58 REPORT 1871. 



most important information as regards the numbers of the population at 

 each year of age. Inconvenience has been felt from the want of similar in- 

 formation concerning the populations of Scotland and Ireland. 



" 5. In the appendix to the Irish report they find some interesting Tables 

 (II., III., and IV.), to which there is nothing exactly corresponding in the 

 other reports, so far as they have been able to discover. 



" 6. The tables, even when containing the same information, are often 

 stated in different forms and arrangements, seriously increasing the labour 

 of research. 



" Your memorialists therefore beg to suggest : — 



" I. That the principal body of tables relating to the numbers, age, sex, 

 birthplace, civil condition, and occupation of the people should be 

 drawn up and printed in an exactly identical form for the three 

 parts of the United Kingdom. 

 " II. That while the Commissioners may with great advantage continue 

 to exercise their free discretion in drawing up such minor tables 

 as appear to have si)ecial interest for distinct localities, they should 

 agree to prepare in a uniform manner such minor or summary 

 tables as may be of importance as regards aU the parts of the 

 United Kingdom. 

 " III. That a general Index of Subjects should be prepared for the whole 

 of the reports, appendices, and tables, so that an inquirer can readily 

 ascertain where the corresponding information for different parts 

 of the United Kingdom is to be found, without making, as hitherto, 

 three independent searches through a mass of comjjlex and 

 almost unindexed information. 

 " It would appear that the officers engaged in superintending the Census of 

 1861 acted to a certain extent in concert and agreement. 



" Your memorialists beg respectfully to request that those officers be in- 

 structed, on the present occasion, to confer with each other prior to drawing 

 up the tables for 1871, with a view of preserving perfect uniformity in their 

 operations, and avoiding all such divergencies in the three reports as are not 

 required by the Census Acts or the essential differences of the three 

 Kingdoms. 



" Signed on behalf of the Committee, 8th December, 1870. 



"W. Stanlet Jevons, F.S.S., 



President of the Statistical Section of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science, Liverpool, 1870. 

 "James Hexwood, M.A., F.R.S., 



Vice-President of the Statistical Society. 

 " Jacob Walet, F.S.S., 



One of the Secretaries of the Statistical Society. 

 "■ Edmd. Mackoet, M.A., 



Secretary of the Committee of the British Association for a Uni- 

 formity of Plan in the Census Tables of the United 

 Kingdom." 



The above memorial was immediately presented to the Eight Hon. H. A. 

 Bruce, M.P., Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home De- 

 partment, and has been by him referred to the Registrars General for their 

 report thereon. 



