46 International Statistical Uniformity. 



Committee of the House of Lords appointed to consider the 

 subject, and is painfully felt in this connection. As the 

 leading country, and the one which, with her dependencies, 

 could contribute the largest number of returns, a request 

 from such a department would doubtless be complied with, 

 and the issue of the summarised statistics of the world 

 be confided to it. In formulating these suggestions I have 

 aimed at securing simplicity above all things. In dealing 

 with a subject of such vast dimensions as " Statistical Uni- 

 formity," the greatest danger of failure lies in attempting too 

 much. Far better to lay a firm foundation, on which a 

 superstructure more or less intricate may be gradually built 

 up. The present statistical system (or wan t of it), is the growth 

 of many years, and yet a late president of the Statistical Society 

 (Mr. E,. Giffen) has stated that there is still a deficiency 

 of statistics in some directions. The basis on which this 

 paper is laid is, that the first steps to effect its end must be 

 as straightforward and as plain as it is possible to make 

 them, without, at the same time, losing sight of com- 

 prehensiveness as a cardinal point ; and, further, that it 

 will take time, and probably a long time, to secure 

 uniformity. I have kept fully in view that any sudden and 

 drastic reform is quite impossible. Gradual improvement 

 is all that can be looked for. If there is a reasonable ex- 

 pectation of securing uniformity under these suggestions in 

 the same period that has been occupied in producing the 

 present chaotic state, they would be worth further con- 

 sideration and practical effort. u Sloiv improvement^ says 

 Mr. Giffen, " is no bar to a new system.''' 



Amongst the advantages which these suggestions aim at 

 securing in practice the following may be claimed : — They 

 do not stop any information at present collected ; they simply 

 ask in some cases for a little more, that little being already 

 supplied by other countries, and so fall in with, and even 

 encourage, the natural bent of nearly all statisticians to 

 multiply information and create statistics. In most cases 

 the required figures (scattered, however, throughout a great 

 variety of returns) are already supplied, and the aim is to 

 collect them under one focus. They tread on no 'official 

 corns ; they offend no prejudices and upset no theories, per- 

 haps almost as dear as life itself. On the contrary, they 

 have been carefully devised with the intention of either 

 falling in with or evading each of these possible difficulties. 

 They purpose comprising everything and rejecting nothing 



