The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-09-28 00:00:00

STATISTICAL CONGRESS AT BRUSSELS•

Now that the Congress is over, and the streets are already
thinned of the many remarkable men that one has met for
the last four days at every turn, it may be well, before re-
cording the proceedings of yesterday, to note down a few of
the observations which such a conference naturally calls
forth. Among the learned strangers who cheerfully an-
swered to the call of the „Belgian Commission, openly to dis-
cuss the elements of statistical science, there prevails, as
to the result of the Congress, the strongest feeling of hope
and confidence. It may not excite as much interest in Eng-
land, where statistics, although, I believe, " looking up" a
little of late, are yet very far from having attained that at-
tention from the public and encouragement from the Govern-
ment which they certainly deserve.

As to personal feeling, on ail sides, the warmest tribute
has been paid to the gentle and untiring courtesy with
which the visitors have been treated by every member of the
Belgian commission, from M. Quetelet, the president, to its
indefatigable secretary, M. Heuschling. They really would
appear to have a royal mode of " managing these things"
in Belgium. The King honoured the Congress with his
presence, thus showing true sympathy with the arduous
labours of men, whose special vocation it is to seek after the
truth. Yesterday, some fifty members had the honour of
dining with his Majesty, at the palace, and they were much
gratified with the evident cordiality of their reception.
On Monday evening there was a learned conversazione
at the house of M. Quetelet. Tuesday, another, at the
residence of M. Ducpetiaux, Inspector-General of Prisons.
Wednesday, the members met at the Statistical Congress
dinner, "got up in that style of art," to use a consecrated
phrase, which only a restaurateur in Paris or in Brussels
can ever hope to attain. Yesterday, after the royal dinner,
there was a grande reception at the hotel of M. Piercot,
the Minister of the Interior, a gentleman who, by his elo-
quence when called upon to address the conference, and by
his impartial, and, I suppose I must not add Englishman-
like, manner of conducting the business of the meeting when
he presided, has contributed not a little to their harmony
and the entente cordiale that prevailed throughout. The
brilliant salons received additional lustre from the profusion
of crosses of honour and merit with which the greater
number of the guests were decorated.
During the Congress, not an attention, however minute,
that could in any way contribute to the comfort and gratifi-
cation of the visitors has been forgotten. On the cards of
members was endorsed a goodly list of collections of paint-
ings,. and all the customary "lions" that engage "the
inquisitive traveller" in a chace, of which he, and he only,
never tires. To be a Member of the Statistical Congress,
was of itself sufficient to ensure a kindly welcome from
every one. Even the hotel-keepers, with that tact and
eavoir-faire which unmistakeably distinguish them from their
English brethren, whose tact seems confined to squeezing
out of their resigned victims as much unlawful plunder as
they possibly can, naturally took up the tone of extra
courtesy and readiness to oblige ; that seemed to be " the
order of the day;" and, strange as it may appear, no signs
have been detected of its having been charged in the bill !
The clubs (the Cercle du Commerce, and the Cercle Artis-
tique) threw open their doors to the foreigners, and every
one who has travelled much on the Continent will
readily appreciate the value of such an arrangement ;
you have but to look in upon a solitary Englishman,
sitting up at night in the salle a manger of a
continental hotel, talking his own peculiar French to the
sleepy waiters by way of practice, and you must feel that
his position is not precisely that which mathematicians would
call " of the highest power," of domestic comfort. The
Statistical Congress of Brussels will be remembered for
years with pleasure by the many strangers present, who all
equally felt that here at least was a happy neutral ground,
beyond the reach of small national jealousies and political
partisanship. If ever there was a field that should be equally
open to the whole world, it is the field of science in general,
and more especially that of statistical science ; for the exact
knowledge of the many complicated facts, the sum of which
roes far to make up the social happiness or misery of a people,
is undeniably of equal importance to all forms of government,
as it is to all philosophers who, while they wish well to the
moral, do not, on that account, neglect the material progress
of mankind.
Yesterday, at two o'clock, the Congress held its fourth and
last sitting, under the presidentship of M. Quetelet, who was
after a short time succeeded by the Minister of the Interior.
Out of the mass of reports presented to the meeting, and
looking to the great length of the discussions that followed,
I propose to confine myself to such points as appear most
likely to interest your English readers. I would wish to
notice more particularly the resolutions and recommenda-
tions of the Congress that have reference to the census
and to national surveys. The first is of admitted import-
ance, the latter equally so ; and at this moment it is of the
most urgent necessity that it should be well considered, as
there really appears to have been considerable danger, if we
are to judge from official correspondence recently circulated
on the subject, that the country should be quietly saddled
with an expenditure of a million or two sterling, for
the survey of Scotland and part of England, on the scale
of six inches to one mile, as in Ireland ; that, too,
after the notorious insufficiency of the six-inch scale for the
different circumstances of England and Scotland. On the
Continent generally, and more especially among the dis-
tinguished men who have directed and finished great na-
tional surveys, the scale of six inches to a mile is considered
fit only for an index map, and not for what a map ought
really to be—an absolute facsimile of the surface of the
ground itself, with all the varieties of its physical materials
and artificial condition.
The Congress unanimously adopted general recommenda-
tions to the following effect, on the subject of national sur-
veys
Th:—
e Cadastre to consist of the survey and valuation ; its
permanency, that is, the keeping. it up to the actual state of
things being admitted as a principle, and means taken to do
this so effectually as to avoid the very costly, if not very use-
ful, method of revision at distant periods.
The survey to be made, and the maps of the whole coun-
try to be laid down on the ordinary scale of 1-2,500 (about
our common scale in England of three chains to one inch, or
26 2-3 inches to one mile).
The following modifications to be adopted under certain
circumstances :
For forests and mountains,_ the scale of 1-5,000 (nearly 13

