154 REPORT—1868. 
Mr. Rivers Wilson, of the Treasury, has been referred to a Royal Commission for 
their opinion, whether Great Britain would be justified in making any changes in 
her currency which would allow in any way of her joining the Monetary Conyen- 
tion. This report, with the evidence taken, is anxiously expected. 
It does not appear that a merely international currency of one or more coins 
would compensate for the trouble and inconvenience of altering, even to a slight 
degree (one grain is all that would be required), the quantity of pure gold in the 
pound sterling. But acommon unit of account would offer manifold advantages, 
An international unit of 10 frances, which would have many advantages over 
5 francs as the smallest gold coin, subdivided decimally, would at once give, in all 
commercial quotations, and in all statistical records, precisely the same figures. 
All nations who accepted it would use the same language of value, and instead of 
the 5, 15, and 25 francs, as suggested by the Congress, which would require con- 
stant computations in the translations of different languages, only 1, 10, or 100 
would be used, in which values in every country would always be expressed in the 
same figures. 
If pure theory were to be insisted on for all the nations adopting the metric 
system of weights and measures, 10 grammes of pure gold, without alloy, should 
be the unit of value = 54:44 francs, or very nearly £1 7s. Gd. But this would 
necessitate the coinage of all their gold and silver afresh, the gold alone being 
estimated to be £280,000,000 sterling in those States which have joined the Con- 
vention, as well as £360,000,000 in other continental States which may join 
it hereafter, and £60,000,000 in the United States, In Great Britain the gold 
coinage, though uncertain in amount, is not generally reckoned at more than 
£100,000,060. 
ir We must therefore take a practical view of the proposition; and it would not 
be to the credit of this country, with its great influence in commerce, and its pre- 
tensions to a high place in social progress, to withdraw from conferences in which 
other nations are taking so active a part, in questions so likely to promote the 
peaceful intercourse and prosperity of all. 
Statistical Congress—Vhe other Congress in which this Section is particularly 
interested, was the International Statistical Congress, which, four years after its 
previous meeting in Berlin, was invited by the Government of Italy to meet in 
Florence in the early part of October last year. The statesmen, learned professors, 
and social reformers of Italy formed a larger body of natives, 623, with 85 foreigners, 
than even the Congress in London in 1860, The King had nominated his eldest 
son, Prince Humbert of Savoy, as general President, and His Excellency the 
Minister of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce (8. de Blasiis), took a most 
active part in the proceedings. The effect of these Congresses, of which six haye 
been held since 1853, is seen in the great improvement in the form of collecting 
government statistics of all kinds.” By uniformity of methods and principles, not 
only may the relative progress of nations be compared, but the phenomena of poli- 
tical and social economy examined under different conditions and varying aspects. 
Thus the law of the production and distribution of wealth, of the growth or decay 
of population, the causes of early or late marriages, the effects of emigration on the 
country left or adopted, the best means of the prevention or suppression of crime, 
the evil effects of great standing armies, interfering with the production, or caus- 
ing wasteful consumption in a country, and numerous other questions of ihe 
highest interest to society at large, may be traced on the broad map of a continent, 
instead of the narrow limiis of a single country. 
At each successive meeting, the able and earnest men who, as government offi- 
cials, really have influence to carry out the resolutions agreed to, have discussed 
nearly all the subjects on which national prosperity depends. The summaries of 
the previous reports by Dr. Engel of Berlin, and Dr. Maestri of Florence, are full 
of matter for reflection, laying down the principles on which every possible statis- 
tical question ought to be studied. 
An attempt is now being made by some of the leading members, animated and 
guided by M. Quetelet, who may be considered the founder of these Congresses, 
to collect on a uniform plan the comparative statistics of all nations under the — 
principal heads. The first volume, on population, was presented by M. Quetelet — 
