134 REPORT — 1867. 



used to he called " Political Arithmetic/' There -n-ere those who, appealing to the 

 etymology of the word Statistics, and recalling the history of the science, thought 

 that they", and they alone, were entitled to represent themseh-es as the successors 

 of the great Gottingen professors who first gave a systematic form to this kind of 

 inquiry. The victory has, for all practical pm-poses, remained -v^ath the first of these 

 two bodies of disputants ; that is to say, the science naturally tends to become 

 more definite and precise, to restrict itself more and more within the circle of those 

 facts which can be recorded and tabulated. The statistician has scarcely, perhaps, 

 had so many hard words thrown at him as his cousin the economist ; but he has 

 all along been coupled with that unpopular character in public disfavour. Those 

 ■who know nothing else of Mr. Bm'ke know his sentence about " sophists, econo- 

 mists, and calculators." I even remember seeing it quoted in a letter from an 

 innkeeper who had been remonstrated with on accoimt of an extortionate bill. 

 The statistician, however, no less than the economist, can say something in his 

 ovni justification. Have not vital statistics done much to diminish the uncertainty 

 in providing for families which used so mucli to increase the anxieties of the 

 trading and professional classes ? Have not sanitary statistics, even within the 

 last few years, added very much to the length and comfort both of civilian and 

 military life ? Have not judicial statistics done their part in leading the public to 

 ?.ccept the doctrine at which the most enlightened criminalists had already arrived 

 by other paths — that crime is best repressed, not Ijy severe, but by rapid and certain 

 punishment ? Are not educational statistics at this very moment convincing all 

 intelligent persons in Great Britain that we must at length make "a long pull, a 

 strong pull, and a pull altogether," to get at least a modicum of education con- 

 veyed to the whole people ? And while I speak of educational statistics, it may 

 not be amiss to recall one curious instance of the want of them which was lately 

 pressed on the attention of Parliament. A highlj^ intelligent witness from Oxford, 

 examined before the Committee which lately sat to inquire into the educational 

 system pursued at the two great English Universities, admitted that there was 

 not at this moment any official document in existence from which the public 

 could arrive at an idea, even approximately correct, of the vast revenues of 

 Oxford and her colleges — revenues which only required to be used in the spirit of 

 her worthier sons to make her incomparably the most efficient, as she is mcom- 

 parably the wealthiest, university in the world. Surelj' it is monstrous that wc 

 can v^-ith the greatest ease find the revenue and the expenditure of the University 

 of Berlin down to the last dollar, and are rmable to arrive at even a tolerable guess 

 as to the revenue and expenditure of a similar institution in our own island. 

 The importance of military and naval statistics need not be iirged. ^^'ould that 

 the most striking result of inquiries into them could be brought home to all minds ! 

 Woultl that every one realized the fearful loss which the vast armaments now kept 

 up are entailing upon Europe ! Would that the people of this quarter of the glolv.j 

 would awake to the danger of being surpassed in all the arts of peace by the great 

 nation on the other side of the xitlantic ! .Vn American politician came back 

 last autumn fi'om Prussia, declaring that it was impossible to walk ten j'ards in a 

 Prussian town without meeting a soldier. An English politician came back at tlie 

 same time from the United States, declaring that he had traversed the country 

 from end to end without seeing even a single soldier. When will monarchs and 

 cabinets and popular assemblies learn that old wisdom of William III., that that 

 nation T^-ill hold the balance of power which, in proportion to its strength, " has 

 economized its material resom'ces to the highest point, and acquired the highest 

 degree of moral a.scendancy by an honest and consistent allegiance to the laws of 

 moralitj" in its domestic policy and in its foreign relations? " It woidd not be diffi- 

 cult to point out the obvious and palpable advaiUages that arise to the community 

 from other branches of statistical inquiry ; but, in ti-uth, there is no need, for cavil- 

 lers woidd be silent, if not convinced, were it not that our own friends sometimes 

 give an occasion to the enemy. To attempt to draw from staristical facts inferences 

 which they will not bear — to resolve the whole play of social forces into a mere 

 question of numbers and averages — to pretend that figures governed the world, in- 

 stead of merely helping us to understand how it is governed, is simply to iujiu-e the 

 cause which we profess to defend. Those who act in this way are almost as mis- 



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