's existence all over the world, and have given rise 

 to new problems for the economist ; we cannot level at the man of science the 

 reproach 



nee quidquam tibi prodest 

 Aerias tentasse vias, animoque rotundum 

 Percurrisse polum, morituro.' 



But we ourselves must be content to be judged directly by our works, to stand or 

 fall as we can vindicate to ourselves that we have done, are doing, and shall con- 

 tinue to do work for the advantage of our fellows. * Orthodox ' political economy 

 rnay be said to be the study of the laws which regulate the acquisition or distribu- 

 tion of wealth ; the object of orthodox statistical inquiry to check, as in a balance- 

 sheet, its concentration or diffusion : unless we enlarge the definition of wealth so 

 as to make it include all things desirable by the well-balanced mind — a deliberate 

 election of the good, under the guidance of rightly exercised reason, such as 

 Aristotle defined virtue to be^ — we shall be constrained to admit that the founders 

 of the United States of America were better advised when they laid down as the 



' Stat. Soc, Jubilee volume, p. 9. = Stat. Sue. Reim-t, 1886. 



^ Horace, Carm. i. 28, 4. 



* Cf. definition of aper??, Aristotle, Ethics, Book ii. § 6. 



