494 THIRD RKPORT 1833. 



individual inquirers, and to protect the Society against the in- 

 flux of imperfect or irrelevant statements. Willing agents of 

 inquiry exist in abundance quite ready to aid in collecting ma- 

 terials ; but few of these agents take a very wide view of all the 

 objects of statistical inquiry, and indeed few have very distinct 

 notions about the precise information the Society may wish to 

 collect, even as to any one object. To sketch, therefore, di- 

 stinctly by means of interrogatories, carefully and succinctly 

 drawn, the whole outline which it is wished to fill up, is the 

 only way to secure to the Society the full benefits to be expected 

 from their zeal. It is difficult to overrate the importance of the 

 step which will be made towards the accumulation of statistical 

 knowledge from all quarters of the globe, by the publication of 

 such a set of questions ; but the operation will be as laborious 

 as it is important. It properly may, and probably will, form the 

 chief object of the exertions of the Council during the first year 

 of the Society's existence. 



Obvious advantages may be drawn from communication with 

 intelligent Englishmen about to travel abroad, with residents in 

 the Colonies, and with colonial gentlemen resident in England. 

 The Society has already the satisfaction of knowing, that it will 

 have friends and assistants equally zealous and able in our 

 western colonial possessions. Various societies, foreign and do- 

 mestic, abound both in our own country and on the Continent, 

 some of them already devoted to this subject, and others very 

 willing to take it up. In addition to those already in existence, 

 the Society may hope to see other local societies springing up 

 in every part of the British dominions, in direct and constant 

 connexion with the London Society, circulating its queries in 

 their immediate neighbourhood, and collecting and authenti- 

 cating the answers. A body of facts can be thus most conve- 

 niently collected, which may properly enter into a common pub- 

 lication, and will afford safe grounds for comparing the present 

 condition and future progress of different parts of the empire. 

 The London Society, therefore, will carefully cultivate a con- 

 nexion with, and attend to the wishes and suggestions of, such 

 local societies, and will look forward to their multiplication 

 and correspondence as among the best supports of its own 

 continued efficiency. 



The collection, by such means and agents, of new statistical 

 materials will form, it will be remembered, only one part of the 

 Society's work. To condense, arrange, and publish those al- 

 ready existing, but either unpublished, or published only in an 

 expensive or diffused form, or in foreign languages, would be a 

 task of equal usefulness. Authentic statistical accounts, even 



