( n ) 
was invented by " Achenwall," to express that which in his 
mind was " history divested of its least interesting details," 
and that, without exception, between statistics and all other 
sciences there is a broad line of separation — other sciences 
deal with matters that are not of man's making, and over which 
he can exercise few or no modifying influences, whilst in the 
case of statistics, we are dealing with a mixed mass of facts, 
brought about in part only by Nature, and largely influenced by 
every change of custom, every constitutional reform, every 
social disturbance, and every effort of legislation. Peace and 
war, geographical dislocations, commercial and fiscal fluctua- 
tions, fresh fields of enterprise, all combine to modify the 
groundwork on which the industries of the world were formerly 
based, and render it essential for British Agriculturists to keep 
themselves well informed as to the agricultural statistics of the 
competing world. It may be repeated with advantage, that 
which has been said with great truth, " statistics appeal for- 
cibly to the sense of sight which is recognised as so important 
an aid to conception and memory." In fact, we are every 
day more and more indebted for the most valuable discoveries 
in the vast and ever-changing relations of cause and effect to 
the logical principles engendered by statisticians for the 
discovery of truth. 
The Board of Trade Reports on Emigration and Immigra- 
tion afford a striking example of the value of statistics, 
and we have the high authority of the ' Times ' * for 
stating that these reports " are gradually bringing to light 
the presence of fixed laws in the matter, and already we can 
predict the course of the currents of human beings with as much 
accuracy as the movements in the export and import of com- 
modities. Here the science of statistics has won not its least 
victory. All the speculative ingenuity of economists could not 
have foretold the exact proportion between emigration and 
immigration. . . . Perhaps some time other branches of political 
knowledge will come under the influence of the same statistical 
process, and when this change happens a politician will haye to 
learn his trade, and will no more know its mysteries intuitively 
than a seaman knows navigation, or a surgeon anatomy, by the 
light of Nature." 
* Vide 5tli March, 1887. 
