296 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
Hundreds, we might say thousands, of volumes — collected and 
printed at great expense by the different Governments, by societies, 
or by individuals, were rendered almost useless, in an international 
point of view, for want of some uniform method of classifying and 
showing the results. It was impossible to make comparisons, and 
so to educe the laws of probability of occurrence of large classes of 
events in social or political economy. Yet, without the discovery 
of these laws, the social, moral, and intellectual condition of a 
people cannot with any certainty be traced.” 
§ 2. It thus becomes necessary to examine and compare the modes 
of classificaiton of statistics actually in use in the statistical annuals 
of different countries. This has been done by M. Deloche,* chief 
of the Statistical Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and 
Commerce, and also by Dr Mouat, Foreign Secretary of the Statis- 
tical Society of London f ; and it will be useful to borrow a few 
examples, placing the condensed headings in parallel columns. 
(See opposite page.) 
§ 3. After pointing out the utter discord which exists among 
these systems, and the necessity of some fundamental scientific 
idea to introduce uniformity, Deloche goes on to propose a 
classification, based upon the idea of the human organisation. Of 
this classification a detailed account is given by Mouat, from whom 
the following summary also is borrowed : — 
I. Double Synthesis of the Territory and its Population . 
1 . Territory (topography, geology, hydrography, meteorology). 
2. Census and movement of population. 
II. Facts relating to the Exercise of the Moral Faculties. 
1. Religion. 
2. Civil and criminal justice. 
3. Prisons and penitentiary establishments. 
4. Public aid. 
5. Benefit societies. 
(' Continued on page 298.) 
* Quoted by Mouat, “ Report on the Fourth Session of the Permanent 
Commission of the International Statistical Congress, held in Paris, 1878 ” ; 
Journ. Statist. Soc. Lond., xlii., p. 12. 
t Ibid. 