inches to the mile) ; for villages and crowded districts,
1-1,250 (say 50 inches to the mile) ; for maps of large
towns, intended for sewerage and sanitary purposes, the
scale of 1-500 (a very little larger than the scale of ten feet
to one mile now adopted by the Board of Health for the
map of London and large towns) ; general index maps to
be on the scale either of 1-10,000 or 1-20,000 (that is,
about six inches and three inches respectively to the mile)
for the purpose of bringing together under the eye a con-
siderable surface of the country, when minute detail is not
required.
The views of the committee specially delegated to report
upon this question were at once adopted by the Congress,
and they were of opinion that the Cadastre should be ori-
ginally so true and so carefully kept to represent the truth,
as to be at all times undeniable evidence—the operation
thus becoming not what it has unfortunately been too much
considered hitherto, a mere affair of taxation, but that it
should henceforth have a wider and a nobler object in
view—that it should form the inventory of the real pro-
perty of the country, its general register (grand livre)—
that it should be the basis of the agricultural and other
statistics of the kingdom, believing that, if founded upon
truly scientific principles, and carried on in a liberal and
enlightened spirit, the organisation and preservation of na-
tional surveys on a sufficient scale to serve as correct records,
is one of the greatest benefits that a Government can confer
upon a country.
In reference to population, the Congress made the follow-
ing important recommendation :
The general census to be taken of every individual actually
in the country at the date of enumeration [population de
fait], and such particulars given as may
.be required, of
those individuals having legal domicile in the country,
although absent from it [population de droit]. The census
to be taken at equal periods, not more distant than ten
years ; the first m December, 1860. Special agents or
enumerators to be employed; a separate return to be ob-
tained for each family, to comprise the family, christian, and
other names, place of birth, spoken language, religion, con-
dition (single, married, or widower), profession or occupation,
residence (whether temporary or permanent), children re-
ceiving education, houses by stories, and number of rooms
in the occupation of each family ; existing sickness ; number
of blind, deaf and dumb, and insane.
In addition to the above periodical census, the register
intended to exhibit the movements of the population, to be
kept up from year to year between the intervals of the great
census, and to set forth—the births by sex, by age of both
parents, legitimate and illegitimate, number of twins; still-
born, deaths, marriages, and divorces by months ; the
deaths by sex, by. age in months, with cause of death, and
profession; marriages by age of both the contracting parties,
with their profession or occupation, and, considering the
extreme importance of a simple and uniform nomenclature
of diseases, equally applicable to all countries, the attention
of learned men is to be called to the question, with a view
to a uniform nomenclature being adopted at some future
Congress.
Upon the proposition of Mr. LzoNt LEvi, the learned pro-
fessor of commercial law at King's College, London, the Con-
gress now expressed an earnest wish for the speedy establish-
ment of an international code of commerce by the assistance
of a Congress to be hereafter specially called for the purpose.
They also recorded the same wish in favour of a universal
penny postage.
After some conversation, the choice of the next place of
meeting was left an open question for the present.
Upon the motion of Viscount EBRINGTON, who has taken
a most active pad in the discussion of the conference, thanks
were voted to the promoters of the Congress.
The PRESIDENT, having thanked the meeting for himself
and his colleagues, deolaredthe session of 1853 to be at an end,
and the assembly separated amidst loud applause, and the
universal satisfaction of the members.—Morning Chronicle.

INQUESTS.—Yesterday, Horny Churton, Esq.,
coroner, held an inquest at Birkenhead, on the body of an
old woman aged 72, named Mary Cox, who died on Monday
from a fall down the stairs of her own house in Leicester-
itreet. Verdict, accidental death.