TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 135 



has legalized the use of the metric system — a step which is very well as far as it 

 goes, hut which really, for all practical purposes, leaves matters where they were. 

 Compulsion is not to be thought of; and, on the whole, I strongly suspect the next 

 generation will do exactly what I am doing now — admit the inconvenience, and 

 say it can't he helped. Even with regard to the decimalization of coinage, which is 

 a -matter really in the power of the Government, I do not think we are likely soon 

 to see anything done ; and it is obvious that weights and measures cannot be change* 

 without a general feeling of willingness among the people to give up those existing 

 and adopt the substitutes. It is more satisfactory to look to the operations of the 

 Board of Trade. Their little yearly volume, called "The Statistical Abstract," is 

 full of useful information, packed into the smallest compass, and arranged with a 

 careful rejection of trifling and unimportant details. I should be glad to see the 

 scope of that publication extended, and references added, so as to include the principal 

 results of all official inquiries, showing in a tabular form where fuller details on the 

 subjects dealt with may be found. 



I think it is also worth considering, since every European Government now takes 

 a decennial census, whether some understanding may not be come to amongst 

 leading States, to frame their inquiries as nearly as may be in the same way, and 

 to publish them in the same order and form, so that for purposes of comparison they 

 may be at once and easily available ; for, notwithstanding local and national divisions 

 — differences of languages, of institutions, and of race — Em-ope inclines more and 

 more to become, in its general habits of thought and action, one community ; and 

 Napoleon's phrase, that a war in Em-ope is a civil war, like most sayings of great 

 men, becomes truer and more applicable, not less so, by the progress of tim«. I do 

 not know that it would serve any usefid purpose if I were to anticipate the contents 

 of papers that may be read in this Section. They will be many, various, and I hope 

 interesting, and ought to lead to useful discussion. Let me only offer to those who 

 take part in our discussions one or two suggestions. The first is, time rims fast. 

 You can say all you have got to say in a few words, if you will think it over before- 

 hand. It is want of preparation, want of exact thought, that makes difiuseness. 

 Again, we don't want preambles or perorations. We are not a school of rhetoric ; 

 and in addressing an educated audience a good deal may be taken for granted. 

 Lastly, we only wish to get at the truth of things. All ideas are welcome, but 

 mere verbal criticism is of no value to us. Some of the topics with which we shall 

 deal may perhaps have a political bearing, and in that case I hope and expect that 

 they will be dealt with in a strictly impartial and scientific spirit. 



On the Division of Labour. By "W. B. Adams. 



On the Duration of Life, the Prevailing/ Diseases, and the Causes of Death, of 

 Potters. By J. T. Aelidge, M.B. 



On the Municipal Expenditure of the Borough of Birmingham. 

 By Thomas Avery. 



The intention of this paper was to submit a brief history of the Municipal Expen- 

 diture of Birmingham, with the view of comparing the progress of the town in 

 wealth and population with its increase in Taxation, Expenditure, and the amount 

 of its public debt. 



Previously to the incorporation of the Borough, the town was governed by Com- 

 missioners, under different Acts of Parliament ; the last of which was obtained in 

 the ninth year of the reign of King George TV., and was entitled "An Act for 

 better paving, lighting, watching, cleansing, and otherwise improving the town 

 of Bh-mingham, in the county of Warwick, and for regulating the police and 

 markets of the said town." 



The Commissioners, by an Act of Parliament passed in the year 1851, transferred 

 to their successors a public debt of about £112,250, and an equivalent in valuable 

 property of £196,291. 



A Table is annexed of the financial results of the concluding five years of the 

 separate government of the Commissioners, from 1835 to 1839. In all of the fol- 



